When It Breaks

| FIVE |

After a long while, the man finally returns with some logs of wood in his hands. After he starts the fire, we huddle around it.

"Who are you?" I ask, staring at him. "Why did you help us?"

"Name's Ray. We traced my partner to your apartment and found him in a… different situation," he told us, poking the fire with a stick.

"Who is we?"

"The witch hunters. We have been watching after you for a few months now.

"We were instructed not to approach unless it's a situation of emergency.

"Luke must have seen or felt something wrong for him to show himself to you, but we have no idea what it was," Ray explained.

"Wait, why have you been watching me?" I asked, totally confused.

"We were called by a woman, Penelope. She gave us reason to believe that a witch is operating around you, and truly there is.

"We found witch markings around your apartment, so Luke was assigned to follow you.

"The club was the last time Luke was sensed on our radar, and the next time we saw him, he was dead in your apartment.

"And you were nowhere to be found. The council assigned me to find you and learn how Luke died."

I watch him warily, unable to believe what he just said.

Ray notices my wary look and sighs. "If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead."

Chuckling humourlessly, I respond, "If I wanted to kill you too, you'd be dead. Don't underestimate me!"

"She is telling the truth," Lucy adds, causing Ray to glance at her with raised brows.

He turns back to me. "I know, I've seen your work. Acupuncture is an act that the people of this world have long forgotten about.

"I have to admit that you are good with targets. The man in the convenience store never stood a chance against those poisonous pins."

Without bringing my gaze away from his face, my hand creeps to my bag immediately and grabs my box.

"Don't think about it," he orders without even looking at me. "I am on your side here. I mean, I wouldn't go through all the trouble of saving your spoilt ass only to end up killing you."

"I am not spoilt!" I growl, glaring heavily at Ray.

The annoying man only chuckles. "Could have fooled me. You should really learn to clean up after yourself.

"You know, I had to clean up your mess. Also, you don't have to worry about the police any longer. The council handled it."

My jaws clenched against each other. "Do you expect a thank you from me?"

He lays back on the ground, with his arms supporting his head. "Nope, spoilt kids have no sense of gratitude."

I growl again, and Lucy chuckles.

"You two are so cute. You argue like a married couple," Lucy states, and I turned my glare to her. She raises her hands in defeat.

"Do you know who is after me and why they did this to me?" I ask after some time, referring to the tattoos.

Ray rolled onto his belly. "I will answer the rest of your questions tomorrow. Now go to sleep."

I look at the back of his neck. "You do realize that I can kill you with your back turned to me like that."

"My senses are five times sharper than a wolf's. I can sense everything you do, so you will just be wasting your time and pins," he mumbles while making himself comfortable.

To test my luck, I picked a non-poisonous pin and threw it to the back of his neck.

With unimaginable speed, he whirls around and catches the pin before it touches his neck. My eyes widened in shock as he hands the pin back to me.

(•)

"Rise and shine, Princess," Someone announced in my ear and my hand went up to whack the source of the disturbance.

However, my mission was intercepted by a hand catching my wrist before it could get to it's target.

"You have to be faster than that to hit me," the person said smugly.

It could only be one person who was capable of annoying me so much. My eyes opened and the first thing I saw is his grinning face. Not wanting to ruin my day, I ignored him and got up.

"Good morning, Lucy," I greeted, after seeing her wake up.

"Morning, Feli, are we about to leave?"

I stared at Ray expectantly, wanting to know what his plan was. His amused hazel eyes squinted making me wonder what he was thinking about.

"Aren't you such a ray of sunshine this morning?" He cooed with a mocking look.

On a second thought, I didn't need to know what he was thinking.

"What do we do next?" Lucy asked, coming to stand beside me. We both stared at Ray who relished in the attention.

How the hell did he become a witch hunter?

After some time of making us wait, he decided to reply with a question. "Where were you two headed?"

"To the Mage town. I want to find my sister and Felicity wants to find a Helen," Lucy told him.

"I suppose you are looking for a mage to get some answers?" He asked me and I nodded.

"Then we better get on over there, I need some answers too. I don't suppose you have a way to get there?"

Lucy shook her head and he sighed.

"Good thing I know a person. Come on, you can tell me everything that happened that night on the way," he said, walking away without looking back.

Lucy and I shared a look of disbelief before shaking our heads and following him.

"Isn't he charming?" Lucy chuckled.

"Not even in the slightest bit," I responded with a straight face.

"You have a story to tell, Princess," Ray announced and I groaned, moving to walk next to him.

(•)

When I was done telling him everything, he was silent. Even Lucy didn't react. Then I remembered that this was the first time she was hearing what really happened to me.

"I didn't know it would take hearing my story for you to finally shut up."

He halted near a creek. "Can I see the tattoos?"

"Um, okay," I replied, beginning to pull off my sweatshirt, leaving me in my tank top.

He stared at the marks for a while then hummed. His intense staring almost urges me to cover myself up but there is nothing perverse about it. It was just intense.

"You say, this stretches throughout your body and you don't remember the promise you made to have this much tattoos," he quizzed, still staring and I nod in reply.

"Why is your left arm and neck empty then?" Lucy inquired as we began to walk again.

I fell silent, unsure about how to explain that part without sounding crazy.

"Remember those two people I killed-"

Lucy nodded, a skeptical look appearing on her face.

"-well, whenever I kill someone, a tattoo disappears," I said finally, looking away, not wanting to see their reactions.

"Well things just got a lot more complicated. Now more than ever, we have to find that mage," Ray announced and I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that they didn't look at me weirdly after what they just learned about.