Sister Duo (Scenes 3-8)

3

A seal of pink roses appeared in Katherine's dream mansion of hallways and mirrors, and on top of it appeared Nico and Mara and Celia. Lord Rancaster's words had shaken Celia, but she tried her best to ignore them as she grabbed onto Nico who was still screaming and hysterical at the residual horrors she had seen in Rancaster’s mortal memories.

"Stop, stop screaming!" Celia yelled, shaking Nico frantically by her shoulders, but the girl just couldn't stop. So she hugged Nico close to her body, feeling her chaotic heartbeats against her bosom and holding onto her and never letting go as tears fell down her face. "Please, Nico, I'm here for you, I'm here for you! Just stooooop!"

Finally, Nico's bout of insanity subsided into groans and sobs, her face scrunched up in anguish over Celia's shoulder, tears trailing her face and soaking into Celia's school uniform. Then Nico said through her sobs, "I saw it. I saw it all. I saw how he became a monster. It's so terrible!"

Celia was about to say that it was okay, but she stayed her tongue and just rubbed circles between Nico’s shoulder blades. God knows what she must've seen in those crazy seconds when the world itself seemed to be crumbling around her, and the pillars of that were her strength (her parents) could not protect her from exposure to another person's hell.

So Celia said, "I know, I know," even though she hadn't a clue how bad it actually was. "But we'll get through this together. You, me, Mara: we'll all get through this."

Celia’s words of truth broke the spell of pain over Nico, and she calmed down long enough for her to take deep breaths and recuperate the best she could. When both girls finally regained their faculties, they were broken wrecks of themselves, but they were still alive and able to do something about it.

Nico pulled away from Celia and looked around her at the paneled hallway crossing into other paneled hallways with rows of vanity mirrors on each panel on either side, then said, "Where are we?"

"We're in Kathy's dream realm," Celia said. "Kathy's my eldest sister. If she’s got my message, she should be here with Maddy soon, but for now we'll just have to hang tough before they arrive," and she held onto Nico's hands, saying, "Can you stand?"

With Celia's help, Nico got to her feet and looked down at Mara on the carpet, still lying in a comatose state in her astral form, and said, "God, I hope that man doesn't find his way here."

"If he does, Kathy will know, and she and Maddy will be here,” Celia said. “If that man messes with you or Mara, he'll have to mess with me, and if he messes with me, he'll have to mess with Kathy and Maddy, and they're not ones to mess with, believe me." Though Celia refrained from mentioning her own meddling with her sisters, for that had to wait for another time.

"That's good," Nico said, still looking at her surroundings. "Do you know this place?"

"Not as well as Kathy, but I can manage it. Come on," she said, bending over and grabbing Mara's arm and having Nico do the same with Mara's other arm, so that both girls hoisted Mara up. "I know a good room where Mara can sleep."

With that said, Celia released another seal of pink roses below their feet and blinked them out of sight—

4

And reappeared in Katherine's boudoir, a private bedroom with a four-poster bed, a chair, a cabinet, a writing desk, a vanity table, and a special body-length mirror standing opposite the bed against the wall.

Both girls took Mara and laid her on top of the bed sheets, and Celia fluffed up a pillow and placed it under her head before saying, "Um, please don't tell Kathy that I know about this place. This is actually Kathy's private bedroom, and that mirror is a one-way mirror," she added, pointing to the body-length mirror next to the vanity table. "I think you can pass through it into another place, but Kathy’s choosy on who can pass through it."

"How are you able to get here then?"

"Because I'm me," Celia said, smiling and winking at Nico. "Kathy and I have a bit of a rivalry with each other.”

“Oh, really?” Nico said, looking at Celia. “What kind of ‘rivalry’ are you talking about?”

“It’s kind of like hide and seek,” Celia said. “Kathy’s the hider, and I’m the seeker. She keeps making new places to hide her stuff from me, and I keep finding them. It's kind of fun, actually," and she said an incantation in her mind and made one pink rose appear in her hand and placed it in Mara's hand, then folded her arm and moved it onto her chest.

It was a gesture that made Nico blush, so she said, "What's that for?"

"Oh, this?" she said, pointing to the rose. "It's for her protection. I placed two seals on it. If we encounter that guy, I can teleport you here and take you and Mara out of here. And if somehow that guy gets to this place before I do, that rose will become a barrier against him. I've thought of everything, so don't worry."

"Oh, okay," Nico said.

Celia looked at the girl and noticed her blushing and said, "Wait, did you think I was making a pass at her?"

"No, no! It's not like that!"

Nico's outburst told a different story, and like the 'troll-whore' she was, Celia gave her a wry smile and said, "Do you have a sister complex?"

"No way!" she said, waving her hands and shaking her head, but her blushing betrayed her true feelings. "It's not like that, really!"

Celia only rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, be honest. Nobody's judging you here."

Nico deflated a bit, saying, "I wouldn't say I have a sister complex, but," and she looked at her sister lying on the bed and placed her hand over hers, "I do love her."

Celia grinned from ear to ear, saying, "I bet you do, and I bet it's mutual, too. I mean, I remember her kissing you . . . and feeling you up. Like, a lot."

Nico deadpanned, saying, "Do you really have to make it that obvious?"

Yet Celia went on, saying, “And hot damn, girl, there was even one time when I saw you two—”

“Ugh, please don’t mention that!” Nico yelled.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop," she said. "Come on, and I'll show you around," but then she gave her another wry smile, adding, "Or if you want, maybe I can leave you with your sister, and you could have your way with her for a bit."

At this, Nico fisted her hands and glared hellfire at the miscreant rescuer.

"Okay, okay, okay, I'll stop! Really, I'll stop!" Celia said, raising her hands to placate her, so to prove it, Celia took Nico’s hand and released another seal below their feet, taking her to another part of Katherine's dream mansion one floor below the maze of hallways and mirrors—

5

To the top landing of the double grand staircase, where Nico sucked in breath. She looked over the railing and stared in awe at the beauty of the foyer below them and the mahogany double entrance doors ahead of them, staring at the recessed paneling and imbedded mirrors along the the walls, the polished mahogany steps going down each staircase, the intricate parquet flooring below their feet, and the salon sofas upholstered in deep shades of red and blue.

"You're kidding me," Nico said, looking around at every possible detail. "This is your sister's dream realm?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Celia said, taking her hand and leading her down the staircase past M. C. Escher lithographs and mezzotints. "Kathy's got an amazing imagination for detail, I'll give her that."

"I'd really like to meet her," she said. "If she can maintain something like this in her dream world, I bet she's really strong and powerful."

"Yeah, she is,” Celia said, “but Kathy's my eldest sister, so she's usually the overachiever of the family. She almost always gets straight A's, usually has a cortège of male admirers among the students and even some teachers, but unlike Maddy, she's very picky when it comes to dates."

Nico stopped at the bottom landing and looked at Celia.

"What?" Celia said.

"Are you jealous of her?" Nico said.

"Um . . . Maybe, a little,” she said, “but I'm not really the jealous type."

Nico smiled, saying, "Sure, you're not."

"Really, I'm not jealous!"

"I'll take your word for it," Nico said, then added under her breath, "I'll ask her about it when I meet her."

Now it was Celia's turn to deadpan, saying "Now who's being a little too obvious, hmmmmmm?"

"It's called honesty."

"Are you saying I'm not honest?"

Nico looked back over her shoulder and smiled, saying, "I don't know. It depends on you," and she ran headlong into the doorway leading into the library.

"Hey, get back here!" Celia said, but she was one step ahead of Nico, teleporting ahead of her location, but she ended up colliding with Nico and toppling backwards and landing on her butt and then flat on her back, breaking Nico's fall with her body and groaning. "Owwwwww!"

Celia propped herself up on her elbows, wincing in pain at one of Nico's elbows digging into her solar plexus, while Nico herself had her face planted between Celia's breasts. "Ow! Nico, please, have mercy on me and get off!"

That's when Nico raised her head and blushed her head off, propping herself up and saying, "Oh, I'm sorry!" And she was about to get up, but then—

"Owwwwww!" Celia said, wincing yet again.

And that's when Nico saw where her elbow had landed on bracing herself against falling, saying, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry!"

"Please, get off! You're hurting me!"

So Nico got off of her ("Owwwwww!"), but not before causing Celia more pain and saying, "I'm so sorry! I'm really really sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you, honest!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Celia said, rolling onto her side and raising her legs up to her chest to relieve the pain and keeping that position, till it turned into a more manageable ache. She sat up on the floor after that but still hugged her knees close to lessen the aching in her solar plexus and said, "Man, why am I always the one who gets hurt?"

"I'm sooooo so so sorry, really," Nico said, getting to her feet and standing over Celia, offering her hand.

"Just let me rest for a bit," Celia said. "It's like you made an elbow drop from the top turnbuckle and hit me just below my ribs. Do you have any idea how much that hurts?"

The girl now let out another sigh as if that was the last straw, letting her shoulders droop and saying, "I'm really sorry," and she started walking away.

"No, wait! Ow! It's not like that!" Celia said, struggling to her feet, and ran after Nico and grabbed her hand. "I'm not angry, okay? I'm really not."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure,” Celia said, grinning at her. “Come on, look at me. I'm not angry, okay?"

Nico turned and saw Celia's imploring eyes and flicked her gaze towards the library, taking a deep breath as if she was trying to quell the beating of her heart.

"What's wrong?" Celia said, still holding onto her hand as she copied Nico’s action of flicking her gaze towards the library entrance and saw a cafe table next to a salon sofa and some chairs. "You can talk to me, Nico. What is it?"

Nico said, “I don’t know if I should—”

Yet Nico left herself hanging.

“I’m here for you,” she said. “What is it?”

Nico kept her gaze away from Celia, saying, "I really wanna kiss you, but I'm not sure I should."

Silence lingered after those words, as Celia tried to digest them through her mind, but instead of replying with words, she replied with actions, leaning close and kissing Nico's lips and then saying, "It's okay, really. Whatever you need from me, I'm here for you."

At that, Nico started planting hungry kisses on Celia's lips and even fondling her breasts through Celia’s school uniform, till her hand nudged her solar plexus.

"Ow!" Celia winced, but only slightly, then started giggling as if it was the funniest thing in the world, but she started wincing again. "Ow! I'm not really sure I wanna go that far yet," Celia said and took a few deep breaths to relieve the ache before leading Nico towards the cafe table.

Both girls sat in chairs, and Celia rested her head in her arms above the table, giving her solar plexus time to relax for a bit, while Nico stared at the bookshelves that reached to the top of the ceiling.

"Wow," Nico said, marveling. "Does your sister really read all these books?"

"Maybe, but I'm not really sure," Celia said, sitting up and leaning back on her chair and eyeing the impressive display. "She may have read some of these books, but I seriously doubt she read all of them. At least, not while she's awake."

"You mean she can read in her sleep?"

"Maybe,” Celia said. “It would definitely explain her good grades, that's for sure."

"What about your other sister?"

"Maddy?" Celia said.

"Yeah."

"Well, she's the middle child of the family," Celia said, sifting through her Rolodex of memories consisting mostly of trolling Madison with her antics and Madison threatening to roast her ass but not really doing it. "So she's definitely the jealous type."

"Jealous type?" Nico said.

"Yeah,” Celia said. “Kathy's kind of like the ace of the family, so trying to follow her example as the second child is really tough on Maddy. I can just imagine the kind of stress she's under, so I kind of understand why she takes it out on me all the time."

Nico looked at her companion, saying, "But why you?"

"Maybe because I'm the runt of the litter, but I don't wanna make Maddy seem like a bitch," she said, staring up at the ceiling. "Mostly it's because of me. I'm the bratty third child of the family, and my parents tend to spoil me constantly, and I tend to rub it in Maddy's face a lot. I do it to Kathy, too, but mostly I do it to Maddy, because I get the best reactions from her. It's actually really funny, when you think about it. Little sis picking on big sis,” she added, looking at Nico. “It's kind of funny, you know."

"That's kind of . . . messed up."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," Nico said.

Of course, Celia was about to say something about Nico's relationship with her own sister, Mara, but thought better of it. Then Lord Rancaster's words about her mother broke the surface of her thoughts, but she pushed them back and said, "Hey, you wanna see something crazy?"

"Um, okay. Sure," Nico said.

"Okay, cool," Celia said and then released another spell below their feet and teleported Nico back into the floor of hallways and mirrors—

6

And into one of Katherine's more secret bedrooms, wherein Nico sucked in breath and gaped at her surroundings. They were now sitting on top of another bed that was draped in thin red linens and scattered with heart-shaped pillows and surrounded by recessed shelves stocked with dildos, vibrators, and rubber toys of all kinds on one side of the room, several adult magazines and literary smut stocked into another set of recessed shelves on the other side of the room, and a large LCD flat-screen television inland into the front wall above another set of shelves stocked with adult DVDs and a DVD player in the middle.

Nico kept staring and saying, "Um . . . I'm not sure I should be here, so can you—"

She turned to Celia, but Celia was looking through some of the DVDs, listing off some of the titles under her breath and saying "Let's see. Vampire-Breaking, Swing Out Sisters, HatsuInu, Stretta, Bible Black, Dark Blue, Lingerie Office, Resort Boin, Women at Work— Ah, here it is, Mezzo Forte. It's got some really awesome fight scenes, in addition to the sex scenes," she added, taking it off the shelf.

"I don't wanna see that!" Nico yelled.

"Are you sure?" Celia said, giving her yet another of her wry smiles. "If you want, I can lend it to you while you’re here, so you can watch it on your own."

"No, I don't wanna look at it!” Nico said. “Can you just get me out of here? This is way too much for me!"

"Okay, okay! Didn't mean to get your tits up," Celia said and  replaced the offending DVD on the shelf. She then walked over to Nico, who flinched under her miscreant gaze, getting off the bed and backing away from her. "What's the matter?"

"You're creeping me out."

"Don't worry," Celia said, cornering Nico and slamming her hand against the wall beside her head. "I'm not a sex pixie," but she qualified her statement, leaning close and raising Nico’s chin with her other hand, so that their lips were almost touching, "unless you want me to be."

Nico's reaction was immediate.

Nico punched Celia in the solar plexus ("Owwww!"), backing her up and making her double over in pain, so that she was now clutching at her knees to catch her breath. She was now glaring hellfire at her, making Celia cower under her gaze as Nico laid down the law, saying, "I will NOT be treated like that under ANY circumstances, got that?"

Celia nodded frantically, trying her best to placate her.

"Good,” Nico said, looking at the naughty contents of the room. “Now can you get me out of this room?"

"All right, you win," Celia said, standing up and throwing yet another seal of pink roses beneath their feet. "I was just playing around, that's all. I didn't mean for you to take it that way."

Nico just shook her head, saying, "You have a sick mind, you know that?"

"I know," Celia said and released her spell and took Nico to yet another part of Katherine's dream mansion—

7

At the foyer of the double grand staircase beneath the railing of the upper floor overhead, where Celia guided Nico by the hand across the parquet flooring through an arched doorway into the living room. Entering the space was like entering another dreamscape altogether, in which they walked past a set of ornate salon sofas and end tables and stopped before the fireplace mantle against a backdrop of mullioned mirrors recessed into the paneling of the surrounding walls.

And on top of that mantle hung a big landscape picture of the Hearn family, each member standing a bit rigidly in their poses with obligatory smiles on their faces.

"That's my family," Celia said, and she pointed out each of them in turn to Nico, first pointing out the bespectacled man with graying hair in his early 40s standing in the left part of the portrait: "That's my father. He works as a translator of old books and runs a bookstore with a partner." Then to the older woman with long red hair and dark maroon eyes standing in the right side of the portrait: "That's my mother. She's an archeologist and works at dig sites around the world, so she's usually not at home most of the time, but she does like to visit unannounced from time to time." Then Celia pointed to the young woman to the right of her father, the one with side bangs and long braided twin tails: "That one's my eldest sister Katherine, the overachiever I was talking to you about." Then she pointed out the next young woman to the right of her eldest sister, the one with cherry-blond hair: "That one is my second eldest sister Madison, the jealous type I was joking to you about. And the last one is me," she added, pointing out the youngest member of the family, "the bratty third child that my parents always seem to spoil."

And then Celia turned around and pointed towards the upper wall of the living room on the opposite side of the family portrait, just above the doorway leading out to the foyer of the double grand staircase, where a big portrait of a buxom woman with long dark purple hair and an ample cleavage showing against her black silk dress looked over the living room with a deadpan expression on her face: "And that one over there is my grandmother Amelia Hearn, but most people remember her as the Blood Rose Witch."

At her words, Nico gaped up at the portrait, and then looked at Celia, saying, "Oh . . . my . . . God! You mean to tell me that your family's one of the baronetcies?"

"Yeah," Celia said, giving her a weak smile. "My family's sometimes known as the 'Third Guard' or the 'Hidden Guard,' kind of like the two Old Guard families of Shad and Row baronetcies, but we're not as famous as they are, and we're nowhere near as famous as the Larking baronetcy."

Celia then turned back to her family portrait and said, "I have so much to live up to, it's insane. And that goes for my sisters, too, probably even more so for them than it is for me. I can only imagine the kind of pressure they're under to uphold our family name, especially Kathy."

Silence lingered as Nico absorbed the information through her thoughts, then said, "Your sisters, you must really look up to them, don't you?"

"Yeah,” Celia said. “I may troll Kathy and Maddy a lot with all my tricks, but I do that out of love for them. Honestly, they have no idea how much I truly love them for who they are. They're my rock; they're my strength; they're everything I wish I could ever be and more, much more than they can ever know." Then Celia sighed and lowered her gaze, saying, "I can't imagine losing any of my family."

Another silence lingered after her words.

Yet for the first time, Nico saw the real Celia Hearn for who she truly was: a devoted and loving and caring young woman. All the qualities Nico strove to be for herself and for Mara, all the qualities she found lacking in her parents' relationship with each other, all of it and more she found in the girl standing next to her.

So Nico took Celia's hand and kissed her lips and embraced her as her soul sister, sister to sister, woman to woman.

8

Meanwhile, on the upper wall opposite the family portrait where Celia had pointed out Amelia Hearn’s portrait to Nico, the portrait itself moved and turned its head at the scene below. And unbeknownst to both girls, Amelia's portrait bore witness to something secret and beautiful between one of her granddaughters and the ghost of another girl named Nico Cairns.

This was the fourth time she had seen Nico: the first being last night when she bore witness to a tragedy atop a stage in front of screaming parents and a sick crowd of onlookers cheering at the horror of it; the second being moments afterwards when she had followed her disembodied ghost as Nico herself was tailing Mara Cairns through the streets of the old Rancaster district, where Amelia saw Nico possessing Mara’s body and fighting against Aaron Rancaster inside of the old Richet Square; and the third being later on in the same night just before morning when she saw her appearance inside a certain sukiya-zukuri mansion, where Nico saved one of Celia’s friends from a dream-induced death. Amelia whistled at her bravery and wondered what Lucy Cairns would’ve thought of Nico if she had seen these events herself.

But when Celia and Nico kissed again, longer and deeper this time, Amelia smiled and quoted a verse from the Song of Solomon, saying, “‘Let [her] kiss [thee] with the kisses of [her] mouth: for [her] love is better than wine.’”

Yet before either girl noticed Amelia’s presence and looked up, her portrait returned to its former pose and deadpan expression. As much as she wanted to keep watching the sweet intimacies of two girls, Amelia had other things to do: namely, to find the ghosts of two other deceased mothers before going after Lucy Cairns again. By then, Amelia hoped that Lucy Cairns would no longer be in limbo, though she wondered if she was doing the right thing to include someone so recently dead in on her plans.

Tsuzuku