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𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐍𝐄 : 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐓 

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐒

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"I'll fucking kill you!" snarled Blondie, arms outstretched and trying desperately to race forward at the four men, but one more in particular. Monroe and Winker had to hold her back as she thrashed. She knew who they were the moment they walked down with Macabre. Maybe it was her witchy ancestry or because I'd mentioned it over text very subtly, who knows, but she was pissed.

Stone held his hands up, glancing towards his friends. "Which one of us does she wanna kill, man?"

"I never even met the chick," said West, stepping around them to grab a coffee from the table. Eva had made the coffee run this time, which meant we would get no donuts. "She's not mad at me."

"It's fucking you!" Blondie snapped, pointing one beautifully painted finger towards the only man I believed it could've been as I side stepped to grab my own coffee with a little chuckle. "You think just because they forgive you that I should too, but no!"

"Are you going to stop her?" asked Crow in my ear as he dropped some creamer into my coffee over my shoulder.

"God, no," I muttered with a smile. "He deserves it."

"You think because she brought you back that you're magically redeemed?!" chirped Blondie, shoving Monroe off her with surprising strength. "That because she chose to forgive you, which is a questionable decision on her part, that you'll be welcomed back with open arms?" She scoffed. "Someone give me a goddamn knife so I can carve your fucking eyes out!"

"Told you," muttered West, "that you'd still have an enemy or two."

Tobias scratched the back of his neck. "I don't remember you being this hostile."

"You're so freakin' lucky my friend's a good person or I'd–" She pressed her lips together. "Actually, I won't tell you what I'd do."

Winker actually laughed, shaking his head. "You're screwed, man."

I had a feeling whatever Blondie was holding back meant it would come back to hurt him when we began our small groups and sparring. With Eva, she'd want us going at each other with no remorse and at that thought, it was hard to hold back my smile. Tobias didn't know about the magic Blondie had been learning, he didn't know anything besides the fact that she was just a friend at a party not too long ago.

"So," I cleared my throat, changing the subject, "what's on the agenda today?"

Macabre set his coffee down, even he had a small smile threatening to peek through, and said, "Sparring techniques with knives. Eva has taken the opportunity to supply us all with one knife for this activity." He saw Winker's brows furrow. "And no, these will not be demon blades. These will cut and stab, but it won't expel a demon."

Eva began to hand out the knives, giving me a coy grin as she placed mine in my palm as she begun to explain the rules and expectations. "You'll each have two sparring partners. We say sparring lightly here, I'm expecting these will be brutal fights." She waved her own knife in the air. "One fight before dinner and one fight after. I had been thinking of making it a competition before–"

"Competitions are better for motivation," said West with a smug grin.

Eva thought for a moment. "Fine, but don't be angry when you lose. You've been out of the ring for a while now, Michael, I wouldn't be surprised if you lost quickly." She clapped her hands together, already forming something devious in her mind. "Victor will be the official judge. This will be tournament play, each side of the bracket facing their opponents until the championship round."

Macabre was grinning now, as if suddenly overcome with the idea of us competing against the other. "Here are the rules. No killing, which means no blades through the heart, head, eyes, or neck. Also, no severing limbs such as arms, legs, fingers, toes, ears, noses, ect. Everything else...fair game. You use everything you have at your disposal for these fights, but no outside help from another teammate and no giving up the fight. You continue until your opponent cannot go any more."

"Will there be a prize for the winner?" asked Winker, stealing the question right from me.

"The opportunity to sit out of any training session of their choice."

Winker let out a laugh. "You old fuckers are so screwed. I'm fighting to not ever do mile repeats again."

"One person on each bracket side will have a free pass to advance to the next round," explained Eva. I could see her mind already working with who she would pair with who. "To make this fair...Cassandra and Luke, you will both have the first two free passes as you're the least trained currently."

"Not mad about that," muttered Winker, grabbing a coffee and taking a seat at the table.

Stone raised his hand. "And what if you're a lover more than a fighter?"

"You saying you want to sit out?" asked West.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Stone narrowed his eyes. "I'm better with recon, you know this."

"Fine," said Eva with a wave of her hand.

"I don't want to sit out the first round," said Blondie. "Let me fight, I don't need to be held back because I'm just a human."

"Fine."

"First round fights will consist of..." Eva brought out a marker and pad of paper. "First side of the bracket will be Archer versus Michael. Cassandra versus...Luke. Tobias, you'll sit out first, the winner of Cass v. Luke will fight you."

Winker's face fell and he muttered to me, "Okay, so...I'm not going to get my freebie, am I?"

I grinned behind my drink. "Not a chance."

"Other side will be Blaire v. Reed." My stomach sank slightly but it made sense, my first kill coming back to get me. Eva grinned and her eyes found her sibling across the room. "And then you versus me, brother."

Monroe rolled his eyes. "Oh, joy."

"Stone, you'll be marking down the mistakes everyone makes," said Eva, tossing him the paper, "and keeping track of wins. Losers...you'll get the mortifying chance to realize you're not as strong as you thought."

Winker dragged a long hand down his face.

"Start stretching, we'll begin in five minutes," said Eva, clapping her hands together.

I thought of taking my crewneck off but decided against it, I would need the extra protection if I were to go against Reed and a possible Eva after. I had a feeling today would be about good rematches. With the look on Blondie's face, concentrated and cruel, I had a feeling she was going to bulldoze her boyfriend to the ground to get the chance of going against Tobias.

I was glad we were doing something fun like this, because this might be the last time we get a chance. The start of the week would begin the countdown to the full moon. We had until Friday and Saturday, and I had a sick feeling we wouldn't get the time for fun before then.

I glanced towards Crow who was watching West stretch from across the room and I asked, "You scared?"

"Hardly."

"Really?"

He shrugged. "He hurt you and not too long ago by the way. It'll be easy to hurt him back."

My eyes widened. "He was supposed to, if I'm not mistaken."

"He practically maimed you."

"Okay, he broke my nose, and look," I wiggled it for show, "it's fine. To be fair, it was Conner who broke it worse."

"I told them no broken bones," he said in a low voice, one I hadn't heard turn so dark in so long. "No killing and nothing broken. He disregarded my rules."

"Mhm." I rested an arm against his shoulder as I stood by his side. "Are you going to do something bad?"

He stood, my arm falling from him but that didn't stop him from squeezing my side gently. "You'll have to wait and see."

"Then I look forward to seeing you in the championship."

"You're so certain you won't lose?"

"Oh, baby," I cooed, "I always win."

Crow smirked, leaning down slightly to meet my eyes darkly. "A lot of the people in this room think the same. You so sure you'll see me in the finals?"

My grin couldn't be contained. "I know it."

He leaned closer and I thought he would kiss me before he muttered, "Then may the last one standing win."

"How big is your ego right now, huh?"

"Huge."

I sat back in the seat he gave up and watched him approach our small ring. It was essentially the same area near the back where Eva fired her gun at me and where we'd all sparred each other a near countless times. A knife would change the game entirely. Crow flexed his wrist, the knife in his palm reflecting in the lights. West didn't seem bothered by the fact he would be going against Crow, but just by the quick glance of the two sizing the other up, everyone could tell who the better and stronger man would be.

I could argue West could sense the same, just by the slight hesitation in his brows and eyes. He would fight like a devil to win, but Crow's lazy posture and the way he was letting his eyes rack up West's body, I could tell my man would come out on top.

When Eva went over the ground rules again and made sure both men's knives were the ones she brought with her and neither had more stashed away on them, she turned to Macabre who gave the final nod of approval.

"If the fight isn't over in thirty minutes, we'll re-evaluate, but for now? You may begin. May the best fighter win." She snapped her fingers at me, Blondie, and Winker and said, "You three better be taking notes. This could've been a very brutal day for you but we're choosing to have some fun."

"You did this because the old guys want to have fun, not us," muttered Winker, still sore about his bracket placement.

Eva shrugged and from behind her, I watched Crow wait for West's first move. He didn't even bother moving, just waiting with his hands folded behind him and the knife gripped loosely in his right hand.

"Should we place bets?" murmured Winker.

"I don't think anyone's going to bet against him," said Blondie.

"Which one?"

She smiled. "I think we both know who I'm talking about."

West made the first move, like he had against me when we had fought. He preferred his little pocket knife so this blade wasn't any different for him. Just a little longer and easier to catch skin if he swung with enough accuracy. It was easier for him to move about, no longer restrained by mud and wet grass when he had tried to take my life.

I swore I felt a phantom ache in my nose as I watched West swing his arm back and slash at Crow, who moved only his head back. He didn't bother moving his feet, but his hand jutted out and he tossed West's arm away from him uselessly. We hadn't actually fought hand-to-hand when we'd first met, mostly because I was deterred by my shoes and the rain. These fights...I could see who they really were.

West tried to strike again and Crow blocked with his forearm, jutting his hand out and into West's elbow hard enough to fold the other man's arm in so the blade stayed away from Crow's face.

"Come on, boss!" laughed Stone from the side lines as he took notes on both men's strategies. "You're holdin' back!"

"Fight me like you mean it," snarled West, staggering back a step. "I don't need this pussy shit."

"You want me to let go?" asked Crow, not even out of breath.

"I know you can go harder than this."

"I can and you want me too?"

"What's the point of this fucking exercise if you don't–"

Crow's fist collided with West's face so fast, Blondie flinched beside me and Eva began to smile. Crow had West on his back and disarmed in seconds, his foot pressed down against West's hand where his blade laid uselessly right there in grasp but still unable to reach for. Crow stepped harder as West cursed.

"You–you broke my fucking nose!"

Crow leaned over him. "That was the point."

"Wh–what?"

"Do you not remember?" asked Crow, tilting his head to the side like a wolf staring down prey. "My instructions were simple. No killing. No broken bones. You broke our word."

West struggled under him but we watched him nod. Crow pressed harder and we all heard the snap of bone as West let out an animalistic cry.

"The fight is done," said Crow, stepping away and kicking West's knife to the side.

"Can the opponent no longer continue?" asked Macabre. "We need a verbal response from you, Michael."

"No," West croaked. "I can't."

Stone made a note of the win on a large white board he'd dragged down the steps from one of the recreation rooms upstairs. "Archer advances. Next up...Blaire and Jeb."

Eva clapped her hands together. "You have five minutes to prepare before it starts."

Crow, with his hands in his pockets, was speaking softly with West once the other man had finally gotten up. They went to sit by the stairs, West wiping black blood from his upper lip and under his nose. The bones would heal in minutes.

I stood from my seat and Macabre motioned for me to come over to the side with him. He ducked his head down and whispered, "It'll be easy to fall into your magic use here, but I recommend saving it until absolutely necessary."

"Meaning...?"

"Save it for Evangeline."

I nodded as Eva approached to give me my knife and I asked Macabre, "Are using the ghosts against the rules?"

He smiled. "Not at all."

I moved the knife between my hands as Reed did some last minute stretching. I remembered the bruises he gave me when we'd first fought. I remember waking up in my bed covered in mud and dried blood. I'd sported some pretty ugly marks across my face for a long while after. Never would I have thought I'd be thinking, thank god for demon blood, but here I was.

"It's funny, right?" said Reed as he came to stand before me. Parallels of a past finally coming together again. All we were missing was the trees and the wet grass, our secret little clearing. "Coming back to the other like this?"

"Same fight, different circumstances," I said with a shrug. "Just this time you actually get to fight back."

"Trust me," he said, "I fought you with everything I got the first time, just so happened I let you get the last drop on me."

"And this time? You're gonna let me get the drop again?"

"God, no."

I grinned. "Good."

Eva asked if we were ready and we both nodded. When it was time to begin, I let Reed take the first move like I'd watched Crow do the same. Reed kept a staggered position, always braced for the back step if I were to advance.

He took a swing and I noticed how he was waiting for me to block him so he could send his free hand in towards my ribs, but I dodged the first with my head and swung my hand out to block his second. It wasn't hard enough to send him away entirely but it did jolt him. He hadn't anticipated that I would make the block. He just didn't know how much Eva had actually been teaching us.

"You know," I said, not helping the smile coming to my lips, "a lot has changed since you died."

"Oh, really?" he grunted, swinging again and I stepped backwards two steps to avoid the shining blade and the way he tried to kick his leg out to break down my knees.

"I've got a sneaky little advantage," I said, finally stabbing out and forcing him to jerk back. The knife swiped through the air with a gush of wind, and I knew I was going to miss. I'd wanted to miss. "Wanna know what it is?"

"Am I gonna have a choice?" he asked, blocking my next swing with his hand.

I grinned. "Nope." I felt the chill take over my body and I pushed forward with what strength I had compared to his, leaning closer to whisper, "Pandora."

The world fell into a quick gray before Reed's knife could come up to my side. He froze mid jab, the blade so close to my side, I could feel the tip pressing against my crewneck.

"So, this is how we're gonna fight now?" asked Pandora, stepping out from behind my peripherals to look Reed in the eyes.

"You don't like it?"

"No, I do. I like that we get to cheat."

"What should we do to him, then?"

There was a dark smile creeping up onto her face, one I was beginning to love. "Something bad."

I matched her smile, moving away from the knife and Reed's grasp. "Embarrassing?"

"Definitely."

I kicked his legs out and he was suspended in the air, frozen like time. I'd seen this in movies before, that if I hit him, he'd move with the impact once time began to tick again. I struck my fists down against his back and the gray blinked to reality. Reed's body let out an oof and collided with the floor, his chin bouncing against the ground. The gray flickered back as Pandora took his head and held it back, flipping him onto his back as the world flickered and danced between us. I could almost hear her laughter through the color melting and bleeding.

I pressed my knife to Reed's throat, hard enough to bring just the faintest trickles of blood to the surface. "Was that a good enough surprise?"

Reed grunted with a sigh. "Well, y-eah."

I knew what he was planning from the little glint in his eyes and from the fact he was that deterred from being on his back. He swung his leg out, knocking mine from under me and grabbing my calf and yanking me the rest of the way to the ground. I didn't hold back when I slashed the knife against his ankle, cutting through his achilles. Reed screamed, dropping to his knees where I was almost tempted to ram my knife upwards under his chin but restrained myself enough to press it there instead.

"Would this be the first time I've gotten out of a fight without a bruise?" I asked, grinning as I dodged the swinging of his own knife and flipped mine in my palm with enough ease to slam it down into the moving limb. Reed cried, fingers flexing and losing his knife against the ground. I snatched it up and held it to his throat as I tore mine from his palm to aim at his groin. "Can you go on?"

"Yes," he gritted out and I tsked.

"Wrong answer."

The world went gray and as I stood, I rammed my knee up and under Reed's chin as the gray flickered. He landed roughly on his back as the gray returned and I jammed his own knife into his thigh. When the color came back and the gray had settled back behind the ghosts, I asked Reed the same question and was happy to get a different answer.

"Blaire wins and advances," announced Macabre as Stone scribbled my name on the whiteboard.

I stood and offered Reed an arm to use to stand, which he took. "Sorry about all that. It's a good thing you can heal yourself, right?"

He gave me a smile, telling me I had nothing to worry about after roughing him up a bit. "You've gotten better."

"You can thank Eva and Macabre for that," I muttered, getting him to a seat so the tendons in his ankle could heal properly. "They've been running us dry here since you've been gone."

"Using the ghosts was a good trick," he said. "Keep getting comfortable with it and John won't know what hit him until it's too late."

"I have a feeling it won't be that easy with John."

"How so?"

"It all feels different around him," I said with a shrug. "There's this building tension in the air, like static."

It'll probably suck materializing around him, said Pandora in my head.

But that doesn't mean it'll be hard around Ace or Conner, I thought back and I could've sworn I felt her smile against my skin.

"Next is Cassandra and Luke," said Stone, tapping the board.

Blondie was already waiting for him, tapping her foot with her arms crossed. Winker looked down at me as he stood and muttered, "No chance I'm winning this, right?" He glanced back at his girlfriend and winced. "Tell me I'm right because she only gets that look in her eyes when she's really pissed and, well..."

I patted him on the back. "Good luck, buddy."

"Shit, that's not encouraging."

Macabre raised his hand and told them they could begin, that was all it took for us to watch my friend turn into someone else entirely. It was fair to say Winker didn't have a chance, not from the start. Blondie charged him, taking him by the shoulder as he barely had time to react. She yanked him forward, pushing her hip into him as she pulled his arm behind her neck. She was able to swiftly roll him off her hip, over her back, and to the ground with a loud oof from Winker as he landed roughly, his knife useless on the ground behind him. Blondie never bothered to use hers, the knife still in her other hand.

It was only when Winker was on the ground did she take it and place it against his neck. She had a knee pressed into his chest and by the look on his face, she wasn't holding back. It was over as soon as it had started and Blondie's name was added to the bracket as a winner.

Macabre announced the next pair. Eva and Monroe set up before us like two mirror images and when they began to spar, slashing with their knives a little harder than any of us had, it amazed me how they moved together. Side stepping, back tracking, dodging with only their shoulders and heads, and all the while circling the other like some bird of prey.

They ended up being the most bloody after their fight. Eva sporting a bloody lip and slash through her side but Monroe with the dagger lodged in his thigh and his own stabbed through his arm. Eva told us not to hold our punches and she was the first to show us how crucial it was not to hold back. We had to take a ten minute break between the next rounds of fighting so Stone could mop the blood from the floor. Blondie was going next again as Crow had to wait for the winner of her fight to continue on since it wouldn't be fair for Eva to fight so soon after her first.

Blondie hadn't come back to sit with us after her fight with Winker, taking a spot near the back wall of freezers to pace. She was no doubt coming up with some devious plan to inflict on Tobias who lounged back like it was going to be the easiest fight in the world for him. He was smug and, as if he felt my eyes on him, turned and met my gaze. He smirked and I glared. He was my soldier but I would never truly like him for it.

"Ready to begin?" asked Macabre before describing the rules once again.

Tobias stood and stretched lazily. Behind him, wringing her hands together with a deranged little tick in her eyes, Blondie came forward. Tobias was handed his knife from Eva as Blondie white knuckled hers by her side. Both competitors nodded to being ready but Blondie didn't move.

"Not so confident now that it's just us, are you?" said Tobias, holding his knife in front of his face to reflect the light against the blade.

"Oh," said Blondie with no smile or gleam of her usual self, "I'm just waiting, that's all."

"For what?" asked Tobias, lowering the blade down just slightly to look past and into her eyes. "For someone to help you?"

"No," she said, cocking her head to the side, "just waiting for you to move your knife down. Rules said no throats or eyes."

His smile fell flat. "Huh?"

She jutted her hand up and forward, snarling out her command, "Movere. Inclinate ad voluntatem meam. Secetur per ipsum."

(Move. Bend to my will. Cut through him.)

The knife began to wobble in Tobias's hand and he had to fight to keep it steady but the magic was too powerful. Blondie had thought this through far too long by herself not to have it work. She repeated the command with more demand and the knife flung out of Tobias's grip and through his side like something trying to slither home and away.

He cried out and blood splattered against the ground with the clatter of the knife that had wormed itself through him like a bullet. Blondie was clever and I hid my smile behind my hand. I'd never seen her use magic like this before, but it came to her effortlessly. I could've sworn a breeze blew through the room with her power as she called the knife up and to her hand where demon blood dripped from the tip, smearing against her palm.

"I don't need fancy tricks," she snarled down at him as he clutched his hands against his wound. "I don't need to fight with my fists. I didn't need to do anything but open my mouth to stop you." She leaned down to force him to meet her hungered gaze. "Should we wait for you to heal to continue or should we call it?"

"Are you able to continue?" asked Macabre.

Tobias tried to sit up but Blondie slammed the knife into the wound trying to heal. She twisted the knife and grinned, leaning closer to hiss, "You hurt my friend. You stalked her, made sure she was vulnerable like a coward before attacking her. Your friends had the decency to make it an even playing field, but you?" She shook her head and I thought, maybe, she'd spit on him. "You disgust me."

Blondie pushed off him to stand, pulling her knife with her. She spoke over her shoulder to Macabre, "He won't be able to continue, but fortunate for him he'll be ready for the next fight. I forfeit."

"You forfeit?" gasped Tobias from the ground, hissing as he tried to roll to his side.

"Scared to go against Crow?"

"No!" he snarled back. "But you're not allowed to forfeit."

"Fine."

Blondie raised the knife in her hand and jammed it, without hesitation, into her leg. I let out a scream as Winker cursed, already racing to her to stop her from collapsing. I hurried to her side, helping Winker lower her to the ground as she gritted out between clenched teeth, "I–I can't go on. Fight o-ver. You advance."

"But I didn't win."

"Too–bad."

I helped Winker pull the knife free and clamp a hand on her trembling wound as both Crow and Eva split their hands open, offering them both to her. They both applied pressure to her wound and in a miraculous minute, she was fully healed.

"What the hell was that?" breathed Winker, shaking more than her. He had her blood on his palms.

"I beat him," she said in a little voice with a shrug, "but I know I won't beat Crow." She glanced over my shoulder towards who would've been her next opponent. "Besides, using magic on him would've felt like cheating. Tobias...he had it coming and plus..." She was smiling, brightly, like there wasn't a scar on her perfectly tanned toned leg now. "...won't it be so satisfying to watch your boyfriend beat the living shit out of him instead?"

I didn't bother to correct her, because there was nothing to correct anymore, and I matched her smile. "You're crazy."

"I know."

"No," breathed Winker again in the same tone, "you're actually crazy! Do not do that ever again, okay? Do not do that..."

She kissed him softly on the cheek and whispered, "Lukey, I won't do it again, I promise."

He bowed his head against her shoulder, arms wrapping around her in a hug as he helped her to her feet. It made me wonder what it would be like in real time, with John and Ace at our backs with knives and worse weapons. Would Winker be able to handle the pain of a wound meant to kill? Would Blondie? I gathered myself and went to stand by Macabre who would instruct us, once again, on what the rules were as my fight with Eva would begin.

I felt as if none of this could be poetry, none of what I was seeing was soft or kind besides the moment between Winker and Blondie. I wanted things to be gentle, slow, and kind, but there was nothing kind in the way my friend stabbed herself, in the way Monroe cut a gaping hole through Eva's thigh and still was unable to stop her. None of this could be beautiful, unless you counted the arcs of blood across the ground, the crystalline red dripping from human wounds and the black endless sea that left the demons.

I waited for my fight to begin and immediately Pandora was there before Eva could strike me. She took my hand in hers and whispered, "This is silly, isn't it? All of this fighting?"

"It'll prepare us."

"Not really," she murmured. "None of them can do what we can. They're liabilities. Besides...no one is really using their weapons as much as their fists except the siblings."

She was right and I glanced down at my own knife. "It'll be easier when we have the demon blades." I wrapped my fingers tightly around the hilt and thought of my first true fight, not with Reed or West, but with Conner. He'd thrown me through the dirt, broken my nose and wrapped his filthy hands around my neck like I was a toy. "I don't know how I'll be able to hurt them, after all of this."

"Who?" she asked before her eyes softened. "Oh...you mean him, don't you?"

I nodded, she always could read my mind.

"He wasn't nice to me," she whispered. "Ace was never a kind man and...and he tricked you. He tricked us. He might've been good before all of this but look at what he did to me." There was a soft flash of color and the bloody slashes through Pandora's neck appeared, just briefly. She usually was covered in her strange red but she concealed what most ghosts didn't realize they could. Her true death blinded me. "He did it with no remorse. Killing him, Red, will be easy."

"Is it true?" I asked. "That he loved me, somehow? Does John?"

"Of course, they love you," she said back, reaching out with the hand not clutching mine to brush my hair from my face. "They've loved you since seeing you, but that's how it's always been. Their obsession, their revenge, it's been mistaken for devotion and love. It might've looked kind before but..." She tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and for a second, it felt normal, like we weren't trapped in the gray. "...but it was never without some–some malicious intent, or whatever those poetic authors you love used to say."

"But, you know," she continued, "I've heard whispers of where John and Ace might be but it's through an untrustworthy source."

"Cage?"

"Good guess, but worse."

I frowned with a sigh. "Amy?"

"Bingo, baby."

"Tell me about it after we kick Eva's ass, okay?"

"Only if you promise not to get all melancholy like that again."

I rolled my eyes and swung my fist under Eva's extended arm as the gray faded and I heard the crack of bone. She let out a howl as her knife flung from her fingers, clattering to the ground. She dove for it instantly but the stuttering gray made it easy for me to capture it and slam it down into her extended hand. She swung her leg up and into mine, knocking me off balance where she was able to wrench her knife free and slash me under the chin but the gray was there, holding its calm over me.

It was easier to defeat her with Pandora inflicting the pain too. It wasn't just me, working alone through the gray, but with a partner who wanted this all to end as badly as I did. We knocked Eva to the ground, both knives now trapped happily against my palms. She was surprisingly out of breath, her chest heaving, the black blood dripping down her neck and into her shirt. I hadn't gotten out unscathed either, thanks to the cut against my chin and one long slash over my thigh, but they didn't burn like they would've.

I had the gray protecting me from any true pain, like a cold compress against each wound. My name was written on the board as advancing and Eva clapped me on the back once she was standing. There wasn't malice in her eyes but a blast of pride, where she murmured, "Finally coming into your own, good job."

I knew who I would end up fighting in the end, because I knew I would beat Eva. It was a pull in my gut that told me everything I needed to know.

She didn't have a gun this time. She didn't have an advantage over me.

Once she took her seat and I took mine, Tobias stood from his and went to meet Crow in our designated fighting ring, our own personal arena. I took note of how calm Crow seemed, just like with his fight against West. It started how every fight did, except for the way Crow still didn't move and neither did Tobias, who was scowling and looking more irritated than before.

"If he's not going to move, why bother with the fight," he snarled. "If he's going to pull the same bullshit with Michael, then what's the point?"

"Just make the first move, Aiden," said West with a scowl. "Get it over with."

"You two used to spar all the time back in the day," said Stone from the whiteboard. "Just take a swing and it'll be like old times."

Crow was sizing him up and to me, it looked like he was trying to remember every little detail about the man before it all went to shit. Before Tobias got scared and deserted. I knew this fight would be different from his last, that Crow would do something to this man far worse than he'd ever done to me and I almost thought he'd pull a gun of his own out to repay the wound that still throbbed like a phantom in my side. I still dreamt of blood on my palms, pooling in my boots, draining from my side like a lake emptying.

We would all be haunted by the wounds that never truly healed.

"I'll fight," said Crow in a slow voice, "if you apologize."

Tobias turned sharply, throwing his hands to his side as he scoffed, "Apologize for what?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you?"

Tobias's brows softened and he looked towards me and back at Crow, almost helpless like. "I've already been forgiven for what I did, just fuckin' ask her–"

"No," said Crow, slowly bringing his knife to his side as if no one would notice the blade coming into play. "Apologize for leaving us and the organization, apologize for leaving me."

Tobias's strange smile fell. "Archer..."

"You left us, remember? Ran off to join the devil's madness and left us. You left us." He patted his chest with nearly every word. "We're your brothers and you abandoned us."

"I..." Tobias looked small, like a child, and inside my own chest I could almost feel the scared beat of his heart. "I was lost, Archer. I didn't know what to believe, John was pretty compelling–"

"More compelling than the men who grew up with you?" snapped Crow. "More insightful and open armed than the brothers who fought alongside you?"

"I didn't believe she was anything special!" he cried, jutting his hand out to gesture towards me. "Cage was fucking delusional then, okay? He wasn't in his right mind, we could all see him s–succumbing to whatever batshit joke he was on each week." He ran both hands over his face, like he was trying to hold back tremors. "I thought you were sending my brothers out to die, to–to never come back. I thought you were sending them to their graves, Archer, I couldn't stand by and let you do that to them or yourself."

"But you see it now, don't you?"

He peeled his hands over his face and nodded. "I do." He looked towards me, holding my eyes as Crow stepped forward and took him by the shoulder. There was still something so sinister in the way he was holding himself but he'd dropped his knife to the ground. "I won't back down this easily next time," he said, addressing me, "but I know when to stop now and trust the process."

I could hear what he was saying in between the lines.

I trust you.

Crow slid the blade into Tobias's side, between ribs and sent the man to his knees. There had been a time, not long ago, when he had been driven mad with the truth and as he sunk to his knees and then to all fours, I could see how the truth was finally setting him free, as cliché as that sounds. It had woken him, like it had the others and myself. The fight ended with Crow helping Tobias to his knees where they exchanged just a few words together in low voices.

"Do you need a break?" asked Macabre, addressing Crow who's name was being written on the bracket. Crow shook his head and Macabre turned towards me. "Then let's get this last fight over, Monroe's ordering dinner."

"Do we need to address the rules again? Since some of us have clearly forgotten?" said Eva, crossing her arms beside Macabre.

"I think just tell them not to go easy on each other," muttered Tobias, holding his side as it slowly stitched itself back together, still on the ground. "Wouldn't want the boss to get an unfair win."

My brows furrowed instantly, about to bark out an agitated hey when Eva raised her hand and said with a scoff, "If you think Blaire is about to give up an easy win, you'd be mistaken. Need I remind you, she's taken everyone in this room out. Don't think she won't do the same to Archer."

Tobias's lips stretched into a smirk. "Maybe a year ago she could've, but since they've...well..."

"God," I scowled, "you finally have a moment where we think you're a decent person and you go and ruin it all by opening your stupid mouth."

"Am I wrong?"

"You're a child."

"Truly original, Blaire." He looked at Crow. "Has she always had such a way with words? Is this how she got you–"

My hands curled into fists. "I'll let Cass kill you if you keep fucking talking."

"You two aren't exactly subtle," he continued. "Tell me, did the boss make the first move? Or did you get desperate enough to–"

I clamped my hand on the back of his neck and he reared up on his knees and hissed, as if burnt. "God, you're so lucky we need you or I'd send you right back to the astral."

"You two fight like siblings," muttered Crow, arms crossed and an amused look on his face. I was appreciative he didn't step in to stop him, that he was allowing me to fight my own battles. "Go sit down with the others, Aiden. If you're good, we might even let you have one of the beers I'm sending Jeb to get us."

I released Tobias and he got to his feet begrudgingly, moving a little slower than normal but he'd heal fully once Crow and I were done. I didn't expect it to go on for too long, I had a feeling we would be done before we even started.

"You ready?" Crow murmured, leaning down to say it into my ear.

I nodded and I felt his presence step back from me. I gripped my knife tightly, letting out one nervous breath before steadying myself the best I could. "Don't go easy on me, alright?"

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Fight me for real, I mean it."

"Trust me, sweetheart, I'm giving it all to you."

Macabre told us to begin once Eva returned with a notepad for Blondie and Winker, instructing them to take notes especially on this fight. Crow, with his lazy demeanor, had changed once he stood across from me. No longer was he relaxed and calm, but there was a nervousness to the air.

I smiled, slowly letting it creep across my lips before finally saying, "Oh, honey, you're scared."

"Of course, I am," he said, flipping his knife in the air and letting the blade land in his palm. "I'm scared of how badly I'll have to injure you."

"How considerate," I murmured. "I'm just glad you can heal yourself after I'm done with you."

"Your tricks with the ghosts won't work on me," he said, finally taking an advancing step.

"You so sure?"

His brows furrowed, like maybe he did think he was right but couldn't decipher why he thought that way. I didn't let his confusion stop me, swinging my arm up to stop his knife from coming down across my face. I had to bend forward to miss the punch he tried to send to my gut, my feet sliding across the floor to skid myself away.

We traded blows and black until his knife finally nicked me through my hoodie, right against the back of my arm nearly my elbow. It stung and I could feel the warm rush of blood gather on the edges of the fabric he'd torn through, but it wasn't deep. He was pulling his punches like I was.

"You two better start hitting each other like you mean it," snarled Eva. "Do not make this a pointless lesson by being pathetic."

What a twisted place we landed ourselves in.

I swung my knife through the air with more power than I had before, catching him across the face so hard he bent over with an inhale of sharp breath. Horror filled my gut at the sound he made but I kept myself planted, ready for any rebuttal. Blackness seeped between his fingers, sticky and coating. He made eye contact with me, briefly, and I nodded. He needed that permission, as if my slice towards his face wasn't enough.

He didn't hold back from his next attack. Knocking my legs out from under me and sending me to the ground, nearly knocking the wind out of me if I hadn't twisted my body to land against my hip. I wasn't able to avoid his knife, shielding my stomach and barely being able to scream as the blade pierced through my palm. I could hardly breathe as he yanked it free and tried to come at me again.

The world was gray before he could slam the knife back down. He was above me, frozen, and giving me enough time to crawl my way out from under him with the help of Pandora's hands under my arms.

"God," she breathed as she dropped to a knee to touch my shaking hand. Blood ran down my wrist and into my sleeve, my fingers thick and unmoving. "That looks like shit."

"Th–th–thanks."

She rested her cold hands over my wound and the pain eased. "I can keep the pressure until the fight is over, but use your other hand if you can."

"D-duh."

"Here," she whispered with a sigh. "We'll move together until you need the astral again."

Her coldness washed over me entirely as she stepped into me, right into home. The gray faltered as we turned, with her hand–or my hand–or both–wrapped around the knife that swung up as we charged to one foot and then both towards Crow. We'd never consciously worked together like this but I felt no pain when the knife switched to my wounded hand and then back to the other.

Crow was forced backwards as she swung–I swung–the knife. We blocked one of his strikes with a forearm, driving my knee upwards and into his stomach hard enough to hear an oof escape his lips. We were able to swipe one leg out, forcing him to the ground. I raised the knife and brought my wounded hand down against his face to keep him where he was as he fought to turn. Our blood mixed and smeared together from where his wound was still healing.

His knife was still moving, looking to stab into my thigh when the gray froze him. Pandora, her hand over my wound as she stepped out to look down at him, said, "He's playing dirty, can we hit him where it hurts yet?"

There was a gasp below us and a startled voice, murmuring, "Pandora?"

I didn't know why it scared me so badly but I let out a yelp and leapt off Crow, tripping and falling to my ass as the gray shattered around us with Pandora's own, "He can see me? He can fucking see me?!"

Pandora let out a howling scream, burning into my ears.

I wasn't used to other voices when it was only me and Pandora. Sure, Beatrice had come and gone before with her but I had a warning. I knew she was there, there weren't any...intruders before. The strange thing, that kept my heart lodged in my throat, was how he wasn't dead. He wasn't dead and yet...

Pandora's cool touch on me was gone as I shifted to my knees, cradling my wounded hand to my chest as I struggled to get back up. It'd felt like we'd been forcefully separated by our shock. It didn't feel like she was there at all. Panic surged into my chest until I felt her cold touch my shoulder then my face, two icey hands forcing me to look up and back into our safe gray.

"He can see me," she whispered, looking past my shoulder. "How can he see me?"

"I...I don't know." I felt like I was frozen, with some type of fear. "Is he...is he here with us?"

Pandora nodded slowly, breathing like we were trapped within a horror film as she said, "Yes."

I let myself turn, seeing him with what I could only guess the same expression I had. He was sitting up, resting back on his palms as he blinked through the gray. He wasn't as clear as he had been moments before and my eyes narrowed on the wound on his face. Stuck in the gray, it's stopped healing as well as it had before. My blood was smeared across his cheek, where both our bloods touched.

"I have a theory," whispered Pandora as Crow's eyes landed on her and his brows furrowed.

"I do too," said Crow, his voice still startling and raw within our sacred gray. "You want to share first or...?"

Pandora rose to her feet hesitantly, reaching a hand down to help me sit up. "You know how John wanted your, you know, so badly? Well..." She got me to my feet, holding me tightly like we were two sisters, like two people instead of the one inside this body. "He said it would connect him further to heaven and hell by bridging the gaps." She held her hand out to Crow in a weak gesture, made eye contact with me, and shrugged.

"It's far more potent than a blood oath," said Crow, staying where he was like he was afraid the world would fall apart around him. "What I'm feeling now...it's like static. I don't really belong here but, at the same time, I do."

Pandora squeezed me gently. "This could come in handy with John."

I couldn't keep my eyes from Crow, ignoring Pandora's useful comment. There was something very wrong about him being here. It felt like it soured what sacredness we had before. This was my place, my home, not his to barge into. "I love you, but you don't belong here."

I walked across the room to him, dropping to a slow knee to say it again. "You can't be here, not like this."

He nodded, he knew it just as I did. "Only against John."

"And special occasions," muttered Pandora behind me, always more eager than me.

I knew she meant well, but there was a tug in my gut that said we were being crowded here with another living person. I was the bridge for ghosts, for lost spirits, I was a ghoul myself. I hardly counted for a full living person, but Crow? Even as a demon, he had more life than me here. And that life...that life he had was suffocating here.

I'd never noticed it before, being so consumed by him and myself. But here...everywhere...I was filled with more death than life. Always one foot on the other side. He was too full of the life I would never be able to teeter fully on.

"Please," I whispered, maybe to him but maybe to myself. A prayer unbeknownst to myself. I never wanted to see him here, living or dead. I didn't want to see anyone but myself and those who were ready to go. I didn't want to pass on this burden I'd been born into, not to someone who needed to be on the side of the living.

The gray faded and the wound on Crow's face healed, leaving whatever connection he might've had within the gray. I understood how important this new discovery would be, how with one touch of our blood we would be able to freeze and breathe and come up with better plans. John wouldn't be able to reach us as easily if we were both in the gray.

"We're done," I said, not giving Eva or Macabre the chance to ask what had happened. I was still shaky, like my body wasn't used to having so many living things crammed inside. It felt like too many had come together and I wasn't used to it yet. "Crow wins."

"No–" He started but I was already driving the knife into myself, a blade against a blade.

It was strange. The blade pierced my skin, through flesh and muscle of my side and Tobias stood abruptly at the table, jerking it nearly upside down with the force he'd gotten up. Crow winced, softly, just enough, and West, Reed, and Stone's eyes squeezed shut as if they had all been stung momentarily.

"You guys can't keep doing this," snarled Eva, already breaking her skin for me but Crow was there beside me as I took out the blade from where I'd lodged it deeply, nearly against bone. "This isn't how a competition is supposed to work."

"Doesn't matter," I grunted, feeling lightheaded but unsure if it was from the knife or from the experience in the gray. "He won fair and square."

"No, I didn't," said Crow, offering me up his hand. "Blaire, please–"

"I don't want to talk about it," I said through gritted teeth as he applied blood to my wound. I hadn't noticed that someone had taken my hand and it wasn't Blondie like I expected but Tobias who had dropped to a silent knee beside me.

"I didn't like that," he said in a low voice, his brows furrowed tightly together. "The pain I felt...I didn't like it."

Macabre, who didn't understand, touched Tobias on the shoulder and the other demon recoiled entirely from him. It was as if a shudder of repulsion had taken over him. Tobias nearly hissed until I touched his hand and a calm washed over him. Something about the bond had changed between us that the others didn't get. Crow's bond was more profound, yes, because of the gray but Tobias...

Was it from our simultaneous maiming of the other? Was it his bullet that had shredded between my flesh? Was it my knife driving home through his chest? Was it him coming back through his sacred promises and his fears? Was it because I had personally invited him home, unlike the others who had come so willingly?

Was it because we were two sides of one coin? Based in hate?

I brought my knife up in my other hand, the knife I had been given for the fight, and sliced it through my palm and offered it to him. I couldn't hear if others were talking, only the sound of the knife cutting through Tobias's hand.

"Pandora," I whispered as I conjoined our hands.

The gray fell around us and Tobias blinked. He blinked and my stomach tightened like I would throw up. Would they all be able to trespass here?

"This isn't right," I said, wanting to sob. I was allowing emotion to creep into my face and it was fear. I didn't want them here, they shouldn't have been here. Was this not my sacred place? One passed down to me through families? Through people these demons had probably killed in another life and time?

"It's the bond," said Tobias. "But...but it feels wrong, it doesn't feel good."

"It's tearing you apart or something," said Pandora, not looking at Tobias but the glare in her eyes told me she wasn't happy he was here either. "It can only be used against John...I...I see that now."

"He feels everything more strongly than the others," I whispered to her.

"Stronger than Crow?"

"Sometimes."

Tobias shook his head. "I don't..." He shook his head a second time and cursed. "Our bond is different from yours with him, we all know that but...Blaire, this doesn't feel good. Something..."

I made eye contact with Pandora, none of us having to speak. We all knew what he was going to say. Something bad was coming or it was already happening. 

okay so....what you thought was filler was actually something else <33 crow and tobias can enter the astral through blood contact...uh oh LOLLLLLL thoughts???

a lot is going to happen in the up coming chapters yall!!!!! we're nearing the end....

pandora seeing crow in the gray:

pls pls vote/comment <3333