To put things simply, Samara was a wreck. She got home, looking stressed out, and was too tired to make dinner. I repeat, she was too tired to make dinner. Zak looked just as shocked as Jade and me, so clearly this wasn't normal.

I wanted to do something, but I was going to guess losing her little brother had taken more of a toll on her than she let show. It might explain why she wasn't as neat and tidy as I remembered her being. Yeah, she used to be more of a neat freak. I understand that may be difficult to believe, but I assure you it is true.

Problem was, I had no idea what to do about it. I'd always thought adults didn't really get sad. Like, obviously I knew they could be sad, but I'd never really thought about it. So... I didn't know how I was supposed to help her out. This was my Dad, so I should be able to. Pun not intended.

So, I did what I could. Worry about problems I could solve. Like, the dream situation. Nimue had asked me to find Lancelot. I was going to guess he was somewhere in the castle, but I also wanted to help out that girl. I'd left behind some boy in the hospital, I wasn't about to leave this girl behind.

So, when I opened my eyes and found myself in the castle, my first objective was to find this girl. I could remember what had happened to me, where I'd woken up in the alley. I figured she'd be back at the burnt-up house, just as confused as I had been.

I left and followed the rusty junkyard path until I found myself back at the house. It was a sad thing to see. Someone's childhood home was destroyed, burnt to a crisp, gone.

I caught a glimpse of dark red hair and walked up to the figure in the blackened house frames. I was struck by surprise when she was roughly five centimetres shorter than me. Were all immortal girls super short?

"Hey," I greeted, startling her. "I'm Flora. Flora Fickle."

She wiped her puffy red eyes and stepped up to me.

"I'm Flare," she said with a lump in her throat. "Flare Worthe."

I nodded. "Was this your house?"

"Yeah...," she frowned. "Stupid bushfires."

"So, you lived in the bush?" I asked. "What area?"

"Yallingup," she said, seeming to calm down slightly. "Moved in with my Grandma yesterday. She's really broken up."

"Why?" I asked.

"My Dad died in the fire," Flare wiped her eyes. "They found his charred corpse right over there," Flare pointed to the hallway entrance. "Apparently he was coming in to find me. I had climbed out of the window and started screaming for him..."

I felt my own eyes water at her story. It was so sad...

"So, your Grandma is taking care of you?" I asked. "Because her son—"

"Oh? No," Flare shook her head. "Dad never told me much about his family other than that it was complicated. I'm living with my Mum's Mother."

"Oh," I nodded. "So, how is your Mum taking this?"

"Don't know," Flare shrugged. "I imagine they're together in the afterlife. Mum died of cancer when I was young. I don't have many memories of her."

I frowned, and pulled Flare into a hug, feeling weird about finally being taller than someone.

"Join the orphan crew," I said.

"What's your story than?" She asked.

"I—"

I was cut off when I noticed the charred framework was fraying like fabric. The red light was back, and it was coming for both of us. I turned to Flare with a look of alarm and only needed to say one thing.

"Run."

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the fraying remains, leading her into the bush. She abruptly stopped and turned back, a look of shock when she saw the red light ripping apart her old home. But I knew what was coming. We didn't have time to waste thinking about what the red light was doing now, only what it was trying to do.

"Flare!" I called. "I know this is going to sound crazy, but that red light is trying to kill us, and we need to run."

"You're right," she said, "you do sound crazy."

A tree unzipped next to us and nearly crushed us. I grabbed onto Flare's pink pyjama shirt and pulled her behind me as I ran towards the castle. Red light or no, I needed to find Lancelot. I could use him as a way to get information from Nimue, and then maybe I'd finally be able to figure out why this red-light guy was so pressed with me. Because the amount of people I haven't pissed off is a lot shorter than the list of people I have.

I weaved my way through the burnt-up trees, trying not to inhale the glowing embers and blowing ash. Easier said than done, since it took up fifty percent of the air. I didn't look back to see if Flare was alright or how close the light had gotten, I just needed to get us out of there.

Eventually, we found our way out of the bush, and ended up in the junkyard. Flare began pulling back, reluctant to follow, but I was stronger than I looked and running on a fair amount of adrenaline. I was not going to die before finding the truth. Or rather, I wasn't going to die permanently.

I climbed the hills, dragging Flare with me, and ran into the castle. I didn't want to risk meeting more zombies, so I quickly brought us to the corridor where I'd left behind the axe. Maybe Flare could even find something to use. I didn't know if she knew how to fight, but if she wanted to survive, she would have to. Otherwise, we'd both end up dead.

"Slow down!" She called out. "The world isn't tearing itself apart behind us anymore!"

"You'll learn soon enough that that is exactly when you should be speeding up!" I replied.

I found my way to the corridor, and practically slid down it, picking up the axe and swinging it onto my shoulder. Flare tripped and rolled next to me. Much less agile and much less coordination. Honestly, made me feel a little better about myself. She could be the hot friend, and I could be the scary friend.

"Ow!" She exclaimed in annoyance. "The red stuff is gone! You didn't have to throw me!"

"It's a red light," I said, "and we need to find someone."

"Someone like us?" Flare said hopefully.

I frowned. "No. His name is Lancelot. You remember the story of King Arthur?"

Flare nodded. "Lancelot and Guinevere betrayed Arthur when they hooked up."

"Yup," I said. "Nimue wants me to find him. She says he doesn't deserve this place. That he was some pawn in a twisted game."

"How do you know so much?" Flare asked, surprising me.

"I know nothing," I explained. "Every time I try to get answers, I've been shut down. Some dead bitch named Kassandra decided to let her brother, Helenus, fuck with us."

Flare raised an eyebrow. "Well, what do you know?"

"We're immortal," I said. "We die, we get sent to the Altar, Mors refuses to explain anything, we either end up here or back at home, and then we're alive again. This is the only place I know of where you can die."

"Wow," Flare said. "Sounds complicated."

I shrugged. "We get given Protectors as well. Mine is Kheiron, the Kentauros. Don't mention Achilles, Hercules, or centaurs around him. He will get offended."

"Who's mine?" Flare asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "That's something you'll have to figure out."

"Okay...," Flare frowned.

"I don't think your Dad is dead either," I said, making her head shoot up. "My Mum explained everything to my sister, who is somehow human, and left without telling me anything. Jade refuses to explain anything, but she did say that there used to be a curse, and that there's some prophecy."

"So, we're the much more confusing version of most fantasy series'?" Flare asked.

I snorted. "I guess so," I cracked a smile. "One other thing. Zombies are real and want to kill us. They'll be here. And dinosaurs are still around, just with altered DNA, and also want to kill us."

"What fun," Flare pouted. "If we aren't human, what are we?"

I frowned. "That's what I keep asking. No one wants to tell me."

"Great," Flare sighed. "Anything else?"

"Yeah," I said. "The Clark Corporation knows I'm immortal and has tried to experiment on me to make their miracle cure."

"Oh of course," Flare nodded. "So, everything wants to kill us basically?"

I smiled grimly. "Pretty much."

"Well, we best get looking for this Lancelot guy," Flare got up and took a sword from the armour. "Let's hope he doesn't also want to kill us."

I thought back to Bedivere, how he had shifted from zombie to almost human. I thought back to the lesson we were all taught as kids. Inner beauty will show on the outside. Hopefully, no other spirits were angry and vengeful.

I saw the sword in Flare's hand sat uncomfortably. It shifted to fit her better, but with no fighting style or technique, there was only so much it could do. The hilt was made of fire opal in the shape of flames, tiny spots of aventurine, and weaved mandarin garnets wrapped up in a ribbon of amber. As per usual, the gemstones faded out as the self-luminous red blade appeared.

Flare tried to wield it, but it didn't look like she knew how. This would be an interesting experience if I were going to have to teach her how to fight. I just hoped her Protector was as good as Gladiare. Don't tell him I said that though, he doesn't need a bigger head.

"So," I started, "where do you think Lancelot is hiding?"

"Do you know how he died?" Flare suggested. "Might give us a few hints."

I frowned. "No, and I don't think we have access to Google."

"That's unfortunate," Flare frowned. "Well, let's go play some hide and seek I guess."

I snorted and followed Flare. For some reason, the red light seemed to be reluctant to destroy the castle. Bedivere had said something about this place, and how it wasn't here to haunt King Arthur. It was here to haunt him. Whoever this mystery man was, he clearly had some memory attached to this place. Like finding out my parents had gone missing at the shopping centre, and Flare watching her life go up in flames.

I began to wonder what this guy did that was so bad he was removed from history. What had he done that could be worse than every other figure in history? Worse than the devil, worse than Mordred, worse than the villains in Greek and Roman mythology? How bad was he? And, if he had been erased, who else had been erased?

"Flora!" I jumped when I heard Flare. "I asked you a question."

"Oh sorry," I flushed in shame. "What was it?"

"What did you get up to today?"

"Oh," I looked around and saw we were in a throne room. "Nearly got eaten alive by an angry archaeopteryx. The usual. You?"

Flare's orange eyes had gone wide at the mention of almost getting eaten alive. "That's normal for you?"

I shrugged. "After a few weeks, you start to get used to everyone being the enemy," I said. "At first it was just Clark Corporation workers, and they still haven't given up, but now even dinosaurs hate me. Can't blame them really. I'm kind of a bitch."

Flare chuckled. "Well, I moved what I had left in, and Grandma and I went shopping."

I nodded. "I'm sorry if the news about your Dad is confusing."

"I'll admit, I'm sceptical," Flare shrugged, "but I figure it's not the strangest news of the night."

"What would be the strangest news then?" I asked.

"Probably that we can't die, unless we're here," Flare said. "Do you know why the immortality thing doesn't work here?"

I shook my head. "Immortality is kind of annoying," I said. "People wanting to turn you into lab rats, being unable to explain your fast healing, and don't get me started on the flirting side of it."

"What?" Flare raised an eyebrow.

"I think guys constantly flirt with me because it's a side effect of immortality," I explained. "Have you had similar experiences?"

Flare shrugged. "Maybe. All of my friends said I was too oblivious to notice all the guys at school liked me. I just thought they were being friendly. Although... the assault incident was too friendly."

I nodded. "So, we're either smoking hot pieces of shit," I said, "or I was right, and it is because we're immortal."

"I think both can be right," Flare smiled.

I shrugged. "Sure."

I looked away. Confession time, I'm exactly like most girls. Insecure and way too emotional. But in my defence, have you seen my body in comparison to Flare's? She's got a nice one. Yeah sure, she's a little chubby, but I think that's probably why she was much more attractive than my scrawny self.

I'd always wanted a little more meat on my bones, and a bit more height to my everything. I just... I can't explain it. I wasn't as pretty as others. Sure, guys flirted, but I didn't care whether they found me attractive, I just wanted to think that for myself. I'm allowed to be insecure okay! Don't fucking look at me like that! I have an axe!

I shook the thoughts from my head, and we continued our search. We'd searched most of the first floor when I began to wonder why I hadn't woken up yet. It had never taken this long before. Time was weird here, yes, but surely it wasn't that weird.

We climbed the stairs and continued our search on the second level, and I noted that Flare also seemed to be really confused. She probably thought it was the middle of the next day, and I was starting to consider that as well. There was definitely something going on. Time had never warped this much before.

I started looking around for anything else and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Other than that, the red light wasn't trying to murder us. Which again, was really weird. Something told me I should be cautious, but something else told me to take advantage of the situation.

Flare and I eventually found a room with seven clocks on one pole. One was made of steel, and it showed the time 2:05. The second was made of a self-luminous red metal, the time reading as 2:45. The third was made of a gold, reading the time 7:06. The fourth was made of black metal, and it said the time was 1:11. (Yeah, I know.) The fifth clock was made of an iridescent white, showing us the time was 11:27. The sixth clock was made of bronze, and read 5:39. And the last clock was made of an ultraviolet material, saying it was 7:24. That's what they said when we walked in.

The self-luminous red clock ticked as normal, but every other clock was out of whack. Speeding through hours like they were seconds, moving the wrong way, going clockwise and then anticlockwise, and even moving at snail speed. But the steel one moved one second every minute the self-luminous red one did. Something told me that was the time at home, and that the others were places I hadn't seen yet.

"Look," Flare gasped.

She pointed towards the pendulum under the steel clock, and I saw what had shocked her. It was wrapped in the red light we had previously been running from. He was doing this.

"Run?" Flare asked.

"Run," I confirmed.