Cheshire's POV

"Where is it, man?! WHERE IS IT?!" the boy shouted, anger rising in his voice as he dug through my belongings.

"Boy," I called him, "Don't touch that! Why do you want the feather so much, anyway?"

"The name's Ethro," he said, "And you mean, don't touch this?" He pointed to a table filled with priceless antiques and treasures I had... borrowed from people and didn't intend to return. Ethro stuck a long finger at a vase and poked it so it rolled on its base and almost tipped over. "Petra told me everything. About how you stole from her. And now, I intend to get it back."

Ah, so Petra was behind this.

"How can you know that she told you everything if you weren't even there?" I asked.

"Look, I don't wanna play your game!" he shouted, "I want the quill! Tell me where it is!"

"Alright, alright! Fine! I buried the quill outside by the moat. You may find it there," I said.

"You think I'm just gonna believe that?" Ethro said, "Where is it really?"

"And why would I tell you that?"

"Oh, you want to do this the hard way, old man?" he asked, cracking his neck. I didn't know why he called me that; I wasn't all that much older than him.

"No, I just don't want to give you my feather," I said.

"Fine then," he said. His eyes went solid light blue, emitting a light as his body levitated off the ground a few feet into the air. I stepped back into a defensive stance.

"Listen, I wouldn't recommend you do that, Ethro," I said, "I know 10 different ways I could kill you and those aren't even using a weapon." While what I said was true, I wasn't sure if that applied to magical people like Ethro, but I needed some way to get him to back off.

"You think that's gonna scare me?" he asked. His voice started not sounding much like his own like it had a metallic sound layered on top of it.

"Hmm, funny how I thought you were just an angry boy scout at first..." I said. He held his hands out as a glowing, blue orb began to form inside them. I rolled out of the way when he shot it at me. It crashed into a wall behind me, leaving a smoking dent. Ethro grinned in satisfaction.

I urgently ran, searching for a weapon. Something that shoots. I wasn't sure how I could take the boy—Ethro--- out with just my hands and he could easily fly away from a sword.

"Where do you think you're going, little guy?" Ethro asked as he landed in front of me, the stone floor getting crushed beneath his feet. He formed another orb and sent it flying at me. I tried to duck out of the way, but this time it had me. I was sent flying with it across the room until I was smashed into another wall. I hit the floor, my head spinning.

Ethro prepared another charge at me, but I beat him to it. I lunged onto him, grabbing him by the wrists and pinning him to the floor.

"You think I don't know how to fight, boy?" I said. I punched him in the cheek for emphasis. I would've gone for the nose, but that would be ruthless. The cheek might give him a painful bruise, but it wouldn't affect him too much other than that.

Ethro let out a small groan and tried to roll away, but I caught him before he could move.

"Let me go!" Ethro shouted, trying to squirm out of my arms. He managed to free an arm and tried to punch me in the nose. I shot my head out of the way as his fist punched the air.

"So, you're serious, huh?" I said, picking him up and slamming against a wall. He grunted. His face had hit where I punched him.

"Just give me the quill!" he screamed, pushing me off him with his magic. I landed on my bottom on the floor.

"I see. So you need magic to face off with me. You're weak," I said. He looked at me furiously.

"I am not weak!!" he shouted, "I can take you without magic!"

"Prove it," I said. He screamed and charged at me again. I casually scooted out of his way as he crashed into the wall behind me.

"You know, a simple 'pardon' would suffice," I said. He turned and angrily looked at me. His nose was bleeding and so was his lip.

"Fight me, I can take it," he demanded.

"A little silly of a request if you'd ask me," I said, "for I could easily take you on, but alright. Let's play."

I ran at him and grabbed his wrists again, twisting his arms behind him. He let out a slightly stifled scream as he tried to resist. I ran his front into another wall.

"Why do you insist on doing that, Ethro?" I asked, "You could hurt yourself." He growled. I spun him around to face me and quickly punched him again—in the nose this time. He stumbled backward and grabbed his nose. His eyes were tearing up.

I ran at him again, pinning him to the ground the same way I had him before.

"Fine! Fine! I-I give up! You win," he said, "Now please get off me!" I stood up and took my hands off his wrists. He shakily stood with a hand still on his nose looking like he was surrendering at first, but then swung and arm at me and struck me in the face. The hit dazed me for a moment, but I was able to recover quickly and strike him again. I pulled my leg up and popped him right between the legs. For a guy, that's the worst place you can get hit—believe me.

"AHH!" he yelled, doubling over, "Fine! Okay! Okay! Just... don't think you've seen the last of me!"

With that, he faded away.

"Puny coward," I muttered, "Although incredibly tenacious. This should be fun."

My castle was a complete mess at this point. Everything looked smoky and there were holes everywhere from where Ethro had blasted me.

I looked around to see if anything priceless was ruined. Luckily, the table of antiques was in perfect shape. I sighed in relief. Now, the next thing to do was plan my next move. Obviously, the boy was inexperienced, although he managed to put many holes in my castle, which I wasn't the least bit happy about.

The best way of taking out a threat, although I'm not sure if Ethro even deserves that much credit, is removing it at the source. And the source was Petra. Take her out, and Ethro no longer would have a reason to try so desperately to steal the feather from me.

I still needed some time to myself, however, so I decided that at the moment finishing up that book was the best idea.

Lukas's POV

"Melody," I said, knocking on Nighmelody's door, "Melody, I need to talk to you."

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw Melody standing right behind me with a smirk on her face.

"Right here, goofball," she said, "What's up?"

I cleared my throat.

"It's about last night," I said, "Remember when you said there was something out for our group? I think it's starting with me..."

"YES!" she said, pumping a fist, "I love it when I'm right!" She saw my expression and straightened out. "Sorry. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Someone came to me in a dream," I explained, "It was kind of like the nightmares you used to do but... different."

"And did you happen to catch this someone's name?" Melody asked as if she already knew the answer.

"She said it was Ombrexi. She's like... obsessed with me or something. She appeared in another dream a while back, but this time it was... ugh... so much worse."

Melody sighed and crossed her arms.

"Yep, should've seen this coming," she said.

"Wait, so you know Ombrexi?" I asked, "How?"

"When you're cousins you tend to know each other," she said.

"Hold up, you two are cousins?" I asked.

"Okay, I've got some explainin' to do," she said, "Now, you know we're friends and stuff now... but you remember that we used to be enemies, probably very vividly. You know, I kind of killed Petra a little bit and scarred you pretty badly in your sleep, blah, blah, blah. But, you see, the art of musical nightmaring takes a lot of stamina, so that's why I had to call Ombrexi for extra support. I figured, you know, she could take on you every night 'cause, well, like you said, she's crazy into you."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, "To me, it seemed like she wanted me dead."

"Mm, see, that's the thing..." Melody said, "Love for her isn't the same as love is to you. It's more like, she thinks that if she kills you that makes you unavailable to anyone."

"That's... true, I guess," I said.

"Look, long story short, if she isn't handled soon, she'll start breaking into real life and you'll have to repeat something that happened with me."

"Then how do I handle her?"

"Ha ha ha... that's the thing. You can't. Not on your own, at least."

"What?" I asked, "No, no, I am not doing that again."

"Hold on, hold on. I said not on your own. You need someone who can access the Phantom realm on their own."

"You can help me?"

She shook her head, making her short curls bounce a little.

"I can't go into the phantom realm anymore because I'm not a phantom. Petra made sure of that. But I know who can. And I bet she would be willing to help you."

Then it hit me.

"Erin..." I said.

"Right. She's tough, I'm sure she'll help you."

"Okay, but how do I get her?"

"Actually... I think she's here. Like, in this world."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I can sort of... feel it. It's like this link that we have, regardless that I'm not exactly a phantom anymore."

"Then where is she?" I asked.

"Somewhere, I don't exactly know. But knowing her, if she knows that you're here, she'll want to come and say hi."

"What... do I do until then?" I asked. Melody smiled sympathetically and shrugged.

"Grin and bear it?"

With that, she walked right on past me.

Aiden's POV

I couldn't sleep. I had been trying for a while, but I couldn't. Somehow, instead of getting better, my sickness only seemed to grow worse. I was so tired too, making it worse.

"Aiden, why don't you just get your mind off of it?" Katcha suggested.

"Like what?" I asked.

"There's a library, you like reading, right?"

"I guess..."

"You want to be an author, right? Authors gotta read; get up!"

"Katcha... I can't do that right—"

"You're not helping anything by sitting in bed, so why keep doing it?"

She had a point.

"Alright, alright, I'm up," I groaned. Sluggishly, I pulled the sheets off my sweaty body and got out of bed. My entire body felt stiff and achy.

"Augh..." I groaned, rubbing my back and wincing.

"C'mon, babyhead, let's go," Katcha urged as she left the room.

"You don't understand," I muttered as I followed her outside.

---

Sorry I was a little late on this one. A bit of computer trouble slowed me down, but hopefully it's working fine now. 

Aaaanyways, hope you enjoyed! See you next week! (For real)