As unhelpful as Magic Chaz’s followers were, we did gather a little bit of info from them. There were other people like me and Katrina, and we had no idea who or where they were. For all we knew, they were actively fighting against us. Katrina said that Red doesn’t seem to have any other girls with titles besides her and Lillian. She said that Lillian is just a demon that’s been around with him as long as he has probably been around, but that doesn’t curb my suspicions that there will be more fire power coming our way soon.

I think there was one silver lining in all of this that we hadn’t yet considered. If everyone had titles, that meant so did Red, and whatever he was the spirit of would tell us his motivation and possible plan. He came from someone’s beliefs, so he has to have a purpose. Katrina let me into a little more of her world over these past few weeks. For two months, Red used her voice to lure the town’s young girls into a forest. After that, they would disappear with him, while their brain collected none of this information to remember. They would emerge out of his tiny tomb structure with the tattoos and no questions asked. Katrina told me the process is very painful and she was far less than gleeful after it happened. She was given a lot more free will than they were and she didn’t feel the same perpetuation to show her markings, so those two factors are a mystery. Since those days, she has been helping him get specific girls at specific times; there weren’t very many left in town. She also got a few men, though the men never came back. Apparently, he eats men in one gulp and leaves the skin behind. He fills it with dark sand and then they are his oversized attack dogs. I didn’t ask for too many details on that.

The other big things Katrina mentioned were these objects, these sort of magical relics that allowed people of power to obtain even more unique powers. The most interesting of them was a ring that used to be hers. It’s what she used to heal me the first night she saw me. It can sort of materialize shadows somehow, transforming them into solid objects of the creators choice. Red took it back from her after that night, because she wasn’t supposed to have it in the first place.

It doesn’t have a lot of limitations, although daylight is a bit of an issue. Red surprisingly hasn’t used it much, which over all worries me. Katrina only seems to care about getting it back. It worries me how much she cares about power, but if I ever try and ask her she just says “I want to have it so he won’t”. I find it hard to believe having that power wouldn’t make her want to do something with it, but I can’t take it myself, or at least we don’t think I can. I don’t have markings to fit into their rankings.

“How did you get it to begin with?” I asked her.

“Well, one night I was in that tiny tomb because I apparently needed a tattoo touch up. He had this box amongst all his tools and I guess I got curious and I went looking. When I stuck my hand in, the ring wrapped around my finger. It was kinda spooky, but I had gotten used to spooky things.”

“What did it look like?” I couldn’t help but be curious.

“It had a big, emerald cut purple stone with all this filigree around it and all around the band. The metal was black and completely matte. There were other colorful, little stones all around the big one. It was pretty impressive looking.”

“Sounds like it. I wish I could see it.”

Katrina chuckled, “Well, hopefully someday you will.”

This is all sorts of crazy, but prying or not prying wasn’t giving me too much because even Katrina didn’t know a lot of what was going on. So, I guess the only way to know for sure is to go straight to the head. He wants young cult women and I’m one of those, sort of. And I've already met him twice.

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“That’s a terrible idea,” Katrina said, sipping her tea.

“We don’t have much else to go on. We aren’t getting any closer to figuring anything out than like a week ago, despite a significant amount of blood loss-”

“You heal in like a day.”

“That doesn’t mean I am a fan of it. People don’t usually find pain enjoyable.”

“That’s debatable.”

“Hush, the point is we need to make more head way.”

“We don’t know what Red is capable of. He could be a god in his own right.”

“Or, he could be a really good bluff. Think about it, most cult leaders don’t have anything to hold over their victims except emotional ties. They can only control what they can convince people to let them control. What if that heavy handed intimidation is all he has?”

“He doesn’t seem to need much more. It’s powerful enough on it’s own. Not to mention what he does to guys, do I need to tell you about the guys again?”

“God, no, that’s alright. I get it. Still, we have no reason to believe he has any more power than a few objects, which you can take.”

“No one’s ever been that close to him.”

“Yeah because no one has ever tried, so why don’t we?”

“Staying alive is the main reason. I’d really like less death in my life.”

“We won’t let it go too far, I’m sure we’ll be able to tell when we are in over our heads. You’re fast. I’m fast. It’ll be fine.”

“You’re entirely too happy go lucky about this.”

“Maybe you’re too cynical.”

“I like to think of it as cautious. I would like you to live to the end of this.”

“Very death obsessed today, aren’t we?”

“Can you blame me? It is very present in my life.”

I hesitated. I had to ask at some point, but I was scared, “How present is it in your life exactly?”

“Only as present as it has to be. I avoid it as often as I can, but sometimes it is unavoidable. I don’t think you need to know the details of that.”

“Well, I think I do.”

“I’m sorry?” Katrina choked on her food.

“Before we go and face what could be our demise, I want to know what you have done. I don’t want any secrets between us that Red could exploit. I promise, it's not going to change anything between us.” I didn’t know how much I could guarantee that last part, but still.

Katrina looked around the Cafe we sat in. “I’m not sure this is the best time to go over something like this. Could this perhaps wait till later?”

“Alright, fair enough, when would you like to discuss it then?”

“I don’t know, I guess if we go out tonight we could discuss it then.”

She props her leg up on the seat of her chair and rests her arm on her knee. She looks small, I mean she is small, but she looks even smaller. I used to do something similar as a kid. If my foster parents yelled, if my siblings fought, if orphan and paradox and I fought; sometimes when we are scared, all we can do is try and get small. Occupy as little space as possible to avoid problems.

“You’re so small and cute,” I say, trying to lighten the mood.

“Fuck off.”

“I’m serious. It’s really funny how you just curl up. I don’t think anyone could ever see you as a dangerous monster.”

“Don’t you have church to go to?” Katrina said, blushing.

“Fine. But since you said the F word, you’re covering my tab.”

“You’re the worst. Have fun.”

“And I’ll come over around 8?”

She hesitated, pulling her other leg up. “Fine”

“I’ll see you then.”