The sound of scissors cutting is all I can hear, the cabin walls do a good job of blocking out the wilderness so the ambiance is just silence and faint snips. Its late, very late, so why don't I feel tired?

  “Why am I not tired?” These past 4 hours I've just been saying what's on my mind. Anything except for the fact that Lilith might replace null sooner than the 1 year she had left, that felt like an after-clone sort of conversation.

  The old man's body seemed a lot more filled out, the smell of rotting had passed by, Jacksons blonde hair pokes through the threads, it is just as long without the mud that usually made it brown.

  “Your body is still in a state of shock, it won't let you sleep until you fully recover.” She says simply.

  “But I feel fine.”

  “You feel fine, but you are not.” She begins to unwrap the threads, “he is done.”

  I stand up from the bed, “will he be naked?”

  “of course.”

  I walk towards the drawer and pick out some of the baggier clothes, trying not to let them touch me since they’ll just absorb into my clothes. I pass them to Null who is unwrapping his lower half.

  I lift a leg to put the grey sweatpants on, then his arms to put the black sweater on, “okay... can you wake him up?”

  “He should be awake.”

  I see his eyes flicker while they're closed, he is faking being asleep. “Jackson, we saved you, please don't do anything that stupid again.”

  They flicker again, Null takes a step back, “he should have retained his personality, just not his memories.”

  Then why is he trying to act like he isn’t awake? “Jackson... that's your name, I'm Fay, I'm your... friend...”

  His eyes open, staring daggers directly at me, “then why do I want to rip you apart right now? Fay.” He moves off the table and stands in the corner like an injured wolf.

  “We... we had a fight, you killed yourself, but I saved you.”

  His gaze turns to the sphere of meat on the table, “what the fuck is that?” He takes another step back, into the drawer where it makes a noise that startles him when he bumps into it.

  “That doesn't matter... I need to take you somewhere tomorrow...” I'm going to take him back to the mud town, until I can find a way to get them all out.

  His eyes go everywhere, “let me out, let me go.” His voice is tinted with desperation, something I'm not used to hearing from him.

  I look over at null, making sure I don't create any openings, “null, can we get a carriage tomorrow?”

  She shakes her head, “We can only visit once per week, and they have sensors on who leaves and enters.”

  This really isn't good, I did not think this through, what do I do? Just leave him to live in the woods? Thats better than letting him die, I have the proof of his body on the table.

  “Okay... Null give him the food bag.” I step closer to Null, “please.”

  She shakes her head, “with all the respect in the world... master Lilith would notice it gone.”

  I groan, “Null you’re going to die soon anyway, just give it.” My hand reaches out towards the kitchen counter where the bag rests dormant.

  “What?” She turns to me, “what do you mean?”

  Shit that argument doesn't really count, I forgot I didn't explain her situation yet, “the original ‘you’ came by, I talked to her, said Lilith had a complaint about you.”

  “I... she... just because I wanted to be called Null?” Her voice hits my heartstrings, she is on the verge of tears.

  “I don't know, just-” I hear the door slam, Jackson had run out. I move towards the door but Null grabs my arms.

  “I didn't DO anything, Lilith RESPECTED me.” She pulls on me, trying to convince me with things I don't care about.

  “Okay, I believe you, please help me get Jackson.” Theres too much going on at once, I didn't expect Null to react so viscerally. “Please, one at a time.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “We...” She wipes at her face, “we can't track him, we don't have his blood type.”

  “Yes we do? We just used it to track him last time.”

  “His blood type is the old man's now... we can't ask for his blood type without being questioned... I'm sorry...” her face spills out tears.

  I put fingers on my temples, “okay, okay, okay, its fine. It's okay, thank you.”

  She puts her arms around me, Squeezing tightly, “it's not fair, it's not fair, it's not. It isn't, it isn't fair Fay.”

  My head keeps turning towards the door, lost between searching for Jackson and helping Null with her existential crisis. I start stroking her hair, “hey... its... fine, I'm sorry, it isn't fair, is it?”

  Her tears fall onto my shirt and slide off like they never existed, I put my arms around her and squeeze, “we are similar. You know?” I let out something I don't really believe.

  “How so?”

  “You aren't exactly on either side of this are you? You can't be loved by humans, nor by demons, I get it.” My hand keeps a steady rhythm, going through her silky black hair.

  “I thought master Lilith loved me... if I did everything right... she liked you, so I needed to like you too... but that got me... refunded...”

  She blames me, of course she does, everyone does, everyone blames me. I'm beginning to believe it's true that I'm just a disease, enough people have told me it's all my fault that I'm beginning to believe it.

  “I'm sorry.” Is all I say while pushing her away, “we need to find Jackson, and maybe... I can strike a deal with the original you to keep you safe... okay?”

  I have no clue if I have any leverage with her original self, but if it makes her stop crying then I'll be good. “Can you walk?”

  She lets go of me, the place where she was grasping at my shirt hurts a lot, like she was pulling at my skin.

  “Whenever I cried in front of master Lilith, she just threatened to...” she moves the palm of her hand below her nose to wipe snot, “but it's fine, it is fine.”

  We both walk outside, it’s not completely obvious the direction he went, but if I were him I’d go right, directly into the forest.

  I begin to sprint, null walks behind me, there’s nothing to track him off until I hear a scream, his scream.

  It’s in the direction of the open path, I make my way there and see the original null holding him up by the neck and pulling on his limbs like he’s a toy.

  “Oh! Is this yours?” She looks over at me, Jackson is slamming his hands onto her arm without her knowledge.

  “Yes… please… let him go” I’m out of breath, I have to kneel down.

  “This one’s a clone, are you aware?” She taps on the man’s face, “ran in front of my carriage as I was about to leave, terrible terrible timing.”

  Null catches up and they stare at each other, there’s a lot of pain in her eyes, “hello…”

  “Oh, you’re the one I needed to talk to.” She squeezes Jackson’s neck until he passes out and drops him, I rush over to his body and listen for breathing, he is fine.

  Null tries to stand tall in front of the original, “Lilith said you were acting defiantly, tell me why that is.” She strokes her shoulder.

  “I… just wanted a name… and didn’t feel… good with the… my clones being slaughtered.” She lets out in small gasps.

  “Your clones aren’t real, they have no feelings nor thought.”

  “But… I-“

  “That’s because you are different my love, you were made to be spectacular, while they were made to be puppets… do you feel like you’ve been acting spectacular?”

  Null sniffles, “no…”

  “Then I will reset your brain. You’ll be born again.” She says this like it’s definitely going to happen. Null doesn’t even pull away, accepting her fate.

  I stand up, “don’t please.”

  The original smiles and gracefully tracks her way toward me, “they had to invent a new level of currency to pay for my clones, why would I leave one defective?”

  My mind speaks by itself, “I’ll pay for her.”

  The original null stands around a bit before giving the widest of smiles, “you have very little capital.”

  “Just tell me what to do.”

  She looks over to her clone in the carriage, she nods, “let me first figure out your standing, are you one of us or one of them?”

  Neither, “whoever benefits me the most.”

  “Hm, well you are untapped advertising space, if I can… if I can clone you, sell those clones at a expensive price as a sort of high fashion… the human who figured out magic… slogan could be ‘has a ring to it’ or something dumb,” she thinks for a moment, “I’ll figure it all out, you two can stay, where does this boy go?”

  She kicks Jackson who is laying on the ground. Null speaks up for me, “experiment j 23. This district.”

  The original null smiles, “I’ll take him there on my way back, bye bye!” She waves, I wave back.

  That resolved itself incredibly well.

  Null seems happy with herself, “thanks null… but didn’t you say they have sensors?”

  “If the clone woman comes to an experiment site with only clones… nobody will bat an eye…”

  And since Jackson is a clone… “thank you… that solves everything.”

  We walk back, I wonder how Noah and Ann are doing, are they learning magic currently? Preparing an attack on me? Most likely.

  “Hey null?”

  “Yes?”

  “What rank is Lilith?” I ask randomly.

  “Oh. Rank 7… anything above 5 is considered a master of their craft.” She pulls on her hair out of stress.

  “And I’m not even rank 1.”

  “That’s right, you need to go to the examination facility to become rank 1, it’s where they test you.”

  I don’t even know why I’m asking, we get back to the cabin, the ball of meat that was the original Jackson is still on the table, “I’ll put him in the grave.” I pick it up.

  I walk outside, the moon is right above me now, “sorry Jackson.” I throw him in the grave and fill it up, at least I saved some part of him.

  I grab a stick and plant it into the loose dirt, I then sit next to it, breathing in the air.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing…” I watch as an ant crawls across the soil, making a long journey to who knows where, never stopping, never giving up.

  I wonder how things would have been different if I had just trusted people with my knowledge on magic… Jackson with limited experience figured out how to turn rocks into projectiles… I wonder what the rest could have done…

  I wonder how things would have been different if I didn’t break down that door and instead just asked for help like a normal person, was it truly out of the realm of possibility that Noah couldn’t get me vials of blood?

  I wonder how things would have been different if I told them I had been the one who had been choosing elderly to be taken away, would some of them sacrifice themselves? Would they have worked as a community to save the kids like I had been trying to do?

  I wonder how things would have been different.