The silence that followed stretched uncomfortably long between them.
The girl—Mira, I had learned—looked about my age. Maybe a little older.And unlike Daniel Yellow, she actually looked put together.
Unlike me.
"The boy…" Daniel finally spoke again.
His voice was careful—yet strangely relaxed now, compared to earlier, when he had dragged me into her apartment like a criminal accomplice. The tension had left his shoulders. He no longer looked like a vigilante on edge.
"He… died?" The words sounded uncertain even to him. In truth, I wasn't sure either.
All I really remembered was the argument with my stepmother. Storming out.
Then stumbling into Daniel fighting some… woman.
He had called it a spirit.
It looked like a woman. At least at first.
I had assumed it was a woman.
Something in me had felt heroic. I jumped in. I thought Daniel was attacking a helpless young lady. The next thing I knew, she had impaled me with claws and ripped me open.
Daniel saw me die. —I felt myself die.
The spirit fled. Daniel stayed by me, cradling my half dead body of a corpse.
My blood hot and slippery against his leg as he tried—really tried—to keep me alive. He kept telling me it would be okay.
That I would be fine.
But unfortunately my eyes had felt impossibly heavy then they ever could.
Every word he said made something swell painfully in my chest.
I hadn't even apologized to my stepmother. I hadn't said goodbye to my little star. I had promised to take her to the zoo.
Dying didn't frighten me.
What terrified me was them finding out. She wouldn't be able to handle it. Not another death in the family at least. —That was all I could think about.
Daniel kept trying.
And God… everything felt warmand cold all at once.The memories still felt fresh.
Too fresh. I could still feel myself lying there.
And then—I shook my head. Mira's eyes had finally settled on me.This time, properly.Her sharp blue gaze narrowed slightly. "I don't sense any magic," she blurted out.
Daniel nodded slowly. "Yeah. Me neither." He sounded just as confused as I felt.
When that strange light had appeared earlier—when some translucent projection of a clock had spun backward and my wounds had sealed themselves shut—he'd looked exactly like this.
That was the moment he had decided to bring me here.
To her.
"The boy died, Mira," Daniel said quietly.
"I saw it. And then… he came back."
Mira stepped closer. Then she began to circle me. Slowly. Like a lion pacing its prey. Watching.
"Hm," she hummed. "Interesting." Her heels echoed softly with every step. After a long moment, she stopped directly behind me.
At first, I felt nothing.
Just the awareness of her presence. I knew she was there because I had seen her move there. —I glanced toward Daniel.He still stood where he had been, watching me.
When our eyes met, he blinked slowly.
Not quite a nod.
I couldn't tell whether it was meant for me…
Or for her.
I had no idea what was happening.
My skin felt tight.
Wrong.
Elastic.
Then—suddenly—Fear. Not normal fear. Not panic.
Something sharp and instinctive, like my body had flipped a switch I didn't know I possessed.
Fight—Flight—Both. At once.
The sound of Mira's heel clicking against the marble snapped me back into myself.
I blinked.
My arm was extended.
Palm flat.
Fingers aligned like a blade.
A hair's breadth from where she stood.
She had moved.
Her head tilted back slightly. One leg slid behind the other—the one that had made the sound.
"I…" was all I managed.
My muscles refused to relax.
Mira smiled. Small as it was it was satisfied. "Good," she said quietly. "Very good." What did she do to me?
Daniel let out a soft, amused chuckle behind me."Well, Randy," he said lightly, "you made the impossible happen."
I realized I had turned around without noticing. My feet were planted wide apart.
Balanced. And Ready. "You made evil smile." My frown wasn't anger.
It was confusion. I wanted to ask what she had done to me. I wanted to tell her never to do it again. But when I looked at her—Her eyes caught me.
Electric blue.
Like thunder beneath a clear sky. A sharp contrast against her warm, golden-brown skin and dark hair.
Bluer than Daniel's.
Clearer.
But harder than my own.
My face relaxed before I could stop it. My hand trembled once.Then dropped uselessly to my side. My legs drew closer together.
Serenity washed over me.
"Don't do that again," I said quietly. I was surprised by how steady my voice sounded.
Her smile widened. This time, it reached her eyes.
"Wow. Creepy," Daniel muttered. Mira shot him a half glance. Unbothered.
"There is something a kin to magic," she said calmly. "Dormant—but present."
It sounded like a conclusion.
Daniel stiffened. Especially at her. Whatever she had found, it clearly wasn't what he wanted. They continued talking.
Not to me. But around me.
"This isn't good," Daniel muttered.
"The Temple—" He stopped himself.
The Temple?
Who were they?
I had so many questions. But where did I even start? I had died a few hours ago.
I could still remember the feeling of my body being torn open.
Even now—healed—I could still feel it.
"They won't," Mira said quietly. Her eyes rested on me. Not Daniel. "I can't promise you perfect protection. But I will do my best."
Daniel exhaled.
Slow.
Relieved.
When I had woken earlier, he had told me about the light.
About demons. —About spirits that fed on humans. About Mira. A promising young witch. He had made her sound like an ancient crone who knew everything.
Not… this. Not a sharp-tongued woman with tired eyes and strange calm. She wasn't what I expected. But apparently, she was meant to keep me safe. From something.
"Hold on," Mira said suddenly. She left the living room and disappeared down the hallway.
The tension in my shoulders collapsed the second she was gone.
I turned to Daniel.
"What is going on?" I blurted.
"Who is she? And—what did she do to me earlier?" Daniel slipped his arms back into his trench coat. "Hm? Mira?" he said casually. "She's a witch. She'll help you. Stay close to her." That was it.
"Far better than I can," he added.
Her heels tapped again.
She returned holding a square of silky green chiffon.
"Here." She pressed it gently into my palm. Inside, something cool and solid rested. I unfolded the cloth. A smooth jade pendant lay in the center.
Perfectly cut.—Simple.
"For protection," she said.
"Try to stay safe."she encouraged.
Before I could respond—She opened the door. And pushed both of us out. Now Daniel and I stood awkwardly inside the lift. The doors slid shut. My fingers rubbed the flat surface of the jade.
"Magic…" Daniel murmured to himself. His voice hooking on the silence of the metal box we were descending upon
"Randy," he said quietly, still half lost in thought.
"Whatever you do… don't let anyone see you afraid. They're leeches."
I didn't know what that meant. But I nodded. "Yeah. I'll do that." That tight feeling returned. My fingers tapped nervously against the necklace.
My other hand drifted to my chest. To the place where that thing had torn me open. The skin was perfect. Not even a scar.
I died.—And I lived.
"You'll be fine," Daniel said suddenly.
"She'll help you. And so will I." The words barely cut through my thoughts.
"So… Mr. Yellow," I said awkwardly, "when you said magic earlier… do you mean, like… Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo magic? Or magical-girl magic?"
No answer, he walked toward his car. Silent. Thinking. I could feel the gears in his left brain turn. Finaly after some time he answered me. Walking a distance from the building mora lived in. "The kind that makes you sick," he finally said. "The kind that hurts." He stopped and turned to face me.
"The kind that breaks a man's ego. His soul. His joy." He looked straight at me. At my soul. "Don't get involved in the occult. The mystic. Or the super."
I nodded immediately. "Yeah. I won't." Just to make him stop looking at me like that.
"And don't get too caught up in Mira," he added. That caught my attention.
"Because she's evil?" I asked flatly, throwing his words back at him.
"No," he corrected.
"Because she's a witch."
That… didn't help.
"And you called yourself a magician when we met," I said. He nodded. Already drifting away again. Towards his car, I watched him walk to the driver's side.
I couldn't help drifting my eyes toward the hollow streets of New Bethlehem—still alive even at two in the morning.
It wouldn't be New Bethlehem if the nightlife wasn't spectacular. Clubs. Crime and people. Oh—and Phantom. And his sidekicks
"How is a necklace supposed to help me?" I finally broke the silence as we turned onto White Lady Road.
"It's enchanted," Daniel replied, eyes fixed on the street ahead. "It hides your whereabouts. Just in case that thing comes back."
"So… I'm already involved?"
I really hoped not. I didn't want to drag this back to my family.
"If it didn't see you heal earlier," he said, "then no."
His answers felt clipped—like the end of a sentence that never bothered to become a full one. He never gave more than he absolutely had to.
"…Mr. Yellow, I—I have a sister. And a stepmother—"
He cut me off immediately. "More reason not to get involved."
The words came out flat.—Final.
I pressed my lips together. It felt like he was projecting something onto me.
Regret, maybe.
I didn't finish the sentence. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was already getting too close.
The car slipped back into silence.
I leaned my head against the window and watched the streets slide past, one glowing block after another.
My thoughts drifted back—again and again—to the moment in the alleys.
My hand tightened over the place where the wound should have been. I felt him glance at me. For a second, I expected comfort.
He looked like the kind of man who would give it. But he didn't. His eyes returned to the road. His mood had shifted after she said it.
That something was there. —Dormant.
Dormant. The word echoed in my head. Something inside me.—Sleeping. The thought made my stomach twist. Was there a way to get rid of it?
The car slowed and came to a stop in front of my building.
"we're here," Daniel said quietly. I was about to jump out, fast, to escape it all. But his words stopped me. " here" he said and when I looked back it was a black business card with contact information on. His name in bold yellow read 'Mr Daniel Yellow'
" a bit clingy, no?" I asked seeing his surname and the colour he chose for the writing. " I calling signature." he simply barged. A hint of that playfulness slightly visible now that i wasn't asking about anything super.
" right, need me to give you a ring or'some," I jokingly said pocketing it in the change of clothes he had given me earlier after I stopped panicking and crying all over him once I heald. " Try not to." he said and I closed his door.
Turning towards my house. Shit, its 2 am. I got school tomorrow. I thought to myself fumbling withe the keys, hearing him drive once I opened the door and walked inside.
But just as I reached down to take off my shose I felt something that made me look up towards the ceiling.
Strangely enough I saw small flash of light disappearing.