Kim watched the video footage Rani had given her three or four times. At some point she'd become so overcome with grief and emotion that her legs had given out, the energy fleeing from her body, sending her crashing to the ground. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting there on the gross alley floor, staring at her screen.

But finally she stood and dusted herself off. Her face was covered in tears and her makeup was a disaster. She was afraid to even think about what her hair must look like at this point. 

She dried her eyes as best she could. Then she called Maria.

“Kim! Where are you?” Maria said. “What’s going on? You’re almost back down to the C-List!”

“Hi Maria,” Kim said. She heard her voice cracking and tried her best to speak through the sobs that threatened to burst from her lungs. She forced herself to sound more upbeat. “I’m fine!” she continued. “Don’t worry.”

Maria sensed the tension in Kim’s voice. “Tell me what’s happening. When are you coming back?”

“Soon,” Kim said. “Very soon.” She breathed, trying to keep her voice as smooth and even as a ride in an Escalade. “I’m going to send you a file. It’s proof that the footage was stolen. It should be enough to clear my name and help you redirect the narrative on the villain story.”

Maria exhaled. “Oh! That’s wonderful, Kim, marvelously done. But what’s wrong? Something else is wrong.”

“Oh, it’s just been a day, you know?” Kim tried to laugh but it sounded like a cough and she held her hand over her mouth to keep from crying. 

“I know, Kim. Send me the file and I’ll take care of everything. Just come home. I’m very proud of you.”

“Thank you, Maria.”

“And when you get back, no rush, but when you have a moment, stop by my office.”

“Back to business already?”

“Not quite,” Maria said. “It’s just...you’ve been on the B-list an awfully long time now. With everything you’ve been through, the parties, the Bollywood shoot, solving this mystery, you should have made the A-list by now.”

“Yeah,” Kim said, the tears again threatening to spill out of her eyes. “I get that.”

“Just stop by when you can. There’s a sorceress I’d like you to meet, maybe she can help.”

“Thank you. I will. I just have one or two other things I need to finish up first. 

“You’re amazing,” Maria said.

“No rest for the wicked, right?”

“Kim, you are not wicked.”

“Just wait,” Kim said, and ended the call.

Then she watched the security video again. She didn’t want to, but she had to. The grainy security camera footage filled her screen, a wide-angle shot from a high corner of the studio vault. 

The first few minutes were just an empty room, and then, so quick she almost missed it the first time, a tiny monkey swung into view. It very carefully walked around the room, looking for something. Then it grabbed a certain disc from a shelf before leaping out of view. 

“Tiny Monkey,” Kim whispered. “Why have you forsaken me?”

At first she had thought: someone hypnotized him. He didn’t know what he was doing. But with repeated views it was clear: this was no zombie. He moved deliberately, of his own volition. He knew what he was doing. Tiny Monkey had sold her out. 

But why? Why would Tiny Monkey destroy her reputation like that? After the bond they’d shared? She couldn’t believe it. She had to find out why. 

She ran to the courtyard but Tiny Monkey was nowhere to be found. 

What should she do? Could she use a spell to track him? Would that work? She focused her mind on a memory of Tiny Monkey, and pressed the Monkey + Satellite Antenna emoji. A map came up on her phone with a blinking blue dot. He was nearby. By the river. 

She ran down to the waterside but couldn’t see him anywhere. According to the map he should be right there. He was tiny but not that tiny, why couldn’t Kim see him? 

And then something caught her eye, a tiny scrap of red hidden within the reeds. She peered closer and saw that it was a tiny hat. She pushed some leaves aside and found Tiny Monkey’s lifeless body laying there in the mud, discarded like trash. 

“No! Kim sobbed, kneeling next to him. “Tiny Monkey, no!” She cradled his body in her arms and keened. “Who did this to you?”

Now she would never know the truth.

Or, wait. 

She had an idea. 

She laid Tiny Monkey’s body back down and knelt over him with her phone. She pressed the Monkey emoji, and then the Ghost emoji-- 

--And then her phone rang. It was Simon. She tried to quickly reject the call but accidentally answered it instead. 

“Hi Kim!” Simon said. “It’s the call you’ve been waiting for!”

“NOT NOW SIMON I’M TRYING TO RESURRECT A TINY MONKEY” Kim screamed.

“Get over to Lif and---excuse me what now?”

“I am summoning a monkey’s spirit from beyond the grave. It has information I need.”

“Kim,” Simon said, very slowly and carefully. “Do not perform this spell. You are trespassing against the darkest magic.”

“Simon,” Kim said coldly. “I am the darkest magic.” 

She ended the call. She pressed the Monkey, Ghost, and Open Book emoji. She held Tiny Monkey’s tiny paw and pressed it to her screen. 

“Tell me your story,” she whispered. 

A lightning bolt flew from Tiny Monkey’s body into her phone, and the spell collapsed. Kim picked up Tiny Monkey’s body and held it in her arms while she watched the story he had put on her phone. 

She saw the busy courtyard. She sees someone hand Tiny Monkey a tiny banana. He takes it home to his family. His tiny monkey wife and three tiny monkey babies. Then she see Willow Pape. Tiny Monkey is happy to see her. She has a job for him. She needs something from inside Ram’s castle studio. No human could get past the defenses, but he could, with his diminutive size and simian acrobatics. Tiny Monkey doesn’t want to do the job but Willow promises him a truckload full of tiny bananas. Enough to feed his family for a year. He could spend more time with his wife and babies instead of long hours in the courtyard every day. He agrees. He sneaks into Ram’s castle and breaks into the vault. He grabs the particular video Willow needs. He returns home to find Willow standing there. She takes the video from him. Then he notices the bodies of his wife and babies. Willow has killed them so there wouldn’t be any dead ends. Enraged, Tiny Monkey leaps at Willow to attack her. He gets in one long wicked scratch, right across her face, but she is too strong for him. Willow puts her hands around his neck and her bloodied face fills the screen as the scene slowly goes dark. 

Willow. It was all Willow. A family of tiny monkeys was dead, because Willow didn’t care who she hurt or destroyed in her quest to become more famous than Kim. Kim didn’t care what Willow tried to do to her, in their little competition. But this. This was pure evil. This would demand a response. 

She was sad, impossibly weary and sad, but found she had no more tears. There had been so much crying today already. Enough.

She stood and cleaned herself up. She pressed the Lipstick emoji and her makeup was once again flawless, her hair once again shiny and soft and perfect, her outfit newly stunning and magnificent. As if she hadn’t spent the day in the dusty alleys and muddy river of New Delhi. As if she hadn’t spent the day having her heart torn out, over and over again. As if she wasn’t about to embark on a campaign of abject terror and misery. 

Kim lifted her phone and pressed the Speaker With Three Sound Waves emoji. She spoke clearly, simply, but the spell transformed and magnified her voice, casting it out across the entire world, as though her words were being broadcast from speakers that towered up to the sky and beyond. Her voice rumbling across every city, and the buildings shook, and the people stopped and stared at the sky as they heard Kim scream:

WILLOW PAPE. I AM KIM OF HOUSE KARDASHIAN. DAUGHTER OF THE MOON, DESTROYER OF MEN, SUMMONER OF THE DEAD, AND RIGHTFUL HEIRESS TO THE A-LIST. 

I SWEAR BY THE GUARDIANS OF THE WATCHTOWERS OF MONEY, OF FRIENDSHIP, OF POWER, AND OF FAME,

I SWEAR BY THE EMOJI OF KNIFE AND SNAKE AND FIRE,

I SWEAR BY MY NAME,

I. AM COMING. FOR YOU.