“Hei? You’re scaring me! Wake up! Guy’s help! Something’s wrong with Hei!” Delphie is still too close. She has no idea that it is far too late to save me. I am locked inside again. A prisoner in my own body. The burning continues, tearing away at my sanity, making me want to vomit when I cannot. I don’t know what has killed me, whether one of the Fallen has somehow found me in the night, or some other evil has made its way into my heart. But I know in mere seconds the Gray will take control!

No! Back away! I’m already dead!

I scream and scream, trying to get my jaws to move one last time.

“HEI! WAKE UP!” The beautiful, caring, Nephilim girl tries her best to treat me, but when she feels my skin, she gasps. “You’re so cold! This can’t be right!”

No…I’m still on fire! It won’t stop burning!

“Grrrrr…rrrr”

It awakens then. The other one inside me. I try my best to hold my limbs still, but my jaws open anyways and instead of words, the thing’s demented noises come out. N-No! Anything but this! Not again! NOT LIKE THIS! I…NOOOOO!

“Hei?” Delphie has no clue. I never dropped any hints. Never thought to say anything. Never thought I’d die in my freaking sleep. And now she will pay the price for my sins. “Your eyepatch…it fell off…oh!”

My eyes are burning. I can see our reflection in the corner of the room. There’s a mirror and I can just barely make out a Nephilim girl sprawled out over the bed in front of an eerily rising body. My naked eyes are horrifying to behold, one a glowing orange fireball, the other, a pit of blackness that sucks in all light, like an empty socket. Delphie still doesn’t understand that she is in danger. I want to warn her so bad.

Get away!

GET AWAY

COME CLOSER!

We lunge at her right then. She never stood a chance. When my teeth savage into her neck, Delphie gives a little gasp as her hands go tight, pushing at my shoulders.

“Eeeeeaaaahh! STOP!” She screams for just a moment in shock before the Gray goes for a second taste. Hot blood gushes into my mouth, and shame so deep I wonder how I don’t burst into flame takes over my soul. Not…like this…

“What the hell? DELPHIE!” Suddenly there’s someone else at the door. A flash of violet, a hint of silver. “You PIG! I knew it! I KNEW I COULDN’T TRUST YOU!”

*Shing*

The blade finds my neck with surgical precision. Sophie has good aim. She rips me off of Delphie before the pain even registers. Her rage is immense as she stabs me over and over in the stomach and chest. Her fury causes the sheets to blossom with red roses of my blood.

Yes…yes…kill me! FREAKING KILL ME DAMNIT! I DESERVE THIS!

Finally, as she stops, I can hear sobbing. The daughter of assassins cries and cries, holding the limp form of her friend. Eli is in the doorway.

“What the hell happened here?”

“N-No…no no no! Delphie! Please! Stay with me! I…I’ll do anything! Don’t go!” Sophie’s voice grows louder and louder, and yet somehow her presence grows smaller and smaller. Everything’s getting farther away.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

I’m almost gone. But the fiery pain throughout my whole body is joined by a whole different kind of agony. I accept Sophie’s punishment. She crawls on top of me with her dagger raised high. Each stab hits my heart, though the only responses she gets are dying growls from the Gray.

*Puchi*

“WHY DID YOU HAVE TO COME!”

*Puchi*

“SHE COULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY!”

*Puchi*

“SHE WAS TOO GOOD FOR YOU!”

*Puchi*

“YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!”

I’m sorry.

I…I’m…so freaking sorry.

Why? Why must I spread misery wherever I go?

“Soph! STOP STOP! He’s dead! It’s over!”

#

“Oh…” Delphie’s pretty face appears when I open my eyes. It’s all wrinkled up. “That smells terrible.”

“Wow, agreed! These are awful!” Eli also shakes his short black and violet hair back and forth. He holds out a packet of something. “You want mine?”

Oh god…that smell!

The packet of Nethergulper flakes smells like vomit.

“EURRRGH!” I violently gag, just managing to close my mouth and swallow down my bile. The bowl of rapidly expanding noodles in front of me no longer looks appetizing.

This…this is…

Yesterday!

“Hei?!” The two Nephilim immediately show concern as I hunch over. My hands catch on the bowl and spill hot soup all over my lap. “What’s wrong!”

“Euurg-n-NOTHING!” I barely get myself under control. My mind still flashes with memories of Delphie’s limp body. The soft girl’s flesh stuck in my teeth. Disgusting! DISGUSTING! Oh god I don’t want to eat ever again! “I’m…I’m okay!”

“You sure? Maybe it’s your wounds from before? But I thought they were just about healed…” The girl who I’m trying to avoid looking in the eyes reaches over and tries to feel my forehead. I jerk back and she tactfully refrains from touching me again. “Tell me what hurts! I can help!”

“It’s…nothing. Just an old illness. Nothing serious.” I gasp between clenched teeth, remembering Sophie’s absolutely feral face as she stabbed into my heart over and over. Her tears as she held onto her fallen friend. All the accusations she flung at me and the Gray. I wanted to tell her it wasn’t me. That I couldn’t help myself. But my secret cannot be shared. Or else it will just take over again.

Pig.

PIG.

You ruin everything!

“Ugh…that smell, did one of my fish die?” The voice in my head becomes real and I shudder a Sophie walks into the room. Somehow, she manages to get inside her hideout without making a noise. “Huh, you guys got Midas’s noodles again, didn’t you?” I hide my face in my hands, looking down at the spilled noodles slowly falling off my lap onto the ground. “What happened here?”

“Hei spilled his noodles. I’ll get some napkins!” Delphie shoots up as Eli silently watches me. By the time she returns, I finally have myself back under control. Wiping my lap off, I clean up the mess and start stomping off to bed.

“I’m going to bed. Eli, you want to punish Taer tomorrow, right?” I predict his next words, doing my best to keep the timeline at least somewhat equivalent. However, I have no idea what I did wrong last time. So it’s going to be avoid dying. I’ll be careful tomorrow. We’ll figure it out. No matter what it takes! However I died, there must have been some clues I missed!

“Huh, how did you know?” The Exiled Prince is surprised that I’ve seemingly read his thoughts.

“Call it a hunch.”

“Well, I was going to ask, but if you’re unwell maybe we should wait…”

“I told you, I’m fine. Come find me in the morning when you guys have a plan.” Stomping off to my room, I can hear them whispering in hushed tones behind me.

“What’s up with him?”

“I don’t know, he was looking forward to these noodles and then suddenly…”

“I would have shared if he asked…”

The last thing I want is anything more from you, Delphie. I’ve already taken far, far too much. Massaging my temple, I ignore the headache building up. All the warmth and good feelings have been stripped away by the events of last night…or rather tomorrow night. Everything’s getting all mixed up in my head. I’m thinking through every interaction, all the ways things could have gone wrong. How did I die? After dinner, I was feeling good. Everything was going so well! And then I woke up. There wasn’t any time to do anything. By the time Delphie even got to me, I was already dead. Was it the Fallen? But how did they get to me? There’s no window in my room. I forgot to barricade the door, but it was still closed when Delphie came. They would have had to find a way to kill me and then leave before it happened?

When I get to my room, I go around, checking every corner of the room. I even look to see if there might have been a place for the assassin to hide. Maybe he was still in the room when Delphie came? And no one noticed? But there’s no where an assassin could have been. Besides, Sophie and Eli probably would have detected them, even if my Basic Prescience didn’t. Ugh…okay, I’ll keep an eye out tomorrow and barricade the door properly. Then I’ll stay up. At the very least, if anyone comes, I’ll see who it is!

Settling on a plan, I try to get some sleep tonight. It should be safe, but my mental state has been knocked askew. The comfort and security I once felt in Sophie’s lair is gone. No matter how I try to relax, my calm is gone. In the “morning” by the time Eli knocks on my door, I’m still awake, staring into the mirror. Readjusting my eyepatch, I force myself to shape up so the orange glow in my right eye will stop being so obvious. Slowly, it fades away to a dull brown, but every once in a while, it still flickers with an inner fire. Going to the door, I open it. I guess the sleepless night must how because the Exiled Prince frowns when he sees me.

“Bad dreams?” He asks and I nod.

“You could say that.”

“We really don’t have to do this today.” Eli shows a surprisingly caring side. Last time, he was all about taking action, but it seems he really does care about my wellbeing now that I appear sick. However, I shake my head and brush by him into the hallway.

“Let’s get this over with.”

Going over to the living room and putting on the dark black hood to hide my face, I find Delphie and Sophie chatting on the sofa. The two violet haired noblewomen look like sisters together like that, though Sophie’s slightly taller figure gives her a more seductive vibe.

“You’re up.” Delphie rises and joins Eli and I. “Feeling better today?”

“Absolutely.” I keep it short and simple. Now that I have my thoughts together, I can look her in the eyes again, but it’s hard. Every time she worriedly glances at me a certain way, it reminds of how she looked before I ripped her throat out. “Ready to go?”

“If you are…” She replies without confidence. We head out the door and Sophie reminds us as we go out-

“Be careful out there!”