CHAPTER 1

The half-moon shining bright in the late-night sky. Any other night, Serraphina would enjoy a peaceful night of appreciating the beauty of nature and wax poetic for them; literally. Any other night, she and her beloved twin would take a late-night stroll at the edge of the forest not far from the well behind old man Francis's house. Old man Francis is kind enough to let them use the well without charging them anything. Of course, Serraphina thinks that he is only kind because he fancies the witch; i.e. their aunt, Lucia, even though he looks old enough to be their grandfather. And that's just disgusting. He doesn't even have the DILF vibe. Isabella -her beloved twinsies- thinks that Old Man Francis is being kind to them because both of them remind him of his grandchildren who live someplace far in the east (she doesn't bother to remember the name of the place, it's too bothersome) the ever-optimistic one.

They would hang out on the highest tree to watch the sky and the overview of their small village sleeping at night; only liven up by a couple of drunkards and knights that strolled around. Like she said; any night. But not tonight! As tonight seems to highlight the stupidity level of her beloved twins to another higher level. They had been running through the forest. They tried their best to ignore the slapping from the tree branches and bushes on their face and all over their body. The blisters on their feet though, now that are beginning to irk the older redhead.

"It's not my fault!"

"Then, whose fault is it?! certainly not me!"

"Stop bitching and just run!"

"Oh lookit! A bunny! A ten meters bunny! soo floofy! soo cute! why don't we pet it! A TEN METERS FANGED BUNNY?!." A deafening roar answering her scream behind them nearly tripped them both. "oh shit!"

"Shut your trap and run faster!!!"

"YOUR FAULT!!!"

"JUST RUN!!"

...

"I'm still wondering how you get this stupid tupperware." She murmured out loud while looking at the invisible box that surrounded them.

"shhh! it's not tupperware! it's a shield!"

"*snort* It is square and we're in it. It's friggin 'giant tupperware." She hissed.

"Be quiet, it might find us."

"This tupperware could hide us from that witch directly under her nose. I think it could hide us from your proclaimed floofy cute bunny"

Isabella glared at her twin who just rolled her eyes and mimed zipping her mouth before throwing away the imaginary key.

"grrrrowwllll…"

Their hands automatically found each other and held tightly. One of them was shaking and tried hard to stay by her grumpy older twins' side instead of behind her. While the other one holds the younger twin with a grim and determined face, trying to hide her twin sister behind her. They hold their breath and watch the gigantic white bunny with 30 inches fangs walk past them silently and stay as quiet as they can for a moment to make sure the beast doesn't take a sudden U-turn and make them its late-night snacks.

"I think I might be drunk because I just saw tiny yellow wings behind that gigantic stupid rabbit." Serraphina broke the silence with a high pitched voice filled with disbelief while rubbing her eyes with her free hand.

"You can't be drunk, you're 7." Isabella harrumph.

"I'm 30. WE are 30. And I'm telling you, we could've smuggled some of the witch wine and spent the night drunk but nooooooo….you just have to say no to the wine but go straight ahead into petting the bunny. I'll say, if you had let me sneak away with the wine, I might have let you pet the beast. Hell, I'll even throw you to the beast." She smirks, watching Isabella rolling her eyes.

"We are physically 7. We are not getting drunk when we are this small."

"*sigh* At this rate, we might have a child first before we could even have a drink. hahhhhhh… tell me again why we were a goody two shoes that we've never rebelled for alcohol?!" Serraphina throws up her hands in frustration absentmindedly noting that Isabella's shield has shimmered away.

"We rebelled to Lucia all the time."

Serraphina stare at Isabella.

"True." No words needed for that

They jumped down from the tree branch that they had been hiding. Isabella holds Serraphina's hand still, dragging her toward their spot. She knew that Serraphina would get cranky for the whole day next day if she didn't get her fill of the moon and the night sky. She glanced at Serraphina who looked like she was daydreaming. But she knows better, like her; who can conjure shields when in need, Serraphina could expand her senses around them to sense any danger. Unlike her though, Serraphina seems to have a good grasp of her power while she could only use hers only under duress. But her twin sister seems to have a problem of reigning her power when she's angry, and unfortunately for them, Serraphine does have a bad temper, so her anger is usually followed by some destroyed logs and trees.

Serraphina tugged their hands to stop and cut her off from her thoughts. They were standing under the tall tree of their spots. Without saying any words, they pulled themselves on the branches and jumped several times towards their branch on the top and sat down leaning on each other. They took off their scarf simultaneously, releasing their shoulder-length light crimson hair. Isabella smiles when Serraphina lets out a small sigh and relaxes towards her when they get a full view of the sky and the village. Serraphina broke the silence for the second time.

"Still though, a winged giant bunny? Can this place be any weirder?"

"We died. And live again in what seems like a mediaeval era. And both of us seem to have a superpower that none of these people shows any sign of having any too. But yeah, dying and alive again? That freakishness has broken my 'weird & freak' meter."

"Cursed you truck-kun! Of all the ways to die, we just had to have the cliché manga scene... I just hope that that child was okay."

That memory seems to be the clearest that Serraphina had; the last one from her past. She was driving them both to go home for the preparation of their youngest due date. Both best friend cum step-sisters managed to take 3 weeks off from work at the same time; Isabella had to begged for leaves, Serraphina just had to sent off her finale manuscript and with the greenlight from her editor, she's free! Dad was a very affectionate person as Serraphina could remember blurry how he begged them to let him be the one who introduced them both to alcohol for the first time. He's a very clingy and mushy person that she wonders what her cool as a cucumber mother would see in him. Although Isabella would just say that her dad was just a soft person. Anyway, she was driving them home and was already in their neighborhood when they had to drive by a park. Suddenly a red ball bounced in front of their car followed by a boy running after the ball. Serraphina never heard Isabella screamed so loud that thought the car mirrors were going to crack. She swerved the car away from the boy, she could still remember the horror and scared look on the boy's face when a long honking sound cut off the sound of her swerving tyres. Her fast-beating heart seemed to stop when she saw truck-kun speeding directly towards them and the last thing she could remember was the pain and hoping that Isabella wont feel as much paint as she had.

"Stop thinking of useless things." Isabella nudges Serraphina. "It's in the past, so let it be in the past… life. Pun intended." She grinned when Serraphina snickered at the pun. Her twin really do love puns and dad jokes.

Isabella remembers quite fondly how Serraphina bonded with her dad with cheesy dad jokes and puns when they first met. They were 10 years old, a new beginning for grade 4 in elementary school. Serraphina was a new student and her grumpy and snarky personality made it hard for people to approach her. Serraphina and her newly divorced mother at the time moved back to Japan after long years living in England. Serraphina's mother decided to come home after 12 years of hectic life in London, hoping for a new beginning. Their friendship begins when Serraphina asks Isabella to tutor her for kanji and literature and Isabella agrees readily in exchange for Serraphina to tutor her for English.

From then on, they became closer as Serraphina and Isabella's dad got on like a house on fire; her dad was a goofy person and loved it when he could fished out laughter from his daughters' grumpy friend, and it's a bonus when Serraphina loves reading the books that he wrote after Isabella used one to teach her kanji. And it's no surprise when Isabella gets along really well with Serraphina's mother as both of them give out vibes of calmness and while Isabella is quite easy-going; a trait that she inherits from her father, Serraphina's mother was full of elegance but still friendly. She really admired Serraphina's mother and wanted to be like her when she grew up, Isabella said that to her face and got a fond laugh and a pat on her head. Not gonna lie, Isabella teared up a bit even when Serraphina snickered at her and she have no room to talk when it is no secret that she became a writer because of Dad.

"Haaahhh… I missed dad. I missed all his stupid dad jokes." Serraphina whisper. They often refer to their parents as 'your dad' and 'your mom' as a joke. They'd already called their parents mom and dad long before those two pulled their heads off their pining ass and got married when their daughters were in high school.

"Yeah…and mom… and Aki-chan too." Their adorable baby brother who was 6 whom they adored so much. Another one was on the way in which her mother kept the baby's sex a secret. Serraphina and Dad kept betting and argued with each other whenever they got the chance, making their skype video call sounds like a bar fight with all the screaming and their laughter.

"Aahhh… Akihiko. He would be… what? 13 now right? I bet he's a great big brother." Serraphina smiled wistfully.

"Baby would be 7 now." Both their parents had them in their early age so the age gap between Aki and his half-sisters was quite impressive.

"Hmm… Ironically, the very same age as both of us right now."

"Physically anyway, and of course Aki-chan would be a great brother! We were his role models." Isabella smiled wistfully. She nudged her twin;

"For what it's worth… I'm glad I'm with you."

"Me too. I'm grateful to be born with you."