Once they signed the contract and had the details of the rift explained to them, Mr. Karz wasted no time in tossing them into the deep end, telling them to clear out two whole sections of the rift, where the monsters had been accumulating too much.

  Despite the contract claiming a massive eighty percent of all essences they harvest, the twins couldn’t help but be a little excited about finally getting to be rift hunters again. As much as their first official venture into a rift sucked – understatement of the century – they still wanted to be rift hunters.

  The door closed behind them with a slam, and the party of four were left in the giant building along with the rift’s Gate. The manager had claimed nobody had decorated the interior of this building and yet, they found themselves inside a twisted and uncanny theater – audience seats, catwalks between them, lights shining from somewhere, and right in the middle, the rift’s Gate loomed in place of a stage.

  “That’s so thematic,” Linza murmured, admiring the surroundings.

  “It’s not. This is the rift’s bleedover,” Dusk explained as he gestured to the walls. “There’s wards on the walls to prevent it from spreading too much.”

  “Oh, huh. Weird.”

  “Anyway, we’re gonna go with the same formation like we used to back in the Wash, okay?” Dusk asked and waited for the others to nod. “Obviously, when we have to perform, we’ll break that, but otherwise, we always want to stay in formation. I’m the tank, Dawn is the skirmisher, Layna is backline support, and Linza frontline support. Sounds good?”

  “Sure.”

  “I’ll do my best!”

  With that decided, the party stepped toward the Gate. Dusk took a deep breath and stepped in first, already expecting the nauseating feeling of the transfer. What he didn’t expect was for his other body to stumble with a groan due to the differing points of view.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Sorry, I’m fine,” Dawn mumbled as Dusk landed on the other side and stepped forward to make space for the others while scanning the surroundings.

  Layna eyed her with a frown but didn’t press. Instead, she and Linza stepped into the Gate together.

  “Whoaaaa, oh god, what?” Linza squawked as she tumbled out of the Gate on the other side. “Oh, that’s so weird!”

  Dusk snorted and automatically held out his hand to help her stand, then felt very uncomfortable for helping a human as she recovered her footing. He withdrew his hand and turned away, only giving a shallow nod at her thanks. Instead, he focused on not falling on his face when the Gate swallowed his other body.

  Once everyone made it, they fell into their agreed formation and began walking.

  The immediate area around the Gate formed a long hallway with doors here and there. As the manager requested, they entered the third door on the right and were greeted with what would likely become a familiar sight in the next few days – a twisted facsimile of a theater, reminiscent of what they’d seen just outside the rift.

  Unlike there though, this place also featured a big illuminated stage, where all the audience seats pointed. The stage itself already featured several cardboard props – trees whose leaves blew in an invisible wind, clouds suspended from above whose shape subtly changed like a real cloud, a wooden house with light coming out of its window. It made the props feel real despite looking very much fake.

  Undeterred, the party walked down the aisle to one of the small staircases leading to each side of the stage, and with a round of nods, marched on up.

  As soon as they all made it up, the staircases both sunk into the ground and the stage transformed. The ropes holding the clouds and trees lifted and instead lowered in a different set of props – a kitchenette, a table, three chairs, and a fake wall that separated the stage in half. A signboard popped out of the ground between the stage and the audience seats, saying ‘Scene 1 - Homecoming’.

  The party tensed as the big double doors on each side burst open and a horde of monsters flooded in. Stick figures in theater masks, floating bedsheets with antenae, a faceless humanoid dressed in a tree costume…

  “Oh god, what…” Linza murmured.

  Way too many of them. Even if they were supposed to be culling them, they couldn’t reasonably fight all of this at once – they had to play along with this rift’s gimmick. More importantly, if they didn’t play along, the rift wouldn’t let them access the areas they were supposed to be culling.

  “Let’s get our costumes,” Dusk whispered.

  A quick look around revealed an apron resting in the corner of the ‘room’, as well a crate with the other costumes near the edge of the stage, where the ‘audience’ couldn’t see it.

  Dusk tried grabbing the apron.

  “Ow!”

  But it zapped him.

  Dawn tried as well but faced the same result. Then came Layna, who grabbed the thing without an issue.

  “I guess this is my role,” she murmured with a wry smile. “I’m the mom you’re returning to, huh?”

  “...Guess so.”

  “Let’s go get our own costumes, then,” Dusk said and grabbed Linza’s hand before marching around the wall ‘outside’ with Dawn in tow.

  The crate had a pair of ratty cloaks – one red and one blue – and a scarf. After a few experimental pokes and annoying shocks, they determined the scarf beloged to Linza, while Dusk and Dawn were meant to get the blue and red cloaks respectively.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The moment everyone put on their ‘costumes’, the lights dimmed and a single spotlight appeared at the edge of the stage, ready for the trio to walk into it.

  They exchanged a glance.

  “Remember, you can’t break character.”

  “R-Right.”

  With a deep breath, the twins straightened up, grabbed Linza’s arm, and walked out into the spotlight with a fake smile.

  A soft piano music began playing.

  “And here we are!” He gestured to the fake house. “Told you it wasn’t very far.”

  “A-Ah, yeah.”

  “Nervous?” Dusk asked as the trio slowly walked to the door in the fake wall with the spotlight following them.

  “A little bit,” Linza admitted. “What is she like?”

  “Oh, Mamma Layna’s the awesome! She makes the best bread!” Dawn excitedly shouted, ignoring the pang of pain at calling someone a Mamma. Why the heck had she even done that?

  They stopped by the door and Dusk knocked, while Dawn continued to blabber.

  “Just you wait! You bite into one and you won’t be able to stop!”

  The human awkwardly chuckled.

  The door swung open a moment later, the catkin standing there with a wry smile.

  “Mamma, we’re home!”

  “Ah, there you are you little rascals! How were your adventures?”

  “We went all the way to the pond today!”

  “We found a this biiiig fish in there!”

  “I see.” Layna glanced at the last person present. “And who is this?”

  “Oh, this is Linza!”

  “We found her by the pond!”

  “Ah, is that so? Nice to meet you, Linza. I don’t think I’ve seen you around. Are you a traveller?”

  “N-Nice to meet you. I, um, I actually don’t remember much of anything but–”

  The piano slammed several off-key notes and stopped for a moment, making all four actors freeze. Their ‘audience’ clamored in dissatisfaction.

  Dusk gave Linza a look.

  “...But I do remember I was with my sister. I… I don’t know where she is. I need to find her,” she rattled off, a tad too quickly.

  Luckily, the music resumed as if nothing happened and the monsters in the audience calmed down.

  “I see. Well, let’s not stand in the doorway. Come on in!”

  Layna stepped aside, letting the trio walk in. As they slipped inside, the door automatically closed itself behind them, mildly disturbing them.

  Still, they managed to ignore it.

  “Come sit, dinner’s all ready” Layna invited, perfectly fitting into the maternal role.

  The three chairs slid out from under the table and turned to each of the three, inviting them to sit down.

  Linza hesitated, but the twins sat down without making a fuss to not further mess up the scene and trigger the punishment. Linza forced herself to follow.

  Probably for the best if she wasn’t too eager – this undecisiveness fit her role better.

  To the twins’ surprise, Layna did actually put bowls of generic-looking soup in front of them. Not wanting to break the scene yet, Dawn warily grabbed a spoon, scooped some up, put it into her mouth, and…

  It tasted like air. Huh.

  “Mmm, it’s so good!” she exclaimed and dug in.

  Dusk followed suit.

  Linza did so as well, but much more warily.

  “So, tell us about your sister, Linza,” the catkin prompted. “What is she like?”

  Linza’s spoon paused.

  “Sherry is… smart. Very smart and practical. Sometimes I felt like she was the older sister.” A small smile found its way onto Linza’s face as her eyes gained a faraway look. “She’s also very shy. She never had that many friends and I worried for her. It’s why I spent so much time with her. After our parents died, I guess we sort of became each others’ best friends…”

  Doesn’t remember much, uh huh.

  “Where did you last see her, then?”

  “It was…” She paused. “I don’t remember.”

  Another discordant note from the piano. The twins heard the sound of someone getting up from the audience seats.

  “Somewhere in the city,” Linza quickly clarified. “But I don’t remember where exactly.”

  The piano resumed. The group relaxed again, though Dawn felt pretty annoyed at Linza’s lies messing the scene up.

  Mr. Karz had told them that telling significant lies during a scene would agitate the rift, but they hadn’t realized what that would mean when dragging along a human who actively lied about their amnesia.

  And now that they thought about it, they also weren’t exactly telling the truth at all times, were they?

  “Do you remember what city, at least?” Layna pressed, surprising both the twins and Linza.

  “I…” The human paused, clearly leery of telling another lie. “It’s very far away. I doubt you would find it on a map.”

  To the twins’ surprise, the piano continued playing.

  “I see… It’s not on Eria, then?”

  “Eria?”

  “The continent we are on.”

  “Ah, yeah. Probably not.”

  A moment of silence followed as the twins continued to eat air.

  “Well, that’s okay. I’m sure you’ll find your sister sooner or later, no matter where she is,” Layna finally said, her tone oddly warm. “After all, she’s smart, right? Even if she got tangled into something dangerous, she’ll probably be fine.”

  “That’s… I don’t know about that. She’s probably as lost as I am.”

  There was a moment of silence, where nobody knew what to say.

  “Uh, sorry for bringing the mood down. I… I guess I shouldn’t stay here,” Linza awkwardly said and stood up.

  “Wait! Where are you going?” Layna asked with concern in her tone.

  “I’m… going to find my sister. Sorry for ruining your dinner.”

  Linza turned around, walked to the door, and–

  “Hold on.” Dusk grabbed her hand, prompting her to turn around.

  Surprise danced in her eyes.

  “We’re going to help you,” Dusk declared, going with the flow.

  Not that they actually planned on babysitting her until she found her sister but–

  The piano screeched again, and this time, two monsters jumped up onto the stage with an angry roar – one of the tree costume ones, and a stick figure with an angry theater mask.

  The masked one lunged. Dusk stepped forward with his shawl, Dawn palmed a card, Layna–

  Shadowy spikes snapped out of the ground and pierced both monsters, stopping everyone in their tracks.

  The shadows retracted, dropping the monsters to the ground. Two essences wrenched themselves out the corpses and flew right to the culprit.

  Dusk almost twitched when he saw Linza’s satisfied smirk filled with malice as she looked down at her loot.

  A moment of silence followed.

  They… could continue the scene now that they had beaten the monsters. They should continue the scene if they didn’t want more and more of the monsters to attack them.

  But seeing how easily Linza’s Mythical skill dealt with those two, couldn’t she just as easily wipe the floor with all the other monsters at the same time? Shouldn’t they let her do that and just force their way to where they needed to go?

  Maybe not. Looking at her expression, she might turn into another Jake if she got used to this much violence.

  Dusk took a deep breath.

  “Alright,” he said, drawing Linza’s attention to him. “I wish you good luck finding your sister.”

  Linza stared at him.

  The piano resumed playing.

  She looked down at the cards, then back at him while vanishing the cards into her soul pocket. A pained smile appeared on her face.

  “Thank you… for wishing me luck, for helping me when I was lost and confused… I hope to see you again.”

  Without another word, Linza opened the door, and left, the spotlight following her. The trio could only stare as she marched to the edge of the stage to give the ‘audience’ the illusion of leaving the scene.

  Dawn glanced at the table.

  There were only three chairs, she belatedly realized.

  Had the rift done this on purpose?

  As Linza reached the edge, the piano wrapped up its melody and the lights turned off, plunging everyone into darkness for split second. Then the big lights turned on and when the twins hurriedly looked out at the audience seats, they were all empty. Finally, a curtain surrounding the stage partially unfurled, revealing a passageway.

  With a round of sighs, the group relaxed.

  “There we go…”

  “That was more stressful than I thought it would be.”

  They heard the footsteps as Linza returned back to them, now that the scene was over.

  The twins found it hard to look her in the eyes, though.

  “Let’s keep going,” Dusk declared as he pulled the ratty cloak off, pushed past the leftover props, and headed toward the new passageway.

  The others followed without a word.