The school was way too similar to when he left it.

The buildings were still there, containing students from elementary all the way to high school. Next to the school was a small hill, a beautiful place to rest. There was a large tree on the top of it, casting some much needed shade when it was hot like today. And since they were supposed to follow the memory he met Ava in, that was their destination.

Problem was that the school was currently on break time and he wasn’t looking forward to interacting with the people that would be there.

“Someday you are going to smarten up and tell me what’s wrong Marvin.” quipped Marly next to him. He might have only spent a couple of months with her but he could tell she was genuinely telling him to open up. Clutching his scarred arm-it was too hot for him to wear a long sleeved shirt-he thought about it. They had a whole week ahead of them, they could come back later with Adam and CB, they could even return on another day.

And today-today he could explain how difficult it was for him to be there. He could tell her, tell them, everything. An image of young Ava’s desperate face flashed his mind. Amdis with his cocky smirk and condescending words. He couldn’t afford to lose any time. “It’s nothing. Well not nothing-you’ll see.” he responded, fumbling over his words. Something that he hadn’t done in a long time he realised. “Just please don’t hurt anyone.” he added, earning a confused look from the blonde girl.

Walking through the schoolyard he was thankful for the fact that only a small number of students seemed to recognize him-few being a relative term of course. And even those that did gave only mild reactions. Not exactly what you would consider friendly, but things seemed to be calmer than they were when he left. Still, he found himself instinctively having inched closer to Marly than under normal circumstances.

He’d resigned himself to leaving all this behind, but now here he was as if nothing had changed in the past few months. In a sense he figured that was why he was so physically close to her. To remind him that things had changed.

Of course when asked about it, Marvin simply sputtered out a-probably lame-excuse regarding safety and the vampire’s unpredictable nature. She probably didn’t believe him, but didn’t bring it up again, making the dark haired teen thankful.

Eventually they reached the small hill. Marvin asked Marly to stay behind while he went up to the top where a rather large group of people rested underneath the large tree’s shade. Most of the people he surprisingly didn’t recognize but there were some that he-unfortunately-did.

“I never thought I’d see the day.” exclaimed the person sitting at the centre of the group in a heavily accented voice. “I reckoned you’d be smart enough to wipe your face off the map, Marvin Perlie.”

“Johnny.” stiffly called out Marvin, suddenly finding the heat very unbearable. “I’m here on a school trip and thought I’d see if you are still so ugly that your face turns sweet milk into clabber.” A bit of a drawl escaped his voice as he attempted to appear confident in front of his childhood tormentor.

Chuckling as he looked down at Marvin, Johnny took a few steps closer to him, getting in his personal space. In truth, Johnny was about the same height as Marvin, which is why he always preferred to confront him in places like this. He hadn’t said anything of the sort, but Marvin had always thought that their shared height was one of the things Johnny hated regarding Marvin.

“You always were good with your words.” began Johnny, “But your bark was worse than your bite!” he exclaimed as he punched Marvin in the face. His friends stood up, some displaying shock and worry, while others seemed indifferent to the violence of their friend.

“We were kids last time we were like this. I didn’t think it was possible, but it looks like you’ve managed to become worse, huh?” Marvin surprisingly found himself smirking as he asked that. It might appear a bit arrogant, but he had no doubt in his mind that he could take out Johnny easily. Sure he wouldn’t be at liberty to use magic or a weapon, but after the training he had been through, he wasn’t as weak as he used to.

“You bastard!” shouted Johnny grabbing Marvin by the collar. “You left! And I was blamed for it. The idiot principal suspended me for a month. I barely managed to salvage my reputation. My own parents shunned me! And after all that you come back!?”

He raised his fist once more, but it was caught by a smaller hand. A deceptively strong hand belonging to Marly Mallory. Even with her extraordinary capabilities, Marvin was surprised that she managed to sneak up on him after all the training they had done together. He saw Johnny attempt to hide the pain he was feeling for a second, but he dropped Marvin to free his other hand and make an attempt to break Marly’s hold, but it was in vain.

“You really have no idea how big of a mistake you have made.” growled Marly, freeing the boy.

“Pretty as a peach and strong like a-a-I honestly don’t know a phrase that fits here. I don’t suppose you’re from our school?” grinned Johnny, an expression that changed almost immediately as Marly’s already deadly look hardened even more. “I may be an asshole, but you could probably take all of us and I’m not stupid enough to test that.” he stated as he called for his group to leave, which they thankfully did without much complaining. A bit after they were gone, Marvin let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“I don’t suppose you’ll explain what that asshole’s deal is.” exclaimed Marly after a few tense moments of silence.

“It’s-it’s not that complicated.” responded Marvin while looking down, suddenly feeling very self-conscious of himself. “I had a ton of scars, a weird leg, and I didn’t exactly have the strength to fight back. Johnny wasn’t even that bad, he just took it too personally. It’s really not that big of an issue.” At this point his voice was barely more than a whisper. Never had he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole than in that moment.

But that didn’t last long as a stinging sensation on his left cheek brought him out of those thoughts. It took a moment for his brain to catch up with his body, and he realised that Marly had actually slapped him.

“You-You idiot!” she practically shouted, not giving Marvin a chance to say anything in response. “Why are you constantly putting yourself down? Don’t you see that…” she trailed off, although her hard stare was more than enough to give him an idea of how mad she was.

“Marly?”

“Nevermind.” she sighed, “This isn’t the time or place. But after we’re done with all of this you and I are going to have a little talk” she explained, her tone of voice somehow sitting in a strange zone between gentle, and sounding like she wants to rip out someone's eyeballs. “And for what it’s worth I think you could take most guys here with your eyes closed.” she added after a moment’s thought.

Deciding that figuring out Marly’s thoughts on his childhood wasn’t their current priority, Marvin simply nodded at her. A few minutes filled with awkward silence passed before he spoke up. “So what do we do now?”

“Are you kidding me? We’re following your memory, so I think this part is up to you.” responded Marly, looking at him somewhat expectantly.

Unsure of what to do, Marvin simply went up to the tree and...touched it. Having a moment of either complete idiocy or brilliance, he knocked on the trunk. As a result, a low sound was emitted from the old large tree.

“It’s hollow?” asked Marly behind him, and he could swear he was hearing the gears turn in her head.

“It didn’t used to be. I think” he responded, only half paying attention to her. Knocking further away only proved that sentiment. Checking near where he first knocked, Marvin realised that the part that sounded hollow was very slightly elevated from the rest of the trunk, like it was put there only to be removed later. It was so slight however, that Marvin couldn’t move it. Muttering some southern slang he had only rarely used even when he lived there under his breath, he tried to think of another way to open it up.

“I don’t know what you’d do without me.” exclaimed Marly in a smug tone as she pulled Marvin out of her way using her left arm while in her right she held a knife? Where she’d managed to hide that he didn’t know, nor was he going to ask, but it did its job as a rectangular piece slid off the trunk.

A small hole was dug into the tree. Inside were two small pieces of paper and a golden ring with the letter M on it. It also had the strange engravings that a magical conduit came with. Before he had the chance to fully process that fact however, Marly’s hand shot forth, grabbing said ring.

“This was Ava’s.” she muttered, her gaze completely focused on it.

“Ava’s?” wondered Marvin. But then how had she contacted him? Based on everything he knew there was one thing needed to use magic, no matter how good you were with it. The conduit. “Are you sure?” he asked, mostly out of some sheer desperation for her to be wrong. To misremember. For some hope that they weren’t just pawns in Amdis’s game.

“Of course I’m sure. I could never forget something like that.” replied Marly indignantly. “Our grandpa made her wear it. She was a prodigy, and he wanted everyone to know that she was a member of the Mallory house. Not that Ava minded. She was proud of our heritage.” she explained, a note of melancholy on her voice.

Looking at the piece of paper Marvin saw the numbers 34.73972, -83.93722 were the only thing written on it. This was all a game to Amdis. There was a plan in there somewhere, but it didn’t involve Marvin. And it didn’t involve any of this. It was his own admission that he wasn’t doing all of this with some end goal in mind.

Looking at Marly staring at the ring with an unusually soft stare, he instantly corrected himself. There was a plan, an end goal. But what exactly that entailed-well that was a big blank.

“34.73972, -83.93722.” he muttered to himself. Whatever that meant, it was a part of Amdis’s scheme. His game. A game they had to play. There was no other choice, and the ring being there was a testament to that.

It meant that the mission itself was planned out. That in spite of any grand and absolute statements Marvin had made to himself and the others, they could not come out on top. Not even the thing that set them off on this journey was their own. It was all a part of his plan.

“I assume that was written on the paper?” asked Marly without looking up from the ring. Marvin nodded in response. “And based on your reaction, the ring being here is a bad thing. Care to explain?”

“It’s a magical conduit. If it’s Ava’s-if it’s Ava’s it means that this whole thing has been us playing right into Amdis’s hands!” he explained, struggling to keep his voice even. “It means that even Ava’s message wasn’t genuine. Everything has been part of some convoluted scheme. It means we have no agency. Most we can do is quit, but then Ava would be left with him, and he’d find some way to get back at us. It’s all game in Amdis’s mind.”

“So we play that game. And we win. We rescue my sister and take down the bastard that took her.” declared Marly. “No matter how much you think of something, or how much you’ve planned it out, when it comes to execution things won’t work as you want them to. We can do this.” declared Marly confidently. But her eyes and voice betrayed her fear and uncertainty. Still, she wasn’t wrong. Amdis being three steps ahead of them was something he knew already. He was determined to stop him half an hour ago. Why should a simple ring change that?

The school’s bell rang signalling the end of the break. Looking at the retreating forms of his old classmates it hit him for the first time just how far he’d come in the past few months. He began to feel a confidence in himself he hadn’t felt as long as he remembered.

As Marly said, they’d play his game and win.