Nick kept reading his book. The doorbell was ringing less and less. Most of the little kids had gone to bed at this point. He wanted to turn off the porch light but kept it on for his parents. They didn’t tell him what time they were coming home. He didn’t know if they had a work party, or if it was an excuse to change the cars for tomorrow.

Grizzizzik walked down the stairs, holding Evelyn in his arms. Nick frowned, getting up. “Is… she okay?” Nick asked.

“She’s asleep. Deeply, too.”

“Uh, yeah. Okay. Let’s… get her to bed.”

Nick moved to her room and opened the door. He stepped out of the way as Grizzizzik moved inside. The rogue threw back her covers and placed her in bed before leaving the room again. Nick frowned, a memory triggered of two years ago when Walt tried to lead Evelyn to bed. She woke up, demanding to take her makeup off and do her full skin care routine. She hated going to bed with makeup on, and she forced herself to wake up and get it off.

But Evelyn here was dead asleep. It didn’t just trigger a memory. It triggered a warning in his gut. Something was off.

He closed the door, frowning, before returning to the table. He paused, then climbed upstairs. The TV was still on as Grizzizzik placed blankets on everyone. Milo, Ezekiel, Clarissa, and Hraktar were all in the same dead-to-the-world sleep Evelyn was in. Hraktar was snoring, the kind that should have woken the others up.

Nick picked up the remote and turned off the tv. “What’s… going on?”

“What do you mean?” Grizzizzik asked.

“They’re asleep.”

“It happens at night.”

“You know what I mean. They shouldn’t be this out.” Nick gave Ezekiel’s leg a gentle shake, a chill entering his spine. “Is Akshi trying something?”

“No.”

“How are you so sure?” Nick asked.

Grizzizzik said nothing, instead walking down the stairs. Nick frowned, then focused on the characters again. He tried to move Milo into a more comfortable position, but ended up making him more flopped over the side of the couch. He added another blanket to Hraktar’s feet as he tried not to panic. Something was happening, and his character was way too calm about this.

Nick went downstairs again when he felt it deep in his gut. Grizzizzik had left the house and was walking down the street.

“Goddamn rogues,” Nick muttered. He ran to Evelyn’s room, turning on the light. “Evelyn? Evelyn, I need your help. Grizzizzik’s leaving. Help me bring him back.” His sister didn’t react to the light or his voice. She kept sleeping. “Evelyn?”

She didn’t move, and Nick realized it wasn’t Evelyn he needed. Of everyone in the house, he needed Hraktar. He turned the lights off and headed for the stairs again when he stopped. The feeling was there, so deep he could almost translate it into words. Earlier in the evening, he was prompted to roll for sleight of hand. He got a seventeen while Grizzizzik was in the kitchen where Evelyn popped popcorn. Hraktar was in the same deep sleep as Evelyn was. Everyone was. Akshi didn’t drug anyone. This was all Grizzizzik. But… how? How did he drug Evelyn? She shouldn’t be susceptible to sleeping potions from the Shrouded Domain.

Grizzizzik was getting farther from the house the more Nick stalled. He swore under his breath and flew down the stairs. He grabbed his jacket before sprinting out the door.

“Grizzizzik!” Nick tried to whisper, but his rogue was already down the street. “Get back here!”

Grizzizzik didn’t respond, instead walked down the sidewalk with his hood up. Nick swore under his breath and ran. Grizzizzik stepped into the park close to their house. Nick checked the roads before crossing the street. Grizzizzik sat on the bench, gripping his knees as he stared at nothing.

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“Get back home. Now.” Nick pointed toward the road. “You drugged them, didn’t you? What did you hope to prove?” Grizzizzik said nothing, the hood of his cloak over his head as he closed his eyes. “How did you drug Evelyn? Answer me!”

“Shut up, Nick. I’m concentrating,” Grizzizzik said.

“Concentrate at home!”

Grizzizzik cracked an eye open, glaring at Nick. “Do you want me to level up or not?”

“Obviously yes,” Nick said.

“Then shut up.”

Nick wondered how well he could drag Grizzizzik by the hood of his cloak back to his house. Evelyn had done it before.

“Don’t worry, Nick Larsen,” a voice behind him said. “Grizzizzik is here for me.”

Every hair on the back of Nick’s neck stood on end. There was something about that voice. It shouldn’t have been English he heard. More like a cacophony of random noise that somehow came together to make sense.

Nick whirled around to see a figure standing there in the lamplight. Nick blinked, not understanding what he saw. The figure’s very essence was falling apart. Yet despite what looked like his clothes and body in a constant state of rot, he stood like he was perfectly healthy. The man dropped the hood of his robe to show a face, continuous boils of decay and swirling darkness. His body crumbled away somehow in a continuous motion that never rebuilt on itself.

His eyes. Nick couldn’t understand them. It was almost like the building blocks of random particles came together to form eyes. The longer he looked, the more this person’s eyes shifted and changed, a continual rearrangement of particles that were somehow eyes.

“Careful, boy,” the man said. “Stronger people than you have lost their mind keeping my gaze for as long as you have.”

Nick turned away on instinct, trying to blink. Trying to come to terms with what was happening. But he only had one word to describe the person he saw.

Chaos.

The being walked over to Grizzizzik. Nick wasn’t sure if the threat was true about losing his mind, but he didn’t want to test it. His body shuddered in response. Every time the being’s rotten foot touched the grass, the blades broke down, each individual shard cycling to different plants, a dandelion appearing in one, and a rose in another. Some even had plastic streamers in the blades of grass. It made no sense, but it returned to grass once the personification of chaos had passed.

“Do you recognize me in this form?” the being said, opening his arms.

“Yes.” Grizzizzik kept his eyes to the ground.

“Good. I hoped you would. I left my physical body up to chance, but it seems to fit with the discussion you wish to have,” Chaos said as the disease on his leg kept rotting away the flesh. Nick waited for it to heal itself, because things couldn’t get that bad with no hope of getting better. Yet the leg continued to rot, a constant state of disease. Not even death could touch it.

The being smiled at Grizzizzik. “You have questions for me, yes?”

“Don’t.” Nick’s chest heaved as he turned to face his character. “Whatever it is, don’t.”

His rogue ignored him. “You are the being, Chaos?”

“I am.”

Grizzizzik didn’t look at Chaos. “You’re not on the list of deities I’ve researched.”

Chaos lifted a decayed hand. “I’m not one to tether myself with mortals. I’d rather deal with the deities themselves, and many of them follow me or one of my children. However, since deities rarely walk this planet, I understand your predicament.”

This was the being Neal signed a contract with. The being responsible for getting them in this situation.

“Grizzizzik,” Nick whispered. “Please, don’t listen to him. Nothing good can come from this.”

Chaos turned his gaze to Nick, raising an eyebrow. “Nothing good?”

“You don’t know what I’m going to do,” Grizzizzik said, looking at Nick.

“If it involves Chaos, it’ll never work. Not in your favor. This guy is the reason you’re here. You cannot trust him,” Nick said.

Chaos smirked. “Oh, I wouldn’t say my deals don’t work. There’s always an element of chance to it.”

Grizzizzik returned his focus to his foot. “We are here on this mana deprived planet. There are no magical artifacts, and we can hardly interact with the world itself.”

“Grizzizzik, please,” Nick said.

The rogue met Chaos’ gaze. “If you are who I think you are, and if I’m doing what I think I’m doing, I will pledge my service to you in exchange for a sword powerful enough to kill Akshi. Permanently.”

Everything in Nick’s body froze, to the point he couldn’t even gasp. It lasted two seconds before his knees went weak. “No. No, no, no, Grizzizzik, no. We’ll find another way.”

Grizzizzik dropped his gaze, staring again at the ground that seemed to grow socks. A smirk filled Chaos’ decaying mouth. “I love the desperate. They tend to do such chaotic things.”

“He doesn’t pledge to you.” Nick stumbled forward. “Grizzizzik doesn’t do that. At all. He has friends he can rely on. He doesn’t need you.”

Grizzizzik glared at Nick. “‘Friendship’ doesn’t kill Akshi.”

“You need them, not him,” Nick said. “Please, Grizzizzik. Don’t do this.”

“I’m not bargaining my actual sword, as you don’t have the mental fortitude to wield it without going insane.” Chaos lifted a hand, and a black essence appeared, hovering in the air. “You seek this. This is my concoction of mana that, once fused with your rapier, becomes powerful enough to kill your father like he was any other mortal.”

Grizzizzik reached out to catch the essence, but Chaos closed his hands, and the darkness disappeared. “Ah, ah, ah. You’ve clearly been studying, so you must know I don’t enter contracts without terms.”