Nick had his book open on the lunch table, but he didn’t read it. He didn’t even pretend to move his eyes. Instead, all Friday morning, he thought about how to escape his house for a while to TP a park.

Walt installed a doorbell camera, but no other cameras were around the house. The camera would turn on if it sensed movement, so as long as he didn’t go near the door, he’d be fine. But he couldn’t get his bike from the garage, since they also had motion detection lights above the garage door. That might trigger the doorbell camera.

Which meant he’d have to walk. He didn’t dare toilet paper anyone’s house, because he was certain everyone in his neighborhood had security systems. The park was the best option. As much as it made his stomach churn.

God, he couldn’t do this again.

That evening at work, two hours into his shift, he took a bathroom break and brought his backpack with him. He grabbed five rolls of toilet paper and stuffed them into his backpack to unload them later into Evelyn’s car. Toward the end of his shift, he grabbed six more before saying goodnight to everyone and slipping out the back door. He checked his watch. The full moon would rise in two and a half hours, and Ezekiel’s cleansing ritual would be complete. They had to be prepared for anything.

As he drove home, he formed a plan to get toilet paper into his house. To sneak it past Walt. There was no way he was keeping this in the back of the car, but he was also painfully aware that he’d need to keep it somewhere under Walt’s roof.

Nick pulled into the garage and grabbed his bag with six toilet paper rolls inside. He walked inside, sliding the rolls under his bed before pressing his luck by doing it again, walking outside and gathering the last five toilet paper rolls before heading inside. He went to open his bedroom door when Walt opened the door down the hall. His father walked right up to him, and Nick’s heart tried to leap out of his throat.

“You will pick up Evelyn at the football game in another hour, then you’ll hang out with your CCNC buddies. You keep your phone on you, and when I tell you to come home, you will come home. Understand?” Walt asked.

“Yep.” Nick kept his voice steady, despite his heart wanting to swan dive onto the carpet.

“Give me the key until then.” Walt held out his hand.

What would I do with a car key in my room for an hour? It was a phrase he left unsaid, because he needed to be on his father’s good side. A question said with annoyance could cause Walt to search his room again, and there were currently six rolls of toilet paper under his bed.

Nick didn’t dare sigh as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the key. In the two days since Evelyn owned this pair of keys, there was already an Elmwood cheer key chain and some pink poofy thing. It was definitely Evelyn’s car key. He dropped it in Walt’s open palm before walking into his room.

“Nick.”

He froze, taking a second to control his face before glancing over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“Once you pick up your sister, she’s the one who’s driving. You need to get used to this.”

Nick had nothing to say. It was almost laughable that Walt was micromanaging this when they were about to make sure Ezekiel got the protection he needed to do his cleansing ritual to keep him from becoming a wererat. Even if they weren’t about to do this, he had a bag full of toilet paper he stole from Mr. Morgan’s store to TP a park to upgrade Grizzizzik’s sword to help murder his father permanently. He was far more nervous about that than the cleansing ritual, if he was being honest.

Nick walked into his room, shutting the door and shoving the toilet paper under his bed. He then sat down, cradling his head as he tried not to think. It never worked. He was a ball of nerves. He stole from Mr. Morgan. Of everything on his plan, this felt the worst. He didn’t dare take toilet paper from school, because there were cameras everywhere. Mr. Morgan trusted him, and for that alone, Nick felt nauseous. If he ever got caught, if Mr. Morgan fired him…

Nick rubbed his head, holding back a sob. It was the possibility of Mr. Morgan’s disappointment in him that almost made him risk returning the toilet paper. To tell him everything. About CCNC, about Grizzizzik’s stupid plan, but it would be pointless. Evelyn couldn’t even hear him. How could Mr. Morgan?

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The door opened, and Grizzizzik slipped through. It caused Nick to jump, prompting Grizzizzik to roll his eyes. “You act like you’ve never done a horrible thing in your life.”

“There are times I regret creating you. I’ve been in a constant state of regret since Halloween.”

Grizzizzik grunted, sitting at the desk. “I am who you wished you were if you possessed a spine.”

“I never want to be you.”

“I am you.” Grizzizzik jerked his head toward the door. “Life dealt us horrible cards. We both have shitty fathers who micromanage every aspect of our lives. And when we try to do our own thing, they throw us in a prison. Humiliate us in front of our peers.”

The words slipped out of Nick. “I wasn’t ‘doing my thing’. I was committing a crime.”

“And do you deserve the punishment he’s given you for the crime?” Grizzizzik asked.

Nick couldn’t look at him. Grizzizzik said what everyone else secretly knew. Walt was too strict. He saw it in the pitiful glances of his friends. The winces as he described what Walt did to him. The frowns as they concluded what he’d known all along. There was nothing anyone could do to stop Walt.

“You know what Akshi did to me. He dragged me to the dungeon, starving me for three days. Brought me out among his peers to humiliate me. I outsmarted every single one of them and escaped.” Grizzizzik walked toward Nick. “You have it worse. You caved.”

Nick stood, because he didn’t want Grizzizzik towering over him. Talking about this with his rogue exhausted him, but he tried again. “If you don’t get it now, you never will. The laws here are different. My dad can’t do to me what Akshi did to you, and I can’t do what you did to Akshi. It. Is. Illegal.”

Grizzizzik gave a nonchalant shrug, which gave Nick a powerful urge to punch his character. “You’re right. It’s almost nicer to have that more brutal existence. It’s easier to weed out the assholes in your life. You’re experiencing a much slower death. So slow you don’t even realize how much it’s hurting you.”

“I know it’s hurting me. God, I’m taking a year off from school to recover.”

“You don’t have to.” Grizzizzik pointed toward Walt’s room. “He’s got you contained, but you need to assert your dominance. You need to show you will not take his shit.”

“By killing him?” Nick asked.

“No. Not by killing him. There are other ways.”

Nick glanced at his character, his eyes narrowed. “If you honestly think you have any credibility in making my life easier, then maybe you shouldn’t have made a deal with Chaos.”

Grizzizzik smiled, shaking his head. “This will help. It will strengthen you.”

“I don’t have to commit a crime to get what I want,” Nick said.

“No one who commits crime actually does so because they have another choice. Laws and rules. They’re not meant for people like us.”

There was a dark feeling in Nick’s gut. Almost a righteous anger. He’d placed it away for so long that he almost forgot what it felt like. Nick closed his eyes.

“There are always people who fall through the cracks,” Grizzizzik whispered, placing a hand on his rapier. “Always people the law can’t quite help. Everyone else lives in a beautiful, lawful society that helps them, but not for us. We live in a far more barbaric world, you and I. Survival of the fittest. You can either rise to the top yourself, or you can die with the weak.”

Nick glared at the floor. “I refuse to believe that I am among the lawlessness you describe. I still have a choice. If you hadn’t made this ridiculous contract, I could have happily waited these next five months until my birthday. That is where the law can help me. My dad has no more power over me the second I turn eighteen.”

Grizzizzik sighed, almost disappointed. “Ezekiel is not yours, you know.”

Nick thought of the many directions this conversation could go. Bringing up Ezekiel was not one of them. “Sorry?”

“In the beginning, when we came here. You tried taking on Ezekiel as your character. He isn’t you.”

“Obviously,” Nick said.

“Then stop acting like him. Stop it with your naivety. Stop this battle of who you think you are. That stupid cleric would already be dead if he had my life.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Don’t you?”

It was far more of a challenge. The truth was, Nick wasn’t sure what to believe. He couldn’t imagine Ezekiel as the son of Akshi, because he didn’t have to. Ezekiel had his own trials to overcome, and he did so in a way true to his character.

“Ezekiel isn’t… Akshi isn’t his father,” Nick said.

“And that’s the difference, right?” Grizzizzik’s eyes were cool and calculating. “I am the son of Akshi, crime lord of Osvoroth. I hate that he’s my father, but at least he’s given me the skills needed to survive. You’ve got to realize that, too. Remember who your father is, and use that to your advantage.”

The door opened, and Walt walked in. “Go get Evelyn. She’ll watch you, but I still want you home before eleven.”

Nick wasn’t prepared for the jarring difference in conversation. He stared at Walt, almost confused. Walt held out the keys to Evelyn’s car, and Nick stared at them. He’d been talking way too long to his character. Things were making sense. It scared him when Grizzizzik made sense.

Nick walked over to Walt, hardly glancing at him as he grabbed the keys. Grizzizzik followed with a smirk as they walked outside and got into the car. Nick situated himself, then placed the key in the ignition, the engine breaking the silence.

Grizzizzik glanced at Nick. “You know I’m right.”

Nick shifted gears, glaring at the road as he pulled out of the driveway. “We’re done talking.”

In reply, Grizzizzik leaned back in his seat and smirked.