CATHARSIS, jason grace¹ [EDITING]

𝟬𝟬𝟵. don't start swooning or anything

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Jason asked, coming up to Aera at the Victorian-style vanity. Its ivory wood gleamed with polish. Spread out on the vintage counter was an array of bottles of all shapes and sizes—a bunch of enigmatic instruments Jason wouldn't even know where to start exploring if someone asked him to.

Aera was seated on her velvet stool, busy patting some kind of formula on her cheeks. "Skincare, obvi."

"I thought you got a facial today."

"That isn't enough, Jason," Aera chided in a very stern and serious voice Jason didn't think suited the subject she was talking about. "Your skin requires constant nourishment. Otherwise, when you get old, it's just going to sag everywhere and you'll have more wrinkles than Styx."

"Well, it's getting late," Jason reminded her before she could go on another fifteen-minute tangent about the divine significance of skincare. As much as he enjoyed hearing her voice, Jason had already heard her spiel twice since they arrived at the five-star spa resort. "You should go to bed. We gotta head out first thing in the morning tomorrow."

"But do we really?" Aera asked, looking up at him with big round eyes.

"Aera," Jason said patiently, "we talked about this."

"Oh, come on!" she whined. "We've been staying at this resort for three days now and there hasn't been a single monster attack. Can't we just stay a little longer? That snowstorm doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon anyway."

Outside their hotel room, the snowstorm raged on relentlessly as it had been for the past three nights since Aera brought Jason here to "take a break from his big boy duties". Flurries of ice and sleet pounded against the glass windows of their VIP suite as if trying to break in. The fancy chandelier above their heads started to rock back and forth. Jason yanked the gold and white drapes closed around the windows.

"The forecast says it should clear up by tomorrow morning," he told her.

"The mortal forecast, you mean?" Aera pointed out, unbudgingly seated at her vanity. "One more day isn't going to change anything. We're miles away from where we got ambushed last time."

"Aera—"

"Ple-e-e-ase?" Aera implored, taking his hand. "We can get massages tomorrow! You said your back was stiff from sleeping in that cave."

Jason's back was still feeling pretty sore but he didn't want to risk spending another day at this resort. They were too exposed here. With all the eucalyptus aromatics in the air and the zen nature music playing from every speaker, the ambiance was far too calm for Jason's liking. They were constantly set up to let their guard down. And with the outside weather acting up, it felt like they were being trapped inside.

Aera tugged at Jason's hand. Her touch caused him to look back at her, which turned out to be the ultimate glutton for punishment. Aera launched her first attack on him with the puppy eyes and before Jason could properly construct another case to convince her, Aera struck her coup de grâce: "You know, staying here for one more day would make me really, really happy."

Jason rubbed the back of his neck. Did she really, really have to do this to him?

He sighed.

"One more day," Jason decided, and quickly added: "But you have to be ready to go when I say."

Still sitting down, Aera squealed in delight and threw her arms around his waist, which Jason inwardly thought wasn't the worst punishment there was for caving in.

"I thought I told you to stop using your powers on me," Jason muttered, feeling his face burn.

He could practically hear Aera's grin against his shirt. "I'm not doing anything."