"For there is no friend like a sister

In calm or stormy weather;

To cheer one on the tedious way,

To fetch one if one goes astray,

To lift one if one totters down,

To strengthen whilst one stands."

—Christina Georgina Rossetti,

“Goblin Market”

1

After a time, Celia stopped bawling into Nico's shirt and withdrew from her hug, wiping the tears from her face with the sleeve of her jacket. She was still sniffling, and her breathing came in rapid and shallow breaths, and her heart was still thundering in her chest, but at least her emotions settled somewhat, and her mind regained some semblance of sanity.

"I'm really sorry you had to see all that," Nico said, reaching out and wiping away excess tears that have yet to fall. "I wasn't planning on making you so upset."

Celia shook her head, wiping away the last of her tears, and said, "I can't help it. I'm just speechless. I have two sisters of my own, and I can't imagine losing either of them like that."

"Try not to think of it, if it's too much for you. I just wanted to show you what kind of monster we're dealing with." Her words held Celia's gaze, so she added, "And there's one more thing I suspect about this guy."

"What is it?"

"I think . . . I'm not completely sure," she said, thinking of her father's accusation about her mother, that she was cheating on him, "but I think he caused my mom to leave my dad that night. And I think he was the reason for my mom and dad fighting all the time. They never used to fight like that before."

"So you believe he tore apart your family?"

"Yeah," she said, clenching both hands atop her knees into fists, looking over at her sister again. "I had a feeling something was going on with my mom, and I should've asked her about it before things got out of hand, but I thought she'd get angry if I did." She sighed, and tears welled up in her eyes. "I just wanted to protect Mara from it all, not telling her the truth. I wanted her to believe that things would get better, but now look at her. Her family's dead, and she's barely hanging in there, and I can't even . . ."

Tears trailed down her cheeks.

Nico's plight tore at Celia's insides, viewing this shell of Nico's former self in an agony of remorse. She was about to ask her why that man did what he did, but she refrained from asking her. Asking Nico that question was like asking an orphan why she was orphaned. Nico could never know why, so all Celia could do was to comfort her the best she could.

Then she remembered Nico's last request before disappearing from the Astral Realm, so she said, "Nico, listen to me. However bad things are right now, it's going to get better. I swear it! Everything you did for Mara is gonna work out, okay?"

Nico barely managed a weak smile. "I hope so."

At those words, a slow clap resounded in the distance out at sea, and both girls turned to see who it was.

And there stood the outline of Lord Aaron Rancaster on the water several feet from the pavilion, still clapping, now ambling towards them and making ripples as he walked. He was still wearing the outfit he had worn on the stage—a white suit pants and jacket, black gloves, minus the cane he had twirled in front of an adoring audience.

"Is he the guy?" Celia said.

But Nico never said a word. She only glared at her murderer and executioner, the culprit behind it all, squeezing her fists till her knuckles were white. She never broke eye contact with him, either, not even to blink.

Which Celia noticed when turned around, saying, "Nico, is he—"

"Don't take your eyes off him!" she ordered, and took Celia's hand in her own, keeping an eagle-eyed glare on the man. "He's a tricky bastard."

And all at once, Celia turned and felt her stomach lurch. The man, who was several yards away from them a moment before, was just outside the confines of the pavilion among the lilies. He brushed both sleeves of his white suit with his gloved hands, as though he was brushing away dandruff and making himself more presentable.

But Nico wasn't buying the charade. "What are you planning?"

"Nothing, darling," Lord Rancaster said, just one step away from stepping onto the floor of the pavilion. "Don't go poisoning the well when I haven't the chance to have my say."

"Why are you here?" Nico said.

"To talk."

"I don't believe you."

"You can believe or disbelieve—it's your choice," he said, raising his hands, palms forward, then snapping the fingers of his left hand. A chair appeared with a plop on the surface of the water, and there he sat, placing his hands flat on his thighs. Ripples broke out and then faded away on the mirror sheen. "I only came here, so we could understand each other. Is that too much to ask?"

"It depends on why you're asking," Nico said.

All the while, Celia kept silent next to her, only placing her palm on the floor, ready to release a spell should the man before them make any sudden movements.

Which the man noticed. "Whatever you're planning, darling," he said to Celia, "try not to make it too obvious. It spoils the novelty."

Celia took offense and gritted her teeth, saying, "If I even suspect you of doing anything weird, I'm taking both of them out of here, got that?"

"All right, all right," he said, raising his hands to placate the girl. "How about I take these hands and place them under my ass on this chair," and he suited his actions to his words, sitting on his hands. "There. Can't do much without the use of my hands, so you're all safe. Now can I have my say?"

Celia and Nico exchanged quick glances, but said nothing.

"I'll take my cue, then," he began. "I know what you're trying to do, darling. And I'll be the first to admit it; you've got my hands tied. Despite all my efforts, I can't reach her."

"Good," Nico said. "I hope you never will."

The man shook his head in admonishment. "No good deed goes unpunished. You're the reason why your sister's still in a coma, still on life support. If she doesn't wake up, they'll have to pull the plug, and it'll be adios to your dear sister forever. Is that really what you want? Do you want her to die?"

"No! I just want her to be—"

"With you?" he said. "You just want to be with her, is that it?"

Nico didn't answer, and Celia couldn't help but look at Nico's stern expression of contempt on her face, and her heart fluttered in her chest. If Celia herself had been in Mara's position, she wondered if either of her elder sisters would put up such a stand, even if they were alive.

"Listen, darling. I'm not as heartless as you think. If you really want to be with her, then I can make compromises. If you allow me past this threshold," he said, kicking at an invisible barrier surrounding the pavilion, "then I can wake her up for you and allow you to stay with your precious sister as her imaginary friend. It'll be marvelous. You'll see her grow into a beautiful strong woman, and she'll be your playmate whenever she falls asleep and dreams. Maybe you can become a spirit guide or anything at all, whatever you wish. Any and all desires you could ever wish for, you can have in your sister's dreams."

At his words, Nico wavered and her heart ached, as visions of all the nights she spent together with Mara flooded her mind. She licked her lips and looked at Mara's face and then at her lips. How many times she tasted those lips, she couldn't remember, and how much she burned to taste them again, she couldn't bear to admit even to herself.

"I can see it in your eyes, darling," he continued, "how they rove over her. Just allow me but one kiss to bring her back, and I'll let you have her for the rest of her life. I'll be that selfless prince that wakes your sleeping beauty from her slumber, and from then on, I'll let you be her prince to hold her and make love to her in your bed whenever she dreams. Just one kiss from me, and all that paradise and more will be yours."

Tears welled up in Nico's eyes, and her breath became shallow, and her stomach flipped and flopped, and her cheeks burned, but through it all, Nico said under her breath, "No."

"What's that, darling?" he said. "I can't hear you."

"I said, NO!" Nico yelled. "You think you know what I want, but you don't! You fucking don't!"

The man leaned back in his chair, exasperated, and said, "Then what do you really want, then? Tell me!"

But Nico said, "Why would I tell you?"

Looking at her companion, Celia kneeled closer to the girl and wrapped her arm around her shoulders, whispering, "It's okay, Nico. Don't listen to him."

"Or maybe," the man continued, "it's not what you want that keeps you from relinquishing her to me. Maybe it's what you fear. Am I right, am I right, am I fucking right?"

"Stop it!" Celia said, glaring at the man. "You have no right to talk to her that way!"

"I'm just telling the truth, darling. The truth needs no sugar coating for her to understand the futility of her actions," he continued, "but I see that she's being stubborn for a reason." He said to Nico, "I see now the kind of burden you hold in your heart. You're afraid that once she wakes up, she'll eventually recover from her ordeal and move on with her life, and maybe forget about you. Is that it?"

"No! It's not true!"

"Oh, come, come, darling. You're being selfish."

"It's not fucking true!" Nico doubled over her sister and sobbed into her shirt, hugging Mara's motionless body close to hers. "It's not fucking true, it's not fucking true!"

Celia came to her aid, wrapping her arms about Nico, trying to calm her down as her own tears trailed down her face, thinking of Colbie dead and bleeding in her arms.

"You fucking bastard!" Celia said. "It's not fair to her! It's not fair to either of them!"

"You think life is fair? Well, guess what: Life doesn't give a damn, either. Life will keep beating you down, till you're nothing but a crying puddle of memories! Life doesn't give a damn about you! It doesn't give a damn about me! It doesn't give a damn about anyone! The sooner you realize that, the sooner any of you will know the truth!"

"And what's that?"

"There is no meaning to life!" Lord Rancaster yelled, getting up from his chair, clenching both hands into tight knuckle-white fists. "Life can't bring back the loved ones you've lost, no matter how much you honor their memories! They're dead as dust, never to rise again, never to see the light of day!"

That's when Nico raised herself up with defiance in her eyes, saying, "I don't care what you say! You'll never have her!"

"Then I'll just take what I can get, whatever the costs. And as for you, darling," he said, looking at Celia with a slasher's smile stretching across his face, "I can smell the blood of Amelia Hearn in your veins."

And all at once, a stab of horror pulsed through Celia's heart at the mention of her grandmother's name.

She placed her hand on the floor, just as a darkness more than night flooded into the seams of Nico's barrier, making Nico scream at the unspeakable images flooding her head, images that were not her own, images of Aaron Rancaster's tragic life cutting at her mind like knives.

Celia's seal of pink roses glowed through the darkness, and blinked all three girls out of sight, but not before Celia heard the man's last words to her:

"Your mother killed her."

2

Katherine drove down the street using headlights and took the center lane and waited for the cars to pass, then took a left turn that led towards their house, the Hearn family mansion, half a block ahead of them under street lights. By this time, full night had fallen over the city of Larkington, and long shadows crept over the pavement and sidewalks as they passed each address.

Madison said, "You said you saw her crying, but how? I saw Celia's face, but the rest I felt."

"Trust me," she said, "I felt it, too."

"Did you see what made her so upset?"

Katherine shook her head. "I didn't see what Celia was seeing, so I don't know what it is, but I managed to see one or two people with her. Celia must've used one of my mirrors."

"Which one?"

"It's gotta be the one in my bathroom," she said, pausing for a moment, then sighing. "I swear, if she used it to open any portals, I'm gonna freak the fuck out."

"And if she did?"

"Don't get me started."

"Come on, Kathy," Madison said. "You and I both know how Celia is. She's bound to get in trouble some time, so how bad is it?"

"She can't use mirrors like I can," she said. "If she used it, she could only use its reflection on some door, and then open that door into wherever."

"Do you know where?"

"It depends on what key she uses," Katherine said, then added, "You said she stole the keys I gave you?"

"Yeah. She snatched it right out of my hands, the brat!"

"I hope she lets us know which one before entering. Otherwise, she's screwed."

Madison paled at her sister's last word. "W-what do you mean by 'screwed'?"

"If she entered a portal using a mirror's reflection, she's under a time limit," she said. "If she doesn't get back out in time, she'll be trapped inside!"

"But I thought you said there was no—"

"I can control mirrors directly, so there's no time limit for me, but Celia can't. If she doesn't get out in time, the mirror will break, and she won't get out!"

When Katherine reached the house, she pulled into the driveway and threw it in park, and both sisters got out of the car, and sprinted towards the entrance of the door and found it unlocked. They passed the threshold and ran down the entrance way and up the staircase.

"Go check on Celia's room!" Katherine ordered her sister, while she sprinted towards her room and found the door handle unlocked. She cursed, then went inside and into her bathroom and found her mirror missing, and cursed again.

"Kathy," Madison said, "I can't open her door! It's locked on the inside!"

She cursed for the third time, snatched a hand mirror from her vanity table, and ran back into the hallway to meet her sister, where she found her still trying the door handle. Katherine tried the handle herself, but it wouldn't budge.

"That's it," Madison said, getting ready to cast a spell on Celia's door. "I'm blowing the door down!"

"Don't!" she said, grabbing at her wrist before an explosion happened. "If my mirror's in her room, she's using this door as a portal! Blowing it open will trap her inside!"

"Then what do we do?"

"Just let me check, damn it! You're so fucking impatient," Katherine said, making her sister back off. She crouched down and angled her hand mirror under the bottom of the door, looking in the reflection. "My mirror's inside her room, but it's not broken. We can still reach her."

Madison breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God!"

"Follow me," Katherine said, and with her sister following in tow back into her room, she led her into her bathroom and opened her bathroom closet, showing shelves of neatly pressed towels, hand towels, and bathrobes. She found a set of handles on the inner wall of the closet and grasped onto them with both hands, then said an incantation in her mind that released the spell, and slid the closet along invisible tracks, revealing a secret doorway where Katherine kept all her magic mirrors.

"Holy shit!" Madison said, staring in shock at what she was seeing. "So this is where you keep all your mirrors. No wonder you always put a spell on your door."

Katherine glared over her shoulder at her, making her flinch at the sight. "Don't let Celia know about this, got it? If she somehow gets inside this room, God knows what's gonna happen!"

She then led her inside the room, where a whole array of body-length mirrors from the ornate to the modernist to unfinished specimens leaned against the walls, stacked one against the other.

She said to Madison, looking through the stacks, "Take one of these mirrors and wait at Celia's door. I'll meet you there when I find what I need."

With that, Madison took one of the mirrors and carried it into her room and out into the hallway, where she leaned it right next to Celia's door, while Katherine continued sifting through the stacks for the one mirror flat enough for her to use. She eventually found it and carefully slid it out among the others in the stack, and carried it out of her room and into the hall, where she saw her sister waiting.

"So what's the plan?" Madison said.

"I'll get inside using both mirrors," she said, laying her mirror flat on the floor before the door, and slid it along its length underneath the door and into Celia's room. "Lay the mirror you have on the floor exactly how I did it, but don't push it up against the door."

Madison followed her sister's instructions to the letter, and said, "Now what?"

"Just watch," she said, removing her jacket and throwing it to the floor. She then sat carefully on the surface of the mirror, so she wouldn't break it, then laid herself on top of it, letting the reflection encompass her entire body. She said an incantation in her mind, and the surface of the mirror glowed and absorbed Katherine into itself.

On the other side of the door, the other mirror glowed, and Katherine appeared lying on her stomach. Rolling herself off, she got to her feet, went to the other mirror that Celia had taken from her bathroom, and tipped the mirror over on its axis, breaking the mirror's hold over the door.

Katherine said, "Maddy, you can open it now, but be careful where you step."

The door opened, and her sister entered and stepped gingerly around both mirrors and then shut the door.

No sooner had she done so when Katherine spotted the notes on the door. "Maddy, look behind you. Celia left us messages."

Both sisters came to the door, taking care not to disturb the mirror at their feet, and looked at what their younger sister wrote for them. On reading the notes, especially the last one, both girls began fuming at Celia's attempt at humor.

"Arrrrrgh, why does she always have to be such a troll-whore?" Madison said, blushing in exasperation and squeezing her hands into fists. "I swear, when I get her back here, I am sooooooo roasting her ass!"

Katherine then spotted the keys Celia left for them on the bed, and said, "At least she was nice enough to leave us the keys."

Madison pouted. She was still going to roast Celia.

Katherine picked up the keys and thumbed through them for the 'dreamer's key' and found it, then walked over to the mirror on castor wheels and tipped the mirror back to its original position, catching the door and Madison in the reflection.

She said, "Now that the easy part's done, we still have to deal with the hard part. Maddy, you've seen the news reports of the Cairn family's disappearance, right?"

"Yeah."

"So you know what the twins look like?"

"Yeah, but they're identical twins. It doesn't really work with identical twins."

"But there's a caveat in this case: one of them is dead," Katherine said. "When I had my vision earlier, Celia was with two people, so they have got to be the Cairns twins. One was consoling Celia, while the other was lying down. I think the one lying down was Mara."

Madison looked at her sister, saying, "How do you know?"

"Because Celia told us to focus on Nico," Katherine said. "I'm taking a leap here, but I'm willing to bet that the one I saw comforting Celia was Nico. I don't know how, but Celia must've known or at least believed that Nico would help Mara in some way, or maybe Celia had an idea of how to help Mara, because Nico told her. I'm not sure, but Celia might have followed Nico into the Phantom Realms because she wanted to help Mara out. I just don't know what part of the Phantom Realms, though." Here, she looked at her sister and said, "Maddy, come on. Stop being an idiot, and help me figure this out!"

"Okay, okay, I will," she said. "I'm just not that good at this detective stuff, you know. It's not really my thing."

"Just try and help me think about it, okay?"

So Madison thought about it. For a time, both girls stood there rolling Celia's first note in their minds in the context of Celia's other notes and the information they had gleaned from the televised news reports.

"I don't know," Madison said. "It just doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't?" Katherine said.

"Nico's dead, so she can't really help her sister out in the physical way," Madison reasoned. "That means that Nico needs Celia to help her help Mara. I mean, Mara's in a coma at the hospital; she's not dead, like Nico. So wouldn't it be the other way around? Wouldn't it be Mara trying to help Nico?"

"Yeah, that's the weird thing about all this," she said. "There must be one specific thing we're missing."

Madison gave it more thought, and her face turned grim. "Kathy?"

She looked up and noticed her sister's expression. "What is it?"

"If Celia died," she reasoned, "how do you think we would experience it?"

Katherine gaped in horror at her question, saying, "Maddy, what the hell? How can you even think like that?"

“I’m just saying it as an example, geez!"

"But why that one?"

Madison sighed in exasperation and said, "Don't you remember how we experienced Celia going through all that anguish earlier? We both felt her emotions, but I only saw her face, while you saw her with Nico and Mara. Is there any other detail you remember seeing in your vision, like scenery or anything?"

Katherine sucked in breath at her sister's astute observation and clapped her hands onto her face, saying, "Oh my God, Maddy, you're a genius!"

"You know where she is?"

"Yeah," she said. "Take off your jacket. We're going in."

"Where exactly?" Madison took it off and threw it on the bed next to Celia's. "Tell me!"

"It's in a Chinese pavilion overlooking the sea," Katherine said. "It had a red moon on the surface, but no moon in the sky!"

With that, she grabbed her sister's hand with one hand and opened the door with the 'dreamer's key' with the other hand, and both sisters passed the threshold of the door, letting it shut with the finality of a casket lid over the dead.

And in the reflection of the mirror, the door sealed shut, and the reflection cracked. Katherine's mirror had broken.

3

A seal of pink roses appeared in Katherine's dream realm of hallways and mirrors, and on top of it appeared Nico, Mara and Celia. Lord Rancaster's words had shaken Celia, but she tried her best to ignore them, grabbing onto Nico who was still experiencing the residual horrors she had seen in his memories, still screaming and hysterical.

"Stop, stop screaming!" Celia yelled, shaking Nico frantically by her shoulders, but she wouldn't stop—she just couldn't stop. So she hugged Nico close to her body, feeling her chaotic heartbeats against her bosom, holding onto her and never letting go, as tears fell down her face. "Please, Nico, I'm here for you, I'm here for you! Just stooooop!"

Finally, Nico's bout of insanity subsided into groans and sobs, her face scrunched up in anguish over Celia's shoulder, tears trailing her face and soaking into Celia's school uniform. She said through her sobs, "I saw it. I saw it all. I saw how he became a monster. It's so terrible!"

Celia was about to say that it was okay, but she stayed her tongue. God knows what she must've seen in those crazy seconds when the world itself seemed to be crumbling around her, and the pillars of that were her strength (her parents) could not protect her from exposure to another person's hell.

So she said, "I know, I know," even though she hadn't a clue how bad it actually was. "But we'll get through this together. You, me, Mara—we'll all get through this."

And her words of truth broke the spell of Nico's pain, and she calmed down long enough for her to take deep breaths and recuperate the best she could. When both girls finally regained their faculties, they were broken wrecks of themselves, but they were still alive and able to do something about it all.

Nico pulled away from Celia and looked around her, viewing a paneled hallway crossing into other paneled hallways with rows of vanity mirrors on each panel. "Where are we?"

"We're in Kathy's dream realm," Celia said. "Kathy's my eldest sister. If she’s got my message, she should be here with Maddy soon, but for now we'll just have to hang tough before they arrive." She held onto Nico's hands, saying, "Can you stand?"

With Celia's help, Nico raised herself to her feet and looked down at Mara on the carpet, still lying in a comatose state in her astral form. "I hope that man doesn't find his way here."

"If he does, Kathy will know, and she and Maddy will be here. Believe me, they'll be here. And if that man messes with you or Mara, he'll have to mess with me. And if he messes with me, he'll have to mess with Kathy and Maddy, and they're not ones to mess with, believe me." Though Celia refrained from mentioning her own meddling with her sisters; that had to wait for another time.

"That's good," Nico said, and from that moment onward, she believed her. "Do you know this place?"

"Not as well as Kathy, but I can manage it. Come on," she said, bending over and grabbing Mara's arm, while Nico did the same with her sister's other arm, "I know a good room where Mara can sleep."

With that said, Celia released another seal of pink roses below their feet and blinked them out of sight—

4

And reappeared in Katherine's boudoir, a private bedroom with a four-poster bed, a chair, a cabinet, a writing desk, and a vanity table with a special body-length mirror.

Both girls took Mara and laid her on top of the bed sheets, and Celia fluffed up a pillow and placed it under her head. "Um, don't tell Kathy that I know about this place. This is actually Kathy's private bedroom, and that mirror," she said, pointing to the body-length mirror next to the vanity table, "is a one-way mirror that only Kathy can pass through."

"How are you able to get here, then?"

"Because I'm me," and Celia smiled and winked at Nico. "Kathy and I have a bit of a rivalry with each other. She keeps making new places to hide from me, and I keep finding them. It's kind of fun, actually." She then said an incantation in her mind and made one pink rose appear in her hand and placed it in Mara's hand, moving it onto her chest.

It was a gesture that made Nico blush. "What's that for?"

"Oh, this?" she said. "It's for her protection. I placed two seals on it. If we encounter that guy, I can teleport you here and take you and Mara out of here. And if somehow that guy gets to this place before I do, that rose will be a barrier against him. I've thought of everything, so don't worry."

"Oh, okay."

Celia looked at the girl and noticed her blushing. "Wait, did you think I was making a pass at her?"

"No, no! It's not like that!"

Nico's outburst told a different story, and like the 'troll-whore' she was, Celia gave her a wry smile and said, "Do you have a sister complex?"

"No way!" she said, waving her hands and shaking her head, but her blushing betrayed her true feelings. "It's not like that, really!"

Celia only rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, be honest. Nobody's judging you here."

Nico deflated a bit, saying, "I wouldn't say I have a sister complex, but"—and she looked at her sister lying on the bed and placed her hand over hers—"I do love her."

Celia grinned from ear to ear, saying, "I bet you do, and I bet it's mutual, too. I mean, I remember her kissing you . . . and feeling you up. Like, a lot."

Nico deadpanned. "Do you really have to make it that obvious?"

"Okay, okay, I'll stop. Come on," she said. "I'll show you around." Then she gave her another wry smile. "Or maybe I should leave you alone with her and . . ."

At this, Nico glared hellfire at her miscreant rescuer, boring into her soul.

"Okay, okay, okay, I'll stop! Really, I'll stop!" And to prove it, Celia took her hand and released another seal below their feet, taking her to another part of Katherine's dream realm one floor below the maze of hallways and mirrors—

5

To the top landing of the double grand staircase, where Nico sucked in breath. She looked over the railing and stared in awe at the beauty of the foyer below them and the mahogany double entrance doors ahead of them—at the recessed panelling and imbedded mirrors along the the walls, at the polished mahogany steps going down each staircase, at the intricate parquet flooring below their feet, and at the salon sofas upholstered in deep shades of red and blue.

"You're kidding me," Nico said, looking around at every possible detail. "This is your sister's dream realm?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Celia said, taking her hand and leading her down the staircase past M. C. Escher lithographs and mezzotints. "Kathy's got an amazing imagination for detail, I'll give her that."

"I'd really like to meet her," she said. "If she can maintain something like this in her dream world, I bet she's really strong and powerful."

"Yeah, she is. But then, Kathy's my eldest sister, so she's usually the overachiever of the family. She almost always gets straight A's, usually has a cortège of male admirers among the students and even some teachers, but unlike Maddy, she's very picky when it comes to dates."

Nico stopped at the bottom landing and looked at Celia.

"What?" Celia said.

"Are you jealous of her?"

"Um . . . Maybe, a little, but I'm not really the jealous type."

Nico smiled. "Sure, you're not."

"Really, I'm not jealous!"

"I'll take your word for it," Nico said, then added under her breath, "I'll ask her about it when I meet her."

Now it was Celia's turn to deadpan. "Now who's being a little too obvious, hmmmmmm?"

"It's called honesty."

"Are you saying I'm not honest?"

Nico looked back over her shoulder and smiled, saying, "I don't know. It depends on you," then ran headlong into the doorway leading into the library.

"Hey!" But Celia was one step ahead of her. She teleported to Nico's location, but ended up colliding with her, toppling backwards and landing on her butt and then flat on her back, breaking Nico's fall with her body. "Owwwwww!"

Celia propped herself up on her elbows, wincing in pain at one of Nico's elbows digging into her solar plexus, while Nico herself had her face planted on Celia's breasts. "Ow! Nico, please, have mercy on me and get off!"

That's when Nico raised her head, blushing her head off. "Oh, I'm sorry!" And she was about to get up, but then—

"Owwwwww!" Celia winced in pain again.

And that's when Nico realized where her elbow had landed, saying, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry! I—"

"Please, get off! You're hurting me!"

So Nico got off of her ("Owwww!"), but not before causing Celia more pain. "I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you, honest!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Celia said, rolling onto her side and raising her legs up to her chest to relieve the pain, keeping that position till it turned into a more manageable ache. She sat up on the floor, but still hugged her knees close to lessen the aching in her solar plexus. "Man, why am I always the one who gets hurt?"

"I'm sooooo so so sorry, really," Nico said, getting to her feet and standing over Celia, offering her hand.

"Just let me rest for a bit," Celia said. "It's like you made an elbow drop from the top turnbuckle and hit me just below my ribs. Do you have any idea how much that hurts?"

The girl now sighed, crestfallen, letting her shoulders droop, and said, "I'm sorry," and started to walk away.

"No, wait! Ow! It's not like that!" Celia struggled to her feet, then ran after Nico, grabbing her hand and saying, "I'm not angry, okay? I'm really not."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Come on, look at me. I'm not angry, okay?"

Nico turned and saw Celia's imploring eyes, and flicked her gaze to a cafe table next to a salon sofa and some chairs, feeling a familiar rush of excitement beating through her heart, a feeling she only ever experienced with Mara.

"What's wrong?" Celia said, still holding onto her hand. "You can talk to me, Nico. What is it?"

"I really wanna kiss you, but I'm not sure I should."

Silence lingered after those words, as Celia tried to digest them through her mind, but instead of replying with words, she replied with actions, leaning close and kissing Nico's lips, then saying, "It's okay, really. Whatever you need, I'm here for you."

At that, Nico really wanted her, planting hungry kisses on Celia's lips and even fondling her breasts through her school uniform, till her hand nudged her solar plexus.

"Ow!" Celia winced, but only slightly. Then she started giggling, as if it was the funniest thing in the world, but started wincing again. "Ow! I'm not really sure I wanna go that far yet." Celia took a few deep breaths to relieve the ache, and then led Nico towards the cafe table.

Both girls sat, and Celia rested her head in her arms above the table, giving her solar plexus time to relax for a bit, while Nico stared at the bookshelves that reached to the top of the ceiling.

"Wow," Nico said, marveling, "Does your sister really read all these books?"

"Maybe, but I'm not really sure," Celia said, sitting up and leaning back on her chair, eyeing the impressive display. "She may have read some of these books, but I seriously doubt she read all of them. At least, not while she's awake."

"You mean she can read them in her sleep?"

"Maybe. It would definitely explain her good grades, that's for sure."

"What about your other sister?"

"Maddy?"

"Yeah."

"Well, she's the middle child of the family," Celia said, sifting through her Rolodex of memories consisting mostly of trolling Madison with her antics, and Madison threatening to roast her ass. "So she's definitely the jealous type."

"Jealous type?"

"Yeah. Kathy's kind of like the ace of the family, so trying to follow her example as the second child is really tough on Maddy. I can imagine the kind of stress she's under, so I kind of understand why she takes it out on me all the time."

Nico looked at her companion, saying, "But why you?"

"Maybe because I'm the runt of the litter, but I don't wanna make her seem like a bitch," she said, staring up at the ceiling. "Mostly it's because of me. I'm the bratty third child of the family, and my parents tend to spoil me constantly, and I tend to rub it in Maddy's face. I do it to Kathy, too, but mostly I do it to Maddy, because I get the best reactions that way. It's actually really funny, when you think about it. Little sis picking on big sis—it's kind of funny, you know."

"That's kind of . . . messed up."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

Celia was about to say something about Nico's relationship with her own sister, Mara, but thought better of it. Then Lord Rancaster's words about her mother broke the surface of her thoughts, but she pushed them back and said, "Hey, you wanna see something crazy?"

"Um, okay. Sure."

"Cool," and she released another spell below their feet and teleported Nico back into the floor of hallways and mirrors—

6

And into one of Katherine's more secret bedrooms, where Nico sucked in breath and gaped in shock. They were now sitting on top of another bed, draped in thin red linens and scattered with heart-shaped pillows, surrounded by recessed shelves stocked with dildos, vibrators, and rubber toys of all kinds on one side of the room, and several adult magazines and literary smut stocked into another set of recessed shelves on the other side of the room, and a large LCD flat-screen television inland into the front wall above another set of shelves stocked with adult DVDs and a DVD player in the middle.

Nico stared around her in wide-eyed trepidation, saying, "Um . . . I'm not sure I should be here, so can you—"

She turned to Celia, but she was looking through some of the DVDs, listing off some of the titles: "Let's see. Vampire-Breaking, Swing Out Sisters, HatsuInu, Stretta, Bible Black, Dark Blue, Lingerie Office, Resort Boin, Women at Work— Ah, here it is, Mezzo Forte. It's got some really awesome fight scenes, in addition to the sex scenes," she said, taking it off the shelf.

"I don't wanna see that!" Nico yelled.

"Are you sure?" Celia said, giving her yet another of her wry smiles. "If you want, I can lend it to you, so you can watch it on your own."

"No, I don't wanna look at it! Can you just get me out of here? This is way too much for me!"

"Okay, okay! Didn't mean to get your tits up," and she replaced the offending DVD on the shelf. She then walked over to Nico, who flinched under her miscreant gaze, getting off the bed and backing away from her. "What's the matter?"

"You're starting to creep me out."

"Don't worry," she said, cornering Nico and slamming her hand against the wall beside her head. "I'm not a sex pixie," but she qualified her statement, leaning close to her and raising her chin with her other hand, so that their lips were almost touching, "unless you want me to be."

Nico's reaction was immediate.

Nico punched her in the solar plexus ("Owwww!"), backing her up and making her double over in pain, clutching at her knees to catch her breath. She was now glaring hellfire at her, making Celia cower in fear under her gaze as Nico laid down the law: "I will NOT be treated like that under ANY circumstances, got that?"

Celia nodded frantically, trying her best to placate her.

"Good. Now can you get me out of this room?"

"All right, you win," she said, standing up and forming another seal of pink roses beneath their feet. "I was just playing around, that's all. Didn't mean for you to take it that way."

Nico just shook her head, saying, "You have a sick mind, you know that?"

"I know." And with that, Celia released her spell and took Nico to yet another part of Katherine's dream realm—

7

At the foyer of the double grand staircase looking into the living room, wherein Celia led Nico by the hand across the parquet flooring through an arched doorway. Entering the space was like entering another dreamscape altogether, walking past a set of ornate salon sofas and end tables and stopping before the fireplace mantle against a backdrop of mullioned mirrors recessed into the paneling of the surrounding walls.

And on top of that mantle hung a big landscape picture of the Hearn family, each member standing a bit rigidly in their poses with obligatory smiles on their faces.

"That's my family," Celia said, and she pointed out each of them in turn to Nico, first pointing out the bespectacled man with graying hair, somewhere in his 40s, standing to the left of the portrait: "That's my father. He works as a translator of old books and runs a bookstore with a partner." Then to the older woman with long red hair and dark maroon eyes, standing to the right of the portrait: "That's my mother. She's an archeologist and works at dig sites around the world, so she's usually not at home most of the time, but she does like to visit unannounced from time to time." Then Celia pointed to the young woman to the right of her father, the one with side bangs and long braided twin tails: "That one's my eldest sister, Katherine, the overachiever I was talking to you about." Then she pointed out the next young woman to the right of her eldest sister, the one with cherry-blond hair: "That one is my second eldest sister, Madison, the jealous type I was joking to you about. And the last one," she added, pointing out the youngest member of the family, "is me, the bratty third child that my parents always seem to spoil."

And then Celia turned around and pointed towards the upper wall of the living room on the opposite side of the family portrait, just above the doorway leading to the foyer, where a big portrait of a buxom woman with long dark purple hair and an ample cleavage showing against her black silk dress looked over the living room with a deadpan expression on her face: "And that one over there is my grandmother, Amelia Hearn, but most people remember her as the Blood Rose Witch."

At her words, Nico gaped up at the portrait, and then looked at Celia with almost reverence in her eyes, saying, "Oh . . . my . . . God! You mean to tell me that your family's one of the baronetcies?"

"Yeah," Celia said, smiling in embarrassment. "My family's sometimes known as the 'Third Guard' or 'Hidden Guard,' kind of like the Old Guard families of Shad and Row, but we're not as famous as they are, and we're nowhere near as famous as the Larking family."

Celia then turned back to her family portrait and sighed, then said, "I have so much to live up to, it's insane. And that goes for my sisters, too—probably even more so for them than it is for me. I can only imagine the kind of pressure they're under to uphold our family name, especially Kathy."

Silence lingered as Nico absorbed the information through her thoughts. She said, "Your sisters—you must really look up to them, don't you?"

"Yeah. I may troll Kathy and Maddy a lot with all my tricks, but I do that out of love for them. Honestly, they have no idea how much I truly love them for who they are. They're my rock; they're my strength; they're everything I wish I could ever be, and more, much more than they can ever know." Celia sighed and lowered her gaze in thought, saying, "I can't imagine losing any of my family."

Another silence lingered after her words.

For the first time, Nico saw the real Celia Hearn for who she truly was—devoted, loving, and caring. All the qualities Nico strove to be for herself and for Mara—all the qualities she found lacking in her parents' relationship with each other—all of it and more she found in the girl standing next to her.

So Nico took Celia's hand and kissed her lips and embraced her as her soul sister, sister to sister, woman to woman.

8

Meanwhile, on the upper wall opposite the family portrait where Celia had pointed out Amelia Hearn’s portrait to Nico, the portrait itself moved and turned its head at the scene below. And unbeknownst to both girls, Amelia's portrait bore witness to something secret and beautiful between one of her granddaughters and the ghost of another girl named Nico Cairns.

This was the fourth time she had seen Nico: the first being last night when she bore witness to a tragedy atop a stage in front of screaming parents and a sick crowd of onlookers cheering at the horror of it; the second being moments afterwards when she had followed her disembodied ghost as Nico herself was tailing her Mara Cairns through the streets of the old Rancaster district, where Amelia saw Nico possessing Mara’s body and fighting against Aaron Rancaster inside of the old Richet Square; and the third being later on in the same night just before morning when she saw her appearance inside a floating sukiya-zukuri mansion, where Nico saved one of Celia’s friends from a dream-induced death. Amelia whistled at her bravery and wondered what Lucy Cairns would’ve thought of Nico if she had seen these herself.

But when Celia and Nico kissed again, longer and deeper this time, Amelia smiled and quoted a verse from the Song of Solomon, saying, “’Let [her] kiss [thee] with the kisses of [her] mouth: for [her] love is better than wine.’”

Yet before either girl noticed Amelia’s presence and looked up, her portrait returned to its former pose and deadpan expression. As much as she wanted to keep watching the sweet intimacies of two girls, Amelia had other things to do: namely, to find the ghosts of two other deceased mothers before going after Lucy Cairns again. By then, Amelia hoped that Lucy Cairns would no longer be in Limbo, though she wondered if she was doing the right thing to include someone so recently dead in her plan.

つづく