What the hell was I doing here?

The sound of amusement rides coming to life roared aloud, and in the background squealing children and crowd noises drummed against my ear. It was evening and the sky was dark, but flashing lights from all directions of the theme park blurred my vision as I stumbled past the entry gates, the three girls trailing behind my back.

"Oh! So you're Ryo's co-worker!" Yumi said to Mayu, her voice excited.  It was a lie I had made up on the spot.

"Haha, yeah that's right..." Mayu laughed awkwardly, rubbing her head. "I guess you can say that..."

Yumi turned to Luna shyly. "And you are...?"

Luna opened her mouth, presumably to say something inappropriate and I cut into the conversation quickly.

"A school friend." I said, glancing at Luna worriedly. She pouted in my direction.

"Hmm..." Yumi squinted her eyes, studying Luna's face. "I feel like I've seen you somewhere before..."

"It's probably just a coincidence!" I laughed, trying to break her attention. It was lucky that Yumi didn't remember seeing Luna from the shopping mall, or even worse the kidnapping incident. 

"Probably!" Yumi stopped studying Luna's face, and laughed. "I don't know, but you're very pretty!"

Luna smiled politely, the way she did at school. "Thank you."

Mayu glared at Luna enviously from the side, and Yumi laughed, noticing Mayu's reaction. "You're also very pretty, Mayu!"

I breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that Yumi had not recognised Luna. There was already enough drama going on without that happening. The three of them continued chatting behind my back, while they followed me idly and it was then that I realised I was supposed to be taking them somewhere. The only problem was that this theme park was too damn big, and it didn't help that there were hundreds of people walking around aimlessly.

Something hit me on the leg from below and I looked down to see a boy child, bouncing backwards and falling into the ground. He landed on his behind, and sat there looking confused.

"H-hey Ryo, be careful where you walk." Yumi said worriedly.

"He walked into me." I replied but no one cared.

Mayu walked over and leaned down to the child. "Are you okay?" She asked softly.

The child looked up at Mayu for a moment with the same exact confused expression on his face, then out of nowhere, his face crunched up and tears erupted from his eyes.

"Waah!!" The child cried loudly and Mayu leaned back, wincing as she covered her ears.

"Hey..." Yumi also bent down to the child, trying her best to look accommodating. "What's wrong? Are you lost?"

The child ignored Yumi's words and seemed to only cry louder, attracting the attention of onlookers as I shifted uncomfortably at my feet. I didn't like the attention of the crowd. Mayu and Yumi stepped away, a look of defeat on their faces.

I was about to give a go at comforting the child when Luna walked past me and knelt down to the child, her face calm and serene. The child, feeling her presence in front of him, glanced at her between his tears, and suddenly, lo and behold, a miracle occurred. 

"It's okay." Luna raised a gentle hand to the child's head, stifling his tears. "Everything's going to be okay."

The child sniffed and Luna pulled him up from the ground without resistance as the crowd around us cheered, impressed by Luna. At that moment, his mother walked in hurriedly from amidst the crowd.

"There you are, Hoshi!" His mother cried, picking the child up from the ground, then turned to Luna. "T-thank you so much! I'm so sorry if he caused you any trouble!"

Luna laughed. "Not at all."

The mother thanked Luna for a while more, before leaving with her child and disappearing into the crowd.

"T-that was so impressive!" Yumi said to Luna, staring at her with admiration. I remember Yumi saying that she wanted to be a teacher. I guess that explained why she was so impressed.

"It's nothing." Luna smiled modestly in response.

"Exactly." Mayu said, crossing her arms. She seemed annoyed that the child reacted to Luna and not her.  "It's nothing..."

"I thought that was impressive too." I added.

Luna's face changed to a blush, contrasting the graceful persona she put on with others. "R-really?"

"Yeah..." I laughed, feeling awkward by her change in tone. I didn't want her to get too carried away. "A-anyways, let's find something to do since we're here at the theme park."

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The safety harness fell slowly on top of us, before locking into place. I pushed against the steel weakly, feeling a pit forming in my stomach.

"A-are you sure we won't fall out?" I asked nervously.

Luna laughed, sitting next to me. "Don't worry, Ryo. We're completely safe."

An employee walked past us along the platform, his eyes searching for any problems with the ride.

"And even if you fell out, I would jump down and save you." Luna added.

"Why do you get to sit next to Ryo?" Mayu complained from behind. Sitting besides Mayu was a fidgeting Yumi, a look on her face that somewhat resembled a mixture of regret and fear. Probably what my own face looked like.

"D-do you think they will let me out if I asked?" Yumi asked shakily. "I-I don't think I can do this..."

As she finished her sentence, the roller coaster jerked forward for a second, slowly beginning to move.

"I think it's too late now..." I replied, staring at the long, ascending path stretching out in front of us.

"Can you believe we're on a roller coaster together?" Luna asked excitedly. "This is the best day of my life."

"Haha..." I laughed uneasily.

Luna lowered her voice. "If only we were alone..."

"H-hey, don't get any ideas Luna..." I said alarmed. She wasn't planing to push Mayu and Yumi off half way through the ride, was she?"

"Just kidding." Luna laughed.

The ride ascended to the top of the climb, emphasising the fact that we were a hundred feet above from the ground. The theme park looked like an ant colony from this height and I gripped onto the harness tightly, feeling myself perspire. I closed my eyes and mumbled half a prayer I remembered from elementary school.

"Hey Ryo, open your eyes, we're gonna—"

Suddenly, my stomach rose to my chest and the force of the wind rushed against me. The pressure of the fall made my entire body tense as I clenched my teeth.

"—FALLLLLLLL!" Luna screamed, laughing.

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I leaned against the wall, my legs shaky and my heart racing from the adrenaline of the ride. Luna and Mayu stood besides me worriedly. Yumi had excused herself to the toilet straight after the ride. Probably to throw up.

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"Are you alright, Ryo?" Luna said, leaning to me.

"That was horrible..." I groaned, facing the ground. "Never again..."

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Mayu asked. "I thought it was really boring."

Of course, it was boring for you. I thought to myself. You're an Ashen.

"Here, have some water." Mayu held a bottle of water out to me and reached her hand to touch my back.

Luna striked the bottle out of Mayu's hand, the force of her hit cracking the plastic in the middle and spilling water in the air. The bottled crashed into the ground, breaking into two from where it cracked, exploding water. Luna caught Mayu's wrist before she could touch me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Luna asked quietly, her face lost its usual brightness and was now dark and inhumane.

"I wanted to help Ryo out." Mayu winced at Luna's grip. Luna squeezed hard and Mayu yelped.

"H-hey, stop it!" I pulled Luna's hand away from Mayu's wrist. "She's our friend!"

Luna released her grip and Mayu stepped back, rubbing her wrist. "T-that really hurted..." She said.

At that moment, Yumi walked towards us with a puzzled expression on her face. "What's going on?" She asked, glancing from Luna to Mayu and back again. Uh oh. Did she see the whole thing?

"Nothing!" I replied quickly and tried to laugh it off. "They were just having fun."

"They looked like they were fighting..." Yumi said, giving me a skeptical look.

"Really, it was nothing." Mayu joined in, laughing weakly as she tried to help my cause. "Me and Luna fighting? As if..."

"Well I would hope not..." Yumi said, frowning. "You two seem like sisters."

"S-sisters?!" Mayu blurted out.

"Yeah." Yumi laughed. "It's just that it feels like you two are really close."

That's an interesting thought. I mused. In a way, Luna and Mayu were somewhat akin to sisters. They were born in the same way, grew up together and probably suffered many hardships together too. I could see why it felt like there was a close connection between the two of them.

"No way..." Mayu said weakly. "We're not like sisters at all."

"I'm just saying." Yumi giggled. "Anyways, I saw a haunted house over there when I was coming back, we should go check it out." She pointed behind her.

"Sounds good!" I said quickly. Anything would be better than to stand here and wait for Luna and Mayu to fight again.

"Haunted?" Luna repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Why do you look like that?" Yumi laughed, as we followed her lead. "It'll be fun! I saw really cute skeletons!"

We stopped at a large, grim-looking house decorated with dark ornaments. Workers dressed in skeleton costumes patrolled the front of the haunted house, looking for passerbys.

"That seems really scary." I said, looking the haunted house up and down.

"But the skeletons look so cute!" Yumi pointed to the workers excitedly.

"Uh..." I wanted to say that this was probably a bad idea but a worker approached us before I could get the words out of my mouth.

"Are you here for the haunted house?" The worker grinned. His skeleton makeup and costume seemed deceptively innocent compared to what the haunted house looked like.

I looked at Yumi, she seemed like she really wanted to go. I sighed. "Yeah, can we get four tickets?"

"No problem." The worker replied eagerly, as he handed us four tickets in exchange for cash. "You're a really popular guy, huh?" He added, nodding at the three girls next to me.

"They're friends..." I laughed weakly.

We followed him as he lead us to the front of the haunted house, telling us instructions as he did so which I didn't really listen to.

"Okay then guys, have fun!" He said, ending his lengthy speech.

"We will." Yumi replied brightly.

He opened the door to the haunted house and we strolled in, with me leading the pack and Yumi at the back. The door closed on us almost as soon as we got in and we found ourselves in a long, dark corridor faintly lit by fake torches lined in rows on the walls. The haunted house was completely soundless.

"This is scarier than I thought." Yumi said, breaking the silence. She turned back to the door we came from and tried feebly to open it to no avail.

"Ryo, be careful." Luna said to me worriedly, as I started walking ahead with a sigh. I just wanted to get this over and done with.

"You're so brave, Ryo." Mayu laughed, watching me walk ahead.

"Come on guys, let's just do this." I said. "We're just going to get more scared if we hesitate."

"W-wait for me!" Yumi called out, before running after me. "I'm really scared!"

"Hey, you're the one that told us to come." I said as I turned around.

Yumi ran into me, holding my arm tightly which made my heart skip a beat. I wasn't expecting her to touch me.

Luna's face turned red. "G-get off him!"

"Eek!" Yumi cried.

Luna pushed Yumi with both hands and she flew forward before falling to the ground.

"What the hell, Luna?" I dropped my jaw and ran to Yumi, feeling panic in my head. Oh god. Luna could had seriously hurt Yumi. There was no telling how much strength she put into that push.

"Ow..." Yumi rose up from the ground, rubbing her back.

"Are you alright—" I was cut off by a hidden step on the ground and I fell forward.

"Eh?" Yumi looked up confused.

I landed on top of her in an awkward position and only managed to stop myself above her face. She stared at me, her face bright red.

"W-what are you doing, Ryo?" Mayu's own face went red as she rushed over.

"R-Ryo..." Luna looked devastated, her face red as well.

"I-it was an accident!" I said, waving my hands in front of me as though that showed my innocence. I lifted myself up from the ground quickly but that was short lived.

Mayu tripped over the same step that I missed, and fell forward, crashing into me. I felt her arms wrapping around me for support as the momentum of her movement pushed us further ahead from Yumi.

As we stumbled further along the path, the ground suddenly disappeared beneath us and we screamed as we felt ourselves falling. I stared up into the air and found Luna's face sticking out from the top of the ledge.

"Ryo!!" She shouted down at us, but instantly the ledge closed, Luna's face disappearing from view as we fell further down, Mayu clinging onto me desperately.

We landed on something soft, and the air escaped from my stomach as I breathed heavily, shocked by the fall.

Mayu rose up next to me, staring around us. We were in a large basement and our fall was supported by an equally large air bag. Like the corridor we were in before, the basement was also faintly lit by fake torches lined on the side of the walls.

"Where are we?" I groaned, lifting myself up.

Mayu turned to me, beaming. "We're alone, Ryo!"