Distantly, I could see the frown on the sex god (which I haven't excluded from the possible creatures that this man could possibly be, but I'll be damned if this man is Eros, I've had enough of that fucknut for a lifetime). I could also see the way he straightened and set his glass down. He was probably freaked by out into it I was and how fucking terrified I was that this man behind me knew a name that nobody on this goddamned planet should know.

It was almost slow-motion, the way I reacted to the name whispered to me. He probably felt the way I tensed up, probably knew I was going to react rather violently, in fact, he was probably anticipating it, with how tense he's gone, ready to defend himself at a moment's notice.

Well, here's my moment's notice, bitch.

I twisted around at a speed I hadn't used in a long time, once again distantly aware that my sex god has vanished from his table, and kicked as hard as I could into the crotch of the stranger who'd been groping me.

What? I wasn't scared to hit where it hurts.

He apparently wasn't aware of the fact, because the squeak he let out when my foot connected with his groin and not his abdomen where he blocked was satisfying enough in its own right.

I stared down at him, his facial tattoos, now that I can see his face, are really such a turn-off. His brown—or is it blond?—hair is matted with sweat and his pretty blue eyes were scrunched with pain. I leaned down, ignoring the bodies writhing around me, gripped the neck of his shirt and hauled him closer to my face.

"Where did you hear that name?" I asked, no inflection in my voice or in my face. Despite the pain he was obviously in, he smirked.

"Hm? So, you do know that name? Your reaction was much more than what I'd anticipated, I must say," he murmured as low as he could, some ridiculous British dialect that I can't identify at the moment apparent. His shoulders shifted and I flicked my eyes to them but back to his eyes when he continued. "When he told me about you, I wasn't expect you to be so fit," he leered.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "He?" I asked, before his shoulders shifted again, and I realized one of his hands were behind him. I threw him to the ground and picked up his phone that his busy hands had obviously dropped to see a group text sent a mass of numbers, sent under the name 'Ephaen', which must've been his name (or a fake). I looked back at him to ask what the hell he sent, but then the sound of firearms erupting around the club sent me to the ground as the people on the dance floor immediately panicked.

I peaked at where he was to see him gone, and I began a crawl under the panic of the crowd to where our table was, escaping the tendrils of shadow that revealed the presence of sorcerers (and hopefully not demons) amongst the attackers.  

I founda gap in the crowd of bodies fleeing the club and got back to my feet. Just as I hauled myself up, a hand grabbed the back of my clothes and pulled me, choking me with my own suit jacket. A very un-sexy yelp left my mouth as I was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor in front of the man, 'Ephaen'. He looked down at me coldly and said something I can't hear. The stomping of feet and gunfire and screams echoed in my ears.

He tauntingly raised an eyebrow and I threw myself at him, thrusting my shoulder into his abdomen. The air was expelled from him and he fell to the ground with me on top of him. Just as I was about to choke him, my shoulders were grabbed by two people, a man and a woman, who twisted my arms behind me and hold a gun to my temple. Such an injury, should they fire the gun, would probably only knock me out for a while but not quite kill me because of how old I was and whatever fuckery had kept me alive this long. A tendril of shadow twirled around my neck, tightening to the point of nearly choking me.

I took a quick glance around, and the bar had completely emptied but the other end of the club by the door was still full of people trying to cram themselves out of the small door. I didn't see Blanche or James or Oralis. Or the hot guy. Smart fellows there. The only ones who remained near us had guns, so they were probably not the good guys.

I was brought out of my thoughts with a harsh smack to my face. My head snapped to the side and my cheek was bleeding from the ring 'Ephaen' wears. Hopefully it wouldn't scar. I hated facial scars.

"Who are you?" He demanded, his face twisted into a scowl. I blinked at him.

"What?" I blurted out. He punched me in the stomach, sending my breath to Brazil.

"I said, who are you? Can't hear?" He sneered. I opened my mouth, closed it, and opened it again.

"You came after me, called me by a name that I'd honestly forgotten, and you don't even know who I am? What kind of bad guy are you?" I asked, then let out a shrill cackle that made the woman gripping my left arm tense up. Smart woman. I'm like, this close (and imagine my fingers curling so that there's only a millimeter between them) to losing my shit with this fool.

"Sir, can we just go? We're not supposed to be here," the man murmured under his breath, like I wouldn't be able to hear him. 'Ephaen's' icy eyes snapped to his subordinate's. He stared at him for a moment, looked to his right where another subordinate is, motioned him forward, and grabbed the man's gun. He pointed it to the man who spoke up and shot him in the forehead with it. The man's blood splattered onto my face, the taste telling me that man was a werewolf.

The new subordinate went to take the previous one' place, rushed in a way that said he was scared of punishment, but before he made it to my arm, I twisted in the woman's hold and thrust my foot back into her chest, hearing a few cracks as she flew back against the wall with newly-broken ribs.

I kicked the new guy, who received the same fate, and 'Ephaen' shot at me with his gun. I ignored the bullets hitting my chest (I can take those out later), and he narrowed his eyes at the lack of reaction as I continued toward him. He grabbed something from back of his pants and pulled out a stick of some kind... iron, I think? Enchanted iron, from the smoke coming off of it.

I ignored this and took a running jump with more speed than usual, and punched the shit out of this man.

He fell to the floor and I ran around the room (which a touch of speed as usual), and took out his buddies who aren't well-equipped for vampire speed. Once they were taken care of, I realized that the club has been vacated.

I walked up to the bar and climbed over it, shuffling through the bottles behind it. I found a brand I like, grabbed a glass from the shelves up top (jumping a bit, I'm a little short), and poured myself a glass.

I closed the bottle and set it back down to pick up my glass and take a sip. Just as I raised it to my lips, I looked to my left where the back of the bar is, and saw the sex god from earlier, staring at me with a dimpled smile and his head resting on his intertwined hands. I froze, my eyes wide, and lowered my glass.

We didn't say anything for a moment, and so I grabbed the bottle I just put away and grabbed another cup, poured him a glass, and put the bottle away. Then I set the glass on bar and slid it across so it bumped into his arm and get my glass again to drink it.

He raised both eyebrows and grinned wider, a glint of something in his black eyes (just the iris, mind you, not the whole thing, this isn't Supernatural) that told me this man is a kindred spirit. A spirit of mischief who enjoyed moments of peace amongst chaos.

"You're a demon, aren't you?" I asked him, after taking a sip.

He smirked, an honest-to-god (or Lucifer?) smirk that made him like at least 13.54% hotter than he already was. "Indeed," he rumbled out. My eyes fluttered at the deep voice and I threw in a hand-flapping motion and a swaying motion to imitate a swoon. He laughed like it's startled out of him.

"So, is this that part where we-" I was interrupted by a pole of iron being shoved through my chest. My startled eyes met my demon's who had already jumped over the bar to attempt to stop it. He ripped it out of my chest so my healing could kick in and I heard a meaty whack behind me.

I coughed to get the blood out of my lungs as best as I could, but realized that I was not healing. I patted my chest where the bullet wounds had already healed, but the gaping hole was unaffected. I stumbled where I stood, still coughing, and fell to my butt (not my knees, that's too dramatic for my taste).

My demon appeared at my side but I couldsee from the look in his eyes that he had no idea what to do. His eyes lit up.

"Can Blanche help?" He asked, still not touching me. Aw, sweet thing had boundaries. And he had an accent. Nothing from the mortal realm that I recognized at least,

His words caught up to me. Blanche? How did he know I'm with her?

He met my eyes and smiled. "I've been following you since you've arrived in Paris," he said brightly. I narrowed my eyes at him. At that look, he held up his hands.

"Whatever, what's done is done, can I take you to her or not?" I continued to glare until he sighed and put his hands down. Then he pouted. "Pretty please?" I coughed out a laugh, and a bit of blood, and nodded. He grinned.

"Awesome, hold tight!" He chirped, sounding completely at odds with his manly-man fuck-me appearance. Ugh, I needed to get laid, this was ridiculous. He grabbed my shoulders and under my knees—oh god, princess carry, I'd be swooning if I wasn't dying—and stood.

A group of shadows pulsated in the corner by the bar and a doorway opened up. I forgot demons could do that, how convenient. And I had to take economy class flights.

He stepped through and we didn't have to wait long in the darkness which was actually warm rather than the expected cold.  Suddenly, we were in Blanche's penthouse.

She let out a cry when she saw me in my demon's arms, and she rushed forward to... do whatever she was trying to do. Not like she could lift me. Her hands flailed and she seemed to realize she couldn't do anything and James shuffled behind her, looking even paler than his normal pale.

I coughed up blood. Blanche flailed more. My demon huffed out a laugh. James paled further. Get this man a glass of blood, jeez.

Blanche glared at my demon. "And who the hell are you?" He blinked, gobsmacked, and looked behind him to see if she's speaking to someone else. "Yes, you. Why are you holding my baluga baby? Why didn't you take him somewhere to fix him? Why isn't he healing? What did you do to him?" She fired off. He blinked at her. The height difference made this all the more hilarious to me.

"Where in blazes was I supposed to take him?" He asked. Blanche scoffed.

"Well, you're on the Council aren't you? Take him to the healing halls, you-you- connard!" She sputtered, her anger turning into something not unlike an insulted chipmunk.

And, I'm sorry? The Council? This man was a politician? What a turn-off. I frowned.

My demon started to back away from the dryad, into the shadows that enveloped the wall behind the couch.

Before he could completely enter the shadows, however, Blanche grabbed James's hand, whose face had turned positively white, and threw the both of them into the shadows with us, grabbing onto my demon's suit jacket for direction.

We stayed in the shadows for a while. The distance from Paris to the Altai mountains where the Council resides was pretty long.

The Council was this super pretentious governing body. They made the big decisions of the supernatural world, but they only really cared about the species who had the biggest populations. Only the werewolves, vampires, fae, sirens, sorcerers, elves, and dwarves got representatives on the Council (an elected Elder and a Second chosen by the Elder). Oh, and humans got representation, because humans liked to be involved like anything they say will make a difference. The Assembly was the lower court that voted whether things need to be sent for approval to the Council.

The Council even had a fancy Latin name. Magistrorum Consilium. "Council of Elders." Ha! My language had been around far longer than Latin. They also had a saying that's marked across the front of the building but I never remembered it. I just knew that it was from the Bible, which was even more ironic seeing as supernatural creatures could come from so many different pantheons that it's not even funny.

Anyways, the Council met up on the peak of one of the Altai mountains.

Which was cold as fuck, as I was reminded when my demon stepped forward onto the ledge to the entrance of the massive building and my nipples nearly froze off.

Blanche and James stumbled upon arriving, but the demon landed smoothly, unaffected except for the tightening of his hands on the backs of my thighs. If it weren't for the hole in my chest and fact that this man was part of the Council, I'd probably be hard. But, alas.

The demon began to walk forward. Blanche yelped and grabbed his arm as James did the same to her. I looked at them as we started walking, and Blanche was looking determinately in front of us, like a war general facing their greatest enemy. James just looked like he was going to vomit.

As we made our way through the halls of the grand, dark, dramatic building, the demon ignored the bewildered stares we encountered and walked with purpose towards somewhere I didn't know. I traced over his features with my eyes, admiring his jawline as discreet as I could, following the line of it towards his strong neck and the peak of his collarbones through his shirt. Movement from his face made me flick my eyes back towards it to see his eyes looking at my face. I quickly shut my eyes and pretended to be knocked out from my wounds. I heard him chuckle. Bastard.

I opened my eyes when the demon's body jolted from the impact of his combat boots against the door to where I suspected I'll be healed. The large room we entered is not unlike the feasting halls I'd encountered in my times in England when I received my current name. Rather than the large tables that would look more fitting, there were beds and tables and healers scrambling all over the place, healing those who need it.

A nurse that looked to be of Mermish descent guided us to a bed without a word. Blanche went about explaining to her that I had been impaled with an iron rod while the demon gently set me on the bed. A wet gurgle escaped me when I was slightly jostled. The demon's hair brushed my face when he leant down. I ignored the blush on my face that came from my weakness for black-haired manly men. He straightened from where he stood and set a hand on my shoulder as he listened to Blanche's explanation, filling in the holes where she didn't know what happened.

His touch burned me through my shirt and I shifted away from it, knowing it was not conducive to my mental health to catch feelings for someone so close to the Council. (currently ignoring the shrivel of my heart, btw)

Blanche, James, and the demon stood back as the Mermish lady left only to come back with another healer, this one most likely a wizard from the lack of magical object in his hand like a warlock would have, nor having a resting bitch face like a sorcerer would have.

I didn't really like sorcerers.

He spoke in a low tone to the demon before coming to me. His hand glowed green and the tightening sensation in my chest made a whine leave my mouth as I clenched my eyes shut. My body tensed up and I writhed on the bed from the sharp pain. Sweat formed on my forehead and I was about to open my mouth to curse when the pain abruptly stopped and I was left breathing heavily.

I opened my eyes and saw that the healer has already left to tend to others. My eyes unwittingly flitted to the demon to see him smirking appreciatingly at my heaving form. I stiffened and glared at him. I grabbed the pillow under me and whipped it at him. He caught it easily but my temper was soothed from the violent action.

Blanche dramatically threw herself at me, ignoring my stiffening form, and crying. "Oh! I was so worried! And they did it so quickly!" She wailed.

James shuffled up next to the bed, pulling Blanche off of me and sending an apologetic glance towards me. "Is it always that easy?" He asked quietly with his arms crossed. The demon sent an unimpressed expression his way.

I smiled. "Yeah, though we don't really need to see healers all that often. Only if the weapon is enchanted. Sometimes certain types of metal tend to react towards every vampire differently, like mine is iron and yours may be copper. And as you get older, you become more resilient to attacks. The fact that that bastard Ephaen used iron means he knew exactly who he was going after," I said with an uncomfortable grimace. As well as the fact that he knew that name, one I thought long forgotten when I left home.

Blanche sniffled and wiped at her nose in a dainty, graceful way. "Well, since you're all better now, let's go home," she grabbed my arm and I made the effort to move, exhaustion pulling me back towards the bed but my stubbornness pulling at me to get the hell out of this place before they made me stay for some reas-

"Ohh, no. That's not happening," the demon said, putting a stop to our motion. I pulled back from Blanche to glare at him. He shrugged unrepentant. "Sorry, cutie. Council's orders. They sent me to retrieve you. Lucky that that bastard sorcerer put you out of commission so I could bring you right here." He smirked at my facial expression.

"No," I snapped, getting up as quickly as I can to run out of the hall. His smirk fell. Before I could get a few feet away from the bed, vampire speed and all, he was there in front of me. He put his arms around me and held my arms at my sides, unaffected from my weight, and lifted me form the ground.

I shrieked and flailed my legs, hitting them to attack his legs. He grunted but didn't relinquish his hold. "Let me down you stupid son of a whore!" He strode out of the hall, letting Blanche and James scramble after him, knowing they wouldn't attack an upper-class demon like him. "Bastard! I'll fucking kill you! Let me down! Put me down!"

I continued to shriek the entire way until we reached the large, hand-carved doors of the Council Room. Once we reached that, I started a continuous screech of unholy noise that didn't quite have a translation in English. He opened the room, undeterred.

I continued to screech just to be stubborn, but my attention went from the screeching to appreciating the beauty of the room. Four massive statues—absolutely humongous—held up the ceiling which is shaped like the bottom half of a sphere. In this case, the sphere represented the half of the world with the most supernatural creatures, which covered North and South America and Europe. Each statue represented the four most numerous populations of supernatural creatures: one vampire, one werewolf, one elf, and one siren. The statues held the same position as the painting of Atlas holding the world on that Laconic kylix that was in the Vatican. Of course, I continued to screech as I observed the beauty of the architecture. No need to make it easy for the nameless bastard that brought me here against my will.

The massive cavernous room was only emphasized by its emptiness by the nine chairs on the long, crescent-shaped table that stretched the length of the room about three-fourths the way into the room. Nine people sat in the chairs with their Seconds standing directly behind them to their right. Heh. Like their right-hand mans. My face soured at the sight of Oralis behind the Siren Councilman, ignoring the fond exasperation on his face when he spotted my tantrum from my perk on these shoulders. 

Massive portraits of the Elders took up the wall behind them, each in their own distinct style.

Those closer to the middle were, of course, those with the most population in the mortal world, those being the vampire Elder, the werewolf Elder, the elf Elder, and the siren Elder. The human Elder was shoved to the far end, as well as the demon Elder, because her people mostly lived in the demon realm from whence they came... and the demon Elder I recognized from my tutelage under her when I was only had a century under my belt.

At the sight of Sal'gamath, I immediately stopped screeching and smiled a bright smile from the constraint that was this demon's arms.

"Sal! It's been so long! How're the kids doing?" I asked, flicking my hair into the demon's face, relishing in his sputtering. Sal smirked from her seat, her manicured nail tracing a hair in her other hand as she slouched. Her black eyes glittered in amusement as she took in my position in the demon's arms.

"I don't know, why don't you ask the one holding you, Kolgoth?" She asked me in her smooth, deep voice, a smirk accompanying it. I froze in place where I was lazily kicking my legs. A loading symbol appeared in the back of my mind as I tried to comprehend what she just asked me before I started screeching and struggling again, ignoring the huff of amusement from the demon. He unceremoniously dropped me and let me flop to the floor in an undignified heap.

I twitched from my position on the floor before the name she said got to me. I began cackling on the floor, rolling in an exaggerated show of hysterical humor and pounding my fist on the floor. "Oh my god! Y-Your name is Kolgoth!" I huffed between laughs, wiping a tear from my eye as I sat up. "That's pure gold!" I erupted in another series of laughs and held my stomach in the fetal position as he leant down with a menacing expression to say something.

"You certainly weren't laughing when you were humping that sorcerer on the dance floor while making sex eyes with me, hm?" He whispered. My breath halted with my laughter as his brushed my ear and I kept my forehead on the ground with my hair spread around my face, the white ends taunting me in my emotional struggle.

"Alright, enough of this. Who is this boy?" A grey-haired Elder asked from his seat by the human Elder, which was at the far end of the table. The derision on "boy" made the inner authority-hating brat part of me perk up and the thousands of years-old part of me snarl in anger at the disrespect.

I stood up and crossed my arms, jutting my hip out and raising an eyebrow at the bitchy man. His green eye were beady at the way they stared at my sexy outfit, a curl of his lips revealing the disgust he felt.

"This boy, as you say, is thousands of years old your senior. And I certainly wouldn't be speaking to me the way you are if you knew exactly who I am," I told him with a sneer. He raised an unimpressed eyebrow at my tone, leaning back in his chair.

"Charlie," Aras, the werewolf elder said in a warm, but weary tone of voice. I watched as the scowly man's face turns pale at the name, and I turned to Aras. He smiled, his brown eyes sparkling and his weary face lighting up at my attention. "It's so good to see you, Charlie." I relaxed and smiled as well.

"Aras. You were in your teens the last I saw you. How's your pack?" I made conversation, enjoying the way the other elders didnt't care except for the indignant straightening of shoulders that Scowly made.

Aras huffed, his brown and thinning hair shifting as he shook his head at my antics, which he recognized easily. "They're good. I heard you visited Vizin and his ilk recently. Have any fun?"

I laughed brightly. "Oh, lots! His twins have had their first kid, and their mate is a cat shifter that-"

Someone cleared their throat. I turned to the vampire Elder, Alvira, who looked at me impassively. I held in my smile, respecting her ability to separate business from personal opinion, and in this case, keeping her personal dislike for me by shoving it away.

"We summoned you here for a reason, Charlie. Sal'gamath tells us that you were present the last time something unknown was inhabiting the Earth and we need your assistance in taking care of it," she said monotonously. Her words caused my confident posture to slacken and the blood from my face to drop to my abdomen. The sting of betrayal made me whip my head to Sal to confront her about telling others about-

She was frowning and looking at Alvira. "You certainly didn't need bring it up like that, Alvira," she admonished. She looked at me with a sympathetic expression. "I didn't tell them your personal history, just that you were here around that time. Maybe you can shed some light on what-"

My face flushed. "Absolutely not! That's not what's happening here. You had no right to tell them about me!" I yelled at her. "It's impossible for what happened last time to be happening now. The man who knew about what he was doing is dead now. That's all there is to it. I don't even know the specifics." Sal sighed and covered her face at being confronted with my temper.

This conversation acutely reminded me of the one that I was having with Blanche before. Just as I had this thought, I whirled around to face her and saw her discomfited expression, which was proof enough.

"And you! You're helping these bastards! I thought we were friends!" I snapped at her, feeling my red eyes glowing with my anger and my fangs trying to push further out of my gums.

Her green eyes widened and she stepped forward as if to touch me. "This situation is bigger than me! Of course I went to the Council with it!"

I stepped back. "Taking it to the Council isn't the issue here and you know it! It's about bringing me into it. You know I just want to be left alone!"

"ENOUGH!" The shout made me startle and face Sal, who was standing up with her hands flat on the table from where she slammed them.

"Charlie, she's just trying to find a way to fix this situation. People are dying. Innocent people. And you are the oldest person in this room," she said calmly, the black of her eyes boring into me. A scoff from next to me reminded me that Kolgoth was still around. I turned to him and glared.

He eyed me. "You're telling me this cutie is older than you, Sal?" He drawled. Sal took a deep breath.

"Yes. Charlie is 4,869 years old."

"How-fucking-dare you, Sal! I told you that in confidence!" I screamed at her. Her eyes widened and she glared.

"Don't you dare speak that way to me! There are so few of those left from that time that it's imperative that we speak to those who can help-"

"I don't want to help, Sal! Why can't you understand this?!"

"You are so fucking selfish, Charlie!" She shouted back at me.

Kolgoth was crouched at my side, staring at something on my side. "Nearly 5,000 years old? This ass?" He murmured as he turned from my side to my backside. He cupped my ass and I absently swatted his hands away.

"I'm selfish?! If I was so fucking selfish then I would have killed myself years ago you bitch! I'm sure there's others who are perfectly fine to help out of the kindness of their hearts if that's what you want so badly!" I yelled and stomped my foot. The rest of the Council was watching us yell back and forth like it was tennis.

"We haven't found anyone older than me and I'm more than 1000 years younger than you! Why can't you just-"

Kolgoth hummed from behind me. "Where are you from?" He asked politely. Out of reflex from such a polite question, I answered him.

"Egypt."

He hummed again. "Really? You're so white."

I nodded. "I'm a vampire so I would've been really pale from that, but I was albino so I became even paler."

He nodded, sagely. "I see."

"STOP FUCKING IGNORING ME!" Sal screamed, and threw her mug at me. My eyes widened and I ducked, letting the mug hit the nose of Kolgoth, who yelped and held his nose which started bleeding.

"You psychotic bitch!" He screamed at her.

A tsk left my mouth. "That's not how you talk to your mother." He glared at me.

"She's not my mother, she just found me and decided to look after me like I was some stray dog."

I nodded sagely. "Ah, she did that to me too. In my case, though, I didn't really know what I was at the time. Not nearly as many supernaturals around that time, and those that were around tended to die pretty quickly." He made an "ah" motion with his mouth and didn't ask another question so I turned back to Sal. The Fae Elder was rubbing Sal's back as she downed a glass of what looked to be some green drink. The smoke coming from it told me it was some magical concoction, like a calming drought or some kind of magical rum. Probably the rum.

"Perhaps we should get back to the matter at hand," the Dwarf Elder, Gavaic said gruffly, his brownish-orangish eyes glimmering. My eyes flicked from his left hand, or lack-thereof, and back to his eyes, which seemed be scanning the room for reaction to his pun. James barked out a laugh from behind me and everybody looked at him, to which he coughed and shuffled closer to Blanche. Gavaic's Second that I didn't recognize, closed her eyes and sighed. The joking atmosphere faltered and dissipated at the next words.

"So little is known about the events that occurred during the Thinite Period. It's not quite as chaotic as the Intermediate Periods between the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, but nobody knows much about it and historians aren't sure what to think of it. Some have even gone as far to describe it as a dark period. They can't even decide on who the first pharaoh was, with such few things left over," The Siren Elder murmured in her scratchy voice, her face as blank as her tone of voice. "You have not even told Sal'gamath what occurred to you then. Our records, as well as our Mermaid cousins' records, do not go back that far. We have not found one person who was in the area at the time. You are our only option."

Silence permeated the room after she finished. I shifted uncomfortably at the stares that everybody directed towards me. I sighed and rubbed my eyes.

Dry, sweltering heat permeating the rough cloak covering my pale skin. Burning, shifting sands beneath my feet. My hand being traded from a rough hand to the grasp of a soft, un-calloused hand which was then pressed by a pair of lips pulled into a smirk-

"Fine. Whatever," I snapped at them. I flopped onto the floor with my legs crossed under me to get comfortable. Blanche sighed in relief behind me, and more than one Elder slumped in their chairs. Oralis's blue eyes shimmered in excitement at finally knowing something more than the crumbs I fed him of my past. I pointed at my eyes and pointed to Sal's eyes. "And just so we're clear, you're getting the bare minimum. The Bare. Fucking. Minimum." A knot formed in my throat.

I settled in to speak. 

»»——⍟——««

A/N: I don't have an excuse for such a late update. I lost the direction I had for it, and I'm finding it really difficult to write in first person. I also switched from present-tense to past-tense after writing it, so I went back to edit it, but please let me know if you find any discrepancies. Thanks for sticking with me for this., as well as reminding me to update. I hope you all enjoy it. -RiddleMeNero