"Neverkin."
That answer brought the room to a sudden silence; not a single person was familiar with that name—apart from me. Although I'd never met them in person, I completely trusted the words of my best friend, who had actually met them.
"Juliet, help me! It seems Alice's gone completely mad because I've been away for too long!" That creature still had the nerve to resume its terrible acting, but the innocent girl, who knew nothing of the matter, immediately walked over and grabbed my shoulder.
My head turned automatically to look behind me, and there I saw the girl who claimed her name was Juliet wearing the red jacket I'd pointed out to her earlier. "Take your foot off my sister!" she shouted furiously.
But her voice was nothing more than a passing breeze in my ears, because I couldn't contain the turmoil I felt upon seeing that girl wearing the red jacket. "It really does suit you, doesn't it?" I muttered, leaving her in a state of shock and confusion. "Unlike this self-proclaimed creature." My blue eyes glanced back at Neverkin.
"I'll give you five seconds; if you don't want to confess—Robin's arrow will scorch your face." I issued the threat whilst pulling out a card; my eyes darted towards the girl behind me and I whispered softly. "Wait here a moment, won't you?" A giant stone hand shot out from the card, catching the girl's body before hurling her into the wall and holding her there.
"July!" Romeo shouted, rushing towards her; a reddish glow appeared on his face and a red masquerade mask covered the area around his eyes. "Don't worry, I'll save you!" he said, watching his girlfriend wriggling and struggling to free herself.
"Romeo, if you move even an inch—I'll make that stone fly all the way up into the sky so you won't even be able to see it." That threat made the man freeze instantly; he'd never expected me to say something like that to him. "Stay right there until this is over."
I turned my gaze back to the creature whose body I was standing on. "I don't need to repeat myself, do I?" I said, tilting my head slightly; Robin, standing right beside me, had already nocked an arrow, whilst Snow had fallen to the floor in terror. "Five," I began to count down.
"Four."
"...."
"Three."
"...."
"Two."
Juliet, trapped against the wall, screamed, begging me to stop, but my resolve was firm; no one could stop me now.
"One."
WHOOSH!
The arrow flew straight into Neverkin's face—THUCK—the sound of it striking echoed throughout the room; for a moment, everything fell silent as everyone waited for a response to my accusation, whilst Robin and I immediately got our answer.
The arrow did not graze his skin at all; instead, its iron tip pierced through and lodged itself in the wooden floor—Red could never have such an ability; the only one capable of that was Neverkin. "Gotcha." In that very moment, my foot, which had been pressing down on his stomach, went right through him as though I were stepping on air.
I leapt backwards, followed by Robin, who immediately stood in front of me. Everyone was in shock, and Neverkin soared through the air without any help from Everafter. They broke into broad, terrifying smiles, causing Juliet and Romeo to freeze in shock as they stared at what lay far ahead of them.
A faint bluish-white light appeared and five dwarf puppets emerged from behind it. Snow was already back on her feet and in a ready stance in case of an attack. "Ahh, I shouldn't have tried to trick a genius like you," she said as she continued to float in the air. "You're the person closest to Red; of course you'd be able to figure it out so quickly."
Neverkin's appearance shifted to that of my former self—before I became Robin—and kept changing into people I didn't even recognise; it seemed he wanted to demonstrate his ability to disguise himself—they could become whoever they pleased. "This isn't our last meeting, Alice. After all, this is the first time we've ever seen each other face to face, isn't it?"
"Go to hell!"
"Heh, it's funny hearing you say that, when you're the one who ought to be heading there."
In that very instant, Neverkin vanished into thin air—I breathed a sigh of relief after trying to steady my breathing so as not to reveal the immense pressure weighing on my shoulders. "Robin, you felt it too, didn't you?" I asked, and he immediately nodded.
I turned and saw the girl I'd trapped lying on the floor, staring at her own hands; the stone hands had vanished, leaving only their shards behind. Romeo was trying to calm her down—it seemed she'd begun to regain her true identity.
I walked closer and the girl raised her head—our eyes met and she whispered softly. "I'm… Juliet Aliegheri, aren't I?" she asked in a pleading tone, hoping I'd say yes and that everything that had happened wasn't actually real.
I stopped in my tracks and, for a moment, simply gazed into her eyes; my fist was clenched, but slowly I opened my hand again—there was only one way for her to realise who she truly was. "Come on, Orange, how long do you intend to keep pretending to be someone you're not?" I asked with a smile on my face.
Her heart immediately felt lighter and, on instinct, she stood up, her expression one of annoyance and offence. "Are you still up to those jokes? My name is Red—!" Her words trailed off; she was confused and hadn't expected what she'd just said herself. "Huh… my name…?"
She looked down at her hands, which were trembling in panic; Romeo had called out her name—but it wasn't her real name. She immediately ran off, flinging the door open—trying to escape all this confusion. "RED!" I shouted and started chasing after her, followed by Robin, Romeo and Snow from behind.
Red kept running off, who knows where; all that mattered was that she had to get away from a reality she couldn't accept. Even so, no matter how far she ran – she would still have to face it head-on. Her foot tripped and she fell straight to the ground. "Ugh…" She saw blood seeping from her knee; the red colour of that blood brought home who she really was.
Just as she felt utterly crushed, a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind. Red was startled and turned to face the person hugging her—it turned out to be her own boyfriend… or perhaps, more accurately, Juliet's boyfriend. "Romy…how can this be? I'm not the Juliet you love; I'm… Redelle Woods, someone you don't even know.
Romeo took Juliet's hand and removed her glove; beneath Juliet's long black glove, an artificial hand made of metal revealed itself. Romeo placed that hand against his own cheek before whispering, "Whoever you are, I will still love you."
That broke Red's heart even further, because all this time Romeo had only seen her personality and demeanour as Juliet–not as her true self. The others and I managed to catch up, and I witnessed the scene unfold before my very eyes. A surge of jealousy welled up within me, yet at last I understood why Juliet's right hand felt so hard.
It turned out that the arm was a prosthetic of a model I was seeing for the very first time—because it was made mainly of metal, the horrific moment when Red's real arm was severed by Death immediately flashed back into my mind, making my day feel much heavier. The night sky shed tears as it witnessed this; Red was lost in Romeo's tight embrace—this was the first bittersweet story I had witnessed first-hand.
"Is that really true—?"
Before Red could get an answer, his red eyes widened as he saw the hole in Romeo's forehead—tears welled up as the sound of a bullet striking the ground echoed loudly. A heavy downpour drenched London, as if even the sky was sharing in the sorrow at the sight below.
We were all equally shocked as the man's body fell into Red's arms. Robin instinctively turned round and spotted an old man holding a rifle, hiding atop a tower. Red sat frozen, unable to believe what had just happened; I quickly drew my card and created a protective wall made of layers upon layers of bricks.
"Red! Are you all right?!"
But when I turned towards him, I could sense a tremendous pressure emanating from him. Around Red, a crimson aura appeared, and it looked like a blazing fire. Romeo's body lay on the ground, whilst Red stood with her head bowed, staring at the ground.
"…Red?"
The hair at the back of her head had grown to reach her neck, and from behind her blonde hair emerged a pair of ears resembling a wolf's—she was snarling like a predator that had just found its prey.
"Is that…?" Snow muttered, unable to believe her own eyes, especially when a wolf's tail emerged from beneath her clothing—Red no longer looked like a human; she was more like a beastkin, just like Felix. "A Bad Ending…?"
Robin and I turned to look at Snow; it was a reasonable explanation—yet I'd never imagined Red would end up with a Bad Ending. "Red! Can you hear me?!" I shouted, but the girl didn't so much as glance my way.
Instead, Red raised her right hand, and the prosthetic limb instantly transformed—into a shotgun resembling her Everafter. She gave no reply, choosing instead to leap and shoot into the sky; I knew full well she was out to teach a lesson to whoever had Shot Romeo.
However, judging by the way Red was behaving, she clearly wasn't in control of herself—she was being driven by boundless rage. "Let's go after her!" I called out to Robin and Snow; they then nodded simultaneously and we shot off in pursuit.