Two Halves | Book One of The Judgement series

Chapter 4

I woke up to Raven yelling at me. I guess she found last night's pay. My head hurt and my memory was a bit fuzzy.

"I've told you time and time again that we don't need this! We're surviving just fine on our own," my sister waved the money around.

"You're right, sis. We're surviving, not living," Raven's eyes were still hard but I continued. "Every night we have to dodge CPS. Every day we have to steal in order to take care of ourselves," a sigh escaped my lips, "and now we may have to leave everything."

"Leave everything? What do you mean?"

"Someone's after us. This guy mentioned something about his boss wanting us captured and then he chased me through the alleys."

"So it's like someone's called a mob hit on us," Raven questioned. Reluctantly, I nodded. "Damn, I guess I'll have to take him up on his offer."

I looked at my sister, confused, "What are you talking about?"

"If you had been asleep last night you may know but you got some information and so did I. I'll explain more when we get there." Raven brought out a small paint brush, about the size of my palm, and swiped it at the air. There was a swish and the sound of ripping fabric and then, there was a large hole in front of us.

"What the f-"

"Language!" I snapped at my sister. She simply sighed. From the hole, we could see a small cabin-like house, with two small flower beds underneath the front windows.

"Do you think it's safe?" Raven nodded in response to my question.

"A close friend of ours gave us access to this place. I doubt he'd betray us."

"Well, how do we get there?"

My sister flashed one of her rare smiles at me, "All we have to do is step through." Raven started to do as she stated but something nagged at me.

"Wait." I turned around and stared at the tree that's helped us survive this long. "What about the tree?"

"It'll be okay but we really need to go, Dove. This thing won't stay open forever."

"It feels wrong to leave it now. Something bad will happen if we leave it unattended to." My instincts told me that. We needed to save at least part of it. I repeated the thought to Raven.

"Why don't you just take one of the apples?" I shook my head at the suggestion.

"That's like stealing from a friend. Besides," I pointed to the opposing sides of the tree, "there's a balance."

"Then we both take an apple from our side and leave something of ours in return. Fair's fair, right?" I nodded softly.

"Fair's fair."

~~~~~~

The house was adorable. There was everything we needed and then some but I was confused about something. "Why does this house look lived in?"

My sister shrugged, "It's a friend's house but he works a lot."

"That's another thing," I looked Raven in the eye. "You keep saying that we both know this guy but you won't tell me about him."

Raven simply smiled at me. "You're getting your backbone, twin. I'm glad."

An irritated, child-like groan erupted from behind me, causing me to jump.

"She is your sister, Raven. You knew she'd grow one if it had anything to do with your safety," a new voice joined in.

"Ah, so they're the ones you told us about," and another.

"Let us hope they do not make puns often," and another.

Once again my sister's expression turned stoic but there was a softness in her eyes that I'd never seen before. "Are these members of the team you mentioned," her voice was quiet but it was powerful. This was a new side to my sister completely.

"Yeah, they are," One of the voices spoke out. I turned towards it and saw something I never thought I would. There were three living skeletons standing by the doorway. Two were clad in blue and one was clad in brown. The ones wearing blue had different complimentary colors to their outfits. One grey and one gold.

I felt myself stare at the skeleton wearing blue and gold. "I, I know you from somewhere."

He nodded, "You do but can you remember where from?"

I wracked my memory, looking for anything that could remind me of who he is. That is, I did until I noticed he was wearing a cape. It seemed familiar for some reason. "Could you turn around for me?" The skeleton did as I asked.

His cape was made of a shimmering fabric and stitched into it was a large, golden sun. As soon as I saw it my shared dreams with Raven flooded my mind. "Dream. Your name is Dream." He nodded.

"I'm glad you remember. There was a reason I showed those memories to both of you."

"Memories?"

"Those dreams were my past. You needed to see what happened to us."

"Us..." I tapped my chin, "you mean you and your brother, Nightmare, don't you?" If it was possible for a skeleton to cringe then I'm sure that's what Dream wild be doing.

"Nightmare is..." Raven was cut off by the skeleton clad in brown.

"He's a touchy subject."

"But we must discuss him. If we don't then they will be in more danger," the shortest skeleton told his comrades.

"Blue is right. If we're to keep them safe then we need to tell them about my brother," Dream smiled at the skeleton who cut my sister off. "I appreciate the thought behind that statement though."

I held up my hands and got everyone's attention, "If were going to continue this then we all need to sit down and introduce ourselves because quite honestly, this is very confusing." The skeletons looked at each other like they hadn't even thought about that.

Raven stood next to me, like she was ready to protect me at all costs. "Dove is right. Let's all have a seat and talk."

We all sat on the adjacent couches and looked at each other. The first one to speak was the brown clad skeleton. "My name is Ink. This is Blueberry and Dream," he gestured to the skeletons next to him. "We're here because you both are in danger."