“We're going to look suspicious since most of his shirt is gone. Give him your coat.” Claire whispers to Shelby.

Shelby seems disgusted by even the notion of handing something belonging to her over to me.

She pulls a large overcoat out of her mass of tentacles, appearing to be too large for her but it is slightly small for me.

“This is the only thing I have big enough to fit you. If you break it, I'll end your life.” She says nonchalantly.

We walk to the train station, Shelby's tentacles binding my hands together.

She walks close to me so as to not make the usage of her ability obvious.

I'm basically being kidnapped by these two girls that I don't even know.

I need to start probing for information so I don't die for the fourth time today.

“Where are you taking me?” This is a good question to start with.

“To Leader.” Claire says, not relenting any information.

“Who is Leader?” I say, trying to probe more.

“He's the founder of the Valkyrie group, our boss.” Claire says light heartedly.

I can faintly sense a glimpse of sadness in her eyes.

Her eyes dart towards mine and we lock gazes.

I reflexively face my head down, something I'm used to doing before I even realize it.

Maybe my mind is just playing tricks on me.

We pass multiple anime themed stores on our way to the train station.

Claire has a serious look on her face.

Shelby on the other hand, seems almost too relaxed.

She keeps urging Claire to shop, but Claire doesn't relent.

We walk the rest of the way silently.

I can't even think of any more questions especially since my brain is fried from all the events that transpired today.

We eventually reached the train station.

Claire and Shelby walk up to a side door that seems to be a storage room.

Shelby casually puts her hand up to the locked door.

She presses her finger up to the keyhole and morphes its shape to fit into the opening.

“How did you do that!?” I say surprised, as I have never seen anything like this before.

“Huh? Oh, this? It's the easiest technique. It'll be the first thing you learn.” she says whilst wrestling with the locking mechanism.

“Well, depending on what Leader does with you.” she adds with a smirk.

Claire suddenly glares at Shelby, provoked by the previous comment.

Shelby reciprocates the notion, creating a seemingly tense atmosphere between them whilst leaving me confused.

The tension is broken by Shelby finally breaching the lock's defenses and cracking the door open.

It's obvious by the noise that this door has not seen much use.

Shelby trots into the room while I reluctantly peer inside.

Despite the outer appearance of the door, this does not seem like a storage room at all.

There is an almost blinding light coming from inside the door.

I can't even see inside because of the contrast in brightness.

As I try to adjust to the light, Claire nudges me from behind.

For a moment, I'm blinded by the light to the point I can't even see where I'm going.

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My eyes quickly adjust while I'm being pulled by Shelby.

The space I see in front of me couldn't be described as anything relatable.

It looked like a mix between a hospital and an office.

Why would such a space be here?

Looking closer, I can tell that this space was never meant to be used this way.

Shelby barely gives me time to process the room before pulling me along through the rows of workspaces.

I can sense that everyone around me is closely observing me.

We walk until Shelby turns to face what appears to be a private office and stops.

Claire speedwalks into the office without even looking at anything else.

Behind the fogged windows, I can see a vague figure sitting at a desk, along with another, standing beside them.

“Sit here.” Shebly says softly.

She sits on one of the seats lining the outside of the private room.

I sit next to her as she instructed me to.

She has an irritated look on her face.

She proceeds to move one seat away from me.

This is the treatment I get from most women, so I am not surprised.

There is a freight mumbling coming from the office.

“What is this place?” I inquire.

“This is just one of the bases that Leader has set up… It's an outpost meant to organize people to deal with infested people.'' she says while slouching in a relaxed position in her chair.

“Infested people?” I investigate.

“Yeah,...” she lets out a long sigh.

“About a day after the parasite attaches to your body, did the weird person in your head ask you anything about a wish?” Shelby says as if she's repeated this line hundreds of times.

How does she know about Grey?!

“Your probably thinking, “how do you know about the guy in my head?”” she mockingly says, smug that she guessed what I was thinking.

“Everyone here is the same as you!” she says, her teeth showing whilst she grins.

She roughly pats my head with her tentacles.

Even though I've seen countless tentacles in the fictions I read, this isn't ever how I imagined they would feel like.

She looks down with a bitter expression.

“When a person has a wish, derived from hate, or isn't strong enough to escape their own mind,… they lose all control of themselves.”

She continues to look solemnly at the baseboards in front of her.

“Leader sent out me and Claire. Infested peoples energy is read much higher because they are burning all of it very quickly. Your energy just happened to match to that of an infested one. ”

I try to change the subject to make it less awkward.

“What is this Leader person like?” I ask to break tension.

“Leader is a mysterious person, not even I know much…. All I know is that he is the son of a wealthy CEO and built the Valkyrie group using his charisma and intelligence.” she says excitedly, being able to talk about the Leader.

She pauses, casting her solemn expression aside while swinging her legs and humming a song.

“Everyone here wants something, and they're willing to do almost anything to get it… that's why when Leader offers to grant their any wish, they join this group ready to sacrifice even their own lives to Leader to see their wish through.” she adds.

The mumbling inside the office is getting louder.

“So then why did you join this group?” I ask, genuinely curious.

“It's the same story as a lot of other people here... All of my family died to an Infested when I was around 15. I managed to kill it somehow but the parasite ended up migrating to me… that's when Leader found me and invited me into his group… He said he saw something in me. I'm forever indebted to him.” she says with a sense of pride.

We both hear shouting coming from the office.

Me and Shelby look at each other concerned.

It seems like everyone else's concern is in sync with ours as well.

The muffled shouting continued on for another brief moment before returning to a moderate volume.

I can see the figure of the Leader come up to Claire and reach his hand out to her.

She swats his hand away and proceeds to walk out.

Her face looks agitated.

She glances over to me and our eyes meet.

I can see tears starting to develop in her eyes.

She quickly averts her gaze from me.

Whilst remaining professional, she darts towards one of the exits.

“Hey!... Claire!” Says one of the men in the office, now walking out in a pointless effort to try to convince Claire to come back.

The man had a Militaresque hat on with large tactical looking boots.

Each step he took in efforts to get Claire to come back, resulted in a loud stomping sound.

I stare at the open door, the leader standing just outside of my view through the doorway.

I lean over to get a better view, even a glimpse of the leader.

Only some of his backside is visible before I see the person now standing right next to me.

It's almost like he completely appeared out of nowhere and now he's suddenly within two meters of me.

How did he manage to do that without making any noise?

He looks like he trains everyday and could practically carry two of me.

His status must be high judging by all the people stopping their work to look over at us.

“Hey, kid!” he says grinning.

I would be lying to say that he did not intimidate me, yet I feel no malicious intent behind his words.

“Hello.” I say, my voice being more meek than intended.

He puts his hand on my shoulder.

I don't resist the seemingly friendly gesture, not that I could even if I wanted to resist.

I look into his face, all I can see is him grinning whilst his hand is still on my shoulder.

Suddenly, my vision starts to blur and spin.

His face and everything around it gets distorted.

What's happening to me?

My vision narrows down to a pinhole and finally, everything fades to darkness for a second time today.