“See anything that you like, Miss Walker?”

It was the day of their procedure. In just a few moments, she would get her eye gouged out, replaced with a brand new, sinister demon version. And here they were, walking around a market as if it were just another ordinary day in their lives.

“I’m not sure the Lord gave us enough money for something other than groceries,” she said, carrying a heavy piece of meat wrapped in brown paper.

“Who said anything about using the Lord’s money? This will be my treat. You deserve a reward for being such a wonderful student.”

She rolls her eyes. Who was Aaron fooling? Not a single day goes by without him telling her about what an awful student she was. She didn’t understand why the demon still continued with her lessons. Wasn’t gaining his powers supposed to bring her back home? Knowing which spoon to use and which family a Lord was part of wasn’t going to be useful in her world. Maybe Aaron got some sadistic pleasure from watching her suffer.

She scans the market’s stalls and stops by an old woman selling trinkets. An amethyst necklace catches her eye, tied to a leather cord. Nicole reaches out to touch the necklace, only for the old woman to slap her hand away.

“Don’t touch! Unless you’re going to buy my wares, I suggest you don’t fondle them,” she said. “I’ve seen enough pickpockets around here.”

“Madam, Lady Walker is from a family of means. She wouldn’t need to steal your goods,” Aaron said, butting in, trying to charm her.

“Oh don’t tell me what to do, hell creature,” she said.

“Hell creature? Now, what did I do to warrant a grave insult from such a beautiful woman?” He smiles, unfazed by her insult.

The old woman squints at Aaron, a deep frown adding more wrinkles to her worn face. “The world has changed, demon. A crone like me doesn’t have to tolerate a pretender like you anymore. The old mother is gone and the new one has promised a better world for all of us.”

“Lillian isn’t gone,” Nicole said. Aaron tenses up next to her. The old woman’s nostrils flared before she let loose a cackle.

“You’re a brave one if you think you can just say the name of the old mother like that. Foolish girl. Swear your allegiance to the new mother and maybe her horde will let you live.”

“Let’s go, Lady Walker. It seems that this merchant doesn’t wish to sell us anything,” he said, grabbing her arm.

“Nonsense,” the old woman said. “Come on, girl. Didn’t you want this pretty necklace?” She holds the amethyst crystal up, letting it hit the sunlight. “A fellow sister like you deserves something from my stall, even if you consort with demons.”

“Fellow sister?” She brushes off Aaron’s arm. “What do you mean?”

She shakes her head. “My poor, ignorant child.” She pulls out a mirror from under her table. “Look at your reflection. You’re a woman of magic.”

Nicole steps in front of the mirror, unsure of what she was supposed to see. She saw the face she woke up to every morning - brown eyes rimmed with dark bags underneath, brown hair pulled back into some ridiculous Victorian updo, and a sprinkle of acne over her cheeks. Nothing magical there.

“Step closer,” the old woman said as if reading her thoughts. Nicole moves closer, deciding to play along with the stall owner’s game. Her eyes turned blue, the same blue her hands glowed when she had healed the Lord. Butterflies crawled out of her mouth, flying around her head.

Aaron steps up from behind her, looking into the mirror. “I don’t see anything different.”

Nicole’s eyes widened. In the mirror, the butler wasn’t his usual handsome, intimidating self. Instead, he was a shadow made of fire and brimstone wearing a crown of obsidian. She steps back. So that was the creature she was making a deal with.

“Your mirror doesn’t work,” she told the old woman. “I don’t see any magic.”

“Fix your eyes,” she spat. She slams a deck of tarot cards on the table. “I’ll take a shilling for these. They’ve helped me see things I would’ve missed with my failing vision.”

“A shilling? That’s robbery,” Aaron protested. “Those dirty cards should be worth a farthing at most.”

“You said you’d get me any gift,” Nicole said. “And I really want those cards.”

He sighs. “Young girls have such a strange obsession with worthless nothings.” Aaron hands over the money begrudgingly.

“The cards are in your hands now,” the old woman said. She places the deck in Nicole’s palms. “Be careful.”

Aaron drags her away from the stall. “I wouldn’t waste any more time entertaining that charlatan. I bet you aren’t the only person she pulls that act on for.”

Was it all a ruse? She was unsettled by how blue her eyes were and even more disturbed by the bugs that had crawled out of her mouth. If it was an illusion, it was a pretty good one.

They board the carriage, heading straight for the surgeon’s place.

“Are you nervous?” Aaron sounded concerned. If she were more naive, she’d assume he was worried about her wellbeing. But she knew the only thing on his mind was the contract.

“A bit,” she admitted. “I think it’s going to hurt, getting my eye taken out.” She fiddles with the tarot cards on her lap, unable to erase the shadow man made of fire and brimstone from her head. She stares at Aaron, watching his handsome form flicker for a moment, turning into that creature she saw in the mirror. She shudders uncontrollably.

“The Lord told me it didn’t hurt,” the butler said, trying to reassure her. He mistook her shaking for pre-surgery nerves.

“His eye was bleeding,” she said. “Maybe he lied.”

“When? He would’ve asked for my help if it did,” the butler said.

The thing was, he did ask for the butler’s help. But she had healed the Lord before Aaron arrived. She wonders if Cedric had breathed a word about her powers. Judging by the way Aaron had doubted her abilities at the stall, she assumed her secret was safe with the Lord.

“That night you were carrying a bleeding monster head,” she said, “the Lord’s eye was bleeding.” She was still miffed that he and the Lord hadn’t bothered to explain the monsters to her. And the cult Cedric had been a part of still remained a mystery. What was the demonic duo hiding?

“I see,” he said. “But I don’t think that will happen to you.”

“Why?”

“The Lord comes from a special line of … people. His blood sometimes has bad reactions with mine,” Aaron explains.

“What kind of people?” Alice’s red eyes flash in her mind.

“People blessed by the new mother. My contract with the old mother means a part of Lillian will always be inside me, even when I stop doing her bidding.”

“So how is getting your eye going to free me from her?”

He smiles as if he had expected her question. “Your contract with Lillian is weak, based on shallow magic. Exchanging eyes is a more serious agreement. Your bond to Lillian will be no more after this procedure.”

She nods, pretending to be satisfied with his answer. She still didn’t trust him, but she also didn’t feel there was much of a choice. She had to get home no matter what.

Nicole shuffles the tarot cards, trying to distract her mind. Out of curiosity, she pulls out a card to read her own fortune. A reverse ace of pentacles. Dread forms at the pit of her stomach. She had played with tarot cards before. It was an ominous sign.

The carriage halts. Aaron helps her descend onto the cobblestone, careful not to get her dress dirty.

"Martha would be very unhappy if we gave her more clothes to clean," he explained, responding to Nicole's perplexed expression.

Right. Because the most pressing thing on her mind was keeping her dress clean, not that she was about to undergo Victorian era surgery.

He hands her an eyepatch. “Mr. Lister won’t perform the operation unless he sees that you’re injured.”

She ties the cloth around her left eye, becoming less sure of the procedure by the second. As Aaron ushers her into the building, she begins to plot for ways to escape.

“Mr. Lister isn’t like the other surgeons,” Aaron said, unaware of Nicole’s anxiousness. “He’s a pioneer, a man who thinks outside of the box. The other doctors don’t really believe in cleaning their surgical instruments or washing their hands, but Joseph takes that extra step. He knows doing things like everyone else will continue to kill patients.”

“Kill?” The word comes out of her mouth like a squeak.

“Any other surgeon would kill you, but he’s considerate,” Aaron said, correcting her. “He even performed surgery on his sister. You’re in safe hands. There he is now.”

A portly man with pale eyes and wispy white hair comes to greet them. He shakes Aaron’s hand, smiling warmly. They exchange pleasantries until Mr. Lister notices Nicole.

“What do we have here?” He grabs her face, lifting the eyepatch flap. She tries not to show her discomfort at her physical boundaries being breached.

“Lady Walker’s left eye is going blind,” Aaron said. “It’s been giving her awful headaches. We’ve decided that removing it would be best for her.”

“Yes,” she said, playing along. “I haven’t been able to think straight.”

“If the problem persists, a lobotomy might be better for relieving your maladies,” Mr. Lister suggests.

She freezes. Nicole was not in the mood to have her prefrontal cortex rearranged. The thought made her nauseous.

“A lobotomy won’t be necessary,” Aaron said. “A simple eye procedure would be enough.”

“Are you sure? The girl is white as a sheet. It’ll cure her fright,” the doctor said.

“I’m sure,” she said, clearing her throat. “If we change our minds, we’ll come back next time.”

“Very well then,” he said. “Follow me. Aaron, you can wait on the bench there.”

Nicole gives one last look to the demon before heading off. Something told her she was going to regret leaving him there.

Mr. Lister leads her to a sparsely furnished room, instructing her to lay down on the wooden table at the center. At the corner of the room was a strange contraption with a wooden handle jutting out of it.

“That’s my donkey engine,” he said, noticing her stare. “It gets rid of the miasma that’s been killing everyone.”

“What’s in it?” She points to the canister attached behind it.

“Carbolic acid. They use it in Carlisle to get rid of the sewage smell.” He ties a smock over his clothes and brings a tray of surgical instruments.

“It seems I’ve forgotten the anesthesia. Wouldn’t want the lady in pain, right?” he joked. He hurries out of the room, leaving the tray next to her head. She sits up and examines the metal instruments. Her hands trail over the different-sized blades. In a matter of moments, one of them would be piercing her skin.

Suddenly, she hears an awful scream come from the other room.

“Mr. Lister?”

The doctor doesn’t respond to her call. She tried calling for the demon.

“Aaron?”

A creature approached the doorway, eyeless, and with rows of teeth stained with fresh, red blood. She had a horrible feeling that it ate Mr. Lister. It looked exactly like the monster Aaron had killed the night the Lord had collapsed from his bleeding eye, except this time she could see the rest of its body. What had they called it before? A Nefastus?

It dragged its long, shiny metal claws on the ground, sniffing around the room for blood. She gathers her skirt and quickly slides off the table, grabbing two knives from the surgical tray. The Nefastus approaches Mr. Lister’s donkey engine. Intrigued, it licks the machine with its long, reptilian tongue. Displeased, it recoils, shrieking.

Nicole inches her way to the doorway. For a frightening second, the Nefastus turned its head towards her. She was certain if the monster had eyes it would’ve pounced on her in an instant. Then, it turns away, sniffing around the room.

She steps out and breathes a sigh of relief. Now she had to find Aaron, the only person she knew who could deal with this monster. But before she could do that, someone seized her, roughly grabbing her waist.

She lets out a yelp, dropping the two knives. The Nefastus hears the clatter of the blades on the ground and runs towards her, mouth open to tear her to shreds. Just as the monster’s teeth grazed her skirt, she passed out from a cloth soaked in sweet-smelling chloroform pressed to her nose.