Eyes of Another

Daniel awoke the next morning grinning ear to ear. His dreams had been grandiose that night.

With the sky still dark he prepared his breakfast. The stove crooked with rust functioning at the dim light of a flame, yet was doable with Daniel's expertise in cooking. Shoveling through pots and pans he finally found one that was clean.

He always forgot to throw the extra ones away when their handles snapped or innards were overturned with polluted rain that leaked through the cracks in the roofing. He wondered how much each would sell for.

Five… ten dollars? People might not even want these old tools.

Exhaling out of the two holes on his cheeks an unheard whistle goes across the room. Squirrels pop out from underneath the cupboard quickly picking up the right pans and supplies. Soon they had already started the stove, cracking five eggs over the pan to let the yolk spill out forming that pleasant sun rising over the clouds. This morning he was delighted to have the scrambled eggs he had every day. However, today they tasted differently. It was as if a spice was put into it. Something to make the taste fluffy and sweet.

Daniel's face burned from blushing. He was proud of his cooking. Even prouder of his ability to survive.

In his sanctuary he wore a tank top displaying his twig like body and arms. He knew that if Kage saw him like this he would inevitably howl with laughter. Furthermore, his shorts wrapped around his thighs. All in all, this was not an outfit he could wear anywhere else. Only in this one room apartment on the bottom floor to a dilapidated complex could he find peace.

Checking his watch he saw that it was almost time for the documentary. A fascination beheld Daniel in his gleaming mind that revolved around the prospect of heroism. The past demonstrated feats of strength unknown to the newest generation. One of which stood the test of time as The Great Devastation taken by the original Evolved sinking the western half of Europe into the sea which subsequently fell by their hand. This specific program commonly detailed the chronicles that encompassed the finding of evolved humans and of the organization which protected various corrupted Evolved.

Daniel scratched at his wrist jostling the band to a watch. Fumbling for the briefest of moments, Daniel snapped the band off placing the object back into its protective case. The object was the only thing of value to him. Given by his mother he was told that the watch was very old and that it had been a gift from one of the first evolved humans. Daniel never questioned his mother and cherished the watch. Its brown band and silver face lined with black caron was fairly simple. The watch did not stand out making it all the more important to Daniel. Only he knew the meaning behind the item providing him worth.

The portable television snapped on with the flip of a knob. Daniel gave it a few smacks, shocking it from the gray and black bars to the colored but frazzled image of a reporter sitting at his desk. The usual blue background filtered with attachments read as, "BREAKING NEWS" passed by.

The reporter shuffled through the papers on his desk before laying them down. Common act for a professional. "We just had confirmation that last weekend the son of the CEO to the software company Mega Leap was kidnapped near the lower district of Ainse City. He apparently had not shown up for school that day where the child's homeroom teacher was then notified by an unknown man, going under the guise of his father, who told the staff that his son would be home sick. Once his parents arrived home on Monday they discovered he had not been there the entire weekend. Yesterday, footage was uncovered revealing the child traveling down a side street with his bike.

The footage from the scene shows the child entering the path but not exiting from either end. Ten minutes later this man leaves from the path. He has been described by Law Enforcement as an evolved human whose specialty includes teleportation. In the footage, he was dressed entirely in black clothing with what appears to be a black mask covering his face and black gloves hiding his skin. The Oracle system has detailed the man to be a chronic smoker between the ages of 25 to 32 years old. His body size has been undetermined by the system which could be due to his aura.

The police have notified us that if anyone has seen a man fitting this description or using powers similar in nature to the ones listed, they are to contact law enforcement immediately. Do not interact with this man. According to the Oracle the man's aura has ranked him anywhere between high B-rank to high A-rank."

Daniel clicked off the station. There have been too many kidnappings occuring lately. The police can't handle this many crimes at once which requires heroes to "degrade" themselves to this lowly business.

'They need to step up.'

Quickly, he brought the station to the film. Daniel sat down only a foot or so away from the screen. He whistled once more for the squirrels to quiet their work just as the program began.

A man strutted on through the studio set then flopped into a cushioned chair that took center stage of the video's focus. Daniel immediately recognized the researcher and his aloofness. He was one of the latest talents to emerge from evolved humans' study. Following in his father's footsteps, Nyn Night was already a leader in educational services for evolved humans with much of his work now tied with raising the newest batch of heroes in close association with the Agency.

His trimley cut albino white hair and clean shaven face presented him as an almost alien character. One look at him and anyone could tell he was a sloppy minded being with only his work stuck to his brain as well as a spark of clear perversion. His outfit of blue jeans topped off by a black dress shirt simply did not match. Especially the brown coffee stain on his breast pocket exemplified by the unbuttoned top with no tie. To Daniel it seemed a miracle someone had convinced Night to appear in the film.

The camera zoomed in on Nyn as he fidgeted uncomfortably in the black plaid chair. Realizing his mistake Nyn sat back smiling to the anonymous viewers, "Hello everyone. You may or may not know who I am already but nevertheless my name is Nyn Night, son to the late Carver Night.

This documentary came on the 30th anniversary of the operation carried out by over 50 heroes including Unity, Black Chain, and Jetz, labeled as, "The Final Plan". The Final Plan was proposed to arrest the leaders of a separate but powerful branch of Villains called the Insurrectionists. This of course included the one thought to have been the strongest evolved human at the time, Croacan. During this raid my father was there to record the event. Yet, as several of the brave, valiant heroes lost their lives to the chaos and violence civilians and anyone within a four mile distance from the city were required to be evacuated away before the action spread."

The camera swapped over to another speaker, this time a slick and spectacled youngster, the interviewer of this film. "The whole incident was a disaster from the start. This was, in part, due to faulty communication between the local government surveillance and hired heroes which led to the false assumption that they had the element of surprise. Caught by a failed ambush the Insurrectionists were able to overwhelm the likes of even Unity.

The time stood at 0100 hours, when the main force of the Insurrectionists had finally been subdued the remaining 15 heroes felt an intense aura reading calculated to be no less than 20000 rem. At 0120 hours, Croacan appeared." A diagram appeared on the screen of a final image snapped from a shuttered camera. A resident had stayed behind to photograph the event which supplied this program with its imagery. The amassing aura readings blurred the picture but was still able to depict Unity and his then partner Black Chain kneeling in pain at a white void that infected the world. The final sight of the camera operator as well as Jetz who were incinerated by Croacan's first attack.

"By this point the city had been laid to ruin. Hundreds of civilians who were deemed safe had perished and the heroes who staked their lives on this operation ended with a measly five to face Croacan. However, through Unity and Black Chain's strength they were able to evenly fight Croacan!" The woman's voice took up a patriotic flair enticing those who witnessed her display of hand waving that embellished the fearsome fight. "Once he exited from his hideout the cameras at the scene were destroyed by the Evolved's auras; therefore, the rest of this information is based entirely on eyewitness accounts from Unity and the surviving three heroes from that day."

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Someone was pounding on the door to Daniel's room. He had been so engrossed with the video he only just realized how fast the time had whizzed by. Throwing on the academy's uniform, Daniel tossed the rest of the dishes inside a sink for later washing. Jumping over the overflowing trash can by his bed he grabbed some keys and thrusted open the door to the outside world. All done in the manner of less than ten minutes.

The sun shot into his eyes cowering him before being saved by an incoming shadow. Hearing a snicker the boy whipped his head up toward the shadow. The grand figure became one synonymously feminine then the dark blob of a head shifted forms until a face was recognized. Not long after the glare from the sun had been vanquished leaving Daniel with the ability to discern his friend.

Sam stood tall and judgmental with the fierce stare of a mother discovering the dog had vomited all over the carpet while the father hid away in the room over downing more beer with a loud burp after each bottle. It would almost be comical if she had begun to wag her finger. But, Daniel knew that if Sam was mad, he would be the one to relieve her stress. Which entailed him getting an earful until their arrival at the academy.

"ARE YOU FUCKING RETARDED!" Were the first words from her mouth. If Daniel knew one thing about Sam it was that she used her 'fucks' and 'shits' and 'shit fucks' liberally. "GET MOVING WE HAVE NO TIME BEFORE THE TRAIN LEAVES!" This wasn't the first instance when Daniel had been ungodly late for class, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. However, this morning he had taken one too many seconds to fall into his hobby.

This also wasn't the only time they had sprinted for the city train. Throwing clothes and homework assignments inside their cases while bickering and barking at one another.

"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO WAIT FOR ME!" Daniel cried, but the softness of his voice made the yell seem more like a joke rather than a stern statement.

Sam's head slowly turned his way; done in such a way it could only be described as horrorish and all too akin with the scene from that poltergeist film. This made Daniel chuckle.

Wrong answer.

Sam slammed her school bag into Daniel throwing him from his feet and into a patch of grass to their right. Now covered in moistness along with the stench of freshly mowed lawn he was rather 'pissed'. Only if he could utter such frightening language.

Both of his legs pistoned off like a mechanical horse. He was a prized beast that would get its prey.

30 feet… 20 feet… 10… 5… he was now on her heels. The both of them running with all of their might trying to outpace the other in a game of superiority.

The entirety of this race was spent with Sam lobbing impact grenades filled with 'ass-wipe' and Daniel's favorite: 'animal-fucker.' He could not take these insults lying down. Daniel had to get creative and find his own way to challenge Sam, and so he did.

"QUEEN B-B-BITCH!" He had been able to stutter out of his mouth. Curse words were foreign to those pencil-thick lips thus making them tickle at the speech. Sam burst out in laughter knowing that the childish insults were incredibly hard for the boy. Her sides ached all the more with their constant running. She was out of breath yet the competition neared completion. Just down the subway stairs and a bout to the left would bring them to the finish line.

Huffing and puffing they were out of energy. The track had been a two mile trip done in a little over seven minutes. Daniel could barely make out the movie posters lining the train cars due to the lack of oxygen flowing to his brain.

The doors opened and a flood of businessmen, thrifters, homeless, and devious persons pushed into the cars. Once the stack was clear Daniel and Sam dove inside.

"A tie again, dears!" Applauded an elderly woman.

Daniel pushed himself up onto his elbows smiling, "Thanks Grandma!" The woman owned the title solely for age not blood relation. She was just another one of the many people aboard this train. The difference was that she greeted the two children each day they left for the bigger city. In kind, the children did the same, paying an unconscious respect to the senior. Her work was unknown yet it allowed her to travel away from the stench of ash that fell on top of the lower districts.

One of the few that could escape the filth of this place. Sam described the lower level as nothing but "filthy, disgusting trash".

An astute belief harbored by many who lived in and around the lower levels, an area dotted by smoke stacks that produced the mixture of fumes composed of bodies as well as steel to fund an importation of goods between the Southern and Northern halves of the United Western States (U. W. S.). A result of the creation between the old nations of Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America caused by droughts covering then Mexico which brought cities to ruin and the deaths of millions. Then there was the destabilization of Canada through massive political corruption ending with destruction throughout and the inability to withstand its seizure.

Of course, what else would the United States do then to offer aid and support to either country? That is what the United States does best, right?

This aid did not just end with medical supplies and shelter, but continued with the appointment of political officials which led to the cession of both nations under the umbrella of the United States. Actions which were justified by the moniker to unite and ward off the rest of the anarchal governments in South America, socialist Europe, and war torn Africa.

"Bullshit!" Was what Grandma had told them. "All this did was further exacerbate the problems of class division. Capitalist scum wiping their problems by expansion and terrorisation!" Grandma always told of how her husband had to watch in horror while people were burned en masse. A practice that persisted.

Daniel and Sam witnessed first hand the after effects of the bodies. In an attempt to make a few extra bucks for agendas and ice cream they took a part time job dumping ashes into grave sites. The dead were all gangsters, homeless, and other recluses with no one to mourn them. Daniel could still smell the scent of lice ridden clothes penetrated by burning flesh. Much like a skunk spraying its eye watering gas mixed with the decay of rotten wood. The smell never came off once it stuck.

Millions of people lived in each city yet only a few thousand would be remembered with physical burials that were lazily decorated by blank slabs of concrete. The rest are just trash to the world. Daniel lay frightened by the idea, hoping that at least he would be remembered by one person. Someone who would go on to be part of that thousand.

Grandma always reminded them that in no way did the U.S. want to defend and protect. Her speeches on greed and ambivalence of the government to the real people bored Sam forcing tiredness to seep into her bones. On the other hand, Daniel always listened but not out of respect. It was fascination.

Her conspiracies always revolved around how the U.S. somehow sabotaged the other countries to bring about their downfall, leaving them with no other option but to become a piece of some greater whole.

The news and history hurt Daniel. All the tragedy. Rapists found not guilty only to go on doing what they do best, ideological men whose purpose lay solely in genocide from Armenians to Jews, and even those that for no good reason at all would just shoot dead a family of four. Local news was even worse. The conflicts were much more personal then. A mother committing suicide and leaving her children behind to be torn apart by loan sharks. One time, he had even seen a father intentionally overdose his children with heroin to spite the mother for not getting an abortion.

All of this just reminded Daniel of his own tragedy. He hated it. He had moved away and become self reliant. Nothing should ever bother him like before. Yet, these injustices poked him every day. More and more cropped up, appearing as if they were ingrained with society. Even so, there was never word of a solution. It truly felt like hope was lost in reordering the pain.

On this day, with sleep remaining close and the rush from his home exhausting his body further. Daniel really didn't want to listen to Grandma's politically charged dictation. So, today he brought a secret weapon.

Pulling out two plastic orange cylinders from his coat pocket he smiled at his own cleverness. Ear plugs. Why had he not thought of it before?

Sam and him took a look at one another casting a face of understood perception.

Game faces on.

Each put on the expression of some grizzled 50 year old war veteran who had served three tours in the Middle East. One that was pensive and focused without a hint for any other emotion to be understood.

She put in her own ear plugs nodding toward her pant pocket. Sam never wore skirts. There was something there to pry into, but Daniel never pushed. If he did, maybe an unearthing would occur.

Maybe he would lose her. That couldn't happen. He had no one else. He wouldn't lose Sam, not from a nosy mind.

'SLAP!' Sam had seen the look on his face. He had been thinking bad thoughts again.

Daniel smiled again, giving a light slap of his own to Sam's shoulder. He could never be as rough as her. A tomboy who loved the color red that constantly picked fights with upper-classmen. An impulsive person that on a whim ran headlong at an issue that could be dealt with some thought. For her, thinking could take too much time. From her grand experience of video games, that time could prove fatal. What if while you were thinking the suspicious individual in the crowd withdrew a pistol and shot the President in the head.

BOOM! Mission Failed! But, there would never be another chance. There was a death and that couldn't be redone.

On Daniel's first day moving to the neighborhood Sam uncharacteristically fitted herself with hair that stretched for miles. The thing almost reached down to her calves. A real life Rapunzel if he had ever seen one. A week or so later she decided to play a prank on Daniel before he came home from school. That day she had been, supposedly, out sick due to a high fever but unknown to Daniel, Sam was planning a dastardly trick. A trick that went unfulfilled as she stumbled across a litany of magazines that shared one similarity. Not one woman in them had long of any kind. In all of them, they had kept their hair neat and short.

Thereafter Sam had styled her own in the same fashion. Daniel was left stunned by the sudden change but her intrusion remained a secret.

The subway car proceeded to stop in thirty-second intervals, barely granting time for passengers to exit or arrive. None of the noise and muttered curses stole their attention. Just another day for inhabitants of the train.

While Grandma finally ended her spiel, she realized that her platform had come. Waving away her goodbye, Daniel was the only one to converse in sequence. Meanwhile, Sam held in her hands a phone she 'found' in the seat beside her. Frankly, Daniel was a little worried that the owner needed it. Or, that it could possibly be tracked and Sam would get into trouble. However, he had grown complicit with the crime; afterall, it let them play games to pass the time.

Cranking in clockwise fashion on the 8-bit pixelated catapult Daniel aimed at the knight on top Sam's castle and released. He had miscalculated the trajectory hitting two blocks below the knight. "Damn!" he whispered.

Her toothy grin surfaced as she quickly cranked up her catapult and with perfect acquisition of air resistance, velocity, and of course trajectory, she removed her finger from the screen launching the rock directly at Daniel's knight. The rock knocked the knight's head clean off, toppling the body forward into the moat. Even pixelated blood shot from the bottom of the decapitated head as it hurled through the air. How lovely.

The first round had gone to her. Now it was time to refortify the base to provide the loser of the round more supplies to have an edge at the game. He would make sure to beat her this next round.

After many many rounds that accompanied too much quipping from Sam and annoyed grunting from Daniel, their train had arrived at the center of the city. Daniel had not won once during the train ride which increased his lividity.

The two of them walked another few minutes to get to the school. Not much was spoken other than the usual blasting of teachers by Sam. How they wouldn't let her get off not completing her art assignment or chewing gum during math. Sometimes Daniel tried to understand how annoying it would be to have Sam as a student. Non stop bickering about common sense rules and assignments way past their due date, but he came to the same conclusion each time. She would be fun.

Once at Petell Academy they were separated down opposite hallways. Each day this naturally occurred without a word from either one of them. And each day Daniel would take a chance over his shoulder to see Sam's face disappear among the ocean of sweaty meat bodies.

Daniel didn't hate his classes. He was simply not fond of them. There was a difference, or so he said. In his belief, mathematics, science, and a dab of history are the only subjects worthy of purpose. The others were wastes of time to use up a person's childhood.

When one of these useless classes began, take for example: Art Appreciation, Daniel had no choice but to fall asleep. It's the only form of protest he could think of and he would for sure, definitely, in-all-likelihood pass the class anyways. He was not stupid. But the teacher surely was.

Mrs. Shicszatmann, or as the students cleverly nicknamed her Mrs. Shit-Zit-Man, was one of the strictest and laziest teachers in the whole continent. She gave instructions so precise it made the class a festival of the same looking drawings over and over again, varying on talent alone. Furthermore, her criticisms were chock-full of 'art language' that only she could understand.

Here's the kicking thought! Throughout all of this harsh criticism and art she calls "TRASH! ABSOLUTE TRASH!" In her thinly veiled Australian accent, Mrs. Shit-Zit-Man was so lazy she gave everyone an A for whatever they drew.

"What a waste of time." Daniel would mutter at the beginning and end of her class which, at this point, had become a ritual. A class which served a singular purpose to make lunch much more rewarding.

This was when he could withdraw from the loud rooms to his area of cleanliness.

The ROOF.

Ok. It wasn't as impressive as he made it out to be but the place was:

Quiet.

Away from everyone else.

Lastly, he was the third owner of the key to this sanctuary. The other two being Sam and the Janitor they had nicked the additional keys from.

Today was perfect to eat on the roof as well. Laying down he felt the cool breeze of that afternoon wash over him. He hadn't even showered today and the smell was bothering him. Daniel was sure the kids around him could smell his B.O. Yet, they were too nice to say anything. The air at least wafted it away so no one would have to deal with his stench.

'EEEK!' The sound of a wailing child with tears streaming down its soft fatty cheeks echoed to his left.

Oh wait. That was just the door.

Sam stepped beyond the door. Daniel knew that she had the phone prepared so that they could spend even more time competing in the game. He had yet to see the shadow looming over Sam from behind.

"I met your lover on the way here." Out from the depths of shadows appeared Kage eye to eye in height with Sam. His expression was stone cold, not a lick of expression leaking through. Daniel knew his range of facial patterns to be mild disgust to angered disgust with every now and then a small smirk peeking through the rest. "I decided to bring him along after he shouted at me to go fuck myself when I offered him some help."

Kage snarled and told a different tale, "You call that 'help'? You called me an addict then picked up a cigarette from the floor, shoving it into my face!"

She was teetering on the edge of hysterical laughter. Going full looney toons right to his face. Daniel knew that it would only end with a tarnished friendship if the two continued to bicker.

He had to become the barrier between them, otherwise he feared that Kage may let out that suppressed anger. "How about we stop it already guys." Daniel piped up with his timid voice in its cutest and calming tone. Kage and Sam eyed one another for a second longer before comically folding their arms and twisting their heads in the opposite direction.

"Fine!" Sam agreed while Kage stared daggers into her spine.

Daniel grabbed onto each of their sleeves, lightly tugging them to sit on either side of him. He needed to maintain the barrier at all costs. Like that wall separating that one country in half. Its name was on the tip of his tongue.

Bulgaria? No.

France? Definitely not.

Poland! Yeah, that's the one. The east and west border between Poland separating the land controlled by Soviet-Russia and that other one.

Daniel didn't like history, or really bothered studying it, but it helped him here.

Kage's attitude was certainly different than usual. Almost always when they met he either had that reserved mood with the look of a drill sergeant contemplating which cadet he would torment that day, or an expression of boredom so pronounced it made him appear much older than he really was. Today, Daniel saw a new one. Blistered anger.

Unneeded thoughts were swirling about in his mind.

Lisa's attitude.

'Why was she acting so strange around him lately?'

This morning she didn't even address him. When he said goodbye he got the cold shoulder. Other ideas were shooting forward as well. Maybe she always was this way, just he is now realizing it.

To further complicate things, Father Bentley kept messaging him to come over, using the enticement of new deadly toys to try only to be allured by his leftover blades which had been forgotten from a prior training session. A corrupted priest through and through.

Annoyance after annoyance piled up. Storms so devastating Kage felt he was losing his mind. Images were being rearranged around him. Did he buy Lisa that stuffed animal last year or was it given by Gan? During the fire wasn't he burned on his right hand? If so, then why wasn't there one anymore?

Lastly, there's the big reveal after school. Although he had told Daniel to be cool and that no one would bother him, which he honestly believed, Kage had grown worried about himself. What would they think of him? A liar? Phony, fake, disgusting, monster, cretan, etcetera.

Breathing in then out, Kage found the roof to be relaxing. It granted him that fresh air which strengthened the gears in his thinning tank.

'Here isn't so bad. High up and away from everyone else.'

Kage opened his eyes only to find the other two staring at him with large spheres akin to those Japanese dolls. "What?" he questioned.

"Wow! The thing can actually think. Amazing!" Exclaimed Sam in the tone of a seasoned mathematical theorist who had just discovered a coalescing answer to her hypothesis.

The bickering between them continued. Mostly consisting of boisterous insults and jerks to get a rise out of the enemy which made Daniel give off the impression of a child watching his parents argue on Christmas Eve.

The conversation then turned to some way to prove the superiority of the other. "Well, how about a smoking contest. Wait never mind, you would clearly beat me."

"How do you know about that?"

With her finger to her chin Sam came to a conclusion, "I know!" Kage's question was brushed aside, making the heat in him whistle from his ears.

Sam withdrew the phone from her pocket. Immediately Kage explained, "I don't play games."

"Really? I thought you were rich with ya being so smart and everything."

"No." The answer was abrupt having been mixed in with a strain in his eyes to see what she would bring up on the device.

Clicking the app store icon, Sam proceeded to download a free game played by neither Daniel nor her. "I downloaded one I haven't played before. That gives you a fair chance, right?" He got up from Daniel's side then knelt beside Sam. "Take out your phone then we can connect and play."

Confused, Kage narrowed his eyes at Sam. "Why would I have my phone on me? That's against school guidelines."

"You say that after how many cigs you've smoked by the dumpster." He backed off from this one.

'One point for Sam, zero for Kage.'

"Whatever, we will just play split-screen on this one." She flipped the phone horizontally keeping it between the two of them with Daniel standing over them to view what they would be playing. Daniel gasped at the game. It was the catapult one from their train ride. She must've deleted it only to reinstall the game tricking Kage.

Daniel was close to ratting out Sam, but when he opened his mouth he caught just the tail-end of her glare. It was the dreaded I-will-toss-you-off-this-roof-if-you-speak-a-word glare. In recognition of this glare Daniel did not speak a word.

Sam let Kage go first. The game settled with the first shot from Kage. Without any experience beforehand or concept of video game controls, he wound up the catapult and accurately shot the knight from his position on her castle's wall. Astounded, Sam took the chance of looking at Kage. She saw something unbecoming of any person. Despite his outward appearance of being collective with the usual cocky teenager scent, here he was nothing of the sort. Sam, if forced to, would stake claim that he was not human or ever had been. His smile stood out a tad too much showing one too many teeth. The eyes were too unbefitting with his face that she knew they had to be disguised. This was a monster hellbent on winning.

In an instant, Sam had discovered more about Kage than he was able to admit.

"What should I do?" She found herself thinking. This person needed to be put down before he grew larger. She had to be the one to stop his ego from blooming here and now.

"Is there something wrong?" It was the monster. "This game is fairly simple. I might just download it myself." Daniel applauded Kage's first win.

The snarling this time came from Sam. She had to wait and find out more about him. Her eyes could've been playing tricks on her. Yet, the smile persisted. Round after round. Win after win. Not once during the lunch break had Sam won a single match. It was the reverse of her time spent with Daniel.

Slowly she crumbled along with her self-confidence. This was its way of saying, "Don't fuck with ME." Sam gulped down the last bit of her saliva. She had lost.

It gave the device back to Sam. "That was entertaining." It picked up its trash then headed to the door. "By the way," it said, "I hope we continue being friends! It was really a pleasure to spend time with you, Sam." The monster chuckled and so did Daniel. It had already grasped onto its fiddle.

Daniel sat there dumbstruck. Kage was everything he wished to be. Confident, strong, smart, and suave. Although Daniel knew that he was not entirely honest with himself and that demons lay dormant within him, he still trusted Kage. As a friend and senior. Daniel was worried of what to come when he exposed his own demons later, but Kage would be alongside him. It would surely work out.

"He's a good guy. Aren't I right, Sam?"

She did not want to answer that question. In response, she picked up her things and left Daniel basking in the rays of the sun.