Her Curse
"Oppa, I'm going to step out for a bit."
Lin said it as she slung the bow back over her shoulder. The fury had already bled out of her face, but the smile was gone, and the look that replaced it worried me more than I wanted to admit.
"Where to?"
"I've got something to take care of."
She stepped lightly up onto the clock-tower railing, then glanced back over her shoulder.
"Don't follow me."
"Uh…?"
A flash—and she was gone, dropping off the edge of the clock tower. An arrow punched into a neighboring rooftop; a rope snapped taut behind it, and she swung across like Spider-Man. Then she was racing over the roofs, shrinking fast out of sight.
How the fuck am I supposed to just not follow her…
I had never in my life seen anyone look that angry. Her face had changed the second she spotted that scout earlier. No question.
What is he, an ex?
Whatever he was, Lin was not okay. Leave her like this and something ugly was going to happen.
Let's go.
Decision made, I tore down the clock-tower stairs like a maniac. I didn't have Lin's rope-swinging tricks, so my legs would have to do the job.
I ran hard in the direction she'd gone, and it wasn't long before I found her—settled in on a rooftop, bow already drawn.
A sharp twang.
From wherever the arrow landed came a short, choked grunt. The instant the shot left the string she dropped off the building and sprinted toward the impact.
She didn't just kill him… did she?
I took off after her. Lin was fast on a normal day; chasing her at a full sprint had my lungs burning up into my throat. I rounded a corner in the alley and there she was, dragging someone by the ankle. A man, out cold, an arrow buried in his shoulder. The same bastard we'd spotted from the clock tower.
I kept to the shadows and watched. She kicked open the door of a rundown warehouse nearby, slung him inside, and started to follow him in. I held my breath, planning to slip somewhere I could keep an eye on whatever came next.
But then—
"Oppa."
Lin stopped dead on the threshold. She turned only her head, and her eyes landed on the exact spot where I was hiding.
"I told you not to follow me."
There was nothing in her voice. Not anger. Not anything. I had the sudden, dirty feeling of a kid caught peeking at something he was never supposed to see.
"Ah—no, it's not like that. I was just heading this way and—"
"Don't you remember what my skill is?"
"……"
Okay, but. I didn't actually have anything to apologize for. I hadn't done anything wrong. Fine. I'd own it.
Lin was scary as hell right now, sure. But I had nothing to hide.
"All right!!! Then I'm coming in with—"
"Oppa."
Her voice cut across mine, cold enough to frost the air.
"Y-yes…?"
No. Wrong register.
"What…?"
"From here on, don't get in my way."
She didn't wait for an answer. She walked into the warehouse and shut me out behind her.
Am I about to open Pandora's box…?
There were truths you were better off not knowing. But.
Lin is my teammate.
This was about someone who mattered to me. Maybe there was something I could do. I had to go in. Whatever came of it.
I followed her into the warehouse.
It was very dark inside. The air was thick with dust and the sour reek of mold. Lin had already bound the man tight to a support pillar.
"Oppa."
She looked back at me.
"I've had a lot of fun with you. I mean that. Truly."
"……?"
What? What kind of line was that? Wasn't that the thing people said right before they dealt with a witness?
Is Lin about to kill me…?
The old me would have swung first in an atmosphere this wrong. But the person standing in front of me was Lin—the teammate I'd crossed the line between life and death with more times than I could count. The same Lin who was always hanging off my arm, all soft warmth and easy weight. I couldn't summon a sword. Not on her.
I needn't have worried. She didn't come at me. She turned to the man tied to the pillar, and she loosed an arrow.
"Mmph!! Mmmph!!!"
The shaft punched dead-center into his thigh. The unconscious man convulsed, eyes flying open, but the gag in his mouth swallowed the scream. He could only thrash.
Lin crouched in front of him until their eyes were level.
"Hey there, Owen."
A bright little smile. The same cute one she always wore. Owen's reaction was nothing like mine.
"Mmph!!! Mmph!!!!"
His pupils blew wide, the look of a man who'd just seen a ghost.
"Have you been well? Thanks to you, I've been doing so well."
He shook his head so hard it looked like it might come off—the raw terror of someone staring at a thing that should not exist. And just like that, Lin's smile vanished.
"I asked if you've been well!! Why aren't you answering me, you son of a bitch!!!"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"Mmph!! Mmph!!! Mmmmmph!!!!!!!"
She beat him like she'd lost her mind. Open-handed slaps across the face, a heel grinding down, kicks driven in one after another. He couldn't even fight back. All he could do was take it.
Maybe he can't answer because you gagged him…?
I thought it. I did not say it. The energy coming off Lin right now was not something I wanted to put words in front of.
She worked him over for a while, and then, all at once, the sunshine smile was back.
"Ah! Right! I gagged you, didn't I? Silly me~"
She giggled and reached for the gag.
"Want me to take this off?"
Her face drifted in until it was an inch from his.
"But if you scream, I'll cut your limbs off one by one and kill you as slowly as I can. Got it~?"
A bright, sunny wink. Owen, face a wreck of sweat and tears, nodded so hard I thought his neck would snap. Lin pulled the gag free. He sucked in a ragged breath and found his voice.
"L-Lin…"
"That's right! It's me. Have you been well, Owen?"
"Y-yeah… I've been fine…"
In a single heartbeat her expression went cold again.
"Of course you have. You turned me into a cursed witch and you've been living happily ever after, haven't you? Meanwhile I was living in hell."
"Th-that's…"
He stammered, eyes sliding off hers.
"Why did you do it?"
Her voice had dropped low.
"……"
"I asked you why!!!!"
A sickening crack—Lin drove a soccer kick straight into his face. Something in his nose gave; blood poured down in a sheet.
"Talk!!! Say it!!!! Why did you spread those rumors!!!!! "
Owen's mouth finally opened.
"Stop it, stop!!!! You ARE a witch!!!!! "
The man who'd been getting the shit kicked out of him was screaming now, voice raw with spite.
"You contracted with a Demonkin, you witch!!!!"
What?
I couldn't have heard that right. A contract with a Demonkin? Lin?
"You killed Jack and Thomas from our zone too!!! We were teammates from the same zone and you murdered them anyway!!!!!!"
He was glaring at her now, shouting himself hoarse.
"And you kept killing Participants after that!!! Five already, right? No—that's just the ones I know about. Obviously you've killed more since then!"
She'd been killing Participants? Teammates from her own zone? Lin…?
"Why do you always leave out the important part?"
Lin's voice was ice. Owen's mouth clamped shut. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled over.
"You sold me out……"
"……"
"Why do you always skip that part when you tell the story? You're the ones who did wrong!! What did I do? What the hell did I ever do to you!!!!!"
She was sobbing it, screaming it, the words tearing out of her.
The nickname. Witch. The looks people gave her, thick with disgust. All of it had started with this man. With Owen.
He muttered then, the whine of someone who thought he was the victim.
"You still got a combat skill, though…"
"What…?"
"All I have is this garbage Alchemy skill! You're a Sharpshooter!! You're strong!! So what, I was supposed to be the bad guy? I was supposed to get buried for it?"
What? What kind of logic was that?
"If you got a strong skill, you should've been willing to take a hit for the weak ones!! You got treated like a witch, sure, but you were strong, so you did just fine!!!! What's so wrong about me fighting to stay alive? Don't you even feel sorry for me? I'm the weak one here!"
A murmur of voices, close.
Sound from outside the warehouse.
"Over here! I heard shouting this way!"
"Owen! Where are you?!"
His teammates. They'd found us.
A smile crawled onto Owen's face.
"Hahaha! You hear that? Those are my people! You're finished!!"
He puffed up the second he thought he was saved, words tumbling out in a rush.
"Every Participant you killed, that was your choice, wasn't it? Wasn't it? You didn't like them, so you murdered them all!"
Lin said nothing.
"How long have you got left? About six months?"
He was laughing at her now, voice climbing.
"If you're going to turn into a Demonkin anyway, just think of it as taking one for the team!! You won't even get to stay a Participant when the time comes!!!"
Turn into a Demonkin? Then the curse was…
"Why are you trying to rip the hope away from a weakling like me!!! You filthy witch bitch!!!!"
"Here!! Smash the door!!!"
Bang. Bang.
"Just die, Lin. You're turning into a Demonkin anyway, so hurry up and die. Stop tormenting a good person like me and just fucking die already!!!!"
The door blew inward with a crash.
"Owen, you okay??"
"Shit, it's the witch bitch!!! Kill her!!!!"
"Who the hell is the guy next to her?"
I had stood there through all of it. Every word. And I was so disgusted I could not take another second.
A sharp crack. Another.
That was it.
I was going to kill every last one of them.
Pieces of shit. Lower than insects.