All the sensations of the outside world came to a stop once the latch closed.

The sun warmed the room as it shined through the skinny window cut out on the upper wall. It gave the room natural lighting without seeing the ugly parking lot behind the salon. On the sill sat a variety of ivy plants gifted to me at the grand opening. I was surprised I kept them alive this long. They were slowly taking over the wall, which was the only pop of color outside the Twin Star logo. The rest of the room was a boring cream.

"You got yourself a library in here."

I glanced over to Remington, who hovered behind one of the two beige guest chairs. Their glasses reflected the lit up bookshelves that were built on the wall behind my desk. It could be seen as mood lighting, but really I hated using the bright overhead lights. The middle had a shorter fake cabinet that hid the safe. Above that was a photo hung on the wall with all of us that worked here. The twin fish representing the Pisces constellation of the logo circled it.

"Believe it or not, there’s a lot more at home." My eyes lowered down to the floor in a bit of embarrassment. "These books were ones I read and enjoyed. The others took over my room, along with my movie collection."

Remington chuckled softly, "Ain't nothin' wrong with that. I have a collection of my own."

"Oh?"

It didn't quite come as a surprise. On our way in, I saw that Remington was a nerd like us when I spotted they were wearing a bracelet from a multiplayer online game that I played with the twins. Well, I used to until they left me for their friends. I probably wouldn't have noticed, but I had just ordered the same one for Anna and Gabriel's birthday.

Remington nervously laughed and looked away, seemingly shrinking as they hugged themselves. "It's nothin' special."

"It's okay. You're among friends!" They tilted their head to one side as they looked at me. I pointed to my wrist. "Blood Oath Online, right?" Their lack of reply made me grit my teeth. "Sorry. I'm assuming things again."

Remington looked around confused. Then, they began to look down at themselves. A little shriek came out when they spotted their bracelet. "I forgot I was wearin' this and was so confused how you knew I played."

We both started laughing. All the tension that they were holding finally fell off their shoulders as they relaxed. It was a relief for me too. It was hard to talk to someone who was scared of change, like getting a haircut, so having a common topic to discuss always helped.

I finally pushed myself off the door. "The colors are for a healer, right?"

"Yeah!" Suddenly, Remington's smile dropped. They lowered their head. "I could talk about it all day, but I don't wanna waste your time while you're at work. I just need the price for a hair dye, and I'll be out of your, well, hair."

I made a drum roll in the air. This got Remington laughing again. Before I took a seat, I pulled out the under desk drawer. There were a bunch of fidget toys I had for nervous guests inside, but most importantly were my business cards and pens. I took one of each. "Do you bleach your hair on your own?"

"I have a friend that helps, but yeah."

After closing the drawer, I looked up and gave my best reassuring smile. "Have a seat, if you'd like. I'll write down everything for you." I let gravity drop me in my own chair. "And, I wouldn't mind if you kept talking about the game. Tell me your favorite part."

I started listing the approximate price for a dyeing session, along with a conditioning treatment that I would like to do first to make sure that their hair was healthy enough.

Remington nodded, "Sure! There's a lot of things, so let me think about it."

We sat in mostly silence, except for the soft hum Remington made in thought. It was slowly turning into grunts. I couldn't help but laugh. "Memmy does that too," I said, thinking of the one friend I made in the game.

"M-Memmy?"

"Yeah. Dottie Meme, but I call her Memmy. I don't know if you're on our server, but she's a wandering healer that helps anyone needing it." I looked up to give Remington the card, but they were looking at me with wide eyes. "Did I say something wrong?"

Remington quickly shot up from their chair to take the card. "No! No, I was thinkin' that— What's your favorite part?"

"Well, I guess it would be my friend Memmy. If it wasn't for her, I would have dropped the game after the twins started playing ahead of me and missed out on an amazing story!" A nervous laugh escaped. "Though, I don't feel I'm a good friend to her. I haven't been online much since I finished the main story. I dislike sitting at the computer for too long."

"Gaming like that ain't for everyone. I'm sure she understands." Remington flipped my business card to look at the back. "Oh, this isn't half bad. I thought it was gonna be a thousand dollars or somethin'."

"A thousand dollars?!" I called out in terror. "There's nothing over a couple of hundred, and even then I'm willing to work with you."

They adjusted to pull out their wallet from their back pocket. I almost told them payment would be later but stopped myself as I realized Remington was putting the card away. "I appreciate it. Mitzi mentioned y'all did no talkin' day, so I was gonna make an appointment for then. But if you're willin' to listen to me ramble about game mechanics, I'll have to come during the week." They shined a bright smile, "I'm glad I've met ya."

I laughed softly, "It's nice to meet you again again."

Remington froze for a moment while tucking their wallet back. "Again again again, actually. I used to babysit the twins. Wait, are they Redd and Bloo?"

"Yeah." Remington had said something, but I didn't hear them. My face twisted into confusion. I knew at one point my parents hired someone to watch the twins after my younger sister didn't watch them and Gabriel ended up breaking his arm, but I didn’t remember it being Remington. Actually, I didn’t remember their face at all. "When did you babysit them?"

"Oh, it was a while ago now." They took a moment to think. "I was about 19, and your daddy heard I was lookin' for extra cash. I only had…"

Suddenly, I was standing in the doorway of my house looking up at a younger Remington. Their hair was shorter then, long on the top while cut short on the sides. The copper red complimented their freckled cheeks to brighten their face despite the annoyed look they were giving 15 years old me pestering them.

Mama was in the background getting a few more things ready. It was the first time we were leaving the mischievous twins with someone outside our family after they jumped out of a second story window with trash bags for parachutes.

"…have a bike to my name, and I can't peddle all the way to the mall. My athletic days are over." Remington looked me down, which felt gross to me at the time. It was before I had started transitioning, and I hated how I looked. I knew Remington meant nothing by it with how their eyebrows knitted in worry. They simply noticed I was in my track uniform ready to go to the meet. "No offense, 'course."

"You could always take the bus," I suggested. "That's what me and my friends do if our parents are busy."

They shook their head with a wrinkling of their nose at the mere thought, "That ain't for me. Too many people in a small space."

"Yeah, it can get crowded sometimes."

I looked back into the house to check on Mama, who was trying to calm Gabriel down. He never liked change in routine. Remington had been over for dinner a few times, to make sure everyone was going to get along. My parents even left to go on a date once. I was still there, but Remington was watching them the whole time. Everything went great then. Anna was already ready to play and clung to Remington's leg. I think it was her way to let Gabriel know it was okay.

"What do you need to go to the mall for? Meeting up with friends?"

They shook their head. It was a moment before they replied, as if they were trying to figure out if they wanted to bring something up but decided against it. "There's a new bookstore that just opened up. I wanted to try gettin' back into readin' again."

My gasp of excitement couldn't be contained. "I recently started reading again too! I can recommend some to you. Maybe we could go together, and—."

"No," Papa's voice called out. He placed his hand on my head and lowered it gently. This gave me double vision. I was still stuck in the memory, looking down at my track suit but also the red shirt and suspenders I wore today. Papa was talking to Remington, yet Remington was calling out my name in concern.

Then came pain. My chest felt like a bonfire was burning inside trying to burst out. It quickly faded as a hand gently pulled my head back. It slid over my eyes and sent an instant cooling effect to put out the fire. There was only one witch in Calabaza that could do this kind of high leveled magic.

"Fernando?"

"Sorry," he said. He let out one of his long sighs. It was something Papa and him both did, one most likely learning it from the other in their many days together as Archive partners. "I need to put a spell on you before I help Tetsuo. It's going to feel like a heavy vest, and you won't be able to talk. Okay?"

"I'm not sure if I should say okay, but okay…"

I sensed Fernando's free hand rise up. Despite not being able to see, I could sense everything thanks to the familiar frequency. First, he encased the room in a barrier that kept anything from coming in or getting out. It was something that Papa would put up while we practiced magic, but I never thought about its use outside of that.

Then, his magic rose up from the floor and engulfed Remington. It made them have an outline, and it was a bit of comfort for me to know they were here with whatever was going on. The panic of the unknown finally took hold of me.

"What's going on?" I asked as I started to squirm in the chair.

Fernando cleared his throat. "I need to put my hand on your chest. It's going to feel like a big smack."

I was about to ask again, in case he didn't hear me, but then there was a hit on my chest. I wasn't expecting the impact to knock the wind out of me. I tried leaning forward to hug myself, but Fernando pulled my head back against the chair.

"Just a little longer," he muttered.

The fire sparked to life again. I was having trouble taking in any air, partly afraid my breath would fuel its growth once more.

Then, there was the feeling of a metallic click, as if a padlock had been snapped closed. The action put out the bonfire once and for all.

Fernando's hand slipped away from my eyes. The violet hue of his magic shimmered across the ceiling. It was like looking at the images of the cosmos NASA shared. When we were little, before Jaynee was adopted, Fernando would let Estelle and me watch his magic to go to sleep. I almost wanted to think about it, but thinking about the past is what got us here.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My chest lifted, fell, and lifted again without any issue. There was a slight shift in the frequency, and the outline around Remington disappeared. They were free.

"Wow," Remington gasped. "It's such a pretty purple."

The puzzle on Fernando's face got me to chuckle softly. It wasn't often his stoic face changed. "You're human, aren't you?"

"Last I checked."

"How the hell are you seeing magic then?"

Remington shrugged with a, "I dunno."

I didn’t know why I never took that into consideration. The only people that could see magic were witches that were taught to use their frequency. Magicals, such as Atlanteans, vampires, and witches that weren't taught magic, could only sense it. Humans, on the other hand, couldn't see or sense anything except the very obvious portals that showed into another location.

I gestured my hand toward Remington, "They can see the shadow monster too."

Fernando's eyes filled with terror. I sat up on alert at that. "Say again?"

"There was a weird shadow following us the other day. At first, it was only me that could see it. Then, Remington did when we were waiting for Jaynee outside Villa's," I explained.

"It's progressed further than I thought," Fernando said to himself. Then, he pointed between us. "You both need to stop interacting if you don't want this to get worse."

I stood up, using the desk to support me just in case. Everything seemed stable. "What does that mean? What's going on?"

Fernando took a deep breath. "There has always been something wrong. You know that by how your magic doesn't come when you call." My shoulders dropped at that. It was one thing to say it about myself, but it always hurt more when someone else mentioned it. "Tomás was trying to fix it, but—" He let out a sigh. "I'm sorry. I can't say anymore without breaking my promise to him."

"Why are you keeping a promise to a dead man?"

"Remington, you can't say things like that!" I called out.

They covered their ears. "It seems dumb to me to keep a promise to someone that's gone when you're the one sufferin' for it."

Despite Remington having a point, it still hurt my feelings in the way they said it. There wasn't time to dwell on it as suddenly the room rushed back to its normal, dull colors. I quickly looked over to Fernando, who was going through a portal back home.

"Wait!"

The portal closed the instant he was fully through.

I made fists out of frustrations. "First Jaynee and now Fernando! Why are every Hernandez in this town walk away like that?"

"Hey, Tetsuo…" My eyes drifted to Remington, who sat nervously picking at their nails. "Are you okay? That was really intense."

Slowly, I nodded. "I think so. Fernando fixed, uh, whatever was going on." Remington turned to look at the plants. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. It was shocking hearing you say that, and it hurt my feelings. I miss my papa. You know?"

"I'm sorry." Remington stopped picking and started rubbing their hands over each other instead. "I'm not trying to make an excuse saying this, but… I dunno, you're my friend. It ain't right that he won't tell ya what's going on."

I took a deep breath. With what little Fernando said, I already had a clue. Something was wrong with my soul. It must not be too bad, or else Papa would have told me. Right?

Right?