Episode Four: "Red and Yellow"

Episode Four: "Red and Yellow"

In just a short walk down an old dirt road, we came to a lonely home.

"I hope you like it here." Kaze said in wonderment.

The steps were rotted, the roof at one end of the porch began a slow collapse, and a swing with only one end still hung from the ceiling creaked eerily in the wind. The grass grew unkept, the hedges wild, and trees hid every inch of it from the sight of the village. It appeared that no one lived there, and I couldn't have been more oddly satisfied.

"I think I will. How is your sister?"

"She's a bit..." He beat the front door. "...wild."

Footsteps rambled on the inside, and the door flew open. I only caught her backside as she ran from the light and into a corner where she'd lay back down in a large chair covered in old blankets and pillows. She moaned, and Kaze darted on her. "You told me that if I got rid of the maid that you'd clean, and you haven't lifted a finger."

"Get out!" She rasped. "I'm not in the mood."

He crossed his arms. "Get up."

She rolled over as I kept my distance and observed. I also quickly caught onto Kaze's lie. He explained to me that the maid quit, but apparently he fired her due to his sister's wishes. I pursed my lips in heavy thought: I'd have to watch myself around her.

She moaned. He grabbed a pillow and yanked it from under her head. "I said get up. The new maid is here now, and she'll be living with you for a while."

She instantly rose, and began rubbing her eyes. "You didn't tell me she'd be living here, and it's not like you gave me much time to redeem myself. I was going to clean tomorrow."

"You had no intentions of cleaning anything. Now get up, greet Serenity, and put your things up in your room. You'll need to start sleeping there too while she stays here."

Kaze came to me as his sister rose from her grave. "I apologize. If she does anything to you, tell me the next time you see me." He said. "I have to go before the second Sun falls. I'm hoping I can stop by tomorrow evening, but I can't be so sure."

I nodded.

He eyed the room. I took in half the mess with him, but I wasn't too concerned with it at the moment.

He left the door open as his sister held her hand out. She squinted her eyes, smiled slyly, and refused to say anything until I took her hand. "My name is Gairee, and I already know your name so there's no point in telling me."

I nodded meekly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, I'm sure it is." She said as she dropped my hand. "Now though my name is masculine, I'm very much a woman. If you'd like to feel me up for verification," she threw her hands into the air and popped her hip, "then be my guest."

I continued to nod. "I believe you."

"Then we're going to be fine."

She slammed the door and jostled some chains. The room went black before flashes pursued by strange popping noises gave me vision. I flinched, but did not hollar as I watched Gairee light her way using the flashes from the palm of her hand. She lit a single candle on a tea table, then went to the opened kitchen to light more. She kept her hand above the wick until a flame appeared and she gave out a yelp when the flame on the final candle burned her.

"So you can create fire?" I asked awkwardly, and motionless.

"I can create lightning�"not fire. Lightning creates fire, and after that, I can do nothing with the fire." She plowed through a pile of dirty dishes, and leaned on the countertop. An eating utensil dinged on the floor. "The consequences of my actions are irreversible, in other words. And I have a temper. Kaze has asked me to tell anyone I meet these words exactly, because it could save my life but firstly yours, even though it sounds horridly cocky. Because I'm not arrogant in any way. I'd rather give anyone I meet the chance to test me."

With my hands clasped, I nodded. "Understood."

"Will you test me?"

I hummed like Mr. Trice. "I'm human. I'm afraid even if I wanted to, it'd be my ultimate death."

Her brow rose. "You and Kaze have more in common than I thought."

"Excuse me?"

Gairee threw her head back with a deep chuckle. "Kaze is human. Did you honestly think your similarities would grant you access?"

"Access to what?" I said plainly. "And I didn't know he was Human."

Gairee shook her head. "Don't play games with me. He's Human, like you, and if I were Human I certainly wouldn't be caught following this man."

"Should I ask why?"

Gairee stepped forward. "Next time you see him, look at his left hand. If you ever see him again."

I didn't hesitate to ask further questions. "Who is she?"

Gairee's smile was identical to Kaze's, only her cheeks were rounder and her eyes a bit sharper. "If you keep it up, you'll meet her. Don't doubt it."

I heaved a deep breath. "Well, I simply need a place to stay until my issues at home are resolved."

Gairee sat. "May I ask you who you are?"

I paused. "You already know my name."

"Oh, no, I meant who are you? What do you like and what do you dislike?"

"I've never really had anyone ask me that before." I hugged myself.

"It's not a difficult question."

I breathed. "I love life and it's little gifts�""

"I expect a deeper answer." She said boldly. "I don't want to hear your cliche words. If we're going to live together for a while, then you're going to be honest."

I held my breath, and moved my eyes to the coffee table hidden beneath piles of garbage, plates with old food, and cups with soured water. My mind fell deeper, and contorted until I found the proper words to speak. "I want the world to treat me with equality; to treat me as if I'm strong. Because I am strong. I've been through a lot, and I've seen a lot by this this point in my life. I know what it's like to lose half your family in a single moment. I know what it's like to be jobless and to know I'll never amount to anything. I know that my parents' murderer still roams these streets. I know that I've probably seen him, her, or it at some point, and they probably know that I am their daughter. Everyone knows me. I'm the blue haired orphan, a mere Human, who managed to live while my parents died. Serenity Leanna Avaloure."

Gairee stared at me motionless for the moments after. She narrowed her eyes with her wavy strawberry hair framing her face in a perfect upside-down V. "Our parents are gone too."

I nodded. "I'm very sorry."

"It's nothing to be sorry about. Our Mother was the sorry one. She left us years ago and we haven't heard from or of her since."

"And where's your father?"

"Neither of us remember him actually. But our Mother told us that he lived on in a much better world. Me and Kaze didn't realize how cryptic her words were until we became older."

"That's very strange. Does that mean he died?"

Gairee shook her head. "I have a feeling he wasn't dead at the time. But I wouldn't know. I don't really care to know anymore."

I nodded. "I suppose some mysteries are better off unsolved."

Gairee leaned back in her cushioned chair. "Aye, there's one I've yet to figure out. Right before she disappeared, do you see those stairs?"

She pointed near the fireplace. Stairs sat beside it. I peered into the darkness as they wrapped around the heavy bricks. "What about it?"

"There's a door. Our mother told us 'When the time comes, only one can open it.' And it's been locked for almost 10 years. I've tried opening it several times, but all I have is this to show for it."

Gairee untied the string at the top of her neck, and loosened her shirt. She pulled her shoulder through the head. "My lightning came back at me, and left me with this horrible scar."

The scar wasn't like others I had seen. It consumed most of her shoulder with tiny smaller scars streaming away from its center, similar to a spider's web with a dense center.

"Did it hurt?"

She widened her eyes in astonishment. "Did it hurt? I have and probably never will experience again such pain in my life."

"I apologize. I can only imagine." I said no more and turned my attention to my duties. "What will you have me clean? I'll get started first thing in the morning."

"The kitchen, of course, is the largest part of the mess. I'd recommend starting there, but I'll let you decide." Gairee swung open a dusty door. "You may want to start here actually. This was Kaze's room before he moved out, and where you'll be sleeping."

It smelled of old wood and dust. Clothes, paper, trash, etc. covered the what would have been golden hardwood floor. A midsize bed sat in the corner, it's frame broken and it's center sank, with a small dresser beside it. A faceless drawer sat outside of it on the floor, its small contents of pencils and other drawing materials dumped on top of the clothes.

A candle sat beside the bed on the dresser, and it appeared to have never been lit.

I shook my head. "I'll have to start here."

Gairee giggled lightly. "Clean at your own pace, just as long as it gets done."

I enjoyed Gairee's company, and then I hated her the very next second. She went from disgusting, to pleasant, to blunt and humorous, and I hadn't the slightest idea where she'd be at next and whether I'd like her or not. That night drug out later and later, and sleep didn't come easy. I listened to Gairee shuffle around the home for hours before she finally left. The guards may get her, but this seemed to be her regular routine. I doubted Kaze knew she was leaving either.

I briefly cleaned the bed before I laid. I warmed myself under the old blanket, and sank into darkness. I dreamed of something I had yet to understand. I dreamed of him, of Kaze, but this time the hazy nightmare came to me differently. I dreamed in confusion. I dreamed in wonder, and in awe, and I dreamed of a terrifying reality.

Water surrounded me.

The world moved with me in a room I recognized but did not know. Wooden furniture rotated at the ceiling while the heavier items slid across the floor.

My hair clouded my eyes as I fought for air.

But in the distance, behind my long locks, a cloud of dark maroon grew like the wet strokes of a painting. As my oxygen depleted, my vision began to flicker in and out of blackness, and his lifeless face emerged from the maroon. The maroon oozed from the hole in his chest as he drifted amongst the slow current. I called him by another name but my screams were mere bubbles. I called him "Ray" over and over again.

Kaze's name was merely nothingness in the moments I dreamed.

I grabbed a pillow as I found the strength to open my eyes. I slung the blankets off of me and into the floor. My breaths came rapidly, and short. Sweat covered me and the bed as I weakly rose as if I had a fever of some sort.

"I just died." I heaved my words as if someone stood beside me listening. "Who are you?"

Very faint bumps came from the front door, and my heavy breaths nearly drowned them out.

"And who the hell is at the door?"

I swiftly lit a candle stick, and shinned it's light into the living quarters. The chains had been latched. At first I thought Gairee may have been knocking, but it couldn't have been.

I knocked on her bedroom door which was right beside Kaze's. She came trough quickly.

"May I help you?" She asked with sass and her sleeveless top dangling over her shoulder.

"Someone's at the front door, I think."

Gairee widened her eyes. "And you had to wake me because why? Go answer the damn thing yourself. It's probably the collector."