“I guess I should be glad that you didn’t show up with a black rose,” I told him morbidly and shook my head. “There’s no way I can eat anything this morning.”
“I figured,” He admitted opening the fridge. “That’s why it’s dinner for when this is over. We’ll just pop it in the oven for a half hour and then we’ll be able to have a celebratory meal.”
“Right.” I grunted and sat down at the rickety kitchen table.
“Hey, you’ll be fine. Just trust me, I wouldn’t let you go up against him if I didn’t think you’d win. I would’ve found some other loophole and gotten you out of it.” He gave a small, sly smile. “Even if it meant giving up my own soul.”
“Why now?” I asked him. The confusion was strewn across his face.
“Why now what?” He questioned.
“Why me? Surely I’m not the only person who Sikal tricked into losing the challenge. Why didn’t you tell one of the others about the loophole? Get them to face him?” I had been thinking about this for a couple of days now.
“I tried with one person before you but they were too afraid of Sikal. Everyone else I’ve met withstood his illusions.” Drew said shrugging.
“Oh.” I told him surprised. I don’t know what I had been thinking, but I wasn’t expecting the answer to be so simple.
“Your up. Ready to do this thing?” He asked him, heading for the door.
“As ready as I guess I’m ever going to be in this lifetime.” I told him shrugging and sighing.
“You’ll do great.”
We walked out of the apartment building and around to the alley way. Sikal was already there and smirking. I could tell that he was sure he would be walking away with my soul today. In his mind, he had already won this battle.
“I’m surprised you even bothered to show up Miss.” He said to me with a cocky attitude. He didn’t know it then, but his arrogance was just fueling me. My adrenaline was coursing through my veins like a bullet train in Europe. I would be ready to take him out in no time. I just had to wait until the battle officially started.
“The pleasure’s all mine.” I assured him narrowing my eyes.
“This is Tismen; he’ll be judging the battle today.” Sikal said as a stout little man stepped out from behind him.
“And this,” I said gesturing towards Drew. “Is…”
“Lady Anilesa.” Drew jumped in. “She’ll also be judging the competition today.”
I didn’t know who Lady Anilesa was, but I could tell that she must be one of the good guys just from looking at her. She was wearing a soft blue fuzzy sweater with black slacks. Her skin was pale white and her hair was a light auburn like the autumn leaves when they first start to turn colors and fall off the trees. She gave me a supporting smile and sat down on a nearby discarded lawn chair. Tismen pulled up a broken bench piece and sat down beside her. They exchanged some words, but spoke too softly for anyone else to hear.
“Is everyone ready?” Tismen asked.” We both nodded from our respective corners.
“Then the battle officially begins…” Lady Anilesa said as Drew gave a quiet drum roll behind me. “Now!”
Anthromagic by Crystal and Pamela MacLean is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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