Chatterbox: Inkwell

TRULY FORBIDDEN FANFICTION!!

So, just to be clear, this idea is not my own. Those whole True Name stuff is all Brookeria's idea, which she used in a CB story I was a part of. After it ended I, being the crazy child that I am, started writing fan fiction off of it, so here's the first bit.

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"Good evening." The voice was quiet, but cold and commanding. 

A man sat in his hover, shrouded in darkness. It took him a moment to realize that his radio had just gone off. He sat up straighter, then slumped down again, remembering where he was. 

"Good morning you mean," the man said into his microphone, picking it up as he arranged himself into a more comfortable position. "It's past midnight."

"Not yet. I need you to take a stop."

"A stop?" The bewildered man shifted his seat back upright. "Where?" 

The voice rattled off an address, but the man didn't input it into his hover's computer. 

"I know that house. My son's best friend lives there."

"I need you to stop there. Two children come of age tonight. I need you to watch them."

"Watch them?" The man held the mic closer to his ear as if unsure he had heard right. "Those kids wouldn't hurt anyone! The Phillips twins are some of the nicest kids I know, including my own son so-"

"You will watch those children. That is an order. The rest of your squad is on their way."

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"Sage. Sage, wake up!"

Carter shook his twin, trying to wake her with as little noise as possible while barely concealing his panic. 

He had been planning for this. Ever since they had taken Jeremy... Well, if a high-ranking True Guard's son could be a Forbidden, Carter certainly could to. 

"Sage! Get up!"

Carter threw the covers off of his sister's bed, revealing her long blonde hair and rumpled pajamas, and dragged her to her feet. He could still feel the burn on his wrist, the way the letters had etched themselves into his arm... But no. He couldn't dwell on that now. 

Sage's eyes opened, and Carter grabbed her wrists, hissing at the unexpected pain in his right fingers as he did so. It was... Cold. Almost like ice. He drew his hand away, but still pushed Sage into her tiny closet on the other side of the room, out of view from Carter's bed. 

"Get dressed. We have to go." 

Sage, so sleepy moments before, seemed very awake when she popped her head out of the closet and into Carter's face. 

"What? Why?"

Before Carter could even draw breath to answer, she was asking more questions. 

"What time is it? Is it past midnight? Did it happen? Did we get it!?!"

Carter laughed wryly. "Yeah. We got it." He bared his right wrist at her, knowing what she would see. 

Hadn't he, just a few minutes ago, stared as the letters burned into his wrist? Yes, he knew what his name was. He knew what Sage was seeing, as she gasped and shuffled a few steps further away from him into the closet. He knew what the glow surrounding his name meant. 

{{{ Flame }}}

Yes. Carter knew what Sage saw. 

"Carter?" She whispered. Even in the dim light of their tiny bedroom, Carter could still see that her face had gone a deathly white. "Carter? You're... You're... Forbidden."

Carter snorted derisively, walking back to his own bed. He slid off his pajamas and struggled into a clean white T-shirt and jeans, calling softly over his shoulder: "You better look at yourself." 

A gasp. Sounds of stumbling, and a thud. Carter whipped around to see Sage, now dressed in a simple white tank top and skinny jeans, land heavily into her bed, gaping at her left wrist, which was surrounded by a faint blue glow.

"Frost..." She murmured. "I... Frost." Helplessly, she offered her wrist to Carter, who took it, but immediately dropped it. That burning cold was back, worse than before, but now he knew where it came from. Etched into Sage's wrist, was one word, the exact opposite of the one on Carter's. 

<<Frost>>

"Do you see know?" He whispered. "Do you know why we have to leave?"

Sage nodded numbly, still gazing forlornly at her wrist. Carter dragged her to her feet and out the door of their tiny bedroom, leaving everything behind. They slunk past their parents' bedroom and down the narrow stairs, stopping only when they reached the bottom. Carter popped open a panel along the side of the staircase and pulled out a bag. 

"Supplies," he whispered, even quieter than before. She nodded once, and they slipped down the hall. They stopped once more before the door and slipped on their sneakers. Carter snatched his brown leather jacket, his 12th birthday gift, off its hook and slipped it on. It was still a bit large, but that was ok. While the glow around Sage's Name had faded Carter's had gotten stronger, if anything. The jacket blocked the light from shining through. 

Hand on the door handle, Carter looked back at him home one last time. Small as it was, it was still home. He had lived there for his whole life, and he and Sage had discovered all the house's secrets, from the loose panel under the stairs to the door that led nowhere out of the back of Sage's closet. 

"You ready for this?" Sage's voice was full of emotion, wistfulness as much as fear, anxiety as much as curiosity. That relieved Carter slightly. Ever since she had woken up Sage had seemed... Different. More serious. More unsure. Now she was getting back to normal. 

"As I'll ever be." Carter opened the door, and the two of them stepped outside. 

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Anyhoo, I had a nice fancy font picked out for the True Names, but Cricket only has one font, so the brackety things are just so you know that's their Names.