Having a boyfriend was a first for Noelle. She hadn’t even gotten along with a boy before, let alone date one, but by the end of September her first semester her and Andrew were the talk of the dorm.

“Those two...can you really believe it?”

“He’s so cute too. I never would’ve guessed he’d go for that sarcastic bitch.”

All of the chatter and rumours surrounding their relationship failed to dissuade her. In fact, she doubled down. Once November rolled around he had already come up to meet her parents for Thanksgiving (they approved of him strongly, mostly because his family was from money) and Noelle stayed at his place back in Jersey during the holidays. They carried on and once fall the next year started they moved in together.

It was a blissful three and a half years before it fell apart.

It all started because of a small misstep. He had let someone upload an image to social media he shouldn’t have. Andrew was quick to have it taken down, but it was too late. While Noelle disliked following people online, her old friend Emily was a different matter. The woman Andrew had been with, and what they had done together, was quickly unveiled.

Women, actually. It wasn’t just one time.

And there she was. Single, one friend states away, and the prospect of multiple years of law school drudgery looming over her. She needed to escape somehow; there was no way she could go on like this. Not with her nothing of a life.

And then…

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An owl whinied in the distance, prompting Noelle to look outward. As she did the street light she was under shut off and on again, all in under a second.

Noelle froze in place, surprised about being plunged into darkness and discombobulated from how quickly it had ended. She had seen street lights fail to stay on before,but they had always flickered. The orange glow of the streetlight’s sodium bulb hadn’t even faded, it had slammed to being off as if all the electricity was sucked from it instantly.

As she pondered this the light changed from on to off again. She could hear a bang as this happened. Noelle thought it was a weird notion, but it sounded like something was moving inside the electricity itself.

Her attention shifted to a flash in her peripheral vision, the same phenomenon had just happened to the light farther down the street.

And again, with a light farther on.

And again…

The lights were turning on and off in sequence, travelling down the street before the event occured over again. It was like an airplane landing strip, only instead of directing a plane it was a route for electricity to flow in.

Noelle chose to follow this guide in the night. She took off at a light jog, going in the direction the lights were flowing. She took a left at the corner, then another as she reached the next street. Before she knew it she was at an intersection. Light flows were coming from multiple routes now, all terminating at the same lamp with a slumped body underneath it.

Alarmed, Noelle sprinted over. Beneath the light was an unconscious girl. She was breathing lightly, as if asleep. Judging from her appearance Noelle believed her to be a university student.

A harsh buzzing sound came from above them. Noelle looked up, the streetlight hanging over her head growing brighter and brighter as the light streams converged on it. The light was positively blinding now, its glow illuminating the street as if it was day.

There was a shower of sparks as the light burst from within. Noelle threw her body over the unconscious girl, shielding her from a rain of glass and detritus from the now destroyed arc tube. Once Noelle was convinced the danger was gone, she lifted her body. The whole area had been plunged in darkness.

The girl had recovered as well, now standing in front of Noelle with a blank look on her face. Noelle’s blood froze at the sight of her. This shouldn’t have been possible. Even though the person in front of her looked like the university girl she had spotted earlier, it felt terribly wrong.

The reason why was simple.

How could the girl be beneath and in front of Noelle at the same time?

Noelle stood to her full height. At this point she was well-aware what it meant when something appeared human but felt totally wrong.

The creature was here.

It stared at Noelle from the girl’s eyes. What it made of the scene was a complete mystery. Did it remember Noelle from their previous encounters? Would it grab her? Would it disappear? What about it was threatening the town to the extent Talise warned?

None of that was answered. Instead, it opened its mouth and cried the same thing it had to Noelle in the alley.

“hELp mE!!!!!!”

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It raised its arm towards Noelle. She braced herself, prepared to dive to the ground if the damned thing made any sudden movements.

The thing’s hand slowly began to discolor, shifting from pink to black as it approached Noelle. She stood strong, cautious to not do anything that would trigger the creature to lash out and grab her.

The fingers began to stretch, their prior human appearance discarded completely in favor of becoming black tendrils, crawling ever closer. Noelle did nothing as they reached her body. The tentacles caressed her face and shoulders, exploring her as if she was some archaeological find instead of a living thing.

“YoU...cAN...hELp?”

The creature did nothing more than feel Noelle out and let its query stand. “Help,” it had asked for that before as well. Noelle hadn’t given the words weight before. Out of that thing’s mouth they may as well be white noise. A preamble to a grisly end at the hands of some bizarre, eldritch thing.

“It can’t be...you’re...actually asking me to help you?”

The thing stood still, staring in response.

“Well then...what’s wrong?” she choked out nervously.

Air passed through the creature’s lips as it felt out the words it wanted to convey. A moment went by as it mulled them over. A twitch through its elongated finger alerted Noelle that it had come to some form of conclusion.

“CaP...tUReD…”

Something whizzed past Noelle’s face too quickly for her to process. She froze up, staring straight ahead at the monster. It remained still, staring perplexedly at its hand. What were once elongated tendrils had been whittled down to nubs.

Noelle slowly turned her head to where whatever had flown past her had gone. There was a tree 25 yards away with something stuck to its thick trunk. She squinted, trying to focus in the dark to make out what had happened.

“W-what?!”

The tendrils were nailed to the tree by a knife. It must have severed them from the creature’s body as it traveled mere inches from her face.

“Eh? Hey Adrian...isn’t this the chick you described earlier?”

Shocked, Noelle faced where the new voice had come from. There were two men standing in the darkness. One she did not recognize. He was slim and wore a gaudy outfit that looked more like a wall mount for knives than a person. The other man she was all too familiar with. They had met a few nights before, when he had thrown Levi around like he was nothing and had only been driven off by Lorelei’s interference. Standing there in the night wearing a jacket that looked just a bit too warm for the season was the mercenary, Adrian.

“You sure like to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, girl.” said Adrian crossing his arms with a huff. “You should reconsider doing so. This is above your head.”

“Forget that! I gave the warning when I took out that dumb looking mage earlier! We should kill her for disobeying our instructions to stay away!” cried the smaller man.

“Use your head Caleb,” replied Adrian, “You just got back from delivering the warning to him. He’s probably still unconscious. It wouldn’t be very sporting to punish this girl for failing to heed a warning she hasn’t heard yet.”

“W-warning?” Noelle felt a horrible oppressive weight drop into the pit of her stomach. “You can’t be talking about-”

“Your brown-haired friend,” replied Adrian.

“It’s funny,” said Caleb, “That guy looked familiar. I swear I’ve seen his face before somewhere.”

“Worry about that later. We have a job to do.” Adrian took a few steps forward, making a beeline towards the unconscious university girl.

“Stay back!” cried Noelle.

“Or what?” Adrian continued his approach, a low chuckle springing from his throat. “You should know by now you’re powerless to stop me. I was sure to look into your background after you oh so rudely got in my way before. Normal non-magic human, through and through. I could snap you like a twig.”

“I...I can try!”

Adrian stopped his approach and began to dig through his coat pocket. “You don’t even have your gun this time; not that you have the guts to pull the trigger in the first place.”

“You don’t know that!”

“You failed to before. I know your type, girl. You think you have what it takes but you don’t, so give it up. You don’t have the killer instinct for this fight.”

Adrian’s hand emerged from his pocket, producing a small packet. In the dim light Noelle could barely make out the large bolded words printed along the side, AMMONIA INHALANT. In other words, smelling salts.

He began his approach anew. Noelle didn’t protest this time. He was right, she couldn’t do anything. Thinking she could tackle this mystery, the monster, Adrian...it was pure foolishness. She was an observer, someone who wouldn’t influence the outcome in the slightest. Next to Oscar, Lorelei, Levi...she was nothing.

This wasn’t a fact she could escape.

It followed her through life, just as it always did.

Adrian crouched down and brought the smelling salts to the university girl’s face. It was a defenseless position that exposed his open back to Noelle, yet he gave her not the slightest bit of his attention. Noelle being unable to impede him was a cold hard fact. The wrinkles on his jacket moved as he shifted his body as if to silently mock Noelle for her powerlessness.

The smelling salts took effect and the university girl began to stir. As she was roused back to consciousness the monster grew agitated and began to yelp.

“H-hElP!”

Its body grew pale as it cried out. Visibly slowing, it turned its attention to Noelle before coming to a stop completely.

“nOoOo…,” it groaned as it collapsed into dust. It was gone again, just like last time.

“I’m freaking sick of this thing breaking out and forming psychic links with the townspeople,” spat Caleb, “I’m a merc. I want to kill shit not go around waking up these idiots.”

Adrian shook his head as he got back to his feet. The girl was asleep again. Noelle hadn’t noticed, but he must have done something to knock her out right after waking her.

“Consider yourself lucky only small pieces of it have been leaking out. Can you imagine if we had to take on the main body? I never want to go through that again,” said Adrian.

He walked back to Caleb and continued on even further. Caleb soon followed and the pair melded into the night. Just before Noelle lost sight of them Adrian sent one more comment her way.

“Make yourself useful and get that girl home safe and sound. It’s the least an officer like you should be capable of.”

The night carried on as if nothing had even happened as Noelle stood there, dazed, her spirit crushed into a million tiny pieces.