The whole relationship with me and her has become so complex I don’t know how to describe it, I want to murder her for what she did, has done, and will do.

  But currently she is the only reason me and my town are alive, she is the one who kept me alive for 5 years when she could have killed me at any moment, albeit out of a desire to harm me mentally and see how I tick.

  “I have checkmate in 8.” She says, moving her bishop to pin my knight to queen. We are passing the time while we wait for her boss.

  “It’s the start of the game, that’s not how chess works.” I move my queen to check the king.

  “Aha, you did exactly what I wanted.” She moves the pawn to attack my queen.

  “This pawn is unprotected since you moved your bishop.” I take the pawn for free in the middle of the board, checking the king again.

  She grabs the board and throws it into the fire, “whatever, human games are boring, they’re all about overloading your brain, not stimulating it.”

  This is probably the most casual conversation I’ve had with her, ever. “You have demon board games?”

  “No…?” The flames grow bigger as the wooden chess board burns “why do you call us demons?” She leans back on the chair, she had changed into a red dress after I ate which made her seem younger and more expensive.

  “I dunno, you have an evil complexion… what… is your race called?”

  “We don’t go by names, neither race nor people.” She puts her feet on the table with a smug look, like this makes her better than me.

  “Not big on labels?”

  “We just think if you begin to categorise things you only get ‘in fighting,’ that’s why we base ourselves off our achievements. Losers stay losers for being losers and winners stay winners for achieving greatness, no outside variables.”

  That’s…

  “Yeah.” Is all I can say, it was neither funny nor stupid, just a piece of culture, I hate how these things have culture, I hate how these things are capable of not killing us but decide to do it anyway.

  “So… when’s your boss coming?”

  “Soon, very soon, I can tell.” She lowers her feet back onto the ground.

  She can tell… I really don’t get the power imbalance here, “what is your boss called?”

  “The one who moved a star… 11th rank.”

  “Moved a star?”

  “She found an equation to bypass light speed, it was never used on a star since it requires too much blood, but it does allow for stuff like this.” She holds her hand out in a fist and a cup floats, “I’m moving it from my perspective, my hand looks like it is holding it.”

  She flings her hand and the cup goes flying, “she discovered the equation to try and move stars but instead came up with a better telekinesis spell, uses less blood too, nowadays it’s been watered down so much that even 2nd ranks can use it.”

  “So she never actually moved a star?”

  She nods, “she is very respected so they gave her that name, reinvented the wheel as you would say. It’s only theoretically possible.”

  As much as I hate to admit it, I’m excited to meet this person, I saw these people as savages and psychopaths but it’s clear there’s an underlying science… I hate how it’s so easy to humanise monsters if they show just a fraction of humanity.

  “Wait how do you use magic without writing it down?”

  She smiles, “asking the grown up questions? See this ring?” She holds her hand out, shows off the gold and red gemmed ring that she always wears, I saw it as insignificant.

  “It sucks out my own blood, and I can use it to do spells on the fly.” She flings another cup. “it’s harder because instead of symbols you need to imagine very vividly every instruction in order, for telekinesis it’s around 8 variables, so that’s 8 variables, every second you need to keep track of. Like juggling.”

  She ignites fire on her hand, using a finger as a lighter, “the more variables, the harder it gets exponentially and the more blood it takes, like juggling, although variables vary in difficulty, doing healing on the fly is like juggling anvils.”

  A knock on the door startles us both, I don’t know why. My mind is doing mental gymnastics not to follow it’s natural instincts to run away, I know I’m in danger.

  A girl walks in, wearing a grey sweater and black pants, no shoes on, “this the kid?” She seems almost my age, her hair is a black and silver mix in a sort of messy unkempt hairstyle, red crimson eyes with white white white skin and freckles.

  “Hey.” I get up from my chair and hold my hand out, we are the same height so I felt a little too comfortable despite my fear, the moment my hand gets too close to her it falls off into meat cubes. It’s insanely disorienting to lose my hand within seconds of just using it.

  Stay calm, blood trickles down from my stub of a arm, stay calm, just react in a surprising way, be interesting, “not big on handshakes huh? I understand.” I smile while my teeth are slamming into each other like a hydraulic press.

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  “Hm.” The small girl gestures her hand and makes it grow back, not even my owner could do that without writing it on paper. Her ring is just silver, no gem at all, just a boring ring.

  My owner shows a new emotion that I hadn’t seen prior, fear, her voice is shaking, “see? Isn’t he special?”

  “As much as a conjoined twin is.” She says bored, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not. She inspects the place, “you eat alone at this table?”

  She sits down with her knees up, I slide beside her while my owner just sort of stands around uselessly.

  My owner speaks quietly. “Uhm, yes, I eat alone here, I’m terribly lonely. That is why I mingle with the mud rats…” she says pathetically calculated.

  The girl turns her head to me for a moment, ignoring her, “may I taste you?”

  As much as it’s horrifying to hear that after having my hand removed, I just smile and nod, at least she is asking.

  “Sure…” I hold my arm out, she leans over the chair, putting her hands on the table, she bites into my flesh despite probably having countless of ways to extract her meal.

  She lets go after a minute and heals it, the bite mark disappearing like memory foam, “did you teach him blood potency spells?”

  My owner does a small laugh, “no? That would be suicide for him.”

  “It would be…” she holds my arm, “did you use a healing spell with your own blood as fuel?”

  There’s no point lying, “I did…”

  My owner stands up, not able to contain herself, “see? See?! I told you, I told you.” She gets all excited.

  The girl in front of me holds her hand out towards her which makes my owner stop her celebration, “I’m aware of your confusion, you did a blood potency spell, you used your own blood in a healing loop, channeling your blood through a spell into yourself, causing blood loss, then healing that blood loss, then causing it again.”

  She puts a hand on my head, “usually humans die within a hour or two, unlike us who adapt to it. Any seizures? Headaches? Vomiting?”

  I’m having a hard time following this, “yeah, for a little bit…”

  She stands up from the table and walks out, I am incredibly confused. The front door slams.

  My owner just smiles, “my little ape with a machine gun has perfect aim it seems.”

  “Can you stop using that phrase?” I begin swaying a bit from blood loss, this is the second time I’ve been bitten today. “I need water.”

  My owner claps her hands, she seems overjoyed at the prospect that she won’t be punished for teaching me magic.

  A woman in a black dress walks in, “master, we have an issue.”

  She continues her good mood and just nods, “give it to me.”

  “The latest experiment subject has… left the premises…” the woman bows down, “we are sorry.”

  My owners eyes blink a few times, stands up, walks over to her, “thank you for being the messenger.” She touches her cheek, I’m half expecting the girl to explode into gore but thankfully she doesn’t.

  The owner looks to me, “your friend Jackson escaped, that’s your issue now, he is from the town you are supposed to take care of, bad bad fay letting him escape.” She does a little spin, “better check how he got out, you remember the stairs down to the experiment rooms?”

  The change in atmosphere makes my mind sway even more.

  She sits down, “you go, I’ll talk to my boss for you, it’s safe to say you are safe to stay.” She perks up, amused at her little rhyme.

  A part of me feels relief at Jackson escaping, I never wanted him to die, I just wanted him gone, he was a disease causing everyone to be foolish… or maybe that’s just what I tell myself.

  I walk down those same steps, into the concrete hallway full of labeled experiment rooms, I see a metal ball and a door missing by the end of the hallway, clearly implosion magic.

  How did he figure out how to use implosion magic? There’s blood on the floor beside the metal ball, he must be going through the same reaction as me with the vomiting, this looks significantly worse, makes sense with how much stronger metal is than wood.

  I feel relief, do I need to find him? I can just say I tried my best and give up right? I walk into the experimentation room, there’s a secondary metal sphere… did he use implosion on a cage he was in? How’d he get out without crushing himself?

  How did he even know what symbols to use? He did obtain my pen and paper, along with access to blood… but had no access to the information…

  I lost the papers that show the spell symbols in the water with Anne… unless they fished it up… or… her hands were on my hips… did she?

  “Fay, boss wants to see you.” My owner walks in, “huh, someone was inspired. This really isn’t good.”

  How did he know the activation phrase? Did I write it in my notes? Did Noah tell him? Was anyone on my side? Was Anne just trying to trick me? Was I seriously on nobodies side this whole time? This entire time was I just being played?

  “Fay you’re breathing loudly, you’re sucking the air and fun out of the room.” She walks in front of me, “this is your issue, boss says if you don’t find him within this week this whole experiment is off, that means you, me, the whole town.” She gestures her neck being sliced open.

  Great, just great. These people who are all against me are relying on me, I’m the one keeping them alive, yet they all want me dead. Great.

  “Yeah I’ll find him.” I say without much thought, I walk out, there’s a trail of blood that leads to an outside door, straight to the forest.

  I stand on the grass, there’s a woman in a black dress who walks over, “he ran left, there’s a river he would have to cross.” Her voice is soft and soothing, every one of these servants look almost identical.

  “Don’t speak.” My owner dismisses her, “hm, I’ll translate you a book on tracking magic.” She grabs my hand, taking me back to the entrance, the arm she detached is still by the front door.

  I step over it, the boss is sitting down at the bottom of the steps of the stairwell. “Let me take your measurements.” She slumps towards me and grabs my hand, a small thread cuts my ring finger off. “Thanks.”

  I don’t even react as it gets healed, my mind has been overloaded with information, the modern world might still exist, I’ve become what I hated and everyone I know might die. She puts the finger in a red box.

  “Do you have a preference in ring colours?”

  “No…”

  “Okay then. Clean up your mess, she is your new boss.” She points to my owner who is staying still in the corner, “I hope we never see each other again.” She just disappears in front of me, without a trace, poof, gone.

  My… boss, walks up to me, “that solves that.” Her body language is one of stress and anger, trying to stay formal and be my manager, “I’ll bring you a tracking magic textbook tomorrow…”

  She holds her hand out in a way that signifies a handshake, “I know you want to kill me, you hate me, you despise me, but right now, we are technically co workers. Sorta.”

  I’m unsure if it’s Stockholm syndrome or if I’m just that needy for any positive attention, but it feels nice that she isn’t trying to toy with me, I feel like she let me into her world.

  I shake her hand, “do you… hate me?” I ask this with all my guards down, I feel completely lost right now emotionally.

  She squeezes my hand for a second, “I don’t hate anyone, but you are interesting, and you challenge me, and I believe you are capable.” She must’ve realised she was being vulnerable, “I still tortured kids in your town and have no emotional attachment to you other than basic interest, remember that.”

  She lets go, something flickers in her eyes, “do you want to give me a name? To make things easier?”

  I need to remember this person in front of me has basically been our enemy for me and my friends for 5 years, I need to remember that, why is it so easy to gain sympathy towards people? Why is my hatred and anger mixed with some fucked up need for affection.

  “Lilith.”