I calmed down.

“I’m here guys…” I heaved the egregious weight of those last couple minutes off my chest.

“Is he always like this?” Squizm asked.

“He is going through something.” Twee replied, turning to her. “Who are you? Actually, that doesn’t matter. What is going on, Quincy?” She looked at me.

“Is Selene okay?” I winced, my face crumpled and weary.

“No. She is missing. She went invisible and never reappeared.” Twee told me firmly. The truth stung. But, she wasn’t confirmed dead, and that means I had some solace. Not that I was thinking rationally in that moment of panic though…

“Alright.” I said with a sigh. “Well, uh… our place of employment is messed up now.”

“I was… kind of expecting a bigger reaction from you, Quincy.” said Twee.

Roland gave me a serious look, chiming in. “Yeah. Quincy, I don’t think you realize that Selene is probably dead. We were fighting this monster and-”

“You want a bigger reaction!?” I screamed, jolting off the ground. “I just fucking puked my guts and collapsed in a pile of tears! If it were up to me, I would fucking kill Gammal for doing this shit to us!”

“Gammal?” Roland asked.

“He’s his friend from TUHF.” Twee explained. “It’s alright, Quincy. Deal with this however you see fit. I need to know, was it Gammal who issued this attack?”

“Yes… Gammal. He killed her.” I coughed. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“We don’t even know if she’s dead, Quincy.” Roland told me. “Don’t jump to conclusions just yet.”

“I’m going to fucking kill him, Roland!” I howled in pain, leaping up and grasping him by his shoulders, wiping liquid vomit on his already slightly ruffled black coat.

“Quincy.” Sal said.

“That man.” I began, growling. “He fucking killed my perfect sister. The only family to my name besides that… that fucking asshole running TUHF right now!”

“He’s right.” Twee said. “You should kill him, Quincy. Kill him and your father even.”

“Why are you the one agreeing with me here!?” I asked, turning to her in confusion and anger.

“Because he helped take Stocklord. I think we find him and we just murder him. Make him suffer for the shit he’s caused us.”

“Absolutely not.” Roland demanded. “That would be suicide.”

“How else do we find Stocklord, then?” Twee asked. “I don’t see any other good plans.”

Well, I mean, we had Squizm right next to us, but she didn’t dare chime in.

“You know what, Twee is wrong and right.” I said. “I’m going bigger. I’m going to take down TUHF. They are literally the sole reason for every bit of suffering I’ve experienced in life.”

“Guys.” Sal said to all of us.

“That’s a tad overdramatic, Quincy.” Roland told me. “I doubt that everything-”

“Guys!” Sal shouted.

“What?!” I looked at him. And then to where he was pointing. What all of us saw was shocking.

In the front entrance, there was the massive figure of a beast, coiling around the driveway like an ouroboros serpent. It’s head had a mouth, draconic fin-like ears, and a gem buried where it’s eyes should be.

Courtney’s locket. The same gem.

“She’s… she’s a dragon?” I shuddered, now trying to stay silent.

“Yeah. I figured that one out the hard way.” Twee told me, whispering too.

“Is… is she dead?” I said, getting my answer to that right after.

She began to let out a forlorn roar. Her cries and sobs seemed to be directed at the ground below her. Her massive serpent body coiled around something on the gravel. I couldn’t see what, but I took a good guess. Axel. That heartless bitch only loved one thing in this world besides herself; her children. And I mean, even they weren’t really her top priority...

Then she looked at us.

“Courtney.” I muttered, gulping.

“Wait… that’s my mother?” Squizm asked, taken aback.

Before I could answer, she moved quickly, releasing two massive sixty foot long wings from around her form and taking flight. I flinched, nearly falling over, but she went in the opposite direction. Flying away.

Her form coiled through the sky and off into the horizon at immense speeds, swirling like a spiral until she was gone.

“Wait? You’re Courtney’s missing daughter?” Sal asked.

“Yeah. I think so… My Mom is named Courtney too, but… she isn’t a dragon.”

“She’s obviously a shifter of some sort.” Twee explained. “She is powerful as all hell though if she can turn into whatever the fuck that was though.”

“Oh, she… she never told me.” Squizm said.

“Why didn’t she kill us?” I asked, calming down a little. I was still broken up quite a bit, though.

“No clue. But let’s not stick around. I still hear people inside the mansion, and if we don’t leave now-”

“Wait…” Squizm demanded.

She walked in closer to Courtney’s resting spot, approaching cautiously. And then her walking became much less cautious. She broke into a sprint, and then her feet assimilated into herself and launched her over.

Selene may still be alive. But the truth of Axel’s tragedy was here for Squizm to see.

I saw her face. It couldn’t even process this. It disappeared. She made no sound, without a mouth.

Her fists bashed the ground and she fell onto her back and melted. She was a puddle of slime, without any emotion. Her sister was dead before her.

In an instant, she knew any friendship and happy future they could have had was irrelevant. And worst of all, that had been taken by the people who she allied with.

She may be a girl taught and forced to kill, but her emotions resonated. I felt her sadness, even if there was no way she could show it right now.

I felt it, because I had just lost my sister too.

She reformed, her body flying up.

“Who did this?” she said, completely calm. I heard it though, just the slightest tinge in her usually stark voice.

Heartbreak.

I knew what I had to say as I approached her. It was the only thing I could, and I said it without hesitation.

“Gammal.”

Whether it was true or not, I didn’t know. I needed her on our side though. At that moment I knew she’d be an amazing ally.

Despite this situation, she was still our enemy. And an enemy of her new enemy would be her friend.

Instead, I got an unexpected and scary result.

She began to strangle me.

“Are you sure?!” she screamed into my face, her whole body flowing like tears rolling down it. Even her dress of slime was crying away as she turned back into a puddle.

“It was his order, wasn’t it?” I told her.

The puddle formed her face again. Just the face... “No. That wasn’t his choice. He wouldn’t have killed her. That was Master. He made the order to kill everyone in the mansion. Gammal was trying to capture you, but...”

“My father… that pretentious son of a bitch could’ve killed me.” I finished her sentence. “You deserve more than to be a slave to his whims, Squizm.”

“I am not a slave…” she told me.

“Yes you are. You were oppressed and controlled. Taken from your mother and forced to see your sister’s corpse.”

“Well, I quit!” she shouted, reforming into her human shape. “Quincy. Take me with you. I will prove a useful weapon.”

I didn’t expect Squizm to hand her services to me on a silver platter, but I guess we had a new friend now.

She would NOT replace my sister though.

The others approached around that time. I didn’t know why they hadn’t come sooner. Maybe it was so I could talk with Squizm in peace.

“We have to go, Quincy.” Twee demanded. “I don’t wanna be around when whatever is happening in there comes out here. Or if those PROBE agents return.”

“Just give Squizm a moment. Then she’ll be coming with us.” I replied.

“I’m done here.” she said to us, standing up next to the body.

“You sure?” I cautioned. “We’re not coming back to this shithole. And… uh… I thought you’d feel a bit more emotion about Axel’s death.”

“I did. Now I see it’s more important for us to move on.”

Wow… she was stonehearted for someone her age. Although, could I really say much? I was like six years older and throwing an edgelord temperfit about my sister.

I guess neither of us were healthy.

“Uhm… well, if you guys are-” Twee began.

“Yes! I have been ready to leave before we even got here!” Sal exclaimed.

I am Gammal, the Modern Sorcerer, Maleficent Dark Apprentice to Jubiliah, Presage of Purgatory. This is what happened to me this day.

I was filled to the brim with regret.

I begrudgingly returned to the warehouse in the town not too far from the mansion. The citizens seemed blissfully unaware of the chaos occurring mere miles away from them.

As our car wheeled in, the doctors rushed around me and got me on a gurney. A man began to wipe down the leather seats of my blood. It still oozed and flowed through my limp arms.

I held on, resisting the urge to faint from blood loss.

They wheeled me into an emergency tent inside the grimey building, there were a couple for treating the injured soldiers. O, the agony I heard!

The agony I felt! Good lord. I couldn’t feel anything else.

But then, when I thought the pain couldn’t get worse, he walked in.

“Hello Mr. Master.” the doctors said.

“Out.” he demanded, fury besetting his face.

The aid to my pain scurried out the door like mice from a pussy cat. They left me, the weak defenceless muse, to the beast.

He malded for a moment, pacing back and forth, as if he imitated a metronome. A furious metronome indeed, keeping the beat to a song about my failures.

And then the metronome stopped, and locked eyes with me.

“Wanna know what my drones picked up over the Thieves Court?” he started. I tried to say something, but he wouldn’t allow it. “My fucking son!” he screamed, stamping his foot on the concrete, cracking it with his strength.

“Gammal, you unleashed a demon on my son! And it doesn’t end there either, nooooo!” he spat with enthusiasm, as if he enjoyed this. “My daughter was there too! Selene and Quincy could have died!”

“Please, sir… Master. I must ask for a second cha-”

“Fuck no, Doctor Blowjob! I am the fucking owner of The Ultrahuman Force, and you are a pig who can’t take action! You sit on your fat ass and make demons and other shit fumble the job! You are never getting another chance again.”

“Please… don’t fire me.” I quivered, still bleeding, a lot of bleeding.

“Oh no, you are going to go through worse! I am publicly defacing you in front of the entire world, Sweden especially!” he threatened. And what a grand threat it was. I am sorry, Mama. I know I can never be forgiven, but that man was a liar!

I couldn’t reply. I only cried as I felt myself fading. I just prayed that I’d wake up. I prayed I’d wake up in this realm.

“Now, I’m handling this job, Gammal! I am going to catch my son, and my daughter, and they are both going to be punished for what they’ve done.”

“Are you even listening to me!? Don’t you dare fucking faint! Gammal!”

“Gammal! Wake the fuck up!!!”