Ever After

A Bad Time

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This chapter is in Jack's perspective.

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It only took me a matter of seconds to establish what was going on. There was no use in turning to identify the person jabbing the tip of a knife into my back – obviously, it was Felix and his followers, the sheep who stepped on his heels as he wandered about, giving everyone the same, annoying stare that he was giving to Mark and I as he did this.

And I didn't need to wonder why it was happening, either. In less than a second, the memories came flooding back, reminding me of the time we'd punched Killian in the nose, the time we'd escaped the maze they'd tried to torment us in, the time we'd poured paint all over him and his bitch of a girlfriend – to be honest, I'd actually started to question why he didn't wish to settle this earlier.

But it was then that I realized that he was probably waiting for the perfect moment, waiting for me to be vulnerable, possibly wanting me to be with Mark, too, to make the event a little more special. We'd fought too many times already to keep up with the old act, to resume the casualties by just having the one-on-one (or, rather, one-on-three) fights we did, the ones that resulted in black eyes, and, rarely, broken hearts.

I tried not to remember those fights, however, especially not in these situations. These were the situations in which I needed to focus, needed to keep a calm mind and look out for any potential things that could pop out at me, things that could harm me or Mark, causing us to lose the battle early, as if we weren't the same people we'd been all those times before.

At the moment, though, there's nothing I can do to stop Felix from having the upper hand in the situation – this was a strategic thing (like poker, I'd realized), meaning you had to keep a straight face and confident posture; the slightest slip-up could make you seem as if you're planning on losing, which you most definitely will in that case. However, I had yet to lose to the three of them, and I'd never learned of the true consequences that came along with it.

Mark, though, clearly wasn't used to playing with the three of them. As soon as he felt the poke at the center of his back, you could practically see his body recoil, his shoulders shooting up in surprise. I watched as his eyes fluttered from left to right, incapable of keeping still much like the rest of him – I'd obviously have to work our way out of this, but I had absolutely no idea how.

"Hey, Fe."

His eyes drained my soul free from my body, being intimidating no matter how well I knew the person hiding behind them. It was weird – very weird – to see him so pissed.

"Shut the fuck up."

I swallowed, hearing Mark's insides yelling at me. Are you seriously going to take that from him!? You're not going to do anything!?

I clenched my fists, deciding that it was best not to act up when I was at practical gunpoint. Like I said, Felix had the upper hand, and I was in no condition to place all of my chips on the table, for I would become bankrupt if I did.

Felix, just as astonished as I was by my ability to remain silent, barked, "Follow me."

Despite my feet feeling as if they were planted into the ground, I found the ability to walk behind Felix to be quite easy, just as easy at it was to stop talking on command.

However, what wasn't fun was having Killian behind me, annoying me by finding any excuse he could to poke the blade further into my shirt - and, believe me, I'd be poking that blade up a lot of places if it weren't for the fact that he was the one holding onto it, one small inch away from a fun trip to the hospital, one that wasn't as forgiving as the incident during the Shakespearean play.