“Mr. Kennicott, you’ve surpassed my expectations. You have my congratulations.”

I want to sleep, but the familiar voice raises my neck hair.

No, it can’t be!

“Come now, I know you’re awake. You’ve had seven days of rest. You should be grateful for my presence.”

“Fuck you, bitch! Go away. I’m tired of your shit.” I smile when I talk to the image of Miss Wonderful in my head.

Instantly, I scream in agony as my entire body feels like it’s melting. Even as I’m crying out, I keep saying the same thing.

“Fuck you, just die!”

My eyes finally open when the pain stops. I see the bitch standing in the corner of an unfamiliar room. She has a smile on her face but it’s not friendly. Despite wearing what looks like a bad cosplay costume, a guise to appear like the Queen of Hearts, she still looks pretty hot. Long tawny hair that I remember, along with her piercing eyes. I didn’t remember them being two different colors, one green and the other blue.

So, she’s a heterochromia!

She also kept the erotic image that I recalled by exposing plenty of cleavage, enhanced by her costume while her long legs showed nicely below her short skirt.

Yeah, she’s a slut.

Her two gorilla men are standing on either side of her. My first time getting a good view of them, I noticed they had a horn coming out of the front of their head.

Yeah, perfect for this place.

In a way, I wasn’t surprised. I was just fed up. If this be Hell, then fuck it.

When I turn my head, the little movement hurts. Just lifting my arm fills me with pain, which extends to my injured shoulder that is bandaged up tight. I see one leg out of the cover with multiple dressings where someone removed the pellets from the shotgun blast.

“What do you want?” I asked while checking out the hospital bed, which accounts for why I’m nearly sitting up.

Her expression flashed at my response.

“Look, you can burn me or crush me or whatever,” I continued as I gave her my best annoyed look. “I get it, I’m in Hell. So, what the fuck do you want to keep toying with me for?”

Miss Wonderful snorted at my outburst, and her genuine laughter shocked me. When she finished, her eyes went back to the wicked look of a cat with its prey.

“I’m afraid you’re quite funny. I’m here because you survived your test. That’s the reason for my congratulations, since you’re the first survivor out of five attempts.”

My slack jaw and stare at her come from something that I recalled. Many times, I asked a question only to find the person gave the same answer multiple times to Lane before. Also, it explains the reasons for my multiple ill-fitting suits. It could only mean that she had five people become Lane Dagger.

“What happened to the others?” I suspected the answer when I asked, but I wanted to know the extent of her evil.

“They died, usually from trusting the wrong people. I brought them into my world for them to fix an error. Unfortunately, they failed me.”

Her matter-of-fact reply didn’t ease my concerns.

“Ok, you can leave then.”

I scanned the room after I got the strong feeling that it wasn’t Hell. It was spotless and white. A glance out of the window shows me trees and houses.

Unexpectedly, she stepped next to the bed and my butt crawled away to keep my distance from her. The pain in my lower half brought a few tears to start.

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“I have a job for you.”

“Sorry, I’m employed at staying away from crazy demons who kidnap me.”

My body is getting ready for the next painful attack from this bitch. Instead, she reached over and took my hand. I wanted to resist, but I also wanted to keep the hand attached to my arm.

“I’m glad that you don’t trust people. However, I’m in need of your help. There was a reason that I picked you.” Her voice drew me in a bit more and I shook my head to clear her influence.

“So, what are you? A succubus or something?”

She stared at me with a pout on her red lips.

“No, I’m much more powerful. You shouldn’t make me angry. It’s not good for your health.”

I chuckled.

“Like what you’ve done so far to me is better? Quit beating around the bush here. You want something, well, so do I. Send me back to my home and I’ll think about helping you.”

That smile of a predator came back to her face.

“Are you sure that you’re able to bargain? Why would you want to return? You have a loving wife here. You’ve got another woman falling for you. You’re a well-known detective, and you’ve just destroyed an infamous gangster.”

The woman drew closer to me, giving me a splendid view of her cleavage again.

“I watched your performance. Do you realize you smile when you’re in the middle of a gunfight?” Her eyes lit up at the description. “Look deep inside, Sebastian. Isn’t your experience better here? Do you wish to return to working part time and looking for non-existent girlfriends in college?”

Damn, she would bring those things up!

I let out a deep breath, realizing that I’m not unhappy here, at least when I’m not being shot at. The idea that I smiled while close to death struck me as psychotic, so I tried to dismiss the thought. But that I’m willing to help stick my neck out could be that I don’t believe that I can die here.

Is that because I have a damn death wish?

Maybe deep down, I see myself much like the surrounding characters. It’s dangerously naïve when I consider that possibility. Still, I’m tired of this manipulation.

“You kidnap me, shove me here without telling me about this place.” I pulled my hand away from hers. “I nearly die twice just trying to leave to help people and you caused it all. I know you don’t give a damn about me, so give me a reason to help you. You’ve only shown me threats, agony, and near death. Otherwise, you can go to hell.”

I’m waiting for her to go extreme. As I watch her, those predator eyes narrow and I expect that my suffering will get just as crazy as her. Instead, she gives me a grin like she expected this.

“Maybe you deserve some answers. After all, you changed the direction of several familiars in Stull Junction. That you’ve rearranged things for yourself shows me you’re the person I need. So, what do you wish to know?”

“Where am I? What is this place?”

She scooched closer, leaning against my arm. Her actions made me grimace from my outraged muscles.

“Well, let’s see how I can explain it,” she paused while gathering her thoughts.

“I’ll start with Stull Junction. It is my domain, a place I created so many years ago. At first, this was nothing more than a dream I had. I carved out a fantasy in my head, a spot where I escaped from the drudgery of my existence,” she said. “As a spiritualist, I dealt with many seeking to contact the higher plane. Then, I decided to give myself such a place. Mind you, I didn’t realize that the physical reality could come from my visions. However, as I developed my studies into the Laws of Nature, I noticed something of a truth. It’s clear that we exist both in the seen and unseen planes. Stull Junction resides in the unseen realm.”

She looked at my expression. I had the idea she wanted me to be surprised.

“It’s a little late to surprise me, given what’s happened so far,” I said. “Are you talking about a different dimension?”

My interest peaked at the rational idea that I thought about.

“I suppose you could call it that, but there is a link between worlds,” the woman stated. “After all, a spiritualist can easily become a theurgist, then an enchanter.”

“What’s a theurgist?” I interrupted, trying to keep this on the rational side.

She smiled mischievously.

“It comes from the Greek, meaning divine work. It’s a collaboration between a mortal and a godhead. In simple terms, it’s the invocation of henosis or uniting with the divine with spiritual practices.”

My skepticism suddenly came out as I frowned.

“Are you saying this is magic?”

The woman laughed.

“A simple mind will use the word magic to talk about what it cannot understand. A scientist will not study what it cannot measure, yet they will use mathematics to formulate the many-worlds theory. I simply create a rift between the seen and the unseen dimensions. Once you enter my domain, your mind expands to see the unseen realm. In fact, your mind comes to accept this realm just like those which exists all around you.”

My head ached like it did in my philosophy class. I shook my head, still unconvinced.

“Then, aside from some type of magical world, I’m interacting with unseen spirits. You’re telling me that Adele and the others are nothing more than figments of my imagination.”

“No, a familiar is either unseen or seen. They exist just like any dimension. It’s up to the person who recognizes them,” she said with an air of mystery. I shook my head at the nonsensical answer.

“Then, I deduce the boundary must be the city limits,” I said to keep things on track.

“Yes, my soul is powerful enough to maintain this city because I made a deal. But I’m not omnipotent.”

“I’m betting you didn’t make a deal with a god?”

“Oh, I did. In fact, in some ways I am a god,” the woman smiled at the idea.

Talk about an ego, I thought. Then again, having your own world isn’t something you see every day.

“By the way, what the hell do I call you?”

“You don’t remember my name? You bad boy,” she teased me, slapping me on my chest as I winced.