They had stopped running a long time ago, now huffing.
"Well, if I'll be damned... It's almost as if it took longer to reach this tower than the last! Fuck!"
LD shouted as he threw his hands up casually, his face reflecting his sentences with furrowed eyebrows.
Looking to the floor for a moment, he looked back behind him.
"Mr. Walpurgis, Mrs. Walpurgis!"
They both looked towards him with their eyebrows raised,
"I heard this place is really great! It's like a real big community thing they've got going on! Apparently, you can be secure here if you pay a little fee?"
"That sounds interesting.."
Mrs. Walpurgis slowly noted, her eyes prancing towards the blue sky, and hulled fog around them.
Mr. Walpurgis had looked at him and nodded as he always had, thinking to himself,
"My, how intriguing, a small city inside of a tower?"
She said as he looked towards Mr. Walpurgis, who simply nodded once more.
They had continued to walk through these endless linear cobblestone steps.
If one were to look closely, they could even see what seemed to be like moss on the edges.
"LD, there's another tower on the left, without a walk path. Isn't that peculiar?"
Spoke Mr. Walpurgis, as he scratched the back of his bed-head hair.
"No way, Seriously?!"
Looking left and scanning all the directions, LD had looked curiously.
To him, he had been looking for a cool aesthetic for a tower.
"Hmm.. Are you sure you're not seeing things with this fog? I mean, I really don't se—"
But before he finished... He felt a cold rush of air on him.
Not only that... But great whooshes of air.
Looking to the floor for a moment, he saw something akin to the heavens.
A pale, cerulean sky.
"Hu—aahhhhh?!"
He looked back behind him, and he could see someone's foot sticking out of the bridge.
A pair of black suede shoes.
And the two heard shouts from what seemed to be coming from hell itself.
Fading, fading screaming of a man who had no longer been with them.
As he put his foot back onto the floor, he turned towards Mrs. Walpurgis who had her eyes wide open.
"Y-you... No... Why? No.... ahhh...."
Tremblingly, she put her hands to her eyes..
"Ahhh....!!"
She herself started to shriek.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh...!!!"
He had seemingly disappeared forever into that sky down below.
There was no saving for him.
None for his shouts.
None for his cries.
None for his growth.
Mr. Walpurgis looked with a stale face. He felt as if he was a brick apart of a house.
Just staring.
Not in the sky-like void he kicked LD into...
But deeply staring at the woman's face in front of him.
It was as if... He pondered...
But it truly did come to reality.
"Ahhhaaa... Hahaha! Hahahahahaha!"
Yet those lukewarm tears were not of sadness, or repugnance...
"Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahehehahahahahahah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
It was of a comical laughter.
"Kek. Kekekek. Kehahahahaha."
Yet, there was another laughing.
He who had kicked him off, put his palm to his eyes, laughing.
"Hahahahahahaha! Fuehehehahahaha!"
She howled.
"Kaaahahahaha!"
He laughed.
Viscerally. Hysterically.
"Hiehehaheek... Cough! Haahahahhh!"
Brutally.
Until they both slowly came to a stop, wheezing from laughter.
What was left was only echoes.
Resounding echoes.
Right then and there, Mr. Walpurgis felt that familiar chill, yet warm air that he had always gotten before, staring at her grimacingly smiling.
And before he could move, she ran up to him...
Grabbing his arm...
And twisting it up, spinning him around her side.
To this, he was shocked to see such a swift speed, but likewise, he smirked.
"Heh."
They began dancing.
Dancing.
♪—
Twisting and pulling exaggerated movements, dancing like they were dancing their lives away.
⁓ ♫ ⁓ ♪
Sweat dripped from Mr. Walpurgis' face, as they had performed those swift, choppy, yet impressive moves.
⁓ ♫ ⁓ ♩
She had brung him into an underarm turn with her entrée.
♩⁓ ♫ ⁓♩
Then he, smirking, turned into a pas de deux.
♬⁓♬
They had slowed down after that, bringing their variations of waltz and row boats until, with the final swoop, Mr. Walpurgis had ended the movement with a dip.
This was certainly their coda.
And, he stared at her deeply in her eyes, stuck in form.
Looking deeply into her eyes which had been revealed hidden beneath those white bangs.
Those black eyes.
He looked at her and opened his mouth at last,
—♭
"Who are you?"
She looked back into his crimson eyes, smirking sardonically.
"So we're done hiding it?"
She dragged her pointer finger up to his mouth,
"Ahh... No speaking. You wanted my name, didn't you?"
He simply closed his eyes, as his short brown hair swayed in the distance.
Blackness. That was the only thing he could see.
But, before that, 'Mrs. Walpurgis...'
I have a secret too.
You could hear my thoughts the whole time right?
How I was self narrating.
When I opened my eyes, she looked at me as if she saw a ghost.
But quickly, her gaze softened, and a smile wrapped around her as she said,
"You must be one of those monsters, huh?"
As she backed off from the form, she now stood, staring at him.
I stared back at her.
The foolish tarot user.
"Well, don't be so impatient. "
You have some type of ability to grasp what I'm thinking, or feeling right?
"Huh...?"
So, by me, enjoying myself with the 3rd person, you struggled to read me like LD.
Although, why was that? Without a doubt, it had been a deception to your ability.
"Uhrk! Got me there, haha!"
She softly put her hands up, as looked to the left.
I've grown quite accustomed to this 3rd person-view. It's quite fun to narrate inside my head, after all.
But.
To imitate the Walpurgis bloodline making such a flaw...
Utterly disgusting.
Even I, brought here from during the depths of my despair, with nothing to serve to my family...
You tried to read my mind... But even failed at that. Perhaps, that is your flaw.
A lack of adaptability.
It's completely laudable.
I brought up my finger, the one in the middle sticking right at the woman who stood before me.
And she laughed. A very loud, obnoxious laugh.
"You're too good! Are you sure you just got here yourself? The way we both locked into our roles like that..."
She licked her lips while staring at me, which I found quite gross.
"You're someone truly beyond expectations. I had expected this from 0."
So it was.
I knew from the night I brought out my card, that she was targeting me, or any 'new' tarot users.
Nobody truly dies here.
And pulling my hand out, I dug in my chest, searching for nothing, until I pulled it out.
A card.
With a golden shine, I whipped it out like it was massless.
What the card said, what was inscribed on it...
A picture of a clown... And an insignia.
"0—THE FOOL"
I knew the meaning the second I was brought here. New beginnings.
Assuming as such, that tower is certainly the new beginnings of the arcana.
She looked at me, bewildered.
Then started clapping.
"You sure talk a lot in that think-tank of yours... I thought you were just some type of instinctual animal, or something."
Clapping, she smirked, not with her teeth out as she always had them.
It was something closer to a capricious gaze shifting between observing, anger, and joy.
"Finding a flaw in my ability, without even knowing of this world..."
She dramatically tossed her hair, shouting in an absurd confidence.
"You may call me The Walden! But, if it's you..."
I winced as I was about to come...
It may very well be corny.
"Mari! That's my name. You ruined my plan, so it's all on you now! Take responsibility!"
Alright, yeah, I've had enough of this.
I put my card back wherever it was in my chest, fading into gold dust.
After doing it for the first time, I could kind of feel it inside me. Pretty nasty stuff.
He began walking forward, to the tower city, or community.
Yet, she stood in place, looking back.
"Wait—! I was gonna offer you to become my vassal! I'm really powerful around here, you know!"
Not interested.
He kept walking, and walking.
"Well alright then, you're making a horrible choice! Have fun!"
Mr. Walpurgis took one more look back at her, with her staring with a hmph.
And I continued walking forward, ignoring her.
Speaking in the 3rd person is quite nice actually, I think I'll just stick to it.
"Kekek."
A smile accidentally drew across my face. I've been doing a lot of those recently.
And so, I—he, walked despite Mari's protests.
Let's stick with the 3rd person.
He looked towards the ground, as he faded into the fog, uttering, whispering only a few words.
"I hope we meet again, LD."
Wishing for reprieve, he only sunk down in forgiveness.
He knew he had taken the hard path, the strange path to stop her plans...
But it was needed.
And in this, he truly wished the best for LD.
As he put his hand in his pocket, if one were to take a glimpse, they could see a familiar glowing white glint.
For a moment, if one were to look…
They resembled glasses.