It was like he was there.

He couldn’t speak with them or touch them, but the North’s experience might as well have been his own. Every thought. Every emotion. They all came to him naturally.

Ella felt the wind blow past him, carrying the scent of blood with it. North was gone now.

For months, he followed them to school, their homes, and then he followed them here. Wherever ‘here’ was.

“Goodbye,” Minerva waved her hand, and the ice supporting Cyrus’s body vanished. Then, the bodies of Vi, Yune, her brother, and North lifted into the air. The corpses floated behind her as she walked like some kind of macabre parade.

“Please,” Arlene yelled behind her. “Take K… Take K with you.”

“No,” Minerva turned back and smiled. “If you want to bring her back, pay the price yourself.”

“You’re insane,” Arlene said. She put up her hand and a fireball erupted into existence around it. Minerva didn’t notice, or didn’t care.

It wasn’t going to work. Just by looking at Minerva, Ella could see she was on a whole different level. Attacking her was suicide.

Arlene grabbed her arm with her other to stabilize it. The flames licked at the air widely, growing bigger and bigger by the second. Finally, it shot off with the strength of a cannonball, going straight for Minerva’s back.

It reached her and erupted. The explosion had so much force that the ground shook. Embers spread out everywhere, setting the surrounding grass on fire.

Minerva stood completely unscathed. She waved her hand, and water poured out from it like water from a bucket. The fire vanished.

Arlene slumped back down to her knees, but Minerva paid her no more attention. She turned and started walking again.

“Come back!” Arlene screamed, but it was already too late.

Minerva reached out to the gate and a horrible creaking sound rang out like gears meshing together. The giant double doors opened, and Minerva took a step inside.

“Get back here,” Arlene sounded like she was ripping up her throat with every shout. “Get back here you piece of shit!”

The gate slammed shut just as quickly as it had opened. Minerva didn’t look back. She walked past the ruined castles, and then she was gone.

Arlene collapsed over her sister’s bloodied body, defeated. Ella could feel her anguish with every breath he took, like her sadness literally filled the air.

Minerva’s words still echoed in Ella’s head. She said that if she went past the gate, she could bring them back. Was something like that really possible? Was it possible to bring back someone from the dead?

He thought about following her, but there was something else he needed to see. He needed to see what happened to K. He turned back to Arlene.

Arlene picked up her sister in her arms, her face soaked with tears. She walked without a word, taking slow steps toward the giant gate.

Ella followed after her.

She stopped in front of it and laid K down on. She reached out, put her hands on the gate, and pulled.

It wouldn’t move. Arlene planted her feet firmly on the ground and tried again. Still nothing.

“Open, damn you!” Arlene yelled. She slammed her fists on the doors, but they didn’t even budge.

“Please open up…” Arlene sunk to her knees and started to cry. “I’ll do anything.”

Ella almost turned his head away, but stopped himself. As painful as it was to watch, he need to see. Likely, this was the only chance he would ever have to learn about K. Why she was at his house. Why she said she needed to protect him. This was the only clue he had.

“Oh?” a deep voice rattled.

Ella felt a chill run through his body.

“Hello?” Arlene brought her head back up and looked around. “Is… someone there?”

“Perhaps,” the voice spoke again, this time sounding like more than one. In fact, it sounded like over a hundred.

The doors of the gate creaked open again. It caught Ella off guard, and he almost fell backward. It stopped opening when it was big enough for a person to enter.

“Are you… are you god?” Arlene asked, almost whispering. “Or are you…”

The voices laughed, shaking the ground. “If you’ve come looking for gods or devils, you’ve come looking in the wrong place.”

“What are you?”

“Nothing more than your imagination, child.”

“Imagination?”

“Worry not. It’s inconsequential,” the voices said. There was a long pause. “Now… who are you?”

Ella looked at the opening to see if he could see anyone, but the ruins looked barren. He took a step forward, but the air felt heavy. He couldn’t advance. Something prevented him from stepping inside the gate.

Arlene looked down at K laying by her side, and then up at the sky. “My name is Arlene,” she said. “This is my sister, Kaela. She’s… gone. The girl that just came through here… this is all her fault.”

“And why are you following in her footsteps?”

“She… said that I could bring K back,” Arlene swallowed. “If I took her through the gate.”

“Bring her,” the voice said. “Lay her at the threshold.”

Arlene took K in her arms again, and set her down so that half of the length of her body was inside of the gate.

Dark hands seemed to melt out of the air, grabbing K all over. The arms soon sprouted heads and bodies until there were dozens of shadowy figures crowded at the entrance.

Arlene recoiled, standing up as quickly as she could. Ella did the same. Their eyes were like black holes, so dark and deep that it felt like they would pull him in if he looked too long. Thick black saliva dripped from their mouths every time they moved them.

“W-What do you think you’re doing?” Arlene readied a ball of fire in her hand.

“Lower your hand, child,” the dark figures spoke in unison.

Arlene didn’t move, and the fire grew. Even without her looking at him, Ella could see the look in her eyes. She was furious, ready to defend her sister’s body to the death.

“Lower your hand or you will never see your sister again.”

Arlene’s posture changed. She put her hand down, and the fire disappeared. Ella let out a sigh.

The figured removed their hands from K. “This is not enough,” their voices came out deep and gurgled. “It’s impossible.”

“What do you mean?” Arlene bent back down, looking over her sister’s body as if she might be able to understand what was wrong.

“This one is dead,” the dark figures gently pushed K toward Arlene. “Bring us life.”

“But… Hannah just brought in four dead people,” Arlene said, anger in her voice. “Four people she killed.”

“Yes, and she gave a life to do so,” the voice said, almost with a hint of glee. “Her own.”

“If you need a life… you can take mine too,” Arlene pushed K back at them. “Just bring her back.”

The dark figures smiled a toothless smile. “Your life is more than enough,” sludge poured from the edges of their mouths as they spoke. “But then… you’ll never see her again.”

Arlene didn’t answer. She looked up at them, her eyes filled with fear.

“That would truly be a shame, young one,” the creatures went on. Their voices reverberated so intensely that Ella could feel it in his skull. “Truly sad.”

“Then… what am I supposed to do?”

“Bring one of the living, and you will have your sister returned to you,” the figures all lifted their index fingers up, pointing past her.

Arlene looked behind her at the army of students standing motionless in the field. “They’re… alive?”

“Yes, very much so,” the voice said. “They are simply stuck between your world and this one, unable to acclimate to the atmosphere.”

This world? What did that even mean?

“Will… you kill them?” Arlene asked.

“You know the answer to that question,” the voice said.

Arlene slowly got back on her feet. “All I need to do is bring one of them here… right?”

“Correct.”

Arlene took another look down at her sister, and then walked away. It took a moment for Ella to follow after her.

Arlene made her way through the maze of students, carefully studying each of their faces. Ella did the same.

It looked like the students were frozen exactly as they were when they were brought here. Some had their mouths open, like they were in the middle of speaking. Some were laughing, some were deep in thought. Others… looked terrified.

He couldn’t imagine what he would do if he were in the same situation. Would he be able to pick out someone in his school to die? Even if he hated them, would he be able to play executioner and kill them?

Arlene’s pace quickened as she weaved in and out of the crowd. Ella wasn’t even sure if she was looking at their faces anymore.

Suddenly, Ella felt his foot hit something. He looked down to see a small duffle bag sitting at his feet.

Why was this here? Although all the students from the school were here, nothing else from the school seemed to be.

Arlene was looking over in his direction now. It made his heart skip a beat, but he soon realized that she wasn’t looking at him. She was looking at the bag too.

She walked over to it, and partially unzipped it. Then, she quickly closed it up again. Ella didn’t even have enough time to look and see what was inside.

Arlene picked up the bag in both hands and ran back to the gate. Ella followed after her again.

“Why have you return empty handed?” the dark figures asked.

“I’m not empty handed,” Arlene unzipped the bag and held it out. “You said you needed ‘one of the living’, right?”

The dark figures craned their necks to look. A black cat lied motionless inside.

That’s right. He had completely forgotten about Minerva’s cat. It wasn’t just the students then. Every living thing in and around the school must have been taken here.

“You never said it had to be a person,” Arlene said.

The creatures burst into laughter. The sound was so horrid that it made Ella’s blood run cold. “Interesting,” the voices said. “Very interesting indeed.”

“This is good enough then?”

“This will do,” the voice said, still on the verge of laughing. “Bring the animal here.”

Arlene took the cat from the bag and held it out.

“Closer, child. Beyond the gate.”

Arlene brought her hands in further.

“Very good,” the voice said. The dark figures took the cat, but others grabbed Arlene by the arms and pulled her in deeper past the threshold.

“What… what are you doing?” she yelled, trying to shake herself free.

“Did you really think that this life would be enough?” the dark figures smiled, more sludge oozing from their mouths.

“It… it hurts,” Arlene said. White smoke rose up from where the hands touched her skin.

“Worry not, child,” more hands reached out and took hold of her. “In exchange for your sacrifice, I will allow you to taste your true potential.”

Arlene let out a cry as the smoke intensified, and the color in her hair started to fade. In seconds, it went from a dark brown to a bright white.

“Please… it hurts!”

The hands let her go and she fell backward.

“It is done,” the voice said. “When you return, your sister will be by your side, bound to your world for as long as your magic allows.”

The gate slammed shut.

Ella opened his eyes and found himself in his bed. He took a deep breath and sat up.

“K?” he rubbed his eyes and looked around his room, but she was nowhere to be seen.

He sighed, and reached over to the shelf behind his bed. He took his phone off of it and let himself fall back into bed. He opened up Clock Link, and was greeted with a collection of new posts.

John Doe: “Set your watches and mark your calendars! I’ll be at Sadie Quasar’s autograph event tomorrow. Feel free to talk with me! (If you can figure out who I am, of course, lol)”

That’s right, he remembered Urara talking about this before. Honestly, with everything going on, he was surprised that it wasn’t be cancelled.

He missed him. What was he doing right now? Was he even still Urara anymore?

He shut off his phone screen and set it down. He would have to go to school today. He supposed his parents would probably let him stay home if he asked, but then he wouldn’t have an opportunity to search.

He got out of his bed and put his feet on the floor. He felt something brush up against him.

“Ella?” he heard K’s voice from under the bed.

“K,” he sighed. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”

She slid out from underneath and gave him a toothy grin. “Have any sexy dreams?”

His eyes went wide as everything rushed back to him. “Dreams?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“K…” Ella started. “I know what happened.”

“What are you talking about?” K came all the way out and stood up.

“I know what happened between you and your sister,” he stood up, grabbing her shoulders.

“Sis…ter?” she gave him a strange look.

“You might not remember, but you have a sister,” he said. “You died, and then she… did something to bring you back. Honestly, I don’t really get it, but it’s true. I saw everything.”

K looked at him speechless.

“Your tail,” he pointed down at it. “You have that… because your sister used a cat’s life…”

“Ella,” K stopped him. “I don’t think you understand.”

“What do you mean?”

“As much as that woman wants me to be her sister,” she said. “I’m… not. I never have been. She’s just my master.”

“Master?” Ella raised his eyebrows. “No, s-she’s your sister. She…”

“No, she isn’t,” K pulled away from him. “The first time I met that woman was when she summoned me.”

“Summoned… you?”

“I’m just a familiar,” K said, her eyes blank. “I’m… just magic.”