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This wasn’t a normal situation. Nano and Lalna both knew it, from the moment they wound up on the empty road with no prior memory of how they’d gotten there and pockets mysteriously empty of their previous contents. It was dark out, and the moon gave off an eerie red glow that did nothing to improve the general atmosphere. Nano stood close to Lalna, her brown and purple eyes darting around nervously as she shuffled closer to him. Even his blue eyes communicated a more serious tone, something that was unusual for the scientist.
“M-maybe we should follow the road,” Nano suggested, doing her best to hide the shaking in her voice. Of course she would try to put on a tough front, even when she was downright terrified; the fluxed girl hated her former mentor, or anyone else, thinking she was unable to handle things on her own. Lalna watched as she drew away from him and squared her shoulders, drawing up as tall as her smaller stature would allow her before she tentatively began to walk down the road. He followed within the second, finding a moment even in their potentially dire situation to feel a warm buzz of adoration for his former apprentice and current partner.
An ominous rumble sounded nearby, startling a yelp out of Nano as she froze in her tracks. Lalna caught up to her quickly, his longer strides easily closing the short distance between them. She turned to him as he paused next to her, glancing at her tall friend with a nervous look.
“I’m scared, Lalna,” Nano said quietly. The scientist looked down at his friend, noticing that her hands were shaking slightly as they stood there. Her voice was even softer, barely more than a whisper as she added, “Hold my hand.”
“Okay,” he said without hesitation, surprising both himself and Nano with his easy response. He supposed it was because he’d been waiting for her to say that for a long time, though not necessarily in this situation. He reached out for her hand, finding its now-familiar flux-covered state to be calming. She flashed him a shy but grateful smile as he gave a light squeeze, which she returned promptly before forcing herself to step forward again.
They soon came across a large building, separated from the area around it with worn stone walls and a large rusted gate. A sign declared it as an orphanage, the light trained on the faded letters flickering every few seconds.
“Maybe there’s somewhere else further down the road we - “ Lalna began, only to be cut off by a shrill scream somewhere inside the walled area. The bloodcurdling sound seemed to echo off the rock walls before reaching them outside the gates, and he and Nano exchanged a terrified look.
“Lalna, what - “ This time it was Nano’s turn to be cut off.
“Let’s go, Nano. I don’t like the sound of that.” He turned to leave, but was stopped by his friend letting go of his hand. “Nano…?”
“Lalna, we can’t just leave! Someone in there needs help!” she argued with him, brave in the face of danger when it came to protecting the helpless. Her voice bordered on angry, as it often did when she was being unchangeably stubborn about something. Again the scientist felt a swell of pride at the way she had the heart of a lioness and the stubbornness of a boulder fit in her smaller size, even as he prepared to attempt reasoning with her.
“I still don’t like the idea of us going in there. This place looks old and abandoned, and it just feels off.” Nano crossed her arms and set her jaw, glaring at Lalna with a look that communicated her exact thoughts on those facts. He gave a resigned sigh, preferring to be with his friend if she was going to insist on going regardless; still, he had a horrible feeling about this. “Fine, but I don’t think this gate will be opening for us anytime soon.”
The pair searched for another way in along the rock wall, soon finding a crumbling portion that looked low enough to climb. Lalna helped Nano up before following her over the gap, dropping down next to the fluxed girl with a low thud. She still looked nervous as they moved away from the gate and its flickering light, but he noticed the determination that she communicated in the way she carried herself. They followed the paved path that led away from the road, assuming that it would lead them to the orphanage and in the general direction of the scream they had heard.
“Lalna?” He glanced over to his partner, who had since moved closer to him and hesitantly taken his hand again, allowing both of them to find some sort of comfort in the warmth and solid feeling of human contact. “What - what if it’s abandoned? Wouldn’t there be ghosts?”
He thought it over a for a second, having been considering the possibility himself as they walked cautiously along the path. They had both done a bit of freelance studying on the magical forces that inhabited their world — assuming they were still there now, though he hadn’t seen anything yet to indicate otherwise — including the power of spirits that inhabited lost places. It was possible they were in such a place, which could either be very bad or a bit less bad, depending. He wished their friend was with them as well; she knew as much about magic as he did about his machines.
“Possibly,” he answered after a pause. “Is that it?” Nano and Lalna stopped, having reached a large building that looked anything but well-lived in. A cold chill went down the scientists spine, prompting him to whip around to face an old, dried out fountain. The light that the moon cast illuminated the structure, including rust-colored stains that looked suspiciously like dried blood.
“L-Lalna!” Nano’s terrified squeak called his attention back to the front of the house, where she was starting wide-eyed at one of the windows. “D-did you see that? There was someone there!” He approached the window slowly, inching forward with Nano hiding close behind him. Peering into the window, he could only see what looked to be a lobby-like area, lit faintly with a flickering lamp on a desk.
“I don’t see anything. Are you sure you still want to go in?” Looking back to see her nod quickly, he moved over to stand before the front door, noticing a button nearby. He poked at it, thinking it was some sort of doorbell, but it did nothing that either of them could discern. Taking a chance, he pushed against the door, surprising them both when it creaked open without much resistance; it must have been unlocked, for whatever reason.
Lalna cautiously led the way into the building, pausing for a moment as the floorboards creaked under their feet. A tiny whimper escaped Nano, and he turned back to face her.
“You alright? We can go, or you can wait outside.” She shook her head adamantly, drawing closer to him once more.
“I’d rather be with you in here than alone out there. Besides, we need to figure out what’s going on, and - “
“Help me!”
The pair whipped around to face the direction the terrified cry had come from, exchanging looks — Nano’s expression scared but stubborn, and Lalna’s an attempt at being reassuring while still nervous about the entire situation.
“I’ll protect you, alright?” he reassured her, earning a grateful nod from the fluxed girl, her purple eye glowing softly in the shadowy interior lighting. He pulled her into a short hug after a heartbeat of hesitation, which she returned quickly and easily. At the least, he’d make sure she got out alive.
“Nano!” Lalna’s footsteps echoed in the dank stone hallway, his path lit only by the sparse torches that were placed on the walls. He cursed with every ounce of breath he could spare, directing the angry words at everything from their general situation to himself. Again he wished he knew more about magic; he would have been able to recognize the summoning circles right away, and the danger that came with them. I should have paid more attention, gotten us out of here, or -
“LALNA!”
“Nano! I’m coming!” Nano’s scream had come from the door at the end of the hallway, and Lalna charged ahead with an angry yell to get there before it was too late. She continued to cry out for help, her voice getting progressively weaker and less anguished. He slammed the door open, prepared to throw himself at whatever was hurting her, but the room was all but empty by the time he got there.
The ghost — no, it was a demon, they knew that now — had left Nano on the floor, bloodied and broken, having gotten what it wanted from her. Lalna forced himself into the room, stumbling toward her even as his head reeled. The lone torch in the room cast strange shadows across her face, already paling as she gasped for breath.
“T-the girl” she managed as he dropped to his knees beside her, brown and purple eyes searching his face. “Did… she get out?” Of course she would worry about the other girl, even when she was in no small amount of danger herself. He nodded silently, not trusting himself to speak right away as his entire chest constricted. He was supposed to protect her.
“G-good…” Her voice was getting weaker, and her breathing was more of a rattling than a rhythm of any sort. He reached out to her, brushing her matted hair out of her face with a shaking hand. She tried to smile weakly at him, still making an attempt to reassure him in this grim place; but even she, with all her sunny disposition, couldn’t hide the fear in her eyes.
“Nano…” His mind was flying in a hundred different directions, trying to calculate whether he could save her. But he knew — even as he scrambled to think of something, anything, to do for her — that even with the best machines it was too late for her now. He could feel his trousers getting wet as they soaked up her blood that was on the ground, and he could see she was slowly slipping from his grasp. “Please, no…”
“L-Lalna?” Nano was trying to keep her voice steady, he knew, but the trembling was still apparent to his ears after hearing it be cheerful for so long. “I… I’m scared, Lalna.” She was crying now, her tears drawing wavering tracks down her face as she shut her eyes. He reached for her hand, slowly growing colder as all her warmth left her. He was crying as well, he noticed as a tear fell onto her battered body, only getting worse as he spoke to her.
“I’m so sorry, Nano.” That was all he could force out before his throat closed up, and he leaned in to rest his forehead against hers as he closed his eyes. Her breathing slowed, rattling to a stop only moments later as Lalna choked out a sob. “Nano…”
A triumphant noise — halfway between a growl and screech to the scientist’s ears — rang out in the room, announcing the return of the bloodied demon. Lalna stayed where he was, refusing to let go of his friend’s body, even to defend himself from the demon. His body shook with his muffled crying, no longer caring what happened to him now that Nano was gone. The demon saw it’s chance to claim another victim, to collect more of the blood that gave it the power to live and thrive. It let out another screech, swooping in with claws outstretched as Lalna braced himself, still holding Nano’s hand.
“Lalna? Are you alright?”
Lalna shot up, nearly whacking his head on the nearby bookshelf as he fought to untangle himself from his sheets. He was on the floor along with his blanket — he must have fallen off his bed, waking up his friend — with a concerned Nano poking her head up from her own to look at him. His heart was still pounding loud enough that he was sure his companion could hear it, adrenaline pumping through him as he fought the panic that still lingered.
“J-just a nightmare,” he stammered out, shaking his head as he pulled himself off the floor and back onto his bed. Her head tilted sideways a bit as she considered him, her fluxy purple eye giving off a faint glow in the near-darkness of their bedroom.
“Want to talk about it?” she asked quietly, gathering her blanket up around her smaller figure and moving to sit on his bed next to him. He sighed, pushing his messy hair out of his face as he began to relate the general idea of his nightmare to her. Nano listened attentively, pulling her blanket closer around her body as he got to second half of it.
“It was just scary, y’know?” Lalna finished, shaking his head again as he realized how silly it all sounded. “Losing a friend is scary.” His attempt to clarify fell to silence for a moment, until he felt Nano’s smaller hand settle on his.
“It’s alright,” she said, almost too cheerful for the ungodly hour that he had managed to wake them both up at. “Because I’m still here, with all my purple fluxy-ness, and you won’t be getting rid of me anytime soon!” He looked over to her, his eyes having adjusted to darkness enough to see her reassuring grin. He couldn’t help but chuckle at her optimism, and drew her into a hug that she eagerly returned.
“I guess not,” he replied, no longer panicked with her next to him, clearly there to stay. “Now go back to sleep, Nano. We have lots to do in the morning.”
“Says the person who sleeps in all the time,” she teased with a giggle, moving back to her own bed and flopping down on it. “Night, Lalna. See you in the morning.” She buried herself back under her blanket, and he chuckled again as he did the same, closing his eyes with a grin.
“Goodnight, Nano.”