"Let lonely lights in autumn
tell twisted tales in winter,
of one oasis in the summer
again abandoned after spring. . ."

A voice filled with longing pierced into the empty and dim night, singing what sounded like a nursery rhyme filled with meaningless verses.

But the lyrics meant much more to it's singer as she danced freely on the sooty roof of a scorched bakery, her pale feet twirling along with her faded yellow nightgown as she teetered forward on the edge of the building and looked down, lost in the white haze below as she mumbled the last parts of her made-up song.

"Again abandoned can't you see."

Abandoned just like me.

She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, the cold from the air incomparable to the chill that had come over her heart. She took a step away from what could have been a deadly fall even with the cushioning of the fog then smiled brightly and turned to face her only audience of one.

"So, how was it?"

"This time around, I really liked it's alliteration and tune."

Her question was answered by a singsong voice and a low chuckle as her brother looked in her direction and smiled back. His short blonde hair seemed like a golden halo around his head and his blue eyes glittered in the faint moonlight that filtered through fog as his gaze met hers.

"Good job, Eddy."

Edythe clapped her hands together happily and skipped across the slanted rooftop to stand next to her twin. "I'm glad you loved it."

While speaking she took his hand and ran back toward the edge of the roof, pulling him along and bursting into a fit of giggles. The girl had long turned the deserted town into her personal paradise.

"Ah, quit messing around." Esau grumbled and swatted at her, his boots slapping against the roof tiles then meeting no resistance as he fell straight down with his cackling sister.

"I swear it, you've changed." He tried to hit her but missed again as she twisted agilely in the fog and dodged, much to his irritation.

"Sorry, Esau!" Edythe yelled, and her laughter started again as they both dropped onto the pile of pillows and mattresses that she had gathered earlier in the day while Esau was hunting for their what could be their last meal.

Esau on the other hand had the breath knocked out of him as he landed on his back and got swallowed by the softness beneath him.

He found himself staring blankly into the spot in the sea of fog that had prolonged their fall, his mind drifting to the kill he made earlier today and what he had seen when he looked into his town from the cliff. What do they want?

Since he and Edythe were the only people in town, they managed to live off the food they had gathered from the houses that survived the fires. But that only lasted them a week and a half till most of it turned rotten despite their efforts to preserve the food.

Soon they started eating the berries and nuts they found growing in bushes along the forest, staving off their hunger with those until there was nothing left. They never dared to breach the enclosure of trees that was now home to the beasts that roamed at night.

Three weeks ago Esau and Edythe had finally gone into the forest, too hungry to care about the creatures that hid deep within it.

Early in the day when the fog was at it's thinnest, Esau decided that they should go hunting. It wasn't his first time catching prey, but it would be his first time killing for food.

He remembered sending a reluctant Edythe away as he knelt in the thick field of grass and held down a squirming rabbit by it's neck, going for its throat like he had been taught.

It had been so easy to kill it, the blood rushing out of it and spraying onto the greenery like a fountain of flowing red.

Esau had been equal parts fascinated and terrified as he felt the warmth from the blood as it splashed against his skin and watched the small animal die right in front of him. But this wasn't the first time he had seen a life being snuffed out.

No, he still remembered when Edythe was in the place of the rabbit, bleeding out, cold. . . dying.

That was why he lifted up the knife again and plunged it into the his prey's heart, killing it immediately to end the suffering he had caused it.

Esau took it's life because if his sister went hungry for too long she was going to die too, and he was going to have to see it all over again.

If the life of the rabbit was going to stop that from happening then it was okay for him to kill it. It was okay for it to die.

It was okay. . .

Esau had tried his best to convince himself that he did the right thing as he stepped out of the forest and held down the bile in his throat, covered in the blood of the dead animal in his hand.

He did it for his sister. He did it to protect her and nothing else mattered.

That was what he told himself.

Like learning to walk, slowly hunting became easier with each kill. The prospect of taking a life began to feel easier too. He killed so he and his sister wouldn't starve, he didn't want to do it, but he had to.

It had now become a sickening routine, getting the prey and slitting its neck.

He was raised in a hunting town so it was something he would have done eventually. Esau also consoled himself with that fact.

After he hunted that day he let Edythe do the cooking and discovered that she was so good at transforming the flesh into food that it almost made his guilt fade away. Almost.

They ate tiny portions and always had leftovers. Despite none of them saying it, neither of them wanted any of the animals dead, so they tried not to finish what they had. But the fog had them constantly needing more and more food because everything that came in contact with it eventually rotted and died. Only the plants and animals in the forest seemed to survive.

They couldn't preserve the food for long despite how hard they tried so he hunted, she cooked, and all the time in between was used to play, searching the town for anything they might have missed when they scoured it before.

Of course they found nothing new, but that did nothing to quell their sense of adventure. The siblings had even begun entering the forest frequently. But never alone and never at night.

It was after Esau's hunt today, down by the small stream not too far from the forest that he saw them-the visitors. As he scrubbed up his arms and washed off the mixture of blood and mud that had clung to them, he noticed a portion of fog above the town suddenly clear. Taking a closer look while he gutted and skinned his kill, Esau saw men on horses ride into town and set up camp around it's outskirts.

He didn't want to see it, but he did. Horses, men, guns. . .

Thinking back to the way the fog around their camp had mysteriously vanished, Esau quickly stored away the memory, deciding not to dwell on it any longer.

I wonder what they are here for. He sighed in distress as he thought about the soldiers in blue and their dark horses for one last time.

I hate soldiers. . . Images of the men who had pointed their guns at his mother little over a month ago flashed in his mind and he clenched his fists in anger.

"They ruin everything," he whispered to himself and bit his lower lip as pain seared into his chest.

"Esau. . ."

The nine year old jumped slightly, a bit startled when his eyes focused on Edythe who loomed over him with a worried smile.

"Eddy, your-" he caught himself before he said anything more and shifted away from her. "I. . ."

"Are you okay?" As she spoke her eyes flashed from blue to gold then reversed back to a chilly sapphire when she glanced at him, her gaze filled with concern. "You seem hurt."

"I'm fine," he answered bluntly then let out a cough when he realized how rude he had sounded.

"I'm okay, Eddy," the boy tried again, putting more emotion into his reply this time around.

"It's lonely sometimes. . . I get it." Edythe smiled and lightly touched her brother's shoulder, but her gaze was filled with sadness and a hint of amber as a wistful sigh left her lips.

Esau saw it all but said nothing and looked away, getting up from the soft cloths that had cushioned their landing and patting off the stray feathers in his hair.

In this month he had gotten somewhat accustomed to the crazy-wild version of his sister he never knew existed. The one that freely jumped off buildings and came out ready to do more. The one who never stopped expressing herself and always seemed philosophical.

The one that was so different from everything he was used to.

When he thought up to that point Esau stopped and shook his head. To him Edythe appeared to be different, but did he also seem strange to her? It was something he had always worried about since he woke up beside her on the floor of their burnt down room.

With everything that changed about themselves, wouldn't they both end up becoming strangers eventually?

The boy felt his blood turn cold as he stared into the abyss above, his calm expression concealing a mind full of troubling thoughts.

"Want to know why I changed?" A cheerful voice snapped him out of his reverie and he shifted his head to see his sister beaming at him.

"What?" Esau asked back, his voice filled with confusion and trembling slightly as he tried to clear his thoughts. "What are you talking about?"

Edythe took a small step towards him, twirling her ginger colored hair around her fingers as she leaned forward and winked. "You know what I'm talking about. So, do you want to know?"

The pair of nine year olds faced each other for a full minute before the boy finally gave in.

"Since you're so eager to tell me. . ." Esau drawled and his sister grinned, replying with words so unbelievable that he almost choked on the heavy air.

"I'm not telling!" the girl yelled happily then ran away, her hair fluttering in the cool night wind.

"You have to catch me first." she announced loudly, now metres away from her brother.

"Hey!" It took Esau a long moment before he could finally react to her actions bur when he did he broke into a full sprint and chased after her. "Wait! Tell me, you silly girl!"

Edythe only stuck out her tongue and cackled, darting between crumbling houses and scorched alleyways. "Come get me, Esau."

Being faster than her, Esau was able to catch Edythe more than a couple of times. But he never got his answer, his previous myriad of worries forgotten in a play between siblings.

†

Stranded in their small and once serene town, a heaving Esau and an amused Edythe rested beside what was formerly their father's workshop but was now their hideout. They stared into the fog above and laid side by side, listening to the quiet howls of the creatures that lurked nearby.

"Esau?" the girl called softly and turned to her brother, her face split into a grin as she took her hand in his and pulled it to her pounding chest. "We will leave today, right?"

Esau stiffened and evaded her eyes, but traced the lines on her open palm as he shrugged. "If the moon shines all night we will go through the forest." he answered dully.

"Stop kidding." At his words Edythe giggled and nudged him with her elbow. "If we go through the forest we'll get eaten!"

She raised her hands like paws and bared her teeth at him while imitating a beast's growl.

Esau laughed exaggeratedly then flicked her forehead. "Since you know, you should stop asking."

"I will ask everyday." She pouted in retaliation and wriggled her naked toes in the cool night fog. "But want to know a secret?"

"I thought you didn't keep secrets from me," Her brother turned to her expectantly and raised his eyebrows. "So what is it this time?"

Grabbing Esau by the collar, Edythe lowered her lips to his ear and whispered her plan to him in hushed tones.

"We are leaving tonight." She laughed again as she pulled away from him and swiped menacingly at the fog. "We'll finally leave this place and search for Ma and Pa!"

"Leaving?" Esau's breath stilled for the second time that night as he took his sister by her shoulders and held her to his chest.

"I have a secret too, Eddy." He continued quietly.

"You don't have any secret!" She denied his declaration and frowned. "That's not funny."

"I'm not joking, Eddy."

The girl's face scrunched up as she searched her mind for what the secret could possibly be, and in reply to her thoughtful silence Esau decided to tell her what he had been keeping to himself all this time.

"Ma and Pa. . . They died Edythe, after the fire fell from the sky. They. . . they were gone. . . We are the only ones left here." He managed to get out the words and waited in grim anticipation for her reaction.

"So," Edythe shifted to the side and stared at him with narrowed eyes. "Did you see their bodies?"

"Edythe, they died."

"We saw everyone else, we saw. . . what remained and we buried the them in a pit we dug in the giant hill just by the town's gate." Her voice trembled as she shook her head, her eyes shining with tears. "I was there too. . . Don't forget."

"But you weren't." He retorted. "When you woke up, they were already-"

"Did you see them die?" She cut him off and shrugged off his hands, her tone filled with hurt. "I can't believe you'd give up so easily."

At her gloomy words Esau gritted his teeth in pain, an old memory hitting him hard as he looked away from Edythe's depressed gaze.

"The proof of death is in the corpse. . . Ma always said that, didn't she?" He asked finally and sighed, deciding to stop arguing.

His sister's face lit up once again as she nodded eagerly and leapt to her feet, her dress twirling with her as she spun around and started another song filled with improvised lyrics.

"But there are no bodies in this town, no speck of blood or gore around. Then where should we go to find the clues, in the white of fog and blue of night. . . No, between you and I,"

"We should leave in the light of the rising moon." Esau mumbled halfheartedly but incoherently sang along with her nevertheless.

"Beasts, they roam in the dark," Edythe grinned. "People are here in town, but they'll die soon and leave a mark."

"If they die the creatures will have a banquet. . ." The nine year old boy sang slowly, a little uncomfortable with the fact that he was perfectly fine with the deaths of the soldiers. "And once they're gone we'll go through the forest."

Edythe's eyes grew wide as she stopped spinning and stopped to face her brother in pure excitement. "And if the moon is high,"

"We are leaving tonight." Esau completed with a relieved smile as he got up from the grass covered ground and walked to the door of the workshop behind him.

"C'mon Edythe," he called and pushed open the door. "I caught another rabbit today."

His sister tilted her head and looked at him strangely. "So you killed it?"

"Yeah." Esau answered simply, suddenly feeling numb.

"And we are going to eat it?"

"Yes," he sighed in exasperation and turned away from her. "What is it now, Eddy?"

"Nothing," she spoke slowly and played with her fingers. "I just think it's unfair that they have to die."

"If we can't save ourselves, how can we help anyone?" Esau shook his head and replied her unasked question. "We'll end up dead along with them."

"I know that but," Edythe chewed on her lip in an attempt to curb her building excitement. "What if they survive. . . And we all make it through the night?"

"Then we'll see what happens in the morning." Esau snapped and tapped the tip of his boot against the wooden floor of the workshop in impatience and gestured to the door he held open. "Now get in before I drag you in."

Bouncing on her feet, Edythe saluted her brother and walked towards him.

"If we can't leave tonight, we'll go with them in the morning," she urged with a pointed look.

"Fine."

Edythe frowned and shook her head, obviously displeased with his reply.

"I promise." Esau tried again and his sister gave him a thumbs up then walked into the building.

The nine year old boy sighed as he leaned against the doorpost.

That was the Edythe he was used to, the silent girl who communicated with signs because she preferred it to talking. The sister whose thoughts he was once able to decipher but now couldn't read at all.

"Maybe I've changed too," he whispered to himself as he stared at the barely visible moon that rested in the sky. "And by tomorrow I'll be different again."

And in the end we will be complete strangers.

†

This is the last chapter till Sunday. I'm so tired and tired and tired.

What do you think of the chill and bubbly version of Edythe? What of Esau?

Do these siblings have a chance at future career in the music industry?

Are Philip and his comrades really going to die tonight?

And what do you think about the twins' parents, are they still alive? If so, where do you think they are?

What will happen in the forest? Will Philip, Issac and the twins meet each other soon?

Thank you for reading, and as usual, have a wonderful day.