Opening the door up, Ed gestured for Zara to go in first, following behind her and closing the door. Stepping into his apartment, he watched Zara as she made her way to the couch. I need to talk to her about what happened, she shouldn’t be treating other people like that. Even if what they’ve done is wrong, she still needs to treat them humanely.

While Ed was thinking, Zara kicked off her shoes and picked up the book off the table. She started curiously flicking through it. “Is this the book you were talking about? How does it work?”

“From what I’ve gathered, I think it functions similarly to the door. Just think about the name in front of you and the book will change to tell you what you need.” Answering her question, he untied his shoes and placed them neatly back on the rack.

“Cool! Do you think it’ll work if I just picture a creature in my head?” She asked. Excited to test it out, she focused on the first creature that popped into her mind without even waiting for Ed’s response.

“I’m not sure, maybe.” Ed picked up Zara’s shoes, placing them on the rack next to his. Having cleaned up, he walked over to join her. He leaned over the back of the couch to see what she was looking at. I wonder what’s the first thing she thought of. His mind froze as he properly took in what’s on the page.

The entire page was taken up by a full body drawing of an incredibly voluptuous woman. He took in every detail as his eyes subconsciously travelled down the entire page. From the goat-like horns sticking out of the top of her head, to her burning red skin, demonic wings and long heart-tipped tail, Ed guessed that he’s looking at a drawing of a succubus.

Ed turned to look at Zara, noticing that her face was turning bright red, and that the colour was climbing to the tips of her ears. “Zara. Why is she naked?”

Hearing Ed’s question, she quickly slammed the book shut, throwing it onto the table. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just checking out that book.” She looked him directly in the eyes, trying to play it off, but her blushing face betrayed her.

I don’t even know where to begin. I’ll just play along. “Mhm. What did you think about it?”

“It’s fascinating, I wonder what else I can find in there!” Grateful that he played along, she picked up the book, making it show the beginning page for Kelpies. “There’s some really cool stuff in here.”

Sitting down on the couch next to her, the two spent the next little while flicking through the book, allowing them to relax and settle down after the long day at work. They briefly read through the files of some of the creatures they are more familiar with like dragons, fairies, and mermaids.

Feeling that the atmosphere was more relaxed, Ed looked at Zara. Maybe I can talk to her about it now. “Zara, I think we should talk about what happened earlier.”

“Mm? What do you want to talk about?” She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Ed thought carefully about how he should word his next sentence. “Don’t you think that what you were doing to that woman was a bit much?”

“Ugh, why are we having this conversation again? Ed, I thought you would have let this go by now.” Zara put the book down, looking at Ed and placing a hand on his shoulder. “There is no reason for us to sympathise with them. I agree with you that it is our job to give them a chance at redemption, but we will always be above them. We are different from them, we are better, and there’s nothing that can be done to change that. So just take it easy, okay?” She looked at him with genuine concern.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

How can I get through to her? “You keep on saying that we are different from them, but at the end of the day, we are all human. Yes, what they’ve done is bad, but we’ve done far worse since we’ve got here.”

"We are doing this for the greater good. One day, you will understand that." She got up off the couch, grabbing Josephine’s booklet before sitting back down. "It’s been a long day, and you’re clearly not thinking straight, let’s just unwind a little." She flipped it open, and the TV screen came to life.

The camera was focused on Josephine as she slept in one of the classrooms, huddled in the corner. having learnt where she can hide from passing eyes, she hid in an unfamiliar room to escape from Grace.

Outside the room, Grace and her friends huddled outside of the door, peeking through a gap in the door.

“See! I told you she was here.” One of her friends said.

“Good. She thought she could hide from me. Follow me.” Gently pushing open the door, Grace and her friends snuck into the room. “Sshh. Let’s see what she has in her bag.”

Quietly surrounding her, they tore open her bag, dumping everything out onto a nearby desk. The books and loose pens scattered on the table,

The noise woke Josephine up. As she looked over, she saw people flipping through her books and laughing.

“Hey, look at this!” One of the kids said, flipping the book around to show everyone. On the page was Josephine’s attempt at writing a story for an English class.

“‘One day a kity was taking a long walk. She seen lotsa eggs under tree. The kity was exited ecited happy and took them too share with her frends...’ Was this written by a toddler? How dumb is she?” Grace said, laughing at how childish the story was.

“Let’s print this out and put it up across the entire school so that everyone can see it.” The kid said while ripping the page from the book.

The group continued to mess around with her stuff, all the while she watched on helplessly, crying as they made fun of her.

“Stop it you meanies.” She said quietly through her tears.

Grace turned around, finally noticing that Josephine was awake. “What was that? Does the wittle baby have a problem?” The rest of the group turned around, quickly moving to surround Josephine.

She looked around in fear, realising there was nowhere to escape to. “I-I told you to stop.”

“Oh? And what are you going to do if we don’t? Grace taunted, getting up close and personal with her.

Josephine stumbled back out of fear, bumping into one of the other kids, who then picked her up.

“I’m sorry, please don’t hurt me.” She pleaded.

“Okay. Drop her.” Grace ordered, stepping back to the pile of books.

Confused, Josephine fell to the ground, landing roughly on her butt. Huh? Confused she watched as Grace pulled out a water bottle, pouring it all over her books. “No, I need those.”

The group laughed, walking away with Josephine’s empty bag and leaving her with a pile of soaking wet books.

She tried her best to dry them, but the ink had already smudged and seeped through the pages, making them barely useable.

RING!

Hearing the bell ring, Josephine grabbed the still wet pile of books and awkwardly ran off to her first class.

The screen turned to black.

“That’s it? Why didn’t they hurt her?” Zara said while snuggled up against Ed.

“I think they just wanted to make her life a bit more difficult.” I’m glad they didn’t hurt her though. “It’s getting late, what do you want for dinner?”

Ooh, let’s have some spaghetti!” Getting off the couch, they sat down at the dining table, where two plates of spaghetti Bolognese were already waiting for them. Digging in, they enjoyed the meal while casually chatting.

Standing at the door, they say goodbye to each other.

“Thanks for having me over. It was a lot of fun.” Zara said.

“Glad you had fun. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Leaning down, Ed gave her a quick kiss.

Smiling, she stepped through the door and went home.

Today has been a long day. Ed hopped into bed and fell asleep.