An Cailín Eile

Dea-tráthnóna do gach ceann de mo léitheoirí!

In the past week, I've gotten to the twins really well. For instance, I know that Melody has 4,971 freckles (Rhyme has counted them all), and that she has a bad reaction to the word 'cathedral.' Rhyme doesn't like for people to see him cry (who does?). Both twins are born on Febuary 28 of 1998, and Rhyme had a girlfriend!

"She wasn't my girlfriend!" He yelled.

"Alright, alright! But she was a girl who was your friend, right?" I asked. Rhyme scowled at me and sighed. "Yes and no. She was my friend, but I liked her a lot more than a friend."

"So what did you like her as?"

"I have no idea. I never thought about that. At least, not until what happened to her." He paused for a long moment, until I can't help myself.

"What happened?" I blurted. Whoops. Bad question. Rhyme ran a hand through his hair, put his face in his hands and shuddered.

"Can you keep a secret?"

I nodded quickly. "Well, it's sort of a long story, but Melody and I aren't supposed to be Members." I raised an eyebrow, and Rhyme added, "I think it had somethhing to do with the cathedral-"

He was cut off by Melody letting out a distressed wail. "Anyway, her name was Nyssa. She was so... intriguing. Nyssa was a hypnotist. She could make anyone do anything she wanted whenever she felt like it. Along with that, she time-traveled."

Rhyme paused for a moment, as if to be dramatic. And he continued, "So one day, she was in 1230, but she used a forbidden Base, where no regular Members could go." Why? What sense does that make? "When she got back to the present, a Member found out and banned her from time-travel. Well, Nyssa didn't like that. So, she went to 1762 Ireland, but not before destroying the Base."

I cock my head to one side. "And you love this girl because-?"

"I'm getting there!"

"Okay! Yeesh!"

"Anyway, she just so happened to travel to the exact time and place where Melody and I were. We were doing something for Kassandra (you'll meet her later)."

"What were you doing in a cathedral?" I asked, before Melody wailed again.

"QUIET! Yes. There was a coded message for us, and we were told to retrieve it. So, we heard your favorite sound, that little pop! " he smiled at me, and I gave him a friendly elbowing in the ribs. "We saw Nyssa's shadow and thought we were in big trouble. So Nyssa said, 'Why on Earth are you two snooping around here?'" Rhyme paused to tell Melody to stop making that whimpering noise. "But Melody and I had already heard from a messanger named Julius about what Nyssa had done. Melody said, 'Why did you destroy the Base?' Well, that sent the girls into a frenzy. I broke them up and said, 'Look, we know what happened. You can travel with us if you want.'"

"Rhyme, stop, please!" Melody whimpered.

"Nyssa accepted," Rhyme continued, apparently not listening to his sister. "And we traveled together for almost a year."

"During that year, you fell in love with her?"

He nods. "One day, we had to go back to the cathedral-" I'm sure you know what happened next. "STOP THAT! But it turned out, Julius somehow found out about Nyssa's illegal time-traveling, and was waiting at the cath- church! for us. 'Sorry about this,' he said, and the other nasty surprise: a time bomb."

I gasped loudly. A time bomb is basically a portable time machine, but it can only take you back to the present. They usually hurt a whole lot more than regular time-travel, too.

"Nyssa tried to run past Julius, and get to the altar where Kassandra's message was. But the problem is, she was out of the time bomb's range. Julius set it off, and BAM! Melody and I were blasted back to 2009 before we could help Nyssa." A long pause. "When we regained conciousness, Kassandra unofficially kicked us out of the organization. We were supposed to have our memories erased, but we escaped into a forest in 1082. Some other Members, rebels helped me and Melody get through, though."

I see Rhyme has flushed dark pink with sadness. Tears ran down his cheeks, and he didn't try to hide it. I put my arms around him, trying to comfort him. Melody came over and tapped on her brother's shoulder. The twins walked over to the area where Melody was laying.

They talked in low voices all night. I felt strangely alone and began to wish more than ever that Eagon was with me. Rhyme seems to be okay now, but I still think that maybe I shouldn't have been so curious? What's even worse is that Rhyme really does care about Nyssa. To be honest, I've gotten really attached to Rhyme. So hearing about Nyssa kind of made my heart sink. Even worse is that me liking Rhyme makes me feel guilty about Eagon, because we loved each other! Aggh!

Dea-Slán!