After an unknowable amount of restless sleep, Sarah woke up again. Every time she had woken up, she had made sure that Melissa was still next to her and that Neil was still tied up.

And luckily, it was still like this. The only difference was that Melissa was awake by now. She just sat next to her and looked at her. When Melissa noticed that Sarah was awake, she blushed a little and cleared her throat. "I thought I’d keep watch and let you sleep a little."

Sarah looked at her with a raised brow and wondered what kind of ‘keeping watch’ staring at her while sleeping should have been.

"But you didn’t…"

"I did keep watch."

"But…"

"I. Did. Keep. Watch."

Melissa looked at her with such intense eyes that Sarah just dropped the subject. No use quarreling with this stubborn woman. Sarah sat up and mustered Melissa for a few moments. She looked a lot better by now. "Didn’t you have trouble breathing and all?"

Melissa nodded and gave her a crooked smile. "I did. And I know now why it hurt to breathe. I got the skills 'magic overload resistance' and 'acid resistance'. The very air here is harmful for humans. But I guess the system didn’t want me to die so fast."

Sarah nodded in understanding. Given her constitution, it made a lot of sense for her to be unaffected by this environment. As her body ran purely on magic power, this was like a feast for her.

Sarah’s mind had fully woken up by now, and she remembered the uncomfortable discussion she’d have to have with Melissa. "Melissa, I need to talk to you about something very important."

Melissa looked at her curiously but nodded in affirmation.

"So you… You have some kind of parasite in your soul. Denise has implanted it, most likely the whole camp. And it influences you in her favor." Sarah tensed up her body, just in case Melissa would attack her.

"Oh good. I was so afraid that you would still be under her influence." Melissa slumped together and let her head fall against the hard wall. "On the other hand, I guess I’d be pretty much dead by now if you had been."

Sarah looked at Melissa in surprise. "You knew? And how are you not affected by it?"

Melissa nodded gravely. "I do. And I still am a little. But I suppressed it so far, that it feels more like someone is whispering weird stuff in my ear. It’s easy to ignore. But I sadly only started to notice a few days ago." Melissa’s face contorted, and she looked down on the ground in shame. "You see I… Or, no, let me say it differently. A lot of people have a great liking for me."

Sarah only lifted one of her eyebrows and snorted.

"Not like this!" Melissa retorted in anger but soon calmed herself again. "Yes alright. Also like this. But many others who don’t see me like this do like me a lot. But recently… they started treating me colder. Like they stopped caring about me. And I started to think that I deserved to be treated like this. That was the moment I started doubting my own thoughts. I first suspected Andrew of this, even though I couldn’t explain why. But… well, now it’s clear who did this."

Sarah looked at her with a frown. Something didn’t sit quite right with her about what Melissa had told her. "And you just did nothing?"

Melissa glared at her, and her lips became small lines. "Don’t be too fast to judge. How do you think you were able to notice it? Why do you think it took Denise so long to take over? You have no idea how hard I tried to prevent this whole shitshow. And let me tell you: It’s not easy to do this while simultaneously hiding it from this freakin parasite in my head and not going crazy over the thought of something foreign being in my very soul."

"I’m sorry." Sarah said seriously and looked into Melissa's angry eyes. "I judged you too quickly."

Melissa's anger melted away a little, and she nodded in approval.

"So… did you get it out by now?" Sarah asked tentatively. Melissa just snorted. "Of course I did. Do you think I’d let this thing stay inside me any longer than necessary?"

Sarah nodded in understanding and let herself slump against the wall again. She hadn’t even noticed how tense her body had become.

They just sat there for quite some time until Melissa started talking again. "You know, if I look at this rationally, I should be freaking out right now. I have been kidnapped and thrown into some dangerous, foreign place where even breathing harms me. But I feel strangely… freed. I didn’t know I had felt burdened to this extent."

"Guess this happens when you have someone around who permanently dampens your feelings." Sarah mumbled, which caused Melissa to chuckle slightly.

"Yes, you might be right. But it’s not just that. I… When, do you think, was the last time someone asked me if I was okay?"

Sarah looked at her with a confused face because of this sudden shift in their discussion. "I don’t know. Yesterday?"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Melissa smiled wryly and shook her head. "It’s been a long time. And I don’t even like to remember it because it was a pretty horrible moment. I had just killed someone before that."

Sarah didn’t quite know what to say to this. She saw how troubled Melissa was right now but had no idea how to soothe her or help her in this situation. But before Sarah could say something stupid to lighten the mood, Melissa continued talking.

"You see, I like helping others. I like what my skills can do and how I can support our community. But… People don’t really see me as a person. Either they see me as some sort of stress relief station, or they look at my breasts and only think about… you know what. Nobody even thinks about asking how I am doing. Or that I could be too exhausted to help them."

Sarah frowned upon hearing this. And she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. "Why do you even care what other people think about you? Why don't you just send them away when they bother you?"

Melissa snorted and looked at her with droubting eyes. "You are the last person who can say that to me."

Now it was Sarah’s time to get a little angry. "What do you want to say, huh? Like I care what others…"

"Stop." Melissa said resolutely and held up her hand. Sarah’s mouth closed, but her anger hadn’t subsided.

"A lot of people in the community obviously don’t like you. And you are… let’s say, a rather special person. But you still try so hard to fit in, even if it is clear that this will never be possible in this group. But there are already people who like and accept you, and you still try to fit into the bigger picture. Why?"

Sarah felt like these words had hit her deep in her soul. She didn’t want to accept it, but she knew that Melissa’s words were right. Why had she tried so hard to fit in? Why had she tried so hard to be part of a community that didn’t fully accept her?

Sarah took a deep breath and let her head hang down. "I guess you’re right. Sorry for getting angry." She mumbled, and Melissa took Sarah’s right hand into hers. They were warm and soft, but they still gave her the strength to confront reality.

"Thinking back, I always thought that I had to fit in. That I have to try really hard to be part of a community, even if I’m odd. And yes, I know that I am different than most people. I can’t really explain why I have this need inside of me. It just feels like it has been a part of me for a long time. Maybe even from before all of this happened."

Melissa scooched closer and took her in her arms. "I guess we both have our problems. And even if no one else likes you… I do. So don’t worry about being alone."

Sarah smiled, and emotions welled up inside of her. Just like the first time she had met Melissa, she had managed to lift a heavy weight from her heart just by being there for her.

"Thank you, Melissa. You are the only person who isn’t shit in this crazy world. And I care about how you feel."

Melissa had to laugh out loud after this statement, and Sarah couldn’t help but also smile a little, even if she had no idea what amused Melissa so much.

"I guess I can count that as a compliment?" She asked and smiled teasingly.

Sarah didn’t know why, but Melissa seemed to shine brightly at this moment, even with all the dirt on her face and her blond hair being a tangled mess. She looked down in a hurry to hide the furious blush on her face.

She heard a slight giggling from her side, which only heightened her embarrassment. Anxious to escape this uncomfortable situation, she cleared her throat and changed the subject.

"Do you think you can heal Neil over there?" Sarah asked while still staring down. Melissa's hands, which were still holding hers, cramped a little after her question.

"I think so, yes. Until now, I had to be extra careful not to alert Denise to my tampering. But I guess that’s not important anymore." She answered and sighed at the end. "The sooner the better?"

Sarah nodded, and they stood up together. She immediately regretted changing the subject to this as Melissa's soft hands released hers. Why did she have to do that?

While cursing herself inwardly, Sarah walked over to the still unconscious Neil, with Melissa close behind her.

"Should I do something?" Sarah asked after some time. Melissa had stood there without moving an inch.

No, it’s just… the last time I ripped something like this out of someone else… It didn’t go well." Melissa answered with a quivering voice.

"It’s fine." Sarah soothed her and turned around to face her. "You managed to do it for yourself. You will be able to do it for someone else. And if something goes wrong with him… let’s say, he won’t be able to harm you."

Melissa looked at her with complicated feelings in her eyes but nodded after a while. Without saying anything more, she crouched down next to Neil. Sarah also crouched down but gripped Neil's neck with both her hands. If he even showed a hint of aggressiveness, she’d snap his neck like a dry twig.

Melissa put her shaking hands on Neil's chest and closed her eyes. They sat there for a long time, but nothing changed. Sarah concentrated on her magic sense, and only now did she see something happening.

Magic power seemed to concentrate in Melissa's hands, only to vanish like a lie. That was where the conversion of the energy into… whatever Melissa was producing with her skills took place.

"He’s free." Melissa told her in a shaky voice and pulled her hands back.

"Just like this?" Sarah asked, feeling almost disappointed by the anticlimactic conclusion.

Melissa snorted and looked at her with furrowed brows. "That’s what you think. You don’t want to know how this disgusting thing defended itself. It almost felt like it had some kind of will of its own." She shuddered at her own words and frantically cleaned her hand on Neil's clothes.

Sarah quickly overcame her strange disappointment, and a small hope blossomed in her heart. Maybe when they got out of this mess, they could save the people. It didn’t matter if they liked her or not; Nobody deserved to be in the claws of this insane bitch.

She wondered how the system would define Denise’s state of mind, considering she had judged herself to be ‘slightly crazy’.

"Let’s hope he will wake up." Melissa mumbled and ripped Sarah out of her thoughts. Immediately afterwards, a loud grumbling sound could be heard from Melissa’s stomach. She looked down worriedly and then up at Sarah again.

She didn’t even have to say anything, before Sarah was already on her feet again. "Don’t worry. I won’t let you starve to death. Can I leave you alone with him?"

Melissa nodded and smiled a little. "He’s tied up and has a slight soul injury. I doubt he will wake up for another day or so. And while you’re away, I’ll start looking for a water source in this cave. Maybe there’s something trickling inside."

Sarah looked at her with concern. "Just don’t go outside. I have no idea what’s going on out there, but… this place is not normal."

Melissa looked at her with curiousity in her eyes, but Sarah held up her hands. "I’ll explain at a later time. No, I have to scout some more and get you something to eat. I need you alive and well to be able to tell you stories."

Melissa gave her a grateful smile, which caused Sarah to blush a little again. Now seriously, why did this always happen to her?!

Feeling flustered and insecure, Sarah turned around and ran away. She was already too far gone to hear Melissa's fearful, whispered words.

"Don’t die."