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One artifact left to collect, one obstacle left to overcome, and one last event to clear until it was finally all over.

The kid in me was practically squirming at his desk sat next to the window right now, barely unable to bear the allure of freedom that was just one thin glass pane away.

“Over there,” I said upon spotting a small secluded tent pitched nearby that I definitely recall never having been there early this morning. “They’re funneling us indoors now… what do you think that means?”

“I don’t care,” Amelia offered up as her best guess, locked onto target, and already marching forward. “Like all others, it would be dealt with swiftly.”

Didn’t know Terminators came in vampire format now.

I followed closely behind, and while she clearly didn’t think it much as something worth thinking about, my mind was brewing with the type of challenges you could possibly set inside such a small, cramped interior.

The tent took up space that was roughly the size of two of your average checkered picnic mats, and height-wise, I’m pretty sure if I tip-toed, my head might just graze the ceiling.

For a final trial, the venue was really looking to be quite the anticlimax. Then again, who’s to say I ain’t just speaking too soon? Not the size that matters after all, right? It’s how you use it.

.....

Let’s see how they use it.

Amelia went in first, barging without care into the narrow gap and parting it wide open into the outline of her figure. I stepped in not as rudely, simultaneously expecting everything and nothing to come and greet us, and so far, things were coming along within expectation.

The first thing I registered was the silence, the barren space around us, where I had presumed a member of staff might be idling in wait. But that thought was quickly ushered out of my mind, making space for the second thing I noticed immediately right after.

There was an alarming number of flowers in bloom scattered across the premises, placed and organized as if in adornment, with wreaths of vibrant green hung against every wall connected from each one to next by silky white drapes that looked more in place draping the halls of a bountiful wedding.

It’s like we just randomly stumbled onto a set to the finale of a romance flick, and there was no doubt in my mind that was clearly the intention here.

What was the plan here?

Then, in the center of it all, flushed and surrounded in a cluster of crimson winter roses was a small round table no bigger than a stool, and perched atop its timbered surface sat only a small slip of paper.

Amelia spotted it first actually, quickly making a beeline for it, plucking it up between the tips of her claws and raising it before her furrowed eyes. A second later, she scoffed loud and brazen, her gaze becoming even narrower.

“What is this nonsense now?!”

“Give it here,” I said, swiping the paper away before she could use her claws as a makeshift shredder. “You’re probably reading it wrong.”

“Oh, but I assure you,” She said haughtily, as my eyes fell to the contents of the thin piece of parchment. “There is no other way to make sense of it.”

It took me only a single second to read it all the way through. On the account of the fact that it was only a single sentence long. However, that didn’t stop me from reading it again, then once more for the third time, a fourth time for good measure, and then a fifth because… because I don’t know.

“Demonstrate the sincerity of your love, and you shall reap the rewards of earnestness,” I read for the final time, aloud this time, hoping perhaps someone would spring out from somewhere and declare it was all a joke if I did.

Suffice it to say, no one did.

“Demonstrating our sincerity,” Amelia folded her arms, keeping them tightly closed around herself. “Implying what exactly?”

She was staring at me like she was expecting me to give her the answer flat-out. But I didn’t have to, I’m pretty sure she already knew… alas, like me… she was just in complete denial of it.

Guess, it’s up to me to snap us back to reality.

“It’s a game made for couples, remember?” I said slowly, balling up the piece of paper tightly within my fist. “Amelia, I’m sure you’re not a stranger as to what it is couples like to do, are you?”

“No,” She said, nearly shouting, staring daggers skewering straight through my heart and soul. “I’m not doing it! This is preposterous! With you—ack! I rather die than dare even indulge the thought!”

Ack?

Did this girl really just squawk at me?

“I refuse! I refuse!” She stamped hard into the powdered snow like a brat having a full-on temper tantrum. “This is insipid! Utterly demeaning! No, this would not come to pass! I shall see to it that it won’t!”

“Hey, I’m not exactly jumping for joy at the opportunity either,” I said, trying to calm her down. “You have any other ideas, feel free to suggest. You’re good at finding your way around the rules, aren’t you? I’m begging you, get us out of this one.”

But even as I said it, I knew it was futile. Unlike every other instance, there was no lock for her to tear away, no poor guy she could glare and leer at into submission. Brute force wasn’t going to get us anywhere with this obstacle.

No, this here requires a more gentler, tender approach to overcome…

And seeing Amelia as her eyes darted everywhere for a solution, her fangs showing bare and menacing in frustration, I knew she was gradually coming to the same conclusion as I was.

Y’know, thinking about it, this was actually the easiest obstacle you could ever hope to be confronted with. If it was a test of sincerity, of commitment… with Adalia, I wouldn’t have even wasted a second.

Now there was just absolutely no way. This was it—we’ve ground to a complete halt. I refuse to take things any further than this. For me, for Amelia… no way was I gonna make her do something like this.

Honestly, we have a good run… but it’s game over, now.

“Amelia, y’know what?” I glanced up at her, slowly shaking my head at her. “Let’s just forget about—”

“We are not quitting,” Amelia immediately interjected, blaring loudly with determination. “Do not even suggest that we do precisely that.”

And hearing her say that just went ahead and plunged every sense of common sense I had into a bottomless freefall. Was she seriously serious right now?

“You made a promise to Adalia,” She reminded me, taking a defiant step forward and closing our distance. “This is her wish! You are obligated to fulfill it, just as I am bound to see it through.”

“Yeah, but, Amelia…” I sputtered out, flinging my arms in exasperation. “...don’t you think this is just a step too far for it?”

“Is this your extent, then?” She blinked once. “Truly, this is the length you would go for if for the sake of my sister? Such a simple, mundane manner and you lack the gall for it?”

“Yeah, having to lock lips with you,” I rolled my eyes at her. “Very simple and mundane alright, sure. Hey, weren’t you the one who said to only save my love for your sister?”

“You don’t love me, you complete imbecile,” She growled at me, every syllable raspier than the last. “You love her. So do this for her.”

This was completely insane. How the hell did this even happen? She went from adamantly refusing to persistently coercing in a manner of a few minutes… and speaking of minutes, our time was still winding down, every second counted, our bar gradually getting lower and lower with every moment passed.

If I was going to do something, then I needed to do it now.

The look in her eyes, I swear… it’s like nothing else mattered to her besides her sister’s happiness. Devotion was good, wholesome even… but this was different. Love, loyalty, fondness, Amelia had them in spades, but there was something else harboring there deep in the resolve of her gaze.

What was it?

Argh, fuck it!

“Fine, fine,” I sighed, conceding. “I’ll do it.”

“Of course you will,” Amelia said. “It was not a request.”

And then crept in a sudden silence between us, and with it, the tension in the air grew sharper, heavier… breathing felt harder, and I couldn’t move a muscle without feeling like I was doing something wrong… and that feeling only intensified as she slowly crept closer toward me.

I tried to focus anywhere else, tried to focus on the pretty flowers, the vibrant decorations, but it was no use Amelia was Adalia to the tee from the roundness of her cheeks, the slight droop of her gaze, to the pale, sultry outline of her slender lips… I couldn’t help but stare forward again as her silky, silver locks began to gradually envelop all.

“How about you?” The words slipped out of me quickly and clumsily. “Are you… you’re fine with this?”

With her this close, I could clearly see every micro-movement of her expression as her brows knitted close in a downward slant.

“I hate you,” She said. “And I assure you, nothing you do now or ever, would ever change that fact in the slightest.”

And in spite of myself, I couldn’t help but smile.

“Good to know.”

“Just pretend I am her,” She sternly reminded me, her breath icy cold against the skin of my mouth. “Just feel that I am her.”

I didn’t say a thing, simply allowing my eyes to close, my mind to wander, and of course, my lips to feel.

It was a strange sensation, very strange, very weird, very fast. Adalia was the only thing keeping me rooted in place, that allowed me to push back, allowed me to feel—to pretend.

For the longest time or maybe even no time at all, the two of us kept pretending to the best of our capabilities.

Then, with an abruptness incomparable to how it started, Amelia pulled away, pushed me back, and nearly spat in my face, gagging.

“I heard something,” She said between retches, vigorously rubbing her lips raw. “Disgusting.”

Meanwhile, I was just completely numb, which I supposed was a blessing. And indeed, just as she claimed, she did hear something, after all. Someone left something at the entrance of the tent. Just plopped it like discarded trash before walking away unseen and unheard.

Still feeling far away from the current present, I slowly shambled my way over closer, and once I had it in my hands after fumbling several times with my grip, I realized it was the final piece that we came all this way for.

“Here,” I called out, turning around and waving the piece at her in a show of triumph. “We got it. We did it.”

After collecting herself, rebuilding her composure, and putting what just transpired far behind her, Amelia returned to her usual spiteful, brooding self, marching past me and out the tent without so much as a second glance… no doubt keener than ever before to put an end to this game once and for all.

Same, Amelia, same. I’m with you, I’m so with you.

“Hey,” I said, quickly catching up to her stride, feeling slightly restless watching her expression. “Um, I’m sorry you had to do that.”

Amelia blinked, flicked a glance, before quickly staring ahead again.

“I was willing,” She said quietly. “Your apology is unnecessary, and frankly I find it quite patronizing that you would even think it so.”

“Well, then, I’m sorry you feel that way,” I shrugged, throwing her another precarious glance. “How do you feel?”

“Leave it alone. I feel nothing.”

“Nothing for me, I know, but…” I puckered in my lips, still feeling the tingles of a pressure only recently lifted. “Back then, it felt like you…”

“I, what?” She urged, her gaze gleaming with danger. “What is it that you have observed of me this time? Out with it.”

“You told me to pretend, and I did. You told me to feel Adalia, and I did,” I said, feeling the words fly out my mouth without any sense of cohesion. “But you? What about you?”

I heard her tongue resound with an impatient click. “What about me?”

“Call me crazy, but you kiss like you were feeling something,” I finally blurted out. “So, if you don’t mind saying… who exactly were you feeling?”

.....

“No one,” She answered in an instant, scoffing, snorting, acting ever so indifferent, yet then also came the rapid flutter of her eyes, the twitch in her lips speaking only to the contrary. “Yes, you are right… you are indeed utterly insane.”

And faster than I could ever hope to keep up with in a stroll, Amelia tripled her speed and with a sharp gust of wind, I was left in her dust, in a sprinkle of upheaved snow, and a confusing swirl of her feelings left in her wake.

I swear, Adalia’s far easier to understand than she was.