Zero Reverse (Reverse! Zero Gravity)

Alluring Arrival (1)

"Finally free." Bill, my brother, said.

"Yeah, we're finally free. . ." I replied, looking out of the window.

"I can't wait to finally live a better life! Just me and my little bro." Bill said, I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Still, we need to find a way to survive on our own." I said.

"Don't worry, I got this." Bill said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, I got some money to buy a house, hopefully this is enough, and I can find a job as a cook." Bill explained.

"Wait, where did you get the money?" I asked.

He approached me and whispered "I stole it from out parents.", then making a signal for me to stay quiet.

Not like I'd say anything, I don't want to put us in trouble, all I want is to have a better life with my brother. Our previous one wasn't the best, if it was, we wouldn't be in this bus, fleeing to a city in another state.

As I looked out of the window, I saw a sign written "Welcome to Zero Reverse" in it.

"Zero Reverse. . . never heard of that city before." I thought to myself.

The bus stopped and we all got out, there were many people visiting the city, looks like this city is pretty popular.

"Now, let's find a place!" Bill exclaimed.

"Okay." I replied.

He grabbed my wrist and we ran into the crowd, it was too big and people barely gave space to go through, Bill and I ended up losing each other.

"Bill!" I exclaimed.

Seeing no signal of him, I sighed, "Great. . ." I thought to myself.

I tried to look for him, part of the crowd explored the woods and part of it went to the street filled with weird buildings., I'll follow the crowd to the woods. No luck for me, my brother didn't follow that crowd, I just wasted my time.

"Why did I even think my brother would be in this crowd?" I thought to myself, heading back.

As I walked I tripped on a rock, "Ow!" I exclaimed, opening my eyes slowly. "I hate myself." I mumbled, standing up.

I was about to leave, but a rainbow coming from a tree called my attention. "How in the world?" I asked, approaching the tree.

The tree looked normal, there were no signals of reflections, where was that rainbow coming from?

I decided to find where the rainbow ended, and to my luck, I found a mirror hidden in the side of the tree."Oh, so that's how." I said to myself, picking up the mirror. "Now, how did you get down there?" I asked, looking at it.

The mirror was white, it had cyan spirals in it and a pine tree drawing on the back. I had no idea who this belonged to, but since it's pretty, I'll keep it.

Keep me.

What was that?

I looked around searching for whoever said that, then I looked at the mirror again.

"Maybe I'm hearing things. . ." I mumbled to myself, then I went back to searching my brother.

I walked through the buildings, many of them were shops, but the ones at the end were the ones that called my attention the most. They were the biggest buildings in the entire city, some of them had temple or church features, are those. . . religious buildings?

"Hello there." a man greeted me, making me flinch.

"Oh, am. . . hi." I greeted him back.

"I'm Fiddleford, what's your name?" he asked me.

"Will. . ." I answered.

"Nice to meet you, are you a lost tourist?" he asked me.

"No. . . I'm living here now. . ." I answered.

"Now? Oh, you're one of the new kids." he said.

"There are more?" I asked.

"Yes, a blonde boy said something about having a twin brother." he answered.

Bill! So he was here.

"Do you know where he went?" I asked.

"I do, but before I say, why don't I show you the biggest pride of our city?" he asked me.

"Can't we do this later?" I whispered.

He pulled me and started to show me each and every building of those, there were six of them, this is going to take a long while. . .

Brother, where are you to save me?

"All of those buildings are made for our adoration to the protectors of our town." he explained.

"What protectors?" I asked.

"The angels of Axolotl, the guardians." he answered.

Angels of Axolotl? Guardians? I never heard of this kind of religion. . . Well, I never heard of this city before, so.

We went to the first building, it was a bit small and it looked like a witch's house. "This is the house of Stanford Gleeful, Guardian of Magic and Knowledge." Fiddleford said.

"Looks nice." I said.

We headed to the next building, it looked like a casino. "This is the house of Stanley Gleeful, Guardian of Riches and Fortune." he said.

"He likes to gamble a lot, doesn't he?" I asked.

"That's how we get favours from him." he explained.

"Hm. . ." I mumbled.

The next building was filled with skulls and hearts, which I hoped were fake. "This is the hut of Wendy Valentino, Cupid of Self Love." he explained.

"Why so many skulls and. . . hearts. . .?" I asked.

"She's a Cupid associated with the Afterlife, those are her symbols. And no, they're not real." he explained.

"Phew. . ." I let out, relieved.

Once again we headed to the next building, this one had sun and moon drawings all around the place, and a big marble statue of a man with a staff that had a half sun and half moon on top of it. "This is the temple of Robbie Corduroy, guardian of time, ruler of day and night." Fiddleford explained.

"He sounds like he's powerful." I said.

"He is." Fiddleford said.

There were two buildings left, I guess he's going by who's more powerful, I don't know.N"In case you're wondering, this is not power, this is authority and danger." Fiddleford explained.

Makes sense. . .

Weird, it's like he knows what I'm thinking.

It's because he knows.

What?