The Twins - Part 3

Night finally fell in Aster city. The bustling streets around the city centre quieted down, leaving the outskirts silent and seemingly devoid of life. A few people, mostly workers were moving around, cleaning up the streets and emptying the disposal units. Two workers could be seen strolling down the streets with a small hover truck for collecting the trash.

"Night shift again eh Ron?" Remarked one of the men.

"Haaaaah, I know and my wife's been fussing about it again, she just can't shut up sometimes." The man named Ron answered.

"Well aren't you in a bad mood today," the other man laughed, enjoying Ron's bad mood.

"Shut the f*** up Ubo," Ron snapped.

"Nope~," Ubo continued to laugh, ticking Rin off even more. "Well enjoy your time, I'll be off now."

Ron didn't answer and ground his teeth at the infuriating man. Ubo had the evening shift and he had already finished his work. The only reason he stuck around was to antagonize Ron even further.

"Ass****," Ron cursed. He moved the hover truck along cursing his heart out at his shitty night. Inside one of the alleys, he found something else other than the disposal units. An old man was sitting, humming a weird tune, and two kids sleeping against him. The peaceful sight irked Ron who was not having a good time at all.

"Oy old man, get out of the streets and go back to your house," Ron sneered.

The old man, Julian, not minding the attitude replied amicably, "Oh don't mind us, young man, just go along with your work."

"Old man, you're in the way so get out," Ron argued.

Julian looked at Ron like he was looking at some exotic species at the zoo. He covered the kid's ears and calmly replied, "We are most certainly not in the way, you can just go around us."

Irritated, Ron finally shouted, "Listen here old man, I said you're in the f***ing way and don't f***ing patronize me. So get out of the alley and go occupy some other place-"

The air shimmered and Ron stopped speaking, not out of choice though. One moment he was venting his frustration on some homeless man and the next his supply of air was cut off. He couldn't breathe. Ron fell to his knees and tried to take deep breaths. But alas nothing came in and all he was doing was expelling the remaining air inside his body. Ron's lungs constricted, ribs shifted inwards crushing his organs, and his body felt like it was filled with lead as asphyxiation set in. All this time his brain was filled with fear. Fear of his impending death...and of that man who was still sitting calmly in front of him.

As Ron's eyes rolled back into his head, air finally rushed into his body forcefully inflating his lungs and pushing his ribs outwards. Ron gasped for breath, that sweet air that he was deprived of for what felt like minutes.

Ron struggled to his feet, still feeling weak as an overwhelming fear filled his heart. He shook as he made eye contact with the terrifying old man who calmly held his gaze.

"Now now, you should respect the elderly, as I said you can just go around us and do your job, no need to make a fuss about it," the old man said slowly as if to make sure that Ron understood properly.

"Now go ahead and just do your work-" but Julian never got to finish his sentence as a terrified Ron decided to run for his life.

Julian sighed, whatever was wrong with the younger generations, disrespecting their elders without any care. Julian was silent was a few moments before calling out in the alley, "Did you enjoy that Nova?"

A deep laugh echoed through the alley as the air shimmered and distorted. Following the distortion, an eye appeared. It was reptilian, a single vertical slit adorned with a striking red iris with faint veins visible in the grey sclera. The laughter continued for a while before it finally stopped.

"Ahhh, those puny humans never cease to amuse me," the eye known as Nova chuckled. "Do you think he peed his pants while running away?"

Julian rolled his eyes, "Forget about him, how's your search going?"

"Horribly, it's like searching for a needle in a pile of gold and the needle is invisible."

"Not much luck huh?"

Nova rolled his eye, or at least tried to, which just ended up rotating his eye 360 degrees.

"So who are these runts?" Nova squinted his eye at the sleeping twins.

"Well, I think they might be what we're looking for," Julian answered seriously.