Lachersia and Jennifer dined in silence.

They needed to initiate the conversation to proceed with whatever else they would then plan to do but they couldn’t due to their hesitation.

Their relationship was splendid so far. Never before has Lachersia felt so close to anybody in the world.

Nobody out of all the people she had met and known were ever people to her. They were never individuals with their own circumstances, not even once had she taken them for who they truly were.

Her family was forever tied to the memories of the monster attack that killed them. She didn’t feel any affection for them and the only times she thought of them were the times she remembered the despair she felt when her life was about to end back then.

Her father was the embodiment of his conviction to save the innocent from monsters. She didn’t know and neither did she care for what kind of person he was outside of that belief.

The hero was hope. He tragically sacrificed himself to end the previous Demon Wave and before that he fought with all he had to defend humanity. That was all she thought of him. Admiration and grief, the emotions that she held towards him were directed towards the faceless ideal that had the name “hero”. It wouldn’t matter to her if the hero was a different person, she would think of them all the same.

And the less interesting people unworthy of being mentioned separately, of course, were just decorations: faces and names whose importance and relevance was so insignificant that Lachersia hadn’t even once had the idea that there was more to them than she perceived, that they had feelings, aspirations and desires of their own.

They were nothing more but strokes of paint meant to be placed close together so that the dark shades could draw out the dramatic beauty of life on its great canvas with the assistance of the vibrant colors. That was as far as their worth went for Lachersia. As far as anybody’s worth went for her.

But Jennifer… She was different.

She wasn’t an abstract idea given form and she wasn’t a faceless decoration. She was a real person.

Despite them knowing each other for only so long she had already wormed her way into Lachersia’s heart.

Every time they met, Lachersia would pay her whole and undivided attention to the person hiding behind the façade of a confused and frightened little girl. Even though Jennifer acted in a way that would make everybody else subconsciously assign a label to her and think of her as nothing more than that label implied, she had failed wonderfully when it came to Lachersia.

Lachersia would never find another person that would be able to replace what Jennifer has become to her. Lachersia would think of Jennifer and not associate those thoughts with any concept or role. Aside from, maybe, happiness, she would think solely of Jennifer. Though in this case, it would be that when she thought of happiness, her thoughts would inevitably drift towards Jennifer.

That was why at that moment Lachersia felt fear. She was afraid that the relationship she had with the girl would die and that the feeling of intimacy would fade now that she demanded honesty from Jennifer. She was afraid that Jennifer would drift away, disappear never to be seen again. And yet, she was excited. If they didn’t grow apart, they would grow closer. She desired to see more of this little person that would always hide behind a thick veil of lies and deceit, she hungered for the moment she would be able to tear that veil apart and grab the person that had shaken her world so, never to let go.

The fear and excitement created unimaginable tension within her mind but it didn’t show on her face. She simply looked at Jennifer solemnly.

***

Jennifer was sad. Honesty was never something she excelled at. Though her new life began less than a week ago because of the memory loss, she didn’t have a single doubt the previous her wasn’t fond of honesty either.

She loved the truth. The truth is something you could trust and rely on. But honesty and truth were two different things. Even when facing the harshest of truths one would be able to look into it with no fear if they looked into it and changed the shape it took to their desire. The truth could have many faces after all.

The problem was that trust between two people required a certain level of honesty. And Jennifer needed Lachersia’s trust.

It wasn’t simply because of Lachersia’s influence and power that could shield her from the hostile and selfish intention of the people of the world she was summoned to. No, it was because she felt welcomed and accepted only when she was with Lachersia. She felt that even though the world looked at her and saw a way to solve their problem, Lachersia alone didn’t see the hero that would save the day in her.

She could feel safe and protected only when she was close to Lachersia. And she also felt a bizarre sense of satisfaction and fulfilment when she was close to her, she basked in the feeling and she slowly enjoyed and savoured it.

“And I think we both understand that it would be for the better to be more open with each other, don’t you think so? While I truly enjoy our current relationship, we both know that it can’t last forever?”

Those words stabbed right into Jennifer’s small heart. They were sudden but she had been expecting them to come long ago.

“Nothing does. Sigh. Nothing lasts forever…”

She liked to hide behind her lies and build personas that would act in her stead. It was always more simple to hide behind a mask as it didn’t feel personal. Removing the mask would take things to Jennifer herself. This way of doing things was too dangerous and scary. Much scarier than waking up in an alien world and being expected to fight the battles of some people she couldn’t care less about.

Were it Jeremy instead of Jennifer, he would be frantically thinking of ways to escape, to come up with better lies and distractions, trying to remember even the smallest details to aid him in disappearing. He would unhesitantly abandon whatever he had. He would always burn the bridges that led to weaknesses and whenever he felt that his feelings took him too close for comfort, he would run.

Alas, it was Jennifer. The little girl that didn’t even know herself. Despite her calm behavior, she was filled with anxiety, anger and fear in the new world. She felt weak and vulnerable and she had met a person that made her feel safe, somebody who gave her a new home and somebody who accepted her fully without even knowing her well enough.

Stolen novel; please report.

That was why she braved her first step into the unknown and decided to be honest with Lachersia.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Jennifer and I am a person that was summoned from another world”

“Nice to meet you too, please call me Lachersia. I’m the head Court magician and the director of the Royal Institute of Magic and Arcane arts of the Trelos-Agapi kingdom”

***

Jeremy was stuck in a cage. It wasn’t a metaphor, he quite literally was put in the cage after Delilah had kidnapped him.

He was rather unhappy about it but he wasn’t in a position to change his circumstances. At least Delilah took care of him and spent a lot of time with him. It was a good thing and the thing he enjoyed the most about his stay in their “new home”.

How she has been able to find this place he didn’t know. The abandoned house was way too clean and its condition was too good to be abandoned for too long. He didn’t know what Delilah was thinking and how far her plans went. It wasn’t like she was planning to have him stuck in the cage forever now, was it? It could be she was. He has long known of her insanity and come to accept it.

There were many things he was curious about but chose to stay silent. Some things were better left unsaid.

He’s been here for two weeks already. There was no doubt his family has begun searching for him. It wouldn’t be hard for them to recognize who was the culprit.

Would they find him? Probably. Would they find them before the police would after they caught on whatever crazy deed Delilah had committed? Likely. Would they find him before Delilah decided to commit another insane deed? Questionable. Delilah knew how to hide her traces. She might’ve been insane but she wasn’t stupid.

Hopefully, the incident would end as a small inconvenience at best. It would be a pain to defend Delilah from the retaliation that would come afterwards but it wouldn’t be impossible. He just needed to-

*BAM*

The door to the cellar he was in was broken down. A young man with an axe was standing at the door’s entrance and looking at him in panic for a whole second. Then he frantically ran towards him.

“Looks like an ordinary civilian. What is going on?”

“My God, there was a living person here!”

The young man paled and quickly muttered. He was not very loud as he was probably very afraid to be found so he kept his voice to the minimum.

“Hey, are you alright? My friends and I noticed some suspicious shit going on and tried to investigate and…”, the young man was shaking in fear and his already pale face was further drained of color “Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. This place is crazy! I’ll get you out man, we’ll run… don’t worry” His words were jumbled and he was barely understandable because he was speaking to fast. He must’ve experienced something very mind-shaking. The fact that he still tried to save somebody after whatever had befallen him spoke volumes of his character.

Jeremy pretended to be weak and lethargic. It was easy as staying in a cage inside a cellar of an abandoned house for two weeks was not very healthy. He watched as the young man began to fiddle with the lock of the cage. His movements were too shaky and he wasted a lot of time but he managed to open it in the end.

He led Jeremy out of the cage and supported him on the way out. When they exited the cellar, the house was abnormally quiet. There was a lot of rubbish on the floor and many new gashed on the wall as if something big had taken place.

The young man gulped.

“We’ll have to find my friends first before we escape. They must be around here somewhere”

They slowly trod across the house, afraid of their own shadows. The young man was, at least. Looking at the traces of fighting Jeremy was a little nervous too though. The cellar completely isolated the noise from the outside so he wouldn’t know what would be happening above him even if he strained his ears. He was aware of it before but didn’t pay it any attention until now.

They soon heard some muffled groans. The young man’s pace quickened and he began to look even more nervous and pale. Jeremy wondered if the guy will faint at this rate.

The saw an opened door and through it, they saw a young woman with a knife in her hand crouching next to a lying struggling person bound with rope.

“Why did you have to come here?”

She spoke softly and calmly though it was unnerving in its own way.

“I planned for so long, I thought I had found the ideal place to be left alone… and to think that some completely unrelated people would find this house… I am very, very sad”

She stabbed the knife right next to the person’s head. The young man froze in fear and held his breath. His hands were shaking and his eyes opened so wide they felt like they would fall out of his sockets.

“How did you find this place, is not important”

She kicked the lying person that made them groan in pain.

“It isn’t”

She stomped on the person’s arm making them silently cry through the cloth that was stuffed in their mouth.

“But you disturbed our peace, so you will pay for it”

She began stomping on the person’s arm, causing the person to writhe in pain.

The young man was still shaking, but he collected his breath and clumsily charged towards Delilah, axe in hand.

Jeremy wasn’t expecting Delilah to be caught unprepared. Both she and the young man fell over and began to struggle. The young man was winning and he placed the handle of the axe against Delilah’s throat and began to strangle her while shouting unintelligible curses.

Jeremy felt surprised. And he also felt worry and hesitation. He didn’t know whether he should let them end Delilah or whether he should save her. She was crazy and she many times had caused him a lot of pain. Several times his life was on the line. By all means, he should’ve helped the young man but… he realized that he would feel devastated if she had died.

That’s why he quietly paced towards them, picked up the knife and slashed the young man’s throat. His arms might’ve weakened a lot after all the time spent in the cage and his hands were a bit clumsy, but he felt little resistance when the blade sunk into the tender flesh of the throat of the young man. He could feel the skin giving way, the resistance of the muscles and the way they tore, he could feel the blood soiling his hands while the knife reached the bone.

The eyes full of astonishment and resentment as the lights faded in them and the face of the young man who tried to speak through the torn voice box burned into his memory.

He wasn’t heartless and murder was something he found deeply revolting. He also liked the young man. He was so afraid and yet he freed Jeremy when he found him as if it was natural, with absolutely no hesitation.

He was innocent. He simply found a strange abandoned house with his friends and tried to explore it. Alright, maybe it was a bit dumb, but young people tend to do dumb things. They didn’t deserve to die for it. Delilah could easily hide herself and Jeremy, she could lead them astray, she could use countless methods to prevent the worst outcome.

Then none of it would happen. The world gave way under Jeremy’s feet and he felt sick.

Tears began gathering in his eyes but all those thoughts and feelings went away when he saw Delilah being freed. They were replaced with worry. He lunged towards her and held her small and thin frame. He knew he should’ve resented her, hated her, cursed her, but he could only feel the love he held for her at that moment.

“I’m such a hypocrite. I might be just as insane as Delilah”

The thought seemed funny and he was distracted by it. During that moment, Delilah wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him.

As both of them were stained with blood, he felt its taste in his mouth but he still felt happy and enjoyed the moment.

Half of his mind was panicking, as he understood that he was about to allow her to come too close to his heart. The other half wanted to let her in. But none of the conflict showed through.

After they were done, Delilah finished the other person that was still writhing on the floor. There was no change in her expression and the way she acted. She probably didn’t even think that what she was doing was wrong.

They also had two other people with them. Delilah was able to take care of them before the young man even freed Jeremy. That was why she was unprepared for the attack.

They burned the bodies and then acted as if none of it had happened. Jeremy was still conflicted on the inside. His feelings were too complicated. But his fear of letting her get too close slowly began overpowering his love for her.

Several days later they were found. Jeremy had made a decision regarding Delilah. He felt bitter to know that he was too scared to fully trust her. He felt like his heart was being torn apart when he thought of the expression she would make when he would escape. He would hit the walls in his room at home at the anger towards himself. He would yell and cry and scream. But his resolve was unwavering.

That was how his first love came to an end.