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bffhreprise · 3 years

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Best Friend For Hire Reprise, Entry 380

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” we all exclaimed upon seeing Raine peek out of her room, looking very timid and nervous.

Despite having slipped by me, not a hair was out of place from her haste. Her mouth opened and closed a few times as she decided how to respond. Then she meekly said, “Th-Thank you.” Her cheeks were rosy from the start, but the shade deepened to red as she spoke. She was so very young, probably no more than sixte-... oh, nineteen!

I vaguely recalled seeing her age up on the wall when we decorated the keep as I passed it by. Vito probably would have paid more attention, but he was like that. I was far more interested in how she had entered her room so silently. Did she even use the door? No… There was no way that door had moved without me noticing… Had it? I didn’t like being this uncertain, but she was part demon, capable of incredible feats. Looking at the cute, shy girl, I was grateful she wouldn’t be doing any of the terrible feats some of her full-demon kin had done.

I had honestly been more than a little dubious when James had insisted on picking an ambush spot, confident that we could catch her entering at least, but I should have trusted James’ judgement. Not only did he know Raine better than us, but Aaliyah was his assistant. I had no doubts that Aaliyah knew the moment Raine decided to come home. Aaliyah knew everything.

“The k-keep…” muttered Raine, her cheeks now a normal, fleshy-white hue.

“You didn’t explore it already, did you?” questioned Ariadne, looking disappointed.

Raine’s eyes wandered across the floor and up one of the walls. “M-Maybe?”

“You’re almost as bad as these three.” replied Ariadne as she motioned to my brothers and me as we dodged back with our best smiles.

Raine risked a glance upward as she said, “Th-Thanks?”

I was glad she thought well of us now. She had seemed rather defensive during our last visit.

“Well, let’s go open presents then!” exclaimed Emma excitedly. “You had to see them in the keep! How do you like the kitties!? Ariadne and James outdid themselves! I did the bushes, of course, but…” Emma took a breath to shrug. “That’s me.”

“I love th-them.” muttered Raine taking a step closer to her friend as she spoke. “Y-You did P-Puss in Boots!” Raine smiled shyly from under her hair, the picture of an embarrassed, happy girl.

“Presents!” exclaimed Kayla, starting to run. She simply grinned at James when she found herself floating instead.

Dani, who had been on Kayla’s heels, floated beside her while nonchalantly removing the spells keeping her aloft. “Daddy! I was going to watch her.” she insisted.

“And who would be watching you?” he replied with a smile.

“I’ll do it!” I volunteered, leaping past the others to grab them and run. Thankfully, James released the spells, so I didn’t have to bother with them first. More than likely, I couldn’t undo anything James had cast, since even Vito was amazed by James’ magic.

“Last one there fights Papak!” declared Aaliyah as she jumped onto Ariadne’s back. They took off from behind me with everyone present on their heels, other than the two I carried. Coming in first was as easy as ever.

Vito did one of his fancy spells as he crossed the threshold to the keep, causing a thin wall of light to appear, altering color around each person who passed through. Knowing who was last would be really easy this way, but Vito was always clever.

I gawked when I saw Raine casually coming in behind Brandon, taking last place. Zachary, on the other hand, gave me a wicked grin.

“Why!?” I exclaimed, knowing she could have at least tied me.

“S-Safer.” replied Raine with a calm smile. She really didn’t look dangerous.

“I can be gentle!” I protested, knowing she was stronger than she looked. I couldn’t help wondering how much stronger now that I was stuck in this.

She shrugged and moved toward me, apparently deciding we should begin immediately. I tried to grab her, but caught only air. Again and again, she just disappeared whenever I tried to seize her. Calmly standing in front of me, she started raising her hand to grab me. As I tried to dodge and shift into a gas, I was already hundreds of feet into the air and thrown even higher. Did she forget I have wings for this sort of thing? Stopping myself was easy.

Despite the situation, I noticed Vito’s spells covering a huge area of the sky, so I was confident that Raine and I wouldn’t be noticed. I needed to get serious. She’d probably be jumping from… A fraction of a second too late—which might as well have been a hundred years—I realized that Raine didn’t need wings to fly. She appeared in front of me, having moved too fast for my eyes to follow, and thrust her hand into my chest. For the first time in many, many years, I actually felt the blow and knew this could seriously hurt!

The saddest part as she batted me around was that I knew she was holding back. She always slowed down the moment before she hit me, so I tried and tried to guess where the blow would come from. Despite having thirteen thousand years of experience on her, she was reading me like a book. I needed to come up with something quick, or I would never live this down.

“Raine, I think he’s had enough!” called James, his voice easily reaching us.

At least, I assumed that Raine could hear him. James had made her hearing out to be better than mine. I was left gaping when I spotted Raine already beside him.

“Okay.” she mumbled.

Instead of allowing myself to feel better when Zachary and Vito jumped away from her in surprise, I repositioned myself for a dive. Even she didn’t have eyes in the back of her head.

James, who hadn’t even moved a muscle when she appeared, said, “I don’t think he’ll boast about being able to take you for a while.”

“H-He wants to try?” she questioned in obvious surprise.

“Oh, yes!” insisted Zachary. “I don’t think he’s really had enough yet. I mean, look. He’s coming straight for us!” he warned, ruining my surprise attack.

I felt my ribs break and reform almost instantly while I traveled what might have been hundreds of feet. Before I could even get my bearings, I was flying in a different direction. Over and over, she struck me without me even catching sight of the blow. In time, I realized that there was even air near us anymore. I felt disoriented and utterly helpless.

When I found myself on the ground, I saw Raine’s other form. All demons distort reality around them, a foreign force in our world, and she was no different in this regard. The air seemed thick with floating wisps of dark energy. The house behind her was bending in weird ways. She looked feline to me, but her fur was composed of dangerous needles, her teeth looked too large to fit into her mouth, and the single claw pointed at me was the length of a small knife. Everything was in motion, seeming completely wrong to my brain as it scrambled to make sense of it. I had never seen such a strong demon in all my life, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from hers. Normally, Raine had red irises that probably could be mistaken for a light brown in dim light. Now, her entire eyes were a radiant, malevolent red, save for the black vertical slit of a feline pupil.

I held up my hands in submission as I told her “I surrender!” I wasn’t going to boast about taking her in a fight again.

Zachary and Vito both started laughing with such enthusiasm that their voices kept our friends covering their ears to protect against the deafening noise.

“Laugh it up! She broke my bones multiple times!” I informed them.

“S-Sorry.” muttered Raine, looking sincerely apologetic now that she appeared human again. “Aaliyah said… I-I should…” She gestured to the sky. “Y-You know.”

I stood and approached Aaliayh—approached Death herself. Raine was suddenly between us, but didn’t stop me as I leaned down to kiss Aaliyah on the head.

“You win.” I told Aaliyah, not the least surprised there. Death always won. Looking at Raine, I said, “I’m sorry. I’ll stop claiming I can beat you up.”

“I d-don’t mind.” she replied with a shrug, and seemed to mean it.

I laughed and told her “I’m glad. I’d hate to see what happens when you don’t pull your punches!”

“It’d be amazing! You’d detonate!” exclaimed Aaliyah with an enormous grin.

There was no stopping that image from entering my mind in at least a hundred variations of my body being blown to pieces by a single punch. Aaliyah knew what would kill someone better than anyone.

“Let’s not try that.” replied Zachary, instantly earning my gratitude. “Vito might miss him eventually.”

“Are you certain? We’d have such an interesting memory. Think of the stories we could tell.” teased Vito with a small, sympathetic smile for me.

“Gentleman, please behave for a few minutes. The birthday girl still hasn’t opened her presents, and I’ve been wanting to try that marvelous cake Marco made all day.” insisted Ariadne, crossing her arms to stare down Zachary and Vito.

“As you wish.” replied Vito, not wanting to risk Ariadne’s ire.

Zachary shrugged. “I’m always well-behaved.”

“Ha! Like a fox in a henhouse.” I argued, unable to let that one slide.

“You know that phrase isn’t very modern.” commented Vito, as if phrases needed to be modern for us to understand each other.

“The U.S. hasn’t been around long enough to have anything old yet. Now Egypt… that grew into something interesting.” I reminded him.

“He means Ancient Egypt.” corrected Vito with a small sigh.

“Egypt is Egypt!” I insisted, tired of people trying to act like nothing remained of my old home.

“Gentleman! My niece may want to chat with you at this rate about who’s more correct.” suggested Ariadne. Then she turned to Raine and said, “Sorry. They really do need a keeper. I might just hire you when I’m feeling overwhelmed. How long would it take you to visit Poenari Island from here?”

Raine shrugged. “A b-blink?” she suggested and actually meant it.

For my part, I believed her. I could return home exceedingly fast by the standards of aircraft, but I’d still probably take half an hour getting there.

Smiling, Ariadne said, “That sounds perfect. I might hire you at the drop of a hat if you’re available.”

Raine nodded. “W-We give… f-family… d-discounts.”

With the birthday girl satisfied, we began her birthday celebrations in earnest. For a being capable of creating whatever she wanted with a thought, she was extremely grateful for each of her presents. She was too grateful by my estimate. What had she been through? I wanted to know her story. A being like her was virtually unstoppable without Death’s intervention, but she was content just to live here, doing odd jobs for James’ company. As I watched them all interact, I had to admit to myself that I could see the appeal.

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