CLIMAX!!! No time to be depressed! It's time to fight! [Part 4]

The hallway looked out of place compared to the rest of the castle. Instead of stone walls, torches, and medieval decor, I was suddenly met with vinyl flooring, panel ceiling, and commercial lighting. It was as if I had wandered into a boring office building. Halfway down the hall were a pair of bathrooms with a water fountain in between.

“Huh,” I said. “Guess this area is meant for staff only or something?”

I made my way down the hall, my boots clicking against the reflective floor as the fluorescent lights emitted a soft hum. At the end of the hall, I found an open door with voices coming from the other side.

I entered the room, finding what appeared to be a staff break room. A TV was mounted to the wall, broadcasting a late-night tv talk show. Sure enough, it was the source of the voices I heard. The late-night host appeared to be a male Celestial Being. He was interviewing a woman from The Monster Race. They were chatting it up like it was the most normal thing in the world, discussing her lead role in an upcoming movie.

Off to the side were a pair of vending machines for snacks and drinks. An 8”x11” sheet of paper was taped to one of them with a message scribbled in weird, ancient-looking runes.

Across from the TV was a large sofa and small coffee table. And laying across that sofa, munching on a bag of potato chips, was Jack.

“Jack!!!” I cried.

Jack nearly choked on his chips, leading to a coughing fit. “Lune!” he managed to say after clearing his throat.

I quickly ran over and latched onto him, burying my face into his chest.

“Ow, ow, ow!” he whined.

“Oh! Sorry,” I said, stepping back.

“It’s fine. My stomach still hurts something fierce.”

“Are you okay?! What happened?! Did Red do anything to you?!” I asked in rapid-fire succession.

“I’m not entirely sure. After she punched me, I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I found myself lying here with my stomach bandaged up.”

Jack lifted his shirt, showing the bandages wrapped around him.

“Red said she applied some ointment to speed up healing and to wait in here for you to rescue me. She left me a couple bucks for the vending machine and left. Haven't seen her for the past couple of hours now. But what about you? Are you okay? Did you fight Red?”

I shook my head. “We were about to, but it took so long to reach her that it was already closing time by the time I made it. ”

“Closing? Where are we, anyway?” he asked.

“A massive castle for magical girl battles that apparently can be rented by the hour.”

“Seriously? A castle? Man. You mean I’ve been hanging out in this tiny breakroom all this time when I could’ve been exploring a castle?”

I snickered. “You think a hostage would be allowed to freely explore their captor's castle?”

“Yeah. Good point.”

The two of us shared a laugh, but then fell silent. I sat down next to Jack as I tried to figure out the best way to confess the truth to him. But before I could say anything, he spoke.

“I’m sorry about today,” he said.

“What? No! You did nothing wrong!” I told him.

“No. I did. I shouldn’t have invited you out to Ten Flags. I caused you unnecessary stress.”

“You mean because all those people kept coming up to me? No, it’s alright. That wasn’t your fault.”

Jack shook his head and fell silent, staring into his bag of chips. He let out a sigh, put the chips down, and grabbed my hand.

“W-what is it?” I asked.

“ I know,” he answered.

My eyes widened as my chest grew tight. “What do you mean?”

Jack stood up from the couch. “I was only teasing when I invited you and your ‘friend’, thinking you’d come up with an excuse to not go. So when you agreed to my plan, I was caught off guard.”

“Um…”

“And then when you showed up, swapping back and forth, doing all that work, I saw the amount of stress it was causing you. I felt really terrible. What kind of boyfriend puts their partner in such a stressful scenario?”

Jack crumpled up his empty bag of chips and chucked it into a nearby trash can, and let out a sigh.

“I’m sorry, Daniel.”

I sat there, frozen in my seat, as his words bounced around in my brain. After a moment of silence, I slowly stood up from the couch. “You mean… you knew all along?”

“Yeah.”

“How long?”

“Since the first day Magical Knight Lune appeared on TV. I wasn’t entirely sure, of course. But after a few weeks, it was perfectly clear.”

He chuckled. “You’ve always been a terrible liar, even when we were kids. You’re too pure-hearted for that sort of thing. But you seemed very intent on pretending it wasn’t you running around the city helping people, so I went along with it. My thinking was that you’d tell me when you felt comfortable and ready. I didn’t want to push you.”

“But… if you knew, then why?” I asked. “Why’d you agree to go out with me if you knew the truth?”

Jack turned and looked me directly in the eyes. “Because I love you, Daniel. I’ve loved you for years now. But I wasn’t sure how you’d react if I had asked you out. I worried that it would strain our friendship if you weren’t interested. So when you confessed to me as Lune, I was ecstatic! I was the happiest guy in the world! But you continued pretending that you and Lune were two separate people, and I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I tell the truth, or keep going along with the lie?”

Jack put his hands in his pockets and glanced over to the vending machines. “I should’ve been straight with you from the start. All this time you’ve been juggling these two identities, struggling alone, when I could’ve been there for you. I’m sorry for failing you.”

Tears stung my eyes as they ran down my cheeks. No matter how many times I wiped them away, more were soon to follow.

“It was my fault,” I blubbered, unable to control my feelings. “I should’ve told you the truth.”

I transformed back into Daniel while still wearing Lune’s armor. After I managed to hold back my tears, I looked up at Jack and smiled. “Can I try again?”

Jack appeared confused by my question. Instead of explaining it, I decided to go ahead.

“Would you go out with me?”

Jack stared at me for a moment, then closed his eyes with a smile. When he opened them again, he nodded. “I love you, Daniel.”

I was overflowing with joy. Streams of tears ran down my face as I ran over to Jack and hugged him. He placed his arms around me, putting a gentle hand on my head.

“I’ll never lie to you again,” I said.

“And neither will I.”

The two of us stood there and continued to embrace one another for what felt like an eternity. An eternity that I never wanted to end.

Suddenly, a soft knock came from outside the room.

“It’s time to go,” Belliney said, poking her head through the doorway. “They need to close up for the night.”

I wiped away my tears, then looked up at Jack. “You ready?”

Jack nodded. “Always.”

The two of us held each other’s hands as we left the room.

***

Belliney, Red, Jack, and I, along with all of Red’s Shadownyans, were escorted back to the entrance of the castle. I worried about the trek back to the portal home, but the path through the forest had changed. The new layout provided a straight path directly through the woods. Which meant no more getting lost in a maze or having to carry Jack and fly over.

We began our march, with Belliney taking the lead, while Jack and I walked together in the middle. Red and her Shadownyans hung back, with Red straggling in disappointment.

“That place sure was amazing,” Jack said, having got a glance when we exited. “Sure would love to come back here again.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure that’ll be happening,” I said. “Red mentioned how she spent a lot of money to rent the place tonight.”

“Is that so? Shame you two didn’t get to have your big showdown.”

“Yeah…”

I looked back to Red, whose head hung downward.

“Be right back,” I said.

“Huh?”

Leaving Jack, I walked back to Red. “Hey,” I said.

“What?” she said, sounding unamused.

“I’m sorry that you had this whole thing set up, but then I took so long to get here, and we couldn’t have our fight. There was… something I had to do before I could face Jack again.”

“I see.”

“Yeah… So, um. If you want, we could try having a climactic showdown again sometime in the future.”

Red sighed. “Ya know how long that’s gonna take to save up the negative energy to afford it?!”

“Well, it’s not like I’ll be going anywhere. Sooo, if you, I dunno, wanna keep being my archnemesis and stick around a while longer for a rematch, then I’m cool with it. But only if you don’t harm anyone. Okay?”

Red looked at me as if offended. “I’ve never harmed anybody.”

“You threw all those security guards around!”

“That was in self-defense!”

The moment she said that I burst out laughing.

“What? What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Sorry, it’s nothing,” I said. I felt that she and Jack could get along well if they started hanging out together.

With that, I held up a fist. “Nemesis for life?”

Red looked at my hand, then off to the side, embarrassed. Despite that, I kept my fist up. After some hesitation, she smiled and gave me a fist bump.