The Villainous Children Retire

Chapter 1

A small girl sat on a hardwood porch outside on a warm sunny day.

The wind blew harshly, causing her honey-blonde hair to flow in all directions.

Despite the harshness of the wind, the girl didn't want to go back inside; nothing was waiting for her, even if she was to go.

"Esther."

Following the direction of the little voice that called her, she turned to see a boy who was just as small as she was. The boy stood a few inches away with an emotionless expression.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked.

"Me?" she asked with the same childish voice. "I'm not doing anything."

"You should come back inside," said the boy sternly.

"Why?"

The boy kept his gaze as he began to approach Esther and slowly knelt down. It wasn't a hard feat to accomplish since it took little effort to meet the ground with his height.

The wind blew harder, blowing their blonde hair everywhere. However strong the wind was, the boy didn't lose sight of the girl in front of him. His golden brown eyes were locked with another pair, the same color as his.

After a momentary pause, he finally replied,

"Because Grandpa is looking for us."

"Us?" the girl asked, displeased. "Why is he looking for us? Why can't you just go?"

'Esther.'

The stern voice wasn't spoken out loud, but she could still hear it as clear as day.

'We're trying to be better people, remember?'

'Of course, I remember,' she replied. Her mouth wasn't moving either, but she already knew that he understood what she was saying.

Ever since she could remember, she had always had the same dream. In the dreams, they depict two siblings with powerful abilities. For some reason, the siblings liked to use their powers to torment the people around them. While the dreams did bother her every night she dreamt of them, she hadn't given them much thought. That was until she learned the reason why she was always having such dreams.

If someone were to overhear their conversations, they would find it weird to hear such things being spoken by two small children who were barely even seven years old. They might find it weirder if they were to tell them that they weren't really seven-year-olds.

"We've actually been adults for a few years now, haven't we?" Esther teased.

The boy sighed and shook his head disgruntled. "You shouldn't say things like that out loud," he said in between another one of his sighs.

The boy was Esther's twin brother, Eli. His situation was the same as hers, and for some reason, he was always sullen. Whether that was because he was having to go through adolescence again, who knows?

It wasn't that they wanted to be reborn, especially when they discovered who they had been before.

Even in their previous life, they were twins; horrible and cruel twins known as Ezra and Irene. Now, they were currently Eli and Esther.

They had managed to keep their abilities from their previous lives intact. Being able to have secret conversations that only they could hear was only one of the many things they could do.

It wasn't like they couldn't share their unique gifts with others; they just never tried before. They never saw any merit in doing so.

Esther sighed, "Alright, let's go."

She followed Eli back into the tiny cabin house and into the even smaller kitchen where their old grandfather was leaning over the table scrubbing it off.

Esther looked at Eli to see if he would say anything to their grandfather to let him know of their presence, but he didn't. He was as silent as usual.

"Grandpa," Esther called out softly making sure not to scare him.

The old man turned around and gave them one of his best welcoming smiles.

"Esther. Eli." He called to them in his usual kind voice. "Eli," he said, shooting a look at him. "Did you finally find your sister?"

A quick nod was Eli's response.

Eli had been the first to recall the memories of their previous lives. After doing so, he seemed to fall into a slump. The situation of their home life wasn't helpful for his state of mind either.

However, he did start to show some improvement after their grandfather decided to take them in.

Even if they had been cruel children before, they knew that they could never be cruel to their grandfather, who had been kind enough to let them live with him.

His house was warm, and he always showered the twins with lots of love and affection.

It's one of the reasons why they would always listen to him and do whatever he wanted with a smile.

"The day's still early, and it's nice out, so how about we all go out on a fishing trip?"

The twins exchanged looks with one another before smiling brightly and cheerfully agreeing to go.

That was just one example of how they would smile and agree despite hating fishing.

The town they lived in was very small. There were three school buildings, two grocery stores, one very small hospital, and about twenty or thirty-so houses. All in all, there might have been fifty people living there. Most of the residents were old people.

The reason the town was so small and mainly populated with the elderly was because it had been built as a means of retirement for those who had spent years working. It was a place they could come and settle down in.

The only residents there besides the elderly were their adult children, who had nowhere else to go, and their grandchildren whom they were having to raise due to certain circumstances, like the twins, who had barely been able to board their boat because of the affectionate elderly.

Their matching hats, vests, and little boots had earned them many compliments.

Esther and Eli had gained a lot of attention for their matching outfits. One of the ladies even had her way with Esther's hair, putting it up into two little braids.

Once things had settled down and they were a far distance from any land, their grandfather turned to them, laughed loudly, and asked, "Well, what will I do with the two of you? You guys are going to have to stop being so cute. You're becoming too popular!"

They could only laugh stiffly in response.

Even though they had spent nearly half a day sitting on the lake fishing, they had yet to catch more than one fish.

The twins were frustrated by it, but it seemed their grandfather was even more upset than them.

He had wanted to prepare a banquet of fish to eat for dinner, but with the stash he had now, it wouldn't be enough for even one meal.

"I think we should give up for the day," he said in defeat.

"Are we giving up?" Esther asked.

Esther stared down at the crystal-clear water. She didn't see a reason as to why they weren't catching any fish. It wasn't like they had cheap bait. Over half of their grandfather's money went to buying the highest quality fish bait.

Esther turned back to her disheartened grandfather and said cheerfully, "I think we should wait a little while longer. Who knows, luck might be on our side!"

It wasn't a moment sooner since she had said that, and dozens of fish began to circle around the boat and lures.

They seemed to be hypnotized as more and more came around. If someone were to see such a sight, they would've thought they were being attacked.

Esther looked at the old man. She found his expression of utter shock amusing to see, but what caught her eye was her brother.

His face was hardened and still as he concentrated hard on something. Esther looked down at his outstretched hand that was pointed at the water.

Despite them both knowing how upset their grandfather was over not catching any fish, Esther didn't have any intentions of using her powers to lure the fish over to them. She thought her brother had felt the same.

She was clearly wrong.

Using her abilities, she spoke to him in a voice only he could hear.

'You shouldn't use your powers out in the open like this,' she reprimanded. 'What will you do if someone catches you?'

'Who would catch me?'

Esther glared at him over his carelessness.

'Look around; there's no one here but old people, and we're too far away for them to see with their eyesight.'

'Grandpa is here.'

That seemed to strike a nerve with him.

'What will you do if he catches you?'

Eli slowly put his hand down, and the hordes of fish stopped coming in. Although they were still left with the millions of fish he had summoned.

Besides using their powers to communicate secretly, the twins never used them. After getting used to modern-day technology, they realized that their ability was more like a radio.

Originally, they wouldn't have been so worried about getting caught using their powers since everyone in their previous life knew about them, and they were revered for them, but now, things were different.

People no longer believed magic existed. It made sense to the twins since there were no longer any evil demons running around. They had taken care of that. But what would happen if they get caught using their powers in this day and age? If it was anything like they had seen on television, they knew they would be taken and experimented on.

Esther looked at Eli, who was now sitting still in the boat. She couldn't handle the thought of something bad happening to him. In the past, she was the older sibling, but now he was. The protective instincts had never left her, though.

'I don't want anything bad to happen to you. Using our powers like this is fine because there's no way we'll get caught. But. . .'

Her thoughts trailed off, or rather, she couldn't finish them.

'I know,' Eli replied. 'I won't use them anymore.'

There was no reason for them to use their powers anymore in the first place. As they sat in bitter silence with their deep thoughts, their grandfather called out to them.

"Are you kids okay?"

Esther turned to him with a smile and replied, "We're fine, Grandpa."

Even though he didn't say it, the twins knew he thought their expressions were odd for young children to make.

"Alright then," he said, upbeat. "Let's head back, shall we? We'll be having fish for weeks!"

Esther opened her mouth to answer him when Eli suddenly spoke up, "Sounds good, Grandpa."

At that moment, Esther and her grandfather were alike in thought when Eli had answered him.

The twins watched as the old man took a net and loaded all of the fish that had been summoned onto the boat.

It was sunset before they were paddling back to the shore.

Even as she listened to the sound of ores going in and out of the water, all Esther could think about was how she hoped she and her brother wouldn't have to use their powers ever again.