I peeped through the cafeteria doors, checking to see if there was any new security after yesterday. Nobody was here this early in the morning. It was the same as always, except for a sign on the window. It was most likely the same place where Kelsey jumped out the window into her inevitable demise. But that was good news, since it meant I had this place to myself for a while, at least until Deen came by.

I walked inside and set my new bag along with my new school supplies and new water bottle at the gray table near the window. New. Everything I had with me was new. A new shirt, a new blazer, and a new pair of jeans. My old shirt had a hole punched through by a skewer and my other clothes had my blood on them. Something I couldn’t bring to school, especially law school.

And a new me. I was an Adumbrae and a Corebring. An Adumbring? Or a Corebrae? I still can’t believe what happened yesterday. It seemed so unreal. But here I was. And here wasn’t SpookyErind.

Her mask was left on the desk in my room. A new sensation was inside me when SpookyErind transformed back into a mask. It was like a little switch. I tried pushing and pulling it, but it didn’t budge. In the end, I just left it at home. I didn’t really have a purpose in bringing it with me, and I also figured it was a fine enough place to keep it. If I could, I would have hung it up on the wall because of how cool it was. But what about SpookyErind herself? Not sure if she is as cool as the mask.

As if offended by that statement, the switch in my body went on. SpookyErind reappeared, sitting in my desk chair, and the switch sensation inside of me vanished.

“Good morning, myself,” SpookyErind said. She was still a normal Erind clone. “And I’m very cool by the way.”

“So am I,” I said. I didn’t return the “good morning” greeting because I was so fascinated by what was happening. I was all the way at the cafeteria here at Cresthorne, meanwhile, SpookyErind was back in my room. And I could see and feel with both our bodies. Even more so, we were having a conversation. That was an impressively large range. Is there a limit to this?

The only response I got was giggling from SpookyErind.

“What fun things do you have planned today?” she asked me.

“Nothing really,” I said. “Just a usual day at law school.” It was pretty crazy, going from such an eventful day yesterday, to just this. I kinda missed the danger, excitement, and twists.

“In that case, I’m sure that something fun will happen to brighten our day,” she said. She’s sure? What does that mean?

It was too early for me to try and guess what she was saying. I took out a tea cup and got my chamomile tea ready. A tea cup was an essential part of my new school supplies. After making sure to not hit the sides as per Rule #1, I stood up while sipping my tea.

First, I turned towards the ocean. The sun was rising over the black spire.

“So, tell me more about your long-term plans to have fun,” SpookyErind said.

Hmm. I didn’t want to speak while drinking my tea, so I came up with a brilliant idea. SpookyErind could read my mind. I don’t need to physically talk to her.

Anyway, the biggest thing I had to do was punish Myra. But how to go about that?

“We could play the long con,” SpookyErind said, reading my thoughts. “Get her to really trust us, and then stab her in the back.”

My brain was churning out scenarios. What if we exposed what happened at Sanders to Deen? Myra seemed to have some regrets about attacking us, so what if I exploited that. Seeing her have a mental breakdown just before I finish her off would be amazing. I wanted some added emotional trauma for upending my life when I took my revenge.

SpookyErind giggled at my schemes. “Oh! I know, what if we backstab Myra after she finds Kelsey?” Kelsey? What isn’t she dead? She dropped out of a window. No way she survived that fall. However, Myra still thought Kelsey was kidnapped.

“She’ll be so proud to be back with her sister, and then at the climax of their reunion, we strike!”

I liked how SpookyErind was planning with me. While today might not be the most exciting, I couldn’t wait. Although, there was one thing I wanted to clarify. So, is Kelsey alive then?

SpookyErind simply smirked in response. “Who knows? Anyways, tell me about your other plans.”

I began walking around the room, toward the new sign. Well, my two plans left are to punish Everett and Dario. My punishment for Everett is probably more easily implemented than Dario’s punishment. Now, how to go about breaking apart any chance of a relationship he has with Deen?

“What if we dated Deen?” SpookyErind proposed. What?!! “We make her romantically interested in us, and then reveal to him that Deen is actually gay. Seeing him forced to deal with that fact would be amazing.”

There were two problems with that. First, I wasn’t even sure Deen was gay. She and Adrian interacted regularly. What if she was romantically interested in him? How would I get Deen to be romantically interested in me if she’s straight?

“Are you sure she’s straight?” SpookyErind asked. Well, now that she’s suggesting it, I had some doubts. I had never gotten a girl romantically interested in me. The main problem is that it requires them to be gay, meanwhile, most boys are straight and thus easier to manipulate. But how would I go about checking if she’s gay? Ask her if she’s gay? No way. Oh hey, that rhymed.

I finally got close enough to read the sign. It was a warning to not lean on the glass, which was surprisingly fixed real fast. So, about the other problem… Deen was extremely touchy-feely! There may as well be a sign that says, “Warning! The future is filled with hugs and hand holding. Avoid at all costs.” Maybe I should replace this sign on the window with that.

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Would it even be worth it to be in a relationship with Deen?

“Well, how else are you going to punish Everett?” SpookyErind asked. I wasn’t sure. But the good news was, Rule #4 didn’t have a time limit, so I could take as much time as I needed.

I turned around as I heard the sound of the cafeteria doors open. Speaking of Deen, she walked inside, with a smile on her face. She walked over to where I was.

“I see you’ve redesigned your lair,” she said, looking at the sign. “Oh wait. I shouldn’t have joked about that.”

Oh, she just realized that this is the spot where Kelsey jumped. I internally smirked. “Don’t worry, I’m not offended, but you should be glad Myra isn’t here.”

“Let’s sit down, then.” Deen said. We both walked back to my table.

“So, did you find anything more about your powers?” I asked her.

“Erind! We’re in public!” Deen cried out, while checking around her. It was funny seeing Deen already flustered twice today.

“Relax, there’s nobody else here but us,” I told her. “Even if somebody did come in, we would be warned by the sound of the door opening.”

“Alright,” Deen said. “The answer is no. I haven’t figured it out. But I also wanted to test my regeneration powers out. And I was too scared to cut myself.” She brought out a pair of scissors from her backpack. “And since nobody is here, we should be fine to test this out.”

“Maybe wait until after school,” I said. “We don't want to get blood on the ground or our clothes if I cut you or myself.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Deen said as she put the scissors away. “Oh yeah, before I forget, you should come shopping with me after school.”

“Wait, why do I need to go shopping with you?” I asked. “You can get your groceries by yourself.”

“Not groceries,” Deen laughed. “We need to get sports bras. Or rather, high impact sports bras. We never know when the Adumbrae might attack us again.”

“We’re going to use sports bras to fight the Adumbrae?” I jokingly asked.

Deen brought up a good point. But we weren’t attacked by an Adumbrae. Dario and Myra were making up some story about the Adumbrae. How were they going to explain this later? Unless it turns out there really is a group of Adumbrae out there…

Regardless, even if they did exist, they haven’t bothered me. So, who cares? The BID and the actual Corebrings can handle them. Of course, I can’t say that to Deen, so I just continued to listen to her.

“I can drive us to the sportswear store. Sounds good?” Deen asked.

“Can’t we just shop online?” I said. One of the benefits of online shopping is that I don’t need to keep up a face. Furthermore, that also meant I didn’t have to spend as much time with Deen. Which was a good thing in my eyes.

“We could, but it will take a while to ship it,” Deen replied. “It’s best to get this out of the way - we never know when a fight breaks out. Besides, I want to buy some cute clothes for my best friend.”

“Wait, you’d pay for me? I can pay for it myself.” I didn’t want to be reliant on Deen.

“I should pay,” Deen said firmly. “You saved me, and I need to repay you in some way.”

“Fine, I guess I’ll go with you,” I groaned. I would have said we’re unlikely to be attacked again, thus we didn’t need to worry. However, that would require sharing Myra was the attacker, who was not an Adumbrae. I should hold that card for later.

Meanwhile, I nearly forgot about SpookyErind. “So, there’s our first date,” she giggled.

Uggh. I hope it’s a quick one. Regardless, I doubt this would strengthen our relationship enough for Deen to be romantically interested in me. This was more of a chore rather than a date. Although, I guess spending time with Deen is always a chore.

All though, if she was going to be spending time with me, then that would mean she’d probably wouldn’t be spending time with someone else.

“So, Adrian’s going to miss you for spending so much time with me,” I teased her. “Sorry to ruin any date you might have with him.”

“We’re not dating!” Deen said. “We’re just friends. We share classes and sometimes hang out. I’m not really looking into dating any boys. Also, I know what you’re doing. You're trying to get out of going shopping with me.”

“Why, I’m so ashamed you would accuse me of such foul play,” I said, feigning shock. We both laughed.

“Well if anything, I’m the one dragging you with me, so I’m sorry if I’m disrupting any of your dates,” Deen said jokingly.

“Well, thankfully for you, I didn’t have any dates planned,” I said.

“I’d be shocked if you did,” Deen said.

“What’s truly shocking is that I’m going to buy sports bras with my friend,” I countered.

“Well, I think it’s a good step for leaving your cocoon. You’re going to have to be more socially active as a lawyer.”

Being a lawyer… Is that really what I was going to be in the future? With all this Adumrabe and Corebring stuff, I wondered if my career prospects were going to be in jeopardy. Even more so, the crystal on my right hand confirmed I was becoming less human. How long until the tests were impossible to pass? Would I need to go into hiding?

“Isn’t it kinda crazy though that we’re also going to have to juggle being a lawyer while also being a Corebring?” I asked.

“I think it’ll be difficult, but it’s worth it.” Deen told me with conviction. “If we weren’t Corebrings, the best we could do is work directly with the BID. But that would never compare to fighting the Adumbrae directly. Think of all the good we could do.”

“I guess the only downside is that we’ve given up our humanity,” Deen continued. “I’ve lived my whole life being a human.”

“I don’t think being a Corebring is that bad,” I told Deen. Some people had some weird fascination with being human. But being a human kind of sucked. When I was being attacked by Myra, the best I could do was distract her. If I hadn’t met SpookyErind, I would be dead right now. And that would be the worst thing in the world.

“You have super strength, super regeneration, and your own personal ability,” I continued. “What’s not to love about it?”

“You do make some good points,” Deen said. “It just feels jarring to leave my humanity when I’ve been a human my whole life.”

“You know, I wonder how many people would share that view,” I said.

“Huh?” Deen asked.

“Isn’t it weird though, to value being a human over being a Corebring?” I asked. “Society basically worships Corebrings. People even swear on the mother core. I guess it may not matter to you as you may not be as religious.”

“I guess you’re right if you frame it that way,” Deen said. Of course, I was always right.

“Oh, there’s another thing I wanted to ask you, Deen,” I said.

“What is it?”

“We’re probably going to be fighting in the future. Do you have what it takes to kill the Adumbrae?”

“I haven’t fought before, but given how evil they are, I’d have no choice but to kill them,” Deen said. It would be interesting to see how she would react to me being an Adumbrae. Would she value me being a Corebring more? Or would she try to kill me? I hoped I didn’t have to find out.

“What about the humans helping them? How would you handle that?”

“We’d…. have to kill them too,” Deen responded. “Um, how about you?”

It’d be interesting to see Deen kill someone. You wouldn’t expect it from someone like her. Well, it’ll be interesting to see how this actually plays out. Would she end up being too scared? I bet I could guilt trip her down the line if that happened.

“I think I’d be willing to do it,” I said. “They’re harming innocent people everyday. What if we could stop another attack that could have happened to people like us. We were lucky to survive. Others might not. We have to be able to do what’s right.” Wow, what an amazing citizen I was. Proclaiming that Adumbrae and their human assistants should die. I should save this mini-speech.

Even more so, this was an excellent evolution for my face with Deen. I was coming out of my shell for an important reason - the war against the Adumbrae.

“You know, that was pretty inspiring,” Deen said.

I was about to respond when my phone alarm went off.

“Thanks Deen, but I have to go to class,” I told her.

“Well thank you for the deep conversations,” she replied. “Meet me in the parking lot after your last class!”

I internally sighed. “Sure thing,” I said.