It happened again. Once again, I woke up with my cheek on Aska’s chest, completely naked and regretting every second of my actions. I had slept with the twins … again.

Aska forced me into it, mostly in an attempt to convince me that I would fuck my own children as well. But unlike him, I regretted allowing it to happen regardless of my enjoyment. I mean … they were just kids … and even I had my limits.

But Aska was different in that regard. He never felt how it is to be in that position and as such, he had no issue with it. Even worst of all, it was his preferred solution on finding out my feelings for them and while it didn’t work out all that well, I was pretty sure he noticed that my attempts at distancing myself from them was fake.

But one thing was for sure … I actually felt something for the twins. If not, then my disgust wouldn’t be there.

‘I’m …’ I was looking at the twins covered by a blanket for a long time until Lucy finally spoke up again.

‘You aren’t okay with their death after all?’ She had been quiet the whole time, was scared of being touched by Aska and hated me for doing what I did during that time … but finally she was speaking up again.

‘I don’t want them to suffer needlessly. I thought I didn’t care enough for them … but that wasn’t the truth, was it?’ I explained and shook Clara and Clarice awake. My newfound conviction didn’t mean I could save them … it just meant that I wanted to avoid them being hurt needlessly. They weren’t too happy with being woken up from their embrace, but didn’t say anything as I placed my index finger in front of my lips. Then, I stepped down from the bed without making too much noises and waved them over to the pile of clothing. We didn’t wear it right away but rather carried it into the hallway where we finally dressed ourselves swiftly.

“What is going on?” They both asked in unison while I grabbed their hands and guided them away from the bedroom through the dark corridors.

“Where is Hannah?” I asked swiftly without intending to answer their question at all.

“We were given rooms by these creepy skeletons.” Clara answered while pointing to one of them, standing near the wall of the hallway undisturbed.

“I know where hers is!” Clarice pulled my hand into the next hallway, guided us up a stairwell into the room where Hannah had been taking a nap previously. Well, obviously she was awake after we had slammed the door shut.

“Hannah, what do the twins need to get back to the human realm?” I asked her while she already reached for a prepared backpack.

“Thoughts and prayers … no seriously, bottled blood is all they need.” Hannah told them while both Clara and Clarice were shocked to their bones.

“Great.” I stated dryly, grabbed Hannah’s backpack and put it on Clarice shoulder.

“Why … but we don’t want to leave!” Clara protested loudly and grabbed my hand.

“I’m trying to save your life here alright? Aska is still angry at me for the demon king’s death and you have lost all your worth for him at this point.” They could have asked themselves the question why they were at the castle in the first place then, but luckily they didn’t do so. They were panicking far too badly for that.

“But … we never lived on our own.” They were too irresponsible and lacked and kind of self control to be left alone, that was for sure. Neither the demon king nor I could leave them alone so far, but the time has come where they had to stand on their own foot … for a bit of time.

“You will manage. I believe you will be fine with or without me. You are the strongest twins I have ever known and together you will overcome all worldly hurdles.” I explained and gave both of them a big hug.

“But mum! We want to stay with you!” At that moment someone knocked onto the door aggressively. Luckily we did lock it after we entered the room, otherwise Hannah would be in danger as well.

“Right now, you can’t. Hannah, get them out of the castle and come back afterwards.” She did sense that something was amiss at this point, but followed my orders nonetheless. Before that though, she did throw a limp snake in my direction and destroyed the windows with her magic.

‘That is your plan of saving your own skin?’ Lucy completely disregarded that I wouldn’t have chosen that path if not for her. Sadly though, we needed to give him what he wanted at this point.

‘Sometimes you have to sacrifice your own figures in chess to win.’ And I would win.

‘You know that this could end horrible if it doesn’t work out the way you planned it?’ We both went through the plan and she agreed to it. I seriously didn’t know why she brought that up at this point, so I left it be and opened the door for Aska.

“How can I help, Aska?” I asked innocently while barring him from entering the room for the time being.

“Where are they going?” I suspected he already knew what was going on, so I didn’t mind to tell him the truth for once.

“To the next convenience store.” … or somewhere close to it.

“Hmm … you know I’m not pleased with the demon king’s death, so why did you take them with you? And why ask them to leave now? What are you planning?” Well, the truthful answer was complicated, so I boiled it down a little.

“I know you want to murder them … and I won’t stop you. I am the reason your toy is done for, and you will be the reason for the twin’s death. But what I do not want is to sleep with them on a nightly basis.” I did not want to be tortured by these feelings, nor did I want them to be hurt needlessly. Therefore, I was forcing his hand on that matter.

“So you do see themselves as your kids.” He claimed which made me shake my head reluctantly.

“They do … and that’s enough for me.” Even though I didn’t view them in the same way as I would view my close family, they certainly viewed me that way. And that made everything so much weirder for me.

“So let me set this straight: Because you do not want intercourse with them, you are sending them into their death?” I twirled my blonde hair around my index finger deep in thought and then nodded approvingly. What he claimed was the gist of it.

“No … the decision wether they live or die is up to you. But you have to do it now.” I told him while smiling brightly. I knew for sure that his abilities on this planet were still limited for whatever dumb reason, so the further they got away, the harder it would be for him to do anything. After all, he would have solved all the issues he had already otherwise.

“Wouldn’t normal parents protect their fledgelings?” He asked while looking at me rather strangely. Truth to be told, I would do everything to protect Luna and so was he in regards to Lucy. I could understand his reasoning for raising me so that I could grow this body … but that didn’t mean I liked it.

“Are we normal?” I asked swiftly, only to see a pitch black spear appearing right in front of me.

“You got to do it yourself.” He snapped his fingers, creating a portal through with the twins stumbled a bit confused. They looked at me first, and then at Aska rather fearful while my snake jumped into the air and coiled around the spear.

“I’m not doing that.” I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to murder the twins with my own hands, something that reminded me about a scene of the past.

‘He wants you to have a mental breakdown.’ Well, that much was obvious at this point. A mental breakdown was the reason for Lucy’s awakening and it was to be expected he knew about this fact as well. He wanted her back desperately and would do everything to get her.

‘And he is fucking successful with it.’ I grabbed the tail of the snake which directly transformed back into the black sword Schwarz loved so much. For a split second, I weighed all the options against each other, twirled towards Clara while she was looking at me rather confused.

She didn’t resist at all as I stabbed into her heart but rather looked at me like a cute puppy in pain.

“I’m so sorry it has come to this.” I told her while she leaned forwards into the sword and hugged me tightly.

“I … will you cry for me?” How could I not? These two just wanted a new family and I was the one ruining their wish. I couldn’t save them from their fate and neither did I wanted to, but I wasn’t cruel enough to deny them of the very wish they had stated since the very beginning. They wanted someone to cry on their deathbed and I had no reason to deny this.

“I’m sorry …” I didn’t even have to press out these tears myself … they came naturally. Letting go of my sword, I hugged her back while blood spilt out of her chest, looking over to a stunned Clarice who had yet to grasp the situation fully.

“Clara?” Clarice walked towards her sister who was slowly gliding towards the ground and fell on her knees right beside her. “Cl…ar…a?”

“On a second thought, she may live.” Aska told me while I reached down to retrieve my sword. Clarice pulled her sister into a tight embrace right away, her mind in utter disarray, still struggling to grasp what was going on.

Thinking over Aska’s words a little, I swung my sword once more and cleanly cut off Clarice head without any remorse. She was incapable of living without her sister anyways, so it was better to let her go than to hold her in this place she wouldn’t like.

“I don’t want them to suffer … that’s all.” I completely disregarded the two corpses in front of me and turned to face Aska, tears still on my cheek.

“Are you happy now?” I asked quietly. I knew he wanted to see me at a low point and I was more than willing to give him that.

“Hmm … it –“ I slashed at him with the sword in my hand, no warning given whatsoever. And yet, he blocked it with the spear that reappeared to the side of him easily.

“Get out of my room.” I told him and turned around yet again. Then, I knelt down next to the two corpses while he left the room, but not without sneaking me a few glances.

‘We need to conserve their bodies.’ Two souls started twirling around me, settling into two jars specifically created for this very purpose slowly afterwards.

‘A burial should be enough.’ Despite crying, I really wasn’t too sad about their deaths. After all, they gave their life for something valuable … they bought me time.