Six Loves. Six Stories.
THE DECISION IS YOURS.
Kyren, your old babysitter hasn't seemed to age a day since last seeing you. Then again, the last time you saw him, his teeth were in someone's throat.
Johnny, the new kid in school. Girls are obsesse...
The guy running for student body president? What was his name...Arran Mors. What was Mika's panic with him? I had seen them hang out around school before and thought they were an odd pair. An upstanding student and "the Masked Bitch" hanging around always raised eyebrows. People outside the venue were starting to watch, some with the uneasiness I felt.
"I've broken deals before. Don't let this one surprise you." Mika said, standing in front of me defensively. This was the second time today she had defended me. For someone notorious for being cold-hearted and cruel, this was a complete turnaround.
"Saving your target? Don't tell me you will risk your payoff for a mere mortal." Arran said. "Do you actually feel something in that infinite pit you call a heart?"
"I've seen what happens to her. I've seen what everyone, path to path, story to story, timeline to timeline, it destroys her, over and over again. I'm tired of being the bystander while she becomes some martyr." She said. He laughed.
"You're no bystander Hawthorne, and you know it." He spat. "You're the executioner who gets paid top dollar for killing the innocent. You're not just the Masked Bitch. You're the Masked Beast."
Executioner? ... Killing the innocent?!
I wanted to step in and say something, but I just felt so powerless, so shaken up that I could barely move.
"You don't know what I am!" Mika shouted, something sinister hiding in her voice. "Your privileged ass definitely wouldn't understand!" I could see her shake with anger.
"And (Name)? What makes you think that you can save her? Or even think that she wants to be saved from the life I could give her?" Arran said.
"Mika, please, just tell me what's..."
"Has she even seen what lies beneath the mask?"
"Shut your fucking mouth..."
Arran reached behind him, pulling out a gun and pointing it at her. The partygoers almost instantly scrambled in a panic, yet she stood there, holding the same defensive position.
"Don't play this game with me Mors. Do you think I'm afraid of you?" She spat. He laughed, clicking a bullet into the barrel.
"That's what I'm counting on."
My eyes shut tightly as I heard the bullet fire and make contact, only opening them after hearing a series of gasps emerge around me. In front of her, there was an enormous shield made of ice, still holding the bullet Arran fired. I backed away from her, far enough to be still under protection from the shield.
"Did you think I gave a shit what these humans see me do?" She growled. "And so what if I want to save one measly human? You only want her as your toy, arm candy to bring to your shitty soirée every month. You don't know what I've already done for her. What the hell have you done but cause her trouble?"
"And what will you do for her now, but strike fear into her heart?" He shouted, clearly proud of his work. Mika removed her mask, dropping it to the ground before turning to me. She flashed a sharp-toothed grin at me, each point tinted with the redness of blood. What lied beneath Arran's mask?
"Next time, listen when I tell you to go to my bike." She said. She giggled innocently, immediately contradicting her smile's ferocity.
"I can't stay mad at you, no matter how hard I pretend. My heart starts pounding, and I just forget what it's like to be the monster I am." She said sweetly. "What an odd little thing about you as a human (Name); I don't have the burning desire to tear you limb from limb. But Arran..." Her eyes widened and a crazed smile appeared on her face, made even more frightening with her teeth.
"I'll kill him for us. No charge." She said. "Then we can go home, okay?" She turned back to Arran, the ice shield shattering and landing in a millions pieces on the ground. The crowd that built up around us...I wasn't sure if they were watching from absolute fear or human curiosity. Either way, all eyes were on us, and there was no way of slipping through to make a hasty escape anymore.
"I don't understand what kind of magic you're using to make me feel this way...b-but I like it." She said, clenching her fists. The gun Arran held froze and broke apart in his hands, leaving him defenseless. Mika immediately lunged for him, tackling him to the ground and laughing wildly as she punched him, blow after blow, right in his face. The crowds dispersed in a mix of screams and horror; watching her brutality was too much for them. I wanted to join them, to escape and just run home away from this.
"Oh. She got carried away again."
I turned to my left, snapping out of my trance to see a boy with white/silver hair and yellow eyes, watching Mika mercilessly attack Arran on the ground. He was unmoved, barely blinking an eye at the scene.
"Who the hell are you?" I shouted, backing away.
"The guardian of the Freak on the Leash...looks like she unleashed herself." The boy said numbly. He smiled faintly, seeing the horror in my eyes.
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"I'm only kidding. Katsu Hideki. I'm her roommate." He said, introducing herself. "I was on my way to find her and check on her mission status when I discovered that she wasn't at our established rendezvous point."
"Um...'rendezvous point'? What is this, a spy movie?" I asked. He looked at me questioningly.
"Oh. You weren't joking. You think she threw that knife so precisely earlier from sheer luck?" Katsu asked. "Tell me at least that you've deduced that we're not human." I blinked at him, completely lost. I assumed from the magic and the teeth that something was up...but, still. He shook his head.
"You humans, always requiring extensive explanations of the occult world." He said. "Perhaps I should write a manual, it would make this a lot shorter for future prospects. Mika is a freelance assassin, as am I. Is that reason enough for you not to run, (Name)?" I jumped at the sound of my name. How did he know it? How did he even know about the incident from earlier with Wade?
"Apologies, it's a terrible force of habit. Telepaths, like myself, have this tendency to scan a mind before we bother to speak with anyone." Katsu said. "Something seems...interesting about you." He turned away from Mika's violence, starting to walk away as he looked back at me.
"We should let her finish her little...temper tantrum. Don't worry, we'll see her again when she gets hungry." He said. "I suggest you come peacefully. I don't have to tell you what horrible acts I can commit without lifting a finger, so I? I'll drive you home." Reluctant and choiceless, I followed him away from the scene, just as the party's music abruptly stopped.
