Into Another World (The Lost Souls Trilogy)

-Forget Yourself-

The castle loomed in front of Aoi, holding nothing but secrets, answers, and even more questions. She looked at her surroundings. Alyona, her sister, stood nearby, but there was something strange about her. She glitched, as if little pieces were degrading off of her, then suddenly coming back together, stuck in some sort of loop.

"You ready?" Alyona asked her.

Aoi opened her mouth to say something but was stopped by a sharp pain in her chest. She looked down to see blood pouring out of it, staining her dress crimson.

"Aoi?" Alyona's voice called out worriedly, it seemed faded, and distant. "Aoi!" It called again. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up. Alyona stood over her in a pair of clean clothes, the ones from last night discarded in a trash can most likely. "Are you okay?"

Aoi thought to herself for a second, she couldn't remember the dream anymore and was almost glad about it. "I'm fine," she swung her legs over the bed, confused, "I think."

Alyona sighed. "We should get going."

"Where?"

"Papa's taking us to the cafe again." Alyona seemed happier than she was yesterday, which was the only thing Aoi found to be off. She couldn't remember why they were upset though.

"Oh, okay." Aoi stood up and got ready. "Don't we have school today though?" She asked from inside the bathroom.

Alyona stiffened. "He's letting us have the day off," she said.

Aoi hummed and stepped out of the bathroom, putting her hair up with the pin her sister gave her. Alyona smiled at the sight of it. "Are you two ready?" Canada called from downstairs.

When they went down their uncle was there with him too. "Shouldn't you be at school, America?" Alyona asked him.

"School's for chumps, your dad and I have a history of cutting class all the time."

Canada punched his brother's shoulder. "Don't tell them that, they're gonna start doing it too."

"They already are bro." The two of them continued their bickering as they got out to the car. They all buckled up and Canada dropped America back off at his house before heading to his cafe.

"What did we do yesterday?" Aoi suddenly asked her sister.

"There was uh..." Alyona shut her eyes and cringed. "There was a world meeting and you and I stayed home," she mumbled. Canada glanced back at them in worry.

"That's all?" Her sister nodded.

"Wow you really don't remember any of it?" Aku-no asked her. She jumped in surprise, forgetting that the snake was in her head since he hadn't spoken in such a long time.

"Remember what?" she asked him.

"Nevermind, I won't force you to relive it, that'll just make our job harder."

The job? Aoi stared out the window trying to figure out what he was talking about. "Something something world," she mouthed, her breath fogging up the glass. It almost snapped into place until the car stopped, the café looming overhead.

"We're here."

The girls looked out the front windshield at the semi-familiar sight. They climbed out of the car and headed towards the building, the warm smell of Canada's café comforting the three. They went into the back waving at the other employees.

"I'm gonna need a lot of help today, so if you don't mind working that will be great." Canada hastily threw off his coat and put an apron on. "You two can handle taking orders and handing them out, right?"