Zen stretched and yawned.” You wouldn’t happen to know where we are now would you?”

Isaias pointed at the rusty sign overhead and unsealed his water bottle. “Drink,” he said.

Zen scrunched her face in disgust. “You know I brought mine too, right?”

“Yeah, and we’re trying to keep supplies lasting here, Zen,” Isaias said. “Drink, you’re going to need it.”

“Alright, geez! No need to hang me for it,” she muttered while drinking from the water bottle after wiping the mouth off with her shirt. It had a slight ashy aftertaste as a consequence but rather that than her brother’s germs. She walked around in a circle taking in the brick buildings and forlorn homes.

It’s a ghost town.

Isaias spoke first. “ Alright, the Arrio know of some nomads that live around these parts but we can’t count on uncle so I vote for checking if there are any tech spots around here. We can call for aid.”

“We can call Carmelo. He would help us,” Zen said, smirking at her brother’s groan.

“Who is this Carmelo,” asked Marco, curious as to what would tear that sound free from Isaias.

“He’s another Don and he’s also…”

“Our mom’s boyfriend,” Zen finished grinning.

“Yeah, that!”

“What’s wrong with your mom having a boyfriend?”

“It’s a Don for crying out loud! She’ll have to bend to his rules!”

Zen laughed. “Can you see mom bending at anything? If anything, it’ll be the other way around!”

Isaias snickered.”Carmelo has no idea what he’s getting into, does he?”

“None. Now what about these nomads,” asked Zen crossing her arms.

“They prefer the word phantom. They are the people who refused to leave these hulking masses behind and live in newer homes. They are tech wizards, building technology out of what was left behind and some are said to have gifts with metal,” said Marco.

“Some are said to eat metal,” said Isaias as he leaned in towards Marco who was staring at the tall buildings on the skyline. His head brushed Marco’s.

“I think we should separate...Isaias, what are you doing?”

“Nothing!” He said, pulling back and walking a slight distance away. He yawned and stretched.

“He’s tired,” Zen muttered as she walked over to Isaias. “You carried me awhile. That tired you. Before that, you had two broken ribs. You are not a droid, Isaias.”

“Hmm,” Isaias murmured.

Can we find someplace to sit down and rest? Isaias needs it,” said Zen poking at her half-conscious brother. “Hey don’t fall asleep! I can’t carry you and Marco won’t do it either.”

“Sure, sure. Let’s move it!”

Zen, Isaias, and Marco entered the city.

It was an eerie, quiet place with tarps rustling in the breeze. The city was a graveyard of broken buildings and cement walkways littered with the occasional rusted lamp post. Further down was a cracked bridge and even further was a bus.

“Chicago was among the last cities to be evacuated by ordinance 39 after the asteroid blast and the Caldera explosion. The citizens were that stubborn and still many chose to be phantoms,” said Isaias.

“We should split up. There are only a few hours of sun left,” said Marco.

Isaias nodded. “Alright. Marco, you take the north side as it's the biggest and you can teleport. We’ll take the east and west. I don’t think there is much in the industrialized area except factories.”

Marco nodded and they split with Isaias taking the east and Zen the west. Zen approached what used to be a courtyard for basketball. She stepped over the fallen pieces of the wire fence meant to keep intruders out. Farther along were rusty ping-pong tables. This was some kind of recreation center from the early twentieth century. There was glass on the floor further in from the busted windows of the facility. It gave an unsettling view from the inside. Blown-over plastic chairs and tables were strewn everywhere and what looked like children’s books were spread around the floor collecting dust and ash. It was chilling. She dared not go further. This place gives me the creeps.

She paused and took a deep breath before she walked deeper into the facility. Her footsteps echoed with her every step despite the ash. Inside she found children’s toys resting at the bottom of the trunk and she shivered. She could practically hear children laughing and playing here before it was condemned. She bent down and picked up one of the books on the floor. She dusted it off to reveal a smiling clown. She shuddered and stood trying the inner door to find it locked. She tried her comm. Nothing. She walked back out and tried climbing in through another side but the facility was wedged shut. She sighed and decided to keep moving, after all the facility wasn’t the only thing on this street. She turned around and was met by Isaias’s grinning face.

Zen let out a squeak. She slapped his shoulder. “Don’t do that!”

“What?”

“Appear so soundlessly out of nowhere!” She screamed as she swept her bangs from her eyes.

“Come on, hermanita! We’ve got a lot of ground to cover” he turned to Zen and gestured to the decayed book in her hands. “unless you’d rather stay and explore some more?” He raised an eyebrow.

Zen dropped the book. “No, I’m fine. Let’s go.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The street they traveled on shone with the hoods of leftover vehicles. They made prisms of color as the sun began to set. Isaias and Zen wandered into two other facilities and one pharmacy but none showed signs of life or had a tech spot. They decided to lounge on a bench near the pharmacy and wait for Marco. They didn’t have to wait long. Marco teleported to them.

“I found something, a ways off from here, near the theatres,” he said sitting down between Zen and Isais. He was too tired to care about leaning over Isaias and Isaias was secretly glad for it.

“Can you teleport us to the place,” Zen asked.

Marco yawned. Looks like Isaias isn’t the only one wrung out.

“Give me a minute,” he sighed as he rested his head on Isaias’s shoulder. He was barely staying awake as it was. Several minutes later he stood and grasped Zen and Isaias’s hands. Isaias stood grinning and then they were gone in thin air.

The scenery spun all around Zen, making her sick. Then they stopped and it was as if her soul was thrust into space. The stars surrounded her. Finally, her stomach dropped as she freefell back into her body. She stood on firm ground with brick buildings all around her.

“I’m going to be sick,” she muttered covering her mouth and swallowing what wanted to come back up. Beside her, an ashen-faced Marco was leaning over his knees breathing rapidly.

“You...get...used to...it.,” he said, straightening up and inhaling deeply.

Isaias gazed at Marco worried. “Are you ok?”

“Y...e...ah just gi...ve me some time k?”

Isaias nodded and walked his friend to a bench and sat him down. He didn’t resist his touch at all which worried Isaias. He was tired before. He shouldn’t have teleported us so soon. What was he thinking? Isaias sat beside him and Zen sat beside her brother.

“Is he going to be alright?” She asked, watching the shadows begin to fall.

“Yeah, he just needs a little time,” said Isaias as he cradled Marco. He hoped he would be fine. If he wasn’t? Marco gave a little snore and the twins laughed. Further down the street was the theatre that Marco was talking about. It had a big sign reading Musicals from Broadway. In front was parked a motorcycle. It shone brand new in the dying light. A few other vehicles were parked out front as well but these were ancient and ash-covered.

“That motorcycle,” Zen said.

“Yeah, probably what caught Marco’s attention. It’s new,” he said.

“Do you think they could help us?”

“I don’t know...Zen what was the price to heal me?”

Zen tilted her head. “What price?”

“There’s always a price for using magical artifacts, hermanita. What was it?”

“Oh, it used a fourth of my life expectancy.”

Isaias’s eyes widened. “It what!

Zen smiled. “It’s no big deal.”

“No big deal? Zen! You don’t know how long you’ll live and you just gave that up?”

“You wouldn’t have made it to Chicago otherwise, Isaias!” She said leaning back on the bench. Isaias stretched out his arm and tugged her to him.

“Promise me you’ll never abuse the crystal, Zen. You have no idea what it would do to me and Mama if anything happened to you.”

“Is it that big of a deal?”

“Yes!”

Zen sighed. “Fine, I promise but what are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know but I figured we could find out as soon as Marco is up.”

“I’m awake...Isaias...you’re smothering me.”

Isaias let go and blushed lightly. “Sorry about that. I was trying to make it more... comfortable,” he said.

Marco groaned and rubbed his neck. “We can go now...before night fully settles.”

Zen grinned and stood rubbing her neck. She wasn’t as tired as her brother or Marco but she was getting there. They stood and approached the theatre noticing the new glass around the structure.

“Someone’s definitely in there. That’s helium glass,” said Isaias, pointing to the strange orange glass-like structure around the theatre.

“How do we get in,” asked Zen as she studied the glass.

“There’s another entrance near the back. it wasn’t covered when I checked,” said Marco as they followed him around the building to the back where a rusted door was. Marco applied some force to it and it jarred open enough to let them through.

They went down some stairs and into a large corridor. It was wide enough to fit all three shoulder to shoulder. A little farther were some rooms but Isaias tried them all. Locked. They kept going turning to the right where a large waiting room full of old furniture was kept. The ash had been brushed off and an old couch had been brought out of storage and refurbished along with a coffee table and an old sofa that had more patches than a quilt. A scream made them pause.

“That came in the other direction. Should we check it out?” asked Zen.

Isaias stood still as another wail carried on the wind. “I don’t know, Marco?”

“Let’s check it out. If it’s anything dangerous, I can teleport us out of here,” he said.

The three went to check out the source of the screams.

They moved in the opposite direction, towards a big amphitheater. They passed two large rusted doors and crawled inside hiding behind the last row of chairs. The amphitheater wasn’t big enough to hide the people on the stage. There were four. Three men and one woman. The woman was dressed much like some gothic lolita with a big black poofy dress and black boots that were currently buried in one of the males’ stomachs.

“Shadow you are so disappointing. We ask that you gather two people and you can’t even do that,” said the woman flicking back blonde locks of hair that had slipped past her shoulders.

“Yolinda, give me another chance,” groaned a man dressed all in black.

Yolinda laughed and buried her foot into his ribs. He collapsed to the floor with a grunt.

“What was that?”

Another kick to the ribs.

“Speak louder!”

“Th-they weren’t in Puerto Nuevo! Ugh!”

The woman grinned and squatted down to grab a fistful of dark hair. She tilted his head up til his mahogany eyes could see her grin.

“It’s your job to find them. They are just two brats with illusions of grandeur. Don’t you want to know your past Shadow? Isn’t that why you came to us? To learn of your past? We can’t do that if you don’t play your part,” she said in a sweet tone.

The figure murmured again, they were kicked in the stomach this time.

“I said I’ll find them!”

The woman rose to her feet and stood over him pressing her booted heel into Shadow’s shoulder making him hiss.

“Good. Glad we have that established. Mara, you can play the little arsonist with Shadow.”

The man wrenched his head up and glared at Yolinda. “We had a deal!”

“This’ll teach you not to fail us again Shadow. Mara? Just a little. He needs to find those hybrid brats of hers. He’ll need all his faculties…except one. You can pick which one.”

The male with bright red hair and eyes shook in excitement and turned to his partner. “Neta hold him while I excise!”

The other person there, a brown-haired, emerald-eyed, male stepped up and bound Shadow to the ground…with sand.

Zen’s eyes widened as Shadow struggled in his binds and Fire came closer a fireball in his hands. Where did he get that? How is he doing that?

“He’s a fire elemental Zen… I think we better go before they realize we are here,” whispered Marco.

Zen nodded, and they crawled their way out of the amphitheater. A loud shriek followed their departure, and Zen was left to wonder just what was excised from Shadow.

They ran back to the furniture room and paused.

“Ok! I don’t want the creepy lady to get a whiff of us so we better move from this place,” Isaias said.

“I agree. I can teleport us away from here. We don’t need those people to know of our existence,” said Marco, panting.

Isaias crossed his forearms in an x and waved them. “No teleporting! We can come out the way we came in. We just need to….”

The ceiling duct moved above them, sprinkling ash on top of Zen. Zen looked up in time for her to catch a small child tumbling out of the duct. The lid made a bang against the ground, shaking up more ash. Big citrine eyes stared at Zen, and the girl made a struggle to get out of Zen’s arms. Her long auburn hair was a mess over her head, and the small yellow bow matching the yellow dress she wore, was askew on her head.

“I heard it from the rec room,” yelled a high tenor voice.

The girl gasped.

Not thinking twice Zen, Isaias, and Marco teleported with the small girl.