Afterlife

• Chapter Nine •

The running wasn't what alerted him at first, it was the shouting.

Levi usually didn't sleep well at night. Most times people would find him lying on his back creating mini thunderstorms or seeing how strong his winds could get before a tornado forms. That night, however, was not one of those nights. That night he found himself leaning against his door awaiting Celestia's arrival. When she did arrive, however, so did trouble.

Millie's door took little to no effort at all to open. Upon entering, Levi found himself staring down at the girl who was very much awake, having found herself laying at the end of her bed reading a book. Give it to their leader to be so sucked into a book she can't hear the chaos happening not too far away. "Time to get up, I'll get Ethan," Levi said, smirking ever so slightly as Millie jumped in surprise. "Ethan? It's midnight! Shouldn't you be in bed?" Levi huffed impatiently, digging his nails into the wood of Millie's door. "I could say the same to you, but that doesn't matter. Celestia brought her problems here and we need to go." He didn't bother to wait for a response, he knew she understood the urgency.

Getting to Ethan was a much harder task than he'd like to deal with. Ethan had an overactive imagination, so much so he would unconsciously create an assortment of plants related to whatever was happening in his dreams. Of course, Levi had to practically swim to reach Ethan's bed. His face cringed as each plant scraped against the exposed skin on his arms, creating red scrapes and scratches along the areas. "Ethan WAKE UP!" Levi exclaimed, slapping away a bush of large leaves that had sprung up in front of him. Ethan only turned over on his side, a few grumbles escaping his lips. He was still out cold.

"Just blast him with something! We need to go if this is bad," Millie was standing in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest. Levi managed to bite back his tongue, mumbling a few obscenities under his breath. Quickly he was able to form a rain cloud over the others head, an easy task due to years of practicing.

A few dribbles of rain slipped from the clouds, gradually growing stronger until Ethan was completely soaking wet. "H...what?" His groggy voice met with an equally tired face. Ethan's eyes were lidded with exhaustion that Levi had little patience for. "Get up, I'll dry you off, just- let's go." Levi barely managed to crawl out of the room, landing beside Millie with a grunt. Silently he grabbed the girl's hand, yanking her to the entrance of the Keepers Area.

"Are you gonna tell me what's wrong?"

"You should already know what's wrong, you were awake! ETHAN HURRY UP! Sounded like they were heading down Arielle's hallway." Ethan stumbled out of his room, his light green eyes glaring up at Levi. "There are better ways to wake people up, you know," he mumbled. "Yeah, that's really cool, let's go!" Levi halfheartedly created a breeze of wind to dry off his coworker, holding back most of his energy for whatever was waiting for them. "Okay, Levi, what the fuck is going on? You're so cryptic when it comes to this stuff!"

Levi's eyes scanned every inch of the walls as he passed. His lips tight in a thin line, the small blue feathers on his head flaring up every now and then. There were no signs of what had happened out here. Nothing but the memory of what he had heard.

Their evidence, however, waited for them in Arielle's room. Her door was left wide open, the bed a mess of pillows and blankets with no one inside except for a pocket watch which was completely unscratched and in pristine condition. Celestia must still have the worn one unless that had been taken. That's when it hit him.

"She took them."

"Who? What the fuck is going on?" Levi stepped into the room, picking up the watch while scanning the room for anything else amiss. "Celestia saw some girl named Viola and never came back, remember? She was scared to go, remember? That girl took her and Arielle. I heard it." "What's this powdery stuff?" Ethan stepped closer to the princess's bed, crouching down to get a better look at whatever he had found. The boy ran his fingers over the sheets of the bed, face downturned and grim as he stared at the layer of black powder covering his fingers. "What is this stuff?" There was a moment of silence before Millie's gasp filled the room.