Start of Part 2__________________________________________________________________________________________

On the way down the stairs I answered my phone which was still wringing. The display said Mrs. Yurman. She never give up when it comes to ringing someone. Drives her kids crazy.

“Haris, honey?” A caring elderly woman's voice came over the phone. Mrs. Yurman.

“Yes? Mrs. Yurman? Sorry for taking so long to answer. I was in the shower.” I said, forcing out a chuckle. I never quite got to calling the Turman couple my parents. My parents were monsters and I hated them. So I could never bring myself to refer to the Yurman couple like that. So instead to me they’re Mr. and Mrs. Yurman, my guardians who raised me from the terrified six year old into a semi normal grown man. At least I like to think of myself as normal anyway. 

“I’m just checking to see if your okay honey. Your Father and I heard the news about the gang activity in Sydney over the last few days. You’ll keep yourself safe okay? Don’t go joining any gangs. You’re not that kind of boy.” Mrs Yurman said in genuine worry. That made me smile despite myself.

“I’m fine Mrs. Yurman. Thank you for the concern. Ugh- It’s pretty late and I have to be up early to play some games online with my guild so…” I awkwardly said. Knowing full well that I was keeping the alien with the gun and the weirdly hot demon lady waiting. 

“Of course, honey. Just wanted to see if you were okay. I’ll call again on sunday okay? We need to figure out what to do for your niece's wedding. It won’t be the same without you here. She adore you and will be so heartbroken that you aren’t able to come.” Mrs. Yurman chatted. 

The mention of my niece and their granddaughter made me frown. My scar turning it into more of a quiet snarl than a frown. We’d be relatively close whenever she and her parents came to visit. Never anything romantic but we were good friends. I simply thought she was annoying and still feel that way. At the very least however I didn’t feel disgusted whenever we spoke. Which is more than I can say for most people.

“Sounds like a plan Mrs. Yurman. We’ll talk about it then. Now I should really get some sleep. G’night Mrs. Yurman.” I said politely.

“Good night.” Mrs. Yurman returned.

I Hung up and made my way out the door of my apartment and down the stairs to the ground floor. I made sure to lock the building up whenever I entered or left. There was no one else that should be in here and I don’t want anyone coming in and stealing my stuff. I unlocked the apartment complex front doors and let them in. Welkin was even more intimidating up close. He was at least 7ft and had to turn sideways to get in through the door. Malinda was even more jarring up close. She’s very beautiful and attractive in an otherworldly sort of sense. Almost like she walked right out of a hentai manga. Y’know one of those ones with the monster girls that are kind of horrifying and yet you can still get off on it. You don’t know what I mean? To each their own I suppose.

I led them both up to my apartment and let them in through the door. Welkin again had some trouble getting in through the door. He had to squeeze through the door frame and I swear I could hear the wood crack. The two looked around the inside with some interest.

“Looks like my apartment in college.” Malinda commented as she took note of the pile of dirty dishes I hadn’t gotten around to cleaning for a week now.

“A lot smaller than mine.” Welkin said absently.

I walked over to my living room that joined onto the kitchen and motioned towards to a couch and some arm chairs, “Feel free to make yourselves at home. I ugh, never went to college. The City was Quarantined before I got the chance.”

Welkin plonked himself down on the couch and took up more than half of it. Malinda sat in one of the arm chairs so I sat in the arm chair across from her on the other side of the room. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my pants as I waited for one of them to speak.

“Is there some kind of epidemic?” Malinda asked with a degree of worry.

I shook my head, “Nah, there's no terrible illness going around that can’t be handled in one way or another. The city was quarantined shortly after the portal opened. No one gets in and no one gets out. At least not- well- on foot anyway. I’m not really sure why they’re doing this though.”

Welkin and Malinda bot gave sighs of relief. I also noted that Welkin had thankfully finally put his gun away.

“You mentioned gangs before?” Welkin inquired.

“Ah- yeah. It’s been three years since they imposed the quarantine. Some of the people that weren't quick enough to flee seem to have gone a bit stir crazy. I stayed by choice though and had a feeling as to what I was getting myself into. Though I never expected to have aliens just suddenly show up one night.” I said. My mood was on the way up now that I was quite as afraid and they didn’t seem one wrong move away from killing me anymore.

“Aliens? I take offense at that. I am a proud Succubus and a talented sorceress.” Malinda huffed cutely and swatted at a large curl in her white hair.

“No. Really, you’re plenty Alien enough. I don’t know how things are where you come from. On earth, other than apes and monkeys, nothing else is humanoid in form. Let alone intelligent enough to form a civilization. Just looking at both of you I can see you aren’t human. This is really amazing.” I explained excitedly and leaning forwards in my seat.

Malinda gave me a funny look like I just told her that rain fell up and the sky was yellow. Welkin was impossible to read as he was just glaring at me.

“Please. Humans have short lives. I’m sure you’ve just forgotten us.” Malinda voiced her opinion hautilly. 

“Well. We do have books that mention Succubus and many other kinds of mythical creatures. But they’re just works of fiction. At least they were meant to be for the most part.” I said weakly as I wasn’t really sure what to say.

“I see. Perhaps your people turned tales of our people into works of fable. Something must have occurred and resulted in monster disappearing from your world.” Malinda said almost to herself more than me.

“What was that magic device before that was making the noise?” Welkin spoke up during the lull.

“Oh, that was my phone. The woman who raised me in place of my parents wanted to know if I was okay. The local gangs have been becoming more active lately.” I took my phone out of my pocket and put it on the table for them to look at.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Malinda snapped it up and looked over the phone with great interest, “The phones here are strange. How do you contact people without a landline? This is just a little metal box with a pane of glass on one side. Also the amount of magic contained inside. How does it all fit in there? Not even the purest of crystals can contain this much.”

“It’s not magical. We don’t have magic.” I said gruffly and extended my hand for her to give it back to me. She was getting fingermarks all over the damn screen. She ignored me.

“No, no. This is raw magic. I can feel it coursing through the magic runes inside this device. These runes are so intrinsic in their complexity. I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Malinda squinted at my phone as if she could see through the metal and was trying to look at something very tiny. I snatched it out of her hands.

“It’s just a smart phone. You can get a cheap one for a few hundred dollars normally.” I said trying to contain my frown. This was cool and all but I really dislike the way she’s looking at my phone. Like she’d take it apart if she had the chance.

I turned on the screen and unlocked the phone before giving it back to her. Her interest reached a higher peak seeing the many apps on the screen, “Here take a look instead of looking at the case like you want to eat it. Touch the screen to interact with the icons on the screen. Swipe your finger across the screen to change which screen you’re on.”

Malinda did as I said and looked through the phone for the next few minutes. Welkin had moved behind her so he could look over her shoulder at it. I felt like signing because they were acting the same way I did when I first got a smartphone.

“This is amazing.” Malinda finally said after almost an hour. He eyes had gone wide some time ago.

“Really?” I asked doubtfully.

“Yes.” Malinda nodded.

“This device is not only a phone. But also a camera, a television, an entertainment device, a calendar, a watch, a light source, a global network hub and a container for enough magic to sustain a defensive spell for several weeks.” She said placing the phone down carefully on the coffee table. Welkin shuffled back over the the couch and sat back down.

“And it lasts for all of four hours before we need to recharge it. Pretty great huh?” I said glumly.

“But that’s so inefficient. The costs involved must be ridiculous.” Malinda said in horror. Her expression spasmed between horror and respect.

“It’s not that expensive. In fact almost anyone with a job is able to afford it one way or another.” Malinda and Welkin both looked at me as if I was crazy again and I couldn’t help but giggle to myself like an idiot.

Malinda looked at me hard for a moment before asking me, “How do you recharge the magical energy? As far as I can tell you don’t have any training in magic and your don’t have much mana stored in your body. You don’t even have enough mana to activate your talent.”

“If mana is what I think you’re referring to then we call it electricity. It’s supplied to each house, so long as you pay the bills they send it to you. Just gotta plug it into a socket and it gets recharged.” I explained before raising an eyebrow. 

“Also what do you mean by my talent?”

“Your talent. What you’re good at. What you were born to do. My talent makes it easier for me to get people on my side and to help me. Welkin’s talent lets him make his skin as hard as iron. Talent is like your inherent ability. Separate from your species ability. Which you also have too little mana to access...” Malinda explained with a surprising amount of disappointment.

“Oh…” I said disappointedly.

Malinda smiled wryly and look at me with some curiosity, “But if you let me look at your phone I might be able to alter it so that you can draw mana from it safely. Raw mana damages the body so it would just be silly to try using it without using a filter.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with that? I might try to hurt you after. You’re being a bit too trusting all of a sudden.” I suspiciously asked.

“The rule of guests. You invited us in so you can’t rightfully harm us.” Welkin said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Ugh- I guess that could be considered an unspoken rule.” I said giving Welkin a side glance.

“So… you’ll let me play with your phone some more?” Melinda asked with a large smiled stretched across her face.

“Sure. Just don’t take it apart. It’d be a pain to find another one. Most of the store have been looted.” I said before I handed over my phone.

Melinda took my phone and looked at it from various angles with great interest. From time to time making comments such as, “That’s a strange rune.” and “Ooh I get what that does now.” or  “I have no clue what this even is.”. I couldn’t keep the concern from my face. So I busied myself.

“Want any drinks? Food? Any allergies I need to know about? Actually they might not even have the same name so never mind. Eat at your own risk.” I stood and walked to the kitchen.

““Coffee”” They both said at the same time. So at least that has the same name. I began getting mugs from the kitchen cabinet.

“Food would be good as well. We’d waited all day for the correct window and never got around to eating lunch.” Welkin added and nudged Malinda who didn’t seem very happy about being interrupted.

“And you spent all of it badgering me and trying to persuade me to put it off for the next nine months while we got ourselves better prepared.” Malinda sulked before trying to get back to the phone.

“We should have been better prepared. These gangs sound dangerous and not just my gun alone nor your magic will be enough to fend off a gang.” Welkin gruffly said in return.

The two started bickering so I ignored them and made coffee for everyone. I also took out a pack of biscuits because they’re the ones I like to dip into my coffee and I’ll be damned if I don’t dip my cookies in my coffee. Anything to ground my mental state and stop everything from feeling like it’s spinning. I worked my mug and packed carrying skills and put everything on the coffee table.

End of Part 2__________________________________________________________________________________________