Chapter 1

My mother, whom I forgot about, once told me that the most unexpected encounters become the most memorable. 

 As a subtle signal for my ensuing days, I never heard in what ways her statement became true. 

 Anyway. University, I was biking home from that place.

If a man came up to me, a sword stroking my gut, asking me to describe this place in a word, I would answer 'ant' -- because from a bird's eye view, the dozen thousands of students knotted together in a crowd move like ants. 

 Another word I might use would be 'boring,' though in itself, saying that means my speech is what I criticized. 

 While riding on my bike, hair slid backwards from the wind, I put my green earphones on.

 'You really got me' from the Kinks started blasting through my ears, reverbing inside my brain. Their music were signs of great luck, emphasis on 'were'. 

 Each lyric, my body would move sideways to the song's rhythm. Then came the neat part, the chorus. I fidgeted my fingers on the grip in rhythm. 

 Left, right. 'You really got me.' 

 Right, left, backwards. 'You really got me.' 

 I got myself into a good mood. That, and a soft breeze irking my cheek, were a recipe for forgetting my fatigue and stress. 

Well, almost. 

 On the road, a red car stopped an inch away from crashing into me, because I turned at an awful time. Though the mistake wasn't his, the driver showered me in apologies, as if to avoid making a bigger commotion. That absurd reaction made me cow. 

 An hour passed. 

 A worn out, pale gray building towered me, an impressive term for a three stories high mess of debris. I pushed the wooden door open to a creaking sound; the usual one. 

 On the left, the stairs. Rows of greasy stairs, a true lair of dirt and waste. On the right, the lift. Clean and dainty, a glance was enough to acknowledge the care and polish of this craft. 

 My footsteps leaned left, as a pitiful way to improve my stamina. 'Incremental progress', or so I told myself. 

 After a minute trapped in between acid stenches and cracking noises, I completed the ascend. Second floor, my flat stood a few meters from me, therefore, I wished to open its door soon. 

 The reason being, I couldn't. 

 Two girls, perhaps college students, sat on the last stairs, blocking the narrow staircase. One wore a white, oversized shirt falling over black short, and the other the opposite, though this time, her shirt was cropped. 

 In conclusion, a black cropped shirt, and white shorts. It took me a few seconds to realize, but the first one had a cap on. 

 A red cap, yes. 

 Their outfits were confusing, so much so that it couldn't anything else but deliberate. 

 A few thoughts clashed in my brain. 

 Could I pass through? No. 

 Then, perhaps a rude, but necessary talk? Yes, though I doubted my mental state would allow me to say diplomatic words of peace. 

 Thus, faced with a lack of solution, I stood in place. Peering at the girls gave me a sea of irrelevant details. 

 For instance, identical noses, cow lips, and a pair of pale blue eyes, or similar body stances, hugging their knees like a grounded kid would. 

The conclusive evidence screamed 'twins. 

 "Mia, isn't this guy staring too much?" 

 As she parted her lips, I noticed a tiny mole next to them. 

 "Well, he must be quite weak, if he fell for us this quickly." 

 I glanced sideways, noticing the same mole twice. 

 "Ten seconds, is that the human average? Maybe a bit higher?" 

 It was the same lilting voice as before. A feminine voice. 

 "I think he's already bewitched. Mae, since when did we attract such wimps?" 

 'The girl on the left is called Mae, and the other Mia, or so I presume.' 

 "It makes for a more interesting subject." 

 'They have the same voice, also. Beautiful.' 

 Mia pointed her thin arm at me in an accusatory manner. 

"The other guy we saw was more handsome." 

'Her skin is so pale, is she okay? That can't be.' 

Frowning, Mae smacked her sister's limb out of the way, before 

chuckling. 

"Look, he's already having the symptoms. Isn't that fascinating?" 

'Even the way she laughs is cute." 

The twins began staring at me, as a predator would drool upon seeing a glimpse of its pray. 

"You're right. He's perfect." 

'They licked their lips in unison. Is that a twin thing?' 

Mia clapped her fingertips. Mae did the same gesture without delay. 

The world faded black. 

Perhaps my body floated in a space. I couldn't tell. 

Time passed. 

They were no sounds, no smells, none of my senses. 

Also, no thoughts. By waking up, all of these memories would wither away. 

'…' 

A soft voice called me, like a whisper, – 

".ey." 

– the exact warmth you'd use to wake up an infant. 

"Hey." 

I felt like coming out of a thick fog. Puddles of brightness entered my half-opened eyelids. 

"Is he awake?" 

A raspy feminine voice came out. After putting effort in regaining my vision, I saw her – 

She flashed a perverse smile. "I think so." 

– or rather, them. The twins, side to side, much like I remembered. 

"What the…", I muttered under my breath. 

My memories were blurry, scattered everywhere in sharp pieces. 

It was my first time meeting the two girls, though their name shone like the most obvious information in the world. 

Thus, my confused behavior was understandable. 

By turning my head, glancing sideways, a field of flowers clogged my sight. To be precise, a five-petal navy blue flower at the mercy of the wind's whims. 

The sky, however, was a pure and immaculate white. Such a scenery broke the rules of reality, yet I believed otherwise. 

With the same illogical outfits, the twins stared at me with nosy gazes. 

I recalled their names. Mia and Mae. 

Why, though? It was a valid question that I brushed off, nonetheless. 

"Mister, look at us.", Mae spoke, or perhaps Mia. I wasn't sure about anything in this state. 

My face contorted downwards, a complete mess. "Who are you? Where are we?" 

"Hmmm…" 

In a thoughtful hum, Mia, definitely, did a loop around my grounded body from the left, before stroking my back once with her fingertips, then slapping it afterwards. I felt a burning sensation.

"H-Hey!" 

Mia walked back to her original position, next to Mae, a perverse grin tainting her demeanor, much like her sister. 

"Alright mister, listen up."

They talked in unison. A sweet voice emerged from this blend.

"You just have to watch us."

I answered with a meaningless nod. My gesture didn't surprise me, as there was no opportunity to be. Their order rung absolute. 

Mia moved first. Her hands did, in strange and dainty circles that morphed into more complex figures, shining with unexplainable appeal. 

Embellishing the act was Mae, whose movements resembled a dance of unknown origins. Her white shirt fluttered in the air, guided by the soft breezes. 

Only then did I realize that the twins had black hair; a long and smooth mass that swung one way then the other, according to their momentum. 

I peered at them. Ogled, truthfully. Left, Mia. Right, the dancing Mae. 

My world shook. All except my eyes and ears became a hinderance. 

The scenery changed, its color too. First, a crystal waterfall, the purest imaginable, then an ethereal golden field of shimmering dandelions. If one word could fit these landscapes, it was beautiful. 

No, that was a lie, attributed to my dimness. 

I hadn't the faintest of clues as to how anyone could describe them. In retrospect, perhaps humanity was utterly lacking, defenseless against this blow. 

Faraway, a woman hummed a song, a whisper at first, that grew exponentially into a clear, audible sound. A nonsensical sludge of ideas or concepts. 

I thought so at first, bewitched by this phenomenon. Each second carried a deep, almost religious value. 

Then, it clicked. In a second – no, an instant – the ear-bursting mess became heavenly, aligning its every noise to a masterful level. An embrace from a god, was how I imagined the music. 

It was true, yet I became angry at myself, unable to formulate a better description. Maybe this reaction occurred to anyone experiencing this moment 

The twins sang, danced, walked on flowers, and glistered in a bright white light, as an angel would, without any hints of perversity. They willed to convey a pure and complete happiness. 

Yes, this was the missing piece. 

'They made me the happiest man on earth.'

My vision became blurry, my head dizzy. As the world shattered around me, I felt my body contorting and melting into nothingness, burning cold. 

A field of blue flowers surrounded me. Stroking my head were Mia and Mae, a slight grin on their rose lips upon hearing my unsightly cough. 

With my fingers knotted around my neck, I panted for air, then spat out a white puddle of liquid. 

I had forgotten to breathe, met death's door. 

Was this the purest happiness, or an aftereffect? 

I guessed so. 

"The experiment is over, I'm afraid."

Glancing upwards, Mia's voice hinted at a sincere displeasure. A white notebook made of silk hid Mae's face, tucked against the blank pages, and a pen twirled between her index and middle finger, then to the ring finger. 

'Her gestures really are beautiful.'

A scraping sound filled the noiseless field, separate from time itself, for a minute or so. I stopped counting altogether. 

"Okay, I think we're done. Quite the specimen indeed."

The meaning behind their exchanged escaped me. 

"Mister." 

Two gazes fell on my own. A boundless universe seemed to seep out of the blue iris, though it may have been a hallucination born from their beauty. 

"Are you happy?", a soft whisper asked me. 

The answer slid off my tongue as matter of fact. 

Today has been the best day of my life.