Young Writers Society

Malvis hummed. “So, you have no idea how you ended up here? You just… woke up suddenly in an English alleyway?” She blinked.

I shrugged.

"Wasn't much of a wake up," I said. "It was more of a transportation. After getting stabbed."

"Skull," Nathaniel hissed, likely because I had so casually referenced the fight we had gotten into before ending up here.

“Oh, I hate it when that happens.” Malvis laced her fingers together, her voice so level it was impossible to tell if she meant that or not. “Regardless, where are you currently supposed to be?”

With a completely straight face, I replied, "On another world in a completely different time."

"Skull," Nathaniel said again. I just smirked in response to his tone. He took a step forward towards Malvis and offered an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry for how vague my friend-"

"Acquaintance," I corrected, again.

"-is right now," Nathaniel said, ignoring me completely. I scowled at him. "We are from another world, and technically come from a time beyond this one. But we've been to other Earths at different time periods than our own before, so we just need to find a way back."

Malvis nodded, a streak of her hair turning white. She batted it out of the way, revealing more of her empty eye socket and facial scar. “Must have been a hard stab.”

For once, I was speechless. I had just noticed the scar that previously had been hidden underneath Malvis's hair. It was a nasty, horrible kind of scar that involved missing an entire eye.

It was also the kind of scar I had been consistently trying to give myself since I had gotten this body, but had been frustratingly stopped from doing multiple times by multiple different people.

"Don't," Nathaniel said, sharply.

"Don't what?" I said. "I didn't even say anything, Natty boy."

"I know what you're thinking," Nathaniel said. "I've seen you have that look before. That's the same look you always give Dabi when we end up on Nikko's world."

I crossed my arms.

"You don't get it," I said. "Your face is already terrifying as it is. I have to really work for it now."

Nathaniel rolled his eyes.

"And you say you're not like Bartimaeus," Nathaniel dryly replied.

My eyebrow twitched.

"Well," I said, trying to recover from that painful comparison, "if he said that about your face, too, you should really take it as a sign that we're both onto something."

Nathaniel's face, of course, wasn't actually that terrifying to look at. Anyone who was actually interested in things like other people's faces in a romantic kind of way would have probably been attracted.

But it was best not to let him know that. Then I'd lose a perfectly good thing to press his buttons with.

Malvis frowned slightly, making her posture a bit straighter. “Oh? Does my face make you… uncomfortable?”

I smirked.

"Not at all," I said. "I was just admiring your scar."

Nathaniel groaned.

"I'm sorry that he's like this," Nathaniel immediately said on reflex. He gave me an appalled look. "You do realize how offensive that is, don't you?"

I pretended to dig earwax out of my ear. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Natty boy. It's a compliment. I would kill for a scar like that one. All of mine are out of sight, and I'm stuck with a face like this now."

I gestured at my face with the hand I hadn't just stuck in my ear.

"Back when I was in my jar," I said, "the kind of faces I could make..."

Malvis flicked out her soap-licker blade from some hidden part of her dress. “I could give you one, if you’d like.” Her smirk was dangerous, her hair curling tighter, the roots turning ebony.

Estella Fay took a step back, wings beating against her back.

I mulled the offer over.

"How about I possess you," I said, "and give myself that scar?"

Nathaniel just groaned. He didn't have anything else to say at this point.

I didn't necessarily trust someone I didn't know with a knife, but hey. If someone had a knife and was somewhat willing to actually use it on my face, I wasn't going to complain.

“No thanks. I like to stay in control and level-headed.” She laced her hands together. “But my offer still stands.”

“Oh would you look at the time?” Estella Fay laughed nervously. “It just so happens to be talk about anything else o’clock.”