Grim waited outside Jin and Louis' bedroom. It was past ten, and they had both long gone to bed. Louis worked early in the morning and didn’t like staying up too late, which worked out for them.

Their room was at the end of the hallway, and Grim had left the light on behind her, casting her shadow just enough to reach underneath their door. She summoned Hazel, and the tendrils stretched as far away from her as they could, underneath the door and into their room.

After she did that, she left Hazel and ran downstairs to the bathroom. Damp towels covered the floor as she walked on top of them to the sink, where the culprit of the watery mess was. Inside the cabinet, she grabbed a spare copper pipe that was lying there. It was hefty and would make for a decent weapon, especially once it was combined with Louis’ boon. He had [As Light As A Feather], which made metal much lighter. He’d never told her specifics, but it’d be enough to make the pipe a good improvised weapon.

“What are you doing?”

Grim turned around, hiding the pipe behind her back. Sam stood there, staring at her with big, round eyes. He was seven or eight and clutched a Valorant and Aegis blanket around him like a cape.

“Nothing, just wanted to see how bad the sink was leaking.” Grim lied as she felt a tug from Hazel. She ignored it.

“Mason broke it, it wasn’t me,” Sam said, in a way that made it quite clear to her that he very much did break it.

Another tug came from inside her. More insistent. She couldn’t bring her back yet, not with Sam watching.

Grim shooed him out and back towards his room, putting the pipe down when he wasn’t looking, “It’s fine, Louis will fix it. Just get some sleep, okay? You’ve got school.”

Sam stood at the entrance to his room. He turned and whispered to her, “Then why is everyone angry? Jin only hugged me twice before bed.”

Without warning, the tug between them no longer became a request, and Hazel came rushing back. Grim grabbed Sam’s shoulders and turned him around gently as her shadow formed into a person behind her. He tried to turn around, but seeing no other choice, Grim wrapped her arm around him and squeezed, holding him there. It was a clumsy excuse for a hug, but Sam wasn’t old enough to complain.

“There, that’s three. Now get to bed, okay? They’re angry about me, so you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Grim said.

“What did you— “

“Shhh, if you go to bed right now, I’ll explain in the morning.”

Sam sighed, “Promise?”

“Promise,” Grim said as she closed the door.

Hazel stood behind her, her eyes darted back and forth as she fidgeted. She looked like she was going to speak, but Grim interrupted her before she could.

“What’s wrong?”

“He wasn’t in his bed, I don’t think he’s home.”

“Where is he?” Grim asked as they walked upstairs.

“I’m not sure. I tried to copy one of Jin’s so we didn’t leave with nothing, but when I touched her, she started waking up. I think she thought I was Louis. She asked me how it went, and after I didn’t reply, she got up before I could grab anything. I had to leave, or else she would have seen me.”

That was weird. Where would he have gone at this hour? He had work in the morning and he was always the one harping on how important sleep was. Jin seemed to know about it, too, which at least meant he wasn’t cheating on her.

“That’s shitty, but it’s fine. We’ll have to make do without.”

The two of them left the house and walked up to a hover taxi sitting across the street. She had a bad feeling about how familiar it looked. When they got close, the window rolled down, and her fears were confirmed.

It was the Driver who’d kidnapped her in the first place, sporting a new suit without a stab hole in it.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"You're late," He said.

"The fuck do I care? You kidnapped me, remember?"

The older man squinted at her before he recognized her, "Oh yeah, you stabbed me. Get in, we've got places to go."

"You don't care?"

"No. It was a good reminder not to get sloppy, It could've been a lot worse. Now let's go, if you want to talk we can talk on the way."

Grim had issues with this but ultimately kept them to herself. Her complaints wouldn’t change anything at this point.

Hazel made sure to get in first and nodded once she confirmed it was safe. Grim followed her in but shot her a look when she was still sitting in the middle seat.

“Can you move?” Grim asked.

“No.”

Grim sighed and got in beside her. The hover taxi took off a moment later.

“You’re okay with that?” The Driver asked, but not to either of them.

“Yeah,” Volk said from the passenger seat in the front. She’d just noticed that he’d been there the whole time.

Grim recoiled, “Fuck me, where’d you come from?”

The Driver laughed, “Get’s me every time.”

“Sorry, I felt something was wrong, but I didn’t notice,” Hazel whispered.

“It’s fine,” Grim said, then turned to Volk. “Very scary. What are we doing here?”

Volk paused, considering his words, “I want there to be an understanding between us, about why we let you live.”

“Because I have your former boss’s Boon, and I can make you a lot of money?”

“It’s not about money,” Volk said. “It’s because we needed Cede. We needed his help.”

“Help you with what?”

“How old do you think I am?” Volk asked.

He looked to be in his forties or fifties. Strands of gray poked out of his close-cropped haircut while wrinkles marred his face.

“Is this a trick question? You’re like fifty or something.”

“Fifty three!” Hazel guessed.

“Both of you are wrong,” Volk said. “I’m fucking twenty-two.”

“There is no way,” Hazel said.

He tossed his ID into the back seat, Grim picked it up and scanned the document. She saw a young man who vaguely looked like he could’ve been Volk. His hair was longer, and he had no scar across his neck, but they had the same facial features. The ID was dated for three years ago and also had his full name.

“Yulian Volkanovski?” Grim said.

“Yeah.”

“Wow, you really got fucked up, how’d that happen?”

“Bad Boon. Same as everyone else who rolls bad,” He pointed at his neck, highlighting the scar. “Instead of being hurt, I age. Cut gave me ten years.”

Grim followed along and came to the obvious conclusion, “So you wanted Cede to get rid of it right? Why didn’t you?”

“I’m a Blank.”

What?

That shouldn’t be possible. Blanks were people without access to the system. Nobody knew why it happened, but they couldn’t advance or get boons. He shouldn’t have gotten one in the first place.

“Then how do you have one?”

“Not sure. Should’ve died when I got the scar. Woke up instead. No one I found could help me, until Cede. If I could get rid of it? Maybe I’d be okay. Maybe I’d die. At least I’d be in a body that was mine.”

“But you don’t know the name?”

“Yeah,” Volk said.

Hazel piped up, “I could find out the name! My Boon lets me— “

Grim shouldered her to shut her up. Volk turned around, now thoroughly interested in what she had to say.

“You could?”

Grim didn't want to reveal that, but Hazel had already ruined that plan. “Yeah, she could. Say, what’s the chance we help you out, and you just let us go? We forget this whole job you wanted us to do today.”

Volk laughed, “Tempting, but we’d have to kill Maribelle, and I am not willing to do that. Besides, the job is worth five hundred thousand.”

Grim nearly spit, “Holy fuck, why so much?”

That amount of money would buy enough shards to shoot her all the way up to C rank. She’d still have to fight an E and D-rank Guardian to advance, but between her and Hazel they should be able to do it.

“Mari will explain. This is the offer. Do this job, fix me and her. We let you go, forget we ever saw each other, and you walk away with one hundred thousand. Good deal, yes?”

That’d be enough for D-rank, at least, plus enough money to get an apartment and some equipment, but they needed her, not the other way around.

“Two hundred, one hundred for the job and fifty for fixing each of you,” Grim said.

He looked pained, but he nodded, “One hundred after the job is done, the rest only if you can fix us.”

“Deal. What’s wrong with Mari?”

“Are we sure we want to help her? She wasn't very nice,” Hazel said.

Volk blew out a deep breath, “You must give her some grace. I do not know the specifics of her and Mr. Cede’s relationship, but she cared deeply for him. He is now dead, and you wield the ghost of his namesake.”

Hazel scowled, “He shouldn’t have messed with us, it was his fault.”

“Perhaps he shouldn’t have, but it remains the same that he was the only hope of fixing us,” Volk said. “Her problem is very different than mine, you have felt her grip, yes?”

Her grip was so tight it felt like she was rubbing her bones together, “Yeah, I remember.”

“That is not a Boon. Functionally, she is D-rank, but she is weak everywhere except her hands. That is where she is strong, uncontrollably so.”

“Okay, that sucks, but what’s the problem?”

“She has a baby she cannot hold without crushing.”

“Oh,” Both Grim and Hazel said at the same time.

She didn’t know how she was supposed to fix that. It wasn’t possible to go down a rank once you advanced, at least not as far as she knew. [CEDE] wouldn’t help either, it only affected Boons. She’d need to find some other way.

“We’re here.” The Driver said.

But they just left? No, they were at the scrapyard.

“That’s freaky,” Hazel said.

“Agreed,” Grim said as they got out of the—

— There was nothing in front of them.

Volk was a couple of feet in front of them, closer to the entrance of the scrapyard's office.

“Are you coming?”