Lucas let out a sigh as he paused his video and looked at the time. It was 10:30 pm, and he needed to be up at 6 to get ready for work. He decided to call it a night and placed his phone back on his stand. As he laid there in the darkroom, he began to think. Today has been not as bad as he thought it would be. After shopping and getting home, Martha and their mom showed Amay to her own room. It was a spare bedroom they had for guests, so it worked out perfectly. There was some tension between her and Martha over something stupid, but Lucas didn't pay that much attention to it. Afterward, everyone did their own thing until dinner, which he and Amay worked together on. She knew a lot more than she leads on about.
"Damn, that lemon pepper on baked fish was delicious," Lucas said out loud, wishing he knew about that a lot earlier. Baking fish was never his strongest recipe, and he tried to avoid it as much as possible. Yet, she was a natural at it.
"I might have to trade recipes with her sooner or later." He thought to himself, thinking about all the potential cooking secrets she had.
His mind began to trail off from the food as he thought about his attackers. He kept thinking of how strong they were and how they overpowered him. He held up his hand that held the kitchen knife. With the moonlight, he could make out the tiny scar on his hand. He thought about how he wouldn't have ended up nearly dying or having Amay protecting him if he had the power.
Lucas also thought about that feeling that came over him. It happened with the knife and when he picked up the crowbar. His memory was a little fuzzy from when he held it, but he remembered the feeling. It was warm and energetic. When he snapped out of it, he saw Amay and that guy looking at him with shock. He clenched his fist and took a deep breath, but he felt nothing happen.
"Maybe that's what she meant." Lucas thought about what Amay meant when she said she was curious. He then let out a yawn as his body was ready to clock out. "Maybe tomorrow will be a little better going." His final thoughts as his eyes became heavy and he drifts off to sleep.
As he slept, Lucas felt something heavy was on him, along with the feeling of something watching him. He tried to turn over but found himself unable to move. Whatever it was had him pinned. He suddenly felt something wet drip on his face. He began to wipe away the water and begrudgingly began to open his eyes with a groan. His vision was a little blurry, and he could only make out a shape. The moment his vision cleared, he was frozen in fear and started to breathe heavily.
The sound of a malicious giggle came from Amay as she nearly faced to face with him. She appeared completely different than she did this morning. Her eyes were black with abnormally small red dots for pupils that seemed to pierce through his soul. Her fangs were more defined as two of her top teeth, and two lower ones were much longer than the others. She had one horn on her forward right over her right eyebrow near her scalp, and this caused some of her hair to almost hiding her left eye. Her hair was matted and wet as water dripped from her nose and chin. She had a small smile that grew wide as she realized he was fully awake. Her irises grew to an extreme size as her snake-like pupils pulsated slightly as she focused on him.
Lucas started to make wheezing noises as his fear set in more and more. He was about to let out a scream; however, he stopped when she placed a single finger on his lips and made a shushing motion. She leaned in closer to whisper into his ear.
"You scream, and I will slit your throat," Amay said in a chilling voice that made the hair on the back of Lucas's neck rise.
Lucas could feel her sniffing him and could feel her warm breath on his neck.
"I can smell your blood flowing through you. It smells sweet and delicious. Maybe I should take a small bite." She said, letting out a small chuckle as she moved her lips closer to his neck.
Lucas couldn't move a muscle, yet he didn't take his eyes off of her. He was panicking and breathing very fast and heavy as he prepared himself for the bite. However, Amay suddenly stopped before slowly raising to look down at him. As their eyes made contact with each other, they stared at each other for a brief moment. Lucas was scared to death while the shadow of the night hid Amay's face but allowed her mysterious red eyes to be seen.
She then started to giggle, which soon turned into laughter. Amay was laughing as hard as she could while getting off of him. She rested her back against the wall as her laughter started to die down into a giggle. Lucas just laid there with his eyes still glued to her. He was scared but baffled at what was happening.
"You…..you're not going to kill me?" Lucas finally mustered up his voice to ask as he slowly began to sit up.
"I can't. Our contract, remember." She said in broken giggles while trying to catch her breath.
A small relief filled his body, but the shock was still flowing through him. He just looked at her before getting out of bed. "Just to make sure, you're not going to kill me?" He said with fear in his throat.
"No. I only did it to scare you. And it looked like it worked." She said, giving him a big satisfied smirk.
Lucas had a small smile on his face as he felt himself on the verge of breaking down with both hands still shaking. "Good. Good. I'm gonna go to the bathroom real fast. When I get back, we are going to talk about this and why this can't happen again. Okay?" Lucas said in an oddly calm voice and turned to go to the bathroom, leaving Amay alone in the room.
She stopped giggling the moment he closed the bathroom door and went completely silent for a minute. The grin she gave him slowly faded to reveal her true mask. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she silently began to cry. She slowly cradled herself as she fought to stop her tears, but it was a losing battle.
Finally allowing her emotions to show, Amay slowly laid down facing the wall to hid her weakness just in case he came back. She held herself as she almost curled up in the fetal position. She felt alone and betrayed and fought to wrap her mind around her so-called best friend. She wasn't angry at what Elizabeth did but felt more hurt that she did it. She tried to hold back her weeping as best as she could as she slowly reverted to her human-like form.
"150 years." She whispered and whimpered to herself the number of years she missed. Different thoughts began to go through her mind of things she missed and was left out of. And the fact, she moved on without her.
"How could she? I'm all alone now." She said as more tears fell as she continued to fall apart and accept her emotions.
No more than 15 minutes later, Lucas came out of the bathroom. He finally built up the courage to tell her off, and it was time to do it.
"Amay I-" He raised his voice but quickly stopped when he saw her facing the wall asleep. He could hear her wheezing a little as he got closer to check. He then let out a sigh, unsure of how to feel. He was angry at her, but he was not that angry to disturb her from her sleep.
"Damnit." He said in a low voice while looking at her again. He could not explain it, but for some reason, he felt bad for her. He then saw her shake a little from the cold air. Shaking his head, Lucas took the cover and placed it over Amay so she can sleep better. He then grabbed his spare pillow and silently left the room to grab a throw blanket and crash on the couch.
As the next day approached, Lucas was busy typing at his computer quietly. He was typing up a report for a customer complaint sent directly to him because of the specialty in this certain product. From what he could tell, it was a simple misunderstanding on the customer's part, but somehow they made it grow out of proportion. This was his headache for the last few hours of just trying to get them to follow his directions. The time must have flown by because when he last looked at the clock, it was 9 am, but now it was close to 11 am. After sending one last email, he leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh.
"Each day, I lose faith in humanity." He groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose. His attention then turned to Amay, who quietly sat on his desk, fully invested in a mobile game he showed her. He was still annoyed about last night but was more annoyed at her bugging him about being so bored while he worked. However, seeing her attention be fully taken over by his phone reminded him of how a toddler gets when their parents give them their tablet.
It was as if nothing else mattered in the world except them and their electronics. She didn't take her eyes off of it and occasionally made angry grunts when she lost a battle. She only broke from his phone to ask him questions about certain things or how to unlock his phone because she hit the off button.
"The great power of technology. Able to keep babies and monster girls under its influence." The thought ran through his head and caused him to chuckle a little. He then thought of how that would be a funny show to see play out.
Before he could get any further, he felt something cold touch his face that made him raise up a little out of surprise. His sudden action caught the attention of Amay as well and caused her to sit there silently watching the three that appeared. She quickly backed down after realizing it was the girl from yesterday with two other humans. However, Lucas turned quickly around and let out a sigh as he realized it was his friends.
"You guys really need to stop surprising me like that," Lucas said in a happy but annoyed smile.
"Hey. We get paid to do that." Chris was the first to speak up as he passed Lucas an ice-cold energy drink. "Berry flavored, correct? Also, what's with the glasses and the Bluetooth piece?" he asked.
"Yes, and thank you," Lucas said gladly, taking the drink from Chris's hand. He gladly opened it and swallowed a good amount of it. Because of the sudden rush of the drink, he let out a burp that slightly burI had. "Excuse me for that. This was exactly what I needed. I had a hard time sleeping last night."
"Don't mention it. So about the glasses and earpiece?" Chris reminded him.
"Oh right," Lucas remembered. "After shopping yesterday, I needed to go by the eye doctor. It turns out I need reading glasses for a short amount of time to take a strain off my eyes. The earpiece is because I thought it would look cool with the glasses. What do you think?" he asked, trying to go along with his own lie.
"Makes you look like an old man trapped in a younger, more depressed body," Chris responded, not holding back.
"More like a young Benjamin Button if he was in his 90s still trying to look cool," Joe said, agreeing with Chris.
"It feels like you're going to challenge me to a duel because I insulted your pocket monster collection. At the same time, you're explaining why this anime is better than others." Ann chimed in as both Chris and Joe nodded and told her good job on her comeback.
"Damn. Way to destroy my confidence for the day." Lucas said, chucking at their responses. "I thought I would try something new, and here you all are taking a crap on it. Have you no shame?"
All of them looked at each other for a moment, and for a brief second, they nodded as they came to a group vote.
"No." All three said in unison.
"Oh. Well, fuck." Lucas couldn't help but say since this was a brief moment, they agreed on something together. He could hear Amay giggling at their response. "So, what brings you all by anyway, besides breaking down my self-esteem?"
"Oh right. A little birdy told me you were at the mall. Not just by yourself, but with a girl." Chris said as his smile grew wider. "I just came to say I'm proud of you. I guess you finally listened to my teachings." He said, patting himself on his back.
"Oh? Oh. OOOH." Lucas finally realized what Chris was getting at. He then looked at Ann, who shrugged, sorry to him. "Sorry to break your thoughts, but it wasn't anything like that. I was just helping my mom's friend's daughter out since my mom and sister weren't home at the time. It was strictly platonic."
"Ah. But that's how it always starts, my young friend. You start by helping them out and then after a few more interactions. Next thing you know, you're on your way to 3rd base," Chris said as he made a batting motion. "All you gotta do is play your cards right, my young padawan."
Lucas found himself starting to blush as he fumbled on his words. His eyes looked towards Amay way as he scratched the back of his neck. Amay just looked confused as she didn't quite understand what they were talking about. "I…uh…I don't….know about that." He struggled to get the words out.
"Hey. You don't have to say a word. Just let your body do the work for you. And listen to your heart; It knows what to do.." Chris said he sounded a little choked up as he put his hand over his mouth. He then wiped a nonexistent tear from his eye. "I knew the day would come when I would have this talk with you." He said, almost in tears
Lucas was stuck between trying not to be too embarrassed, not laughing loudly, and utter fear as he could see Ann's hair began to rise. He then watched as Chris got on one knee for a moment and took Lucas's hand.
"I knew this day would come when you would be ready." He said, then placed something in Lucas's hand and then closed it.
"When the time comes, this would be your greatest ally. Lord knows they saved my life a great number of times." He said, patting Lucas's closed hand. "Just use it wisely, my padawan."
Lucas could feel the rough edges of the squishy square in his hand. He had a very lost look on his face as he began screaming intensely in his head. He could see the color leave Chris's face as fear crept over him as a giant shadow loomed over them both. Lucas didn't dare move out of fear of what she would do to him.
"Huh. So this is what true fear is like." Chris said as he felt the sudden jerk in his neck as he was knocked out cold by a small fist. He hit his head a little on the corner of a desk that caused it to shake violently.
"I knew I shouldn't have told you about this!" Ann blurted out as she began to stomp the mess out of Chris. "I swear to God if you gave him what I think you did. I will murder you." Ann said as Joe held her back from injuring Chris, who had proud tears in his eyes.
Lucas just watched as his dysfunctional friends did what they did best. At the same time, Amay was just laughing her ass off at what was happening.
"You have some hilarious friends, Lucas," Amay said, wiping a tear from her eye.
Lucas just watches as the commotion drew the attention of nearly everyone in the office, so he slowly slid the "gift" into his pocket. He then watched as Ann made Chris apologize to him while Joe trying to get them to lower their voice from what it was already.
"Alrighty, that is enough! The show is over with. Everyone get back to work." The annoying voice of Richard, who was huffing and coughing in his 3 piece suit. He was red-faced and covered in sweat as if he ran a marathon. His stomach was visibly expanding and deflating from his heavy breathing. His eyes looked at the 3 and then right at Lucas. "Lulu, why are you disrupting the workflow."
A baffled look came across everyone's face, even Amay at him for wondering why he pointed at Lucas of all people. The office grew silent as everyone was wondering what the hell was wrong with him.
"But….what?!" Lucas said, visibly shocked and confused.
"You heard me. Why are you disrupting my business flow, Mama's boy? Do I need to make you do unpaid overtime for the money we just lost from YOUR commotion?" He said with a smirk on his face while pointing his chubby finger at Lucas.
"Sir. No disrespect, but we were the one causing the disruption." Chris stood up for Lucas.
"Yeah. We were the reason, not him." Ann spoke up as well.
Lucas was going to speak out but remained silent as he heard something that shocked him to his very core.
"Oh then. You're both fired unless Lucas confess." Richard said, looking at them both then showing Lucas a smug grin.
Both Ann and Chris were left speechless at his words. They were so taken back by this sudden action that they were nearly grasping for words. Ann nearly had tears in her eyes, and Chris was balling up his fist with anger. Before anyone could do or say anything, a monotoned voice spoke up.
"I'm sorry for disrupting the office, Mr. Richard. I'll get straight back to work, sir." Lucas said with his head down. This drew the attention of everyone around him. Even Amay couldn't believe it. Chris, Ann, and Joe just looked at him and looked away, feeling guilty and helpless. Chris still had his hand balled up but decided to just walk away angrily towards the bathroom.
A cruel chuckle came from the short whizzing villain as he stepped closer to Lucas. "I accepted your apology and your willingness to stay back another hour to make up for the lost time. Right, momma boy?" he said, pouring salt on Lucas's wounds.
"Yes. Mr. Richard." Lucas defeated answered, clenching up at his words. Every fiber of his body wanted him to take the keyboard he was using and bash that smug mouth of Richard in, but he didn't. Amay was the only one to notice a small spark dance on his hand that quickly went away.
"Why. Thank you, LuLu. As for the rest of you, get back to work." Richard said, waddling away with a victorious laugh.
Ann and Joe watched as he walked away, and both mouthed different words at him. They then turned their attention to Lucas, who had shut himself down. They knew when he went like this; it was best just to leave him alone. Ann felt guilty for getting him in trouble but knew the best thing she could do was let him be. So, they silently left him alone with Amay.
Amay could feel her own blood boil as she remembered dealing with someone similar to that scum. "Trash like that annoys me." She told Lucas, who didn't pay her any attention. "Why didn't you say anything back to him or hit him?" Amay asked Lucas.
Lucas remained silent as he slowly typed on his computer. He did hear her, but he just didn't know what to say. He did wish she would just not bother him and let him work through this day.
"Hey! Did you not hear me? Why didn't you stand up for yourself? Why didn't you tell him off just now?" Amay asked again, leaning in closer to Lucas. She could feel he was trying to ignore her, but she didn't stop.
"So you're just going to shut down after that man said all that stuff about you, threaten YOUR friends, and then embarrassed you right in front of them?" She asked and saw his body tense up from her words. "Tsk. To think Elizabeth would allow you to put up with this mess. I'm surprised she's letting him live after that bullshit. I know I wouldn't."
"She doesn't know." A low whisper came from Lucas.
"She doesn't? Why not?!"
Amay's eyes went wide in shock. She was annoyed that he didn't tell his mother but was wanted to know why. This was also surprising because Elizabeth knew about almost everything.
Her asking why made Lucas stop typing and straightened. He slowly took a deep breath channeling all of his anger back as he turned to look at Amay. Then calmly spoke.
"Because whenever I'm in a problem, do you know who's always there to bail me out of it? My mom. When I was younger, that made sense. However, it didn't stop. Everything I did, every situation or problem I have, she's always there to clean up my mess. You should know how she is since you are her 'best friend,'" Lucas said, almost facing his anger at Amay, who looked back without saying a word. She was wanting to hear him out before saying anything. She did raise an eyebrow when he mentioned her and Elizabeth's friendship.
Lucas then caught himself and looked away from Amay as he felt himself speaking too loudly and didn't want people to get the wrong idea of him talking to himself. So he turned back to the computer, looking at her from the corner of his eye. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to direct my frustration at you. It's just I don't want her solving every problem I have. I want to be able to handle my own problems without her overbearing it." He confessed to her.
"But why do you put up with that mess. I get wanting to do things on your own, but why allow HIM to get away with that." She said, trying to figure out more as this did pick up her interest more.
"Honestly, I want to stand up to him. There's not a moment that doesn't go by where I want to talk back to him or even punch that fat bastard in his face. But I can't." Lucas then paused for a moment as he took in another deep breath. He was trying to find the right words as he listened to his heart a little.
"I don't know why I can't, nor could I explain to you why. I just coward out at the last minute." Lucas said, looking down at his keyboard. "Part of the reason I think I allow myself to do so is that maybe I will stand up and not be afraid to do so. But the part of my that doesn't like confrontation always gets in the way." He said with a heavy sigh.
"Then why don't you just walk away. Last time I remembered, Elizabeth was rich, so you really don't need this job." Amay asked in a calm voice.
"Because I don't want him to have the last laugh or win. If I quiet, it will only prove to him that I am a momma's boy. And that isn't my money, that's hers. Even though she would help me out at any point, I again don't want to rely on her every second. So I want to earn my own. Instead of being her baby boy, I want to be my own person." Lucas said, looking Amay in her eyes.
The moment he said those words, Amay could see it in his eyes. It was almost similar to how his eyes looked that night he saved her. She could see the determination and the will behind them. It was almost like looking in the mirror of her younger self, who was tired of being picked on and wanted to prove them wrong.
"I see." She said out loud and a little taken back.
"He might be weak, but his spirit is strong." She secretly thought to herself as she did respect that about him. She was honestly stunned a little about this.
"Yeah. Sorry for unloading on you like that. It's just I know what it seems like, and I know I need to stand up for myself, but I have to find my own way of doing it." Lucas said, turning back to work on his task.
"No. No. You're fine." She said, still trying to take what he said all in. She then picked up his phone again and tried to get back into the game. After two failed attempts, she let out a frustrated sigh. "Do you mind?" she asked, sliding the phone to Lucas.
"Not at all." He said without looking over, turned his phone on the back, and used his fingerprint to unlock it. He then slid the device back over to Amay. "Just don't spend my coins or make any purchases or turn the volume up any louder." He said with a sigh as he looked at another report.
"I know. I know." Amay said, getting back to her game while he worked. She then felt her heart pump a little as she partly wanted to help him out with this situation. She partly wanted to kill the guy and be done with it, but she felt where Lucas was coming from, wanting to do it on his own. She then recalled a situation similar to his that her uncle offered her some good advice.
"Hey. You can use this if you want to or not, but my uncle once said this to me when I was in a similar situation." She said, not looking up from the phone as she was in the middle of a battle. "When it comes to battles, there are no particular rules outwardly said. However, there are some you can use. The first is knowing your opponent. Find out their flaws and their weaknesses—anything you can use to your advantage. The next thing is to know what you're good at—even the simplest things: using a sword or skipping a stone. Then find a way to use your strength against their weakness. It doesn't matter if it's silly, stupid, or just downright dumb. Whatever you can use to get the upper hand on your opponent, use it-" she said, remembering in great detail what he told her while she used the skills to battle the in-game opponent.
Her words made Lucas stop working and brought his eyes towards Amay. He was listening to every word she said as it kind of resonated in him. She then continued.
"Finally, and this is the most important part, you need to swallow your fears. No matter how scared you feel, you need to push it to the side and show your opponent you're not scared. They will notice that they can't intimate you anymore. Once you use your skills and their weaknesses against them, then you will truly be stronger than them." Amay said with a smile. She remembered her uncle's words helping her beat her own enemies while she finally beat the boss of the game she was having trouble with. She then looked up to see Lucas staring at her with amazement. She could feel herself blush slightly as she avoided eye contact with him. "That's if you want to use it or so. Again it's up to you."
"That's…..I mean….Those are great words." Lucas said, almost lost for words as he felt those words touch him a little. His mind was beginning to move as he was going to use those words.
"Uh… Who are you talking to?"
The sudden voice made Lucas turn around to see Ann standing there, lost and confused about who Lucas was talking to.
"Oh….Uh…" Lucas said, stumbling on his words as he was trying to figure out what to say.
"Oh. Silly me. I forgot you had that ridiculous earpiece in." Ann said, rolling her eyes at herself.
"Yep. Sorry about that. One of the customers gave me some excellent advice, and I zoned out there for a moment. My bad." He said, nervously chuckling. He remembered why his mom told him to take the earpiece and glasses, and it actually works.
"Nice recover," Amay said to him.
"So, what's up?" Lucas said, trying to keep her from asking any more questions.
Oh, right." Ann said, remembering why she came over. "Chris and I wanted to check on you and apologize for what just happened. We did-" she began to continue, but Lucas interrupted her.
"Don't worry about it. You guys did nothing wrong. Dick was, well, an extra small dick again, but I'm fine. I'm just sorry he did that to you two." Lucas said, standing up to look at Ann better.
"Are you sure? We didn't mean-"
"Ann. You guys are fine. You don't have to feel guilty for something you guys didn't do. Like I said, dick was being a dick." Lucas told her again.
"Alrighty then. I just wish someone would put that S.O.B. in his place." Ann said, still annoyed about that whole situation.
"Yeah, me too. You better go before he decides to loop around." Lucas said, trying to shoo her away as an idea came to his mind. "Thank you again, and tell Chris I said thanks as well."
"Oh. Alrighty then." She said, agreeing with him, but did think he was acting weird. "I will check back with you right before I head out." She spoke as she quickly headed back to her cube.
Lucas quickly went back to work and opened a drawer, and pulled out a flash drive. Before making sure the coast was clear, he began to type and open different files. Amay looked at how fast he was moving and was blown away yet lost in what he was doing.
"You're planning something, aren't you?" Amay said as she raised another eyebrow, interest to know what he was doing.
"Not quite. I'm taking your advice, and I'm about to skip a stone and face my fear." He said as his own heart began to pump as he was using his skill in computer technology to see if he could pull up a certain thing.
DING
The sound of his computer made as he realized something important that day that would change everything. He felt a tear of happiness fill his eye as he found what he was looking for and realized he could do so much more now.
Amay watched in wonder as she saw the video play on his computer. Yet, she realized how happy Lucas was as if he found something.
"What's that?"
"This is basically the start of something wonderful." He said, quickly backing out of the tab and recording before anyone else walked by him. The only open tab was his flash drive and the work he needed to do. "Thank you, Amay. You just gave me the key to start a great plan."
"Ooooo. You're living a little." She said as a toothy grin came across her face as her viper-like eyes began to pulsate. "Do tell me more."