Back in their room, Maya found her studies haunted by thoughts of Charlise.

Elena's phone buzzed, breaking her concentration. Observing Elena cringe as she read it, Maya's curiosity perked.

"From Kill Me Please," Leo leaned in to steal a glance at her screen. "It says: if you need a place to stay tonight, Aleda's working a night shift. We can help each other. Wink emoji."

The strange alias attached to the message confused Maya. She was already familiar with Elena's tendency not to use real names for her contacts. Perhaps it was Elena's countermeasure to knowing privacy was limited with ghosts around. However, she would often forget and leave her phone around where anyone could access it, contradicting her care about privacy.

It was likely a measure for anyone thinking they could get some juice by peeking at her messages, only to find confusing random names that didn't clearly relate to the person they represented. Some of the aliases Maya figures out over time were 'Mine' being Keith and 'She's there…' for Maya herself. Also, 'Pufferfish', 'Gum' and 'Who?' were for friends from their lunch squad, but Maya couldn't tell who was who.

Elena glanced at Maya, noticing her inability to hide the confused feelings from her expression.

The phone buzzed again, and Elena's eyes returned to the screen.

"I'm finishing tomorrow's report. You know what that means—" Leo read the new message, but it seems he didn't glance at the whole thing as Elena quickly locked the phone.

She must've remembered that things that are away from Maya's eyes aren't necessarily hidden from her.

Grabbing a change of clothes, she disappeared into the bathroom. Moments later, when she re-emerged, she was on a call.

"Keith. Are you free tonight? Great. I'll come over."

She tossed her phone on the bed, grabbed her coat and departed.

"Who the hell is Kill Me Please?" Leo questioned when they were alone.

"I don't know," Maya answered, returning to her studies.

"Who's Aleda?" he continued with questions.

"Leo, how should I know?" Maya was getting slightly annoyed. She was curious as well, but knew she shouldn't pry since they were in a fight. "I know as much as you do. Besides, I'm used to her shady behaviour. I'm done getting involved."

Looking at books about dragons and other flying mythical creatures, Maya sighed in disappointment. The library was of no use again. Nothing suggested why an ancient creature—that had been extinct even long before Mellgrah was created—was haunting her dreams.

The idea of checking if the bestiary Elena had stolen from Amanda's mansion that day would have any answers came to mind. But after their fight, they had each taken 'their' book for themselves. Elena had suggested that the bestiary could be valuable in deciphering at least one part of the Prima Maga book. Without Elena, Maya had no clue how to proceed in finding the meaning of the book, which was in foreign languages Maya couldn't even identify.

A soft knock on the door took her out of her thoughts.

Maya furrowed her eyebrows. It was late. Who could it be?

"It's some guy," Leo said.

Carefully opening the door, she was met by a guy she didn't recognize. He was tall, a little scruffy looking with his hair tied in a messy bun and rose-coloured round hipster glasses with thin frames. His face had a sickly, boyish look that was somehow very attractive.

He straightened out, seemingly not having expected to see Maya either.

"Hi. Is Lele there?" the visitor asked, his voice incredibly deep. One Maya would never pair with his face.

'Lele? Oh, he must mean Elena,' Maya thought as he curiously glanced behind her. 'But why does this guy have such an endearing nickname for her?'

"You just missed her. I don't think she'll be coming back anytime soon," she replied.

"Are you insane!? Don't tell the creepy late-night visitor you're all alone," Leo was beside himself.

"Oh," his eyes fell down in disappointment.

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It was strange seeing a guy almost as tall as Leo have such mellow puppy energy. Maya almost had an urge to pet him.

"Okay," he said. "Could… could you, maybe, give this to her?" He took off his scruffy backpack.

"Sure," Maya said and reached for it.

"Careful. It's heavy," he warned her.

After he let go of it, Maya almost dropped it before adjusting her strength. It really was heavy.

"I've got it."

"Thank you," he said, standing there awkwardly, unsure if he should say something. "Well… See you later."

He turned and headed for the stairs. Maya stood in the doorway, confused. Though she wanted to ask his name, she hesitated, feeling foolish.

He looked vaguely familiar. Perhaps she had met him before, but had forgotten. The multitude of new faces she had encountered over the past few months became a blur in her mind. Eventually, she thought, she'd catch up. After all, it was a small town.

Picking up the backpack, the sound of clinking glass confirmed her suspicion; it contained alcohol bottles. To be sure, she opened the bag and found two vodka bottles, along with a small box that, upon letting her curiosity get the better of her and peeking inside, she found weed.

This guy was her drug dealer.

Determined to keep this out of Elena's hands, Maya decided to hide the backpack instead of discarding it this time.

'I still worry about her well-being, even when we are fighting.'

🜺🜺🜺🜺

Not wishing to put her friends through an awkward situation, Maya called off this Saturday's secret practice. Feeling out of sorts ever since morning, Maya was haunted by the beast calling from her dreams. Her body moved on its own—passing the plank, climbing down the wall and softening her landing with air manipulation.

Maya was in a trance-like state, following a voice that had called her for days now, when she suddenly realized her shoelaces were untied. But untied shoelaces weren't the most troubling fact she became aware of.

A dense forest surrounded her on all sides—a sight that existed only beyond the walls. Not just anywhere, but at their secret training spot. If the sound of Elena smashing ice nearby didn't make her aware of her surroundings, who knew how much further she might have wandered.

Elena was drawing tall ice spikes out of the creek, then attacking them, shattering them with her physical strength. Maya watched for a moment, transfixed. It looked as if Elena was acting out imaginary fight scenes in her head, simultaneously attacking herself and defending herself.

Maya never saw anyone use magic this way.

"Preparing for the trials?" Maya asked.

Elena violently hauled herself around a person-height ice spike, a manoeuvre that would choke a person, and calved it apart with her strength. Maya realized she wasn't practising her magic, she was honing her fighting skills.

"Suck my dick," was what she got from Elena.

She punched her fist through another spike, avoiding Maya's gaze. Even with the frayed hand wrapping, punching through solid ice must have hurt.

"I can't believe you're still mad. What you did was far worse…" Maya's attempt at opening a conversation backfired immediately.

"In your mind," Elena scoffed.

"You can buy new bottles, Elena. I can never have my parents back!" Maya bellowed out.

"We don't all get paid for simply existing."

Elena broke another spike and began stomping it while screaming in rage. It was breaking into smaller and smaller pieces until it became a white sparkling dust.

Maya suddenly thought Elena had serious anger issues and needed professional help.

"Why's booze so important to you? Is this how you want to present yourself to your parents when you find them?"

Elena suddenly stopped and stared at Maya, but her expression was unreadable.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm trying to understand you!" Maya was desperate, running out of ideas to mend this relationship.

"What for? People can't understand each other, no matter how hard they try!"

"You have to at least put in the effort to be able to say you tried!"

"Like you're putting effort into meddling in my life?! Stop trying to find problems for you to fix! I was fine before you came along!"

Their conversation only escalated into yelling.

"Waking up in your own pile of dirty laundry reeking of enough alcohol to sterilize an entire hospital IS NOT FINE!" Maya yelled back.

"It's not fine for you—for me, it's just Wednesday!"

"I was on your side, you know. But now, I'm beginning to understand why Sarah couldn't tolerate you."

"You know where the doors are," she was angrily waving her arms and gesturing that Maya felt on edge, fearing Elena could swing at her next. "You're so snuggly with Amanda that I'm sure she will put you in any room you desire. Luckily, enough space has been freed up for you since the start of the trimester."

Maya recoiled at Elena's cold choice of words, calling it 'lucky.' Those empty rooms belong to the uninitiated students sent to the slums or the ones who had died.

Frustration had reached a tipping point in Maya. She had had enough—they could never reach a point of understanding. Though the thought of finding new accommodations briefly crossed her mind, she quickly dismissed it. What she wanted was for things to return to how they once were.

They had both caused each other pain, so why couldn't Elena let it go?

If their friendship was this fragile, had she overestimated it? Everything they had done together previously meant nothing if it could break this easily.

Maya found a life of fighting with Elena…boring. She missed Elena's habit of pulling her into unexpected adventures; she'd even grown to expect them. Now there was no more thrilling unpredictability, just a painful anticipation for something that would never arrive. And studying—lots of studying.

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