I slowly walked out of the alley and started heading home. I felt my hair standing on end, the cool evening air not helping. What I felt most of all was frustration.

I had come unprepared. I didn’t have any weapons on me and while splitting my focus on making sure Ella didn’t notice anything was amiss, I had lost the tracker on our tail. This was bad.

I stuck to the open road as I plotted my way back to the bus. I didn’t want to be caught out alone, luckily there were plenty of people out and about near this area. It was basically a red-light district. The crowd was to my advantage considering that I wanted to slip back home without getting accosted by the mystery pursuer.

An idle thought shot through my head almost disappearing in the waves of considerations I was making.

I caught it, giving me a moment to mull over it, a moment long enough to have me pull out my phone and shoot a text to Ella:

By any chance is there a reason anyone would follow you??

I received a response a few moments later:

No, not that I would know of

Why?

As I looked at the messages I let out the breath that had hitched in my throat. Good, so I was probably the target.

Nothing, just thought I saw a face we had passed a few times while walking. Probably lives in the area.

I closed my phone, hoping the flimsy excuse I gave was enough.

I carefully ducked between crowds and was purposeful in choosing the sideroads I took while heading back. I didn’t take the bus, an arrogant part of me wanted to face down anyone who was following me.

The part that made me uncomfortable was that on my way back home, I didn’t notice a tail the entire way.

The thought gnawed at me as I tried to sleep, Whoever had followed me I noticed easily the first time. It was someone a bit shorter than me who was wearing a grey hoodie. I didn’t catch a good look at their face, but they were easy to notice if you were looking.

Why didn’t I see them on the way back?

That question haunted me to sleep.

_____________________________________________

I woke up the next morning refreshed; the previous night’s concern was still there but was muffled by a long night's rest. It was around ten in the morning as I checked my phone. I had a few texts from Ella asking if I was awake. They looked panicked causing me to shoot to alertness and send a message asking if she was okay.

A few minutes later I got a text back:

Nvm, I was having issues sleeping after the question you asked me. Have a nice day!

I felt guilt immediately hit me; My paranoia affected someone else in a negative way. I took a few breaths as I rubbed my hands on my face. I knew where the paranoia was coming from. I had too many plates spinning, it was messing with my head.

“Hey Liz,” I called out, walking into the living area.

“Yo Trey, what’s up?”

“I think I’m getting burnt out and I’m not sure what I should do,” I told her bluntly.

“I figured as much. Y’know you get this look when you're stressed. Like you’re looking at something far away. You also clench your jaw in this painful-looking way. You’re gonna crack a molar.”

I scoffed, “ Yeah well last time you lost your shit I could’ve sworn you were going to come back a biohazard.”

“Oh fuck off! I only hooked up with a couple of girls.”

“Thirteen. I started counting after three.”

“Thirteen isn’t even a lot.”

“It is for two weeks. I don’t even know how you found all of them.”

“Barhopping. You should come sometime, I could use the company.”

“You could find the company. Besides, all the bars nearby are shitholes.”

“That’s half the fun.”

“Yeah yeah,” I said scoffing.

“No, but in all seriousness, you’re in the final stretch right now. You just gotta hold out a bit longer and you’ll be home from.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I started, “I dunno I just can’t help but feel a bit jittery, like the walls are closing in. And I know I can do it. But that only makes it worse."

"I feel you Trey. You know helplessness isn't always the worst thing. Because then you know nothing you do matters. Sometimes… It's worse knowing that you might fail rather than that you will fail."

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I sat there quietly as Liz's words perfectly resonated with my feelings. I wasn't completely helpless. I was just good enough that I knew I could fix the problems plaguing my mind. I just wasn't good enough where I felt it was a sure thing. The uncertainty was eating away at me, feeling underlying anxieties and paranoia in a way I hadn't dealt with in years. The worst part was that maybe the anxiety would be why I failed. Perhaps a second of doubt—one at the wrong moment—would bring everything crashing down. It could happen when Liz and I were trying to find those kids or during Martha's mission. And then there would be no redos, the only saving grace was I might not have to live with my—

My thoughts were stopped by a different feeling of fear, the primal one I was ever-growing used to these days. I flinched back as Liz's finger shot toward my forehead.

"Wha- right inscription," she said, brushing off the momentary shock. "Anywho, stop spiraling for a second and watch some videos with me. I got that guy who does video essays pulled up on my phone."

I smiled, appreciating the gesture, before I had a chance to even respond, Liz pulled me in, placing my head on her lap as she held the phone in front of us and played the video. Surprisingly, it did help calm me. I found myself grounded in a way I felt like I hadn't been in ages.

We sat there for a long time just watching videos and relaxing

_____________________________________

I woke up bleary and delirious. I immediately reached into my pocket for my phone and pulled it to check the time. It was late in the evening and I had a text.

Liz told me she would be out for a bit. My mouth was dry, so I got up for water.

After pouring a glass and sitting back down I turned my phone back on and lowered the brightness so I could read it without blinding myself.

My headspace felt different. I was calm. Things felt peaceful. I sat there and read a book I had downloaded on my phone. I don’t know how long I did that for.

Eventually, Liz came back.

“Oh you’re awake, how you feeling?” She asked.

“Tired, mostly,” I responded, closing my book reader and stretching.

“Well, I hope you’re in good condition, I think it's about time to see what we’re going to do with about the doctor’s friend,” she said.

I sighed, “Yeah, I guess we should.”

She sat down next to me, “So, how are we doing this?”

__________________________________________________________________

The two of us went over how we were going to deal with this guy. By the end of it we had something that was less of a plan and more of a shakedown. I was noticing a pattern.

There was a tacit understanding that this was going to go poorly. Thus the majority of the plan was to react and improvise.

Liz laughed once we were done talking about it.

“Ya know, I’m starting to think we’re not that good at planning.”

“No, We’re just way too good at getting in over our head.”

____________________________________________________________________

Before the confrontation, there was one more thing I wanted to do. I didn’t have a weapon, nor the time to create something truly useful or long-lasting. What I could do was use some of the spare material we had to create something to help us if shit hit the fan, so that’s what I did.

It took a few hours to mock up the design, helped by the fact I’ve done something similar on a larger scale for Martha before. This one was smaller, weaker, and cruder. Quite literally worse in every aspect. But it would be effective. Thankfully due to the nature of this project, it didn’t even need any mana gems, just a bit of alaster to transmit the mana and some clever warding.

After construction I began priming my new toy; it wasn’t easy, but it was much easier now than it would have been for me just a few weeks ago. I noticed the wards were beginning to strain, a sign that the setup was complete.

I mulled over its design for a second. Simple. I gave it another look over, something bothering me. Something bothered me.

That feeling only lasted a moment before I realized what it was.

___________________________________________________________________

It was time.

After a certain point there was nothing more to be done but wait so that’s what we did. And the moment came as quickly and unceremoniously as every other.

We donned the masks we wore before. Threw on another set of cheap indistinct sweats. I didn’t hesitate to bring my gun this time.

“Hey, what’s the odds this goes well?” I asked Liz. She just laughed in response as we finished getting ready.

The two of us walked out the complex’s front door.

‘Everything is happening so fast,’ I thought to myself. My heart hammered in my chest as we made our way to the meetup.

It wasn’t hard for us to figure out where they met. The location was in the chat logs towards the beginning of the conversation.

I shuddered remembering the chat logs, the cold indifference of it all still worming its way around in my head.

Luckily for us, the two met up near the old docks, only a few blocks away from where I had my inscription ceremony done.

Actually, a warehouse not too far from there was blown up not too long before that now that I thought about it.

Truly was a lovely place to be.

We arrived well before the meet-up and scouted out the spot from pretty far away.

About an hour after we saw who we thought was our guy walk over to the dock.

He was alone which gave us pause. After all, it was pretty likely he knew this was some type of trap.

We took measures to fuck over the doctor sure, but there was no way he didn’t have a PC at home or some other method of contacting this guy.

If there were guards or something we planned on trying to do this the quick and messy way. Well—at least I did. Liz may genuinely believe should could take down half a dozen men but I sure as hell don’t.

This was messier. A not-so-wild guess was he was either scribed or had some type of artifice. Or both.

“Scribed or artificed, taking bets now,” I joked as I glanced over at Liz. This sort of gallows humor helped keep my mind off of the rest of my racing mind.

“Knowing you, you’re betting on both. I’mma go with option four: both and has backup somewhere,” she said.

“Where? We have a clear line of site from here.”

“Depends. Could be inside one of the warehouses,” she said, pointing to the warehouses in question.

“Down the street? Take too long to get here.”

“Invisibility?”

I laughed, “If that’s the case we’re fucked either way.

“Exactly. Ain’t no point worrying about things we can’t control. I say we stroll up and just have a crack at it. Worst case we bail.”

“Where? Docks are pretty open ‘til you reach the warehouse.”

“Well…” she simply pointed and let my eyes follow her finger.

This wasn’t going to go well.