Young Writers Society

She glanced at him, embarrassed to find herself blushing, which made her blush harder. His silence told her he was offended. Or just at a loss for how to respond.

"Have I offended you?" she asked, caring way more about the answer than she would ever, ever admit.

She was blushing.

"No," I managed to get out. I looked away, not wanting to reveal just how much she had helped me. Part of me was worried that I didn't want to know who she was - that knowing would mean that I would lose the connection we had made in the short time we had been talking.

"You just reminded me of someone I knew once," I said, unable to give any other details without revealing my suspicions.

She looked at him. Did that mean...did he know her too?

"Oh?"

"She was a friend of mine," I clarified. If Ivy was going to ask questions, I was going to have to fully commit to my lying and come up with a good name. I thought of who would have said something like that, and realized no one I knew really would have.

But Holly Munro was a good replacement for my nonexistent friend.

"Her name was Holly," I added. "She was in charge of organizing everything for my family - she always used to say that to me and my sister."

I had no sister. I didn't know who I was going to have play that role if she asked. But part of me was scared of what would happen if Ivy found out who Nathaniel really was, and I didn't want to face the possibility that she liked this version of me more than the actual me.

She stared at him for a long moment, searching his eyes for something, she didn't know what yet. He was nervous about something. Maybe a question he didn't want her to ask, or a memory he didn't want to think about.

Either way, it was best no to press.

She suddenly remembered she was on a time limit.

She pulled the pocket watch from the hidden pocket cleverly concealed within the embroidery on her bodice and opened it. Late. She was going to be late.

She stood suddenly, regretted standing suddenly, and turned to Nathanial, "I'm sorry, I have to go," she said, lacking the time to fully process the fact that she meant it.

With that she turned, heavy skirts sweeping over the cobblestones as she hurried back inside, skirted the edge of the party, and left through the front.

The princess's body hadn't been discovered yet, she realized with some amusement as she walked down the dimly-lit street to her meeting place, far behind and in front of one or two other stragglers who decided to leave the gala early for one reason or another.

The smart thing to do would have been to take it as my cue to leave, too.

But I had a thing for ignoring my conscience. I had done the same thing with Nikko, too - or was about to, once I started following her. I made sure to keep my distance so she wouldn't be noticed. I had gotten good at that before dying, and I had been putting that skill to use lately. I followed her through the party and through the streets - tapping into my pickpocketing skills as I passed the occasional wealthy person. By the time she entered an unfamiliar building, my pockets were filled with bags of coins and loose change.

I knew I couldn't follow her in without being discovered.

So I didn't.

I lingered in the streets, mask now stuffed into my pocket alongside the money I had collected. I needed something less showy, but I didn't have any other options right now - I'd have to find out where I could get my hands on some new clothes and something to hold my money in.

I wanted to wait outside, but I knew I was just grasping at straws. I turned away from the building and went to a nearby bar I had seen on my way there. I got a few odd looks from people, but I didn't really care - I was used to getting looks like that.

I used the money I had stolen to order myself a drink, and then I waited and listened.

Megara left the building with a satchel full of money and the papers covering her next job. She was supposed to go right back home with it and change into something sensible to get right back to her training.

It was a small act of rebellion, the kind that would result in a forced all-nighter doing training exercises if her dad was in his usual mood, and one she decided was worth it.

The nearby bar was pretty sleepy as far as bars went at this hour. Drunk partons leaned over tables and engaged in slurred conversation, or ordered yet another drink to top off the night.

Megara too a seat at one end of the bar, paying the other patrons no mind as she fished around in her bag for a coin for a drink.

She'd taken her mask off earlier and shoved it inside the bag, where it was likely to get ruined, but that was hardly important. Her dad would just buy another one anyway nex time she needed such a thing.

I was towards the other end of the bar. It had taken me a little time to notice that someone new had entered, and it had taken me even longer to recognize the black hair and the dress.

It was Ivy.

If I didn't have doubts earlier about her persona, I would have gotten them then.

And then she turned while she was fishing around in her bag, and I realized that she wasn't wearing her mask anymore. I got up, sat down near her, and opened my mouth to start up another conversation. I hope she wouldn't question it too much, and just take it as an opportunity to talk. At this point, I didn't even care about the mystery-

I got a good look at her face.

"Megara?" I hissed, both horrified and impressed. Impressed that she had done such a good job of hiding her identity, and horrified that I had just spilled something so personal to her - that I had felt so calm around her, given what she was like the first and last time that we met.

There was just one little problem with my exclamation.

...I was close enough to her that she could hear me.

In under a second, she was right next to him, the knife she had pressed to the underside of his ribs hidden between their bodies.

It took her a moment to recognize him.

"Hello," she said, sounding cheery, friendly, "Let me buy you a drink."

She knew he was familiar, and apparently he knew her. So yay for being correct. Now to figure out who the hell he was. Even without the mask, his face wasn't ringing any bells.

But hey, if worst came to worst she could always just stab him and let the mystery die with him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I said. I could switch bodies, but she would probably stab me before I could. I had to rely on my other powers.

The air turned cold enough to see my breath, and the beginnings of a creeping fear began to spread through the bar.

Though I was mostly focusing on Megara, seeing that she was the only one about to stab me with a knife.

"But a drink does sound nice," I added, giving her a chilling smile that didn't reach my eyes. "I'll take you up on that part of your offer - assuming that you put that knife down."

My voice dropped.

"If you don't," I said, "the fear you feel right now is going to feel like heaven compared to what you'll feel in a moment."

Megara was good at controlling her fear. A side effect of making your first kill at eight years old and not stopping since. So she managed to keep her cool even as her pulse drummed against her chest and the overwhelming urge to run filled her every nerve.

She slipped the knife back into its hidden sheath.

"Let me guess," she said, piecing it together, "Skull?"

If it was him, she was about to go drown herself in alcohol, or just regular drown herself. The river was only a few blocks away.

"What gave it away?" I asked.

The warmth returned to the air. Her fear would have begun to ebb away, too.

I was grateful I hadn't had to follow up on my threat - I didn't want to deal with the consequences of using my powers for too long.

She looked him up and down, "I like the new body, whose is it?" she said, ignoring his question.

She had been guessing before, but the confirmation was some small amount of comforting. She only knew one person with magical abilities who would know her name and recognize her face like that. Granted, the particular abilities he was displaying were a little more powerful than she'd assumed he was capable of when they'd met before, but she was correct in her guess.

Now all she needed were a lot of drinks and a heavy rock to drag her to the bottom of the river.

"Mine, actually," I informed her. "You've seen it before, but there was a bit of magical interference with it."

I couldn't tell how mortified Megara felt about the situation, but I knew that I was. I had a sneaking suspicion she knew I had been telling the truth back in the garden - or, at least, some of it. The part about the friend and sister weren't important, but the comment about the stargazing was something I had never told anyone before.

And I had told her.

The bartender came over and she ordered herself another drink, along with the promised one for Skull.

They arrived and she downed the first half of hers before speaking again, "Alright, first question, what the actual hell are you doing in my world?"

She prayed he would just forget everything she'd said to him in the garden. And that she was blushing. Good gods, if word about that got out and someone figured out it wasn't an act...

She shoved that thought away. No use thinking about the minefield of horrible fates she lived in just this second.