Before I had time to react, my body had been spun around. As I was spinning, so was my head, and I became dizzy. My usual erratic thinking became static and all I could think about was who yanked me.

After spinning around, It took a second for me to regain my thoughts. Finally composed, I looked forward to seeing who the culprit was.

It appeared to be a girl about my age, maybe a year or two older. She wore a black beanie, had long black hair with a purple ombré, and had lavender gray eyes. She had on a long black ribbed turtleneck, black pants, and black rocker boots. The only part of her that didn't outright scream goth were her tiny silver dot earrings.

She looked as if she was scowling at me, even though I've never met her.

"Hey, kid."

I let out my usual nervous smile. "Uhh yes, do you need something?"

She pointed behind her. "That guy falling back there, did you have anything to do with it?"

"Hmm, why would I?"

"I mean, you sliced him didn't you?" she said nonchalantly.

I paused. I figured no one saw that. When I looked around, it had seemed like no one noticed. Had everyone seen it and ignored it or was this girl just an anomaly?

A hand landed on my shoulder.

"Oh, who's this? Ya had a girlfriend and you never told me?" Tucker teased me.

Of course that's the conclusion he reached, I thought.

"Uhh no, I don't know who she is. She kinda just grabbed me out of nowhere."

Tucker made a face. "Ehh, what a creep."

"Sigh. I was just asking your friend if he knew anything about the thief who passed out on the sidewalk."

"Why would Arthur know anything about that," Tucker asked, puzzled.

"Because the man passed out seconds after bumping into him," she replied.

Tucker looked at her for a second bewildered, and then without warning burst into laughter. "You think Arthur did something to him? He wouldn't hurt a fly."

Her face didn't change. "I mean, it's not impossible, is it?"

Tucker's face darkened. "It is. Arthur doesn't hurt people, period. He'd never think of attacking someone."

"Then why does he carry that large blade on him?"

Tucker looked at her, confused. "What blade?"

This time it was the random girl who looked perplexed. "Obviously I'm talking about the blade under his shirt. What else would I be talking about?"

Tucker slightly lifted up my pollo, just enough to see Essentia and her sheath attached to my belt loop.

Tucker cleared his throat. "Well it's clearly for self-defense. These streets can be dangerous, ya know."

She crossed her arms. "As if, the streets couldn't be safer. The crook that ran into you probably wouldn't have made it two minutes before getting arrested."

"Look girlie, if you point a finger at someone every time something strange happens in this city, you'll be here all day."

Before she had a chance to reply, a hand rested on her beanie and was pushing down on her. She must've been used to this, because she didn't flinch at all, although her face grew a lot more uncaring.

It was a tall man that stood behind her. He had spiky red hair and fierce orange eyes. He wore a white v-neck t-shirt which was mostly covered by shades of yellow, orange, and red fur coat. The fur on the hood was red. He wore dark gray jeans and red and black Reeboks. Despite his chill demeanor, he looked very intimidating.

"Sup, is this idiot bothering you?"

Kind of, I thought.

"Yeah man, she just randomly started interrogating my brother over here," Tucker said.

He squinted and looked noticeably annoyed. "Seriously? It's always something with you. I don't get it."

"I just think she was curious about an event that happened earlier," I said. "I don't think she meant any harm."

"Well that's all fine and dandy and all but that doesn't explain why you're here instead of in front of the movie theatre where you were supposed to be. Why did I have to go looking for you?"

"It's not my fault you were late," she said.

"You could've at least picked up your phone." He said.

"It's dead."

"Why isn't your phone...you know what, I don't even care. Let's just hurry up and go so we can catch the movie before it starts."

"Let's get going then."

The guy looked at us apologetically. "I'm sorry for all the trouble she's caused you."

"Ahah, it's no big deal," I said.

The fiery looking man reached inside his left pocket and pulled out a black leather wallet. He dug inside and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. He extended his out to us.

"Please take this as an apology," he said.

"I don't think we can take that," I said.

"Of course we can," Tucker remarked, as he had already snatched the money from his hands. "Be rude to not take it."

The man nodded. "Be seeing you."

And with that he and the girl turned around and headed into the crowd of people.

"Well that was weird," Tucker said.

"It was really strange," I agreed.

"Hey, but at least we got twenty dollars! That means our lunch is free."

I smiled. Leave it to Tucker to find joy in the small victories.

My stomach growled. I almost forgot I was hungry.

"Hah, speaking of lunch, we should hurry and find our place. I'm afraid of passing out from hunger."

'Yeah, I'm pretty hungry," I admitted.

We walked with the crowd and trotted past pet stores, galleria's, pizza places, and skating rinks until we finally reached our destination. The walk wasn't actually that long, but it felt like it with how many different attractions we passed.

In front of the store was the iconic red sign with the words In-N-Out Burger in white letters and a swooping yellow arrow pointing to the right. As usual, there were cars circling the lot up to the drive thru, which didn't matter to me as I had always gone inside. Tucker and I went inside to the familiar scenery. Everything in the store was white and red, aside from the floor tile which were two shades of brown. Dozens of large photos concerning the store's history hung on the walls.

Unlike outside, the inside of the store was relatively quiet, if you ignore the employees in the back who were running with their heads cut off as they tried to reduce the line of cars. There were only about three customers besides us, and they were all eating alone. Tucker and I walked up to the cashier and ordered what we always did. I got a Double-Double combo with a Dr. Pepper and Tucker got a Double-Double with but he got his animal style and with grilled cheese.

We sat down after getting our food and as usual Tucker starts grubbing. Weirdly enough, I began to pray again to the goddess, and Tucker didn't seem to question this time around.

"So Arthur," Tucker said.

"Hm?"

He looked at me with a serious expression. "Ya gonna tell me the truth about that blade of yers? Like what happened when you were out?"

That caught me off guard. I had to think about it. Was it safe to tell Tucker? Well I mean, if I couldn't trust Tucker of all people, who could I trust?

I told Tucker about my meeting with the demon Myala, the self proclaimed queen of knowledge, and how I had made a deal with her in return for her releasing the people in the mansion. Though, I left out certain details, like what she said about me and the image of Mary seen through the mirror. I expected him to overreact and be upset I didn't tell him sooner but he calmly sipped his large Coca-Cola.

"That's a pretty big burden to carry" he finally spoke, breaking the silence.

He gave me a cheesy smile. "Thanks for telling me."

I looked at him, shocked. "I-I-I thought you'd be upset I didn't tell you," I stammered.

"Mmm. Well I was at first but then I thought about it. If that happened to me I probably wouldn't want to talk to anyone about it for awhile. Not to mention how hard it would be to get someone to actually believe me," he laughed.

"What makes you believe me?"

He looked at me, puzzled. "What reason would you have to lie to me?"

I could feel butterflies in my stomach. It always made me feel happy hearing about how much Tucker trusts me. It's just something I don't get from other people.

A loud bang brought me out of my thoughts. I looked around before noticing a girl flat on the ground inches from me. Her tray of food had fallen and the food scattered. The fries littered the floor and were floating in her Dr. Pepper. Even her Burger, which should've been fine due to the wrapper, somehow came out and all the layers of the burger were all on the floor in a disorganized mess. This girl must've had some seriously bad luck.

"Umm, are you okay?"

I leaned over and lightly poked the girl playing possum. Despite her being face planted to the floor a second ago, she shot straight up and saluted.

"Sir, yes, sir, I'm fine!"

"Uhhh..."

"Oof another weirdo," Tucker said.

The girl was of regular height. She had long orange hair, large hazel eyes and a bandaid over her nose. She had a buttoned up red and black plaid shirt and casual blue jeans with grey bay shore slip-on sneakers. Nothing really made her stand out, but I felt entranced by her the more I looked at her.

She looked at me and Tucker, who were staring at her, waiting for her next move. Then, she looked down at her food and began tearing up.

"Mah fewd! How could this happen!?"

She stared down at the food, defeated. She had tears in her eyes as if she was about to cry.

"Ah, you know," I started, "I can buy you another meal! Please don't cry!"

"She turned to me, her serene eyes looking into mine, although I had to avert her gaze.

"Really!? You'd do that for me?"

"Sure, I don't mind." I grabbed my wallet from my pocket and pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it to her.

Once again she looked as if she was going to cry, but this time it was out of joy. She grabbed both my hands and grabbed them tight. Then she put her face inches away from mine. Ordinarily this wouldn't have any effect on me, but for some reason this caused my heart to skip a beat.

"You're sho kind. Sho sho kind."

She let go of my hands and I breathed a sigh of relief. But before I could relax, she gave me a large thank you hug. My body tensed up, and my heart was beating faster than ever. Her citrus fragrance made it even worse, especially considering that it was one my favorite smells.

I could feel Essentia vibrating violently through the sheath. I just hope Myala doesn't make me attack this innocent, albeit goofy and clumsy, girl.

After a few seconds, she jumped up just as she'd done before and saluted.

"Thank you graciously, Arthur, Sir. May the goddesses bless you."

"A-a-ah, no problem," I said, still unable to look at her. It felt like my heart would beat more erratic every time I caught a glance of her playful demeanor.

With that, she ran back to the cashier. And by ran, I mean she quite literally sprinted. The cashier herself was terrified the girl was going to fly behind the table. She ordered her food and surprisingly got it nearly instantly. She sat down by herself and happily started eating.

Essentia finally calmed down and was acting like a normal knife again.

There has to be something wrong with me? I thought. There's no way I'm attracted to a weird girl like her. Yet I can't even look at her for more than a few seconds before being enchanted.

"Arthur? Arthur! Earth to Arthur?" Tucker yelled. He was snapping his fingers in front of my face for goddess knows how long.

"Huh?"

"You good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"So like," Tucker said nervously scratching his hair, "do you know that girl or something?"

"No? Why do you ask?"

"Well, she knew your name, didn't she? I don't remember you introducing yourself to her either."

Huh? How did she know my name? I'm pretty sure I've never met her. She didn't look like a royal or noble's daughter either, not to mention, I'd remember someone that eccentric.

Tucker made a serious face. "Just tell me the truth Arthur."

Oh no? Is he aware I left out details concerning my meeting with Ms. Myala? Which truth is he telling about?

"W-what truth?"

He slammed his hand on the table and pointed at me. "Admit it! You've been getting girlfriends when I haven't been looking, haven't you? And worse, you were trying to hide them from me!"

I tried to force a smile, but I couldn't hide the genuine disappointment I had for Tucker right now. There was just something about every part of his statement being incorrect that filled me with a certain amount of dissatisfaction. I wonder if this is what Mary always feels when talking to him.

"Yes Tucker, that's exactly it."

"I'm serious here."

"I'm not."

As per usual, we both started laughing until an alarm went off. It rang extremely loud and caught the attention of everyone in the restaurant. I looked around to see what it was until Tucker pulled out his Galaxy M30. He swiped to the right and the noise dissolved.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"So, like, I'm really sorry Arthur, but I have to be somewhere. Please forgive me." He clapped both his hands together and closed his eyes, as if trying to repent.

"Go ahead. I'll be fine alone," I assured him.

He gave me a thumbs up. "You da best Arthur."

I smiled and gave him a thumbs up as he quickly threw away his trash and scurried out the entrance.

I guess I might as well leave too. Maybe I'll play some games at the arcade, I thought. It should be pretty fun even without Tucker.

I threw away my trash and placed the tray on top. I headed for the glass door at the front but was stopped by an unexpected voice.

"Be careful out there. The world doesn't take too kindly to lone wolves."

I turned to my left to see the same goofy girl, although her tone was far more calm and composed. Even the smile she was flashing me looked far wiser than a teenager's could ever convey.

She scooted outside of the booth and once again our faces were inches apart. I looked away again but this time felt a warm pair of lips grace my cheek.

I looked at the previously goofy girl, who was still smiling at me, although I couldn't tell whether it looked more like an innocent smile or a smirk.

"Thank you again for the food," she said. "I really appreciate it."

"N-no problem," I said, blushing.

She giggled. "How cute."

She dumped her tray of scraps and headed for the door. She opened the door but turned back before walking out.

"Until we meet again, Arthur Price."

She waved once and proceeded to calmly walk out of the door and I followed right after her. Except, when I walked outside, there was no trace of her. It's like she just vanished. What even?

I walked around aimlessly, trying to make sense of what just happened. Did she have different personalities? Or was her first one just a fake? And how did she know who I was? Why was it so alluring just to be around her?

No matter how much I thought about it, none of it made any sense. It's just confusing. It wasn't until I looked up that all my questions ceased to matter. From a distance, I could see a familiar red haired maid calmly walking down the street. And something told me it would be best to follow her.