The hut stays silent, it’s probably around 11 pm, I’m forcing myself to stay up, this is exactly what Jackson wants, me to be tired and intoxicated by sleep deprivation.

  I see him walk by my door, he turns his head “oh this is your hut? Didn’t know, took a while to find you.”

  That’s a lie.

  He elegantly places himself on top of the chest, sitting on it with his legs crossed, “now tell me, people fear what they don’t understand, so why are you so secretive?”

  He is back to the cryptic talk, I hate this guy actually.

  “If I had nuke launch codes would I just give them away to everyone? Or figure out where those missiles are aiming first.”

  He nods, “you’re a big one for metaphors aren’t you? Not one for saying what you really mean.” He looks around the place, then staring at the chest below.

  He stands up, “this chest, it was given to you right? She gave it to you?”

  I nod, it’s obvious he already knew that, nobody else has chests.

  “So if I were to open this? Would it kill me?”

  I shake my head, “it’s just a wooden box.”

  He lifts up the lid and looks at the contents, a gold ring, copper coins, 3 pieces of paper with the 3rd being ripped a bit and a fountain pen.

  “Hm, so that’s how…” he figures it out almost instantly, “the ink is blood correct?”

  There’s no point lying to a question he already has the answers to, “yes.”

  He clicks his tongue a couple times, pacing a bit, “hm, not good.” He takes a piece of paper out, then the fountain pen, “show me.”

  “No.”

  He smiles a bit, pacing again, he walks to the door and closes it, “tell me Fay, do you feel special? Chosen? The ‘one.’”

  I stay completely still, I don’t know why but it seems like he could very much beat me to death currently, I reach into my pocket, but found nothing, that swim must’ve destroyed the paper.

  “My circumstances are certainly different.” I give a general answer, an objective fact.

  “They are, yet we seem to know nothing about what she does with you, what do you two talk about…?”

  There is an obvious glint of truth he is holding onto right now, “she just… just toys with me.” I give the most honest answer I’ve given anyone.

  “Oh… hm. You want to tell me why she sometimes chooses the elderly? And always seems to nod at you when she does so?”

  This is a nightmare, “what are you talking about? Probably… she needs to get rid of the older ones first because they are likely to die… before… the rest.”

  I realise how alien I sound, it’s logically correct… but.

  He slams his hand into the wall beside me, “don’t act stupid.”

  I’ve been completely cornered, he knows more than anyone here most likely, I didn’t expect anyone to be that perceptive.

  Shit, if I admit that I can tell her who to take he might tell someone else, then if she takes Jackson it will be obvious, obvious I told her to kill him.

  “I don’t have a say in anything.” I try to sound as strong as possible.

  “Yeah? Strange. I must just be ‘fucking paranoid and not fit to be a leader’ huh?” He moves back, “I’m fine with you not wanting to be apart of our revolution, I’m fine with you openly saying you hate it, I’m even fine with your stupid secrets.”

  He leaves silence for a moment, letting me absorb his words, “what I’m not fine is with you actively working against us.”

  I open my mouth but he shuts it down with his continued monologue, “but, you are more use to me alive, if you are an ally to her, it’s a very valuable resource.”

  This guy is working his way up to using me as a hostage, “why are you telling me all this, are you stupid?”

  “I’m telling you because I don’t think you are genuinely a traitor.” He paces towards the chest, “but I do think you are capable of very stupid things.” He grabs all the paper and the fountain pen, “this is mine now.”

  He wafts the paper in my face, a gentle breeze blows through my hair, “adios, oh and also.” He reaches into his pocket and gives me food scraps, “consider it a dog treat, considering how you act around her.” He drops it in the mud.

  He leaves while whistling to himself, what a dickhead.

  I fall face down on the mud, part of me is glad I put him on the list, he is dangerous, he is thinking that poking a bear is better than just giving it honey… fuck now he’s got me self conscious about my metaphors.

  I groan into the mud as I sleep.

  Goodnight.

  …

  Good morning.

  I wake up to nobody knocking at my door, no Noah, no Anne, I guess they both gave up on me. I walk out towards the food clinic since my stomach is a bit achy.

  There are a lot of people there this time of day. Through the door I can see multiple swords made of planks, kids swinging them around, all giggling.

  There are some people swimming and some people just chatting, must be nice to be apart of this community.

  Now that there’s no door I just walk in, the worker stares at me, “can you take my blood?”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Not until you return the vials you stole.” He stands straight.

  I could just return the vials, I really could, I should, but I wont.

  Someone walks besides me, “just take mine, stop being an ass.” Noah holds his arm out.

  The worker stares at Noah with respect, turning to me colours his face with distain. “Just give me two vials.”

  I accept, holding my arm out, he fills one, placing it on a crate, then fills another. I feel light headed.

  I sway a bit as he hands me my food, I walk out not thinking anyone would notice I’m gone.

  “How’d the talk go?” Noah runs upto me.

  “You know how it went.” I say with a bit too much spite, our friendship has been a bit too rocky lately.

  “I do, from his perspective, how’d it go for you?”

  I don’t respond, everything he says feels like it’s just a way to get information, this isn’t my friend talking to me.

  I enter my hut and sit down, “go away.”

  He gives me a shoulder pat, a gesture he did not earn with this fake conversation, “take it easy.”

  Take it easy… I eat my food then lay in the mud, doing absolutely nothing.

  The whole day passes without anyone checking up on me… nothing happens.

  I fall asleep.

  …

  Morning.

  I slept in a bit, I can’t even be bothered to get up, every bone in my body is screaming for action, every muscle wanting that contraction.

  I just lay until something happens.

  Nothing happens.

  Night.

  …

  I roll over in my sleep, I woke up at night, the fireflies are out.

  I feel dizzy and sick, I haven’t drank water since… a while. I go to the swamp and quickly suck some down. I don’t expect anyone to give me water at the food clinic since I’m universally hated.

  It seems like it’s early night, there’s a party going on, probably a birthday.

  I feel someone tap me on the shoulder, “you trying to drain the swamp? Good escape plan.” Anne chuckles nervously, the moment I look at her, her face changes from relaxed to scared.

  “You look incredibly pale.”

  “Yeah? Just been… not doing too good.” I stop shoveling swamp water into my mouth and sit backwards.

  “You’re a bit of a recluse, but I can’t blame you… have you figured out what you’re going to do?”

  I look at the sky, there’s a parting in the clouds that show a few stars, “Anne, if I betrayed everyone… but it was for the greater good, would it be okay?”

  She taps her chin for a moment, “depends, you thinking of killing Jackson?”

  A small laugh comes out of me, the fact it’s that obvious is irritating, “when’s the owner coming back?” I ask, I’m completely disoriented on what day it is.

  “I think… tomorrow or the day after, it depends.”

  “Can you keep a secret?” I’m at a loss, I’m pretty sure I’m dead either way, whether or not I tell anyone.

  “Can I? Yes. Will I? For you? Yeah.” She rubs my back gently.

  “Jackson is already dead… I uh… last week… told her to take him.”

  She seems stunned for a moment, “your reasoning?”

  “To stop that stupid revolt they are planning.”

  She breaks into a breathy laugh, gliding her fingers through the mud before leaning back, “you’re a moron sometimes, Jackson isn’t the reason there’s a rebellion, this situation is, our circumstances are why there’s a rebellion.”

  “But… if Jackson…”

  “Then someone will take his place.”

  We sit in the empty air, our breathing and the sound of bugs being the backing track to this miserable moment.

  “Are you going to tell him?” I ask with little to no emotion.

  Her hand touches mine, “no… I’m just continuously surprised at how you are so intelligent, but you never see the human side of things.”

  Right now that seems like an unobtainable goal, “am I a bad person?”

  “I dunno, are you?”

  I don’t respond, she gets up “I’ll go get you water and food, tomorrow… get her to save you somehow, I don’t know, threaten to kill yourself in front of her or something…”

  Little does she know I’ve done that many times, just to get out of small situations.

  I wait and wait, she comes back with a yawn and a paper cup full of water, “thanks.”

  “No problem… this’ll probably be one of our last times together right?” She hands me the cup, waiting till my hand is firmly holding it before letting go.

  “I hope not.”

  “Hmmm? Why not?”

  “I… Noah is a bit… he is treating me differently… so you’re my only… friend now.” I don’t know why it took so much effort to say that.

  “True.” She sits down, “this reminds me of when we swam. Good old memories.”

  “That was incredibly recent, you need a concept of time.”

  “You need a concept of not taking everything literally.” She nudges me, a bit of water falls out of the cup.

  Another long moment passes with neither of us speaking a word, it feels nice.

  “About last time, when I asked if the magic was corrupting you, that was stupid to say. I’m sorry.”

  I shake my head, “it’s fine, really… I get it.”

  “It’s just… with her it’s so confusing… like I don’t get why she has to be so obsessed with you.” Her hand moves to illustrate her point, “like, holy shit, pick a lane lady… ya know…? Hey does she ever, uh, kiss you? Or anything of that nature?”

  “Of that nature? She bites me sometimes, but that’s just for the blood.”

  She splashes her feet a bit, “that is not just for blood, where does she do it? Bite you? In some dungeon?”

  “Normally in her bedroom?”

  She splashes harder with a chuckle “grooosssss.” She drags the last letter out, then her demeanour completely changes “it’s sick, it’s disgusting, I don’t know how you can stand to be around her when she… kills kids, turns them into things and ships them back as trophy’s.”

  It’s weird to hear something like that and feel nothing, “yeah… she sucks…” I say with not much conviction. Definitely not enough hatred.

  “Sucks majorly…” she lays back, pushing on my chest to lay with her, “let’s sleep here.” Her body gets closer to mine, her arm around my shoulder.

  “Is this okay?”

  Normally it wouldn’t be, but right now I’m alone, “it’s fine.”

  “Goodnight.”

  “Night.”

  Goodnight.

  …

  A carriage sound wakes us both up, she’s here today, today I either die or die. Great.

  Anne sits upright, “Urgh, I hate that woman…” she stands up, brushing her hands through her hair, “but if there is any chance she is safer than here, please take it, stay with her.”

  I really don’t get her love hate relationship with the owner, I follow her as the carriages stop by the food clinic, everyone is standing together in a crowd rather than hiding this time.

  She jumps down from the back, I watch from behind a hut while Anne rubs my shoulder nervously.

  She takes her helmet off and looks around, “FAY! Come out. Now.” She shouts with genuine anger in her voice.

  Before I know it I’m walking forward, one step after another towards her, she notices me, “stop fucking moving right now.”

  This isn’t like her, not like her at all, I stay still, genuinely scared of what she is going to do. Everyone is staring at me, like they expect me to say something evil.

  She continues, “stay there, I’ll talk to you later.” She points directly at Jackson, “you’re coming with me.”

  Jackson is sitting down on the food clinic steps, he stares into her eyes, something most people can’t do, “am I now?”

  She doesn’t respond, walking towards him, “next word out of you and I kill every god damn child in this entire town.”

  She is using her bluff voice, it’s obvious she needs to fill some quota, killing people without a reason just isn’t viable… but. There is something not right about her, more so than usual, I wouldn’t call her bluff, just in case.

  This seems to make Jackson shudder, after a few seconds he replies, “no you won’t.” Coming to the same conclusion as me.

  But something is off. She takes a good step forward, like a soldier, “okay!” She walks into the food clinic, easily walking in due to the lack of the door.

  I turn away and close my eyes as I hear the screams of people running out. People falling into mud… the cries of children.

  “Fayyy, keep your eyes open.” She orders, I have to do as she says, she takes out two little spheres of meat, I watch as they roll in the mud, it’s obvious what they are. What they were.

  “You remember this spell? Of course you do, you used it on the door.”

  Jackson is shaking with barely conscious rage, he looks like he is about to combust into flame. He stands up, “I challenge you to a duel.”

  This guy is a dumbass.

  “Oh really now? Okay, duel started.” She sprints at unnatural speeds, grabbing his head and slamming it into the mud, then a secondary slam through magic penetrates the air causing mud to fly everywhere, it falls down like rain. “Good duel.”

  She grabs his wrist and effortlessly drags him into the carriage, “fay, you’re coming with the body.”

  It’s unusual for me to be taken the same day as someone else, it’s normally the day after. Maybe this is finally the day she kills me.

  She doesn’t put a bag on my head, just lets me ride with her, the carriage goes into the swamp and she wafts her hand, fog shows up.

  She wafts her hand again and the fog disappears, my eyes instantly get blasted by light, the blue sky with faint clouds, green grass and green trees. It has those cool looking cube bushes. This place looks like the entrance to a mansion.

  “W-why.”

  “Because. You messed up.”

  This feels like the last day you give a dog before you put it down. I think I’m about to die.