“That wasn’t really news though.” Julie remarks.

April thinks for a bit. “I guess, but we need to see the positive things in life.”

“There’s nothing positive about any of this.” Blue says with empty eyes.

Julie looks at Blue with a pained smile. “You still got us?”

Blue suddenly gets hit by dizziness. Everything turns black before the scenery changes.

Lilianne stands in front of her, yet again. “Are you alright? You look pale.”

“After everything that just happened I would be pale too, you were planning on using her!” Thomas snarks.

Lilianne ignores him and stares at Sam. “Your eyes? Why are they glowing?”

Thomas jumps up and looks at Sam as well. “Glowing? No way, that shouldn’t be happening!”

“I know it shouldn’t, but that doesn’t change this. She’s awakening, but why now?” Lilianne says panicked.

“She’s not ready yet though, it’s going to be unstable.. Can we stop this?” Thomas questions.

“How would I know? This isn’t supposed to happen! All we can do is share our power a bit so it stabilizes..” Lilianne hastily says.

Thomas’s face turns dark. “No, I already said no to that before and I won’t agree with it now!”

“I’ll do it without you then!” Lilianne shouts.

“Alone? That would cost you all your power!” Thomas gets confused.

“I rather have that, she’ll die without it. And without her my power would become unstable. We would just be going downhill from that point on, there’s no other way.” Lilianne looks determined.

Thomas sighs. “That’s not my problem, is it now?”

Lilianne rolls her eyes. “Nick would weaken without Sam, and guess who’s after that..”

“And what would weaken him? It’s you two who are linked, not Nick.” Thomas sarcastically says.

“They’re the good side of us and we’re the bad side of them. How can they not be linked?” Lilianne is annoyed with Thomas. She instead turns to Sam. “Now open your mouth alright? Also close your eyes.”

Sam obediently listens to Lilianne. She feels a strange liquid being placed in her mouth.

‘It tastes really good, like some kind of fruit.’

The liquid is soon gone, although Sam wants more of it. Sam opens her eyes and Lilianne’s face is right in front of her.

Lilianne bumps her forehead against Sam’s forehead. “It should be alright for now.”

“Now are you gonna give her the talk or not?” Thomas murmurs.

“Guess I’ll have to.” She turns around and sighs “Ok look, all four of us are basically the same person. We’re all linked together, it keeps us in balance. It wasn’t like this before though, we used to be just one person, we just got split. Thomas and I were first. Then you guys came as clones of us, splitting the personality we had yet again.

The basic split is between the good sides of our personality and the bad sides. Thomas and I are the ‘bad’ sides while you and Nick are the good ones. More specifically, Nick got the naive, innocent one. You got the kind but fearful one. Thomas got the bloodthirsty and antisocial one, and I got the cold reckless one.

Nick’s innocence blocks the bloodthirsty part of Thomas, part of it that is. Your fear blocks part of my recklessness. Like that we work together. If one of us dies it changes though, mostly in the bad way. Without you I’d become some cold hot headed person who’d die pretty soon, without me your fear would take control of you, making part of your kindness cold.

The same goes for Thomas and Nick, and I’m not looking forward to Thomas becoming a serial killer.

But it’s not just that link. Nick needs you to balance him as the good side. Thomas needs me to balance him as the bad side. One less of either side makes the other side stronger.

So that’s one of the reasons why it’s terrible to lose any of us. The other reason is just for now, we’re not yet fully awakened to our powers. We need each other’s power to keep it stable, we grow together but once one part is missing the growth will go wrong. I don’t exactly know why, but I’m sure I’ll get that figured out soon.

We get our power from each other, but only from those below you. I as the oldest get it from all of you, making me the strongest as well. You being the second oldest makes you the second strongest.

Now here’s the most important part, followers count as those below us. Gather lots of followers and you’ll gain part of their strength, and maybe once you’re fully stabilized you’ll even get their full power. Once you recognize them as followers they’ll grow with you and get the same rules of gaining part of the power of the ones below them. Like that you’ll get stronger than everyone purely by having more followers.

And obviously we need to get stronger, otherwise we’re stuck here. Anyways, it’s a lot to take in so I’ll end it here for now.” Lilianne explains as good as she can.

Thomas quickly adds in. “Add a layer onto that memory, make sure no one can reach it ever and she’ll delete the memory of getting the info but she’ll be able to remember it at all times. We don’t need anyone prying it out of her.”

Lilianne rolls her eyes. “With what power am I supposed to do that?”

Thomas sighs. “Alright alright, I’ll do it.” He takes a step closer to Sam, slightly pushing Lilianne away, before bumping his forehead against Sam’s forehead.

A warmth comes through and it burns inside Sam’s head. Her vision turns white again.

“We’re not enough?” A voice asks sadly.

“I don’t think we’re any help at all for her now.” Another voice responds.

Blue blinks a bit and her vision returns, the burning pain still in her head.

She’s back in Julie’s hideout, again as if nothing ever happened. The burning pain is the only evidence that something did happen.

‘I should get more followers to get stronger, but how do I recognize followers?’ Blue thinks.

Blue looks at April. ‘Maybe I should do that trick, the one with touching her forehead’

She makes her way towards April and bumps their foreheads. She closes her eyes and starts concentrating. ‘Let me recognize you as a follower!’

[I accept.] April’s voice appears in her head.

Blue feels like there’s a line reaching out from April, she grabs the line mentally. She feels the connection between them, she feels a slight pain in her forehead coming from April, telling her where April is hurt.

‘There’s probably more to it than just this, maybe there’s a way to test it?’

Blue steps back from April and opens her eyes. April is looking at her with a happy smile.

“Next time don’t charge at me like that, okay?” April laughs.

“You’re going to give her a headache like that, we still need her, so don’t break her please.” Julie teases.

Blue turns her face around to look at Julie. ‘I feel like my energy is drained, I don’t think I can try it on her just yet.’

“So, I’ll go to the well near the church, April come help me out so we can carry a bit more and don’t need to go back.” Julie states.

“You’re a slave driver, why are you doing this to me!” April complains with a sigh. Even though she says this she still moves towards the entrance.

“Just go and work without complaining, makes it easier for the both of us.” Julie remarks. They both get out after, leaving Blue with Vince.

“Want a flower crown?” Vince asks Blue with bright eyes.

“Ah, sure.” Blue responds, her thoughts somewhere else.

Vince happily goes to work with his flowers to get another crown.

‘I miss them, why are they leaving me behind yet again!’ Blue thinks.

[Hey, don’t miss us! We’re gonna be back real soon.] April’s voice appears in Blue’s thoughts yet again.

‘Is she really talking? Or is it me making up things?’ Blue wonders.

There’s no other response back, leaving Blue alone again.

‘So what should I do now? Look around the hideout maybe?’

Blue walks around trying to find anything in this hideout.

Starting from the entrance, the fireplace is on the opposite wall a bit to the right. The door has a wall directly on one side and an open room on the other.

There are four beds made out of grass and blankets surrounding the fireplace. That’s all the furniture they have.

Blue notices a door on the other end of the room. ‘Should I go check? No way! I’m all alone! I’m not going into a dark scary place alone! What if there’s someone hiding in there! Wait but if there’s someone hiding there what if they come out now?’

[Why are you panicking?] April’s voice comes in with a worried emotion attached.

‘Is it really her? Am I sending my emotions to her and making her worried?’ Blue asks herself.

[It’s me yes, and I felt you panicking so here I am. Are you okay? Are you in danger?] April’s worried voice rings through her head. It sounds confusing but comforting at the same time.

‘I found this door, I don’t know what’s behind it. What if there’s someone there?’ Blue confesses.

[You mean that door at the end of the room? The place behind it is rotten and fell, so it’s unreachable. There’s not gonna be anyone there. Julie checked it right away when she first came here. You didn’t notice it before?] April explains.

‘Really? How sure are you of that? And maybe I didn’t see a door hidden beneath all this dust.’ Blue snarks.

[If you’re that worried about it we’ll go open the door after we return, just wait patiently alright?] April mentally sighs.

Blue doesn’t respond and instead goes to Vince and sits down next to him. He’s still busy making a flower crown and didn’t seem to notice Blue coming.

Blue just stares at Vince making the crown, and like that time passes slowly.

Vince finishes his crown and turns to face Blue. He stands up and puts the crown on her head. “Look! Look! I finished it! It’s pretty right?”

“Yes, it’s very pretty.” Blue replies distracted.

Vince grabs Blue’s dress and starts pulling on it. “Come, come! Let’s make two more! For the other sis and big sis! I’ll teach you how!”

“Ah.. Sure?” Blue replies confused.

Vince grabs more flowers and gives a few to Blue. “Look first you do this part over that part, and then you add another flower and do that part over the other one.” Vince patiently explains.

‘He seems very patient and focused on things he likes.’

Vince helps Blue start her crown before returning to his own work, he starts humming some notes in no particular order.

Blue relaxes with the constant braiding of flowers and the calming humming in the background. Before she knows it April and Julie return.

“Having fun there?” Julie teases.

Blue reacts surprised. “How long have you been there?”

“Not long enough.” April complains.

“Just wait a bit it’s almost done!” Vince happily continues on his flower crown.

April and Julie just stand there watching them with a gentle smile on their faces.