KC’s fingers had barely left the keyboard before Agent March was on him. Her fingers twisted in his hair, and he grunted as she shoved his face against the desktop.

“Hey, hey, girl, chill,” Neil murmured as he turned back to the computer KC had tried to commandeer. “That was my bad for turning my back.”

Agent March didn’t, in fact, chill. KC swallowed hard at the feel of something cold against the side of his neck. He didn’t want to imagine the barrel of a gun digging into his flesh, but the image of how fucking helpless he was in this situation flashed through his mind anyway.

“Seriously, cut that out,” Neil said with a sigh. “He’s just worried about his girl.”

She jerked him back upright in his chair, but leaned down so that her mouth hovered next to his ear. “I’ve been wondering if we sent you in with a bullet in you, if you’d respawn with it still in every time you die.” She tapped his cheek with the gun, and backed up to her post by the door, the message clear.

KC took in a ragged breath, clamping his jaw shut to avoid spitting obscenities. He was so fucking done with this whole situation.

“KC,” Rose breathed his name, and his anger evaporated, heart leaping out of his chest at the realization that she could still see the chat.

“We can still communicate with her!” he cried. “The link is still there!”

Neil nodded. “Looks like it,” he said, one of his eyebrows rising as he pushed his glasses up his nose. “Now can you relax and follow the rules? I’m not interested in the guard dogs turning anyone into swiss cheese, here.”

KC nodded like a bobblehead without tearing his eyes from the screen. Rose made some excuses about human prayers to avoid her flub at saying his name out loud. But he didn’t care that she’d broken the narrative or whatever. He was just so happy that there was still a chance to communicate, a chance to get her out of there.

Neil murmured something to the guy next to him before muting their screen and turning it off.

“What are you doing?!” KC demanded.

“We need to talk about what we’re going to handle going forward,” Neil explained, sliding over a legal pad and a mechanical pencil. “We are going to let this play out for a bit before waiting for a lull to speak with her.”

KC’s leg wiggled of its own accord, agitated that he couldn’t see or hear what was going on. “Am I allowed to tell her everything I know?” He jutted out his chin. “Which isn’t much, really.”

“That all depends on how you think she’s going to react.” Neil tapped the pencil against the pad in a staccato rhythm. “Your job is to make sure she cooperates. You can tell her whatever you need to if it means accomplishing that.”

KC pressed his lips into a thin line, crossing his arms tightly.

Neil grinned. “Let’s get brainstorming.”

#

KC quickly realized that having to wait while being privy to what was happening to Rose was even more torturous than not knowing. Once he and Neil had finished with their brainstorming session, they’d found out that Hex had found the missive, seen some kind of vision, and someone was attacking the rebel camp.

The demons managed to escape with Rose in tow, jumping into a quarry and taking cover in a tunnel of some kind. All the while, KC gripped his seat with white knuckles, constantly feeling like his best friend was about to die horribly.

In the quiet following that, Rose came clean about everything that had happened to her, which felt like a massive step in the right direction, especially because KC felt that if they knew about the chat then these assholes might not be so reluctant to let him talk to her. If the demons were expecting her to communicate with him, then she wouldn’t have to hide it.

Jian did some kind of magic to inspect the curse, but unfortunately wasn’t able to break it, leaving Rose laying still in the dark.

“She’s probably going to pass out,” he muttered. “I think that took a lot out of her. Should we leave her a message for when she wakes up?”

Neil nodded. “I think it’s time. It sounds like the boys are making plans for where they’re going to go. We need to put our objectives into those plans.”

KC swallowed hard. He had no idea how this was going to go. Their objectives didn’t exactly line up with anything these demons wanted to do. Not to mention, he still wasn’t sure that they were even telling him the full scope of what they intended to do.

He didn’t think that someone as brutal as Agent March wanted to extract Dr. Cole just to have tea time together.

Not to mention, if they did succeed in getting her and Rose out—also, how were they going to do that?!—he didn’t think they would be getting any tea, either. He had spent much of the time trying to figure out how to warn her without tipping off their overseers, and it was going to be tricky.

“Have at it, then.” Neil slid his chair to the side, allowing KC access to the keyboard. “Just remember we’re watching, yeah?”

KC sighed. “How can I forget?” He resisted the urge to glance back at Agent March and her excited gun barrel.

Without hesitation, he typed there are people here and they need you to find something for them, and hit send. It was almost eerie typing to an empty chat. He was so used to donation messages while thousands of people whirred the chat in the background.

At Rose’s soft gasp, his eyes widened. “She’s awake.”

Neil looked up from his notepad, staring intently at the black screen.

“KC’s talking to me,” she said quietly, but without any shred of grogginess.

Shit, she wasn’t asleep, he thought, but kept it to himself.

“Speak with him, then,” Hex said, “I won’t interrupt.”

KC marvelled at the soft understanding in the demon’s voice. He was still shellshocked that they had taken her story so well.

“Wait.” Now Rose sounded very awake. “There are people where? In my apartment?”

Yep, KC typed, they’re some kind of cia type shit, and they’re watching everything we’re doing.

“What the fuck?” she breathed. “Are they like, threatening you?” There was an edge to her voice, a bristling protectiveness that warmed his heart.

Pretty much, but I’m ok, don’t worry, your reckless ass is in more danger than me. He wanted to keep the tone light, even if there was a ring of untruth to that. Now that Rose had two demon bodyguards, she was a bit safer for the time being.

She muttered some choice obscenities under her breath, but wasn’t her ‘reckless-ass’ self in mouthing off KC’s captors. He was pleasantly surprised at that—confident gamer RosieRainbow had a big, confident mouth.

But he supposed a lot could change when it was no longer a game.

“So what do they want?” she finally asked.

30 years ago one of their scientists got sucked in like you did, and they think she’s still alive in there.

“Thirty years?” she gasped, and the screen suddenly flickered orange. KC realized she’d opened her eyes, revealing that the demons had lit some candles in the corner, lighting up the space a bit. “Holy shit.”

Yeah so they want you to find her. Said she has bright red hair and giant glasses, if she even looks the same now but really shouldn’t be hard to find a human in there since the demons didn’t even know what one was.

She closed her eyes again. “Well that’s the kicker, right? Nobody I’ve come across has ever seen a human before…though if it was thirty years ago…” Her gaze fell on Hex and Jian, who were sitting next to each other, murmuring quietly. “I know you guys had never heard of a human, but is there any kind of rumour or, like, myth maybe, about a creature like me?”

They looked at each other for a beat, and it was the creepy demon with the white eyes who spoke. “There are other rare creatures in this world, but none that I know of called human.”

“The oracle might know,” Hex added.

“Is this oracle the person that sent you the visions?” Rose asked.

The demon nodded. “At least, I think so. I don’t know of any other creatures that can see things like that.”

“Okay, well, other things first, what am I supposed to do with her if I can find her?” Rose asked, the screen going black once again.

KC let out a deep breath through his teeth, and glanced at Neil, who gave him an encouraging nod. Rescue mission, they want you to bring her back with you.

“And do they have a way out?” Her tone was so dry that he had to stifle a laugh. He had a feeling she was picturing someone exactly like Agent March to a T.

No, that’s up to you too, but there’s at least a whole team of people here trying to figure it out with you.

“So comforting.” She paused. “Well, do I have to report to these assholes? Like will they be pissy if I go to this oracle with these guys and ask my questions along with theirs?”

He caught the undertone of her query. She was asking if they were going to hurt him if she took too long. If she didn’t do things exactly as they wanted. And he wasn’t sure how to answer that. Neil had coached him to tell her whatever he had to so she would cooperate. But he wanted to give her more truth than lies.

KC looked at Neil again. “Well? She wants parameters of what she’s allowed to do.”

“Tell her the oracle sounds like a good plan,” Neil replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders. “Just remind her that we’re watching every move.”

The threat was clear.

Oracle makes sense, if they can tell you anything about Dr. Cole. KC drew his bottom lip between his teeth, biting down hard as he added, and don’t forget they’re watching you.

Rose snorted, sarcasm dripping from her tongue like honey as she cooed, “Isn’t it nice to have viewers?”