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The Knight lifted off its helmet to reveal…
Susie was shocked. “Aren’t you supposed to be dying?”
“I can’t have any hobbies now?” Rudolph Holiday, The Roaring Knight, laughed before coughing out another bit of his HP.
“But how?!” Susie questioned. “You’re supposed to be in the hospital for… reasons.”
“‘Supposed to be’ is not the same as ‘is,’” he informed her. “And besides, I could just go back for more tests whenever. But, if you were asking how I managed to do all ‘The Knight’ related activities, then let me tell you…”
{Yellow tinted flashback sequence start}
Before you showed up, Susie, Kris’ family and mine were pretty close. Our kids hung out after school together, we watched TV together, we’d always spend the holidays together. But that didn’t last forever.
Noelle, she has an older sister. Her name is Dess. She had such a spark in her. We gave her everything, but she already knew what she wanted. And if she didn’t have it, she’d never stop until she got it.
But then she disappeared. If she ran away, why didn’t she say anything? What did we do wrong? And if she didn’t run away, then what happened?
I’ll spare you the details, but after our families fell apart, we saw her again. But only in the darkness, in the corners of our eyes, begging us for help. We couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t hear her, we couldn’t reassure her, we couldn’t hold her and tuck her back in bed like this was all a dream. We only knew she was there.
So, if she could only appear in the dark, then I had to tear up the world to bring her back home. And there is only one way to do it. Taking up the mantle of The Knight, and fulfilling The Prophecy.
Who opened the fountain in the old classroom to prepare you all? It was me, Rudolph Holiday.
Who opened the fountain in the library to make Noelle happy? It was me, Rudolph Holiday.
Who showed up in Kris’ house? It was me, Rudolph Holiday.
Who knows The Mayor? It was me, Rudolph Holiday.
Who’s friends with the ex-police chief? It was me, Rudolph Holiday.
Who goes to church? It was me, Rudolph Holiday.
And I don’t have much time left, so only I could be The Knight. Only then, would December be saved.
{Yellow tinted flashback sequence end}
Susie was troubled. “Noelle…”
“If there’s one thing I want to do, it’s to make her happy,” The Knight shrugged. “No hard feelings, of course. I just need to do this one thing and then you can save the world."
“No…” Susie whispered. “No, this is- This is all so $!$! up. What the hell? Kris? Is this really true?”
Kris grimaced, but nodded.
“No, it can’t be true, because the world would end. And if the world ends, then how would any of us be alive? How would she be back?”
The Knight shrugged, “It’ll just be dark. We can adapt. She did all this time.”
“All Darkners would turn to stone and-”
“So it’ll just be a world without Darkners, and we survived that for decades before we realized they were even there. And I’m sure they’d still exist. Just the same as always. Just the same as before.”
“You don’t understand,” Ralsei insisted. “The Roaring would still be bad for Lightners! The Titans would destroy the world-”
“And Kris here proved you need a SOUL to stop one,” The Knight dismissed. “Anyone else have any better questions?”
“Hey!” Susie yelled. “Don’t talk like that to Ralsei! I don’t know why we’re not bashing your face in right now… But one more thing and I’m taking you down!”
“Susie…”
The Knight laughed. “That’s the spirit! Was my sob story really that much of a downer? It’s just life, man. No need to think too hard on it, especially since we’re about to fix it.”
“We can’t just let you do this!” Susie stepped forward. “If Noelle’s sister can only be the dark… What’s wrong with just having one Dark World, versus every single world going to shit?”
The Knight sighed, “Look, I don’t expect you to understand. But I hope you will someday. Dess is… A special monster. You’ll see, when you meet her.”
“Do you think she turned into a Darkner?”
Susie glanced back at Ralsei who had a thoughtful look on his face. “Huh, like the-”
“Hell no!” The Knight snapped. “She’s not an object, or a plant, or dead! She’s one of us, not a thing made from playing pretend.”
“That’s it!” Susie clutched her axe. “Kris, Ralsei, let’s beat him up already!”
“Oh,” The Knight smiled. “You think you can beat me?”
“Well duh! Kris, Ralsei, and I, we’re The Lancer Fan Club. And we don’t need any prophecy to win. And after we close this fountain, and every other fountain or Titan you make to run away- We can still kick your ass in the Light World!” Susie laughed. “You should have kept your helmet on. We’re never going to give you a chance to make another fountain.”
A flash of light behind their eyes. A deep inhale, then high-pitched screaming. They swiveled around to witness the birth of a new fountain, all the way on the other side of the Dark World.
Ralsei gasped, “But you-”
And then another fountain was born, a ways from the other.
“But he’s The Knight. Who is- Why are they doing this?!”
The Knight chuckled. “Hey Krismas! Don’t your friends know that anyone could make a fountain? Why did they keep looking at me for?” He rose, tapping on his black knife. “But hey, if they're still waiting...”
“No, no please don’t-”
He stabbed into the Earth and light flooded their vision.