So it's another new story from me… I figured I should get another one I could concentrate on besides just Gatekeepers. My will for the other two has pretty much disappeared. Hope you like it.

Bleak, twilit skies. That was what stuck out most in my memory. And those delicate snowflakes. They seemed to glide so freely, so carelessly as they fell into the dark abyss we call a world. What beauty they had; until they were introduced to earth and broken into something not even distinguishable as when they were first birthed. But even still, they were free…

To us freedom was observing those who knew it; experienced it first hand. As for us, we were trapped behind an invisible wall that kept us separate from those people. We stood still, motionless in time while they all passed us from the other side. We could watch and imagine. But our fantasies lacked any depth or hope. After all, they were just fantasies. Simple, child-like fantasies, thought up by those never granted enough will of their own to grow up. Or perhaps the opposite was the problem. Maybe we grew up too fast.

I found myself brooding on such matters a lot. It was all I had to think of as the wagon drug us further down a dark path. I stared out, wishing I could be one of those snowflakes, beautiful and free. Even knowing it would last only a few moments it would still be worth it.

My desires meant nothing. I tried to concentrate more on the real world again. Everything passed us. Trees became silhouettes in the returning moonlight, barely visible behind the veil of dim, grew dots drifting from the sky. When it had began, it was a cold night. The snow hit our faces harshly but after a while it no longer stung. Our skin had just gone numb.

"Helena." A faint voice called to me. I couldn't see her face but I felt Lyla bury her face further into the blanket I wore around my shoulders. It was the first time I felt either of them move since we had left. Jeremiah hadn't even twitched. If I wasn't able to feel his heart beating against my other arm I would have feared the worst.

"It's so cold…" I heard her finish speaking dully, after a long pause.

I tried to wrap an arm tighter around each of them. "I know…but not yet." I knew she wanted to sleep. I could recognize it in her tone. I couldn't allow either of them to with the temperatures we were in.

"We may as well." Jeremiah finally spoke, using a tone just as monotonous as his sister's.

"Jeremy…" I said his name harshly but I understood. It was harder on him than it was Lyla or I. He was timid and softhearted. Not that Lyla wasn't; but in her mind she was able to justify what we had to do to some extent. He tormented himself. Even if he could, he'd never release the guilt. It chained his soul and bound it with otherworldly binds that no mortal could break.

He lifted his face from my side. "What do you suppose he'll have us do in the castle town?" Not even the snow and darkness could block the mournful glow that just radiated from his eyes, thought they still shone with some light. It never ceased to amaze me. Always so entrancing…

"Probably something at the castle." I said in a hush. Somehow I felt saying it quieter made it seem less terrible.

"Nobility?" He laid his head back down. "But I guess its better than doing it to the peasants."

"At least we'll have a warm place to sleep for a while." Lyla moaned. "And maybe something to eat, too."

Jeremy's head pressed further into my side and his shoulders stiffened. "Why can't father get a normal job so we don't have to do this anymore? This is so wrong…"

"I know Jeremy…" I moved my hand to his head and lightly stroked his hair. It was getting thinner from him refusing to eat. He never took any more than he had to so that he could survive.

"He gets so angry when I try to tell him how wrong it is…he won't listen…" He sighed.

Our father would never listen because he already knew. It didn't matter to him. He was the one who taught us. All there was in life was survival. Just as we did on the wagon, all we could do was watch everything pass by. Bleak shadows, merging together from speed, us falling far behind. We had no choice but to remain trapped in the past.

"Jeremy, you know we have to or we'll die!" Lyla whimpered. His contemplation challenged her way of dismissing it. She normally didn't take kindly to the opposition.

"I know…" His grew quiet. "But I almost think that would be easier to live with."

"Do you want us to die?" She protested. It wasn't a good time for them to bicker. Not when we needed each other to stay warm.

"No." He choked. In the cold wasn't a good time for him to cry, either. "That's why I keep doing it! I can't let either of you die…"

"Both of you, calm down. We can't do this now." They fell silent at my chiding. I had to intervene before they both started getting into it. "Try to think of the positives…"

"There isn't any positives." Jeremy contradicted with a saddened tone. "Not until he finally understands."

Jeremy kept holding on to hope that someday he would change. Nathaniel was our father, only biologically, of course. Emotionally he was nothing but a vex. He used us to do his bidding. We were pawns in his games of thievery and false romance. Everything was meant to achieve his own desires; nothing else mattered. I watched how it affected Jeremy and Lyla but still I couldn't hate him. I had lived my life the same before, a lifetime ago. I was granted a second life to try again, and in it I had to learn how my actions had affected others. I had to face the consequences of decisions made long in the past. Nathaniel was my punishment.

Our mother died after the birth of Jeremy. We were young when left with Nathaniel. And as we grew, we developed our own ways of coping. I could deal with it. The person I had become didn't like what I was doing but the knowledge experience granted me gave me the strength to know it was necessary. Lyla justified it somewhat in her mind. She was saving her siblings from death by simply taking from another. After all, it didn't kill them. She felt she was making them do what any decent person would. Then there was Jeremy. To him, there was no justification. Only a tough decision that he felt weak for giving in to. I couldn't begin to count all the nights I held him while he cried. He once even tried to take his life as he felt it was the only way he could repent for his sins. I knew why I had to suffer. I had been a horrid excuse of a person in my last life. But why Jeremy and Lyla? Then again, they knew nothing of my past life so it was possible they had one I didn't know about. I just wanted a way to free them.

But we were going into the city to do more of Nathaniel's bidding. He really was a miserable man, a big con. I couldn't even call him our father the majority of the time. He was just a person who influenced us, making us dance under his control. We didn't know what he was going to make us do this time. Sadly, I had an idea of what it could be.

"We've just got to do what we need to in order to survive now." I told them. "We'll get away and make up for it some day."

Neither of them responded. We were all too tired to really contemplate it much further. So we just kept traveling, becoming another silhouette on the dark, ominous path.

Review? Maybe? Please? Don't make me start using short stories to ask for reviews like I did on fan fiction.