That dream happened again. The one where I was on a paper-cut-away cliff. I’ve had this dream so many times by now. Just like last time, and all the times before that, I was watching a man. He was facing away with his legs hanging over the edge, cutaway with the rest of the cliff. His hair started blowing in the wind, and instead of waking up like usual, for the first time I heard something other than my own thoughts. The man was humming, a sad, lonely tune. It wasn’t just lonely, more like… Stranded, desolate. Something stronger than loneliness. It struck a chord, I wanted to cry even though it was just some humming. I wanted to say something, to let him know I was there, that he wasn’t alone. My voice didn’t work though, when did it ever in these dreams? It’s like opening my mouth was a trigger, and I snapped awake.

Apparently I had been crying, because when I bolted upright my face was still wet from the tears I shed in my sleep. My body wasn’t really as sore as I had expected it to be, so either whatever that man had done wasn’t all that bad, or I’ve been out for a while. I didn’t feel completely painless, though. Looking around, I was back in my room above the store, Jett was resting back in his display. He was the first one to become aware of my awakeness.

“Fin, you’re awake, thank god.” He sounded relieved, but not enthusiastic.

“Yeah. I’m fine.” My voice was croaky when I spoke.

“You sound like shit.”

“Thanks, Jett.” I actually laughed a bit, he was right. I climbed out of the cot, and shuffled tiredly over to his case. “What happened? After I was out, I mean.”

“Camilla found you passed out yesterday. They’re gonna wanna talk to you. Your girlfriend is worried.” I quirked my eyebrow at his phrasing.

“Girlfriend? Emma? Don’t call her that, she isn’t my girlfriend.” I removed him from the case, and went back to sit down at the edge of the cot and get dressed for the new day.

“Why not?”

“Why isn’t she my girlfriend? I’m not sure, maybe it’s because neither of us think of eachother like that?” My sarcasm hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“Fine, sure. Whatever.” Jett, thankfully, dropped the topic after that. Love life was always a topic I avoided, and something I got enough pressure from with my mom. My mom- crap.

I quickly sought out my phone, and found it by the wall where someone had thought to plug it in. I sent her a quick text, making up something about having had a really busy day yesterday and I fell asleep before I could call her.

“You don’t have to keep messaging her, you know. You’re an adult.” Jett responded from where he sat on the cot.

“I know, but she worries. When she worries she sends Jeromy. I want them to keep their distance as long as possible.” I slipped the phone into my pocket, and picked up Jett and his satchel before leaving the room.

“Hmph.” Came Jett, one of the responses he’d make when he knew I had a point.

In the hallway, on my way to the kitchen to see if the others would be there, I nearly bumped into Briar, who looked startled to see me. Then he smiled in relief.

“Finlay, my boy. You’re up! How are you feeling? Are you alright?” He came up beside me, and held onto my arm and my back as he walked with me back to the kitchen.

“Yeah, I’m fine. A bit sore, and my voice is weird, but I’m good.” I let him fuss for now, even though I genuinely didn’t need the help. He sat me down in a spot at the table, and called Camilla up, and contacted Emma to tell her I was awake again.

“What can you tell us about what happened?” Camilla eventually asked, after I had eaten and recovered enough to speak better.

“Jett told me to follow some people into an alleyway,” I began.

“Tell them I recognized one of them.” The sword added.

“He says he recognized one. Anyway, I got close enough after a point, but it just seemed like they were discussing some business project up until they went around the corner. When I got there- bang. Suddenly I was knocked over, and they grabbed my arms before I could get Jett.” This was where I began to remember their mocking tones of voice, and the things they said to me, I hadn’t stopped to think about it till now. I also remembered Jett apologizing before everything went out.

“I don’t think they were heartless, or if they were, they weren’t normal. The big one, he was tall and muscular. He started choking me and… Touched my head with something, right here.” I touched the spot I could remember the attack coming from.

“Suddenly I was on the ground and everything cut to black. The big one told them to just leave me there, I think he expected me to die.” I finished, and settled my elbows on the table. Camilla was quiet for a moment.

“Finlay. Which one was the one Jett recognized?” She said, and all at once I understood what had just happened. Briar seemed to get a clue too.

“... It was the one who tried to kill you, Fin. That was AAAAA. It’s been so long that I couldn’t be sure, I wanted a better look.” He sounded down, almost depressed. Was it guilt? I looked down at the blade for a few seconds before I looked back up to Camilla.

“It was AAAAA. The one who did this.” I announced to the rest of the room, sureness in my tone. Camilla nodded, having guessed, and Briar turned toward the counter somberly.

“That’s what I was worried about.” She sighed. “You’re lucky you survived. That thing he did to you would normally kill anyone else, if it didn’t completely corrupt them.”

“What? Is that how the heartless exist?” That didn’t make much sense, if the heartless knew who I was, why didn’t he?

“Maybe. We think there are different kinds of heartless. Ones that are just like that, and ones that are made to be.” She ran a hand through her hair, a trademark exhausted look from her. I wondered what she was doing before I woke up.

“So why didn’t it affect me?”

“You’ve gotten stronger.” Briar answered from the counter.

“You’re magic, or something.” Jett answered simultaneously, somewhat aggressive about it for some reason.

“Wait, Jett, what?” I asked for clarification, doing a quick double-take.

“Máire family magic, or some bullshit. You just haven’t noticed it yet.” He said, but it still didn’t click.

“Máire family what?” How far does this go exactly? How abnormal am I? Will I ever get to be normal again after all this is dealt with?

“Open your ears Fin. Honestly, you’d think magic would be the least surprising thing in all of this. Why do you think you survived AAAAA’s attack? Why do you think you can even hear me? Why do you think you always for some reason instinctively know exactly where to go? Do you think it was just a coincidence that you just happened to suddenly decide to go for a walk and run directly into the source of all this drama?” He ranted at me. I know I sounded stupid, if I hadn’t been the one living with it, I’d likely think it was stupid too. I covered my ears in an attempt to block him out.

“Shut up Jett, I get it. I get it. Shut up.”

“Why are you so afraid of being special, Fin? What’s so bad about being the one to make a difference?” He started asking, they were hard questions and I wasn’t totally sure how to answer them. I got up and left the room, I didn’t want to rant one-sidedly about this in front of the others.

“Because I don’t want that! I never did! I just wanted to be normal!” I started stomping down the stairs, I heard Briar quietly telling Camilla to ‘let him go’ as I left.

“I get that. But why, Finlay?” It wasn’t common for Jett to call me by my full name, and I only just realized now.

“It doesn’t matter, Jett. Get off my ba- ckgjshit!” I cut myself off, I had walked into the antique store, and although it was closed and the break sign was up, I could see my brother peeking in through the store window. He looked right at me, and I ducked back behind the curtain too late.

“What? What was that?” Jett complained by the sudden spaz attack.

“Jeromy is out there, he looked right at me.” I thudded my head against the wall across from the stairs. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide for long, he was probably texting me as it was. I turned to face the stairs, and called up to the others.

“My brother is here. I’m leaving, I’ll send you updates!” I sighed and turned to the curtain. I didn’t wait for their responses, no doubt worried about me after yesterday.

When I was in view again, my brother smiled at me all relieved. He lifted his phone up as if to say he was about to call me. I held out a finger and grabbed my coat that was hanging on the wall behind the curtain, as I had nearly forgotten about it, and I went outside to meet up with him.

“Hey punk.” He said, lifting his hand for one of our passing handshakes. He didn’t hold on to look at the scabs on my knuckles this time. Not that I had any, as I started wrapping them in gauze for training, but there were calluses.

“Hey, Jer.” I greeted, then shoved my hands into my pockets. “What’re you doing here?”

“Am I not allowed to visit?” He hit my arm with his elbow when he turned and fell into step beside me. I snorted.

“I was just wondering if mom sent you or something.” I shrugged, I followed him, I had no clue where we were going.

“Nah. Though she was talking about it last night when you didn’t call her.” I at least looked sheepish.

“Yeah, got hectic yesterday, I passed out before I could call her.” Not technically a lie. “Where are we going?”

“It’s been a while since we went to the park down by Carver street.”

“Really? I mean yeah it’s been a while, but that was something we did as kids.” I laughed.

“I know! That’s why we’re going!” He finished leading me toward his car, and once inside he mentioned. “You remember how they’d set up a little stand for people to buy hot chocolate? I heard they set that up again, I didn’t have anything to do today so I was like ‘oh man Finlay would love this.’ So here we are.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong.” I laughed lightly, ending with a sigh. Jett always got silent when Jeromy was around, It was weird, not hearing him speak anymore. It also wasn’t lost on me that I shouldn’t be hanging around my family outside of the shop, but what would be one day after a near death experience?

Along the way there, we made idle conversation. He talked about his work, I made up things about work, and then school. The subject of university seemed to catch his attention.

“Oh, did you hear? That teacher in your university, uh…” He snapped his fingers trying to remember. “Alexzander something…”

“Bruno. What about him?” I sat up straighter.

“Dude disappeared. They say he showed up to work one day but disappeared at some point after his first lessons. They weren’t even able to find any clues at his house.”

“Yeah… I heard a little.” I looked out the window, saddened. He really was a great teacher before he… y’know. “Do they suspect foul play?”

“Not sure. I assume they’re still investigating.” He responded, “Enough of that though, we’re just about there.”

Soon enough, we pulled into the parking lot of the park. It was a pathway that led around a grassy area. There was even a bridge over a small stream and a fountain in the center. Though, no water came through this time of year. Later on in the winter they even had ice sculptures, those events made the area packed full of people. Now, though, it was quiet. People had other things to do on their weekends in the city during the winter.

My brother and I continued having conversations throughout our walk, we stopped by the hot cocoa hut, and Jeromy was currently telling me about the woman he was currently seeing while we stopped on a bench. Most of the only other people about were people passing through, and an older woman huddled up in coats, feeding bread crumbs from a bag to the pigeons that weren’t huddled up for warmth somewhere.

“And then, y’know what she said? She said tha…” My mind trailed off from what he was saying, as police sirens grew louder and the cop car zipped down the street on the other side of the park. I could hear other sirens, I assumed there were multiple cars dispatched. It was distracting, and startling. Thankfully, my brother had stopped talking to watch the car go by as well.

“What do you think that is?” He asked, I wish I could have answered. Maybe it was just the fact that I had been preparing so much lately, and I was getting paranoid… but I had the feeling that this had something to do with AAAAA.

“I dunno. How fast do you think it’ll be before someone reports it?” I asked, while leaning forward in my seat to watch where the police cars went.

“Let’s see.” Jeromy retrieved his phone, and started looking up the area we were in. Not five minutes later, he finally found results.