Kevin hurried down the stairs towards Tana. Like Oswin, she clearly possessed super human charismatic abilities, so given time she could no doubt plan for whatever Kevin was about to attempt. Her dark gold hair flowed about as she entertained the party, blissfully unaware of the danger that was approaching. ‘Good,’ thought Kevin, ‘That means I have a chance.’

  There was no hope Kevin could beat Tana and Oswin at their own game. Navigating the human social experience was their playground, and as far as Kevin had seen they were unrivaled by anyone but each other. However, that did not mean they were perfect. Different methods of communication and different cultures could throw them off until they adapted, which they always did given a short amount of time. With one exception: Kevin’s method of communication.

  Kevin marched into the social circle heading directly toward Noah, looking him in the eye the entire time. Tana moved to intercept him, but she was not willing to appear as rushed as Kevin was. It was too eye-catching, too unusual. She was not going to make it. In response to her frustration, she did her nervous tick, notable, because Oswin had the same one: Like a chameleon going haywire, her face and posture twitched through multiple different presentations of emotion. Anger. Disappointment. Sadness. Despair. Joy. Some of these were her real emotions, some of them fake. As for which was which? No one really knew. Not even Tana.

  Kevin placed a heavy hand on Noah’s shoulder, causing him to flinch. He pointed at Tana, who was freshly recovered and smiling like an innocent child. “That right there is a witch. Do not engage with her. Do not talk to her. She is trying to manipulate her for some dark purpose.” Everyone around stared at Kevin with their mouths agape. He continued. “I’ll take you away from her, then I’ll explain more.” Kevin grabbed Noah’s hand and walked away.

  “Excuse me, what?” Was all Noah could say before his arm fully extended and he was forcefully pulled behind Kevin. ‘Its like I’m chained to a pickup truck,’ he anxiously noted as he tried to wretch his arm free. Tana followed swiftly while the rest of the group stayed behind.

  “So Tana and this other guy named Oswin, the same one who is currently going out with the host of this party, play this weird game of love, and I’m trying to save you from it.” Kevin walked at a brisk pace, accelerating slightly.

  “Ruth is dating someone?” gasped Noah. He fought against Kevin’s grip every step of the way, stumbling and nearly falling several times.

  Kevin continued without acknowledging the question. “I don’t know what Tana gets out of this. She is not after money, or power, yet she seems to go for those kinds of people. What I know for sure: she is playing with you. If ther–”

  “No shit sherlock.” Noah blurted. Kevin halted, surprised by what he just heard.

  “You already–”

  “Yes! Yes I already know. They are all playing with me. Its all anyone ever does. But somewhere in the game of pretending to like me, and I pretending to care, I get to have a taste of a good time.” Noah ripped his arm out of Kevin’s grasp as he spoke. “So leave me be, I’m stressed enough as it is.”

  Noah turned and rejoined Tana in a hug. While they embraced Tana stuck her tongue out at Kevin. He shuddered at how wrong he was. ‘I still made an honest attempt to help someone, so… whatever.’ The thought made Kevin feel a little better.

  “Nice one. I have not seen Tana that flustered since the first time you two met.” Oswin cheerfully handed Kevin a drink and then clinked it with his own. To his right was Annie and Brenna, who apparently were watching the whole thing.

  “I want to know how she does it. It’s like magic.” said Brenna. She kept her eyes on Tana. “I couldn’t get a single guy to look my way, despite all of this.” she gestured to her body. “Its so unfair. I kill at any other party.”

  Brenna locked eyes with a gentleman a few feet away. The man quickly looked away. “I see you looking at me.” Brenna shouted. “I know you want this.”

  The man hurried away. He muttered under his breath, “whydidilook-whydidilook-whydidilook.”

  The glass in Brenna’s hand cracked as she tightened her grip. “ASK ME OUT YOU COWARDS.” she exclaimed as she threw her drink at the running man. The projectile hit it’s target, causing the man to yelp in fear and sprint out of the building.

  Brenna chuckled, leaning into Annie for support.

  “How drunk is she?” asked Kevin.

  “Very” answered Oswin.

  Slumping, Brenna hugged Annie. “Its like I have the effect Annie usually has on men. Is this how you feel all the time? I’m sorry for making fun of you.”

  Annie stiffened while Kevin and Oswin laughed. After Kevin stopped, Oswin continued laughing until one of his knees fell to the floor.

  “So he is pretty drunk too?” said Kevin.

  Oswin answered. “Less than you would think. It was just a good joke.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “What joke? I wanna hear a joke.” Brenna mumbled into Annie. “But I guess the real joke is the friends we made along the way. Hahah. I’m so funny.” When no one reacted, she followed up with a command. “Please laugh”.

  Oswin and Kevin managed a few chuckles. Annie did not budge.

  Drunk or sober Brenna loved being the center of attention, so continued speaking to hold on to her esteemed position. “Ok here's another one. I thought you,” gesturing at Annie, “and Kevin were hitting on each other aaaaalllllll night. But it turns out Kevin can’t do that.”

  Kevin was so confused his head tilted nearly to the horizontal. “Hmm?”

  Brenna smiled, glad to have found a point of contention. Annie’s eyebrows shot up her face at the mere fact her friend was willing to bring this up. Brenna did much more than mention it, she continued: “Yah, you already know. Annie asked Oswin if Kevin was single, and Oswin said Kevin is asensual”

  “Asexual,” Annie corrected, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

  “What?” squawked Kevin. “How in god's name did you come to that conclusion?”

  Oswin responded defensively, “It’s not like I'm wrong.”

  “You are. In fact. Wrong.” stated Kevin.

  “No I’m not, I’ve never been wrong like this.”

  “Well you just were.” said Kevin, exasperated.

  “Prove it.” countered Oswin.

  “What? Huh? Prove it? What could you possibly mean by that?”

  “I mean prove it.” doubled down Oswin.

  Kevin grabbed Oswin by the shoulders and shook him. “GAHHHHHHHHH.” He collected himself. “Ok fine. I’ll do it with Annie. Right now.”

  Brenna hit the floor clutching her sides, kicking her legs in the air as she bellowed joy into the room. Her dress was not built for this, and onlookers witnessed angles that a certain class of people would charge for.

  “Don’t I get a say in that?” inquired Annie.

  “Of course. I’m nothing if not a gentleman.” Kevin extended a hand towards Annie while bowing. “Would you like to have sex right here, right now. Its serves the wonderful purpose of proving Oswin wrong.” The last three works were directed at Oswin and shot out of Kevin’s mouths like darts.

  “Uhhhh…” Annie froze in place as her head bloomed into various shades of red and pink.

  Kevin focused on Oswin for his next statement. “And more so than that. How did you come to such a crazy conclusion anyway?”

  Oswin shrugged in an exaggerated motion. “How could I not? You live with the–” Oswin’s subconscious scanned the area to determine if Ruth was nearby, and since she might be, tactically interested the next word in Oswin’s speech, but let it be know to all: It was a lie!–”second most attractive women I have ever met in my life. She's hot, which is not hard to come by. But her personality… Shes hard working, determined. She has a life, a goal. Nothing gets in her way. She cares deeply for her friends, and she can see through me.” Oswin hesitated, reflecting on his last statement. He said too much. “But obviously she is nothing compared to Ruth.” He muttered unenthusiastically.

  Kevin recoiled like he ate something rotten. “Dude, Carmen is my friend. Dating her would be like dating my sister.”

  Annie was still unmoving, emitting a consistent ‘Uh’ sound like a low RPM V8 engine. ‘She taking a long time to say no’ Brenna noted, getting up from the floor.

  “I just don’t get that.’ admitted Oswin.

  “Yes you do, why don’t you date Tana then.”

  Oswin jumped back like Kevin threatened his life. “That's unthinkable. Completely different reasons.”

  The group continued their bickering. Playfully joking, hollering, and getting rowdier than would normally be allowed. In the background, Ruth listened in, informating the security that they could not throw them out of the party, no matter how much someone requested it.

  She spoke with clear, undeniable authority. “I don’t care if they all have bombs strapped to their chests. None of them leave this party unless they want to.”

  Just outside that Main circled around. Ever since his argument with Kevin, he followed him from a distance, attempting to use his mind reading ability to glean anything. True to his explanation, his mind reading ability yielded no results. Tana and Oswin’s mental complexity was too much for him. Kevin blurted everything on his mind. He could read the minds of Brenna and Annie, but Brenna was drunk which brought its own difficulties. Annie just happened to not be thinking anything interesting.

  As he watched everything from afar, a bout of jealousy grew within him. His closest friends would technically be Ruth and Noah, both of whom looked at him like a useful tool more than anything else. With jealousy grew loneliness, which in turn transformed into self pity. The self pity joined the mountain of it that Main already carried in his day to day life. How many times had he watched a group of friends from afar, wishing he could join in?

  He cursed himself. Why did he act the way he did? Why didn’t he help Kevin instead of antagonizing him? But now it was over. He burned his bridge with that group before it was even built. Lonely again, he attempted to read Noah’s mind. There was another frustration. In a lot of ways Noah and Main were similar people in similar positions, yet they could never connect.

  Noah regarded Main with this special fear, one that Main had yet to identify. Noah carried a lot of anxiety with him on a day to day basis, with him losing his fathers favor to Ruth recently, but there was something special reserved for Main. There always was.

  Noah was thinking in images as he always did. Currently, He talked with Tana.

  ‘Mandarin,’ Noah thought as Tana cracked a joke.

  ‘Plastic chair with three legs,’ he thought as he looked around the room.

  ‘Clock,’ he thought as he excused himself from the conversation and checked his watch. At least that one made sense. He pushed Tana away, but she discreetly followed.

  The next image made Main’s hair stand on end. ‘C4’

  Noah thought of simple numbers.

  ‘3’

  ‘2’

  ‘1’

  The assault began.