She'd be unbalanced, and it wasn't fair to my sibling elements.
A soft, whistling note carried through the air, leaving me to look at the door and notice the disappearing hair that went through the wooden door.
My senses heightened, but nothing else moved within the penthouse. The puppies were back to sleeping in their spots, while Minx seemed to be asleep like the rest.
With one last look at sleeping Jade, I let my lips curl up while I silently skipped and allowed my body to slip from physical to darkness, which made it easy to go right through the wall.
Reaching the living room, I noticed the white silhouette crouched down at the tree.
Light Jade.
To my surprise, she was in her older form like me. She was a replica of Jade, only she wore a flowy dress. It was hard to see any of the detailing since she was a glowing being of white light, but her energy always left me a little anxious.
We were opposites. Light versus Dark. But we didn't hate one another like myths in books tried to portray.
Like yin and yang, we are two opposites that balance the universe as we know it.
Where there was good, there was evil, and as the world was plagued with a dark sky for a designated time, soon would come the light that shone through to enjoy its designated course of time each day.
Light Jade was the second strongest amongst the eight of us, but the others were growing stronger as well. It could have been due to Jade's growth and heightened love for who she was becoming.
The changes were small at first, but after the recent battle in the other universe, I could see a magnificent difference that even Jade had yet to acknowledge.
Light Jade was admiring a specific clear ornament with a snowflake inside. She held it gently, the mere action lighting it up so brilliantly that the rays twinkled through the room, its shine far brighter than the twinkling Christmas lights wrapped around the fake pine tree.
After a few more seconds of admiration, she rose up and turned to face me.
"Light sister," I greeted.
"Shadow sister." Her voice was soothing with a higher pitch than normal. She walked over to me, which must have annoyed her own holy vibes, but she reached out to place something in my hand before she was back by the tree in a swift movement.
I looked at the paper object in my possession, tilting my head in confusion at the origami crane in black paper.
"To love is within one's actions. Silent but precise. Seek the moon's guidance. Allow your heart to fight. Emotions are obvious. Allow what destiny wants to blossom. You will be rewarded. With endless admiration."
With those words of advice, she vanished from my sight.
Looking back down to the crane in my possession, I noticed another on the carpet just a few inches away.
Then another one, and another one, until the trail led to the sliding door.
"Seek the moon's guidance," I whispered and began to collect the origami cranes. With every crane, I completed a small skip, making it into a game to sidetrack both my excitement and my nervousness.
Distraction was key as a dark shadow. Without it, you were lost in a void of dark memories and reminders that you were far from perfection.
The element of darkness wrapped around the idea of obsession. It was keen on all the things one didn't have that were stolen from them, as well as the fallen opportunities that ceased to exist because of others’ selfishness.
The list could go on from the level of disappointment in a room of people who judged your appearance, smarts, and success with a look, rank, or background check. To hear words of jealousy all around you, degrading words that would only play on repeat to make you believe they were nothing but true.
Negativity was the start of self-destruction with darkness, and it normally led to the obsession of payback. The desire to prove to those who sought nothing but wrong for you that you're better, smarter, more beautiful, and deserve this chance at life despite their hateful souls.
If darkness was too powerful, you became a slave to it, one of those cynical tendencies that ended up leading to the destruction of anyone who tried to belittle your existence.
A domino effect that led to the trail of death that followed our every move.
There were plenty of moments when I could have allowed myself to grow and become the absolute emotion within Jade. She could have easily been that cynical queen who could kill Charles without a hint of remorse or fear of the consequences.
We could become the villain the black market wanted us to become, but we fought against that future and paved our own. It was why I became the me now.
The innocent shadow whose goal was to deliver Jade's happiness.
Only if that goal is threatened would I allow a mere pinch of my power to come to the table, but now that Jade was truly happy, my goal was beginning to alter.
To preserve the happiness she worked hard to obtain.
Skipping to the door, I opened it up slowly so it wouldn't make noise before closing it up again. The breeze was cold, enough to make me shiver as I wore just my pajamas, but my task was to follow the cranes, and they seemed to continue their trail until they began to move upward.
Skip. Crane. KILL! Skip. Crane. KILL. KILL. KILL!
I made the action into a song until I reached the hanging cranes and grinned happily at the sight.
The roof.
Widening my stance, I kept my eyes on the six hanging cranes that were lined upward, and with a little push, soared up until they were all in my possession as I landed quietly onto the flat roof.
My eyes noticed one last origami a skip before me, and I completed the joyful deed before retrieving my final prize. With a teeth-glimmering grin, I allowed myself to absorb the gathered rewards of my persistence before lifting my gaze to lock onto Ceil.
There he was, standing on the boxed platform that seemed to be an electric storage unit for the penthouse. He as looking up to the moon, wearing a navy-blue dress shirt and black dress pants.
It was the first time I'd seen him not wearing all black, and the silky shirt complemented him under the moonlight that shone vigorously all around us. I began to walk to where he was, not bothering to silence my approaching steps.
I knew that he sensed me, but the question was whether I'd approach him or not.
Ceil was a mysterious mastermind of darkness. When around him, I felt like I was deciphering a Rubik’s cube. One fully matched side would unlock a glimpse of emotion within his being, but I'd yet to solve the tricky cube of expressions to reveal the him who didn't need to put up barriers.
I wasn't picking up the task to change him. That wasn't my role nor was it anyone's responsibility but his own. I wanted to learn from him. To strive towards a common goal while empowering one another.
It was difficult to put into words since I'd never interacted with a male shadow, but Ceil understood me. He knew how to act and when we were amongst ourselves, he got to see the hidden, protected side of who I was.
We were the same yet with different genders and livelihoods that had crafted us into the beings we forged to be the backbone for our host selves. Jade needed the happy me to give her a sense of belonging and enlightenment.
Lisette may have needed a man whose strength was delivered with silence and order.
I hopped up to land on the top surface of the storage room and Ceil turned to give me his full attention. Though his lips remained in their usual lined appearance, his eyes presented a different story.
Intrigue. Happiness. Lust.