Spell 4 - The First Lesson

The rain was still pouring when Ren left the alley. His knuckles throbbed, and the scar on his left shoulder was beginning to burn. He kept his head low and walked the rest of the way with a quickened step until he reached the rusted staircase that led to his apartment.

He lived on the third floor of a building that had been abandoned mid-renovation. The door stuck in some places, so he needed to give it a few gentle nudges. When it finally gave way, the apartment beyond looked just as broken as he remembered leaving it. It was barely more than a box.

He dropped his coat on the rack and turned toward the window. She was already there.

Kagami sat on the window ledge, which stood open, even though he was sure he hadn't left it that way. Rain droplets slipped into the room and got on her fur, but she didn't seem to mind.

"I see you made it," she said. "Not that I had any doubt, of course."

He stared at her. "How did you find me?"

"The pact, remember? Now I always know where you are."

Ren turned away, still trying to persuade himself that this was all just a bad dream. Kagami followed. She jumped on the floor and shamelessly shook all the rain droplets onto the floor and the nearby wall.

She sniffed around the area. Her eyes scanned the cluttered space, the shelves, the wardrobe that never closed properly, then slid slowly around a box filled with unpaid bills.

"Is this all?" Kagami asked. "Nothing of sentimental value? No pictures of past lovers?"

He frowned. He didn't like her tone or her attitude. In fact, he didn't like her being there at all. She was moving through his life like he was some sort of test subject under the microscope. But before he could even put his thoughts into words, Kagami found the photo tucked into the edge of one of the shelves. A hospital wrist lay beside it.

She touched it with her claw. "Hmm...?"

"My brother," Ren replied. "He got sick a few years back. We thought the hospital could help, but it didn't. He died anyway."

Kagami studied him for a few moments. "Let me guess, that's what the loan was for," she asked with a smirk.

"I don't want to talk about it," he frowned, then looked away.

Kagami moved around the two objects, brushing her side lightly against the shelf walls, as if marking them. "Shy, aren't we?"

"I'm taking a shower," he added, heading toward the small bathroom at the back. "You stay out."

She jumped on the bed without any courtesy for her wet paws. "Enjoy! I'll be here judging you."

Ren shut the door hard, which only managed to amuse her.

----

The water came slowly and noisily, but hot. Steam formed quickly in the tight space of the bathroom. He closed his eyes, letting the water run over his face and trying to feel normal again.

As hard as he tried to avoid it, though, the images from the fight earlier came back to his mind. They replayed like flashes, showing movements, moments prolonged into slow motion, embedded with sensations he hadn't experienced before. Like a predator stalking its prey.

He leaned forward against the tile wall, trying to shake it all off. 

But then symbols appeared on the walls. They grew in size slowly, forming glyphs similar to the ones he had seen back in that weird tunnel.

Before he could react, the water also changed. It turned red. He saw blood running down his arms, legs, and finally swirling down the drain in dark patterns. He gasped in horror and stumbled, trying to get from under the stream. He pushed the door hard to get out, still soaked and naked.

Kagami was lounging on his pillow. "Well," she said, barely lifting her head. "That was fast."

He stared at her.

"And you're naked," she added.

Ren looked down. "Shit, shit!..."

He grabbed the closest towel and wrapped it around himself, flushed and angry. "Why do you care, you're a cat!"

"You're the embarrassed one, not me," she replied, containing a laugh.

He stormed past her toward the wardrobe to fetch a clean set of clothes. He kept mumbling things that made him look angry, but without actually raising his voice.

Kagami stretched again, curling her tail now and then. "You're a funny one."

----

The storm outside didn't seem like it would be stopping anytime soon. Inside, the room hadn't changed much, maybe only the fact that Kagami moved to the top of the wardrobe, where she could better look down on Ren.

He sat on the edge of the mattress with a towel across his neck and his hair still damp. He had stopped drying it a few minutes back and stared at the patterns the rain droplets formed on the window glass instead.

"So that's it?" he asked. "You somehow save my life, and now… hang around?"

Kagami's gaze fixed him. "We're bonded now. Our existences are tied to one another. It only makes sense that I keep an eye on you."

Ren rubbed his face. "Bonded. What does that even mean?"

Her tail curled, then settled again next to her. "It means I'm part of you, and you're part of me. We function like one being."

Ren tried to translate her words into something he could reason with, but without much success.

"You'll feel it more soon," she added. "Your body will change. Some things will get easier, others will get harder."

He looked up. "And if I try to walk away?"

She waited a few moments before giving the one reply he dreaded. "You die."

He laughed, ironically. "Of course."

"But it won't be fast. If you try to break it, the pact will punish you in ways you can't even comprehend. It will burn you inside out, until death becomes the sweetest of thoughts. I've seen it before. It's slow."

Ren kept quiet.

"And if you think flesh is the only thing it wants," she added, "you're mistaken. It will consume your thoughts little by little and make you witness the entire thing. Sometimes it takes hours, even centuries."

Kagami stopped there and started licking her paw, with the attitude of a scientist who had just demonstrated how the world functions as it does.

He looked at her, realizing this might be bigger than he thought, if such a thing was even possible. "Are there... other pacts?"

She licked her paw again. "There are, but each pact is different. Each witch... chooses differently."

"So what do I do?" Ren asked.

Kagami's tone brightened slightly, almost teasing. "That's your decision. I'm not here to guide you."

He frowned and stood as if matching up to her. "I'm not going to kill someone and bring you their eyes, if that's what this is."

She tilted her head and slightly twitched her ears. "You're being too dramatic. You think I need corpses?"

"You can mock me all you want, but I'm not murdering anything for... something... that shows no respect towards a human being!"

Kagami's voice got sharper. "Be careful, Ren."

He stared at her in defiance. "No, you be careful. You came into my life, not the other way around."

A pause followed during which it almost seemed like the entire world stopped existing. Then her eyes darkened.

"Very well," she whispered.

In an instant, everything around Ren shattered like glass. As he struggled to regain composure, the fragments pierced his skin and turned to burning liquid, running up and down his veins. The world contracted and expanded in a matter of seconds, and the only thing he could do to anchor himself was scream, scream until it felt like he no longer had lungs, no bones, no body at all. Just pain. Endless pain in a vastness that made no sense.

He fell to his knees as tears streamed down his cheeks.

Only then did she let it go.

The pain vanished so suddenly that it made him gasp, disoriented. As his vision got darker, the last thing he saw was Kagami coming down from the wardrobe, slowly approaching where he lay.

She curled next to his shoulder, letting her eyes close in a well-deserved nap.

"You'll get it eventually…" she murmured.