Chapter 7: Devil's dance

    "Which one are you?" I asked.He gave me a confused look. 

    "Which one are you?" 

   "Since you ask that, I'm going to assume you know all the details about us. I didn't expect Yata to have someone really close to him.Heh, even better.."   

  "Answer the question!" I raised my voice.  

   "Isn't it obvious?"

!?

"Omega."In an instant, I unconsciously took a few steps back since I knew the danger I was in. I have to buy time, hoping there's another clone nearby.     

    "Omega? First time I've heard. They haven't told me anything about you."  

   "Ehhh...don't act like a fool..." he answered me in a strange tone, as if he was playing with me. 

    "I'm..serious..." 

Out of nowhere, he appeared in front of me.It seemed as if he had teleported. He grabbed my face and squeezed. The power of his hand was strong enough to break my skull. 

    "If you're not making a fool of yourself, then you must think of me as one," Omega said.Then, he lowered me to the ground.   

    "I'm going to test your abilities. At first I just wanted to play with you a bit, but you really pissed me off.. In 7 days the competition will be held.You have two choices; The first is to show up at the competition and support that girl and leave Alpha alone. The other choice is the opposite."

    "Why would I choose something like that?" 

    "If you choose girl, I'll kill Alpha. If you choose Alpha, I'll kill the girl. It's simple."         "Why would you even do that?"   

      "I'm a little hesitant. I'm planning to kill both of them, but I don't know where to start. If I kill one person, the rest might come up with a plan to get rid of me. Yeh, what should I do?" 

He was mentally retarded when Yata made him. Why hasn't anyone turned up yet? I'll try to buy more time.     

     "And what if I don't decide? Or even, what if I decide to save both of them?"   

     "In either case, I'll kill you first."

    "What will you even accomplish by killing us?"     

    "Isn't it obvious? If the three of you unite you will become a threat to peace. After all the effort the organization has put in, you want to destroy everything? Who is evil here? My creator or me?"     

    "You don't understand-"  

    "So you chose death right now, Niksha?" 

I fell silent. I had no choice. 

    "I wish you a pleasant evening," Omega said while leaving the scene with a creepy smile.I also headed home slowly. What should I do?I suppose Alpha can take care of Omega if it comes to that, but since Omega is an anomaly neither outcome is impossible. I can't even put Katarina in danger. Her ability had not peaked. They could use it in the future.!?*bzz, bzz* A call stopped my train of thoughts. It was not just any call. It was call from her. 

    "Hello, Katarina?"

 ....

....  

   "I don't know how to pull it off. I can't be in both child and normal form to attend the performance and prepare the  surprise."

.... 

.... 

Katarina said something that made me think.     

    "Too bad clones don't exist, haha!"

.... 

Is it possible for Alpha to make a clone of me too? That way I could protect both of them. I need time to come up with a plan. 

.....    

     "What? After everything that's been going on you want-"

 ....

.... 

Well, I need some relaxation after all the events these days.

...    "Tomorrow? Katarina, are you sure? Compatition is coming soon."

... 

...    

 "Okay. We're going on a date tomorrow." 

"No particular reason. I have to go now. We'll talk later." I walked out of my house leaving Yata alone. He gave me a strange look. He knows something is going on, but he'd have annoying reaction if I told him. So, I headed to the place where we should meet. To the same place where we had our first date. After walking for thirty minutes, I reached that place. Katarina was already there. She was early.     

    "Hey!"   

   "Hey!" I hugged her. Still, she asked me out on a date. I feel like surface-level acting won't work if the date is too long. My eyes lit up, I again entered the role of a stranger.  Let our date begin. 

      "I would praise your combination, but everything looks great on you, Katarina."  I'm going to kill myself after this! 

    "Thank you," she replied. Her face was red.     

    "Shall we?"I pointed to the door and then opened it.Soon, the waiter came to serve us.   

    "What would you like to drink?"    

"Two beers," I said to the waiter with a faint smile. Katarina was glad that I ordered same as her this time.   

      "I've decided I want to watch the compatition. Do you think the kids will mind if I don't appear there as Nikola?"         "I think that's fine. I'm just glad you're there. The shape doesn't matter."   

   "Too bad I can't see you perform. Have you thought about ever getting back into it?"  

    "Since when this all happened to me, no. My ability manifested itself 3 years ago. That's when I stopped competing and decided to open a dance club. I'm still dancing, so I don't complain much."    

     "I totally understand. If you ever change your mind, I'll be there to support you."     

    "Um...I wanted to ask you something."  

    "Hm?" she tilted her head like she was animated by Studio Shaft. 

    "Do you want to go to a theater later?"    "What play is it?" Katarina asked.      "Hamlet."     

  "Really?? Let's go!"  

      "I didn't know you liked plays."

    "I did a lot of acting at school, but dance took over. I love all forms of art, just like you. Except... ah... "  

  "Except what?"

    "I don't like the fiddle."   

  "The fiddle? Why the fiddle?"  

   "One time I went out with a guy and he started playing me videos of people playing the fiddle. Then he started explaining what each part meant and I thought he was joking and I burst out laughing.He was dead serious so he gave me a strange look. I feel bad but I'm honest so I told him to shut up after that."     

"Pff... Bahahahaha!"   

  "It's not that funny!".                         You're right, it's not.

    "Bahahaha!"    

"Stop... Niksha.." she was embarrassed but also happy at the moment. It's not funny, but what should I do at this moment.          

    "You're in tears how much you laugh!" No, I'm in tears because this is humiliating. After some time,  our two beers turned into twelve. I'm dead, but she's nowhere near drunk.   

  "Shall we now?"   

  "Okay, let's go!" 

The theater was nearby. I barely managed to reach it. My legs were weak since I don't tolerate alcohol very well. We managed to arrive on time.The show started, the audience quieted down.    

 Our play." 

I could not walk, also, the situation was of an urgent nature that I decided to call a taxi. Omega gave me an ultimatum anyway, so I was sure he wasn't going to do anything right away. A taxi came and took me to Yata's house.     

    "You can shower first if you want."         "It's okay, you can go first," Katarina answered .      

     "Okay."When I finished showering, I tied a towel around my waist, sat down on the couch and waited for her to finish. I held Hamlet in my hand and waited.She was fast. In about 15 minutes she came out of the bathroom. Steam everywhere, drops of water fell from her naked body.   

  "Come," I told her. 

I showed her the book and squeezed the cover. She slowly took the book in her hands and began to tighten the covers. Slowly, we opened the book together. I was holding the book to the side and she felt it from the back. Then, she dug her nails in and left marks on the back of the book.       

  "Harder!" she said.

 She tears out a few pages of the book.  

   "More! More!" she started screaming. Pages flew all over the room. I feel like I heard a door, but I wasn't sure if it was because I was drunk. The whole book was wet. Our hands revolved around the book, looking for each other.     

    "I need you!" Katarina shouted. Then, I pulled back the pages of the book like pulling on the dog's leash. I pulled harder and harder. The book was durable. The breaking, tearing, yelling, screaming... it continued. The book was on the bed, then on the table, then on the wall, at one point even on the balcony. Even the book could not withstand all that. There were book pages all over the room. It was already midnight before we knew it. We decided to finish for tonight as we had jobs to do in the morning.    

     "I'll call you a taxi, Kaća."       

 "Okay." She packed her things. After she did, half of the torn pages disappeared from the room. She approached me, kissed me and whispered: "I love you."