I watched as the Observers all clumped together in the middle of the room. Now that they weren’t cloaking themselves for some reason, I got to see how they moved. It seemed like their two arms were sort of elastic, and they stretched them out before flinging or dragging themselves using those arms. It couldn’t be the most comfortable form of movement, but it seemed to work.

  As I observed them all link tentacles, I couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for the little guys. I mean, here they were just trying to eat and survive while we killed them for it. It seemed a bit unfair to me now that they were right in front of me.

  They weren’t even doing anything, all four of them just sitting together clutching each other’s arms. I felt the need to comfort them. If I was going to kill them, at least I could maybe cheer them up in the end.

  “Hey, little guys,” I said, crouching down to their level. “I have a tentacle too. Wanna touch?”

  I watched as the little creatures flinched away from me, huge eyes widening as my arm twisted and coiled into a tentacle, although I blunted the chitin blade on the end for their sake. Slowly, the closest one reached out a single arm towards me. It was yellow, which had it standing out from the pile.

  As it detached from the pile, I started doubting myself. I mean, wasn’t I trying to kill these things a moment ago? Why did I need to comfort them if I was just going to kill them anyway. Still, my doubts washed away as the pile followed the yellow one to keep in contact. How could I not want to comfort something so cute?

  The yellow one was bigger than the rest of them, but not by much. I wasn’t sure if that was why, but it did seem to be the leader. I watched with a little smile on my face as it wrapped one of its tiny arms around the tip of my tentacle, and I couldn’t help but remove the chitin tip so that I had the flexibility to do the same.

  “You really are just a delightful little creature, aren’t you?” I asked the yellow one wrapped around my tentacle. I couldn’t quite tell, but I thought that it nodded, which widened the smile on my face. The others looked lonely, so I shifted my other arm to another tentacle, splitting the end into three so they all had something to hug.

  I was honestly content to just sit there for a while. I would get them eventually, but right now I wanted to enjoy the moment while I had these precious little gems.

  Something was niggling in the back of my head, however. I tried to just relax with my new friends, but I couldn’t help thinking something was off.

  Wasn’t there five of them when I came in? Where’s the black one.

  As I thought that I looked at my little yellow friend again and thought I saw it glance towards the door. The door was where I had last seen the black one, so I turned my head expecting to see it waiting there, presumably nervous or something.

  There was nothing there, though. No matter how much I wanted to stay here I had a job to do, so I started to get up. These little guys were as elusive as they were lovable, so if it got too far I may never find it.

  As I stood I remembered that both Cassie and Neil were out there looking. Judging by the noises earlier, Cassie must have figured out a way to find them, so it would probably be fine. Those two were both great at what they did, they could certainly catch one squid.

  I wasn’t particularly bothered either way, honestly. They would find it or they wouldn’t, it didn’t matter much. It was only one little cutie after all, what harm could it do?

  I settled back into the pile, letting the Observers slowly climb up my tentacles until they were comfortable. It was nice here, surprisingly comfortable for the floor of a barren wooden shack.

  More things were piling up in the back of my mind, little inconsistencies that part of me was noticing. I ignored it all, though. I couldn’t find the will to be bothered about it all. I was feeling fairly lazy, actually.

  It made sense, at least to me. I had all of the objectives of my mission right here, except for the one I was sure that Cassie and Neil would get. I’d earned a little rest. I laid my head back and closed my eyes, focusing on the warmth and pressure I felt from the Observers that were sprawled across my body.

  One by one, they began to move. Not much, more like a readjustment than a proper movement. I opened my eyes again to see that each of them were repositioning over different, softer parts of my body. They were avoiding my leather clothing and aiming for parts of softer flesh. Maybe they were uncomfortable and wanted something with more cushioning.

  After a moment, I realised something. Each and every one of them was over a blood vessel of some kind. I was proud of them for finding vital points so well. They almost felt like little students, except I hadn’t even needed to teach them anything. Best of both worlds, I supposed.

  As if in synchrony, each of them raised a single arm into the air like a judge about to strike a gavel. From the tip of that tentacle emerged a single barbed spike. It seemed retractable now that I looked at it, which was interesting. In any other situation I probably would have tried to examine it, see if maybe I couldn’t accomplish something similar. Right now I was comfy though, and I didn’t really want to lose that.

  I watched on as each of them brought down that little spike directly on a blood vessel, the barbs doing their work as they tore through my flesh. I winced, but did nothing. They couldn’t hurt me, not really. You didn’t kill a dog for biting you, after all.

  My body clearly disagreed, since it was reacting to something drastically. After a moment I realised that there was something running through my body that I was reacting to, which I quickly put a stop to. I didn’t want to get an infection or something.

  The Observers did what they did best: they watched. The each remained almost perfectly still, huge bubble eyes staring at my injuries. Something about the situation clearly wasn’t satisfying them because they raised their arms again, little spike stained with blood.

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  Those thoughts in the back of my mind were started to pile up against the dam of my comfort, now. This situation was clearly turning sour, but I couldn’t find it in me to do anything. Why?

  Before I could answer that question another stab of pain came from my body, which had apparently had enough. Even if I didn’t have the will to do something, I was still reacting to things automatically.

  I watched as my body formed chitin plates over the wounds, healing them all the while. This prompted yet another series of stabs, which proceeded to glance off the new layer of defence.

  The Observers were noticeably displeased by this. Yet more thoughts began to pile up as they each found new, soft locations to stab. And stab they did, a third wince following their actions.

  Unfortunately for them, whatever impulse drove my body’s reactions was adapting still. This time the chitin spread further, and at the last second I noticed another change coming with it. It was too late for me to stop it, though.

  I watched on as my body reacted by stabbing back, forming a little chitin needle wherever it felt pressure and lashing out. It was a blind strike, lead by instinct rather than intelligence, but it was fast.

  Three of the Observers jerked, silent as always but clearly in pain. The grey one that I had followed in here was particularly unlucky, receiving a chitin needle directly through the head. Suddenly some of those little niggling thoughts broke through the dam of my apathy.

  I had been thinking of these little guys as friends, but friends didn’t attack each other. Friends didn’t strike vital points on each other’s bodies and watch them start to bleed out. It didn’t line up.

  Each of the Observers scrambled off my body as I sat back up. They were, cute that was for sure. They probably weren’t my friends though, they had proven that much. I shook my head, trying to rid it of the impulse to squeeze them just because they were cute.

  More and more of those suppressed thoughts fell through the cracks. Why had I decided to just lie down? I wasn’t even tired, yet I wanted to take a nap with the creatures I was meant to kill? What even were my decisions recently?

  Oh gods, I’m an idiot. I walked into a room of things that affect my emotions and gave them the time they needed to affect my emotions. I’m never going to hear the end of this if the other two find out.

  I scowled at the little creatures, which had taken to waving their little spikes in what I assumed was a threat display. “You little bastards. I can’t believe I let you get to me.”

  I scoffed and reached out with a tentacle to the nearest Observer, which really didn’t prove that hard. With one arm in the air it wasn’t the most mobile of creatures, so it didn’t take much to wrap the limb around it.

  Once it was firmly in my grasp, I contemplated what to do with it. It really didn’t have much vitae, so it probably wasn’t even worth draining it, although I did sweep my own vitae through it to learn how it worked. Then I had a thought that made me grin.

  From my tentacle I sprouted a spike, long and barbed like a scaled up version of the Observer’s own weapon, which it was currently jamming into my tentacle. With a flex I twisted my tentacle around until the spike was pointed directly towards the little squid, glad that my limb was so flexible.

  As I aimed the spike I started to doubt myself again, but I didn’t let it affect me. I was too frustrated, both with the Observers and myself, to bother with little things like ‘confidence’ or ‘doubt’.

  With a single quick thrust I pierced the Observer’s body with ease, its rubbery hide not suited to protection. I pulled the spike from the body a moment later, letting the dead Observer hit the floor with a wet slap and turning to the other two. I realised that I was grinning.

  At that moment Neil walked in the door, his movements far too casual for the situation he was walking in on. He moved like he was stepping in to a nice cafe, not a room with two dead squid and blood soaked adventurer grinning like a madwoman.

  He looked me dead in the eye. “They got you, huh.” He said it like a statement, and I didn’t have it in me to disagree. I just nodded mutely, which had him casting a critical eye over the room.

  “Yeah, I’ve been there. It’s not fun.” He stepped in the path of one of the remaining Observers as it tried to make a break for it through the door, stepping on its arm to keep it still. After a moment he gave me an understanding nod. “Don’t take too long, Cassie’s already done.”

  With his piece said he kicked his captive squid back into the room and walked out, closing the door behind him. I turned my gaze back on the two living Observers. This wouldn’t take long at all, but it would be satisfying.

  ------------------------------

  When I stepped outside the shack I discovered that the other two had been waiting just outside, Neil sat calmly on a barrel while Cassie stood directly out of the door. I had expected her to be grinning from her victory but instead she was standing kind of glumly, and if I wasn’t mistaken her eyes were red and puffy.

  “Hey,” I said. When she saw me she just hugged me wordlessly, regardless of all of the blood I had covering me. “You okay?”

  She nodded against my chest but said nothing, so I turned to Neil. ‘What Happened To Her?’ I asked, writing in the air to avoid disturbing Cassie.

  “Despair Observer. Looked like the biggest of the bunch, too. A bad case of grief,” Neil answered matter of factly. “She’ll be fine in a few minutes, but right now she needs comfort. Apparently she doesn’t find revenge as cathartic as you do.”

  I tried to shrug, which didn’t work very well with my friend attached to me. I settled for a bit of a wiggle in my shoulders. “I got to kill like four, I had an unfair advantage.”

  Neil chuckled. “Very true.” He fell silent for a moment before glancing at the shack. “Give me a sec,” he said as he strolled inside.

  After a few seconds he came back out. “Sympathy, Motivation, Confidence and Contentment. That’s what you were dealing with. Hell of a combo.”

  I grimaced, remembering how I had felt when they had been influencing me. “Yeah, it was. I was so convinced that they were harmless, even when they were trying to kill me.” I shivered.

  Neil placed a gentle hand on my back. “Don’t worry, Observers actually get much easier when you’ve already dealt with them.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Really? How?”

  Neil grinned. “With the power of hatred. Most people aren’t fans of having their minds invaded, and there’s only so much an Observer can do if your emotions are just to strong for them. Hatred is a famously powerful emotion, so it’s good for this kind of thing. Works on more than just Observers too.”

  I thought back to how the encounter within the shack ended, when I had overcome the feelings of doubt that had been projected into me by just being frustrated. “Yeah, I can see that.”

  After a few seconds of silence Cassie let go of me with a sheepish expression. “Uh… sorry about that. I don’t really know what came over me.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I waved her apology away. “Trust me, blame it all on the squid. It’s a much better way to live.”

  Cassie grinned a little. “You have any more marine based life advice for me?”

  “Hmm.” I hummed. “Well if you need a tax haven, always visit a turtle. They’ll help you get a shell company set up in no time.”

  Cassie laughed a little, so I kept going. “Of course if you see a shark, never take a loan from him. He’ll smell blood in the water, believe me.”

  I ran out of jokes there, unfortunately. “Sorry, that’s all you get. You need to fight more squid to hear more.” I raised my hands. “I know, I know. I don’t make the rules.”

  Neil coughed. “Alright, you two. This is all very fun, but we still need to get you reviewed.”

  “Really? We got them all, didn’t we?” Cassie questioned.

  Neil shook his head. “We’ll get to that, but this is more about how you did it than what you did.”

  Oh boy, More performance reviews. How fun.