"What did Izaiah- that man meant by... Rosebloods." We got out of a prison as suprisingly we got in it. I stopped questioning what was going on hours ago. I was still just as confused as I was this morning.

"That's my last name. I think most of the people on that picture are Rosebloods. For example, my mom was that teenager with a giant afro." I felt like my mind was overheating. Edan just shrugged like he said the most obvious thing in the world.

"So, that means... You know... my mom, your mom- your mom is-" I felt like I was having a stroke. Edan looked at me like I was crazy. I wanted to punch him in the face.

"I thought it was obvious. Your mom was probably some sort of old family friend who betrayed my mom. Maybe your dad too. Who knows? I have stopped counting the people mom says she has made mad." Edan started walking away just chilling, like he didn't just shatter my whole world view. "She is Medusa, so I bet she has enemies even she doesn't know about."

I was about to follow him when his words made me froze. I have been working with my mom's enemy's son this whole time. I needed to go home and apologize to my mom. The worst of all, I still wanted to see what did the guy in the prison gave Edan.

"Where are we going?"

Edan laughed. "Me and Sonia had a bet on how long you will last here. You owe me a weeks worth of chores. "

Sonia tapped gently to the boys shoulder. I couldn't help but feel a bit lonely when they started to walk ahead of me, talking with their hands and laughing. I always wanted a friend. This was the longest time I had talked to someone my age since I don't even know.

"Where are we going?" I asked again.

"The practise room is close from here. Just follow us."

After walking for a while, we could see a dome like building, that was painted to look like the midday sky. It had clouds and small birds, some that had died from extincison hundread of years ago. We walked up to a small side door that Edan just opened.

The dome inside was just plain white. the corridor was white, the room next to me was white. My eyes hurt from watching it. Edan and Sonia were so used to it, they were walking up the stairs in front of us before I had gotten used to all that whiteness.

"Shouldn't we... Shouldn't we be careful?" I knew now Edan was the son of the leader here, but I thought we shouldn't leave a trace that we were here. But, like always, Edan didn't care about what I thought, so why should I?

On the top of the stairs was a small door that Sonia kicked open and the duo barged right in. The room inside was small, and filled with weird machinery I haven't seen in any other place other than in history books. I looked at how Sonia and Edan were so aggresive towards them and my heart broke.

"Try to look for a place that I could fit this in." Edan rolled the card on his two fingers.

"I thought you go to here all the time."

"Well..." Edan laughed awkwardly. Great. "I have been here for training, either to look at my mom's training or my classmates. I have never had to use one of these things before." Edan pointed at a giant window before us. On the other side of the glass was a giant white room that looked quite comfy. That might be normal place to practise, how would I know. I should have gone to the youth group if I wanted to know how to fight.

I walked to a table next to the window. Right below the window was a a small hole in the middle of picture of a sun. "Edan, try this."

Edan walked next to me and put the card into the hole. At that excact minute, the room turned on. Every computer looking thing light up, showing a small text: "Welcome back, Pemphredo.". When the computers opened, so did the drawers under the computers. All of the drawers were filled with folders. All of us rushed next to them.

In front of each folder had a name, codename and a number, just like in the weird thing on Tomas' arm. I grabbed Medusa's file.

The file was suprisingly boring. The only thing other than the front page information, inside the file there was only one paper that listed Medusa's health information, and the rest of the papers were just string of numbers. I looked around. There was a slate that looked like a control panel.

"What would happen if we would put one of these numbers in a control panel?"

Edan grabbed the panel to his hand. It didn't seem to break but I still jumped. "Give me a number."

Sonia signed something. She tried to take the tablet away from Edan, but Edan's grip to the tablet was tight. I opened the medusa file from the middle and put my finger on the middle. "2087-07-25-2020."

Edan tapped the screen and suddenly the room outside the window changed colors. Edan gave his tablet to Sonia and grabbed my hand. "You really want to see this."

Edan started dragging me towards downstairs. "What- Where- What are you doing?"

"Just trust me. You need to see downstairs."

As we walked down the stairs, I kept looking back. "What about- How is Sonia-"

"if something goes wrong, Sonia can fix it. Trust me." I was sure Sonia could do wonders. My biggest issue was the fact we couldn't communicate with her. I'm sure those two had some way of communicating but I was still worried.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Should we still-" Edan opened the door and before i could finish my sentence, I was silenced by a loud sound of music. The white room had turned into a ballroom with hundreds of dancers in the most elaborate outfits. The walls were deep blue and the lights on the ceiling were like stars in the night. It was like I had walked into a fairytale.

"Be careful. I don't know if the setting are still on the training mode, so these people could attack us. Just don't make them seem that you are violent. " Edan talked so casually when he said things that made me question everything around me.

I was about to try to start argue with him again, when a woman wearing a blue silk scarf, danced right in front of me in the hand of a man, whose dark dreadlocks were tied in a loose bun. They were wearing matching blue clothes, like a annoyingly in love couple or a prince and princess from ancient stories.

"Mom and dad." My voice was like a whisper, even tough they wouldn't have cared if I had yelled. They looked so happy. Mom must have been in her last months. I was in her stomach. I felt a twist on my stomach.

Mom and dad stopped dancing when three giggling teenagers and a child not more than 10, ran towards them. Each of them were dressed more fancy than the other. The girl, who was dressed in tight blood red dress. put her arm around my father, giggling like crazy. I had seen her in the photo. Edan even pointed her out.

"Julie, Xander, you will never guess what happened", Medusa laughed. The other girl of the trio, dressed in a sparkling blakc dress, rolled her eyes. Eurydale.

"That man who arrested us and the reason we are here... is here. For a distraction so he wouldn't see , Evalyn asked him to dance." Eurydale tried to smile but it looked forced. "Sun has been like this ever since."

"Can't I be happy? This place sucks, so I at least could have had a little fun. The man was a good dancer." Medusa winked and poked the third teenager. "Besides, I needed to make sure he wouldn't see this guy."

"This has become such a hassle. I shouldn't have come here" , boy laughed awkwardly.

"Oh, don't be a buzzkill. Me and Serena will protect you. Even genius need a day off. We need to use every opportunity to drink free alcohol." Medusa saw my father staring at her. "... Or if you are under aged like our sweet Milo, eat free food."

"Evalyn, could you please-" my father was silenced by the music stopping. At the same time, dozens of flowing cameras appeared all around us. Shortly after, a giant stage started rising from the middle of the room. On the middle of that stage was a woman dressed in a most detailed outfit you could imagine. Small holograms of butterflies flew all around her. All the cameras around us were pointing towards her. She could only be a only person.

Other people around the stage were ecstatic. They were applauding and cheering. Only one who didn't clap were Medusa, who was booing, with the help of her future trio. My father hit Medusa on the shoulder. " Show some respect just once. The cameras see you."

"If Osiria was offended that I didn't worship the ground she walked on, she can come to talk to me myself." Medusa smirked.

"Welcome people of Tartaros and the audience. I'm happy to see so many happy looking faces around me ready to better themselves. Tartaros-project has been like a child to me so I'm happy it is finally here, ready to be tested." Osiria Rose smiled. "You are people who have never had a chance to be good. Now, you finally have a choice."

Medusa groaned, which made Eurydale and Stheno laugh. It also made my father snap. "Stop it. We are going to get kicked out because of you."

"Good. We shouldn't be here in the first place", Evalyn snapped back. Father sighed.

"We didn't have any other choice and you know it."

Medusa's face changed from a Edan like smirk to face of pure anger. "And what might be the reason why we ran out of options? I was going to get us inside the walls, if you weren't such a fucking coward."

My father crossed his arms. "Don't curse at me. What are you, twelve?" father looked around, making sure no one would look at them. " Evalyn, can you stop arguing with me for just a second? I know you are mad at me, but don't take the anger out now. We can do the legal guardian - angry younger sister routine in our new house."

It was such a obvious thing, but I was still suprised. I looked at Edan. I didn't know if he thought the same as me. I guess we were related.

"I would love if you argued back at me. That would mean you wouldn't just be doormat anyone who wanted that." Medusa talked softly like a whisper.

"Don't.." Father wanted to be more angry but saw the ten year old, who looked like she was close to crying. He walked next to the kid and took her into his arms. "Kelsie, I'm sorry. Don't worry. Me and your sister won't fight anymore."

Father had stopped giving Evalyn attention. He didn't even looked at Medusa. He just tried to stop to kid to cry.

Medusa sighed and looked at Eurydale. "Let's go. I don't wanna be here anymore."

"I..." Eurydale wanted nod, but stopped when she saw something in the distance. "I don't want to go yet."

Medusa looked at Eurydale and then Stheno, who also looked like he didn't want to grow yet. Medusa groaned and started walking away. Edan grabbed my hand to follow her.

I regonized suprisingly many of the people at the party, most of them from mom's work. I saw one woman who looked just like Hazel, and just ten metres away was Tomas and his then partner, Sonia's mom. I saw woman who looked a bit like Neela, who talked to a person who looked so much like Marx Adams.

After I saw Marx, a world around me changed. We were now outside, just in the middle of Tartaros. it was dark outside but it was dark the way Tartaros is. There were small floating lights that looked beautiful.

Medusa was sitting on the top of the stairs. She looked at the distance, and fixed flowers she had put in her hair. When we walked closer to her, we jumped when Medusa turned to look at us.

"Are you alright? I hope you didn't run away from me." Thankfully a man's voice came behind us. He looked strangely familiar with his blonde hair and wide smile. "You promised me a one more dance."

When man walked next to Medusa, I saw the look on Edan's face. I realized then that Edan hasn't talked about his own dad.

A man sat next to Medusa. Medusa sighed. "I'm sorry. I really liked our dance. I just really want to dance, talk... to do anything right now."

"We don't need to talk."

Man went red when Medusa started to laugh. "What dies that suppose to mean?" That was the moment when I knew who the man was. His smile... I knew that smile. "Oh, I'm kidding. Your poker face is so bad for a guard."

"Edan, I..." Edan didn't look at me. He just looked at the couple in front of us. He looked frozen, like in a trance. When I looked at him, I noticed that the man and Edan had same colored eyes.

"I... am not a guard. Tartaros is not a prison."

"Edan... I know."

"What ever Tartaros is, it's really pretty at night."

"It's not the only pretty thing." Medusa laughed, but got quiet when he realized when she realized the man was completly serious. Medusa scooted closer to the man.

"That was the worst pickup line I have ever heard." Man touched Medusa's chin, tilting her head towards him.

"I'm not that good at talking anyways."

"Then what are you good at?"

"Just shut up."

Just as their lips were close to each other. I finally got some sense into me. I just yelled: "That's Louis Braun."