Bliss woke up to the sound of a terrified cat hissing. Sorebel was posted at the door with his paw under its crack. Another black paw returned his fire from the other side. Sorebel scurried off when Bliss walked towards the door. He opened it to find the tiny Cromble sitting in front of him.

  “What are you doing here? You should be with Lunai.”

  He picked up the cat and walked down the hall towards Lunai’s room. The door was closed, leaving little plausible explanation for how Cromble got out.

  Ugh. It’s so weird to live with your mentees.

  He cautiously knocked on the door and received no response. Lunai must’ve been a heavy sleeper. Bliss let out a deep sigh. He preferred to tear off his own skin rather than open his intern’s door while she slept. He looked down at the cat in his arms and couldn’t help but smile again.

  “Okay you little noodle. I’ll keep you safe until she wakes up. Just don’t tell Sorebel how you got out.”

  He blocked the stairwell with a retractable baby-gate and let Sorebel out as well. The cats would run wild upstairs for the time being. Cromble chased Sorebel around as if his existence was a personal offense. Bliss took the opportunity to occupy his mind with pointless nonsense. He started the Sisyphean task of separating the cats from each other.

  Every time he broke up a fight, the cats would be tangled in another knot before a minute could pass. He kept walking back and forth, acting like he solved the problem permanently each time. It was wonderfully tedious and mind-numbing work. The temporary Novocain to his mind bought him a few hours of white noise before he was forced back to reality.

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  He tried to ignore the noise at first. It was probably just an artifact from the annals of his inner void. The cats would tune it out. They had to tune it out.

  BEEP. BEEP. BEEEEEEP.

  “Fuck! Fucking shut up!”

  It was too soon for the words to come back. He frantically checked his arms for any sign of their golden glow. They were clear. The trembling in his eyes started to die down as he meticulously cleared every part of his body.

  Beep.

  He finally noticed the light emanating from his wrist, feeling a little stupid for not considering that earlier. He looked down to find dozens of missed messages from an unknown number. He didn’t bother reading it; he knew who it was.

  He quickly typed out a blind response. “Fuck off, lose my number, then die.”

  The number was blocked and its message deleted. He still had his head locked on his CellPulse. His foot started tapping against his will. The beeping went away, but he was not satisfied.

  What am I waiting for?

  Bliss knew the answer, and it frustrated him to no end. He wanted Loshket to try even harder. Proof that he was hopeless without him. Proof that he mattered. Proof that he was loved by someone that knew him. Loshket created a scientific miracle within his own body to get Bliss’s attention. It wasn’t enough to make him feel secure.

  His finger hovered over the screen. The message was already deleted, so he had to search for blocked contacts. An entire ocean of numbers flowed across the screen. Bliss never looked at the number Loshket used. It was a hopeless search.

  Any rational person would’ve given up by now. Loshket wasn’t even worth the hunt…but Bliss didn’t have to hunt. He knew where he could find him. He herded the cats into his room and closed the door. The nearest window called to him and he stepped forward.

  Soon enough, he found himself on the roof of the warehouse. The world passed in a blur as he flew towards the Treetop Hotel. The avian creatures of Rengues chirped at him as he passed. He would usually give them a smile, but he barely noticed them at all.

  The hotel was already visible before he left the roof. It rested on a massive tree that towered over most buildings on the planet. Hovering pads were needed just to get to the front door. It was a crowded night, making his impromptu trip a very bad choice for a stealth mission.

  At the very least, he concealed himself with a blanket of light rays before landing. A large clock hung on the main entrance. It was 1900, he had five hours before his interns were scheduled to deploy. If he played his cards right, he could be back before Crux even noticed he was gone.

  He slid into the main foyer the second someone opened the door. A chill filled the room as patrons looked around for its source. Even invisible, he made people feel like they were being dragged towards oblivion. It felt worse when his kind face wasn’t there to soften the blow.

  The receptionist stood behind a fine oak desk with a granite counter. Bliss eyed the screen floating in front of her. With a flick of his wrist, a small welcome sign on the counter fell over and hit the floor. She moved away from the screen to pick it up, giving Bliss his opening.

  He glided behind the screen and started scrolling through the guest list. No familiar names caught his eye. He stepped away and pressed his back against the wall.

  Why did I think he would use his real name? Why am I even here? Why do I want to see him? Why…

  Just as his mind was about to spiral, a black and red stinger came into view. He looked towards it to find a familiar scorpaenidae man staring back at him. The man’s tail hung over his right shoulder, showcasing his stinger. His mouth curled into an infuriating smirk as he examined the space Bliss stood in. He unbuttoned his black suit jacket using two clunky pincers before turning back into the hallway he came from.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Great. Now I look desperate.

  Still invisible, Bliss followed Loshket to the elevators. They went all the way up to the hotel’s penthouse. Placebo opened the door and gestured inside, welcoming the invisible figure. Bliss surveyed the room for any danger or evidence of Loshket’s one-man drug empire. Expensive furniture decorated the area, no laboratory supplies in sight.

  Placebo’s living pharmacy business was certainly doing well. Bliss furrowed his eyebrows. His old friend had such a rich life without him. Karma never paid Loshket a visit for abandoning him. Sure, he seemed lonely and desperate in his hotel penthouse, but most people felt like that without luxury surroundings.

  Bliss stopped when he reached the window. The hotel was already perched on a massive tree, giving its penthouse a view that went on for miles. The fauna was more muted at night, but still frustratingly beautiful. Noise filled the skies as the avian worms danced around. It was the perfect distraction.

  “So, are you just gonna stand there the whole time?”

  Bliss was pulled out of contemplation. Loshket stood in the kitchen with a cocktail shaker in his heavy pincer. Citrus fruits lined the counter with no alcohol in sight. Loshket was ready to make a mocktail catered just for a hybrid void siren. Bliss released the light rays, but he hadn’t finished testing him yet.

  “Ah. There’s that gorgeous face.”

  Bliss turned back to the window. “You always said my face was a ‘pathetic nightmare.’ I thought it was a creative insult at the time.”

  “I wasn’t lying.” He laughed. “But I did love that beautiful nightmare face.”

  An exhausted chuckle escaped Bliss’s lips. “Loshket, why am I here?”

  “In my hotel room? Well, I know what I hope you’re here for.”

  “I’m saving you from yourself.” Bliss approached, summoning a glowing pair of cuffs in his hands. “I can’t arrest you for the reality glue before we search this room, but you have countless other charges hanging over your head.”

  “Fair enough.” He held his pincers out. Bliss stared at them and let the cuffs go.

  “You’re such an idiot. Did you really think anyone was going to buy reality glue from you? You’re lucky the poachers didn’t take you seriously. They would’ve kidnapped you.”

  “I know, but I had to create some sense of urgency. You wouldn’t have come otherwise.”

  “You’re unbelievable,” Bliss groaned. “Using yourself like that is-“ he stopped himself, looking down. “Is…so pathetic.”

  Bliss thought back to the gala. A twisted lure of his own design, both for Entropi and Onder. The only difference between his plan and Loshket’s was that Loshket’s worked. In all the deadbeat’s worthlessness, Bliss was there, in his hotel room. Entropi had to be dragged through space and time when Bliss was being seared in a cage.

  “You know what, we have some time.” Bliss sat down at the bar. “Make me something sweet.”

  Loshket smiled and began mixing. He poured the mocktail into a glass and pushed it towards Bliss. A soft tangy sting lingered on his tongue. Just the right amount of pain to be exactly what he needed.

  “How’s work been treating you? You look stressed.”

  Bliss raised an eyebrow. “Are you serious? You’re what’s stressing me out right now.”

  “Then let me help.” He walked around the bar to face Bliss’s back. “These arms are the perfect weapons against muscle tension.”

  The points of his four smaller arms pressed into Bliss’s back. They moved around in circles, hitting the most locked up spots in his shoulders. It felt good. Bliss hated that he was letting him do it, but he hadn’t felt that relaxed in a long time.

  “I fucking hate you,” he managed to say.

  Loshket only hummed in understanding. The little sense that remained in Bliss after walking into the scorpion’s hotel room started melting away. His consciousness dimmed and he leaned over the counter. He always used pain as a distraction. It was nice to feel something else every so often.

  I really should get out of here…

  The thought drifted uselessly in his mind. He could never walk away from something so comfortable. Someone would have to pry it from his hands that were already cold and dead. Someone would have to reach into his guts and twist until the mortifying pain brought him back.

  Someone did.

  Bliss shot up as he heard the door being kicked. It swung open after two hits. A strange woman in a red dress stood before them. Loshket still had his arms running down Bliss’s back. The woman looked them up and down.

  “You-You bastard! Get away from him!”

  The voice was unmistakable. The absolute worst-case scenario. Bliss shoved Loshket away and jumped out of the chair. Lunai dropped her disguise as she ran towards the scorpion.

  “Bliss, get behind me!”

  He moved to block her path. “Lunai, it’s alright. He didn’t use any glue on me. He surrendered and is coming back with us, right Loshket?”

  “Yeah, fine, whatever. At least it’s just the drug charges this time. The murder charge is past the statute of limitations.”

  Is that why you decided to do this now? If you had just asked, I could’ve buried those charges!

  “Wha-JUST the drug charges? What about the people you controlled?” Lunai’s roots twirled aggressively.

  “Oh right, I almost forgot.”

  The two heroes glared at him. Bliss had almost forgotten about how much of a scumbag Loshket was. The cuffs returned to his hands and he walked forward.

  “I’ve wasted too much time. We need to go now.”

  Loshket offered his pincers once again. Bliss finally cuffed him, putting an end to his comfortable night. Lunai started leading the criminal away as Bliss took one last look out the window.

  The air behind him started to shift, but he didn’t sense it fast enough. He felt a small pinch in the back of his neck. Lunai was still walking away as he felt his knees weaken. He took a step forward and stumbled face-first into the window.

  The painful thud against glass was followed by a fierce grip around his wrist. His attacker finally showed herself as she jabbed a cylindrical device into his arm. Her gills flapped triumphantly as the GSA’s CellPulse monitoring chip was ripped out and destroyed.

  “Nula.”

  He was already too weak to scream, but the name was enough to get Lunai’s attention. She whipped around and released her grip on Loshket, moving to activate the emergency signal on her CellPulse. She let a thin root run along the floor towards the woman.

  “Well, that’s a shock. I figured I’d give the venom a try to shut everyone up and just kill your boyfriend when I proved he was wasting our time.” She lifted her foot and stomped her heel on Lunai’s creeping root, cutting it off. “I guess he really did work magic. How embarrassing. I owe quite a few apologies.”

  Nula’s slippery fin pulled Bliss forward and dropped him to the floor. He tried to push himself up, just barely getting back to his feet. Loshket was staring at him with a beady look of guilt in his eyes. Bliss knew what the idiot had done.

  Bliss’s words came out in strings. “You sent her-a fucking sample?”

  A perfect circular crack formed on the ceiling. The cut wood fell to the ground as five men jumped down into the suite, surrounding Loshket on all sides. His tail lunged towards them, but with his hands bound he was at a disadvantage. Three of the men grabbed different parts of his tail as they injected him with another substance. They passed him over to Nula and she hoisted him over her shoulder.

  “Let’s be quick. Kill the half-breed. I don’t care what you do with the walking weed.”

  Bliss had really fucked up this time. That was all he could think as he desperately tried to hold onto consciousness.

  Character Art

  Loshket / Placebo