Young Writers Society

Envy jerked the dagger out of his arm, angrily throwing it to the ground beside him. He never used the philosopher's stone to heal himself unless he absolutely had to, but Lunis seemed likely to attack him again if he somehow escaped the chimera's grasp.

Even more furious now that he had been attacked, Envy stormed over to where Lunis was. Sparks of red light came off of his arm as he glared down at him. The wound easily healed itself; it wasn't the worst one he had dealt with. "I tried saving your life earlier!" Envy spat out. "And that's how you thank me for it?"

Lunis stared at the sparks coming off of the stranger's arm. It was healing itself. He only knew of a couple things that could do that, and they'd both been incredibly strong monsters. Was this another hallucination? The dull roaring in his head gradually faded as he stared down at the bloody dagger by the stranger's feet. His eyes no longer felt like they were bulging out of his skull, and the fury in his chest waned, replaced only by pain. Hallucination or not, he couldn't stand a chance. He wasn't going to -

Kendrik pulled the rapier away as Lunis slumped forward and collapsed onto the floor of the roof. Leaning his head back, Kendrik took a few deep breaths. Then he slid off of Lunis's back and set the rapier on the ground beside him. Part of him wanted to faint too - all his muscles ached, his throat was dry and sore, he could feel scratches and bruises all over his body. That had been terrifying. But, if he wasn't awake, who would keep an eye on Jaron?

"Thanks," Jaron whispered in the stranger's ear, before heading over to Kendrik. Finally, that was over. Now he could relax. He sat down beside Kendrik, pulling out a cloth and dabbing at Kendrik's ear. Kendrik winced, but didn't resist.

He should have probably been returning to his brother now, but these two chimeras seemed like decent people from the little he had seen of them so far. He sat down beside the one who had only just been hiding behind him, watching Lunis with a wary gaze as he did so.

"I'm Ar-" he started to say. But then he thought back to the conversation that had to be going on down on the first floor, and realized that there was really no point in hiding who he was anymore. If this guys were from where Lunis was from, they wouldn't even know of the homunculus. "I'm Envy."

He absentmindedly rubbed the place where the knife had been. It didn't hurt, but it always felt a little odd after a wound healed. "I should probably tell you what my brother and I told him." He gestured at Lunis. "He didn't believe it. Which is understandable...we didn't really believe it until we encountered our other selves..."

Envy? Did his parents hate him or something? The whole thing sounded sketchy, especially because it sounded like Lunis had thought he was hallucinating. But, Envy had fought off Lunis to protect Jaron, so he had to be a good guy, right?

"Kendrik," said the hound, pointing to himself. He pointed to Jaron, who was tying the cloth around Kendrik's ear with a flimsy knot. "Jaron. Nice to meet ya'."

"So what's it you want ta say?" he continued. "'s not like this day can get any odder." Jaron reached out and poked at the spot where Envy's injury had been. Kendrik smiled and pulled Jaron's hand back.

Envy gave a somewhat nervous laugh. "You'd be surprised," he said, returning the smile - albeit a little less confident - that Kendrik had given him.

He shifted his weight from one side to another. Where to begin? There was what he was, but he guessed that was probably a better way to end the conversation than to start it. It looked like he would just have to lay it bare and go from there.

"There's a theory," he said. "It's called the butterfly effect. It says that making a single, minute change can completely change the world that you live in. It changes your reality, essentially. And I think that when people make those little choices, different realities are created. Some can be drastically different than the one you live in. My brother and I lived in a reality where the two of us and our siblings decided to run away from our dad."

He took a deep breath. "I know it sounds like I'm going on a tangent here, but I promise it all connects. I just think having an example helps - I would have thought this was crazy if I wasn't living it. We were just going about our day-to-day lives when we ended up in a reality where we hadn't decided to leave our dad. It was...bad. Not too different than ours, but things that were considered normal in our lives had completely changed. That's the reality we were just in."

Another deep breath. He hoped this was the last time he had to explain it to someone. "I think this place is another reality. We're not entirely sure, but it would explain why Lunis didn't know some things that are considered common knowledge in our reality when we mentioned them. This place looks unfamiliar, so I don't think it's ours. I just don't know if it's yours."

Kendrik and Jaron fell silent. Jaron crossed his legs and looked down at his hands, while Kendrik bit his lip and thought for a minute.

"Hng," Kendrik said. "Didn't get a word of it." He gently nudged Jaron, who looked up. "You're the smart guy; you know?"

Showing his teeth in an awkward expression, Jaron shrugged. "I build things," he said quietly. "I've heard about alternate realities before, but only once or twice. Sort of like the world above and all." Jaron eyes fell back down to his hands.

Another pause, mainly because the hound didn't want to say he believed in a 'world above.' Kendrik leaned back slowly and sighed, feeling his ribs hurt. Those had been some painful falls. "I'll believe ya', Envy," he said at last. "Right now, anyways. Lunis didn't, and it didn't work out for him." He gestured to the still-unconscious panther. Or, asleep; Lunis was starting to snore. Loudly, at that.

"Y'all done?" A voice came, from behind the wall of the door to the roof. It sounded natural, not like it was coming from another speaker.
"I can believe we've been tossed into a different reality. What I don't understand, is why you guys decided to nearly murder each other," the voice said.

"I didn't try murdering anyone," Envy protested, getting to his feet. "I've just been defending myself."

He slowly began to creep over to the source of the voice. He had been trying to catch the mysterious eavesdropper for the entirety of the time they had been in the building. Seeing that the voice didn't sound as odd as before, and how it was in the only place someone could overhear them from, Envy was almost completely certain that he had finally found the mystery man.

He abruptly threw the door open.

Yet another surprise. Kendrik was getting sick of surprises. He exchanged glances with Jaron, whose fur was now standing on end. Looking down at his own arms, Kendrik saw he'd responded in the same way. Nothing to be done about it, though, since they could be in danger. They picked up their weapons - the rapier and the wrench, respectively - stood up, and followed Envy to the roof entrance. Hopefully this wouldn't be a setup to a fight.

Raiden stood behind, smirking as he looked over the people who had thrown open the door.
"Yo. You look somewhat disappointed. Were you looking for someone else?"

"Who are ya'?" said Kendrik, standing beside Envy. Jaron, as usual, stood behind them both. Something about this stranger annoyed Kendrik, though he wasn't sure if it was the guy's strange clothes or smirk. The latter reminded Kendrik of Envy, so that's who the hound gestured to. "Friend of him?"

"He's not my friend," Envy quickly said. "I haven't even seen him before."

There was also the little detail about him not having friends - he hadn't any since long before either Kendrik or Jaron were born, and he was uncertain if he ever would. It was one of the downsides to being so strict about the plan he and his siblings had concocted.

Well, that wasn't at all suspicious. If nobody knew who this stranger was, he was about as dangerous as an enemy. Kendrik subtly reached back and tapped the palm of Jaron's hand. In their code, it meant steal something. Jaron slipped away, moving quietly into the shadows. Ideally, if the stranger drew a weapon or anything possibly dangerous, he wouldn't have it for long.

"So what's yer name?" Kendrik said to the stranger. "And what d'ya want?"

Raiden's smile grew.
"Bold of you to assume he has friends," he said, before losing himself and chuckling a bit.
"I'm sorry," he turned to Envy with an apologetic shrug, "I saw a chance and I took it. Anyway, my name's Raiden, nice to meet you."
As he completed his sentence, he felt something slowly slide his knife -- which he kept under his shirt by his lower back -- out of its holder. He placed a hand on it.
"You coulda just asked, y'know," he said, turning back to look at whoever it might have been.

So much for that attempt of a distraction. At least they knew the stranger's name. Jaron laughed nervously and pulled his hand away from the stranger's - Raiden? - then ran back behind Kendrik. "He's got a knife," Jaron whispered to Kendrik. "Watch out."

Kendrik nodded. "Ended up here too?" he said to Raiden, eyes narrowing.