I hear people whispering, some angry, some annoyed, some scared. Everything is grainy, my body feels like its submerged in water, my feet being stuck in quicksand, desperately swimming to the surface

  “Try it again.”

  “Why are we doing this?”

  “Just let him die.”

  “don't be stupid.”

  A cold hand touches my chest, “morva eris.”

  My heart beats for a moment and I feel every sensation at once, I get pulled upwards, then it stops.

  Someone chokes and falls to the floor.

  “Again... Jackson please.”

  A cold hand touches my chest again. “morva eris.”

  It beats twice, each thump bringing me closer to home, then it stops.

  Someone vomits, “I can’t anymore Noah.”

  “Okay... sorry, you've done enough... I'll try.”

  A warmer hand touches my chest, “morva eris.”

  My heart beats three times, then beats again, then again. Until it eventually stops and my lungs fill with water.

  “Jesus...” someone who sounds like Noah speaks in between irregular breaths, a hand it placed onto my chest again, paper on my collarbone, “morva eris.”

  My heart beats, then again, then again, then again, restarting itself like an engine.

  My eyes are thrown wide open, I float back into my body, I feel the pressure of my hands tied together, the hard feeling of wood on my back, my head facing the roof, a familiar roof.

  “He’s breathing.” Noah coughs up blood, “are you alive?”

  I move my head into a more comfortable position, I see that I'm in the blood vial room of the food clinic, the shelves no longer here, its empty. There are multiple people by the door peeking in, Jackson, Anne and Noah being the only one standing near me.

  I cough up water, it spills onto my legs then onto the floor, “thank... thank you...”

  Noah grabs my jaw, “what are you doing here?”

  Jackson moves back into a crouched position, readying himself like I'm about to pounce.

  “I... I was in trouble... thank you.”

  “Bullshit.” Jackson steps back further, staring at me, “we have that... that woman tied up too, tell us everything or she dies.”

  The clone?

  “Okay... okay... I was attacked... they tried to kill Lilith and since she had connected my heart to hers... I...”

  Noah squeezes my jaw, “who is Lilith?”

  They don't know... of course they don't know.

  “The... demon, the one who always took me.”

  “Oh, so you’re on a first name basis now? Thats great, good to hear.”

  I notice a ring on Jacksons finger, a golden ring.

  “Where'd you get that ring?” I try to point at it but my hands just jerk against the rope.

  “You’re not asking questions here.” Noah looks over at the people peeking through the door, “go... please.”

  They stop spying on us and exit, I hear footsteps large and small leave the building. Anne sits on the floor with crossed legs by the wall, watching this all go down.

  Noah with his hand still on my jaw speaks again with a stronger tone, “so, you were in trouble. You almost died and came here?”

  I nod to the best of my ability.

  “Why here and not the fancy ‘cabin’ you are in?”

  Jackson’s clone must've given that information, do I lie here? Noah releases my jaw a bit so I can speak, “this place is safer.”

  “You think?” He lets go and laughs, “you aren't exactly on our good list, you know, after wiping Jacksons memories and killing one of us.”

  “I had no choice...” I say on impulse.

  “Right. You never have a choice.” He walks over to Anne, “what do you think? Do you think he never had a choice? You just couldn't tell us vital information; you couldn't tell us what was happening whenever that thing took you. You just HAD to be quiet.”

  Anne shakes her head, ”Noah. Don't bring me into this.”

  “Why not?”

  She gets up and leaves without saying another word, it is now exclusively me, Jackson and Noah.

  “Right. What's your big plan here? We are still experiments right? You are trying to turn us into lab rats? No matter how many people die?” Noah holds the side of my chair steady.

  “I don't know.”

  He ignores my response, he begins to move back and forth from wall to wall like a bouncing dvd logo. “What's the point of any of this? You get to come and go as you please, but you can't bring us to wherever you are? Save us all?”

  “There are sensor-”

  “Don't give me that, I don't care, you should've taken us with you.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  It's clear he is not in the mood for a rational discussion, “look, if I didn't do what I did the whole town would be dead.”

  “Says who?”

  “The boss.”

  “ooOo” he holds his hands up, ”Jackson... the boss... don't wanna upset the big boss, right?”

  “You really think I'm doing this out of some evil plan?”

  “No? But you could've at least told us what was going on.”

  “You weren’t exactly welcoming last time.”

  He brings his hand to his chin, ”hm I wonder why that is? Maybe it's because you were going to kill one of us, who knows?”

  “I didn't have a choice.” My voice gets louder, trying to match his.

  “You never have the fucking choice, do you?” Noah moves back to Jackson, “everything is soooo linear.”

  I lose my cool. “Okay! I admit it, I do have a choice, and my choice was to minimise as much damage as possible, do you think I want to do any of this? No? Of course not, but I did what I needed to do. Do you want me to just barricade these doors? Die with the rest of you?” I pull on the rope.

  A sliver of liquid comes from my wrist, releasing my hands with a snap, I don’t bother to register this breakthrough, “ANYONE, literally anyone who was in my position would make the same decisions.” I point at him while Jackson moves to stand in front.

  Jackson leans forward, face to face with me, his hands in a readied fighting position, the gold ring in my view. Thats the gold ring from my chest, just a normal ring. Good.

  “I'm not going to do anything, relax.” I say calmly, I keep my arms to my side.

  Noah pats Jackson on the shoulder, “Fay, you had the chance to help us, instead you just ran away-”

  “NO, I DIDN’T, I've been fighting, I've been hurting my way through whatever bullshit these demons throw at me to hopefully one day save you all.”

  Noah steps in front of Jackson, “so why wipe Jacksons memories?”

  “I didn’t even… because the original Jackson killed himself after I tried to save him.”

  “Bullshit.” Noah shoves me.

  “Why would I lie about that?” I stumble backwards, “I needed to capture him because Lilith threatened to kill everyone if I didn't.”

  “Oh, and you believed her? If she was going to kill us all, she would have done that already.”

  He shoves me again, trying to get a reaction out of me, ”you have no idea who Lilith is, she isn't cunning, she doesn't have a master plan, she just hurts people.” I step back again, I need to stop this before it turns into a fight, “...thank you for saving me.”

  “You’re welcome.” He stops pushing forward, everything in his body language showing he will soon fall apart, “just... why dude? Why?”

  Why? What is that even supposed to mean? Why I did what I did?

  “To save you all.”

  “Nobody asked for that... but... right now... if we were to kill you right now, would we be safer? If you really are that self sacrificing.”

  I don't even know the answer to that question, Lilith is in the ocean somewhere most likely, alive due to me being alive... if I died would she die? If she died, would they be safer? Most likely.

  “I don't know.”

  There is a whole spectrum of politics I'm not even aware of, the only hope I have right now is with the original Null, I can use my small bit of capital to save us.

  Anne comes in with a green apple, “here.” She passes it to me, when did they have time to grow an apple tree?

  “Thanks...” I take a bite, the flavour non-existent.

  “We’ve figured out how to make plants grow faster, but it causes the fruit and vegetables to be flavourless.” She takes the apple back and takes a bite.

  I completely ignore Noah and Jackson who are speaking in the corner of the room, “beats the food scraps.”

  “It does... I like your suit by the way. You look fancy.” She pulls on my blazer, I take it off instantly and put it on the chair.

  “Don't remind me... I had to go to a party and fight one of those things.”

  Noah joins in, turning his head from Jackson, “did you win?”

  “Not even close... I think they were using it as training, it was some kid...”

  Anne looks at me confused, “you fought a kid?”

  “A kid demon... trust me he was strong.”

  “Wait how many of them are there?” Noah grabs the blazer and puts it on.

  “At the dinner party? Like 40... I think? But there's a lot more... it's like a whole society.”

  All the tension in the room disappears as we exchange information, Jackson is just in the corner watching each of us.

  I decide to tell them everything, “did you know the modern world exists still?”

  Noah doesn't look surprised, “yeah... some woman came by and told us sorta... black hair black dress, you know her, right? Dropped off Jackson.”

  The original Null talked to them? That makes sense, “yeah... be careful with her, she is bad news.”

  Jackson in the corner speaks in a whisper, “we have her tied up outside... when we raided the carriage... she seemed different though.”

  I stare Jackson in the eyes, ”untie her... she is a victim in this, a human clone of the one you met.”

  Noah and Jackson both exchange glances, “makes sense, Jackson can you untie her? Explain why to the people as well.”

  Jackson stands up with a grunt, leaving the room with a slump, I watch him leave, I feel awful. “Sorry about Jackson, I really did try to save him.”

  Noah's face changes a bit, the look he used to give me before all this breaks through his expression, “yeah well... Jackson was always extreme... not like you gave him a reason to trust you.”

  “Fair...”

  Noah grabs the apple from Anne and takes a bite, then hands it to me, Anne sits down on the chair, “so what were you running from? Why did you get hurt out of nowhere?” She crosses her legs expectantly.

  “Lilith got attacked at the dinner party... sorta right after she connected her heart to mine... guess that's why I coughed up water as well... I threw her into the ocean.”

  “No shit!” Noah laughs, “...wait so did we save her by healing you?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Okay well...” his demeanour changes again, “we aren't going to let you leave this room... you know that right?” He grabs the split rope from the ground, “how'd you break this?”

  I show him my ring, “innate magic... don't ask me any more about it, I barely know how it works.”

  “Ah I thought that was gross designer shit. Looks dumb on you, Anne move.” Anne stands up, “sit back down.”

  “I'm not going to try and escape.”

  He groans, “remember the door? Well, this rope is a door for us, we want to feel safe.”

  I take a bite of the apple and hand it to Anne, the core is now showing, “fine... just don't tie it as hard as before.” I sit down and put my hands behind the chair, “I saw some of the town before almost dying... it looks nice.”

  Noah wraps rope around my wrists, “yeah... we’ve been growing a lot of stuff lately... got a chest full of seeds.” He pulls the knot together, “people are pretty happy... except... some died trying using the magic... we have lost 7...”

  “How many people are left?”

  “66... hey remember when there were hundreds of us? Almost no space to sleep.”

  “Yeah, I remember sleeping on Annes lap while she sang a lullaby.”

  Anne groans, “don't remind me, not my fault I had a squad of crying children, it’s my maternal instincts... don't blame me dickhead.”

  Noah laughs, ”how'd the song go? The cuckoo and a donkey” He begins singing the lullaby dramatically, “the cuckoo and the donkey, had an argument, who will sing the best, who will sing the best.”

  “SHUT UP.” Anne slaps him on the head, “it made you stop crying. cry-baby Noah.”

  “I was 12, relax.” He snickers, the knot being completed.

  I lean back, “my favourite was the one about the ducklings.”

  “Ohhh yeah the duckling one, sent me straight to sleep out of boredom.”

  I lean back further making sure I meet Annes gaze. “You just kept repeating the same lines over and over again, I felt like you were the demon torturing me.”

  Anne gives a throaty laugh, “asshole.” She puts the apple near my mouth and I take a bite.

  Noah claps to get the attention of the room... “okay... well. Fay. Just... I dunno.” He steps out first, leaving on an awkward note.

  Anne hangs around, “he still cares about you... but you did mess up multiple times by thinking you could do this all alone.”

  “I'm tired of that argument. Don't start it again.”

  “Okay.” She walks towards the door, “I'll bring more food in the morning... get a good night's rest.”

  She slips out and shuts the door, the lack of light irritates my eyes, so I shut them, I wonder how Lilith is doing? Since I'm not dying, she must be okay, maybe captured.

  The innate magic drips from my hand like sweat, it's getting easier and easier to conjure it purely on instinct. I can't even stop it from producing itself.

  What's the plan here? Lilith is away, the boss will check up on us, the original null date is in... 4 days, right? Tomorrow will make it 3 days. So, she might check here for me and help me get out, I just hope that doesn't sour anything.

  The boss might check on me, especially since Lilith has been injured... will they send people for her? She mentioned a court date... are they going to get their government involved? If so, isn't this place supposed to be a secret?

  I try to close my eyes, attempting to sleep again. Nothing happens, it's like my brain is always on no matter what.

  I haven't slept in a while, I didn't get sleep yesterday either... is that just something I'm not going to be able to do anymore? Don't people die after no sleep after a while?

  I guess I'll just... wait.