Young Writers Society

Cody stroked the back of the cloak, of Khalil, the palms of his hand glowing. Slowly, Khalil shifted. Fabric stretched into arms and legs. The fabric loosened into a head of deep blue hair, the same shade of the cloak. The stars stretched into a button-up decorated with small galaxies and a pair of glasses settled on his nose. Xe tenderly stroked and piece of hair behind Cody’s ear. “Hi, my star.” His voice was hoarse from underuse.

Cody hugged him as tightly as he could and sobbed into xer shoulders, trembling like a leaf in a hurricane.

Valeri couldn't help but get just a little bit emotional too. Even Amalthea stopped gnawing on a carrot for a while.

Finally, Cody pulled back a bit to see his husband's face, gave xem a tearful smile, and started to ask something. After multiple false starts, however, Cody gave up and just pulled Khalil into another hug.

After another minute of joyful sobbing, Valeri said, "I'm sorry to interrupt this reunion, but... what are we going to do about Josephinzo? The world still thinks Cody is evil and Khalil is dead."

Khalil turned around, a soft smile on xer face. “Give him a minute. We’ll talk about him soon, but we have time.”

Cody sniffled. “No, we can.”

Khalil chuckled softly, wiping off Cody’s tears. “Let’s stop crying first, then we can.”

Valeri nodded, then munched on some chips and dip as she waited for Cody's sniffles to slow. Amalthea stole a chip as well. Dawn hovered closer to the couple, and their glow was soft, as if the weapon was touched by the scene as well.

"How could we ever have considered Cody the bad guy?" The sword whispered. "If we'd only seen him with Khalil, it'd have been clear he's just a sweet, normal guy, vampire or not."

Finally Cody wiped away a last tear and, clutching Khalil's hand tightly, turned to face the siblings and their weapons. "So... tell me more about the WANNABES."

Vendetta nodded, very choked up themself. “Um, the WANNABES are Joe’s fan club. Most of them have a limited grasp of magic, but one we met can’t use magic at all. We met a few of them. Guy, José, Wormy, Otto, and Amy.”

Dusk glowed a dull purple. “They all worship the ground he walks on. But they’re just kids. I can’t believe that they’re too far gone.”

"Guy is a just a jerk, José wants to be a copy of Josephinzo, and Wormy seems pretty decent... she doesn't talk much, though. Otto does everything backwards and Amy has glittery serial killer vibes," Valeri added.

Cody nodded thoughtfully. "Which of them do you think would be the most willing to listen to us?"

"Maybe Wormy, possibly Otto?" Valeri thought for a moment. "There's also Carter, a random kid who came along with us..."

Vendetta gasped. “Oh my gosh, Carter! We need to get Carter out of there.”

“And home,” Dusk added.

“And home.” Vendetta nodded. “I can’t imagine what Joe’s telling him.”

"We've got to talk to Carter, before Joe tells everyone how we betrayed him and ruins our reputations like he did to Cody..." Valeri glanced at Vendetta. "You still have the portal, right?"

Vendetta pulled out their portal. It was black now, almost looking like a breathing shadow. “I don’t think this is right.

Khalil sighed. “He’s already blacklisted your signature.”

“Signature?”

"Each person has a distinct signature, and Joe uses those to make sure WANNABEs aren't snooping where they aren't supposed to."

"He seemed like an incompetent wizard when we met him, though... Isn't magic like that pretty high-level?" Valeri frowned.

"That incompetence is likely an act he put on to get you both to either trust him or feel sorry enough for him to go on his quest." Khalil gave them a sympathetic glance. "Unfortunately, Joe is quite skilled in the wizardly arts."

Vendetta groaned, coving their face. All of this was their fault. They sucked Valeri into this mess. They fell for Joe’s tricks like everyone else.

They were part of the problem. A problem Valeri spotted miles away.

“Of course he’s a skilled wizard. Awesome.” They rubbed their temples.

Valeri glanced at Vendetta. "Hey. You okay?" She looked at their face and sighed. "I can tell when you're beating yourself up about something, you know. Sibling intuition... or, actually, probably the fact that you never rub your temples unless you feel overwhelmed and like you've let people down..."

Dawn hummed. "Don't worry too much. You have Dusk and me on your side, after all!"

“Don’t worry about me. We need to fix this.”

We need to fix my mistake.

Vendetta sat up. “So where do we start? Joe’s a powerful wizard, I assume you two are as well. But Valeri and I aren’t.”

Valeri glanced at Vendetta again, unconvinced by their sibling's answer. But would pressing the issue do more harm or good? Valeri didn't want it to be like the time she confronted Vendetta's crush and ended up embarrassing everyone involved... But going with the flow was exactly what had left them in this sticky situation.

She was distracted from their thoughts by Cody, who stood up and started pacing. "Alright. You both need some magical training then, yeah?"

Vendetta nodded. “Yeah. We do. A lot of training to even begin to be able to stand up to him.” Phobos and Deimos curled around their neck. “We don’t know anything.”

Cody stopped pacing. “Then we’ll reach you. Khalil is a master at signatures, and I will help you master the basics.”