The little blonde ran through the snowy streets with a bag of potatoes, trying to escape the men she stole from.
"Get back here!" they yelled as they closed the distance.
She hadn't finished puberty yet, leaving her with shorter legs than her pursuers. And sure enough, one of them came close enough to grab her arm and force her to stop, causing her to drop her bag and let the potatoes roll out across the street. For a second, the men stopped to lament the loss of their potatoes before one of them tossed the little blonde on the ground, leaving her surrounded by her pursuers.
"Hey! I know her! That's the one who killed those kids at school!"
The little blonde crawled backwards and brandished her now-empty bag, giving it a pink glow. She looked famished and weak, but the men knew what they were looking at when they saw the glowing bag.
"Mother of—the stories are real!" one man yelled.
"Hey, hey! Take it easy, kid," another man said with his hands raised.
They were all taking a step back. Now that they knew who she was, they seemed content to accept the loss of their potatoes and preferred to walk away with their lives.
Not that the little blonde had it in her to follow through on her bluff.
Having earned her potatoes, she picked them up from the ground and put them back into her bag. When she grabbed the last one, her eyes fell on another child—hungry looking, like herself. Another one who was kicked out of the orphanage, perhaps.
"Here," she handed the potato over.
The other child looked frightened, no doubt aware of who the little blonde was. Still, he came closer and accepted.
"Thanks."
The little blonde looked into her bag, then back at the other kid, and then decided to give him another.
"T-Thanks," the kid repeated, now holding two potatoes.
The little blonde nodded and ran off.
…
"I'm… back here again," Tatters mumbled, watching the little girl disappear around the corner.
She turned her head and looked at the other child, who walked away while licking one of the potatoes in spite of the dirt on the skin.
"Potato kid…"
Her words reverberated around her, like they bounced off her surroundings and kept coming back.
Potato kid
Potato kid
"Potato kid!?" a teenage blonde exclaimed.
She stood over a teenage boy, whom she'd just knocked to the ground and into the snow.
"I-Is that you?"
He looked her in the eyes, then averted his gaze and awkwardly nodded. He was lying in the snow with his hand covering his ribs. They were in an abandoned part of town, and Tatters remembered this moment well.
"Why? Why are you doing errands for them?"
"I don't got a choice, Tot."
"You always have a choice! To do the right thing! Like me!" the blond teenager yelled.
"Tsk," Tatters clicked her tongue and cringed at her younger self, almost feeling sorry for the boy.
"Easy for you to say!" the boy yelled back. "Everyone knows who you are. They don't fuck with you. Don't go—" The boy tried to get up but flinched when his ribs hurt doing so. "Don't go telling the rest of us what to do. We're just trying to survive."
The teenage blonde was stunned and had no words to return, allowing the boy to get to his feet with a pained look on his face.
"You haven't seen half the shit that went down while you weren't around."
The teenage blonde blinked and took a step forward.
"T-Tell me…"
The boy looked away, like whatever he was about to tell her embarrassed him.
"They started when we were little," the boy spoke, "They'd find us at the playground and strike up a conversation. Shady adults with a bunch of kids, but we didn't know no better."
…
An awkward silence followed where both teenagers looked at the ground. The blonde started rubbing her arm out of discomfort.
"Other kids, too," the boy continued. "Even the ones with rich parents. They don't care, and they're still doing it today."
The teenage blonde gasped and took a step back.
"I… didn't know," she responded in shame.
The boy scanned her blue costume up and down, then turned around.
"I know," he said with a look of contempt in his eyes, then turned his back to her and walked away in pain. "Tornado," he snarked with a mocking tone as he walked off.
Tornado stayed silent and didn't call out to him. Her blue costume looked worn, and the teenager looked pale and exhausted, even with her mask covering the area around her eyes.
Tatters stared at the girl, having made herself comfortable leaning against a wall, watching the memory play out.
"Idiot."
She looked away and scanned the environment. With potato kid gone, Tornado was alone, but Tatters had recently learned that she was never truly alone to begin with. Carefully, she looked around, trying to find shadows and other dark areas where she may have been able to spot it, but found nothing.
"Here. Take this."
Tatters turned her head back to Tornado and saw her handing a potato to a little girl on the street. The scene had changed again to a few hours later, and she was now leaning against a different building in an alleyway separating two busy streets.
The little girl, who wore a yellow scarf, took the potato and gave it a lick. Tornado gave her a worried look, then looked at the people around them to see if nobody shady was watching.
But the cartels wouldn't be so obvious, not since they'd started taking her more serious as of late.
Tornado turned to the little girl and patted her head.
"You'll be okay."
Tatters watched with great interest and couldn't help but smile at her younger self. It almost made her feel bad about calling the teenager an idiot before.
"Still at it?" another voice came from behind.
Tatters turned her head and saw that same boy again. Potato kid. When she looked back at Tornado, she was giving the boy an angry look, and the little girl had already run off at the sight of him.
"What?" she asked angrily, "want one, too?"
The boy looked over his shoulder, then approached her so he could talk quieter.
"No, I just thought…", he stuttered nervously, "I just…"
He eyed her like he wasn't sure how to finish his sentence. Tornado was getting uncomfortable and took a step back.
"What?"
"You're… kinda cute, and… I was wondering if—"
"No," Tornado blurted out in a panic.
The boy looked frightened and disappointed, Tornado looked at her feet and blushed.
"No. Sorry…"
…
"Yeah," the boy responded quietly and looked at his own feet.
And so, the two stared at their feet in silence. The boy bit his lips and looked frustrated and angry, like a million things were going on in his mind. Tornado, on the other hand, kept darting her gaze between her feet and the boy's face, like she didn't know what else to say and wanted nothing more than for this moment to end.
Tatters, meanwhile, looked at the boy with wide eyes like seeing the scene from a new perspective gave her new insights.
"Uhm," the boy eventually broke the silence, and Tornado anxiously looked up at him. "So, I want out. And, uh…"
"Out?"
"Y-Yeah, out… like what you said this morning. Out. There are, uhm… others. Kids like us… that want out, too."
He sounded even more nervous than he did when he confessed just moments ago, and Tatters knew why.
"…"
"Good," Tornado said.
Once again, the two awkwardly stared at their feet in silence.
"Y-You want my help?" she asked. "I can help, so…"
"We, uh…" the boy responded, "we wanna kill the new boss. Tomorrow night. And, uh… yeah, we could use your help, 'cause, you know…" the boy gestured at the girl to imply she was an expert.
Tornado looked less than flattered and reacted in shock.
"You want me to kill your boss?"
The boy made eye contact and subtly nodded. "If you could—"
"I'm not a murderer! You know that! Why would I start now?"
There was little left of her nervous attitude, now that she had a clear message to convey. The boy didn't respond, and he didn't look like he had a very good argument to make, either.
"Besides, they're not just gonna leave you be! They'll hunt you down!" Tornado continued.
The boy looked at his feet again.
"Revenge won't get you anywhere," Tornado said and crossed her arms.
"What do you know?" the boy muttered under his breath.
"What?"
"Just because you accidentally killed some kids when you were little, you—"
Tornado grabbed him by the collar and pushed him against the wall.
"You suddenly have a no-kill rule?" the boy groaned, then went on without faltering. "What is 'Tornado', anyway? It's been three years, and you've done nothing meaningful."
The girl in question tightened her grip on him and clenched her teeth.
"You look like you haven't slept for three years," the boy went on. "Everyone can see it."
"I'm. Fine." Tornado snarked.
The two stared at each other in contempt. The boy, too, no longer looked nervous like he did before, and it seemed like he spoke from the heart. Tatters watched with great interest, like she was watching a thriller movie.
"We're doing it. Tomorrow night, with or without you," the boy spoke with conviction. "A-And we'll do more good than you've ever done."
Tornado faltered and relaxed her grip on the boy, allowing him to push her away. The boy adjusted his clothes and took a step back.
"If anyone comes after us, we'll kill them, too."
He wiped some snow from his shoulder and walked off, still slightly limping from this morning. Before he left, he turned around one last time.
"T-Tomorrow," he said, nervously, then tossed a note her way and disappeared around the corner.
"Hmph," Tatters grunted and wondered if perhaps the boy really believed what he said. She leaned back and crossed her arms. "You know he—"
But in a single blink, her environment changed to the next scene. It was now night, and Tatters' backrest had changed to the wall of her old home, with Tornado lying on a sleeping mat at her feet.
She rolled her eyes and sighed.
"How long's this gonna go on for…" she muttered to herself.
Hardly asleep, Tornado fiddled with a dagger, looking conflicted and upset. Tatters knew what was going on in her mind. After all, there was some truth to the boy's words, and she already knew how this was going to end.
With her mask removed, the bags under the girl's eyes were apparent, and they were far worse than she remembered.
"Why can't it… just… work…" the girl moaned.
Tatters sat down by the girl's side and tried touching her hair, but as always, her hand phased right through.
"Because you follow stupid rules you made up as a child," she said as she inspected the girl's shoddy home interior, "and they only work if everybody else follows them, too."
She closed her eyes and recalled the visual of the disassembled body of the witch, lying in a pool of her own blood.
"Sometimes, you have to play by their rules."
When she opened her eyes, Tornado was looking at the note potato kid had left behind. It contained a time and address, belonging to an industrial site near the frozen lake to the north.
The girl's jaw was shaking, and Tatters spotted a tear rolling down her cheek. Whatever was going on with these doctored memories she was being forced to relive, she was more than just a spectator. It was like she was tethered to her younger self, feeling whatever the little one felt as events occurred, down to the last heartbeat.
The one currently sniffing on her mattress must've been about sixteen years old, because tomorrow would be the blue costume's final outing.
"It'll be good for you."
♦
"H-H-Hold it! We're all friends here!" Jenny pleaded, floating up in the air and leading Tatters away from Circus.
The blonde walked like a zombie, slowly approaching Jenny even though she couldn't get to her in the sky. After all, Tatters' powers worked via direct contact, either by touch or through that steel wire from her belt. As long as she stayed in the air, Jenny would be fine…
"Huh?" she tensed up when Tatters crouched to pick up a rock, ignited it with a blue flame and tossed it straight at her.
And the flame did not go out when Tatters let go of the rock.
"Eek!" Jenny yelled as she floated out of the way.
"Jen! Be careful!" Circus yelled from the other side, causing Tatters to turn around and change targets.
"!!!"
It was then that Jenny noticed a glimpse of Tatters floating outside her own body like a ghost. This ghost-Tatters that trailed behind like a passenger was glitching in and out of existence, like a projector that was losing power. Whenever it appeared, it had a similar apparition-like look to it as the pale ghost, suggesting other people wouldn't be able to see it.
And the reason she was able to see Tatters' ghost was…
"Mr. Fishy," Jenny muttered while looking at her own hand, the one she touched the corpse with. "I'm still worthy…"
"H-Hey! Jen! I might need a ride!" Circus called out from a distance, stepping away from Tatters who was now walking threateningly in her direction.
Jenny bawled up her fist and silently flew closer, having come up with perhaps her stupidest idea yet.
"Just hold on a little longer," she whispered for no-one to hear, making sure Tatters wouldn't turn back around. "I'm still worthy…"
Carefully, she floated behind Tatters with her hands outstretched, looking anxious, like she was defusing a bomb and had to pick the right wire within the next five seconds.
"I-I don't understand… W-What's happening?" a terrified Circus backed away from Tatters, understanding enough from Jenny's body language to at least not give her away.
Then, apparition-Tatters glitched back into existence for a split second, long enough for the perfect lifeform to stretch out her finger and touch it like she did the corpse.
And immediately, Jenny's mind went blank, not unlike the sensation of going into hibernation mode before entering the dreamlands. As she lost control of her body, she bumped into Tatters from behind, causing both girls to hit the ground. Jenny, on top, felt her consciousness fade away, transporting her to a different world…
♦
Next thing she knew, she was in a familiar, snowy town.
"What's—Where am I?" Jenny muttered.
Despite the steady wind and a looming storm, the people were going about their day like nothing had ever happened here. In fact, nobody even gave her a glance, like they couldn't even see her standing in the middle of the street like a confused tourist.
Jenny jolted her head left and right.
"Tat—Sur—Where are you guys?"
Then, Jenny took a step back when a man walked straight towards her, eyes ahead as if she was invisible.
"H-Hello?"
Jenny closed her eyes and pulled her arm against her chest, expecting to bump into him and finally get noticed. But instead, Jenny felt nothing, and when she opened her eyes, the man was gone.
When she turned around, the man walked on like Jenny was a ghost and he'd walked straight through her. Jenny looked down at her body, which looked otherwise normal.
"I'm a… ghost?"
Confused, Jenny flew up into the air to get a better look, finding the city to be exact same place she visited with her friends, just in a far better state than she remembered. And the inhabitants were alive and well, not at all like the way Dark Jenny left them.
Jenny could hardly believe it, like she'd travelled back in time. She looked up at the sky to verify, but found dark, stormy clouds blocking her view of the moons, leaving her unable to see whether they were already surrounded by debris.
For a moment, Jenny flew slowly and aimlessly above the city, scanning the masses down below until she finally found someone familiar.
"Hey!"
Jenny touched down and hopped over to a familiar blonde, but when she came close enough, she realized it wasn't quite the blonde she was expecting.
This one looked ten years younger and wore a blue costume instead of her usual black one. She also wore a blue mask over her eyes, but Jenny knew for sure that it was the same girl.
"H-Hello!" she said but got no response. "Are you also an NPC?"
Young Tatters. She didn't acknowledge Jenny, as expected, and instead stared into the distance with a pained look in her eyes. Jenny stepped closer and followed her gaze to find a little girl with a yellow scarf across the street, and an older man wearing a nice suit talking to her with a shady look on his face.
She looked back at young Tatters to find a look of anger and heartbreak in her eyes.
"What is it? Do you know them?" Jenny asked.
But young Tatters didn't answer and instead trembled with rage. Jenny watched the girl with curious eyes, until she noticed the ground started rumbling in accordance with the girl's emotions.
"Huh?" Jenny took a step back as the ground started shaking like an earthquake.
And it didn't calm down. The more enraged the young blonde became, the more violent the quake, and Jenny took to the air to try and avoid the vibrations.
But it made no difference, and the world still shook her as hard as it did when she was on the ground, like reality itself was about to break down.
"W-What's happening!?"
When the shaking reached a point where it felt like her insides were getting jumbled, it suddenly came to a halt, and Jenny fell to the ground.
Jenny rubbed her head and opened one eye to find that the world she'd been spectating had changed time and location. She was now on the outskirts of the city, on a hill that overlooked the frozen lake. The sun was setting, the dark clouds had come even closer to the city, and the wind was more violent than before.
"Jenny?"
A voice sounded from behind her, and Jenny turned her head.
"Tat?" Jenny asked, looking at a version of Tatters with a black cape.
Upon being acknowledged, Tatters ran over and looked at Jenny as if there was something wrong with her.
"Y-You're not hurt, are you?"
Jenny, still rubbing her head, checked out her body and felt perfectly okay.
"No…"
She checked out her surroundings and saw that she was outside an old, run-down refinery.
"Where are we now?"
Tatters stared at Jenny in bewilderment.
"Are you real?" she asked without answering Jenny's question.
"I think so," Jenny replied and stood up. "Are you real?"
Tatters looked at the refinery, then back at Jenny.
"I—We were at the church, when I—" she explained.
"When you blacked out," Jenny took over and looked at the palm of her hand. "You started creating these blue flames, and then I touched you, and…"
Suddenly, Jenny whipped her head in all directions and started panicking.
"Circus!"
"W-What about her?"
"We have to stop your blackout, or you'll hurt Circus!"
The two girls approached each other and locked eyes in a panic.
"H-How?" Tatters asked.
"I-I don't know! Why are we all the way out here? Are we in a dream?" Jenny asked, looking at her surroundings again.
Then, she heard gunshots coming from inside the refinery and turned her head in vigilance. She looked back at Tatters, who anxiously eyed the refinery like she already knew what was going on in there.
"Let's hurry!" Jenny said and ran towards the old refinery building.
"Wait!" Tatters yelled from behind. "It's not real!"