Past Meets the Present

Chapter 6: SPY

We were all waiting for Sammy to arrive. All of us had a clue where River was, but needed to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

He walked through the doors and our conversation vanished.

"River has been transferred to another Operator. She isn't what I need. End of story." Sammy explains immediately. "Now. Onto the next portion of your training."

He walks off toward a new part of the woods and we all follow him. Cordelia comes up behind him and laced her arm in his and begins sweet-talking him. Most likely ensuring she's not the next one to be sent away.

HABIT and I scoff at her actions. "Fucking whore." I mutter.

"Tell me about it." Says a female voice.

I look over. It's Nightmare.

"Why are you staring, deer boy?" She asks.

"No reason, butterfly bitch." I respond.

"So you're RUBIX and HABIT, huh?" She asks, continuing the conversation.

"Oh, whatever gave you that impression?" I ask.

"Nothing. I already know HABIT. Not you though." She says, then looks over at me. "So you're the smartest?"

"Apparently. Don't ask me to explain. I have no fucking clue why. You're the most powerful?"

"Yep. Haven't tested my powers out though. Except when I'm training with the books." She explains.

We don't get to talk anymore. We're here. At our next training grounds.

"Alright. Here you will show me what powers you have. I'll provide one of my guards to be the test subject." Samuel says, then turns and motions with one hand for some one to come over (I'm not saying who they were or what they looked like). "You may begin"

Nightmare steps forward, closes her eyes, and mutters something under her breath. A spell. The guard falls backward and his eyes roll to the back of his head, convulsing. She opens her eyes and they glow even more blue than they did. The guard starts screaming bloody murder, tears streaming down his face.

"That's enough. Next." Sammy stops her before she could do any more damage. Motioning again, the previous guard is replaced by a new one.

HABIT steps forward. He has a smile on his face. He starts randomly teleporting around the lawn to confuse the guard. I see him pull out a knife and teleport directly behind him, stabbing him through the back, not even an inch from his spine.

Samuel seems deep in thought and doesn't stop HABIT before he has stabbed the guard a couple dozen more times. "Enough. Next."

I step up to the plate. A new guard replaces him and I begin. I feel a strange power build up in my chest, but I ignore it. I focus on my opponent. I can see what kind of being he is. And his greatest fear.

I focus on that and the feeling in my chest grows and starts to overflow. A red wave of light washes over the lawn in front of me and a hoard of spiders, snakes, and insects crawl/slither their way toward him. He backs up in fear. He looks up to look me in the eye but I'm gone. I've gone invisible and walked toward his comrades lined up on the side. I let my illusions drop, turn into my opponent, and blend in with the other guards.

He whirls around trying to find me. His eyes lay on the line of guards and sees a face eerily similar to his own. I smile with a touch of insanity and go invisible again. Tormenting him with random pokes around his body and me whispering his deepest darkest secrets. He starts freaking out, drawing out his weapon to attack me.

"Enough." I let my illusion drop and saunter off back to my new friends. They look at me with smiles of their own. "Next."

"Actually," cuts in Cordelia, "I'd prefer if I showed you my powers directly. Alone."

Sammy gives it a little bit of thought. "Alright. You three can go for the day. Just don't break anything." They walk off into the woods, Cordelia clinging to his arm like the whore she really is.

We all scoff and walk back toward the mansion doors.

"What a fucking whore." HABIT mutters with a touch of a growl-like sound.

"Was that a purr I heard?" I tease.

"No. Fuck off kindly."

"I think I'm good, thanks."

"Boys, you're both pretty." Nightmare cuts in.

I chuckle a little and we head in. I make my way toward the kitchen, searching every cupboard.

"What are you doing?" She asks.

"I'm just looking to see if he has any good food here." I say.

I walk over to the other side of the kitchen. HABIT sideswipes me as he crosses to another part, pushing me into a cabinet. The cabinet was full of ceramic cups that Sammy had for tea. I tried to stop myself, but I ended up smashing a good half dozen of them.

I look at the ceramic pieces sticking out of my skin and fur, then look up at them. "Well shit."

We burst into laughter and don't stop until Sammy and Cordelia walk in.

"WHAT did I tell you?" He growls out at us. That only makes us laugh more.

"Just go upstairs and stay there." He grounds out as calmly as he can, but I can see the strain on his face from the restraint.

We walk upstairs to humor him, then burst into laughter again.

Once one of us calms down, they suggest some weapons training in the community training room. We all agree and grab a few weapons from our rooms. The rest of the day, we spend tearing apart the target dummies with bowie knives, throwing knives, Spears, and just about every related weapon. HABIT decided to bring a mace just to spite me.

The next day, we received news from Sammy: around noon, our jobs were going to be revealed.

We waited outside for a good twenty minutes like usual, waiting for him.

When he comes, he wastes no time. "HABIT will be my torturer, Cordelia will be my personal assistant, RUBIX will be my spy in the mortal world, and Nightmare will be my psychic."