A Confrontation

The next morning, I wandered back into the living room to find Martha sprawled over the table, a look of existential dread plastered over her face.

Picking up a glass from off the counter, I turned on the tap and filled it up, before taking the seat opposite to her. “Good… morning?”

Giving no response, Martha just stared at me with dead eyes, allowing her mildly disheveled hair to fall over her face. Disappointed in the lack of reaction, I had to flick some of the water from my drink onto her in order to incite any kind of response at all. Moving her sleeve up to wipe the droplets of water from her cheek, she glanced up at me with only her eyes, still keeping her face pressed to the surface of the table.

“That… was all just a dream, right?” Martha muttered apathetically. “Everything that happened yesterday night. Tell me it was just an insecurity-fueled fever dream.”

“Acting like nothing happened isn’t going to change anything.” I took a sip of water, before setting the glass back down. “Man, you look horrible. Did you even take a shower?”

“I assume I was too caught up in the moment last night to remember. And now that I’m more clearheaded, I couldn’t care less.” Raising her head slightly, Martha narrowed her eyes. “By the way, you’ve got some nerve, coming in and sleeping in my room. You think just because you pulled that whole hero act of yours, now you can do anything?”

“If I recall correctly, you were the one who insisted. And it’s not like we shared the bed or anything, either. I was still sleeping on a couch, just in a different room,” I said, frowning. “Anyway, what’s with you? After everything that happened, now you’re just lying on top of a table and being bitter to me. Don’t you think that’s a little unfair?”

“It’s because of what happened that I feel bitter! I’m not sure what happened, but I got carried away, and…” Her face lighting up, Martha buried her head into the sleeve of her elbow. “I said and did a whole bunch of really stupid things!”

I scratched the back of my neck. “Then, you didn’t mean what you said last night?”

“No, of course I meant it, but –” Martha broke off, brushing her tangled hair back over her head with her right hand. “Don’t you people even have a sense of embarrassment?”

“Probably, but what would I know? I’m technically an artificially created human, so some things are bound to be different for me,” I said with a shrug. “What I’m trying to say is, everything that I said yesterday was sincere. I care a whole lot about you, which is why I want to help you, and from what I can tell, you care about me as well. That’s the truth, so why do you have to make such a big fuss about it?”

At that, Martha covered her face with both hands, and made a sort of muffled, high-pitched noise. “You don’t just say things like that out loud!”

“You know, from my perspective it’s you people who act irrationally.” Finishing the tall glass of water, I returned it to the sink. “Anyway, do you really have the time to be moping around like this? We’ve got some important things to do today.”

“Important?” Lifting her head up, Martha’s look of embarrassment was replaced with one of surprise, as she readjusted the little glasses on her face. “It’s just a normal work day today, isn’t it?”

“I promised to help you, so that’s what we’re going to do.” Pulling my jacket off the rack near the apartment’s entrance, I thrust my arm through the sleeves. “We’re going to pay Marissa and Floyd a little visit.”

“What? You’re doing that now?” Stunned, Martha jolted up from where she was sprawled across the table.

“What good is procrastinating this going to do you? The longer you put this off, the more money they steal from you.” I zipped up the thin jacket, pausing to make sure the Manalite crystal was still secured around my neck, now bound with a differently-colored piece of string. “If I can do something about your situation, isn’t it better to do it sooner rather than later?”

“Well, yes, but…” Martha stammered, waving her hands around. “I’m not mentally prepared for this yet!”

“Why do you need to be ‘mentally prepared’ for something like this? After all, if everything goes according to plan you won’t have to follow Marissa’s orders like her personal slave anymore, right?”

“Well, it’s not that simple.” Rubbing her forehead, Martha pushed herself off the table into a standing position. “Look, even though you’ve somehow convinced me you can help me, what I said yesterday still stands. Even if Marissa and Floyd are horrible people, I still can’t allow you to just blast them with magic and call it a day. There are laws and other stuff that Marissa can fully exploit as well, so we have to make sure that we convince her to not do anything, without hurting anyone.”

“Relax. I said I had a plan, didn’t I?”

“The thing is, your plans aren’t always that well thought out,” Martha said, shooting me a suspicious glance. “The last plan you thought up included forcibly stopping your heart after plunging your hand inside of your chest.”

I sighed, turning the doorknob on the door and swinging it open. “Martha, I thought that plan up while I was dying of asphyxiation, so I wouldn’t say that I was exactly at peak performance. I’ve had the whole night to think this out, so this current plan is reasonably solid.”

“Even so, one night still isn’t a lot of time at all!” Hastily pulling on her coat, Martha followed me out the door in a hurry. “At the very least, do I get an explanation of what your plan is?”

“It’ll work better if I don’t tell you all the details.” I pressed the ‘down’ button on the elevator panel, watching the button flash red. “Your reactions will be more convincing if you’re genuinely surprised.”

“If that’s what you say, I’m not going to object.” Somewhat reluctantly, she turned her head up to face me. “But, can you promise me that you’ve actually thought this through? The last thing I want is for you to get hurt on my behalf.”

I found that my foot had started tapping, unbeknownst to me. “Ah, what have you done now? You know, I was actually confident in my plan, but now you’ve gone and made me all nervous.”

“What? Don’t say that! I was counting on you to go all like, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll protect you no matter what’, and reassure me that everything was going to be okay!” As Martha shook my arm, I got the feeling that her stress had only increased from my answer.

“Then why’d you ask the question in the first place? Don’t blame me, I can get nervous too!” I could feel a bead of sweat rolling down the side of my neck, and I awkwardly brushed it off with my sleeve. “It’s not like I can say anything for certain. But if everything goes as expected, I mean, we should be fine.”

Even as the elevator door let out its little artificial shrill and the metal doors slid open, the tension didn’t really decrease at all. If anything, the silence coupled with the claustrophobic little space only made matters worse. As Martha and I wandered down the neighborhood into the area near the Oasis, I kept on second-guessing myself. My plan was well thought out enough, but was I really in a place to do something so drastic?

Turning into the dimly-lit alley that harbored the Oasis’ front entrance, I felt a small draft blow through and chill the sweat on my skin, as the inside of my head began to throb with a dull ache. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m in no shape to confront anyone right now.

Nevertheless, for some strange reason, my body kept moving forward. Maybe it was because Martha hadn’t raised any other words of objection, or that I didn’t want to show her my weak side. In any case, it was only until we were standing outside the worn green doors of the restaurant that I heard Martha quietly mumble something.

As I turned back, I felt her grab onto my wrist, looking away. A second later, she repeated what she had just said. “Maybe… we shouldn’t do this after all.”

It was hard for me to give an adequate response, as I stared back at her anxious face. On the one hand, I wanted to assure her that we should continue and the plan was going to work fine, but on the other, I felt a mild sense of relief at her words. After all, I had only really been blindly walking forward while still doubting myself. The twin wooden doors of the Oasis seemed to tower over me, and it was hard to even face in their direction, since going through them would mean that I wouldn’t be able to go back. It wasn’t that I was scared of Marissa or Floyd, since I knew that they wouldn’t be able to harm me, even if they tried. What I was truly afraid of was the idea of me walking through those doors, messing up, and ruining Martha’s life instead.

“I can tell that you’re not really feeling up to it right now as well, since you’re acting different than normal. There’s no need to do it right at this moment, so take all the time you need.” Martha looked to the light at the end of the alley, where every so often a car would flash into sight and disappear just as quickly. “For now, let’s just go back, okay? We can come back when we’re more prepared.”

It was at that moment that it struck me. Martha was only suggesting we go back because she had sensed that I was too hesitant. Even though I had the power to go through with this, I still feared the prospect of failure. Of messing up and hurting the people that I cared about. Going back would just mean procrastinating this task, but I would still have to eventually come back. No, procrastination wouldn’t do the plan any good, it would only work to put off my fears for the time being. And, that was where the problem lay. I wasn’t being hesitant for Martha’s sake, but for my own.

But there was something else, I realized. Going back wouldn’t affect the plan, but every day that I was too afraid to make a move was another day that Martha had to live under Marissa’s suppression. How could I possibly go back, if it meant that I would be succumbing to my cowardice while I allowed Martha to continue suffering?

No matter when I do this, there will always be a chance of failure, of putting Martha’s life at risk. Putting this off until later isn’t going to change that fact, so the only thing holding us back right now is me. I can’t expect to convince Martha of anything if I’m not even convinced myself. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself, calming my nerves. “No, it’s okay. I’ve decided to do this.”

“But coming here, to this place,” Martha gestured around to the Oasis, “it’s just reminded me how real this is. That we’re actually going to do this. I’m not sure how to place it, but… what if something goes wrong?”

“Listen, um…” I straightened up, and gave a sigh. “In the past, I’ve already failed to protect a lot of things. People that I cared about. I ran away, because I knew I didn’t have the power to protect them.”

Slowly releasing my arm, Martha looked up at me without saying a word.

“The thing is, now that I do have the power and opportunity to protect what I care about, I can’t just run away,” I continued. “I know that confronting someone like Marissa might have seemed much too daunting for you in the past, but it’s not like you have to bear the burden all by yourself anymore. You can hide behind me, use me as a shield, whatever. Just, know that at the very least, I’ll be here with you.”

The sound of my voice echoed around the tight alleyway, before fading away. Martha was quiet for a little while, but then she gave a slow nod. “Thanks, for what you said. I feel better now.”

Returning the nod, I turned back towards the doors of the Oasis, reinvigorated with a fresh sense of direction. But as I moved to advance forward, I felt Martha’s fingers grip firmly around my hand once again. As I looked behind me in surprise, I saw her looking downwards.

“Just now, you mentioned something about hiding behind you.” Tightening her hand around mine, Martha huddled up near my back. “Can I… take you up on that?”

“By all means,” I smiled, feeling the final shreds of my tension dissolve into the air.

###

“Over there.”

I looked down the hall which Martha’s finger was pointing at. This hallway branched off from the main kitchen with small doors lining each side, and looked far less inviting than the rest of the kitchen. As I started across the gloomy corridor, I peered through a glass window embedded in one of the doors to my left. From what I could make out in the darkness, a few shelves lined the inside of the dark room, stocked with cans and cardboard boxes.

“Are you sure this is the place?” I tapped on a glass pane with my knuckles. “This whole hallway seems pretty neglected to me.”

“We usually use this place to store our preserved food and extra supplies. The shed out back, or, what used to be the shed,” Martha said, evoking my memory of the tiny dilapidated shack that had been blown to pieces by our lighting rod experiment, “was deemed a little too exposed to the elements be of any real use, so our excess stuff has basically all been relegated here.”

“Doesn’t look like anyone would really choose to hang out here, though.”

“Marissa isn’t exactly a team player, and she prefers not be in large groups,” Martha said, still hanging around a small distance behind me. “Given that, Floyd will just follow her wherever. Most of the time when they’re off duty, they stay in that second room from the back.”

As we neared the end of the hall, sure enough, the little window pane in the second to last door was emitting a dim beam of artificial light.

“Even though they may seem dubious to most people, Marissa and Floyd don’t actively disobey the rules, so people kind of just let them be. Which can come in handy, since this room is where I give –” Martha stopped, before correcting herself. “Where I used to give Marissa the payment that she demanded each month.”

We arrived in front of the door with the lit window. Reaching down, I gave the metal doorknob a little test, and unsurprisingly found that it was locked. Then, after taking a preparatory breath, I knocked on the wooden door two times.

There was a little click from inside, and as the door opened, I was met with an imposing figure. On account of the brightly lit room behind him, the man’s dark features were a little hard to make out against the light, but it was enough for me to discern the haughty sneer on his face.

“Are you Floyd?” I already knew the answer to that question, but people always seemed to ask anyway, so I decided I might as well. As I said that, Floyd’s eyes widened in recognition.

“You…” His sneer broke into a scowl. “You’re that shrimpy guy from the arm-wrestling tournament. What do you want?”

“I’d like to talk with Marissa. Is she there?”

“Whatever you wanna say, tell me here. I’ll pass the message.”

I narrowed my eyes. “No, I insist. It’s important.”

Feeling a subtle spike in Floyd’s hostility, I prepared to stand my ground as he moved to step forward, when a voice rang out from the back.

“Stop it, Floyd. Let him in.”

Floyd froze, and after a second, begrudgingly backed off to reveal the woman sitting down behind him. I had only seen her in person once before, but that was only from a distance. Now I was looking at her more clearly, some of her features surprised me a little. Dark, curly hair rolled around her shoulders, and her relatively good-looking face was angular but not particularly sharp. Though she was sitting down, I could tell that even if she stood up, she would still be a relatively small figure. Elegant and principled was the impression that she gave.

It wasn’t the look of someone who would blackmail an innocent girl.

The only thing that might have given Marissa away, the only little chink in her near seamless façade, were her eyes. Though her overall appearance suggested a virtuous young woman, the look in her eyes was shockingly commanding, dangerous even. But it wouldn’t have been very noticeable if you weren’t specifically looking for it. Definitely not something you would notice from an outsider’s perspective.

“I heard my name mentioned at the door. Is there something you need from me?” I was greeted with a warm smile, and I had to remind myself that this woman was the enemy. She really was a textbook villain, defined in her ability to mask her true intentions behind a carefully-constructed mask, much more clean-cut than Floyd’s sloppy style. From the point of view of the other staff, it must have seemed like Marissa was such a good girl, trying to reform the delinquent Floyd. Little did they know; Floyd was merely a pawn to be used by her.

“Uh, yeah.” Moving past Floyd’s hulking body, I stepped in front of the dark-haired woman. “I need to make a request of you.”

“Oh.” Until then, Marissa hadn’t really focused onto me, but her eyes widened in the slightest as I came into view. Then, it might have been my imagination, but I seemed to see her eyes flicker to the corner of the room, then to Floyd. Casually following her line of sight, I noticed a strange contraption affixed to the ceiling, with a little red light blinking next to what looked to be some sort of lens.

“Don’t worry, that camera doesn’t record audio,” Marissa said, her gaze returning to me. “But I’ll go ahead and assume that you want to discuss this request somewhere a little more private.”

I nodded, but didn’t meet her eye. “Yeah. I’d appreciate it.”

###

We ended up in an enclosed corridor outside, the same area where I had attempted to divine Martha’s magical affinities. This place was surrounded by a tall fence on one side, and the concrete of the Oasis’ building on the other. Other than a few sticks and rubber tires lying around, I couldn’t see anything in the alley, all the way up to its dead end in the back. None of those blinking cameras were present like in the previous room, with the only illumination being the rising sun in the sky, but even that was partially obscured by a layer of grey clouds.

Now that we were finally in place, Marissa crossed her arms, and looked up at me. “So. What are you here to ask me?”

“I can tell that you’re not really one for small talk, so I’ll just cut to the chase.” With a sudden change in attitude, I slammed my foot forward and towered over Marissa, glaring daggers down at her. “I want you to take your muscle-headed excuse of a boyfriend and get the hell out of Martha’s life.”

Marissa seemed a little taken aback by this abrupt change in my tone, and she stepped back a little. As my words finally registered in Floyd’s mind, I saw him practically begin to swell up in rage. “What did you just say? Just who the hell do you think you –”

However, Floyd’s outburst was cut short by an almost singsong giggle, and his booming voice trailed off. Both Floyd and I stopped in our tracks, as Marissa’s giggle morphed into a full-on bout of laughter. Her laughter faded after a while, but her thin smile remained. “So, you finally cracked, hm?”

Turning back quickly, I was met with Martha’s tense face peering into the little corridor, her hands tightly gripped around the building’s corner. I had barely even noticed that Martha had disappeared, since I was so focused on Marissa at the time. Martha had probably pulled back initially to stay out of Marissa’s sight, but it made sense that she was still watching from a distance.

“I’ll admit, I was a little surprised when your new blue-haired friend came knocking at my door. After all, Martha, you understand best what the repercussions of spreading our little secret are,” Marissa continued with a knowing smirk. “But, I suppose, everyone does have a breaking point. Even someone as docile and unthinking as you.”

Wordlessly, Martha stepped out from behind the corner, and grabbed onto the sleeve of my jacket. As her fist tightened around the fabric, I softened my expression. “Don’t worry. Hide behind me all you want.”

“My, what a strong bond the two of you share! It’s a shame that his kindness is wasted on trying to protect you. If you truly cared about this man, you would have kept your mouth shut like a good girl. Don’t tell me that you’ve forgotten your comfortable life right now hangs in the balance of my control. With the press of a button, every last fragment of your former life that you’ve tried so hard to conceal will be unearthed. Martha Flores, the dreaded local criminal,” Marissa smiled mockingly. “And now, he’s going to suffer the same fate as you, just because you were selfish enough to take advantage of his graciousness.”

“You’re in no position to say anything like that,” I spat. “You two pricks are the only people taking advantage of anything here!”

“But that’s just too bad,” she continued, completely ignoring my words. “Though I’ve enjoyed your cooperation these past few years, Martha, all choices have a consequence. It seems I’ll finally have to sever our bond, and allow the two of you to endure your punishment together.”

“That’s not…” Martha’s voice faintly emitted from behind me, but the rest of her words were inaudible.

“What was that?” Marissa frowned. “If you’re going to speak that quietly, don’t bother speaking at all.”

“I said, that’s not going to happen!” With a sudden spike of confidence, Martha stepped out from behind me, years of pent-up emotions just beginning to leak out. “I don’t know how he’s going to do it, but Don promised me that he would help me out of this situation! And I trust that he will!”

“There you have it.” As Martha’s hand finally released my wrist, I was free to walk right up to where Marissa was standing, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Now, this is your last warning. Leave now, and I won’t be forced to take any drastic measures.”

At this, Marissa’s well-built up façade of sophistication began to show the first signs of breaking, as I saw her clench her fist to the side. This was to be expected, of course. After many years of talking down to Martha without any opposition, naturally it would be frustrating for the victim to finally fight back.

“You think your pathetic boyfriend’s pathetic promises actually mean anything? Your trust just means you’ll fall together, so don’t act like you’re in control here,” Marissa growled, swatting my hand off her shoulder. “Floyd!”

Just a second later, I felt something rise up behind me. Ducking, I watched Floyd’s dark arm sail right over my head, before he stumbled off balance. Backing up to a safe distance, I watched Floyd regain his footing. He may have the brute strength, but he clearly doesn’t have much real fighting skill.

“Don’t you touch Marissa with your scrawny little hands,” Floyd spat, before sticking his hand into the depths of his sleeveless jacket. When he pulled his fist back out, his hand was wrapped around the handle of a simple blade, dully reflecting the sun’s light. “I still haven’t paid you back for what you did to me back at the tournament.”

“Don!” Suddenly, Martha’s face was filled with dismay. “He’s holding a real knife!”

“Duly noted.”

“No, you don’t understand! I didn’t expect them to actually try to hurt you! This was supposed to be a plan with no violence!” She was tugging back at my sleeve again. “If things continue like this, someone’s bound to get hurt! Maybe… we should just back down for now.”

“And then what? Do you really expect these two to let you continue living like you did before? There’s no backing out now.” I glared down at Floyd, who had extended his blunt blade towards me. “Even after everything you just said, you still think that I can’t do this? Have a little more faith in me.”

Martha looked like she wanted to continue resisting, but seemed to swallow her words, silently backing down. Turning my eyes back to Floyd, I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes. My senses heightened, I felt Floyd’s massive form suddenly jerk forward, and I opened my eyes once again. Now that I was in a battling stance, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Floyd was on the attack, and behind me Martha had her mouth covered with a hand, her other hand bunched up into a nervous fist. I had already expected that Floyd would try something physical, so during the walk from inside the Oasis, I had set up every effective form of work energy in preparation for something like this, while my breathing and heart rate were still calm.

Aimed towards my chest, Floyd’s burly arm swung out in an arc. I easily sidestepped, watching his body slowly stumble out of balance for the second time. Since I was moving much faster than normal due to Raptor’s Wind, Floyd’s movements looked like he was sliding through a layer of jelly. Before Floyd even managed to stand upright, I had already delivered a swift kick to the back of his right leg, which forced him down to his knees. A vein throbbed in Floyd’s temple, like he couldn’t possibly fathom how he wasn’t winning this fight. With a drawn-out yell, he whipped his torso around, attempting to jab the knife into my gut. Of course, in my perspective, he was moving so slowly that I didn’t even have to break a sweat in order to dodge his attacks. After going head-to-head with the athletic prowess of an earth golem, this is almost laughable.

As the fight dragged on, Floyd seemed to get more desperate and his attacks grew frantic in a fit of blind rage, which made them even easier to dodge than before. I had to admit I was having a little bit of fun dodging his attacks, so I let the fight go on a little longer than I actually needed. Behind him, Marissa’s eyes were clouded with the first inklings of confusion, which morphed into a look of desperation similar to Floyd’s as I effortlessly dodged his attacks for longer and longer.

“Just…” Marissa’s eyes darted left and right, trying to get a grasp on the ongoing battle, but I knew that I was no more than a smudged blur to her. “Just hit him, Floyd! How hard can that be?”

“I don’t know!” Floyd’s voice had shifted up an octave in his panic. “He’s just too –” His voice suddenly broke off, and he took a quick intake of breath as I darted forward and appeared a mere hair’s breadth from his sweaty chest. Then, in a single abrupt movement, I drove my foot upwards into his crotch area.

As Floyd collapsed into a howling mess, I wiped my palms on my pants, before looking over to Martha. “I’d say that’s an acceptable amount of violence, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Martha replied with a sigh, shaking her head.

“Now…” Stretching my left arm, I made my way towards where Marissa was standing. Watching me approach, she began backing away slowly, before she realized that she was already backed up against the wall of the Oasis.

As I stared into Marissa’s glaring eyes, I could feel that her sense of reason was beginning to leave her. I knew that she understood her plans were being hopelessly disrupted, and that the scales were now tipped against her. But this was a person who thrived by being in control, without ever knowing what it felt like to be the person on the bottom. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to accept defeat so easily, so all she could do at the moment was glower at me in silence. It would take something incredibly significant to make someone like her even start to consider the idea of a peaceful resignation.

I smiled to myself. Fortunately, I have just the thing in mind.

Opening my mouth, I prepared to execute the first stage of my brilliant plan, when I saw Martha’s face in my peripheral vision slowly contracting in terror. Turning my head to look behind me, I was mildly surprised to see that Floyd had already struggled back up, and his knife was once again sluggishly gliding towards my head. I exhaled, the speed-increasing power of Raptor’s Wind still in effect. Well, whatever. If anything, this will add to the effectiveness of my plan.

Raising my right arm, I caught the gleaming metal blade right in between my bare fist, locking it in place. Floyd lurched forward, before staring at me with a look of utter bewilderment. Changing his grip on the handle of the knife, he attempted to tug at it from a different direction, to no avail. No matter how hard he tried to push or pull, my fist wouldn’t budge in the slightest. Surprised, aren’t you? Static Fortress’ work energy makes my skin harder than any low-caliber pocket knife.

Before Floyd could fully get a grip on the situation, I made my next move, tightening my grip around the knife. “Decay!”

Instantly, plumes of purple-black smoke curled outwards from where my fingers made contact, spreading and corrupting the dull metal. With a shriek, Floyd tore his hand away from the handle before the darkness spread up his arm. Closing my fist around the corroded blade, I crushed what was left of the knife into a thin black powder, before scattering it to the wind.

“Wha –” Martha’s eyes widened, staring at me in shock. “You… you’re going to expose them to your magic? Is this still part of your plan?”

“Magic?” Marissa breathed, her pupils dilating slightly.

“That’s right, magic! This isn’t a trick.” Slamming my palm onto the surface of the concrete wall, Floyd and Marissa watched in horror as the section of the wall touching my hand blackened and crumbled into ashes. “If I wanted to, I could end your lives right here on the spot.”

This seemed to cause Floyd to snap. It may have been because he had attempted to take me on, and had already realized that there was no possible situation that would end in his victory. In any case, he lurched over to where Marissa was crouched, tugging on her arm. “Get up! I don’t want to be killed!”

But Marissa refused to move. All she did was continue silently staring at the blackened hole in the wall, completely ignoring Floyd’s manic pleas beside her.

No, actually, that may not be the case. I closed my fist, allowing the curling black smoke to dissipate. She may just be in shock right now. For someone who lived in a delusional power fantasy for so long, this may be too much for her to handle at once.

“Alright, listen up. Where I’m from, there’s a pretty ironclad rule.” I spread my arms out to my sides, and the surface of my palms began to bubble like soup reaching a boil. “Whatever you do, don’t piss off a magic caster. Especially not a strong one like me.”

Multiple bursts of magenta smoke flared out from each of my boiling palms, swirling and coalescing together as they began to take recognizable forms. At the same time, similar pillars of smoke began to escape from both Floyd and Marissa’s chests, floating over and joining the smoke on my palms. Frantically, Marissa attempted to grab hold of the smoke coming out of her body, but the smoke just slipped through her fingers. As the final shape of the smoke became clearer, Floyd let go of Marissa’s wrist in shock, but looked so paralyzed in fear that he couldn’t move a muscle.

The shape of two throbbing hearts had appeared above each of my hands, pulsing and glowing with an eerie energy. With every pump of the hearts, a hot stream of blood would come oozing out of the veins, rolling down my hands and dripping onto the floor.

“As you can probably guess, these are your hearts that I have in my control. If they stop beating…” I gave one of the hearts a squeeze, to which more blood came gushing out. “Well, you know.”

Both Floyd and Marissa clutched at their chests, gasping for air. I knew that the spell wasn’t actually causing any actual pain to them, but their minds were most likely psychologically creating pain within them. Without missing a beat, I continued to the next stage of my plan.

I tossed the two hearts upwards, where they were suspended in the air. Then, with a snap of my fingers, two red-hot chains appeared from behind me, floating up to the still-beating hearts.

“No, wait –” Marissa managed to choke out, but the chains were already wrapped tightly around the two hearts. With a sizzling sound, acrid smoke began to rise from where the chains were touching the hearts, burning into the tender flesh. When the blood gushing out of the hearts ran over the chains, it was evaporated instantly. Covering her mouth at the sight of this, tears began to roll down Marissa’s face.

Despite her best efforts to keep up her controlling façade, even her amount of pride couldn’t deny what she was seeing with her own two eyes. In that aspect, the plan was technically already complete. All I needed to do now was to finish things off.

“This is what we call a Seal of Demise,” I explained calmly. Floyd had already lost the energy to stand up, and was sitting next to Marissa with dead eyes. There was nothing he could do but continue watching in terror. The red-hot chains suddenly turned a dull black, and began to fade away from around the two beating hearts. “It’s a powerful magic spell that places a curse onto a person. If certain conditions are met, the chains will appear and crush that person’s heart, killing them instantly.”

“Please…” Marissa was on her knees, her voice nothing but a whisper anymore. I couldn’t see her eyes, but the ground underneath her was being dotted by small wet circles. “I’m sorry for trying to hurt you! Just, don’t…”

“Relax. I’m not going to kill you, or even hurt you.” I slowly walked up to where the two of them were sitting. “No, whether you live or die is up to you to decide.”

“W-What… do you want from me?”

“I believe I already told you. Leave this place and never come back.” Crossing my arms, I made sure to look into both of their eyes. “The conditions I put on the curse are simple. If you try to mention anything that happened here today to anyone other than yourselves, you will die. Likewise, if you bring up the fact that you have seen real-life magic, you will die. And if you ever try to interfere with Martha’s life again by releasing those fraudulent documents…”

Marissa nodded vigorously, not looking me in the eye. It just looked to me like she wanted to get out of this situation as soon as possible, but that was fine by me. It wasn’t like I wanted to blackmail them or anything like that.

Giving one final pump, the hearts that were suspended in the air faded away. “If you understand, get the hell out of here. I’m not going to give you two the luxury of a proper send-off.”

Even as she stood up Marissa still looked dazed, her eyes staring off further behind me. She had to place a hand on the wall to remain standing, as if her legs were too weak to fully support her. Then, without another word, she took off in the direction opposite us, never looking back. Behind her Floyd shuffled to his feet with a similar expression, but when our eyes met, he was shocked into clarity by his fear. Letting out a terrified noise, he pushed himself off the alley walls, before finally darted away to catch up to Marissa’s head start. And then, there was silence.

Then, for the first time since putting my plan into motion, I looked over to Martha, but I couldn’t read her expression. Was it gratitude that I saw in her eyes? Anger? Fear? In any case, I spoke before she could open her mouth.

“You know, that was all just an act. Even in the higher Tiers, no magic spell is capable of something like that.” Folding my arms, I looked off to the corner where Floyd had disappeared. “And, I mean, ‘Seal of Demise’? Only I could come up with such a stupid sounding name.”

I noticed Martha look up in surprise, so I continued with my explanation. “When we were walking here, I cast a spell called Illusory Mist. It allows you to create weak visual and auditory illusions, though any person with access to Tier 2 magic or above will be able to see right through it. All I did was activate that spell while talking confidently, and it was enough to convince them.” Holding up one hand, I willed the ghostly hearts to appear once again in demonstration, before making them fade away.

“Oh… that makes sense.” Nodding slowly, Martha’s expression lightened a bit compared to before. Nevertheless, she still wouldn’t fully raise her head to look me in the eye.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Reaching down, I brushed off a stray piece of rubble that must have gotten into Martha’s hair. “For someone who just earned their freedom, you don’t seem particularly happy.”

Hearing that, Martha’s eyes widened apologetically, and she frantically waved her hands in front of her. “Oh, no, don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad at you or anything. Actually, I’m really, really grateful for this. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay the debt I owe you. You actually went through with your whole plan without ever doing any substantial damage to them, which is really almost a miracle. And…” Martha paused, before giving a little nod. “I understood best of all how horrible Marissa and Floyd could be.”

“But…?”

“But, even so, don’t you think… you may have gone a little too far?” Martha cast her eyes down to the ground. “I’m glad that there was no real curse, but the two of them really believed it. When I watched the two of them, I saw real fear in their eyes. They really thought that their lives were about to end, right then and right there. Even through everything they put me through, seeing them like that… it made me feel sorry for them.”

“Well, even if they are nasty, I don’t like making women cry either. Or men like Floyd, for that matter,” I said, glancing over at the few remaining damp circles that were slowly fading from the ground. “Maybe it was the way I was raised. But those threats had to sound deliberate, or else they wouldn’t have believed it. That’s part of the reason why I didn’t want to fill you in on the plan, since your genuine reactions made it all the more authentic to them.”

After a moment, Martha nodded again. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, I was just being selfish.”

“No, it’s not a selfish question, it just shows that you’re too nice for your own good,” I said, smiling at her. “I did all this so that you’d be free from Marissa’s tyranny. I already told you that I don’t relish in this kind of thing, but if it’s for the sake of seeing you smile, I’d make someone like her cry a hundred times over.”

“Huh?” Slightly taken aback, Martha stared at me with her cheeks tinged red. As the silence grew, the embarrassment began to set in for me.

“Wait, no. No, no. That came out sounding way more hopeless-romantic-esque than it was supposed to.” With my face and the back of my neck starting to heat up, I quickly looked away from Martha. “You know what, how about you just forget I said that before I lose what dignity I have left.”

“Stupid. You know, sometimes girls like to hear that sort of thing,” Martha smiled, patting me on the shoulder. “In any case, your apology is accepted.”

But, then, she seemed to recall something. Freezing, Martha turned back to me, her eyebrows rising upwards. “Oh. Well, although…”

“Although what?” Crossing my arms, I exhaled out from my nose. “And, why do you look so smug? Weren’t you the one apologizing a second ago?”

“Hmm, yes, I see,” she hummed, a playful grin on her face. “So that’s how you really feel about me.”

“Shut it,” I glowered. “Want me to recall some of those things that you said about me last night? If you keep testing me, I’ll do it.”

“Try me,” Martha giggled, before slowly settling back down. Then, she stared back up at me with expectant eyes. “But, Don… is it all over? Did we really do it?”

“What, are you saying you don’t believe in my plan?”

“I mean, are you sure a vague threat like that will hold?” She tapped her chin. “If Marissa somehow finds out it was all phony, what then?”

“Don’t sweat it.” I stuck my hands into my pockets. “If I’ve learned anything from my past experiences back in my world, it’s that the higher people build up their façades, the bigger the mess is when it all comes crumbling down. Since people like them have basically known no harm in their lives, it’s all the more effective when you really do manage to get to them. I don’t think Marissa’s ever going to bother you again.”

“Then, we really did it?”

I frowned. “Yes, you already said that.”

“We really really did it?”

Before I could even finish coming up with another snappy comeback, Martha had already wrapped her arms tightly around my body, her face buried into my jacket. Slightly shocked, I gazed down at her in surprise. “Well, that was abrupt. What brought this on, all of a sudden?”

“Well, I just realized that I never thanked you properly,” she mumbled, her voice muffled as she hugged me a little tighter. “For last night, driving off Marissa, everything.”

“O-Oh, right. Yeah, thanks.” Still feeling a little weird, I allowed my hands to rest around Martha’s back. She kept clinging onto me for quite a while, which only made me feel more awkward.

“Hey, do hugs usually go on for this long?” I asked, averting my eyes off into the distance, not able to look directly at her.

Martha shook her head, with her face still pressed against my chest, but she didn’t let go. After a few seconds, her whole body began to shake, and I heard the sound of light sobs emanating from within my jacket.

“What, are you crying again? I thought we already did this yesterday,” I mumbled, raising a hand to comfort her. “I already told you that I don’t like to make women cry, remember?”

“No, it’s just that…” She shook her head again, squeezing me within her arms. Her muffled voice grew weaker between sobs. “Thank you. Thank you so much…”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. There’s no need to say all that,” I said hurriedly, not sure how to deal with the current situation. “Everything I did, I did because I wanted to. They were all my own choices, so you don’t have to…”

With a final nod, Martha released me from her grasp. With a laugh between sobs, she used her sleeves to wipe the remaining tears from the corners of her eyes.

“We really did it,” she said, in almost total disbelief.

“Yeah, we sure did,” I said with a smirk. “That’s the reward you get for trusting in me.”

“But, Don. Can you promise me something?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Hit me. What is it?”

“Next time, no more creepy ghost-heart interrogations, okay?” Martha said with a weak chuckle. “Please, I might have nightmares.”

“That’s what you wanted to ask?” I laughed, rubbing at my forehead. “Well, sure, no problem. It’s a promise.”

Going into this whole thing, I knew full well that helping her like this wouldn’t benefit my plans to get back to my world at all. On the contrary, this actually took away time I could have spent searching for a more effecting way out of here. And yet, for some reason, I still wholeheartedly experienced a feeling of fulfillment and gratification. It was strange and something that I didn’t really understand, but when I looked at Martha’s joyful face, none of that mattered to me.

Yeah. That’s the smile that I wanted to see.