Kaia's stomach was growling. Shed eaten every snack she managed to find in Chris's bag, and now was left starving. Not that chips and chocolate chip cookies were that substantial a meal, anyway. They walked until it came close to sunset, until finally Chris turned suddenly, making his way towards a building that wasn't any different from the ones around it. Kaia followed him, slightly apprehensive.

"Is this the place you were talking about?"

"Yep," Chris replied. "This is the one."

"But... there's literally no one here."

"Honey, that's the magic of a good concealing spell, literally." He mocked.

Kaia just rolled her eyes and watched as he knocked on the wall a few time, and suddenly, a door sized hole appeared in the side of the crumbling brick wall. Through it, music, laughter, and the smell of various herbs and flowers hit Kaia like a truck. She stumbled forward, as if she was being pulled in.

"Is it safe?" She asked.

"For me, yes. For you... eh, so-so. But witches aren't exactly violent in nature most of the time, so at worst they'll just ignore you. Come on, now, before this shit closes."

He stepped inside, and Kaia quickly followed, looking over her shoulder to see that the gap had sealed behind her and turned into a normal, red wall. Around her, there were couches splayed out, with people laying on top or on the lush carpets next to them, smoking from devices she only ever saw during the wildest parties. The lights were low and warm, and the music flowing through the air had a vibe of smoothness and sexiness. Speaking of sexiness, in the corner she could see a vampire receiving oral sex from one of the witches.

"Chris!" She gasped. "This place is disgusting!"

"Duh, it's a pit of gluttony and debauchery," Chris said. "... you don't know what brothel means, do you?"

Kaia shook her head.

"... You know what orgy means?"

"Sadly, yes."

"Okay, well it's like that, but classier. And with opiates. Now keep going, we're not here to get fucked, we're here to talk to Sappho."

"Her name is Sappho?"

"I know right!? She may as well have painted 'I'm a lesbian' on her forehead and saved everyone the two seconds of remembering Greek history."

That's not what Kaia meant, but she moved on. "What does she do?"

"Favors, mainly... Not sexual ones. Especially not for me. But if you like her, you could always-"

"God, just stop right there!"

Chris snickered, but didn't continue. They exited the main room, going down a hall before walking through a beaded curtain. Sitting on a throne of pillows cross legged was a short, slender, curly haired Latina. She pushed up her glasses as she leaned forward to light a candle.

"I've been expecting you," she said, her voice graceful, with an intelligent edge to it.

Kaia was taken aback. She'd been taught that witches were merciless and evil, that humanity had ignorantly forgotten about their existence. This put them in even more danger. But this witch was beautiful, graceful, and had a wiseness inside of her deep brown eyes.

"You're new," she said softly. "You had to flee your compound... after finding out about what goes on there. That's who your cursing, correct?"

Well, maybe she was too quick to change her judgement.

"Not exactly," Chris said. "The last thing I want to do is get involved in this any further than I already have. I just want to curse the people who are trying to hunt us down."

"Understandable," said Sappho. "Sit."

Chris plopped back on a pile of pillows, crossing his legs. Kaia sat down slowly and awkwardly, wobbling slightly as sank into them. The witch watched her with an unreadable expression, making her uncomfortable. In one swift motion, she reached towards both of them, plucking a hair from each of their heads.

"OW!" Kaia cried.

"Son of a bitch," Chris grumbled, holding a hand to his head.

"Yes... very interesting..."

"Did you literally do that just to see how we'd react?" Kaia cried out.

"No, though it was very funny," said Sappho. "I like to have pieces of all my clients. That way I can send retribution if I'm not reimbursed."

"Trust me, you'll be reimbursed," said Chris.

"Yes... I can tell... you have the tongue of a snake and the brain of a fox, but you're honest in your business. That's an admirable trait. Now, I'm assuming the ones you want to rain discord upon are the skinwalker's?"

Chris froze.

"I know that your family does not discuss these creatures," said Sappho. "That's not what I'm referring to. A women sent a gang after you... a biker gang. They're called the 'skinwalkers'."

"Donna," Kaia said.

"No... another... I see blonde hair, and lips pursed as if she just ate a key lime pie that doesn't have enough meringue on it."

"Mayor Townsend," Kaia gasped. "She's the one who sent that gang after us?"

"It seems that way... you're directing your anger onto the wrong person. You need to think bigger. Your whole compound has been planted with the black seeds of corruption. They long to overpower us, no matter what it takes."

"Do they succeed?"

"I can only see the past and present, not the future. Now what kind of misfortune would you like to reign down upon them? Would you like them to... be forgotten?"

"Kaia has a thing about killing humans," Chris explained. "So do whatever you can that doesn't involve death or severe injury."

"Speaking of injury... you have wounds. You may want to have those checked out by-"

"Roza," Chris sighed dreamily.

"Yes. You're the Christian she speaks of."

"She talks about me?!"

Sappho sighed. "Like a schoolgirl with a crush. Now, I must call upon Eris- oh Gods, you don't know who Eris is, do you Kaia?"

"Uh.. No?"

Sappho shook her head. "I should have figured. Humans these days, you've all traded cultural studies for learning how to kill. Eris is my mother Goddess, the Greek Goddess of discord. There's actually a myth-"

"Heard it," Chris said. "Let's just get on with the negotiations, shall we?"

Sappho sighed. "Fine. If you want the girl to stay uneducated."

"I've kind of given up at this point." He turned to Kaia, ignoring her sour expression. "Why don't you go to Roza? She's down the hall, first door on the left. She uses shells for her curtain."

Kaia stood up, walking out of the room. She hadn't been too concerned about her wounds, a punch and a minor laceration never killed anyone. She just cleaned her cut and called it a day. However, she was curious about seeing this Roza that seemed to have captured Chris's affections. She walked into the room, pausing for a moment to run her fingers over the shells.

"You like the ocean?" A woman asked, her voice light and feminine with an obvious russian accent. She stepped into Kaia's view, tucking a strand of platinum blonde hair behind her ear.

"Um, yeah..." said Kaia. "Are you Roza?"

"Yes, come in, any friend of Christian's a friend of mine."

"Are you like... his girlfriend?" Kaia asked.

"Gods no... I mean, if he asked," she said. "But I think there are some things from his past that he still needs to... work through before he can be in a serious relationship again. Now, look at your cheek! Gods, that swelling is bad. Let me get you an ice pack."

She was confused by the sudden 180, but decided not to pry. Roza came back a few moments later, a bag of ice cubes in her hand. She covered it in a paper towel before handing it to her. She then leaned down, rolling up Kaia's pant leg.

"You've been taking care of this cut," Roza said with a slight nod of approval. "Let me get you a bandage for that so it heals faster."

"Thanks," Kaia said. "I didn't know.."

"Witches were so nice?" Roza laughed, shaking her head. "And you know witch trials were just humans that were hated by their neighbors, right? It was another excuse for you all to kill each other. Witches wouldn't be able to be stopped by a jury of their peers, I'll say that with confidence."

Kaia frowned. "I get it, I've been brainwashed. I wish you guys would cut me some slack."

"Christian is giving you what I see as tough love," Roza said. "He does care about you and wants you to grow. He just..."

"Is a dick."

Roza laughed. "He's just a complex man, we'll say. Like I said, he has... a lot going on in his life. But it's not my business to tell you."

She dipped the bandages in some kind of liquid before wrapping them around her leg. "Don't worry, it's just healing water. It will help your wound not scar."

"Okay," Kaia said, slightly relieved.

"Roza!"

The voice cut through the moment, and Roza looked up at Chris, smiling. He was hanging in the doorway, a huge grin on his face. Kaia wasn't even sure she'd seen him smile that big since she'd given him a chocolate bar.

"Christian!" Roza said, in an equally cheery voice.

She walked over to him, giving him a hug. Kaia rolled her eyes and looked away as they kissed.

"I knew you'd get out," Roza said. "Belinda wasn't so confident."

"Well, Belinda can blow it out her ass."

Roza chuckled. "There's my Christian."

"I'm gonna go pee," Kaia said, not being able to stand the conversation.

"... Thanks for announcing that," Chris said.

Roza giggled again. "The bathroom is right at the end of the hallway."

"Thanks," Kaia said.

She actually did have to pee. Bad. She ran down the hall, going into the bathroom, relieved to use an actual toilet for the first time in over 48 hours. When she finished, she decided that she was just going to go outside and wait for Chris. There was no reason to not let him catch up with his "girlfriend". She likely knew every single thing that had happened already, anyway. She picked up a sandwich from a table of food before walking up to the wall, pressing her hand against it, trying to figure out how to open it. A hairy man with bloodshot eyes knocked on it, opening a doorway for her.

"Um, thanks," Kaia said, slowly moving away.

"No problem, sweetheart," the vampire said, smoke trailing off his lips.

Kaia quickly stepped outside, the cool night air greeting her. The stars were out, and she looked towards the sky, admiring them. Her leg and cheek actually felt better, now. Everything was looking up for her health wise. But then, there was her compound. Mayor Townsend. She should have figured. She chewed on her sandwich with annoyance. Suddenly, the fast voice of Sappho sounded.

"Appears you need one of these."

She held out a cigarette. Kaia frowned. She'd never tried one, but it seemed like it'd be cathartic. She knew that people smoked them when they're stressed, at least, despite all the health risks that they had been painfully aware of since even before the war. Her eyebrows shot up as it suddenly lit itself in her hand. Next to her, Sappho quietly puffed on her own, looking just as ethereal as the tall, blonde Roza. Kaia pressed the cigarette to her lips, sucking on it. A tremendous cloud of smoke filled her lungs, causing her to lean over and cough aggressively.

Sappho inhaled. "You're jealous."

"What?" Kaia choked back, a stray tear rolling down her face.

"Of Roza."

"Why would I be jealous of Roza?" Kaia asked, her voice hoarse. "She's pretty but like, I have confidence. My hair is annoying but I'm confident with my figure-"

"Not physically," said Sappho. "Emotionally. Because of the way she's connected with Chris. The way that you can't, but long to, because-"

"Did you trick me into smoking a magic cigarette or something?!"

"No, it's a normal cigarette. I can just see right through you. The look on your face when we first brought her up, you out here staring up into space."

"I'm upset because of my compound."

"Yes, but you can be upset about more than one thing at once."

Kaia groaned loudly.

"You are such a typical teenager."

"I'm 20!"

"I'm 16, so trust me when I say I know you're still a teenager to the core," Sappho said. "You've become infatuated with something you barely understand. Like with the idea that you can somehow stop the atrocities going on in your compound."

Kaia sighed. "Don't preach to me about that, I've already heard the same speech from Christian."

Sappho shook her head. "I'm not here to preach to you about your ambitions to save your kind. I'm here to preach to you about the vampire. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into, as usual. You're ignorant, so you run on your emotions alone."

Kaia narrowed her eyes, uncomfortable with the way that the witch was attempting to give her some kind of personality test result. "Are you trying to suggest I have a crush on Chris or something?! Because I don't. He's a total prick! Besides, I thought he was gay up until like, ten minutes ago."

Sappho let out a short, sharp laugh. "Listen. I find you endearing, so I'm going to do you a favor. If you act on your emotions alone you're going to fuck up this whole thing. Christian doesn't understand you much more than you understand him, but I don't really care about his piece of the puzzle. You, on the other hand? I want to help you."

"What, are you going to be like some kind of matchmaker? No thanks, I'm not interested. Now, you should go back inside, Chris will be out any minute."

"No, he won't. He's with Roza right now, to use a euphemism."

Kaia's upper lip curled. "Ew!"

"There's the jealousy again."

"It's not heal-ow!" She dropped her cigarette, having left it stagnant for so long that the embers had reached her fingertips. She stomped on it, looking back at Sappho. "It's not jealousy. In just not really into that stuff, generally. Like, I mean, I'll do it with someone I love and trust, but hearing about other people doing it grosses me out."

"You're absolutely jealous. Listen, whatever chance you have, I predict you ruining it without even having future vision. So, I'll offer you a chance to actually... well, have a chance. There's a spell, one that you can use to get more insight into a person. It shows you their three most significant memories. You can learn a lot about them in that way, obviously. I feel like you'd definitely better off knowing more of Chris's past before you make the worst mistake of your life. One of them, at least. Walking into that laboratory was probably the worst one. I can see what you saw. It's nightmarish."

She finished her cigarette, stomping it out. Kaia watched her. She had to admit, she was curious. At the same time, she didn't like the witch's motivations. Nor the fact that even if Kaia wasn't aware of herself, she'd been right about everything else, so the witch was correct. Some part of her deep down did like Chris, and was indeed jealous of Roza. And when that sprang to the surface, the only outcome she could see was her embarrassing herself. In the end, her curiosity about Chris and what the world was like before the war outweighed her pride.

"I'll do it."

"Excellent," said Sappho. "This is for your own good. Plus, I'm feeling snoopy myself. I want to know what Roza knows about this man because honestly? I don't see why she likes him so much. You're right about him being kind of a prick."

She pressed her hand against the wall, a doorway opening right up for her. They walked back to her room, and Kaia sat down, picking up a bowl and placing it on the small oak table she had. She began mixing random herbs and liquids into it, speaking softly in a language Kaia didn't understand. Then, she pulled out a strand of her brown hair, holding it in her hand with Chris and Kaia's. The hairs singed instantly into ash, leaving a disgusting smell in the air. She mixed them into the rest of the potion, picking it up and sipping it as she walked over to Kaia.

"Here, drink the rest."

Kaia took the mixture, grimacing and taking a tentative sip. Huh. It actually didn't taste that bad. She drank the rest down, placing the bowl next to her. Immediately, a feeling of warmth and dizziness came over her. Music had started to play, and she thought she was imagining it before she saw Sappho had turned on a Music Pod and plugged it into a speaker. She laid down next to Kaia.

"Brace yourself. You're about to become very, very high."