“He’s rather impatient,” I heard from behind me. It was Sela, who had decided that my back was good to rest against. The stars around us, like every other time, hadn’t shifted, but now it seemed like there were more of them.

“You can say that again?” I replied as I admired the scenery. The beauty of the night sky all around us was just calming enough to take away my mental anguish for a bit of time.

“Well, if you’re going to be here for a while, would you like to play a game?” Sela asked.

“Sure, but can what that masked man offered even be done?”

“In theory, yes, but do you really want to do what he said? He has tortured you for a while and him going back could cause problems for the earlier version of himself. Even if you could do it, would you try?” Sela answered as if it wasn’t too keen on the idea. Both Sela and I turned around to face each other.

“Of course not,” I replied adamantly.

“Then you should escape soon. He’ll kill you otherwise.” Sela warned. The expression the being held seemed to show a caring side, but I knew that any form of consideration for me was absent from the deity's mind.

“Well, how do I escape, then? He isn’t likely to just chop off some limbs above the bindings now that he knows I can just grow them back,” I asked, impatient but calmly. Sela bobbed a bit back and forth before holding up one finger.

“I’ll give you a single hint,” Sela said with a grin that was either smug or sinister. I couldn’t tell. Either way, it seemed like they were messing with me.

“Okay?” I replied warily.

“Your watch. Why has it not been touched even though he has had plenty of times to destroy it or cut it from your wrist? He cut off the hand that the watch wasn’t on and subconsciously avoided it. Why?” Sela asked as if the answer was obvious.

“So basically, it’s the catalyst for my abilities? Why didn’t you say anything before?” I asked in annoyance. All Sela did was sit there with a proud and poorly produced innocent smile.

“...”

“You suck, you know that?” I spoke.

“Yep! So, want to play rummy or backgammon?” Sela asked, changing the subject. I didn’t really care so I let out a defeated sigh.

“I guess rummy for now,” I replied, giving the child-like demon a bored look.

“You seem down. Is everything okay?” Sela asked in a surprisingly caring tone compared to every other conversation we’ve had. It made me start to think that maybe Sela actually did care about my well-being to an extent. Though the question itself set me off. After asking me this, Sela raised a small table with a deck of cards from the pool between us.

“Is that some sort of joke? Take a look at everything that has happened over the past few weeks and think about why I might be down,” I asked, annoyed but mesmerized by the cards Sela was shuffling and dealing out.

“No, I get that you would be a practical husk of a man, but you seem down in a different way,” Sela noted with genuine concern. It was as if this being was trying to understand me. Just what was going on inside its head?

“And why do you say that?” I asked.

“Well, like most people that I have been with while they were tortured, you freaked out and got mad at me... but after that, you just started brooding. That was something very few of them did, and those that did usually died very soon after,” Sela explained, not as if they were people to reminisce over, but as if they were toys that it had lost interest in.

“So, what you’re saying is, that I’m racing towards my death?” I summarized, hoping that Sela would give me some kind of straightforward answer.

“Not exactly. Even though you started brooding, you haven’t stayed that way. Instead, you are thinking about how things might play out, despite going through severe tortures and trauma that might affect you for the rest of your life. It isn’t normal. At least, compared to those I’ve watched in the past.” Even though Sela seemed to be in control, there was a sense of the unknown. If I was considered an outlier then what did that mean for my future? Could Sela be planning something worse for me? I didn’t want to think about it.

“Is that why you gave me that hint?” I wondered aloud. Perhaps, Sela would help me out after all.

“Yep. If I just let you idle to your death while you’re still trying to avoid it then what kind of god would I be?”

“You are already a terrible god. I don’t want to know what other impression you were trying to give me,” I said like a smartass.

“Despite all the trauma that was just inflicted upon you, you’ve somehow become incredibly sassy,” Sela said with a smug look as the being took their turn.

“Was I not sassy before?” I asked, knowing that I have always been pretty sassy.

“No, you were sassy. You just weren’t blatantly sassy like you are now… Gin!” Sela exclaimed as she threw her hand down to show me.

“We’re playing rummy,” I replied, unamused.

“Oh, then I would like to be kinged,” Sela corrected poorly as if they didn’t realize.

“What?”

“Checkmate!” Sela exclaimed. By this point, I knew they were fucking with me.

“Did you get a concussion when no one was looking?” I asked in a louder voice than before.

“...”

“Can I just wake up now? To be honest, the torture would be more relaxing than having to deal with you,” I asked as I was starting to get annoyed with Sela. I now knew what needed to be done thanks to this pint-sized being, but I was getting sick of their attitude.

“That’s rude,” Sela replied, taken aback.

“Yeah, coming from the demon child,” I snapped.

“You’re the one who subconsciously imagined me this way.”

“I refuse to believe that my mind decided that I would like to be harassed by some lonely, sassy, demon child,” I stated with a scoff. Sela rapidly stood up, nearly flipping the table.

“I am not lonely!” Sela exclaimed. Really? That was what got to them? Wow.

“Then why do you keep asking me to play games when I am obviously not in the mood?” I asked like a smartass.

“You weren’t nearly as mean before all this,” Sela said with a pouting face.

“Maybe you should have helped then, you little shit!” I exclaimed, standing up. Suddenly the stars around us began fading and Sela stared at me with their right eye glowing red and the left glowing blue. It became pitch black and behind time was a creature beyond the pitch black darkness. I couldn’t see much except its outline but it wasn’t a humanoid. Its eyes glowed in the same fashion as Sela did but on the opposite sides. I couldn’t even quake out of terror but for some reason, I didn’t feel afraid, just frozen.

“”Do you really think we can’t destroy you in an instant? We brought you here, and although you have suffered, you will also experience great things. Humour us and you shall be rewarded. So do not question us!”” Sela and the creature declared in unison. It was Sela's young voice mixed with that of a demonic being, shaking the whole of the world we were in. When they had finished yelling, the creature’s voice disappeared and the stars returned to their bright and elegant display. I was in shock while Sela just stood there, pouting even more like a child than I thought was possible. Just who the hell was this kid really?

***

Elysif sat against the right side of her bed. Her knees were close to her head and her arms were wrapped around them. She hated this feeling. The feeling that she had already lost someone, or perhaps she was about to. Sadly, she knew the feeling all too well. Everyone who seemed to care for her seemed to disappear like she was cursed. Seven years ago she lost her entire family, then she lost Scott’s wife, Silva, and now she may lose Lou.

She didn’t want anyone else to disappear. She had convinced herself that Scott was immune to the curse due to his body being as it is, but no matter what she did, the curse that she had believed followed her was always going to take people from her. It’s not as if a curse really existed, but rather, it is a curse created in order to place blame on. There were no heroes in her past, so she didn’t expect one to show up now. However, that didn’t stop her from asking.

“Please, someone, bring him back to us,” she whispered to herself as she clutched her knees like a stuffed doll. A few teardrops streamed down her face and onto her kneecaps as she did. A knock at the door startled her for a moment before she heard Scott’s voice.

“Elysif, are you in there? I think I have a lead,” she got up and scurried to the door.

“What kind of lead?” Elysif asked, opening the door.

“Were you… crying?” Scott asked with a worried expression.

“N—no,” she stammered, too prideful to admit that she was.

“Anyways, there’s an old barber who lives at the edge of Whitechapel. Iscariot said that he thinks Lou might be in his barbershop according to his assessment. We should check it out.”

“Well, then what are we waiting for?” Elysif asked, as she grabbed her coat off the rack and stuffed her feet into her shoes.

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“You. Also, Iscariot said not to get our hopes up, because he isn’t sure how accurate it is,” Scott said, trying to emotionally prepare her for the worst.

“Do you really think that I would do that?” Elysif asked sarcastically.

“Yes, I do,” he said as he hurried out towards the door to the building, with Elysif in tow.

***

“Do you feel up to it now?” the masked figure asked. He still looked a little worn out, but my body didn’t want to respond. In the Realm of Stars there is no such thing as pain, so I always forget about my trauma, as well as my physical pain by the time I return to the real world. Thus, my body felt numb and everything in my head was screaming. It hurts… or did it? I couldn’t tell anymore.

“I w—want t—to help y—you,” I stammered out painfully.

“Good, now take me to the one I need to save,” the masked man demanded.

“F—first you must d—destroy my watch,” I stuttered.

“Your watch?” he said, confused.

“It’s the catalyst for my power,” I replied honestly. My throat was parched and my throat hurt, but I kept up my act.

“Alrighty then, take me to the one I love in the year 454 AD,” he said, picking up the cleaver. As he did, I thought of the apartment and everything that was there. From the couch, my bed, the empty as well as half-full bottles of rum thrown all over the place, and the bookcase covered in dust. Eagerly, the masked figure brought the cleaver down on the watch. It shattered along with my forearm. After doing so, he realized that I had tricked him, and began yelling obscenities, but it was too late.

The feeling of passing through time could only be described as enthralling. My body felt as though it had turned to dust in a similar fashion to that of any monster. I swore that I had passed into the Realm of Stars momentarily, before seeing the apartment, or at least its floorboards. Falling face first into the floorboards, several empty rum bottles were sent flying away from me, nearly knocking over a large stack of papers left beside the couch.

“Ow… Next time I have to figure out how to land on the bed,” I said to myself. As I started to push myself up, I realized I couldn’t feel my hand. It was gone. “Come on, grow back,” I said aloud, but before I finished saying it, the bones began forming. Once it was completely healed, I scooted over against the wall beside the door and started chuckling to myself.

“How far ahead in time did I go?” I asked myself, realizing that I may have been gone longer than I thought. To add to that, I was barely wearing any underwear and if they walked in on a naked Lou, thinking I was still missing, I don’t know what would happen. Thus, I grabbed a folded-up quilt that was resting near the door to cover myself. The apartment didn’t look all that different, though, so maybe I haven’t been gone too long?

I guess I’ll find out how far ahead I went eventually. I’m just glad to be back and away from that psycho. However, if I see him again, I’ll rip him apart and make him wish that he was dead, just like he did to me. I couldn’t help but smirk at my own thoughts. The idea of payback was intoxicating. My mind felt as if it were becoming twisted. Now that I was free, I could pay him back tenfold. My revenge was going to have to wait, though, because the door began to open up behind me.

***

Scott knocked on the door of the barbershop. No one came to the door, so he knocked again. Nothing. “Maybe there’s no one here?” Elysif wondered aloud.

“No, if that were the case, then the door wouldn’t be unlocked,” Scott said with a stern look as he twisted the knob. Opening the door, the two peared in. “Take this,” he said, handing Elysif a revolver.

“What? I can’t use this,” she stated in protest. Scott knew that she had no experience with guns, yet he still had the audacity to ask that of her.

“Do you think I care? You are unarmed, and I am better with physical attacks. You taking that gun will help us both,” Scott stated rationally. Although, it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference with the entities that they were planning on fighting.

“Fine,” she said, taking it from him. The two searched the building. No one was inside. The floor was coated in a thick layer of dust, and it seemed abandoned other than a line of footprints in the dust.

“Was this building supposed to be abandoned?” Elysif asked, as she peered around the building.

“No, it wasn’t, but that seems to be the case here,” Scott said as he looked around each corner.

“What's this?” Elysif asked as she pulled over a rug that was set in the one part of the room without dust. Underneath it, was a hatch.

“Cellar, I guess. Let’s go,” Scott said. Elysif readied her pistol as he opened it. There wasn’t anything there, just a ladder. Climbing down the ladder into a dark room, they found two cots, but nothing else of note, except a door on one end. Opening the door, there was a barber's chair soaked in dried blood resting in the center of the room. Beside it, to the left was a counter covered in torture tools but the only one covered in blood was a large meat cleaver.

The candles in this room were still lit, to their surprise. Next to the torturer’s tools, was a pistol with a silver blade attached to it, Lou’s knife, his coat, as well as his badge. “Well, Lou was here. Whether or not he’s alive is a different story. His body isn’t here, so I guess he might be breathing, at least,” Scott said with a dissatisfied scowl.

“Aren’t you worried about him at all? He was tortured here for God knows how long,” Elysif asked angrily.

“Of course I’m worried, but I’m more worried about the people who did this to him,” he replied, giving her a scary look that reminded Elysif of the night that Silva died. Malice and desperation were written on his face.

“Don’t do it. If you do, the Table high council won’t forgive you a second time. You will be executed for threatening the peace,” Elysif said, knowing exactly what he was thinking. She wanted to tell him to do it, but she also knew what doing so would entail.

“I know, but you misunderstand. As far as we know, Sir Micheal is the one who did this along with that Changeling. If I tear this city apart in order to kill him, Mordred will thank me rather than have me executed,” Scott replied earnestly.

“I guess, but where could he be? Where would he have been taken from here?” Elysif asked with distasteful agreeance.

“I don’t know. Let’s have the constable take a look around here and see what they can find. While that happens, we're gonna go to the apartment and get some things. Once we do that, I’ll have a plan on how we can wipe these people off the face of the earth,” Scott said, grabbing Lou’s stuff off the counter.

***

-Moments before-

“Damn it, that son of a bitch tricked me! Elick, we’re leaving,” the masked figure said, enraged after he watched Lou Barrett disappear into thin air. He had tried to behead him as he disappeared but it was no use. He didn’t want to risk Lou escaping before, and now, he’d aided his escape himself.

“What, so soon? What about the plan?” Elick, the Changeling, asked from the other room. Jumping up off the cot he was lying on, Elick began packing away his stuff without further question.

“We’ll figure something out. We don’t have time to grab everything, so get what you can,” the masked figure said.

“I already figured that would be the case, so I have my bag mostly packed,” Elick replied casually.

“You may be insane, but at least you’re not stupid,” he said with a humoured expression.

“Same for you, you masked lunatic. Guess I’m going to have to get a new appearance then,” Elick said with a chuckle. The masked figure could only shake his head at Elick’s sense of humour.

“No, big breasts suit you. Now let’s get out of here,” the masked figure said in a fairly joking tone, despite his demeanor.

“You really think so? They’ve been giving me back pain like you wouldn’t believe,” Elick said as the two climbed up the ladder to the main floor. They didn’t have much time, because had they left a moment later, they would have been seen by Scott and Elysif.

***

Scott burst into the apartment, wearing a face I had never seen on him before. One of malice and hatred, like someone had killed his dog in front of him twice. However, his expression changed the moment he turned and saw me, sitting on the floor, wrapped in a quilt, and barely my skivvies. He seemed in shock. Charging in behind him wondering what had shocked him so much, Elysif froze upon seeing me as well. I could see tears welling up in her eyes which somehow made me feel bad.

“Hey,” was all I could say, but it was enough. Elysif pushed through Scott and lunged at me for a hug, while Scott just smiled from ear to ear. He was flabbergasted by my sudden appearance, but happy nonetheless.

“Where have you been?” Scott asked, his voice breaking a bit from either excitement or joy. It didn’t matter though, I was back.

“I was being tortured for three weeks by some masked psycho and that Changeling in a barber’s chair,” I replied somewhat sassily. Guess I had created a habit.

“We went to go find you, but you had disappeared by the time we got there... along with the two you were talking about,” Elysif said as she held onto me for an uncomfortable amount of time, before letting go.

“Well, I just got out of there by using my ability,” I answered.

“Ability? You mean the time travel one?” Scott asked with a curious look.

“Yep, I finally figured it out… Well, sort of,” I replied as I still wasn’t entirely sure how it worked. Was I supposed to break a watch every time I wanted to time travel? Was it limited to just watches or could clocks work? Did I even need to break watches anymore, or was that a one-time thing?

“Well, here’s your stuff back,” Scott said, handing me my knife, gun, coat, and badge. “I’m getting a drink.”

“Wait, were you sober?” I asked with a surprised and kind of worried tone. He kept on towards his liquor cabinet, which at this point was most of the cabinets, with a roll of his eyes.

“He’s been sober all day,” Elysif answered for him. She looked to be a bit in shock from seeing me back, but ultimately seemed happy.

“You can’t do that to yourself. I mean, you are destroying your liver, but still,” I said, even though I knew it didn’t matter what I said on that subject.

“What I want to know is, if you were tortured, then why are there no markings on your body? We saw tons of blood on the barber’s chair,” Scott asked as he pulled out a bottle which he rarely ever pulled out and started making himself a cocktail.

“About that…” I said before using my knife to hack off a finger. Again, I didn’t even feel it. My body had grown accustomed to being hurt. Both of them gasped in shock as they saw my finger fall onto the floor with a string of blood trailing behind it. Of course, as they watched, the bones started to form back where my finger had been. This made them stare in disgusted bewilderment as it reformed the muscle, ligaments, tissue, and veins followed by the skin and fingernails. Whilst the finger grew back, the old one dissipated like a liquid. I figured that would be easier than explaining why I had no scars.

“S—so you can heal all your wounds like that?” Scott asked with a disturbed shake of his head before returning back to making his cocktail.

“Pretty much. However, the more I was tortured, the less painful it became and the faster it healed,” I explained with a gaze that let them know I didn’t want to discuss it further.

“Amazing,” Elysif said as she looked over my hand.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Scott said before handing the cocktail he was making to me. “You told me about a Mojito one time, so I figured out how to make one. Couldn’t find soda water, whatever that is, so I used cheap champagne.”

“Wow. Thank you,” I said before taking a sip. It was pretty good. “I won’t act like it was a good thing being tortured, but you don’t have to be sorry. All I can say is that when I see them again, I am going to repay them tenfold,” I said with a grin that made Scott look a little concerned.

“Well, let’s get you something to eat,” Scott said as he toddled over to the wood stove and started working on a small fire. As he did, he started drinking from a half-empty bottle of rum rather than the one he pulled out for the cocktail. Setting my drink on the floor beside me, I pushed my back against the wall and stood up. I attempted to walk over to the couch but instead, I tripped on the end of the quilt and fell over on my face. I wanted to say “ow” but it didn’t hurt. Even if I did say it, it would only get drowned out by Elysif’s sudden shriek.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I pushed myself up off the ground. Scott looked up from the fire and immediately knew what Elysif was shrieking about. Then I realized it as well. You could see every inch of me from behind, due to my lack of covering. Elysif looked away from me, covering her eyes innocently whilst her face turned beet red.

I didn’t understand why, though. She was a doctor. Shouldn’t she be used to seeing that kind of thing? Guess not. Ignoring her reaction, I pulled myself onto the couch and laid down. Damn, I was heavy. I guess my ability can’t stop muscle atrophy.

“Cover up, damn it!” She exclaimed as she threw a coat that was hanging up on the coat rack beside her at me. I did as she asked and covered up, but with the quilt, rather than the coat. Elysif quickly left and ran downstairs without a word. I, on the other hand, fell asleep. I was exhausted in every sense of the word, so I couldn’t help it. It just felt so good to fall asleep for the first time in weeks without being afraid of waking up.