Erin's POV

I landed back into my realm, the Phantom Realm. Home sweet home, although it's not so sweet anymore. It used to be a good place where we could be happy. It used to be bright and sunny. Nowadays, we live in darkness. 

My home is a tall, dark, and ominous castle stretching high up into the grey sky. Full of rooms and secret passageways and hiding places. Speaking of hiding places, I needed to go find one of those or else I'd be in trouble.

I arrived wearing my white garments, something that was strictly forbidden by my father. Wearing it meant that I was using light magic instead of evil. 

As I walked the dirt path to the castle, I transformed into my formal attire, a simple, long black dress. My makeup changed to mostly dark colors and my hair transformed into a tightly held back bun, while still letting my bangs hang loose.

As I approached the doors, I stopped and sighed.

"Here we go."

I gently grasped the doorknob and slowly opened the door as slowly and quietly as possible. A stream of light from the outside stretched onto the dark floor covered in shadow. I squeezed my way in and shut the door.

"Erin!" boomed a voice. I winced. Shoot.

"Y-yes?" I asked, looking around nervously, "Dad?"

"Come forward," he said. I cleared my throat, smoothed out my clothes, and walked down the middle of the room. On the high ceiling hung a chandelier that dimly lit the place, and on either side of the back wall were staircases leading up to the second floor. There on the far end on his throne sat the Phantom, my dad. He was made up of shadows, despite two silver, glowing eyes on his head and his exposed rib-cage. In the Phantom realm, he was completely visible to anyone; however, in the human world, the only evidence that he is present in his voice.

"If I were to ask what you were doing last night," he began, "would you lie to me?"

"No, Father," I responded.

"Good. So, what were you doing last night, Erin, hmm?"

I stood still, trying to think of what to say.

"I was... fighting," I said.

"Ah, yes, fighting. Why, I really should have guessed that you were out fighting considering I sent my daughter out to finish the Order of the Stone, per your mother's request. But, might I ask, who was it that you were fighting, Erin?"

I pursed my lips for a moment, thinking of the subtlest way to put it as possible.

"I'm waiting. Don't worry, we have all the time in the world. All of eternity, if you'd like."

I realized at that moment that I was being a slave to him. I was submitting. I was cowering. I looked him straight in the eyes and said,

"I was fighting Nightmelody. With the Order."

"I know you were," he said with a smirk in his voice, "Just wanted to see how honest you are. I saw the whole thing."

"The whole thing?" I echoed.

"Well, obviously. It's what dad's are there for. Whenever their daughter has something big going on, like a basketball game or a performance, they'll want to see it. In my case, I wanted to watch my little baby destroy the same people who continuously seem to interrupt my fun." He paused. "And then they just had to go and do it again. They ended my fun. They killed  my daughter!"

"It was the right thing to do," I said, "And they didn't kill her, they created a barrier."

"And look at what 'the right thing' did. The girl, what was her name, Petra. She sacrificed herself for the team!" He snickered as he spoke, "And now look at where she is. Look at what doing your little 'good' does. It destroys."

"Father, that isn't true!" I argued, "Soon, we will reap the consequences for our actions, and you will get what's coming to you."

"Ugh, again with all that Bible speech, Erin. Has that happened? No. This is the way to go. The right way only leads to death."

"That's exactly what the wrong way leads to!"

"Why don't you tell that to Eva, hm? Or how about Mom."

My eyes grew wide as I stepped back.

"Don't you dare bring her into this!" I snapped, fighting away tears.

"Can and did. She's the perfect proof of my point."

I stared at him, hurt and in disbelief.

"Now, Erin," he continued, "We cannot delay the inevitable. You disobeyed me, and that deserves punishment. Now, who was that guy that you talk to now? You know, the only living thing to think you're worth it?"

"Lukas?" I sniffed, "What are you gonna—"

"I say let's make a barrier. From this point forth, you are literally incapable of interacting with him."

"Dad, no!" I exclaimed, "With Eva dead, he's..."

"Your what?"

"...my only friend. I've been lying to him for too long, I need to tell him. Please don't form a barrier!"

"Look, kid. I'm the all-powerful Phantom, 'kay? I am capable of much worse. Consider yourself lucky."

"If you're so capable, why don't you do something worse?" I asked.

"Because I won't have to." He held out his shadowy hands and in them appeared a bracelet with a red gem in the middle. When it was complete, he tossed it over to me. I caught it and looked at it.

"What's this?" I asked.

"A timer. It's for when the Queen arrives back here. That's when I expect you to come back home for you to greet her. Merry Christmas."

I took it shakily and fastened it onto my wrist.

"Just go get ready for school."

I bit my lip and ascended the staircase to my room. It was down a hallway upstairs. I walked inside the dark room. Next to the back wall was my bed, a window, and my dresser. On the right side sat a vanity. Next to the mirror in a frame sat a picture of my mother, but not the Fire Queen. It was a picture of my old mother, the one who actually loved me. The photo must have been taken long before I was born because she looked only slightly older than me. She wore a genuine smile that make creases by her eyes and dimples in her blushed cheeks. He shoulder-length dirty blonde hair softly brushed her shoulders. Her eyes were blue and had some sort of sparkle to them that I admired.

"Mom," I said softly as I held the picture up, "I need you now. I wish that you could be here with me."

Back when my mom was alive, The Phantom was happy. He wasn't always against me, wasn't always stirring up trouble for "fun," but he was happy. My mom was a human and my dad was a Phantom, so I'm a bit half and half. I can travel through both wolds, completely visible. I have flesh and blood like a human, but I'm immortal like a phantom. My mom was a kind Christian lady and raised me the same way. My childhood was a happy one, no doubt about it.

Later on, when I was about 10 or 11, she grew ill. Really sick. I mean, in a life threatening way. And she was a human, so she wasn't immortal. The Phantom prayed that she would get better, with all his heart. He prayed, but the answer was no. She died at age 38, and that infuriated him. He quickly shed his faith and continued to go into darkness.

He remarried to Fire Queen and together they had Nightmelody, born with the power to travel into people's minds. 

Carefully, I placed the picture back onto my desk. Looking in the mirror, I noticed that I had black streaks running down my face from crying. I wiped them away and got ready.

Lukas's POV

When we arrived at school, the rain was much harder. We were dodging sprays of water created from passing cars on the side of the road left and right the whole way down. We were all soaking wet and freezing and my jaw was clenched so hard it was giving me a headache. Thunder rolled through the sky.

"...three...four...five..." Maya counted. Another crash of thunder interrupted her.

"Maya," Aiden said sounding either tired or annoyed, "What are you counting?"

"I heard that counting the amounts of seconds between thunder can tell you how far away it is," she explained, "Five miles."

We arrived at school and hurried into the doors. Everyone around us shuffled inside, hunched over. Inside, everyone's wet feet squeaked against the tile floors.

Not too far through the day, the principal's voice echoed through the school on the loudspeaker.

"ATTENTION, STUDENTS. PLEASE REPORT TO THE CAFETERIA IMMEDIATELY FOR A LOCK-DOWN."

"Aw, man!" Maya said. Just after she spoke, a parade of students all practically running over one another pushed each other out of the way to try to make it first into the cafeteria room doors. I had to fight my way in. Nobody ever told me how dangerous high school was; it was like a stampede. If I were to fall, consider me a goner. I was split from everyone else and was getting worried for them.

Eventually, we all made it safely into the cafeteria room were the students sat at their usual tables. Jesse, Aiden, Maya, and I went to our table. I noticed Erin passing by and waved at her.

"Hey, Erin! Wanna sit over here?" I asked. She looked at me, but without a smile or hint of acknowledgement she turned her head and walked the other way.

"I thought you two were friends," Maya said, "You seemed to be talking to her for a long time."

"You know, she's probably pretty bummed about her sister," I said in a soft tone.

"Was that that other girl who was fighting with us?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah. I feel pretty bad about that too."

"Hey, I know. What if you and me went to go talk to her? I bet she could use that right now."

"Alright. Hopefully she won't mind it."

We walked over to the lonely table that she sat at, tracing something on the table with her finger.

"Hey," I said a little nervously, "Are you okay?"

She looked at me sadly, but turned back down at her hands. I uncomfortably cleared my throat.

"Do you wanna talk?"

No reply.

"...Alright."

Jesse and I began to walk away.

"Why wouldn't she talk?" Jesse said softly.

"I was wondering the same thing," I said, "I know we've only known each other for a few days, but it seems kind of uncharacteristic of her to just... ignore people like that."

We went back to our table to sit back with Aiden.

"Maya went back to sit with Cherry," he explained, pointing with his thumb behind him at a table, "Said she wanted to prove that Cherry was innocent."

"Well, if she comes back, tell her that we already agreed that we'll need more evidence until we can safely say that Cherry is guilty," Jesse said.

Maya's POV

"Hey, Maya!" Cherry said, waving me over. I smiled and sat across from her.

"Hey, Cherry!" I said, "So, there's something that I wanted to—"

"Maya! I have to tell you about this! Okay, yesterday when I was coming home from cheer practice, I saw this guy who had, like, the best hair. I mean, it was like, baller. Anyway, so I went over to talk to him and was all like—"

"Cherry? I need to—"

"Hold on, hold on, let me finish. So, I was like, 'Hey, I haven't seen you around, what school do you go to?' And he was like, 'Trinity Elementary.' And I didn't know that! I mean, he was like, so tall! I thought he went to this school and I just hadn't seen him before! So, I had to get out of the convo so I said—"

"Cherry!" I said sternly. She stopped talking.

"Is... something wrong?"

I sighed.

"Okay, this is gonna sound totally nuts, but we saw a guy on the way to school this morning being mugged or something in an alley. The person beating him up was able to get away from us and we couldn't catch them."

"Ohmygosh!" Cherry said all at once, her eyes growing wide, "Is he okay?"

"Well, he had a concussion. We reported about it and there are people investigating, but we were able to grab one piece of evidence from the crime scene."

"And what was it?" Cherry asked, looking like she was on the edge of her seat in excitement.

"A single hair. It was long, red, and curly."

"Ooh! That's actually kind of like—" Cherry stopped, then looked at me in concern, "...my hair."

"Um, yes. And while I seriously doubt 100 percent that you of all people would do something like that to a guy... my friends are considering you as a suspect."

She looked slightly hurt at first, but then said,

"I can see why they might think that if it matches my hair, but I would never hurt anyone!"

"I know! That's what I told them!" I said.

"And... then what happened?"

"Well, thank goodness that I have good friends, because they believed me. But I think they're not entirely convinced that you're completely innocent."

She sadly stared down at the floor for a moment.

"But I'm sure with a little convincing and some more evidence your name will be completely cleared! Trust me," I said, trying to sound optimistic.

"You're right!" Cherry said with finality, "Besides, you said they believed you that I'm not guilty, right?"

"Yep!"

"Then I have nothing to be sad about! Now, can I finish my story about that guy?"

Yeah!" I said with a laugh. That's the thing about Cherry, she always seems to be able to not be sad for long.

---

Hey, guys!

Hopefully you liked that chapter! If you are enjoying this story, please vote and comment to show your support to help me get more reads!

I'd like to get your opinion on Cherry; do you think she'd hurt someone? Is she guilty, or is it just a coincidence? Leave your thoughts below.