EPILOGUE: Same As It Ever Was

Uneventful.

That had been my last two days since I dropped out of the hunt for the Sins.

Being outside in the cool breeze and in the light of the sun, with Hellie, felt refreshingly ordinary.

The campus grounds had some movement for the weekend—artists sketching, couples walking, and plenty sitting around with laptops or books.

Overall, the vibe was serene.

Experiencing the calm made it hard to believe that The Order of the Eternal Night was out there, waiting to get their supposed Tome.

And even more freaking unbelievable… the embodiments of sin were walking my campus.

I didn’t kid myself about the inevitability of facing them.

There were too many unknowns.

Would they attack me again? How long would Gluttony satiate Hellie’s hunger? Would she defy my wish not to hunt?

But I’d made a hard choice to only cross those bridges when the time came.

As of now, I’d already washed my hands of the whole doomsday scenario.

My mental fatigue was nearly gone and so were the nightmares.

Best of all, instead of worrying, I was enjoying time with my friends.

Jammer and Myles joined us on our walk.

It was Jammer’s idea.

She was hoping it would help ease Myles into being around Hellie.

He was still weird about Hellie being a supernatural creature and had basically holed himself in his room to avoid her.

It took Jammer more than a little convincing to get him to tag along, but he caved.

Through half of our walk, he looked tense—ready to break out in a sweat.

I thought it was because of his fears, but it turned out it was because I had Hellie attached to a leash.

He nervously suggested several times to unhook her.

It drew stares, and he wasn’t comfortable with that.

I knew how strange it looked, but I told him it kept her grounded.

Jammer even chimed in and said, “It’s like her emotional support blanket.”

After which, thankfully, he dropped it.

We walked for a while, joking, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company.

Lost in conversation, we accidentally waltzed into undesirable campus territory—just outside of the practice fields.

We would have bypassed the whole scene if we had been paying attention.

But we were too caught up, Myles dropped his guard, Jammer held Hellie’s leash, and I was content talking about anything other than the massacre.

Thwap.

Suddenly, out of nowhere and in quick succession, I saw Myles’s face twist with horror right as Jammer lost hold of the leash, and Hellie violently snapped in his direction.

I pivoted swiftly to see Myles on the ground, looking up at Hellie.

“What the shit!!!”

Myles’s voice rumbled.

Hellie turned to face me, and she had something in her mouth.

“Drop it, girl.”

A baseball fell out of her mouth in between Myles’ legs.

He reached over, picked up the ball, and stood up, charged with venom.

Then, not knowing who was responsible, he shouted, “You stupid bastards. This almost hit my friend!”

A small group of female baseball players approached us.

I immediately gripped Hellie’s chain and thought, No!

They were wearing matching uniforms—white V-neck varsity tees with red sleeves. The white trim in their red shorts matched the white trim in their red tube socks.

We must have wandered by the women’s baseball team’s scrimmage.

Hearing Myles’s words killed their apologetic body language.

Daryl McCain, team captain, stepped out from behind the girls. She was distinctly different, cut but skinny.

She wore an oversized, unbuttoned jersey over her tee with her ball cap turned backward.

I knew about her from her rep on campus.

She was a fantastic illustrator and a star baseball player.

Although she exuded male energy, she identified as female.

She was on the level with the Nameless One as an A.P.W.D.F.W—a person we don’t f#@k with.

“I think you owe my friends and me an apology, Lil guy,” said Daryl in a friendly but aggressive tone—all smiles and chewing gum.

Daryl may have been apt in her description.

Myles stepped out in front of us to meet her and had to look up several inches to lock eyes with her. Firm in his conviction, he continued to dig a proverbial rabbit hole. Jammer and I stood stunned.

“You’re kidding me, right? Your damn almost ball hit me.”

“We walked over here to tell you it was our bad but calling us a filthy word reserved for men, that’s not working for any of us!”

“Bastard is a gender-neutral word. But yeah, I did assume dudes were….”

“Dudes!!! It’s obvious we’re women, jerk.” Daryl was no longer smiling or chewing gum.

All the women groaned at Myles’s unnecessary confession, and tension escalated quickly.

Keen at sussing danger, I fixated on a short-haired girl in the back, twisting her hands tightly around a bat.

I swear it was giving me Campus Slugger vibes.

Sneakily, I tugged at Myles’s coat.

It was beyond time to get out of there, but he ignored my warning.

“I know it’s obvious. I mean, you all have on girl softball uniforms, but….”

Myles would not shut up.

The baseball players, obviously annoyed by the softball comment, started pushing forward, which made Hellie tense.

Then, Daryl extended her arms and acted as a barrier; without words, she reinforced her leadership and let her team know she had this under control.

“Softball. Does that look like a freaking softball? Throw me our freaking baseball. I am ending this before we have to kick your ass.”

With his next action, Myles hit rock bottom of the rabbit hole. He leaned down and rolled the ball to Daryl.

In a flash, immediately after the ball had left his hand, Daryl scooped it up.

“I should ram this baseball down your freaking throat,” she said, pushing the baseball toward Myles’s face.

An audible hard smack jolted everyone.

Hellie had moved freakishly fast in front of Myles and palmed the ball Daryl threatened Myles with.

The two of them stood with eyes locked.

My thoughts were pouring into Hellie… Don’t make any moves!

All the girls stood ready, eager to hear their captain give them the word to fight.

“Hi, Daryl. Billy Bramwell-Gates. Nice to meet you. Please forgive Hellie. She is very protective of my friends.”

“This is unlike her.” Jammer quipped a truthful statement.

“Mr. Bramwell-Gates didn’t see you. Tunnel vision when I’m on the offensive.”

Daryl let go of the ball, and I sent a mental command for Hellie to back down. After a moment, she did.

“You know of me,” I said, never taking my eyes off Daryl.

“Hell yeah, you have that channel. It’s Magic! I Ain’t Gotta Explain Sh#t and your family owns this campus.”

Daryl was back to smiling and chewing her gum.

“Is the girl on a leash part of your magic act?”

“Not exactly.”

There was a surprised look on Daryl’s face. She side-eyed her teammates.

I seriously couldn’t tell if she was keeping them at bay or about to rile them up. I’m almost certain Jammer was reading the same as me because she offered them our trump card.

“Hellie is part of Billy’s social experiment project. Show her your card.”

Hellie never took her eyes off Daryl as I fumbled for my wallet.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m good. She looks cute on a leash.”

“Umm, look, we’re sorry for this… let me apologize for them. Hellie, give her the ball”

“No need,” Daryl returned to the group and continued, “Looking forward to seeing the next episode of It’s Magic.”

The girls laughed and moved on.

A collective relief washed over us.

“What the heck was that?”

Hellie turned to Myles and gave him the ball.

Jammer exhaled, saying, “Myles, I think you made a new friend.”

Myles smiled, twisted the baseball in his hand, and asked if he could play catch with Hellie when we returned home.

“Hell yeah, you can,” I said, smiling back.

BOOK II Coming Soon