Every time Molly was in the technology room for class without Rem or Koz there, it felt odd. Everyone else in class seemed to feel the same way, because other students kept glancing over at the two empty chairs and computers in the corner of the room.

She did not understand how Rem and Koz understood techno magick on the level they did when they were so young. It barely made sense to her. Her Technology class was a nightmare. Apparently, some symbols could be interwoven into coding to do certain things. There was also interchanging of spirit magick into technological devices to give and get in return. Then there was coding or creating some kind of vacuum for the technology to gain or retrieve specific energies. They were discussing all the different types of energies now, along with why certain devices could only take on so much energy, how energies were transferred, and how they were directed by code.

It was all linked to old magick and how old magick worked with incentives, direction, and the flow of energy. But the energy for new magick was in another dimensional world.

Molly was happy that this was an elective class and that it didn’t have any more levels. She was frustrated at Kren for signing her up for it. He’d probably never taken it himself since it was so new. She most likely will fail unless she asked Koz and Rem for help.

But she felt bad even thinking about asking for help because Koz had been awkward around her since she had told them she was an empty vessel. She had Rem’s attention, though, and now she didn’t know what to make of her rash decision. Had it been right or wrong? Because ever since then, it felt as though she were trying to force Ova, Rem, and Koz together.

They didn’t fit well together. Whenever Molly dragged Ova into the technology room, Ova got frustrated with Rem for not paying attention to her or not answering her religious questions. Koz refused to answer them too.

Molly found it pretty funny, but she could tell Koz was annoyed, especially since they were taking up their gaming time. Molly was scared she would annoy them even more if she asked for their help now.

Namu: Tomorrow?

Molly sighed. She had canceled on Namu today. She was tired and didn’t want to deal with him or anything to do with spirit magick. Her last class had already been enough. They had to make their spirits go in and out of a few trees outside and say what they felt from them. Since the incident behind the door, Molly had been unable to get her spirit to come out at all, only that one time Namu had done it. So, she had not gotten anything out of that class but frustration.

Molly: Maybe.

She hoped he wasn’t mad at her. She knew that Ova was getting irritated with her. After Molly had told her what she knew about empty vessels, Ova had become way more persistent about Molly finding a god or goddess to follow. Molly still didn’t want to. She didn’t want to face all the choices and pick the wrong one. She didn’t have time to look up the most popular ones and knew she couldn’t go by Ova’s opinion. If she did, she knew Rexa and Val would have called her a fanatic, which would cause problems if Molly branched off to try to make more friends.

Her classmates were getting up from their desks. They must have been dismissed. Molly hopped up with relief, leaving her book of diagrams and coding, which she knew she would never understand, on the table for the teacher to collect.

Lily was waiting outside the room for her.

“Oh! Hey,” Molly said. She tried to smile but found herself too nervous to do so. Lily’s nose was scrunched up as if she were angry about something. Was it because Molly hadn’t looked hard enough for Lily? There had been so much going on, and she had figured Lily hadn’t wanted anything to do with her after days had passed. “I haven’t seen you in a—”

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She felt her arm. The bracelet wasn’t there. Her cheeks caught fire. She remembered Namu tucking it into his pocket. He had taken it. But Lily didn’t need to know that. They could think that it was in Molly’s room unless Namu told them otherwise.

Lily stared down at Molly’s arm, leaning against the glass wall of the classroom as the teacher passed them. They looked like they might be contemplating Molly’s demise. “I wanted to—I was told to tell you that the bracelet I gave you was a hoax.”

“What?” Molly’s one word felt too small.

“Those bracelets, they can be charmed to work on people like you. I gave it to you so you would do things for me.”

“People like me?”

“Yes. Susceptible people. Don’t you know that you are?”

She was susceptible? Susceptible to what? Wanting a friend?

Molly eyes were about to betray her and show Lily just how naive she had been. They were growing wet with tears.

“Well, anyway. I’m sorry.” Lily turned to walk away.

“Wait!” Molly staggered after Lily but then stopped herself. She had thought that Lily was so cool. That Lily liked her. Molly had thought that she could be liked by someone who knew who they were, someone who fought for their beliefs the way Molly had always dreamed of, someone who was an inspiration and, in a way, a hero. Someone Molly could never be. “You…you didn’t want to be my friend?”

Lily shook their head. “Susceptible. No, Molly. I wanted to use you.”

***

Susceptible? She thought she knew what it meant. She knew the hint of the term. But she had to look it up on her phone to get the exact meaning. To learn that she was liable to be influenced or harmed by others.

Lily had used her? Lily had cornered her and had given her that bracelet because they had known that about her? Just in a couple days? They had known that by barely talking to her? By not even being her friend?

They had known—knew how desperate she was?

Molly slammed the door to her room shut and decided that she would not go to her last class. She also had a text from Ova that she would not answer. They were supposed to meet for break, but she threw her phone on the floor, hoping it would shatter into a million pieces.

Who knew if Ova was using her too. Maybe she was trying to gather followers for a certain side. She sure acted like she was with how she pushed her beliefs on other people.

And at some point, Molly might have fallen for it because she was susceptible.

Liable.

Allowing.

Permitting.

A follower.

The questions that Namu had asked her roamed in her head like a snake, coiling, squeezing, and biting until she threw herself on the bed, screaming and thrashing around.

Namu knew it too. He knew that Molly didn’t know herself. That she was a nobody. He knew that she was susceptible. That the reason she had almost died and had gone into that world was because she was stupid and naive. That was why he had kept the bracelet. She was sure that he had been the one who told Lily to apologize to her too.

But why? Because he felt bad for her? Sorry for her? All her life, she had tried not to make a scene and tried to stay hidden, and somehow, she was more than easy to read. Somehow people understood her better than she understood herself.

Somehow, they told her things about herself before those things had even crossed her own mind.

First, the empty vessel and now this. Two things she hadn’t fully known about herself had been shoved in her face.

Was it because she was an empty vessel that she was ignorant, mindless, naive, and dull, or was it because she was all those things that she had become an empty vessel? Had she been all of those things her entire life? Since birth?

Would she ever even know? Did she have the capability? Was she a joke? Was she just trash?

Fingers lining her sculp, nails ready to bite and pull, she looked around her room. There was nothing there. Nothing. Just like her.

Then she felt it. She felt something by her ear. The little small earrings that Val had convinced her to get. No. That Molly had happily gotten so she could be just like Val. Had she even liked them? Had she actually wanted to get her ears pierced at all? How many decisions had been swayed because she only wanted to please someone? When, if ever, had she made a decision for herself?

She had always been so scared to lose herself, but apparently, as seen by everyone else, she had never truly found herself or known herself at all.

She ripped the earrings out and was happy to see blood.

That bright red blood was hers. It belonged to her.

She got up, her brain fighting the urge to fall into a trance, and went to her drawers. One by one, she jerked them open, pulled all the clothes out, and tossed them to the floor.

The ones that had colors and made her rage inside, she ripped up. The ones that reminded her of her friends’ style, she promised to burn. The ones that she had decided to get only to please, she tore at with her teeth.

She would wear only one outfit now. Day in and day out until she was sent out to get another. The plain blue shirt and jeans she was wearing now. The one with the blood. The one with the memories. The one that would remind her that she needed and wanted to change.

She would no longer be susceptible to anyone else.