Into Another World (The Lost Souls Trilogy)

-Turning Point-

There was a faint knock on the door that could barely be heard from their room. Aoi instinctively lifted her head towards the door, paused, and turned back to her homework.

"Ugh, this is too hard!" Alyona threw her paper away and slumped backwards, lying down on the ground.

"What is?" Aoi questioned her, grabbing the sheet.

"Music theory, I can't even play instrument and for whatever reason they put me in that class this semester." She grabbed the rest of the papers. "And now they're making me learn piano, piano! Can you believe it; I couldn't even choose. I mean they could've at least given me a russian instrument, like a balalaika. Eto fignya." Aoi laughed and handed her back the paper. "And alongside that I have to learn all these music terms and whatever those symbols are." She sighed, exasperated.

The knock on their bedroom door interrupted both of them. "Hey Alyona," it was Canada, "Romeo wants to see you."

Alyona's mood worsened. "Are you two still ignoring each other?"

"Hey, he's ignoring me, I'm just respecting that," she said. "I might as well go talk to him since he's here." Alyona stood up.

"Tanoshinde," Aoi said, turning back to the assignment.

Alyona stepped out of the room and followed Canada downstairs, she opened the door to see Romeo standing there. "Romeo."

"Alyona," he seemed flustered to see her, "it's been awhile."

"Well, you know, school, semester change, stupid classes." She smiled awkwardly at him. "Zanyat, zanyat, zanyat."

"Do you, do you want to maybe, I don't know, take a walk or something?"

Alyona thought about it for a few seconds, glancing back at the house while she did. "Yeah, fine," she sighed, "let me tell papa." She left the door open just a few inches, walking upstairs and out of sight.

Romeo stayed at the door and peeked at the interior of the house. He had been in there maybe once before, but never really took the time to look around. Just like it's Victorian exterior, the interior matched, with a touch of cabin and modern in the decoration Canada chose.

Kumajiro walked up to Romeo, appearing from behind the door. "Who are you?"

"Me?" Romeo looked down, surprised to see the small bear standing there. "I'm... Romeo Vargas." He forced a smile at Kumajiro, surprised by the situation. He knew America had an alien, and probably did have the whale too like everyone said, but a talking polar bear was new.

"What are you doing here? What are your intentions with Alyona? Are you here to kidnap her too-"

"Huh-"

"Alright Kumajiro, why don't you go bother papa, okay?" Alyona nervously chuckled as she picked up the polar bear and set him to the side. A faint 'who' came out of the bear's mouth as she did. "I'm ready to go now, but papa says not to go too far, so, just around neighborhood."

"What does he mean by kidnapper...?"

Alyona ignored his question and walked past him off the porch. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah." Romeo followed after her.

The March sun hung above them in the late noon, nothing but the sound crunching of snow beneath the two's feet.

"What is it that you really want to talk about?" Alyona spoke up after a long period of silence.

"Cosa?"

"Normally 'take a walk with me' usually means you want to talk about something. Is something bothering you?"

Romeo paused, stopping in his tracks. "You already know whats been bothering me, and you won't be open about it. You've been ignoring my texts ever since."

"What do you mean? I told you most of it-"

"Alyona, please." Romeo looks at Alyona, grabbing her hands. She tensed up and considered pulling them away. "I'm not going to force you, but maybe talking through it might help you heal."

Alyona's eyes narrowed into a glare. "Are you really sure you want to know?" Romeo nodded.

She went silent for a moment, looking away from him and pulling her hands out of his grip, hugging herself as she did. "The first time they took us they told us it was just for Canada, torturing us would torture him and torturing him would torture Mathieu. But the second time around it became clear they had other plans. Something to do with Aoi, I'm not sure what but... she hasn't been the same since. At first I thought it was just the trauma or something but... nevermind." She paused. "I should be dead, I know I should be dead, yet here I am."

Romeo stayed silent, he didn't know what to say. Alyona wiped the tears away just as quickly as they came. "I should get back home," she said, turning around and walking away, leaving Romeo there to do nothing but watch.