Renfaire Fantasy 2: The Forest for the Trees (Patreon)

When the group arrived at the top of the incline the dilapidated shack had stolen their attention, but looking around Brian now saw that off to the side a fire pit was dug out and lined with smooth stones. A trio of logs were placed around the fire as seats, the squat wooden cylinders sporting smooth tops that showed chainsaw use. A thin tripod of blackened steel with a grill piece that hung down over the coals on chains was in place. The cooking set over the pit was ornately crafted and impressive ‘period’ equipment that must have been part of Rebecca’s medieval kit of stuff she took to LARP events; in contrast the large red plastic cooler chest beside one of the sitting logs appeared to be as mundane as it gets.

“Hey,” Emily remarked, getting Rebecca’s attention before the girl went into the cabin. “Were you uh, sharing the cabin with her? Out here? Or, where’s your tent and stuff?”

“Oh, it’s been nice out,” Rebecca gave Emily a smile. “But—you’re right, with all of us here, I should get it set up. Give me a minute first.”

“No, cool—cool, I was just askin’,” Emily shrugged. “Can we get a fire going, here? We brought hot dogs.”

“Um,” Rebecca paused. “Do you remember how to use my flint and steel? I have firestarting stuff right there beside the cooler—”

“Oh, heck naw,” Emily laughed. “Took me forever to get sparks, and my sparks never even caught. Brian’ll be able to get it going, though.”

“Sure, I’ll give it a shot,” Brian said. “Steph, you want to—”

“It’s okay,” Stephanie placed her hands on his shoulders and brought him to a stop to make sure she had his full attention. “Brian. We’re all here with you—it’s going to be okay.”

“I’m alright,” Brian lied, bringing her in to plant a kiss on her forehead. “I’m alright. Just—yeah, never thrilling to have to see your ex, right?”

He didn’t flinch as Rebecca hefted a shoulder against the cabin door to get it open, and none of them did more than glance that way as Rebecca slipped through the gap and into the dark interior. Dread and distaste had crept bit by bit into the pit of his stomach, but looking into Stephanie’s clear blue eyes helped dissolve that awful feeling. Together they turned away from the cabin and headed to pick a seat by the fire pit. To his surprise, Emily was just as agitated as he was, and Stephanie left his side to go speak with her in a quiet voice for a few long moments as Brian rummaged through stuff stacked up beside the cooler. Kelly chose another log to sit on and watched as Emily gave Stephanie reluctant nods and occasional monosyllabic answers they couldn’t quite hear.

Brian had used flint and steel before, as Michael had a modernized scout set that was like two rods that they used to light the bonfire at Aunt Mattie’s place. What he discovered here was a much more archaic fire striker, with the steel fashioned into an ornate flourish shape and the flint… well, Rebecca’s flint was an actual flinty chip of unprocessed rock. It threw sparks with surprising ease when struck, and there was a simplistic boyish satisfaction about simply squatting over and striking sparks into the little wad of firestarter fluff.

Not long afterward Emily joined him, crouching down nearby and feeding twigs to his small pile, fishing out nearby sticks and snapping them into smaller pieces in her hands just to pass them over. What would he say to Chloe, at this point? Despite agreeing to take the first possible trip out here, Brian hadn’t actually invested a lot of thought into what words he would exchange with his ex. Not at this point, not after everything that had happened between them. He very honestly didn’t know what to say to her anymore, and all of the times he should have been putting serious thought into this, it seemed like he had instead taken any and every opportunity to put his mind elsewhere.

A tiny curling band of smoke appeared from the firestarter fluff before Brian could think of anything.

Maybe that’s the whole point, Brian groused to himself. What the fuck would ANYONE say to Chloe, after everything she’s done. I want—I want an explanation, but that’s not something I can ever even expect from her. No. I know her too well for that. We need to I guess figure out where we go from here, but—yeah, I just have no fucking clue.

Kelly’s hands were massaging his back and shoulders before he even realized she’d risen from her seat and moved behind him, but Brian just leaned in to blow steadily on the smoke and a fluttering tiny flame appeared. That had been a lot easier than figuring out what he would say to Chloe would be. Almost disappointingly so; he’d wanted something here to frustrate and focus on, something that would eat up more of his attention right now.

I think, bottom line is, I just want nothing to do with her anymore, Brian decided. So. Whatever we can agree on that leads to that. Shouldn’t be that hard, right? Let’s just go our separate ways and, yeah, and put all of this behind us forever.

A familiar angry voice sounded out from somewhere within the cabin—Chloe and Rebecca were exchanging heated words in there, and although he couldn’t make out what was being said just hearing her voice had his hackles rising up. It was annoying, everything at once was suddenly annoying him. His life had become tangled up in love and supernatural secret stuff and he should have been ecstatic about it, but also Chloe was involved now, and not being able to trust her with any of it made him suddenly feel like the whole scenario was already a total bust.

It’s so fucking frustrating.

“Brian…” Stephanie’s concerned voice sounded out, and then her hands were on his back alongside Kelly’s.

“I’m alright, I’m alright,” Brian breathed out slowly, fighting the urge to shrug them off. She seemed to sense his intent anyway and Stephanie drew Kelly back away so as not to bother him. “Just… yeah. Sorry.”

“We don’t even have to kill her,” Emily muttered under her breath. “We can just take all the stuff and leave her out here. We’re way out here. Then it’s not like, murder, she just… I dunno. Becomes some missing person whacko who starved in the woods.”

“Hah,” Brian let out a humorless laugh, trying not to think about it. Trying not to think about anything. “Here.”

He nudged and pushed the small flame he had going into Emily’s pile of twigs, and she helped poke at it. They couldn’t just kill Chloe, and he refused to have her death on his conscience. All the same it was gratifying in some twisted way to hear someone else keep such a firm stance against his ex. It was a relief, it vented out dark, repressed things he never wanted to see himself vocalize or even think too much about articulating. Emily was on his side no matter what, and it made him feel better squatting beside the fire pit prodding at their little pile of burning sticks like a pair of cavemen together. He was allowed to be selfish or even childish when he was with Emily, and sometimes her putting on her surly immature act like this felt like she was intentionally trying to remind him that.

“Think we got it,” Emily said. “Push it into the pit?”

“Yeah,” Brian said. “Here—like this.”

One of the longer sticks was extending on out beneath their pile, and he grabbed it in his fingertips while Emily picked at one of the other bits poking out. Together they managed to carefully lift their starter fire in and place it down in the actual firepit—there, Emily immediately began feeding it more broken sticks, building up towards a larger fire. A quick glance over towards the shack showed a dark doorway, but Rebecca had not managed to coax Chloe out yet.

Maybe she WON’T come out, Brian thought. Dunno if that’d be a relief or not.

“I-I found a branch?” Stephanie said, offering it up. “Here.”

“Burn it,” Emily said, casting it into the fire. “Burn it all.”

“I guess our prima donna is feeling a little shy tonight,” Kelly remarked with audible disdain. “Should I go see?”

“No,” Brian swallowed. “She’s probably. I don’t know. Terrified. Furious. Past the end of her rope, I don’t know. We have uh, basically kept her here. And, after all the insane Masters shit. The stuff with the charm, our group. Magic. All of the shit that she did, all of the stuff she tried to do before. It’s—I don’t know. Don’t even… don’t even know what I’m going to say to her.”

Naturally, it was at that moment that Chloe stepped out.

Her features were contorted in rage, and unlike Rebecca living at ease out here, Chloe’s complexion looked greasy with oil and her hair appeared visibly unwashed and frizzy. She looked altogether terrible—like she’d lost a lot of weight in too short a period of time. There were bags under her eyes, and her eye sockets themselves were more sunken than he remembered, giving her face a gaunt look. Unlike her usual self that either dressed to impress or intimidate, baggy sweatpants and a sweatshirt made Chloe really seem like a prisoner out here, and as his eyes followed down, he saw that both of her hands were secured in athletics wrist braces. The skin he could see there around her fingers looked sallow and yellow as if still recovering from what must have been horrible bruising.

She looked terrible, and if he hadn’t been aware of her circumstances he might have guessed she had started getting into heroin or meth after their breakup. It was that bad, and worse yet, seeing her in this state didn’t make him feel any better. They were over with and broken up, but some stupid senseless base part of him still felt responsible for her well being, and that part of him rung with a stubborn guilt that he couldn’t silence. Chloe’s eyes shook when he met them, radiating absolute hatred and humiliation in a seething stare that made his blood run cold.

Fuck, she’s… fuck. Fucking hell.

“See?” Rebecca was encouraging Chloe in a whisper, patting her on the back and trying to push her out further into the open. “Everything’s fine—everything’s fine, and no one’s going to judge you. We’re just going to all sit down and talk. Okay? Let’s—Chloe if we do this, we can get all of this over with for good. Okay? Okay, Chloe?”

“Holy shit, she looks rough,” Emily said in a loud voice. “That’s Chloe? Wow.”

*     *     *

Yeah. Figures. Of course! I guess this is where they gloat over their position and do some victory laps on me, Chloe thought, shivering with fury. Some sort of ‘well what do you have to say for yourself’ show trial nonsense. Where they trump up my ‘crimes against Brian,’ and then kill me or rape me or BOTH. I guess there really is no way to escape this, not when he’s basically a Master.

There were only three tree sections to sit on near the fire, and Brian occupied one of them, leaning forward and looking pensive as he rested his forearms on his spread knees. It was typically aggressive male posture, and that smirking goblin Emily was crouched down beside him while Stephanie stood behind. Kelly was sitting on the second log, and Rebecca ushered Chloe forward to take a seat upon the final one. Then, the tunic-clad brute stood behind her—not in any sort of show of solidarity, but as if she was an enforcer ensuring their prisoner would not bolt off into the woods.

An executioner, most likely.

“Chloe,” Brian said at long last, giving her a long stare. “I’m sorry to see you like this.”

Nothing but the snaps and pops of twigs burning on the campfire could be heard, and each of the girls present with their ridiculous colored hair said nothing. They all simply sat in tense silence, looking in Chloe’s direction as if they expected her to respond.

Grotesque. How did it all come to THIS? Brian and his little HAREM of mind-controlled sycophants—I literally cannot imagine anything more abhorrent than what’s been done here. What they almost did to me. The cutesy way he makes them act, too, it’s DISGUSTING. He’s forcing other human beings into being his little lovey dovey make-believe MEAT TOILETS. He abuses them without conscience or remorse, just to play out juvenile sex fantasy power game bullshit. Because, of course he does. They’re WOMEN, not human beings. We shouldn’t have rights or feelings or any recourse.

“I…” Brian blew out a long sigh of frustration. “I guess we’re here to decide what to do with you. And, uh, in a broad sense, I think we just need to talk things through, here. Rebecca had said you were threatening to go to the Masters about us—is this true?”

“She’s lying,” Chloe spoke out in flat denial. “I never said anything like that. Not that it matters. Not to any of you. Hah.”

“Yeah, okay,” Emily scoffed, rolling her eyes.

I wanted to feel sorry for you, Emily, Chloe glared. But honestly, you probably even DESERVE everything that’s happened to you. You were already completely fucked in the head, you probably would have gone along with this sick shit to begin with.

“That’s, uh,” Brian let out a helpless laugh. “That’s the thing here, I guess—we do trust Rebecca, and trust with you is… a bit thin on the ground, at the moment. So, well—why would Rebecca make that up? What purpose would she have for doing that? And, I guess—what did you say, then?”

“Rebecca wants to give you some easy out,” Chloe said. “Wants to give you an excuse, a casus belli, so that you can murder me or pervert me to your will or whatever you were going to do anyways. So that this way, you can pat yourselves on the back about it and say you had no other choice. So that you don’t have to acknowledge the guilt of whatever you do to me. Brian—the only way you can prove otherwise is to fucking let me go. Take me back to civilization. I’ll go to the police and tell them everything you’ve done. We can leave it for the courts to decide what happens from there. The law. You know you’re in the wrong, here—you’ve kept me your prisoner here, against my will. For months.”

“Just a little over a month,” Emily grumbled under her breath.

“Still illegal!” Chloe laughed. “Still an actual violation of my human fucking rights? Yeah?”

“Okay, that’s—that’s something,” Brian nodded as if acknowledging her points. “But. Chloe, you also have to understand we didn’t have any other real options. Not if we were to believe you meant to go through with any threats you might have made about going to the Masters about us. Because… laws don’t mean anything to them, obviously.”

“Or to you,” Chloe spat. “You’re the same as they are. You’re proving you’re the same as they are.”

“Oh shut the fuck up,” Emily scowled. “Don’t even—”

“Prove you’re not,” Chloe gloated. “Set me free. Give me fucking human rights and agency to not be mind-fucked or perverted by your weird sicko shit. These other girls—set them free. Set them free, Brian!”

“This isn’t productive,” Kelly remarked—and the tone of voice she used had a cold finality to it that sent a chill down Chloe’s spine.

THAT ONE—Kelly, she’s one of the whores he picked up from the anime convention. The pink-haired one too, I guess. Maybe they were just random sluts or floozies he drugged with magic, maybe they were no better than Emily. No way to tell, anymore, not at this point. They’re too far gone.

“We, um, we want to help you,” Stephanie spoke up in a timid voice. “Chloe, if—”

“I don’t,” Emily snorted.

“We all want to, to help you,” Stephanie repeated, shooting Emily a glare. “We do. We um, we think that maybe, maybe you have a disorder, or um—a, a bipolar thing, or—”

“What a fucking joke,” Chloe said. “‘We,’ who’s ‘we?’ Brian does not want to help me. Emily just fucking said she didn’t. Kelly, and even you yourself—all of you have physically attacked me in the past. Who the fuck would ever believe any of you want to ‘help’ me?”

“Whelp, we tried,” Emily shrugged. “So—yeah, let’s just kill her.”

“Emily, stop,” Brian sounded annoyed as he hunched over to rest his brow on his knuckles. “Just—yeah, I don’t know why I thought talking would ever get anywhere. Fucking hell…”

“Brian… Brian saved you,” Stephanie was all of the sudden so angry that she rose up from behind the log section Brian was sitting on. “You were in that alleyway, trying to entrap him, in your, your—false rape charges thing, and real bad people actually were trying to assault you—and he saved you. Brian saved you. How can you possibly believe Brian was out to get you?!”

“Yeah, I guess it’s just this total coincidence that Brian was right there on hand to swoop in and save the day?” Chloe let out a sarcastic laugh. “What a totally obvious setup. He sets it all up with some of his asshole friends to pretend to try and—”

“Oh, please,” Emily interrupted with vehemence. “As if that’s even fucking possible. You were the one who picked that alley in the first place, dur durrr. So how is it that suddenly now he’s the one setting up some crazy scheme to—”

“Okay, then how was he right there so fucking fast?” Chloe scoffed. “Swooping in just in the nick of time to ‘save’ me? Puh-lease, that’s total fucking bullshit.”

“Because I sent him there ahead of time, having magic knowledge from the future,” Kelly chuckled. “You should know that, because Christine was aware of that.”

“Okay then, and with magic knowledge from the future you all used to set all of that up and stage it,” Chloe gave them a victorious smirk. “Are you going to try to tell me it could have happened any other way, with you having magic knowledge from the future?”

“The timeline that sent to me didn’t want us to save you,” Kelly said, staring across the fire at Chloe. “More and more, I’m understanding why. So—that’s on me. I thought that I didn’t want Chloe’s rape to be on our conscience, and—yeah. This is all on me. So, Brian. If you want to put it on me to decide what to do here, that’s fine. It’s honestly my mess.”

“No,” Brian shook his head. “I’m with you on the call you made, I don’t think Chloe deserves to be raped, no matter what she’s done. No one deserves that.”

“So then don’t rape me,” Chloe yelled out in an incredulous voice. “Perverting my mind to be your obedient little fucktoy or whatever it is you’ve done to these other poor girls—that’s rape. That’s obviously rape. You need to let me go. You need to let everyone go, or you’re exactly the same as the Masters.”

“I actually think I agree,” Brian cast his gaze deep into the fire. “Whatever charm thing influence it has on everyone—I’ve never been comfortable with it. Don’t like the idea of it, never have. I think… I think maybe if I break the charm, then after that if any of you still want to be with me, then we’ll all know it’s for real, and otherwise…”

“Brian, no,” Kelly let out a groan of frustration. “Don’t you remember what I said to you? About me, about my life? About needing this?”

“‘Needing this,’ yeah, like an addict,” Chloe sneered. “Like a compulsion. Because you’re obviously being compelled. Controlled.”

“Our lives are better for it,” Stephanie argued. “I, I don’t think it’s very smart to just discard the charm after everything it’s done for us, to um, to bring us together in the way that it did. I’m better for it. Kelly is. We all are—Brian, it’s helped you, too. It’s helped us overcome so much, and I don’t think it would be fair of you to throw that away on a what if of, of potential abuse. Because…

“Just—Brian please, look deep into your own heart and look at your own intentions. This is, this is a great amazing power—the charm thing is—and I realize that can be scary. But, you are not the man who would ever want to abuse that power or hold it over us. You’re just not! And, and—I hate that Chloe keeps trying to make you think you’re that kind of person.”

“That and the magic powers!” Emily muttered under her breath. “But… yeah, Brian, seriously. Like, for real. I’ve always completely trusted you, my whole life. I was just too, well, too fucked up in my own ways to, uh. To have the courage to try to reach out in the right ways. The one time I did, I, I totally botched it all up. That night after the homecoming thing. You remember.”

“The charm stuff helps keep my self-destructive tendencies at bay,” Kelly gave Brian a shrug. “It helps blot out Steph’s anxiety, helps you heal from what Chloe’s done to you, and it helps Emily have the courage to say what she needs to say and do what she needs to do. We can still all be together if you break the charm, and I think we will. It’ll… it’ll just be… yeah, more difficult. If that’s what you decide you need to do to trust yourself—or not trust yourself with that power—or whatever, then I’m with you. I’m with you no matter what you decide. We’ll weather this out together. Okay?”

“I believe you’re a good person,” Rebecca added. “Brian, I do trust you.”

“Bunch of bullshit masturbatory nonsense,” Chloe gloated. “Magic mindfuckery’s compelling them each to say garbage like that—it’s all just a big sham to stroke your own shitty ego.”

“Not for Rebecca,” Kelly reasoned. “She should be our control case. We can test it?”

“Yeah, except Rebecca’s just as fucking charmed as the rest of you,” Chloe shook her head in disbelief. “Obviously. She only kept me here as a prisoner for months and months.”

“A little over one single month,” Emily corrected.

“No, we can test if she’s affected by magic or not,” Kelly said. “Watch this.”

Shifting forward in her seat to perch on the edge of the cut log, Kelly leaned in towards the fire and then held up one finger as though poised to interject. And then she remained there in that pose, eyes narrowed in concentration and a frown forming. Chloe was barely able to hold in her incredulous laughter.

What is she supposed to be doing, licking her finger and testing the direction of the wind? Or, are we supposed to be looking up for some reason, is she pointing? If she’s motioning for us to hold on or wait for something, well then, where the fuck is it? What is she expecting to happen?

“Rebecca,” Emily called out in a quiet voice, staring intently at Kelly’s raised finger. “Tell us what you see.”

“Uh,” Rebecca seemed to be as lost as Chloe was. “Kelly is… holding up one finger. Towards the fire. She’s… I guess she’s facing kinda southeast?”

“Is that all you see?” Stephanie asked. “Is there anything on her finger?”

“I—no?” Rebecca peered closely but was only able to give them all a quizzical look. “There’s nothing on her finger that I can see. No ring, no—no anything. There’s nothing.”

“And, this was supposed to prove…?” Chloe laughed. “What, exactly?”

“That she’s got no magic in her,” Kelly sighed, shaking out her hand before letting it drop down. “If she can’t see that, then that means there’s no magic in her. She’s not charmed, she’s not affected or influenced or anything. Which makes her our control case. Right?”

“Based on what, just based on your word?” Chloe scoffed at the ridiculousness of it all. “What was that supposed to be?”

“There was a spark of red light at her fingertip,” Stephanie insisted. “But, it’s—only people with magic can see it.”

“Oh, come on,” Chloe sneered. “How fucking convenient! Well, guess what—I am not fucking convinced?”

“It wasn’t to convince you,” Kelly said, flexing her hand. “Well, Brian? Rebecca says she trusts you with this. She is not presently under the influence of magic. As far as we know how to tell. Do you trust her to give you her unbiased thoughts on what’s going on?”

“I, uh,” Brian rubbed his cheek. “Rebecca—you really didn’t see anything?”

“I just saw her finger,” Rebecca confirmed. “I didn’t see any light.”

“Chloe didn’t see it either,” Emily observed. “I was watching her. She didn’t notice a thing, and that’s the kind of thing you notice.”

“Yeah,” Stephanie agreed. “It was—it was bright this time. That was a good one, Kelly.”

“Thank you,” Kelly sighed again, holding her forehead. “I’ll need a minute.”

“Okay. Okay,” Brian ran his hands through his hair. “Then, Rebecca—what do you think about the charm? Am I—how do I even put this. Am I controlling them? Subconsciously? Forcing them to have feelings? Are the things we feel real? You had talked about that before, back at the convention, and I. I guess I just really need to be sure. Absolutely sure. That I’m not, uh, influencing anybody.”

Oh fucking PLEASE. Spare me this stupid fucking charade, Chloe fought the urge to gag.

“Hmm,” Rebecca hummed. “Very difficult to say. I feel that back when I was charmed, something was helping me see you in a different way. I’ve been ruminating over that quite a bit! These past few weeks. There was an increased attraction. But, although I think the magic assisted me in seeing you in a new light—I don’t think anything that light revealed about you was false. It just… highlighted aspects of you that did align with my personal um, wants and needs and desires.”

“That’s…” Brian frowned. “Well, that is an influence…”

“So is getting a great haircut,” Kelly jabbed. “So is dressing yourself up great, wearing clothes that accentuate your figure. Wearing makeup. You want to talk about influences in dating, or in attraction in general? Well, it’s a fucking warzone of whatever influence you can bring to bear. Maximizing your appeal—learning the klutzy social faux pas things not to say, or the red flags not to bring up, when you’re first flirting it out with someone. Do I look down ‘tween my girls and say, ‘oh, fooey, oh fiddlesticks, rockin’ this much cleavage, nah—that’s an unfair advantage. Better cover my tits up in shame, ‘cause a guy might be influenced too much.”

“So you admit how fuckin’ unfair they are…” Emily muttered. “If—”

“Emily shush,” Stephanie admonished.

“What I’m saying, is—all is fair in love and war,” Kelly finished. “Yeah, my tits are unfair, but they’re still a part of me. If you’re gonna look at influences and try to draw lines as to what counts and what doesn’t—where would you even start?”

“Mind control,” Brian argued. “What the Masters do. I mean, hell Kelly, just knowing that there is a real mind control bullshit compulsion thing—”

“That implies you’re controlling us, actively controlling us or compelling us, and if you were doing that you wouldn’t be so fucking morally bent out of shape at the mere idea of it. Do you think you’re, what, unintentionally making us want to be with you?”

“I… don’t know,” Brian shook his head. “Passively, maybe? Like, passive magic? Subconscious? I don’t know what—”

“Subconsciously? But that’s always going to be a part of being in love, and you can’t be saddling that feeling with guilt for just wanting to be loved in return,” Kelly said. “Because that’s just natural, that’s just how it is for everyone on the planet. I want you to love and desire me—so, is the charm making that happen? Making you desire me? Are my fat fucking tits making it happen? My choices and actions, my personality? Something I said, some way I looked at you, maybe some random romantic moment where the light hit my eyes just right and you felt something? What is it? What is love?”

“Plus, the magic powers!” Emily added. “Don’t—hey, don’t give me that look, I’m being for real. Magic fucking powers are a huge deal. I was gonna love you anyways, because I always fucking have, charm or not. You were always my Brian butterstuffs, my big Brian bear. But, magic powers? Brian, this is like, already bigger than just you feeling uncomfortable about it.”

“Big Brian bear?” Stephanie tested out the name to herself.

“What if Kelly gets a heads up about, I dunno, like an earthquake or something with her future thing, and we’re able to get a warning out and save lives?” Emily pressed on. “Do you realize how fucking important that is? Even just that there with her power alone, that already justifies this! Basically. And, in the first place it’s not like you’re even fucking mistreating us—you’re Brian, you a big dumb fucking sweetheart to everyone.”

Except—what about literally EVERYTHING he’s done to me?! Chloe looked around at the group in incredulous disbelief, because that did not seem to have ever occurred to anyone.

“You made us fucking breakfast!” Emily continued, gesticulating wildly with her hands in that way she did when she was worked up. “Kelly said you packed extra clothes for me in with her bag, ‘cause you figured I’d forget, you stupid fucking jackass! And like, I’m messing with you—you’re not really dumb or stupid. Just, ughh, so fuckin’ stubborn about all this stupid—hell, Stephie here is an empath, we would all fuckin’ know right away if you were secretly harboring weirdo dark thoughts.”

“He’s not!” Stephanie spoke up, looking defensive. “He’s, he’s worrying to death and feeling guilty for things that aren’t his fault, and it’s very upsetting to me.”

“Yeah, well I—” Brian tried to interject.

“And, even if you do have some weirdo dark thoughts, like—bring them on,” Emily thrust out her chin. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but whips and chains excite me.”

“Yeah, they all sound pretty fucking brainwashed to me,” Chloe said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Listen to them. Listen to them. How the fuck are you going to trust anything they say while they’re under magic compulsion. Brian—are you fucking stupid?!”

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