“So, we’ve got my next fight lined up, right? I’m not exactly a fan of putting the breaks on. After all, when you’re raring to go, why put out the fire?” Roy, still covered in the blood of his last enemy, enthuses, doing a few action packed poses.

Pandora smirks. “Psht, You’re excited… But nah, don’t push yourself too hard. Get some rest or something… So that performance you put on, doubled with a higher rank, will probably get one of these psychos gunning for you… ‘sides, I got band practice.” She closes her locker, pulling out a giant guitar case, much to the shock of Roy.

“W-Wait a damn minute, how the hell did THAT fit in THERE?!” The guitar case was nearly as tall as him – much broader, though. But the locker is far too thin and short to be able to fit all of that inside. Pandora holds an amused smile as she clicks her locker open again with the combination 0/4/1/7.

Roy leans forward to see how this is possible. Nothing out of the ordinary. “S-See?! It’s just a normal lock–AHH!” The vampire pushes Roy in, quickly pulling the door shut as she follows in after him. First, there’s nothing but darkness. Then… A flash of pink light! The two are in free fall, limbs flailing as the wind slap their faces.

“D-Dammit! What the hell did you do?! W-Where are we?!” Roy screeches, air gusting into his mouth as it nearly instantly dries.

“Can’t you enjoy the moment without yapping for a sec, Chatterbox? This is FUN! We’re safe.” Pandora casually replies, stretching her limbs out to annunciate said fun.

The sky looks as if it mirrors a river of strawberry milk with slight shades of tangerine slipping in through the pink. Even the clouds look different in here, all poofed up like blue marshmallows that could give even the most giant sweet tooth a stomachache. Roy’s eyes trail to each one of these aspects of the ‘locker world’, The fall not so bad anymore, especially now that Roy can see the sun sinking below a beautiful set of mountains, their peaks topped with snow that looks ever so similar to Oreo ice cream.

“..Where are we? Can you answer that at least?” He asks.

“My locker! Mi casa su casa, amigo!” Pandora winks.

“Your locker? Didn’t expect so much pink.” He playfully rolls his eyes, arms outstretched behind his head.

“Hey! Just because I love red and black doesn’t mean pink isn’t pretty…” Her eyes trace down to the floor below. She immediately repositions herself to fall on her rear. “Might wanna brace yourself, Chatterbox.”

“Brace myself? For wha–” SPLOOSH! The samurai’s back and rear immediately get sucked into a curved hole…

SPLIIIISH!

With a mighty splash, a geyser shoots Roy out. Pandora’s landing ends much cleaner, allowing her to point and laugh as the neon blue water keeps Roy high in the air. “P-Pfft! Ahahahaha! D-Dude, maybe if you used your eyes as much as your mouth, you wouldn’t be in this situation!”

He flails his arms and legs, struggling to keep balance. “D-Don’t give me that shit! It’s your creepy locker geyser! W-Whoever heard of a locker geyser?!” As the water below him slowly dies, Roy falls into a river, his arm stretching to snag Pandora’s skinny wrist on the way down.

“W-Woah! R-Roy–!” Fighting back, she splashes a massive wave of water at him with her free hand.

“A water fight?! You’re picking it with the wrong guy!” The two pick up orbs of water from the lake, spritzing handfuls into each other’s faces, hands smacking faces, time flying by as fits of giggles and warm chuckling fills the dream-like realm. The splashing match lasts almost an hour, ending as the sun nearly disappears behind the mountains.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Pandora pops her head up from the river, slowly lifting her finger to give a point over to the setting sun as the two lay together.

“C’mon. Why don’t we go watch it?”

Roy swishes his head around in the water. “Really?”

“Why not?” Her eyes stay stagnant.

Roy frowns. “No way can we get up there in time.”

Pandora lets out an amused chuckle before snapping her fingers. Suddenly, that trek isn’t an issue as they sit atop the mountain. Roy gawks. “You can teleport?!”

“In lockers, anything is possible. I still can’t believe you don’t know what pocket dimensions are.” The vampire lays herself down, arms crossed behind her head as the pink sky slowly melts into an intense green.

“Your sky is broken. What, you’re always so sad the sky can never be blue?” The samurai snarkily replies as he crosses his legs.

“Nah, it’s not that. The sky is so beautiful, yet we can only see it in shades of blue or black. Don’t you think the moon and the stars would make a brilliant backdrop to more colors?” Pandora’s honest answer stings him a bit. She decides to change the subject.

“You’re from Japan, right?” She asks.

“Lived there for a while.” He responds.

“Can you speak Japanese?”

“No.”

“Do you like anime?”

“Not really. I prefer action movies like Predator or First Blood.”

“Those movies are cheesy,” Teases the redhead as she turns to her side to better face Roy. “You should watch Akira instead!”

“Nah, I’m good. Anime usually ends on a bit of a bummer, right? Action movies always end simply. The bad guy loses, and the hero wins. That’s how it should be.” Rebutts Roy matter-of-factly.

“Some anime do end sadly; I can’t deny that. Not every story can have a happy ending. That’d get boring, wouldn’t it? It also isn’t super realistic. The good guy can’t always beat the villain.” Her voice shifts in tone from playful to somber, almost scratchy. It was at that point the sun had disappeared entirely, leaving only the moon to illuminate the world within the locker, the stars shining brightly as intended.

“Why do people always say that?” Roy questions, offended.

“Hm?” Pandora quirks an eyebrow up.

Roy shoots up like a rocket, kicking a colossal rock into the water below. “Everyone always says that endings where the hero wins are lame. They get old. They aren’t realistic! Who cares about any of that?! As long as I'm here, I’ll fight for that ending every time.”

With his fist clenched, he turns around to look at Pandora. His expression is more sincere than ever. He reaches his hand toward her, which she takes without hesitation. “You’ve got that killer look in your eyes, Chatterbox. If you’re serious about being the hero… you’ll need to work your ass off.”

“Looking forward to it. Can we start tonight?” The samurai raises his eyebrow.

“Woah, remember what I said earlier? Even if your motor keeps running, your manager gets tired. But c’mon, we should at least head out of the locker.”

“Hold up, my manager?”

“That’d be me, yeah. Look, Chatterbox, you’ve got skill, heart, and a badass sword.” Her eyes trail downward. Roy leans forward.

“…But?”

“But setting up fights? Doing your ranking paperwork? I don’t think you’ve got it in you. Don’t worry, though; every top duelist has a manager. So… What do you say? Officially partners?” She looks down at their joined hands. Roy slowly develops a smirk on his face and shakes the slender, tan hand in his.

“Guess we’ve got a deal… But can you be my agent instead of my manager? It makes me sound like a movie star.” He exclaims excitedly. Pandora shakes her head with a chuckle.

“I’ll use whatever title you want. Till death do us part, huh?”

“Gonna ride this thing to the top..! Oh yeah, Pandora?” They lock eyes. He keeps that confident, heroic smirk. She looks like she’s been caught mid fall, an unsure expression in her chocolate orbs. “Try to think of happy endings more often.”

The redhead lets herself smile, then chuckles, giving her partner a rushed shrug. “I’ll try, okay? Until then… Let’s actually head out this time. A girl's gotta sleep.” The two exchange a pair of grins before making their way back to the outside world.

…

…

…

Pandora’s smile fades as soon as she shuts her dorm room door. Her steps are slow and wobbly as her vision gets blurry, a sharp pain in her stomach sending her into a frantic frenzy on her kitchen floor.

“D-Dammit! N-Not now…” The vampire’s eyes flash from brown to red as she huffs, fingernails digging into the palms of her hands enough to draw black blood. It takes all of her inhuman strength to pull herself up and hobble over to the fridge.

With nearly enough force to rip the door off, Pandora swings the refrigerator open, then shoots her hand towards a bag of red fluid. Like a thirsty child on a hot summer day chugging down a Capri Sun, she squeezes the bag and tilts her head back, her eyes closing as fast as rolling shutters.

The pain of hunger slowly dissolves at the speed of the blood leaving its pouch, until it’s completely empty. Even after her meal is complete, all she can do is slowly lean against and eventually slide down the wall. Blood stains her mouth while tears mix with her running mascara. In shame, she tucks her face into her arms, curling up into a little ball by her oven.

“I-I don’t care anymore! You… You ruined my goddamn life with this curse… I’d rather die than spend another second with the pain caused by your so-called GIFT of immortality!” A happy ending isn’t possible for people with curses. Pandora cowers in her room, cursing under her breath as she shakes and whimpers, the memories of this wondrous day nothing compared to the pain she must endure regardless of the good times.