Permanent Blood, Temporary Smoke

Twelve

The house seemed a bit quiet once the two stepped through the door. There was a sort of buzzing coming from the third floor, where the twins' rooms resided. Marionette and the girl both headed upstairs, only to find everyone huddled around Xana's doorway.

"What is the meaning of this!" Slenderman asked in a stern tone, appearing behind the group.

Everyone jumped and some even went red in the face. Marionette walked over to his sister's room and knocked on the blackened door after he mumbled about the crowd.

"Yeah?" A deep voice came from inside the room.

"May I come in, please?" He asked.

"Give me a minute, I'm finishing up a seam."

After about six minutes, the door opened to reveal a purple lit room littered with scraps of fabric and broken threads. Xana had her back facing the doorway, wings tightly tucked to her spine.  She had opened the door before returning to her original spot. She seemed to be working on something but nobody saw what it was as she was blocking everybody's view.

Marionette stepped in the room, his sister turning her head to look at him. Chains clicked against her black, ram-like horns that protruded from her head, making everyone crowd the doorway  to look at her.

"What is it?" she asked, her voice slightly muffled.

"We have someone new and the others want to know what you're doing." Marionette said while pointing over his shoulder with his clawed thumb.

X sighed and turned back to her work. The ones that could see her saw what looked to be a guard over her mouth.

"Ready, Sally?" She asked as she finished pinning the girl's hair up.

"Mhmm." came a small voice from where the tall girl faced.

"Okay, here we go." X said, stepping out of the way.

The light turned from purple to a warm sky blue and Sally stepped out in a pale blue dress. Her hair was done up in a messy ponytail while her teddy bear, Charlie, wore a tux in the same color. The dress shimmered in the light when the little girl moved around, making everyone's jaw drop.

"Xana, you made those?" Ben asked, astonishment in his otherwise gravelly voice.

"She has been making these since we were kids." Marionette told the tall creature.

Xana nodded and turned to her closet, opening the matching door and stepped inside. After a couple minutes passed, she returned with a small brown package. Handing it to her twin brother, she starts cleaning up the bits of fabric and thread that had littered her floor.

Xana's brother looked at the package and began to open it. Once it was opened, his eyes went wide. He ran over to his sister and pulled her into a very tight hug.

"Mar, I can't breathe!" X gasped out, tapping her brother's arm.

"Sorry, but thank you for fixing it for me!" He said gleefully.

With that, he rushed to his room with a big grin. All the while X smiled behind the mask and continued with cleaning up her room, everyone already gone from the doorway.