The next couple of hours were strange for Marvin.

He had to call his grandmother to explain to her that their house was destroyed, courtesy of a fire set off by an unknown gang, which caused damage to the rest of their part of the neighbourhood as well. Thankfully they were arrested-in truth a show put on by agents of whatever organisation Eobard had joined.

It was certainly dramatic. His grandma looked ready to murder whoever did that. Annie cried, even though she probably didn’t entirely understand what was going on, which meant that Marvin had to comfort the little girl, and he was still stuck with Maria Rockwell and they all had to stay in a hotel room. At least the room had enough space for three people, and there even was a balcony even if the view wasn’t exactly impressive.

They were currently staying in a hotel, supposedly sleeping. Well, he wasn’t sleeping. His grandma and Maria barely got themselves to sleep in the double bed, while Annie was sharing his compact bed and snoring lightly. She claimed to be having nightmares and he was supposed to keep the monsters away. At least he could protect against something.

Apparently the Association was up to no good. Flashing back to the bits of the day he lost his parents, and leg, and it didn’t seem to be so out of left field. And if something like that was within their plans once more, then he couldn’t let them do it.

“Ain’t that sweet?”

He didn’t turn around. He knew that the voice was within his head. It was his own voice. Magic. Sorcery. It was something akin to the vision he had seen when he first met a few of the Magesmiths. It was the first time he had heard it in his head, but he could tell. In short, it wasn’t real.

“Not bad, boy. I must say, I thought you’d break when you saw what happened to that ol’ classmate of yours. He might have been an ass to you, but nobody deserved that. Right?”

Not. Real.

“Then again, you also managed to drive away the one person that actively showed that she cared for you and trusted you. Maybe you should leave. You don’t want to ruin your family any more than you already have, right?”

Not. Real.

“I mean, you already destroyed your house! What’s next? Maybe everything would be better if you had died back the-”

“Shut your mouth!” said Marvin, sitting up quickly. He was sweating profusely by now and breathing heavily.

Thankfully his grandma was a heavy sleeper and didn’t notice anything. Rockwell seemed to be missing, but he had enough faith in her to know she wouldn’t abandon them. Whether that was a good thing or not was a different matter altogether.

What in the name of all holy things was that? He let his anger get the better of him. But did it have a point? Was he really-No.

No. Kara had warned him. He needed to be strong. Of course it didn’t help that he wasn’t around anyone he could share this with. He could just tell his grandmother the truth, it wasn’t like he was on the secret law’s good side, but he didn’t want to make her a potential target for any attacks.

“Mar-Marrin?” Annie’s little voice broke him out of his thoughts. She sounded legitimately scared. And he had done that. Why couldn’t the ground swallow him right now?

“Annie? What-What’s wrong?” he asked his little cousin quietly.

“Why did you yell?”

“Oh, that.” he responded in a tone that hopefully made him seem calmer than he was. “It’s just, I had a nightmare.”

Suddenly he felt Annie’s little form hug him as tightly as she could. Chuckling quietly, he hugged her back. Standing back up he told Annie he was going to get some air before he tucked her in.

“Marrin?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re the bestest old cousin in the world.” said the girl with a wide motion of her arms right before sleep overtook her once more.

Sighing to himself, he opened the balcony door to find Maria Rockwell was there, leaning on the railing. After Marvin coughed to signify his presence, the brunette woman turned to him, perhaps looking more tired than he ever thought she could look.

“You hate me.” she said matter-of-factly.

“I-I don’t hate you.” said Marvin indignantly. After an intense stare off that lasted all of three seconds he relented. “Fine. I do hate you. You show up trying to kidnap what at the time was my closest friend. Then you also say that we are enemies, mentally break my old classmate, and you suddenly are an ally. To be honest, you confuse me more than anything.”

“Likewise. But to lessen your worries I’ll tell you this: I honestly couldn’t care less about you. Yes, I was mad when you bested me. That’s why I made Johnny like that. You’re soft enough to care about someone that made your life hell.”

“Whatever he did to me doesn’t-”

“You think what I did there was a bad thing?” laughed Maria. “In 1354, a team of sorcerers experimented on vampire hybrids, making hundreds of them go mad. In 1953, a sorcerer caused an earthquake that killed 265 people.

“He tried to use a powerful spell to make himself immortal while also bypassing becoming a vampire. The irony is that the backlash was so strong that it killed him before he could get results. Sorcerers are bad people Marvin. When you are faced with the darkness we are, you tend to become part of it.”

“Kara didn’t.” said Marvin, challenging Maria.

He knew Kara was more than a good person. She had a genuine love for magic, even if it was dangerous. She had risked her life for him. She had died because she saved him.

“Maybe not. And she wouldn’t be the only one.” smiled Maria. “Good and evil both exist everywhere. I don’t really care about that. We know nearly nothing about magic itself. That’s why I’m doing all of this. I want answers. Not to some conspiracy or whatnot. But to the greatest mystery of the universe. But I also want to be free, and not under the IDA’s boot.”

Marvin could with one hundred percent honesty that he never expected an answer like that. In some respects he found Maria’s goals almost admirable. He always took magic as it was, wanting to know more about it while also neglecting how much was just a big question mark.

But her total disregard for right and wrong, he couldn’t condone that. He could at least say that she understood the woman a little better now. But in a strange way, he found himself a bit more lost than he was before this.

He didn’t have a drive like that. Becoming the best sorcerer, rising as much as he could in that way, it wasn’t really his own wish. It was what he thought he should do for sure, in order to make sure he was worthy enough to stand alongside his loved ones.

Hell, he even didn’t sleep or shave for a while until he was called out on it. But, while he did wish to be a sorcerer, he wasn’t sure if he wanted that to be the extent of himself. Or even the main part of his identity. But that was what connected him to everyone else.

What if he lost all of these new friends because of that?

More importantly, what did he want to do?

He-he-he didn’t know.

A slap at the back of his neck broke him out of his thoughts.

“What was that for?” he whined as he rubbed the sore spot.

“For you not paying attention. Go and sleep. Eobard will come meet us here tomorrow morning. Then it’s time for us to go over everything. So go back in there and force yourself to sleep.”

Eobard was coming? That was perhaps the single good bit of news that Marvin had heard in the past month. And she did have a point. He needed sleep, so he began to make his way inside before Maria’s hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“You’re not a bad person. I know that it means squat coming from me, but don’t worry. You’ll figure yourself out.”

He turned to look at Maria, and for a brief moment he wished that it was Kara that had spoken these words to him. Maybe he wouldn’t be so lost then. Maybe if there was someone-anyone-other than Maria Rockwell that fully understood what he was going through at that moment.

At least Eobard would be arriving tomorrow. He knew he could talk to him.

Sighing once more, Marvin thanked the woman before going into the room. He would sleep the night away. Everything else, he would let Tomorrow Marvin deal with that.