The inside of the warehouse was dark, we were in a smaller room but we could see the open door into the rest of the warehouse. We saw rows of metal shelves, most were empty. It was a large building, and I could feel presences within, so we took our exploration slowly. The current room was devoid of life, so we peered into the open space. I could see a crowd down the length of the large room, gathered closely together with only a few stragglers over in the open space where there were no shelves in the way.

I glanced the other way, to be sure there was no one else hidden out of sight while Camilla snuck out the door, and hid in the shadows of the shelves to get closer to the crowd. Emma and I followed shortly after, and I ended up leading the way. I stopped by the edge of a shelf, low to the ground.

It was so eerily silent. My grip on the hilt tightened, I didn’t want to activate him yet and risk catching the wrong kind of attention. Everyone in the crowd was just staring, no, more like merely existing. No expression, no talking, no looking. There was no movement aside from gentle swaying. This was different from the man guarding the door.

“Fin. Don’t attack.” Jett said quietly, I nodded. After a moment’s contemplation I stood to my full height. Camilla jerked in response to my sudden movement. I stepped around the corner, Jett still held tightly just in case. Camilla started reaching to pull me back but I cut her a glare with a shake of my head. I was able to evade her grasp with a casual step away, and I got closer to the crowd. None of them made any sort of reaction, their eyes didn’t even roll to look in my direction.

“Hello.” I said to the dull crowd. Still no response, I risked nudging one in the arm with my hand. Shaking them. No response. It was like they became zombies, completely brainless. That confirmed what I thought. I started combing through the people, eventually entering the crowd myself.

“Finlay!” I heard both girls hiss nearly in unison. I ignored them, I had to find her. I shouldered through person after person, each one as unresponsive as the last. I saw sad eyes between heads in the crowd before I really noticed her amongst the others. I pushed through, stopping before my mother.

“They aren’t heartless, guys. I found my mom.” I called out. I got closer, and took her shoulders in my arms. She made no movements, even after I shook her around.

“Mom?” I shook harder, and her body jostled. Her skin was cool to the touch, any lower temperature and I’d say she was completely lifeless. I shook my head, and stepped forward to hug her tightly. Wishing and praying ‘just please come back’ in the quietest whispers that would have echoed in the warehouse without the many still bodies around us. I pulled away eventually, and silent and still she remained. My eyes stung, and I grasped her arms tightly. I started pulling, wondering if she would follow.

She didn’t. It was like her legs were incapable of moving away. I tried lifting her, and off the ground she went, but after yesterday I had little strength left, I only managed a small step back before I had to put her down again. She still made no reaction after all of this. I turned away from her, so her expressionless eyes wouldn’t have to see me shed angry tears. I started trying to push my way back to Camilla and Emma, to see if they could help me drag her back out. Then we’d have to go in and try to find my brother, if he was even here, that is.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a heavy metal door opening somewhere in the warehouse. I froze, and listened as best I could. It sounded like several people just entered the building, one of them was a woman, judging by the voice. She was talking on the phone rather loudly, and her voice sounded familiar.

“I know what you said. But we can’t keep collecting them like this!” She sounded mad. I turned to squeeze my way through the bodies, trying not to disturb them and be seen.

“Yes, but they are practically useless like this, we need more, and faster...” I managed to get close to the edge of the crowd while staying in the denser areas. I stood straight and still, acting like I was one of them while she continued.

“No, of course I appreciate having any puppets at all, but if we can’t get our hands on the blessing scepter then it’s all going to be working too slow. One at a time just isn’t effective!”

The woman was definitely talking about these people. Is that what they’ve become? Puppets? I seethed as the woman got close enough for me to pick out her features. Something about her seemed so… familiar.

“Really? You think she’d know? Awh, thank you. You’re the best!...” She paused, that angry tone in her voice was gone. “Uh huh. Yes, I’ll send word out… Yessir, count on me!”

Suddenly I remembered as she hung up her phone. ‘You’re so little!’ she had said, as if we were all that different in size. It was the woman with AAAAA who had attacked me in the alleyway. I wanted to get word to Camilla somehow, that she was one of them, but there was no way for me to do that with her right nearby. I could only hope that the two of them were alright wherever they were.

I felt a chilly drop of sweat to drip down my face, the woman began to approach the crowd. She had a finger resting against her chin with a thoughtful expression, and it seemed like she was steadily making her way toward me. I was worried that she’d see me after long, but a sick sense of relief took over when there was suddenly scuffling and thudding sounds. The woman was distracted, and she turned away to go around the crowd to investigate. That’s when a different worry set in.

I could hear Emma and Camilla struggling, and assumed fists had been flying. I couldn’t see yet, but I was trying to quickly sneak my way through the crowd to get back to them.

“What’s going on here!?” The woman yelled angrily.

“Frida! Intruders! Two of them!” One of the people who had come in with her announced, I had forgotten they were there.

“Go time, Fin.” Jett said, and I nodded in response, and finally broke through the crowd. I saw two goons going at Emma, and three at Camilla. The woman seemed to be gearing up to get into the fray.

“AAAh!” Emma screamed, and I changed direction from heading toward the woman, to heading toward my friend. I passed Camilla on the way, she seemed to be struggling too. Emma was on the floor, one of her attackers lie a few feet away, pushing himself to standing. The other was standing above her, reeling his arm back. I didn’t stop running as I reached them, instead taking a dive to knock him off. I got him onto the floor, lifted Jett above my head as the blade flashed to life and he came back down with a harsh sweep. The man dissolved as I stood, getting ready to help with the rest of them.

Emma was up again, she had her second attacker in a tight grip, and when she saw me she kicked the man in my direction. I ran at him at the same time, and the blade cut through him as we passed each other. Emma then turned to Camilla, who was being held in a tight chokehold, with one of her attackers seemingly unconscious on the ground, while the other was trying not to fall over after getting back to his feet. Emma took a run at him, flipping him back over onto his back. I rushed to help Camilla, but not before the woman choking her out noticed me. She used the momentum of Camilla’s struggling to throw her body aside and into one of the shelves.

There was a loud thud as her head made contact with the shelf, and her body went completely stiff and dropped onto the floor. I ran the woman through with the blade, and she too, dissolved. I looked between the one Emma was still fighting and the woman in charge who was now starting to back away, looking like she knew she was in trouble.

“Go get her! I got this!” Emma called, and I nodded.

“Shit-” The woman turned and started running. I gave chase. She ended up switching directions and running between the shelves. It was harder to chase her through them.

“Stop running and fight me, coward!” I yelled, enraged. We were on the other side of the warehouse, it looked older and dirty. The air over here was heavy with the smell of rust, probably coming from the old shelves that we were running between and through. The woman was getting closer to the exit. I lifted Jett, almost expecting to have a bow in my hands. I was surprised to find some sort of ornate pistol, it still had that pointy flair of Jett’s.

I took aim, and fired. The sound wasn’t like a normal bullet, it was like a click- followed my a shrill whistling. The woman shouted in fear when she realized what she was being shot with. I kept shooting, much faster than firing an arrow, and more accurate too. It almost didn’t help though, as the woman made it to the door, and I was still far behind. I finally made a shot connect when she was leaving the warehouse. I heard her cry out in pain when it pierced her arm, which dissolved away like normal but stopped at the shoulder. The woman seemed awkward and displaced as she went around and out of sight.

By the time I finally made it to the door of the warehouse, I pushed through only to find that the woman was gone. Almost like she had vanished. The only trace of her were her footprints in the snow, that were quickly being erased by the blizzard outside. I wasn’t able to follow them for long, before I realized it was hopeless and any evidence of her even being there was now gone. I yelled my anger out into the cold air, I could already feel my ears getting numb, and I couldn’t bring myself to care. I yelled and screamed and threw a temper tantrum right there against the side of the building.

“Hey, Fin, come on it’s fine. We can get her next time!” Jett yelled back, trying to get me to stop and think no doubt. I just yelled more.

“But who’s going to fix my mother!? Who’s going to answer for this-BULLSHIT!” I yelled more, I kicked the metal wall sharply, hardly wincing when I hurt my foot.

“We’ll figure that out too. You need to get Camilla and Emma home though. We can’t do much until later, anyway.” He tried again, and it only made me angrier.

“Oh will you just SHUT UP for once in your life?” I yelled at him, louder than I ever had before. “You don’t know what this is like, you’re a fucking sword! Motherf-”

I screamed one last time before slamming the door open. I stomped my way through the warehouse, deciding I was going to stop yelling now on account of my throat hurting.

“You’re an idiot Fin…” Jett said after a little while. He had gone so quiet I forgot he was even there for a bit. I didn’t answer, and he had nothing else to add.

I reunited with Emma, who was out of breath leant against one of the shelves. The person she had been fighting was slowly, painfully forcing themselves to stand again.

“Oh, great.” She said, standing up straight again, just moments before I wordlessly shot through the heartless. Emma squeaked as the light shot past her, she hadn’t noticed I was already behind back. Then I went to the one that was still lying unconscious near Camilla. I put a bullet of light into its skull and watched as it puffed and dissipated.

“Come on. We need to get you guys home.” I said after checking that Camilla was alright, just unconscious. Emma watched me quietly. She looked concerned, and she hadn’t moved toward helping me get Camilla up.

“Well?” I eventually said, still frustrated. I bent down again to try and lift her on my own. I was reminded of how painful my body still was as I lifted. Emma finally started into action. She gripped under Camilla’s other arm, and I realized we’d have to drag her through the snow. Oh well, at least she was alive.

“... What about your mom?” Emma eventually dared to ask as we began walking back the way we came, with Camilla’s arms held over each of our shoulders.

“We can’t do much until later.” I quoted the sword, sounding short. I sighed. “She’s a puppet right now, apparently. If we bring her back that can get us in more trouble. Plus, carrying one limp fully grown woman around in a blizzard is hard enough.”

“Oh, didn’t know the storm picked up.” She said, and I grunted in response.

I tried to act like I was thinking logically, but every fiber of my being was screaming and scratching at every corner of my brain that I can’t just leave her here. I tried to act like when I quietly began to cry it was purely out of anger. At AAAAA, at the woman who escaped, at Jett. I acted like I wasn’t crying out of guilt, and anger at me, myself, and I.

The air outside was frigid, now that I wasn’t high on adrenaline it was almost painful. It was nice though, almost. Blissful numbness followed the cold. The walk felt like it took forever due to the weight and drag of Camilla’s body. It was a bit of a struggle getting her keys and her into the car. I ended up being the one to drive them back. As it turns out, Emma hadn’t gotten around to getting her license. Not that I brought mine with me, anyway. I had to drive carefully in the storm, relieved that the weather had very few people out on the streets.

I found I had calmed considerably by the time we got Camilla back inside the shop, though the lingering feelings of self-hatred remained. More than this though, he wondered why Jett had been so silent. It was uncanny, he hadn’t said a single word since he called me an idiot earlier. I debated possible reasons for this throughout the day, though I was too stubborn to ask what his deal was, partly guilty thinking that maybe I had genuinely offended him. He didn’t even say anything when Camilla woke up, complaining about a headache.

I lay awake that night for a long time. I was tired, but something was preventing me from sleeping. Probably all the chaotic negative feelings rocketing around in my head. Jett must have known I wasn’t sleeping, because eventually, he finally spoke. I released a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

“I know what it’s like.” He said quietly from his display, my eyes opened, and I turned my head to see that glow of his casting shadows around the room while he spoke.

“I wasn’t always like this.” He said. I was confused, I rolled onto my stomach so I could look at him.

“You weren’t like what?”

“I wasn’t a sword, Finlay.” My heart stopped, but he continued,

“I was human. Sort of like you.”