The Animals Have Come to Play (Completed) (unedited)

The Test

(Chapter 18: The Test)

Circe turned the light on in the room after she closed the door behind us. I blinked a few times, taking in my surroundings. We were in a fairly large bathroom. The room consisted of a neutral pallet with a few piece of decor that popped with red. She opened a drawer in the bathroom, taking out a needle. She also grabbed a shaver razor before sliding the drawer closed. She looked up at me, holding the needle.

"I need your hand," she stated simply. I instinctively grabbed my hand, holding it to my chest. I widened my eyes in realization.

"Why do you need my blood?" I asked, horrified. She rolled her brown eyes before raising an impatient eyebrow.

"So I can use my magicka? I just need a drop of your blood." I stared at her warily before hesitantly reaching my hand forward. "Okay, this might be a bit weird for you, but it's normal," she explained quickly, before pricking me with the needle. I yelped at the quick pain.

"This is a part of it?" I asked incredulously as she brought the recently injury finger up to her mouth, licking the blood off. I snatched my hand back once she was done. She nodded, answering my earlier question.

"My body needs blood from the person I'm replicating in order to get things correctly. The white blood cells that come when I draw your blood contains small portions of your DNA which helps me take on a person's identity. Of course, it's not so much that I can gain memories or personality, just take on physical appearances and voices," Circe went into detail. I nodded along to her explanation. She waltzed over to a linen closet on the opposite side of the room. She pulled out two dark red hand towels before bringing them over to me.

"Put one around your left hand." I gave her a quizzical look, but decided not to question her about it. I wrapped the material around my hand.

"I heard every family's magicka has a draw back to even out the power being used, what is your family's?"

"This," she responded, snatching the razor up before slicing it across her palm. She then kept it buried into the cut as she grabbed the other red towel, wrapping it around her left hand. I gaped in horror at her. She closed her eyes, breathing out slowly. When she opened them, they were the same pearly-silver color that Leander's and Cynric's were.

It started with her hair. It straightened on its own, the blonde growing out from the roots, washing over the hair in a cascade until no trace of black was left. Her hair also shortened magically by a few inches, matching mine. Her facial features contorted becoming mine, and her skin washed to a paler tone. Her clothes morphed, the color changing first before the looks. Within moments, I was looking at a mirror image of me.

"Pretty weird, huh?" she asked, her voice changing to a higher pitch to sound exactly like me. I nodded my head, giving my doppelgänger a strange look. I started towards her, walking in a circle around her. She looked exactly like me, and it gave me the creeps.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to get this over with. I do have a blade dug into my hand after all to keep the blood flowing," she said, wincing slightly. I jumped in surprise.

"Oh! Right, yes, okay, let's go." Before I could move, she stopped me with one of her hands.

"Just follow my lead on whatever I have to say, okay?" I nodded before opening the door and shuffling out with Circe following close behind me. Outside the room, Leander sat up straight from his slouched position, grimacing slightly towards us. Clearly Cynric had never seen the Hallowfen magic at work. His face visibly paled as his eyes darted between the two of us.

"So, which one of us," Circe started, prompting my to finish the sentence.

"Is the real, Ariadne?" I finished. Leander instantly pointed towards me.

"You are because Circe doesn't know your name." Circe jumped in, raising her uninjured hand to her mouth.

"I forgot to tell you two! I told Circe my name in the bathroom!" Leander retracted his finger hesitantly, a pained look on his face.

"Whichever one of you is Circe, fuck you," Leander bit out, broodily slumping again in his seat. Cynric's narrowed eyes darted between us as he tried to figure out which one was the real one.

"Well, Mr. Nanik? Can you figure out which one is truly me?" I asked him teasingly, remembering that's how he was referred to by the maid. He stayed silent, continuing to look between the two of us.

"Which one of you is Hispanic?" Leander asked. Circe and I shared a look.

"Neither of us!"

"Me!" I yelled at the same time Circe said 'Neither of us'. Leander pointed at me once again.

"You're Ci-" Cynric slapped his hand out of the air.

"You are an idiot. Circe would not fall for that." Leander then swung his finger towards Circe. "And do not say it is her. The first one could still be Circe because she thought we would not think it was her." Leander scrubbed his face harshly before angrily grunting loudly.

"What is a band you listen to?"

"Starset," I answered quickly without thinking. Circe grinned over at me.

"Really? That's a good band!" she exclaimed. I returned her smile.

"Hey! I know right?"

"What color is your wolf?" Cynric asked abruptly.

"Blanco." I answered. Circe took my lead.

"White." Leander raised a finger, smiling slyly over at us.

"What type of underwear did you leave in my bed when you were over?" I opened my mouth to speak, but Circe beat me to it by snorting.

"I didn't leave any over at your house. Sorry, but Leander, you're not my type. I'd never have anything to do with you," she answered. I bit my lip, my eyes widening. I'm pretty sure that's not the answer he was looking for...

"Leander that proves nothing as to whi-" Leander silenced Cynric by waving his hand in front of his face, mimicking a mouth closing with his hand. Leander pointed at me.

"I know, 100% that she is the real Ariadne." Cynric raised a questioning eyebrow as Circe laughed loudly.

"And how could you possibly know that?" she asked. Leander smirked victoriously.

"Because, there's a little secret between our families about that topic. Plus she left lacy panties in my bed. Of course, Ariadne would remember this. It got her into trouble at school. Isn't that right, Ariadne?" He swung his gaze back to mine. I glanced over at Circe out of the corner of my eye before nodding hesitantly. Circe glowered over at the boy before grumbling under her breath.

She took the cloth off her hand, pulling out the bloodied razor. She wrapped the rag around the razor before tossing it off to the side onto a table. Quickly, her hand healed and the disguise melted away from her actual identity. I took the cloth off my hand as well, fumbling with it in my hands a bit before tossing it next to her's. Circe waltzed towards a mini-fridge I just noticed was tucked into the corner, pulling out a bottle of juice.

"Do we get one for figuring out your puzzle?" Leander asked, flashing her his pearly whites.

"No. You didn't just make a cut continuously bleed in order to keep someone's identity up."

"Bitch..." Leander muttered under his breath before patting the seat between him and Cynric. "Come sit between us, Ari!" Without any hesitancy, I made my way between the two boys, sitting down to face Circe who was sipping on her juice.

"So, are you going to tell us what you know?" Cynric prodded her along. She nodded behind her bottle before taking it away from her mouth and screwing the cap back on.

"Yeah. I don't know anything." I felt both the boys stiffen on either side of me.

"What?"