Scarlet Vision | Twisted Wonderland

and up until now I had sworn to myself (that I'm content with loneliness)

Grim muttered to himself, crossing his arms in frustration. "Next time I see him, I'm gonna set him on fire." And by him, the feline meant Chenya.

"I hope you don't," [Name] replied, shaking their head. "I really can't afford to pay for hospital bills." They didn't want to deal with that, especially if the head mage found out. "Besides, we have our next step in our plan."

"Well, it's not like we can do much with these collars on," Deuce chimed in, grabbing his collar and shaking it with an annoyed look on his face. "So, let's go see what Trey has to say."

"And then what?" Ace asked, crossing his arms. He looked at [Name] with skepticism. "How is that going to help us get rid of these collars? I hope you're not about to say we need to 'apologize to Riddle.' If that's the case, you can forget it!"

[Name] laughed and shook their head. "Oh, no way are we doing that." They smiled, a hint of coldness in their expression. "I was thinking we could ambush Trey and see what information we can get out of him to use against Riddle."

Ace made a playful sound and wiggled his finger at them. "Oooohhh, you're devious!"

Grim smirked, clearly pleased with the plan. "Meow, I like it! Let's catch him off guard!"

"Wait, but how are we going to do it?" Deuce asked, looking puzzled. "I don't think any of us know Trey's schedule for the next few days."

[Name] smirked and tapped their temple with a finger. "If I remember right, he mentioned having to return a book he checked out from the school library. Since he's a good student, he'll have to return it eventually, right?"

Ace and Deuce exchanged glances, grinning as they nodded in agreement with [Name]. Grim puffed out his chest proudly, impressed with his best friend's clever plan.

This led to the group settling at one of the many tables in the library for over two days. They each wore trench coats, hats, and dark sunglasses, looking like wannabe FBI agents on a secret mission. Stacks of books surrounded them, creating a barrier that was supposed to help them stay hidden.

However, the plan backfired. Instead of going unnoticed, they attracted a lot of attention. Students nearby were watching the group with a mix of suspicion, indifference, and annoyance, but no one dared to approach them. It seemed that nobody wanted to deal with the potential chaos the first years were up to.

"Any sign of four-eyes?" Ace whispered sharply, adjusting his dark-tinted glasses so his scarlet eye could scan the area for their target. In their little spy game, everyone had codenames, and Trey was stuck with "four-eyes."

"No, Red," Deuce answered, his own code name being "Blue." [Name] had assigned them all codenames while they were squabbling about what to call each other. Grim wanted food names, Ace suggested curse words, and Deuce just stammered, clearly unsure of what names would work. In the end, [Name] pointed at each of them and declared their codenames without leaving any room for arguments. Ace thought they were quite unoriginal.

Ace was "Red."

Deuce was "Blue."

Grim was "Grey."

And [Name] went by their own color.

"Can we stop whispering?" [Name] mumbled, pretending to read a magazine. They knew it was part of the plan, but the atmosphere felt a bit ridiculous.

"Negative, [Color]," Grim replied, his eyes narrowed in determination. He was about to point out that the magazine in [Name]'s hands was upside down, but he decided against it, not wanting to break the seriousness of their mission.

Deuce shook his head. "We need to stay alert. Four-eyes could show up at any moment!"

"Yeah, and we don't want to blow our cover," Ace added, his voice barely above a whisper, but the tension in his tone was clear. "We need to be ready."