*************

            Tess sat under the clothes rack, stifling her giggles with her hands.  Under another clothes rack, Rinfi waited gleefully for their mother to notice their absence.  Judah would no doubt realize the six and seven year olds were gone in a few seconds.  Oh, what fun this was!

            The hiding had been Tess’s idea, and Rinfi, who admired her big sister a great deal, had been happy to go along.  Ma always told them not to hide when they went shopping, and everyone knows that little girls are supposed to do exactly what they’re told not to, right?  They’d come to get new jeans for Tess, who loved to be rough on her clothes, and to get a jacket for Rinfi.  Rinfi did not like trying on clothes of any kind.  Quite a lot of crying had already gone on today.

            Tess fingered her braid.  She’d always liked her hair the most out of all the things she owned.  It was the same chocolaty brown as Ma’s, and even when braided, it hung down a little past her waist.  Some kids at school thought it was weird to wear your hair that long, but others thought it was really cool.  Of course, Rinfi’s hair was much loved by kids too, because it was the same blue-black color as Daddy’s—which was somewhat unusual—but it was only shoulder-length now and she wore it in a ponytail all the time.

            “Tess!  Fi!  Where are you?”

            Ma had noticed they were gone!  Oh, goodie!

            “Girls, you had better come out right now or else there will be no more TV for a week.”

           Tess thought this over.  Nah, she could go without television for that long.  Leaning close to the floor, she looked across the store’s carpet to the little feet under the next clothes rack, which were moving in a nervous manner.  Rinfi had better not give up so soon…

            “And you won’t be allowed to stay up late to see Daddy.”

            What?!  Oh, no!  Tess’s eyes widened as she saw her little sister scramble out of her hiding place.  “Mama, I’m here, Mama!  Please don’t lemme not see Daddy!”

            Ma laughed.  “Okay, honey.  But you still don’t get any TV.  You should know better than to hide from me.”

            “I’m sorry.  Tess said it would be fun.”

            Oh, crud.  She really had to teach Rinfi not to rat on her like that.

            “And where is Tess hiding?”

            A moment later, Ma’s hands thrust the clothes aside and her displeased face peered in at her second youngest child.  “Tess, get out of there right now.”

           The seven-year-old sighed and crawled out, brushing herself off as she stood.  “I’m sorry,” she said, but her tone was annoyed.

            “You should be, young lady,” said Ma.  She turned Tess around, brushing dust off the girl’s pants.  “Do you know what happens to little girls who hide from their mothers?  You could have been kidnapped or hurt and I wouldn’t know where you were.  And what’s more, you told your little sister to do it too.  You put Rinfi in danger.  You should be ashamed.”

            “I know, I know!”  Tess rolled her eyes.  Her friend Penny said that mothers overreacted and were as whiny as the pre-k kids, and Penny rolled her eyes whenever her mom told her stuff like this.  Penny was one of the cool kids at school.

            Ma looked angry.  “Don’t use that tone of voice with me, young lady.  Not only will you have no TV for a week and not stay up late, you’re banned from using the phone, listening to the radio, and you’ll have no dessert until I think you’ve learned a lesson.  Understood?”

            Tess’s brown eyes widened in disbelief.  Ma was banning her from all that?  No way!  It wasn’t fair!  “Not fair!” she screeched.

            “Oh, it’s quite fair.  If it were up to your father, you’d be in a whole lot more trouble than this, believe me.”

            “I don’t care!  You and Daddy haven’t let us do anything since Uncle Ryo and Lessa disappeared, not even go outside!  It’s not fair!  It’s not our fault they disappeared.  You’re just grumpy and you’re taking it out on us!”

            Rinfi’s big blue-black eyes grew to a huge size.  Tess was yelling at Mama and she was being rude.  Ohhhh, boy, was she gonna be in trouble…

            Judah drew breath in like a hiss.  “Tess, quit yelling.  We’re in a public place and you’re acting very childish.  For your information, we have a very good reason to keep you in our sight all the time.  Of course it’s not your fault but I am not being grumpy.  You misbehaved and you knew that you would get in trouble for it.  These are just your punishment.  And if you keep yelling at me, I’m going to have to punish you more.”

            “Whaaaaaaat?!”

            “You heard me, young lady.  Now, be quiet and behave.”

            Tess clenched her hands into fists, gritting her teeth.  This wasn’t fair!  “I hate you!” she screamed.  “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!!!”  She ripped her arm out of her mother’s grip and ran away.  Ma called after her and tried to catch her, but she dove under one of the long racks that stretched nine or ten yards across the room and came out running on the other side, creating more distance between herself and her mother quickly.  She passed the checkout lanes at top speed and went through the store doors.  She didn’t run out into the parking lot; she wasn’t stupid.  Instead, she turned and ran down the sidewalk towards the next store.  I hate you!

***********************

            Judah nearly collided with the clothes rack as Tess dove beneath it.  She started to run around it to continue the chase, but behind her, Rinfi called to her.  “Mama!”

            Glancing back and forth between her two youngest children, she quickly made a decision.  She ran back to Rinfi, scooped the girl up in one arm, setting her on her hip, and grabbed her purse from the shopping cart with her free hand.  Then she rushed towards the front of the store.  Tess is right.  This isn’t fair.  I know they’re too little to understand it, but maybe they’d cooperate a bit more if we could tell them about the yoroi and everything…Why does this have to happen to my family?

            Rinfi had only turned six two weeks ago, and she’d always been a small child, but she understood this situation well enough.  “Mama, Tess was mad at you.”

            “Yes, I know, honey.  But she’ll get over it; she’ll be fine.”

            Judah stopped at a checkout desk.  “Excuse me, did you see that little girl run by a moment ago?”

            “The one with the braid?”

            “Yes, did you see which way she went?”

            The clerk nodded.  “She went towards the movie store to the left of us.”

            “Thank you so much,” she said and hurried out the door.  Outside, she set Rinfi on her feet and grasped her small hand.  “Come on, hurry, Fi.”  The little girl ran as fast as she could, knowing that this was very urgent stuff.

            The movie store door set off a little bell when it was shoved open.  Judah glanced around, over the short shelves scattered about the room, but did not see her runaway daughter.  “Rinfi, sweetheart, why don’t you go over there and pick out a movie?”  Rinfi’s expressive eyes brightened with delight and she ran towards the shelf her mother had pointed at.  Judah went toward the desk at the back of the room.

            The clerk told her that yes, a little girl had come in here, but she’d just grabbed some of the store’s free popcorn and left again, headed down the sidewalk outside.  Judah thanked the man and paid for Rinfi’s movie before hurrying out again.  Rinfi clutched the plastic bag with the video inside to her as she went along.

            But outside, Judah braked to a halt and gasped.  Just a dozen yards away stood a figure in black armor.  The armor reminded her a great deal of the yoroi of her husband and the others.  God, what was happening here?  People were going about the parking lot and in and out of the line of stores as if nothing unusual were occurring at all.  Did no one else see it?

            Rinfi saw the thing that had caused her mother to stop so abruptly.  It looked so big and threatening… “Mama?”

            Judah didn’t need to see the face inside the armor to know its intentions.  “No…” She whirled, grabbing up Rinfi in her arms, and ran.

            The black figure followed.

***********************

            Tess stood among the boxes in the shoe store with her bag of popcorn, warily watching the glass doors at the storefront.  Ma would find her eventually, she knew, but she was so…mad at her.  She wasn’t stupid!  She knew Daddy and Ma were keeping secrets from her; she’d known for a while.  She sighed and tossed more popcorn in her mouth.  “This sucks,” she told herself.

            The storefront was covered in huge glass windows, so she could see outside easily.  This was getting very boring very fast…

            And then Ma ran by.

            Tess blinked.  Ma was carrying Rinfi and running as fast as she could, like she was trying to get away from something.  Her mother glanced back over her shoulder, allowing Tess to catch a glimpse of her face.

            Ma was scared.

            Mere seconds after Ma went by, a shadow passed the window.  A cold dread suddenly materialized in her gut.  Somehow she knew, instinctively, that the shadow was bad.  And it was after Ma and Rinfi.  She had to help!

            But she couldn’t bring herself to move.  She was so scared… Ma’s in trouble.  That thing’s gonna hurt her and Fi!  Gotta help!  She took a few shaky steps toward the door, but stopped again.  She couldn’t do it, couldn’t.  “Ma…”

            Time seemed to freeze.  Standing there in the shoe store, her popcorn forgotten, Tess Fuan, seven years old, going on eight, tried to summon enough courage to go and help her mother.  Minutes passed.

            After perhaps five minutes, she pushed herself to the door.  Just as she opened it, she hadn’t even stepped outside yet, a scream pierced the air.  Ma’s voice.  Tess stepped back, shaking her head as if it were covered in spider webs, and let the door close.

            She knew, without a doubt even though she hadn’t seen anything, that Ma and Rinfi were gone.

***********************

            Screaming, pain…no!  Run, run!  Blood, red and black…nononono!  Black coming, don’t stop!  Keep going, please!  NOOO!!!

            Lessa moaned and turned over in her sleep.  These dreams…

            It’s for your own good.

            Scratch.

Do you remember when we could laugh…

            I remember an edge, the sky…freedom.

            …I know what you’re thinking, but you won’t escape.

            Scratch, scratch.

Don’t you ever do that again!

            I’m not worth it…just leave…

            Scratch.  Scratch, scratch.

I didn’t know.

            I shouldn’t have told you.

            We shouldn’t have come here…

            I know everything about everything around here.

            Scratch, scratch, scratch.

            She won’t last the night.  I’ve won and you know it!

            Sometimes, I think of things that hurt you…

            There will be others to bear…

            Let go of me!  I’ll use it…

            No!  Don’t do it!

            Scratch.

            Promise to remember…

            …I promise…

            She jerked up, fully awake now.  Lessa focused her eyes on the black bundle of fur curled between her feet.  “Sid…here kitty, kitty.”  The kitten yawned and blinked, awaking at the call, and crawled up to her waiting hands.  As she stroked his soft fur, he fell back to sleep, but she couldn’t follow.  These dreams were going to driver her insane… First, the dream about the twins and Aunt Tachiku.  And then the one about the promise, about remembering… Nonsense, of course, but…

            She tossed back the covers, holding Sid’s small body to her, and got dressed.  This had to be the earliest she’d gotten up in a long time.  She could always get back in bed… No, the dreams would come back.  Lessa slung the sleeping kitten over her shoulder and left her room.

            The rest of the morning was rather uneventful, the highlight of the early hours was when a bag of flour broke and snowed down all over Eky.  Three hours’ training with Ulner in the practice room, grouped scythes were the weapon of the day.  That was fine with Lessa.  She’d started to get bored with the nunchuku.  “In a few days,” said Ulner, “if you’ve gotten good with the scythes, Zwiff can start you on the no-datchi.”

            “Eheh…don’t you think that’s a bit big for me?”

            “…nope!”

            “You overestimate my potential as a student.”

            “You underestimate my capacity as a teacher.”  Ulner paused at a window, looking at the sun.  “Okay, let’s break for a while, Black.”

            “Ulner, don’t call me that.  I prefer Lessa.”  She put the scythes in their place and glared at the man.  “I haven’t even learned how to summon it yet.”

            Ulner shrugged, readjusting his eye patch absently.  “All in good time, kid.”

            “Hey…where’s Zwiff today?”

            “The master had a small task for him to perform elsewhere in the palace today.”  He grinned.  “I have a surprise for you.”

            She raised one eyebrow.  “Oh, really?”

            “Mm-hm.  Come on.”  He strode out of the room.

            Grabbing up Sid from where he slept in the sunlight from the window, she ran after him.  “Well then wait up!”

***********************

            Cye glared at the dirty dishes on the counter as if the disgust in his gaze could clean them itself.  “More evidence!” he finally called.

            “What now?” returned Sage’s voice from some other room.

            “Dirty dishes.”

            Kento appeared in the doorway, Sage not far behind.  “How is that evidence?”

            “Allie raised Lessa with a strict discipline when it came to keeping this house clean.  ‘No dirty dishes’ is so deeply rooted in Lessie’s mind, she washes them automatically,” Cye reminded his friends.

            “Ah.” Sage nodded.  “Well, we found a stain on the carpet.  Looks recent and like no one bothered to try to clean it up.  Another thing contrasting her upbringing.”

            “And her bed’s been slept in, her bike’s been moved, and a whole bag worth of clothes are missing,” added Kento.

            “The bag was probably her Broncos duffel.  It was missing, too.”

            Cye sighed.  “So, where do we go from here?”

            Just then, a shrill ringing erupted in the room.  Kento jumped and quickly fumbled his cell phone out of his pocket.  “Hello?”

            His friends watched as his expression fell into confusion, then surprise, and finally a shocked look.  “Alright…I’ll go get her.  Call Maya and tell her you’re coming over before you go.  And stay calm, okay?… Okay, bye.” He hung up, pocketing the phone and dragging his hands over his face.

            Cye waited a moment, then repeated, “And where do we go from here?”

            Kento looked up at his best friend with eyes haunted with shock, fear, anger, and grief.  “First, we go pick up my daughter from a store where she’s stranded since her mother and little sister disappeared.  Then we go to Sage’s, cuz my Ben and Lily are going there and your daughter is out cold in Rusty’s bed.”

            All color drained from Cye’s face as Kento talked.  “No…”

            Sage took charge.  “Let’s get going then.  It’ll be dark soon and I’m sure Tess is scared enough as it is.”  He led them out of the abandoned Hashiba home, no longer a home, and said a mental prayer that this was all just a coincidence and the thing Kento hadn’t mentioned was something simple and non-threatening.  This couldn’t be happening… Their lives were supposed to be normal now…normal…

***********************

            I think I hurt Ulner when I shoved him aside to get through the door.  He hit the wall with a funny ‘oomph’ sound.  I ignored him.

            He’d taken me to one of the living wings, where people’s rooms were.  Mine was on the other side of the palace and it was a pretty long walk from one side to the other.  But, anyway, we’d gotten here and he’d led me to a room, opened the door, and there he was.

            Sori was sleeping in a bed across the room, one arm flung across his eyes while he snored lightly.  I stared, blinked, and shrieked as I shoved Ulner out of my way.  Sori shot up in the bed, wide awake, looking at me in adorable surprise.  I tackled him, knocking us both to the floor.  Sitting atop him, I shook his shoulders.  “What’re you doing here?”

            He laughed while he pushed me off of him.  “I was sleeping.  But then I was attacked.”

            I was so happy just to see someone from back home that I scrambled to my feet and hugged him as tightly as I could.  “You have no idea how good it is to see you.”

            “…or where I am.”

            “Huh?”

            Ulner, having recovered his dignity, stepped into the room.  “He can’t remember Lessa.  The passage between the realms was too much for his memory.  We did everything we could, but nothing worked to restore the memories that he lost.  They may still be buried in his mind somewhere, just not accessible.”

            “And where am I?” Sori poked me in the back while I was turned away from him.  “And why are you here, Les?”

            “You’re in the Nether Realm.”  I awaited his reaction with one eyebrow raised.

            “No.  Way.”

            “Yep.  This is Ulner, by the way.  And I’m here because…oh, boy, it’s a long story… We’ll talk about it later.”

            He shrugged.  “If you say so.  Where’re Mom and Kyri?”

            I looked to Ulner.  The man sighed.  “Your mother is sleeping.  She needs her rest.  Your sister isn’t here.  She’s still in the Mortal Realm.”

            “Why?” my cousin prodded, in an exasperated tone.

            “Because she wasn’t with you when we came to get you and we didn’t have time to wait for her or find her.”

            “Whatever,” Sori sighed.

            I fidgeted, shifted my weight to my other foot, and finally said, “Ulner, can we talk outside for a minute?”  Without awaiting his response, I left the room.  The moment he joined me in the hall, I asked, “Okay, why’s he here?”

            My trainer grinned.  “D’torei noticed that Suiko was not at his home and it was too good an opportunity to pass up.  Since you still haven’t gotten the summoning down, Zwiff and I went to get Suiko’s family.  Everything went fine, except Kyri wasn’t there.  We did our best to keep their minds intact, so the short-term memories are all they’ve lost.”

            “Okay…hey, how come I didn’t lose my memory coming here?”

            “Black was already with you when you came, you just hadn’t accepted it.  That didn’t keep it from protecting you though.”

            “Ohhh.  What about Kyri?”

            He sighed.  “You ask too many questions a day.  D’torei’s trying to find her right now.  When he does, we’ll go get her.”

            “Okay…um, what now?”

            “Tell you what,” he said, suddenly smiling again.  “You can have the rest of the day off to spend with your friend.  Just make sure you go for your time with D’torei after supper.  Can you keep from getting lost if I leave you here?”

            I felt a little embarrassed that he had to ask that.  I did still get lost from time to time but Eky had been teaching me tricks to prevent that and helping me learn the halls.  “Of course!  Eky showed me this wing two days ago.”

            “Alright.” He started walking away, but called back in afterthought, “Don’t get into any trouble.”

            “Alright, alright!”  I made a shooing gesture at him and turned back into Sori’s room.  Before he could say a word, I grabbed him into another hug.  “Netherhells, I missed you guys so much.”

            “Of course ya did!  What would you do with out us?  Um…Les?”

            “What?”

            “How long’ve you been here anyway?”

            “About two weeks.”

            He scratched his head in confusion.  “Funny.  I coulda sworn it was just yesterday that we were taking you out for your birthday…”

            I laughed and shook my head.  “It’s that memory loss thing.  Come on, I want you to meet my friend Eky.”  Seizing his hand, I dragged him away from his room.

***********************

            Sori followed Lessa down the hall.  At an “intersection”, there was a small black kitten curled up asleep in a windowsill.  Lessa scooped the kitten up on the fly, slinging it over her shoulder like it was a scarf and not a living creature.  The kitten just yawned, moved to curl around her neck like it really was a scarf, and went back to sleep.

            “Who’s this?” Sori asked, laughing at the kit’s unintended performance.

            Lessa grinned.  “This is my baby, Obsidian.  Call him Sid.  Not that he’ll pay attention; he sleeps almost nonstop.”

            “Reminds me of someone else I know.”

            “Hey!  I didn’t sleep that much!”

            “You kidding?  I remember you sleeping through every school day in kindergarten for about three months before you started home-schooling.”

            “You don’t remember that far back.”

            “Do too.  I also remember you falling on your face in the mud when you got off the merry-go-round.”

            “That wasn’t funny.”

            “It was!  God, it was!” He started laughing at just the memory.

            “Oh, shut up.”

            “Make me.”

            “Fine, just remember that you brought this on yourself.”  She dropped Sid on a windowsill in passing, and lunged for Cye’s son.

           Wide eyed, he turned and ran, shouting about crazy women with poor memories of their childhoods.  Just like back home.  But then why does everything seem so…wrong?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~