Diabolical - Chapter 20 (Patreon)

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In an instant, Arthur found himself standing inside someone’s house. The interior was vintage, decorated and furnished in the style of the nineteenth century. For a brief moment, he thought he’d been transported back to the Grimm estate, but it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. The place was much too colorful and brightly lit. 

“Ah, home sweet home. It’s a shame I can’t stay, but I’ll get you settled before I leave.”

Kent’s weary voice sounded from somewhere behind the Arthur. The youth turned around, watching as his rescuer tossed his blazer and tie to one side. When he was done, he gestured limply down the hallway.

“There’s a guest room over there with a bed and some clothes. They’ll be too big for you, but it’s the best I can do right now…”

Without waiting for Arthur to follow him, he strode down the hallway and opened an inconspicuous door.

“Alright, I’ll be off now. If you get hungry, there’s some bread, butter and potted salmon in the pantry. Rest until I get back, though I’m not sure when that will be…”

It went without saying, but Arthur’s mind was reeling. The two of them just came back from… somewhere and a lot of… stuff had happened. The boy felt like he was missing something.

“Where are you going, Mr. Nelson?”

Arthur’s tone was confused. He had so many questions he wanted to ask him.

Kent stilled. He looked… devastated, for the lack of a better word.

“I need to fix the mess I made, if that’s even possible…”

His voice was weak and quiet. He shut his eyes tightly while massaging the bridge of his nose.

“You don’t need to wait for me. I’ll be gone for a day or longer. Maybe even a week, I’m not sure…”

Not wasting any more time, he snapped his fingers before being enveloped in a golden glow. However, to Arthur’s great shock, Kent didn’t disappear. Instead, he collapsed bonelessly onto the floor!

“What the…? Mr. Nelson!”

Arthur quickly came to his side, grabbing him under his armpits before rolling him onto his back. The man’s eyes were closed and his expression was blank. His condition seemed poor—his face was pale and Arthur’s supernatural senses detected shallow breathing and a weak heartbeat.

‘Damn, did he just fall unconscious? I have no idea what’s the matter with him, nor do I know if it’s safe to move him.’

Suddenly, while Arthur was cursing his bad luck, a message popped up in the corner of his vision. It was written in familiar green symbols. They were alien, but somehow he was able to understand them.

‘[Subject Diagnosis In Progress… Complete! Result—Overtaxed Anima Network, Anemia, Low Blood Pressure, Low Blood Sugar, Low Blood Oxygen Levels, Muscular Exhaustion, Microfracture In Right Humerus…]’

A long list of miscellaneous ailments soon started appearing, one after the other, and an X-ray of Kent’s body also appeared in front of his eyes. Many lines, labels and arrows indicated the affected areas.

The boy didn’t know exactly how he was able to know all this, but he assumed it was related to the tablet and what’d happened while he was unconscious.

‘It seems I got an upgrade. Unfortunately, knowing what’s wrong with him is useless if I don’t know what to do about—’

Arthur had barely formulated his thoughts when his vision suddenly cleared and a new, shorter message appeared.

‘[Recommended Treatment—Two Weeks’ Bedrest]’

When he read the statement, he sighed in relief. It seemed Kent’s condition wasn’t all that serious. Still, he must’ve really tapped himself out if he had to spend that much time sleeping it off.

It was a strange sight, seeing Arthur easily lifting a man double his size into a princess-carry. Not knowing where Kent’s bedroom was, he decided to take him to ‘his’ room. The space was sparse, containing only a single bed, a desk, a chair and a wardrobe. Despite that, it was a thousand times more preferrable than his accommodations at the Grimm mansion.

‘Well, I guess I’ll crash on the sofa if I start to feel tired.’

He took a step backwards, intending to sit himself down on the single chair. He had nothing better to do, so he decided he may as well keep an eye on Kent for a while, just to make sure he really was fine.

However, when he did, his back bumped into something, or someone. They were clearly female, judging by generous, bouncy sensation he felt against the back of his neck.

“Fuck…!”

He whirled around, coming face to face with the witch from earlier! He had no clue when she’d arrived or how she got into the house!

‘Doesn’t this guy have some kind of security…?’

Being preoccupied at the time, he hadn’t taken a good look at her before. Her most notable feature was her pale, blueish skin, like someone suffering from frostbite. Her eyes also stood out to him—they were black, like her hair, but with an icy, blue center. Her outfit was similarly dark, from her charcoal cloak to her form-fitting dress that left her shoulders bare.

Arthur discovered two things from looking at her. Firstly, she seemed very familiar. He was certain she was also a person from the DC universe, but he just couldn’t place her identity. Secondly, and more disconcertingly, at some point he he’d started to, or had already gone through, puberty.

On instinct, both his hands travelled to his waist, doing his best to hide the changes happening there.

“…would you mind stepping out for a moment, Miss? I’m afraid you caught me with my pants down.”

The witch apparently didn’t find any humor in his statement because her face remained impassive, like an ice sculpture. Hostility was radiating off the woman in waves, like she wanted to slit his throat with her long, sharp nails.

The atmosphere became incredibly tense, making the youth feel like the sword of Damocles was hovering just above his head.

“How very strange.”

The witch finally spoke, talking more to herself than Arthur. She looked him up and down before staring unwaveringly into his eyes, like she was trying to see through all his secrets.

The boy didn’t know what to do. On the up side, she seemed unbothered by his nakedness. On the downside, she seemed bothered by him.

“Mr. Nelson is out cold, as you can see. If you leave your address, I’ll ask him to contact you as soon as he wakes up.”

He was talking nonsense, of course. He’d picked up on the fact that she was here for him, but his babbling was preferrable to uncomfortable silence.

The woman didn’t respond. Instead, after a dozen-or-so seconds of aggressive staring, she casually walked past him to the only available chair before taking a seat. The building atmosphere, like the calm before a storm, cleared immediately.

The moment she made her move, Arthur’s body tensed, ready to fight or flee, but when she blatantly turned her back toward him, he involuntarily relaxed. For the time being, it seemed she wasn’t going to kill him.

“I’ll quickly get dressed, if you don’t mind.”

Not giving her a chance to refuse, he hastily walked over to the closet and opened the door. He grabbed what looked like a set of blue, woolen pajamas and put them on, using the wooden panel as cover. Predictably, they were far too large for him. If he hadn’t hooked a thumb around the waistband, they’d have fallen to the ground.

Now decent, he walked out from behind the door.

“I wonder if you’d like something to drink…?”

Trying to fill the silence, he carefully posed the question. He didn’t even know if Kent had tea, or coffee, for that matter, but he didn’t mind looking for it as long as it meant escaping the room.

Unfortunately, the witch wasn’t having any of it.

“Sit.”

She pointed towards the bed, which was now empty. At some point, Kent had vanished!

Arthur hadn’t even noticed it. One moment, the man’s figure was still in his peripheral vision. The next, he disappeared without a trace.

‘Isn’t there supposed to be some kind of special effect or something when she uses her magic?’

Arthur complained inwardly, but he still did as she ordered. He didn’t want to provoke the se—… crazy bitch. When he was seated, he looked at her blankly.

Another uncomfortable silence ensued.

“…you’re not thirsty, then? Understandable, given the cool weather.”

His mouth moved on autopilot. The weather should be a safe topic, or so he hoped

“Do you really believe such meagre deceptions will save you, Scholar?”

The bitch directly ignored his conversation starter. Needless to say, he didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, but he guessed it was related to what he did inside that pyramid, even though he couldn’t remember.

“If we’re related somehow, then I have to apologize. I’m probably experiencing some kind of amnesia. My name is Arthur, by the way.”

He decided to introduce himself. He remembered a few legends about how it was a bad idea to tell your name to a witch, but Arthur wasn’t his ‘proper’ name, so he wasn’t too worried.

The woman’s eyebrows sunk minutely.

“Speak the truth, creature. In your diminished state, it would take little effort for me to erase you.”

Her voice was even, but the youth got the impression that her threat wasn't merely a formality.

He held his palms outwards and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m not lying. I’ll even do a pinky promise, if that will satisfy you.”

He took offense to her calling him a ‘creature’. From what he could see of his hair, arms and torso, he did indeed look a bit strange, but she wasn’t one to talk. He almost said as much, but thought better of it.

The witch was sitting with her legs crossed, showing off her leather boots, as well as her toned, stockinged thighs and calves. The low cut of her dress revealed arms and shoulders, which were equally sculpted. She was gorgeous, without a doubt, but it was a bit strange for a magic user like herself to be so athletic.

‘Maybe that’s just my preconceptions coming into play. It kind of makes sense—being in good shape is always beneficial, no matter a person’s profession.’

He didn’t try to hide his gaze because, well, he got the impression she wouldn’t really care either way.

The woman lightly rapped her fingers against her knee, apparently deep in thought.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to make a trip downstairs? Mr. Nelson should have something stronger than tea, if you would prefer that. I could use a drink myself.”

Once again, Arthur’s mouth moved without his consent. When he realized what he’d said, he wanted to facepalm.

‘Wow, I’m actually coming on to her even though we just met. Oh yeah, there’s also the fact that she wants to kill me. Now that I think about it, I remember having a thing for crazy bitches. It probably would’ve been better if I left that preference behind before reincarnating…’

He awkwardly adjusted his pants, feeling a little glad that their fit was so loose. Puberty was really hitting him hard, right now.

For better, or probably for worse, his proposition fell on deaf ears. Instead, he felt the witch coming to some kind of decision, because the atmosphere once again turned heavy. He doubted it was because of anything he said. More likely, she’d just didn’t like what or who he was, believing that he was better off dead. At least, that was what his sixth-sense was telling him.

Immediately, Arthur’s expression turned serious. He doubted he’d be able to beat her, but if she tried to kill him, he had no choice. As for trying to talk her out of it, hadn’t he already attempted that? He wasn’t going to do the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.

His body reacted to his intentions and he felt a strange kind of pressure, starting to build below his skin. Unbeknownst to him, the lazily-drifting patterns in his quicksilver eyes started to whirl, like clouds before a tornado. The air between the two of them actually turned static, sparking into tiny, glowing arcs of energy.

However, just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. The witch seemed to have thought better of it. Whether or not she felt she could kill him was unknown, but finding out for sure apparently wasn’t worth her trouble.

A distortion formed around her like she was about to translocate, but Arthur spoke up, causing her to halt.

“Is that a no, then?”

His question caused her expression to change for the first time. She seemed both surprised that he would stop her from leaving, giving their near-conflict and confused about what he meant.

Arthur could only curse his teenage body. He would’ve expected to be above such faults, given his inhuman transformation, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

Eventually, the witch raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

Sighing inwardly, the youth pushed his metallic hair out of his eyes.

“Why don’t you stay for a while? I was going to drink anyway, but doing it alone would be too boring.”

He gave her a half-hearted smile, desperately hoping that his hormones weren’t going to get him killed today.

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