The Villainous Children Retire

Chapter 15

Eventually, the end of summer finally arrived, and the cold weather was upon them.

Feeling too cooped up in their house and unwilling to play with Cheryl and Bryce, their grandfather offered them the next best thing: exploring the small town on their own.

Esther and Eli took note of just how many apartments were in the middle of town, and there weren't many; however, there were far more apartments than houses according to their observations.

They found the high school; it was, indeed, very far from the other schools, and they even found a few restaurants they hadn't been aware of until they went exploring.

"I think that's about everything here," said Eli.

They both agreed that there was probably nothing left to see and decided to head back when something caught Esther's attention.

'Eli,' she called slowly, 'what's that?'

Eli followed his sister's gaze until they were both staring at the back of an odd white building.

'It's oddly shaped,' he said. 'It's nothing like any of the buildings I've seen before.' He turned to his sister. 'Let's go check it out.'

'Be careful,' Esther thoughtfully warned.

"Nothing will happen," said Eli aloud.

"You don't know that!" she hissed. "Look at how odd the building looks!"

When they wrapped around the front of the building, they were a little embarrassed to discover what it was.

"A history museum," said Eli as he read the name of the building aloud. He gave a quiet laugh. "It's a museum."

Esther could feel her face burning with embarrassment as Eli said, "There was no reason for us to be so cautious."

"I didn't know what it was!" she said almost immediately. "And you didn't either!"

"But I wasn't the one who was being overly cautious about it."

"Shut up!" Esther read the title of the building again to make sure her brother was correct, and he was. "Are we going in or not?"

After giving it some thought, Eli answered, "We might as well. Grandpa won't be expecting us back for a while anyway."

Esther bit her tongue to keep from saying the things she wanted to. She settled for childishly sticking her tongue out at him as they walked up the stairs and headed to the doors.

They pushed the wide double doors open and were immediately immersed into a world of wonder.

Ordinary children, even adults, wouldn't understand what some of the items in the museum were, but the twins knew. They weren't originally from the modern world, after all.

To them, the sealing wax, now unfashionable garments, spinning wheels, old telegraphs, quills, and ink were a necessity in everyday life.

They would never forget the shock they received when seeing modern-day technology, especially a television for the first time. They were certain they had been reborn in a newly created demon world for a long time.

Esther giggled to herself when remembering that. She asked with a smile, "We were quite foolish back then, weren't we?"

"Speak for yourself," Eli answered haughtily. "I knew we weren't in a demon world from the beginning."

"Oh?" chuckled Esther. "Is that why you were so determined to get your old sword because you knew we weren't in a demon world?"

"All the demons were destroyed by us. Of course, I knew."

Esther could only laugh at her embarrassed brother's lies.

She continued to tease him. "You don't have to be so embarrassed, El. I didn't know where we were either. It was only natural to believe that somehow, the demons had evolved and disguised themselves. Even if you were a little more foolish than I was, you still-"

"Esther."

The grimness in his voice made her heart beat faster. She was almost too startled to move when she heard him call her again.

"Come here."

She could feel herself shaking with uncertainty and anxiety. Was her brother overreacting over something? She was trying to convince herself that was the case until she saw the very thing he was staring at.

'Why is that there?'

'How is it here?' Eli asked.

'It's impossible it shouldn't be here. . .'

'But it is.'

A portrait portraying two mature faces, dark chocolate hair, cobalt blue eyes, and thin and poised pretty faces and figures. A boy standing in an expensive suit and a girl with long primed curls in her hair wearing a gorgeous dress that looked similar to the boy's suit. Pretty people, but they appeared as sharp as rose thorns and ornery. The picture had done well to portray their personalities.

The portrait of the ones who no longer existed. Vain and cold, Irene and Ezra Belmonte.

Eli tore his eyes from the portrait and turned around to look at the items in the museum again. He thought they looked familiar, and now he knew why.

"Esther, look around."

They weren't just looking at objects from the past, they were their items from their previous lives.

"Esther. . . do you get it? What this place is?"

She had a strong feeling she did, but she didn't want to admit it. It was so absurd, after all. A museum that was entirely about them? It was hard to believe.

"Eli. . . look . . ."

Eli turned back in the direction of the portrait, but what his sister was pointing at wasn't it; it was at another.

'It's our parents.'

There were two adults who looked exactly like the twins in the portrait. In fancy garments like their children's, however, one look was enough to tell that they were far kinder than their children.

Jack and Nancy were their parents now, but the ones they had always felt were their true parents were the people they were staring at.

They never thought they'd get to see them again, even if the portrait might have still existed.

When nobility still existed, the richest of them all, besides the royalty, the most liked and benevolent ones in the kingdom, who somehow ended up with such villainous children, were Frederick and Leah Belmonte.

"A museum that is solely about us." Esther felt chills go down her spine when she said that.

They turned to look around the vacant building.

"But where are the workers?"

"Good question," Eli replied. "I wonder where they're at."

"Maybe they don't care about this place."

Since there was no one there but them, the twins could look around as they pleased.

The more they did, the more they observed that it was set up as a story.

Esther got closer to the portrait of their parents to read the golden plaque underneath it. She slowly began to read it aloud, "It wasn't uncommon to hear the names Frederick and Leah Belmonte. They were the most popular people in the little kingdom. It is wildly estimated that they were even more popular than the royal family at the time."

"It's true," Eli said once Esther finished reading. "They were very popular."

"I wonder what ours says."

"You know what it says before even reading it."

Esther felt like she knew, but she went over to read it anyway.

"The last remaining portraits of Ezra and Irene Belmonte. Age sixteen."

Esther looked up at the portrait again. "Huh, we were sixteen then, weren't we?"

"Yeah," Eli answered. He was angry with the whole situation. "I remember it. The plaque says there's only one remaining, but there was ever only one to begin with."

"Nobody ever came to take our portraits after that."

"Well, what do you expect? We never thought anyone was good enough and scared them all away."

"Didn't we threaten to cut off their fingers?"

"We stabbed one of them in the hand, remember?"

The twins shivered at the forgotten memory.

"We are different, see?"

Eli didn't believe that as wholeheartedly as Esther did.

"We would never consider doing such a terrible thing to someone now."

"Come on," ordered Eli coldly. "Let's keep looking around."

The rest of the museum was predictable. It told history that they were very familiar with. To their birth, to the battle with the demons, all the way to their deaths. They knew it well. There was just one thing that surprised them: the reason why the museum was built in the first place.

They had always wondered why they felt so comfortable in the tiny town. It was only natural after all. . .

'Did you read it?'

'Yeah. . . I read it.'

The final golden plaque confirmed it.

One would only feel so natural in a town that was once originally their home.

'So it's true then?' Esther asked. 'That this place was originally our home?'

After many years had gone by and the kingdom had eroded into nothingness, a retirement town was built over the area. It only felt right to the people to honor the legendary kingdom that was responsible for the defeat of the race of demons.

"Look over there," Esther said, and they both raced over to look at the missed display.

This time, Eli read it. "After the public execution of Ezra and Irene Belmonte, their surviving parents, Frederick and Leah Belmonte, were devastated. Even if they had been more closer to being monsters than the demons, they were still their beloved children. Unable to move past the deaths of their only children their health slowly began to deteriorate. Their deaths were a mystery at the time, but it can now be concluded that the main cause of their deaths was ongoing severe depression. The young couple died of a broken heart."

"Mom, Dad," called Esther quietly. "They died because of us. We caused them so much pain and misery in life, and even in death."

Without needing any more reason, the twins both felt hot tears run down their cheeks.

"Why were we so selfish?!"

Esther watched her brother violently bang his fists against the plaque.

"Why?!" he shouted. "Why couldn't we have noticed before it was too late? Why didn't we act better? Why couldn't they have scolded us just once or told us we were ruining ourselves? Why couldn't they have acted more like proper parents and make us see the error of our ways? Why did they only suffer? Why?"

In a break of sobs, Eli collapsed onto the floor.

"Eli!" cried Esther as she hurriedly joined his side.

He poured his heart out above the final portrait taken of their parents. They could see just how weary they had become, and it was no one's fault but theirs.

Esther knew exactly how her brother felt, but she couldn't bring herself to voice it as well as he had. She could only offer her tears along with his.

They were truly alone in the building, for if they weren't, someone would have come running to find out who was making such loud and despairing cries, loud enough to echo throughout the halls.

It was precisely because no one came running that they knew they were alone. In a world full of people, they only had each other, and it seemed it always would be that way.

No one would ever reach their hand out to help the twins. They were usually scorned about that fact, but in their present state, they were fine with it.

They couldn't betray each other, and that was enough to console them. In a world full of people, only they existed.