Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

  Almost time…

  The day after me and Eva’s wild rooftop chase, I found myself sitting at my desk during the final class of the day, squirming restlessly and eyeballing the wall clock above the whiteboard. The clock’s hands were slowly ticking closer to the final bell, and anxiety was starting to build with each passing second.

  Why do I feel so nervous?

  After talking with the private investigator the night before, Eva and I returned to the warehouse and filled Mizuki in on the situation. She was furious and insisted on coming with us to the meeting Eva was planning with Raven. She wasn’t about to take no for an answer, so I agreed, and the three of us called it a night. I headed back to my apartment, only to find out that the school’s staff had called mom and told her about my skirmish with the rugby team. Thankfully, though, mom knew better than to believe I’d randomly picked a fight with a group of jacked up jocks. She was mad, but that anger was directed at my attackers rather than me.

  Although, she did berate me for coming back to the apartment reeking of garbage. But considering how exhausting the prospect of explaining to mom that I’d fallen off the side of a building and into a dumpster sounded, I was fine with just accepting the tongue lashing.

  You win some, you lose some.

  Before I’d gone to sleep (and after a much-needed shower), Eva forwarded me a conversation between the “investigator” and Raven. In said conversation, the meeting spot for the next night was set: an old, abandoned shopping mall that was marked for impending demolition.

  Now I sat waiting for school to come to an end so I could regroup with Mizuki and Eva before we would be on our way to surprise Raven in place of the P.I. she’d hired.

  For some reason, something about the idea of Eva’s plan gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. There wasn’t a singular reason why that I could put my finger on, but it didn’t take a genius to realize the friction that already existed between Raven and my friends would surely worsen when she realized that she was deceived. Especially considering that I would be in on the whole thing as well. But to be fair, I was well within my right to trick someone who was spying on me without my consent.

  But would she see it the same way?

  Doubtful.

  Riiiiiiinnnng!

  The final bell sounded, and the class quickly emptied into the halls. Thanks to the presence of Raven’s bodyguards, our classmates were far too intimidated to harass me or crowd around her, though they still glared at me and admired her from afar. Annoying, but a vast improvement over the last few days.

  Raven and I were the last to exit the room, and as we slowly walked up the halls, she turned to me.

  “I was hoping I could have you over at my place again tonight, but an appointment came up.”

  I played dumb and asked, “an appointment?”

  “Yes, and I can’t afford to miss it. Maybe you could come over tomorrow night instead?”

  “Yeah, that sounds fine. Good luck with your appointment.”

  “Thank you, Shinsuke.” She smiled and signaled for her bodyguards. She stopped at the entrance to wave to me one more time before leaving the building.

  As soon as she was out of eyeshot, I made my way to the drama clubroom where Mizuki and Eva were waiting for me.

  “Did she leave?” Eva asked.

  “Yeah, she’s on the way to her ‘appointment’”.

  “Perfect. Then we have no time to waste.”

  Just like Mizuki and I had done the day before, the three of us scoured the clubroom’s costume stash for wigs. Mizuki and I opted for the same disguises we used before, but I had to talk Eva out of wearing a ridiculous clown wig. Once she finally got serious, she chose a mane of long black hair, and we made our way out of St. Cirelia.

  Though fewer in number and a bit tamer than the last few days, the paparazzi still tailed me from my apartment to school. Since we had given them the slip a few times, I suspected they were trying to lay off a bit in the hope that I would let down my guard and they could catch me with Raven again. Some of them had likely tried to follow Raven as she left, and I knew they’d be waiting outside for me, too. Thankfully, the disguises worked again, and we were able to exit the school unnoticed and free of any tails as far as I could tell.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  With her head start, Raven would definitely make it to the meeting place before us. But Eva assured me that was exactly what she wanted.

  ***

  We rode the train to the stop nearest to our destination and then made our way to the abandoned shopping mall. At Eva’s request, we circled the perimeter of the mall first, scouting for any paparazzi or other prying eyes, but didn’t find any. The otherwise empty parking lot did contain a single, dark vehicle that we guessed belonged to Raven and her bodyguards. With the area cleared, we crept into the mall through a door at the rear loading dock.

  “Try not to make any noise. The sound will travel far in here,” Eva whispered.

  Mizuki and I nodded and followed her through the derelict backrooms of the building.

  She eventually paused in front of a door and said, “I told her to meet me by the fountain in the middle of the main shopping area, so we should head out this door here.”

  She gently pushed open the door and we stepped through and into the main mall area. Eva had us crouch walk carefully as we proceeded towards the center of the shopping complex.

  “Stop,” she whispered, her arm outstretched to bar us from proceeding. She motioned upward and I spotted a few of Raven’s bodyguards patrolling the upper floor.

  “What do we do?” I asked.

  “You two wait here,” Eva replied, taking off in a crouch run before either of us could reply.

  The crazy pink haired girl took cover beneath a market stall until the guards above looked the other way. When their cone of vision was away from her, she scaled the stall with ease and used a spell to launch herself up to the second floor. I heard a few muffled masculine grunts and thuds, then Eva leapt back down to us.

  I questioned her with my eyes, and she replied, “they’re taking a little nap now. Let’s keep going.”

  Mizuki and I shook our bewilderment and kept following until the fountain was in sight. There, sitting on a bench in front of the mall’s nonfunctional centerpiece was Raven.

  Eva stood up and signaled for me and Mizuki to do the same. Raven’s focus was on her phone, but she quickly noticed our movement through her peripheral vision. Her amethyst eyes magnified when she spotted us.

  “Shinsuke?” she questioned.

  “Don’t forget about us!” Eva added tartly.

  Raven looked to her sides and behind us, her expression riddled with confusion and apprehension. “What’s going on?”

  “Your private investigator got the runs, so I decided to take over his duties for him!” Eva quipped.

  The actress looked even more confused, but it was clear that her puzzlement was converting to irritation.

  “You look a little lost over there. Here, let me help you figure it out.”

  Eva pulled out the private investigator’s phone and held it up to Raven.

  The actress gasped and blurted, “I don’t understand. What is this about?”

  “Answers and an ultimatum. First things first, I want to know why you had an investigator tailing Shinsuke.”

  The shock slowly faded from Raven’s face, and she began to grow visibly furious. The intensity of the glare she levied at Eva sent a chill down my spine.

  There’s that feeling again…

  She stayed quiet, her eyes scanning the area once more.

  “If you’re looking for your bodyguards, they fell asleep on the job,” Eva informed her. “Now, answer the question.”

  “I already told you. I’m in love with Shinsuke. I just…wanted to know more about him.”

  “Nah, you’re just a creepy ass stalker.”

  “What?” Raven almost gasped.

  “What you’re doing is stalking him,” Eva asserted. “Pretty ironic considering all those interviews you did talking about the creeps and stalkers you’ve dealt with. Yet here you are, the biggest creep of them all.”

  Raven shot up to her feet, the force of her motion causing the bench to incessantly scrape backwards against the floor. “Shut up! You don’t know a single thing about how I feel. I’m not stalking him!”

  Eva shrugged and waved the phone around. “I really don’t care how you justify it. Here’s the ultimatum: this phone is a goldmine of evidence, and I’m sure the media would love to get their hands on it. If you don’t knock it off, I’d be happy to give it to them.”

  Raven ground her teeth, seething so hard I could swear I saw steam billowing from her mouth with every exhale.

  “What’s it gonna be?” Eva pressed.

  Tension hung heavily in an air of uneasy silence, and neither one of the two girls budged. I swallowed hard, anxiously awaiting some kind of response from Raven, but it seemed that my gulp—which would have been soundless in any other environment—had been loud enough to draw the actress’ attention to me. She set her eyes upon me, her expression softening into a nervous smile.

  “Shinsuke, please help me,” she pleaded.

  I didn’t know what to say, let alone what to do. The genuinely helpless look in her eyes disarmed me and left me feeling both inexplicably guilty and deeply uncomfortable. There was no answer that felt like the right one, so I kept my mouth shut and clutched my arm, my gaze falling away from hers.

  “Shinsuke…” I heard her call, her tone just above a whisper.

  I looked back at her to find she was no longer looking at me but was instead glaring at Eva once more.

  “This is your fault! You turned Shinsuke against me!” she exploded, her voice breaking into a higher pitch.

  Eva fixed her lips to speak, but the sound of glass breaking took her attention first, along with my own and Mizuki’s. The smartphone in Eva’s hand had been run through with an ice shard, and the screen was now a cracked, sparking mess. And before any of us could react to that, another sound stole our attention. This time it was the unmistakable wet, squish of pierced flesh. It was another ice shard, this time lodged in Eva’s abdomen.

  “Eva!” Mizuki and I gasped.

  She slowly arced her neck, setting her blue eyes upon the shard impaling her flesh. She studied the stream of crimson flowing out first with shock, then with delight.

  “Oh, okay,” she snickered.

  “Eva, are you—”

  “Mmhm.”

  She replied curtly, unconcerned with my worry. Her focus was on her attacker, who stood across from her, a cold mist dissipating from the outstretched hand she’d used to launch the icy projectiles at her.

  Eva dropped the now destroyed phone and pulled the shard out of her abdomen like it was nothing. A translucent orb appeared over the wound, healing it instantly as she said, “you just made a big mistake, bitch.”

  A dark, choking energy was emanating from Raven, and it took only one glance at both her and Eva to know what was about to happen next.

  Without hesitation, I grabbed Mizuki’s hand and bolted into one of the nearby derelict stores.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Getting us the hell out of the way. This is about to get really bad.”