Recap: Vincent attempted an aptitude test for college and failed, Russel became an elder, Asellus discovered Cid’s time machine and traveled far into the future. She brought back a Philosopher’s Stone that Araceli used until she turned into gold.

Araceli could hear a strange voice calling for her. She tried to move, but her limbs seemed to be too stiff.

Eventually, she watched the ground below her appear farther and farther away. She looked down at her hands and noticed a gold tint to them. Her eyes wandered all over her own body. She was entirely gold.

A being stood before her dressed in black clothing and holding a scythe. She stared at him in disbelief. Was this the Grim Reaper? Why was he here? Surely, it wasn’t for her…

As if reading her fears, he pointed behind him to a solid gold statue. Araceli investigated it. The statue was of her on her knees, burying her face in her hands. Araceli tried to remember that moment.

She was turning items into gold all night long, and eventually, something went wrong. The jewel on the top of the device she was using spun furiously and actually pointed itself at her. It struck her. Araceli remembered falling to the ground ready to sob, understanding in that split second that Asellus had intended for this to happen all along.

The statue was Araceli’s own body turned to gold. The statue would forever showcase Araceli’s final thought: the realization that her own daughter killed her.

She sighed. Turning her eyes away from the statue, she held out her hand to the Reaper, shaking it.

Asellus had killed her.

Her very own daughter had killed her.

Why? What for? Araceli had been nothing but kind to her children.

Asellus had taken Araceli’s life away from her, and it was far from finished. She had yet to truly fall in genuine love. She never got the chance to fulfill her Lifetime Wish. She didn’t even get to age into an actual Adult yet. She was killed while stuck in a loveless marriage to a man who had manipulated her into it in the first place simply so she could bare him children… children that he didn’t even love until just recently. She was killed having not seen any of her four children graduate or fall in love themselves. She didn’t get to see what kind of lives they would have.

What a shame. Such a wasted life… ended before it even had the chance to get any good.

She tried to push those dwelling thoughts out of her mind and accept her transition into the afterlife. She looked at the Reaper and nodded to him, signalling she was ready. She closed her eyes and dove forward into a light he had summoned, hoping whatever faced her in the afterlife would be better than the events of her actual life.

Cid was the unfortunate Thrones who discovered what had happened.

He approached Russel cautiously, unsure of what his reaction would be.

It was anger.

Since Cid did not know how this had all happened (though he did have a hunch as to who was involved), he explained to Russel that Araceli had been tampering with a dangerous device that had turned her into gold.

Russel shook his head a few times, unable to accept Cid’s story. He pushed him out of the way and stormed off to the back of the lot to see for himself.

He saw the gold statue and clenched his fists, tightening the rest of his body.

Cid ran after him. He stood beside Russel and placed a hand on his shoulder. Russel didn’t say anything. He stood still for awhile before turning and going back inside, laying down in his bed, and closing his eyes to sleep.

Cid broke the news to the rest of the family. Hercules was devastated. Vincent didn’t express any emotion regarding the matter. Ayumi sobbed into her Uncle Cid’s lap. Asellus’s eyes widened. She held her breath and bolted out of the house, swiftly walking as fast as she could — without looking suspicious — to the statue.

It was too good to be true.

She flung her fist into the air and then pounded it in front of her, laughing and smiling to herself. She had done it. She had actually done it.

A feeling swelled up within her, growing as it rose from the bottoms of her heels to the tips of her eyelashes. Her adrenaline began pumping. This was it. This was what she was meant to do. She was meant to harm others like this. If she could do it to the very woman who raised her, how easy would it be to do it to people she had no connection to?

She made the decision then and there to one day become the Emperor of Evil. She was going to rise to the top of the ranks of evil and become respected in her field, eventually reigning over an entire community devoted to her every word.

Ayumi couldn’t stay away from Russel. He hadn’t said much since discovering what had happened to Araceli, and Ayumi was growing concerned. It didn’t seem healthy that Russel was so quiet all of the time. She didn’t pry, however, she merely stayed by his side during times when he was alone.

To comfort herself when she was alone, Ayumi would catch more animals and add them to her brood.

She developed extremely close friendships with every stray she brought inside.

She knew sooner or later the room would need to be expanded. There was no way she was going to stop rescuing little animals, especially the ones who were looked upon poorly by a majority of Moonlight Falls residents.

Sadly, Ayumi learned quickly that even animals are not immune to the afterlife. It was an incredibly difficult time for her to lose any of her animals after Araceli’s loss, but it comforted her to think that maybe Araceli was keeping them all safe.

Hercules aged into a Young Adult and chose his Lifetime Wish. He was going to take full advantage of his smarts and learn how to become a Chess Legend. He was going to make a name for himself in the respected world of chess players.

He was a Good, Neat, Perfectionist, Genius, Angler… his Logic Skill was maxed out completely… he felt surely, this would be an easy goal to accomplish.

Hercules’s biggest supporter was Russel. He played chess with his son every single night, usually losing very quickly into the match.

Russel still wasn’t speaking much. He had yet to inform anyone of his feelings regarding Araceli. Hercules thought about asking him several times, but felt the risk of pushing him away was too great.

Ayumi grew into a Teenager and chose to live life as a Vegetarian. She was not going to devour the flesh of the animals she wanted so desperately to save.

Now that she was closer in age to her sister, Ayumi began to notice her strange behavior. Asellus was always prancing around the house with a weird grin on her face and a strange laugh dancing on her lips. Asellus loved visiting Araceli’s statue. This would have been perfectly fine and seemed normal if she was sad whilst doing so, but that was never the case. Asellus would visit the statue to laugh at it.

Ayumi was unsure what was happening with her sister. Had she been like this all along?

She decided not to push for a strong relationship with Asellus. Something was just… not right about her… something didn’t sit very well with Ayumi. Though she was Family-Oriented, she felt it would be wise to keep her distance from her only sister.

Ayumi expanded the room for her animals on her own budget. A friend of hers had been working at the local Bookstore for a few years and managed to help Ayumi get a job there. She saved up every paycheck and worked late so she wouldn’t have to bother anybody with the finances. After months of saving, she hired some people to expand the room just enough to add some more space.

Russel walked into the room when it was completed and Ayumi smiled at him. “What do you think?” she asked softly.

Russel nodded. “I’m proud of you,” he muttered. He hugged her and smiled. “You are a very bright young lady, Ayumi.”

Ayumi shied away from her father, feeling her eyes tear up. “Father? Are you… how are you doing… with everything?”

Russel blinked a few times before sighing. “I’m doing okay.” He took a deep breath. “You’re too young to really remember, Ayumi, but your mother and I didn’t have the greatest relationship.”

“What are you saying? Are you fine with the fact that she was turned into gold?” Ayumi’s voice shuddered.

“No, no, no, of course not!” Russel looked around at her animals. “I hate to say this, but… I don’t think I ever really loved her…”

Ayumi’s heart sank. “Why are you telling me this?” she whimpered, tears falling from her face onto the carpet.

Russel gave her a stern look. He shook his head. “I want you to be better than me, Ayumi. I want you to marry someone who you simply cannot live without. Don’t marry someone for their looks, for their smarts, for what you know they can give you… Don’t be like me. Don’t be selfish.” Ayumi bit her lip. “I am sad about what happened, but I am more angry at myself for being the cause of her misery for so long. I tricked her. I tricked her into marrying me just so I could get what I wanted. She wanted to leave several times but she never made it out the door because of you four kids.”

“Stop, I don’t want to hear anymore… This is just making me sad…” Ayumi wiped her eyes with her arm and turned to her animals, meticulously feeding them one at a time.

“I apologize… That wasn’t my intent…” Russel put his hands in his pockets. “All you need to know is Araceli loved you and your siblings so much that she was willing to sacrifice her own happiness in order to give you four a good life. I guess that was the point I was trying to make.” He turned to leave.

Once the door was closed, Ayumi fell to her knees and started crying.

————————————————————————————————————————-

Hercules registered at City Hall for the Ranked Chess Tournament. He wrote his name down, pushed his glasses up, and looked around the room at his opponents. Mostly, the ranked chess players in Moonlight Falls were significantly older than him. They probably had loads more experience with the game of chess than Hercules had. He tried to study each of them while he was there, but he did not get a good grip on their personalities.

The rules of the Ranked Chess Tournament were simple. Hercules was registered as an official player along with a bunch of other residents of the town. Each name was placed on a list that went home with each player. Hercules merely had to call the first person on the list, face-off with them in a chess game, and then record the results of the match to send into City Hall. Whichever participant walked out of the tournament with the most wins would receive the title of Chess Master and be hailed as a true genius.

It was late at night on the weekend when Hercules braved his first opponent.

An older woman approached him and sat down at his chess table. “Hello, I’m Hercules Thrones,” he greeted, extending his hand.

“Yeah, yeah, shuddap and sit down,” the woman barked.

Hercules gulped. He sat down and motioned for her to make the first move. She picked up a pawn and moved it forward, glaring at Hercules until he made up his mind as to where he was going to move.

The match with this woman seemed to last forever. It was full of judgmental glares and snide remarks about his play style. Hercules tried not to let her distract him from his goal and somehow ended up winning. He sighed in relief when the match was over. The woman stood from her seat and didn’t say a word. She simply left the lot by hailing a taxi.

Hercules’s second match was against a friendly old man who spent most of the game telling stories of his grandkids. Hercules enjoyed his opponent’s lighthearted attitude, but grew anxious waiting for him to make his next move.

When Hercules won, the old man gave him a hug and proceeded to show him pictures of all 30 of his grandkids, naming them all one-by-one and giving Hercules a brief summary of each of their lives.

His third opponent was a woman who was his own age. She seemed nice enough at first, but as it became apparent she was losing, she started getting angrier and angrier. When she lost, she flipped the chess table into the air and screamed at Hercules, accusing him of cheating.

One particularly interesting old man pulled up to the Thrones household to face Hercules in the next ranked battle.

“Hello, I’m Hercules Thrones,” Hercules greeted.

The old man set his cane against the house and plopped into his seat. He smiled at Hercules and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you Hercules,” he said, “I’m your Uncle Feign.”

Hercules had heard stories about his Uncle Feign. He had even read some of Feign’s books in the bookshelf in the house. Looking at him now was kind of exciting for Hercules, let alone playing against him in a ranked game of chess.

It was the most difficult match Hercules had ever taken part of yet, but he came out the victor.

He shook Feign’s hand again when the match was over and smiled. “Hey, do you have to leave right now? You should hang around for a little bit!”

Feign laughed. “No, I don’t need to leave anytime soon. I’ve got nothing I need to get home to.”

Hercules paused. “You… you’re married, aren’t you?”

“Yes, yes. Unfortunately, your Aunt Colette is no longer with us.”

“Oh… I’m really sorry…” Hercules shrugged, his eyes adverting to the ground. “My mother, Araceli, recently died as well.”

Feign frowned. “I am sorry for your loss, Hercules. It is a shame I don’t hear from your father very often.” He shook his head. “But let’s talk about more lighthearted matters.” Feign broke back into a grin and raised an eyebrow. “Did your father ever tell you that you and I were inseparable when you were a baby?”

The two stood outside talking for the next several hours. Feign told Hercules what it was like to complete his own Lifetime Wish. Hercules spoke to Feign about his rough childhood and how everything turned out okay in the end. Before Feign left the lot, he and Hercules regained the statuses of ‘best friends’.

Hercules called and visited Feign everyday after that until he joined his wife in the afterlife.

Asellus, upon aging into a Young Adult, realized she was a Workaholic. This blended well with her other traits; Loves The Heat, Evil, Charismatic, and No Sense Of Humor. She knew she would get a job in the criminal career without a second thought.

She had caught wind of a secret organization where criminals gathered and worked together to get what they wanted out of life. It was hidden behind Moonlight Falls’s theater.

She was given the job, but she didn’t want to worry Russel about it. When she returned home, she lied and told him she was a janitor at the theater.

Vincent’s grades were not getting any better. In fact, they were on a steady decline. When he wasn’t playing basketball, he spent his free time with his father — usually playing catch. The two had never been very close and Vincent had never made an effort to change that, but losing Araceli was a wake-up call for Vincent. He did not want to live out the rest of his life having made no emotional connection to his family members. Spending more time with Russel was beneficial to their relationship, but wound up harming his grades due to lack of studying.

Vincent was starting to realize if this trend continued, he would barely graduate with a 2.0 GPA, meaning he would never get scholarships to attend the university he was eyeing. It was unfortunate, but each day it looked more and more like an okay sacrifice to make.

Ayumi maintained a good bond with all of her animals, but her macaw was her best friend. He had learned to sit on her shoulder to follow her during the day, nipping on her ear when he wanted a snack and chirping along with the radio.

Hercules was unbeatable in the tournament. Matches were getting faster and easier to win everyday.

While it was not his intention, he found he wasn’t making any connections with his opponents. He felt a little lonely. His only friends were members of his family. One afternoon, he decided to change that.

He went to an online dating website and made himself a profile, thinking that perhaps he would meet someone through it who would share his interests and maybe even want to date.

But again, that was not his first priority. His main goal right now was finishing the tournament and winning the title of Chess Master. It would just be considered a bonus if he got a response on his page.