Tipping the Scale

Down

He is looking for me, and I know it. I cackle softly to myself, safe in the soundproof walls of my own room, sure that no one would be able to hear my wild hooting. Oh, this boy. How delicious he is! He thinks he could find me. Me! As if he'd be able to find me without my going to him! Ha, ha. He makes my life so entertaining.

But no, because it's nearly dark out, and while he has the advantage in the light, I have the much, much better advantage at night. But I know him, he won't stop looking for me that easily just because of a little bit of dark. Unfortunately for him, he thinks he knows me much better than he actually does. He thinks he can still find me. He won't be able to, though. Oh no. I am a master at hiding myself in the darkness. After all, what am I if not darkness personified?

I watch him with a little charm I've put on my mirror that makes it act like a television. Because I know him so well, I'm able to tune in to my mirror to find out what he's doing and saying at any time. The mirror shows him stalking through the city streets, and I frown slightly. He shouldn't be there. I have not ordered my idiots to not hurt him yet, and he's heading into a bad section of the city. It's one of the sections that I allow my minions to roam freely into, and he could be severely hurt. I can't let him get hurt by them. That's my job. We are the only two that could possibly hurt each other.

Yet somehow, I don't want him to get hurt. He's the only one who presents a worthy opponent for me to face off with. He's the only one who makes it worth my while to cause such destruction and terror, aside from the sheer glee I get from it. He completes me.

Oh, but he's going into that section of town. So I have to make an announcement, and quickly. I ring for my valet, the only minion who I can trust to do things for me and do them right. Or at least, he better do them right, or he'll end up with a fate much, much worse than that of the pixie earlier in the day. And I make sure he knows and understands this completely.

"Send word out to all of my idiots that they aren't supposed to hurt this man in any mental way. They are to only sustain minimal damage to his body. He's mine and only mine. In addition, they need to tell me immediately if they see him out and about at any point in time, got it?" I say as soon as he arrives. But as soon as the words leave my lips, I see the pretty little lady who was hanging off of the fire escape hop down and begin to weave her magic on him and I sigh. My stupid valet boy is still hanging around, waiting to see if I have anything else to say, so I put on my most vicious glare and wave my hand at him.

"Go!" I bark, and he goes, disappearing faster than I would imagine someone his age could do. I look back at the girl who is clinging to him in the mirror. She's got herself all draped over him like a prostitute. She looks like one too, with the guise she's got on. A strip of cloth barely contains her boobs and she's got a ridiculous mini-skirt on that clearly shows the thong she's wearing underneath. And she has insanely high-heeled shoes on that not even a circus performer would wear. But it doesn't matter to her, because she's not walking on her shoes at all. She's floating in such a way that makes it look as though she's walking. No one else would see them, because she has them glamoured into invisibility, but two shredded, gauzy wings poked out of her back. I wasn't sure whether or not he would see them, but I know he sees her floating and I know her magic isn't going to work on him. I know he will tell her to fuck off, and I know she will become enraged. So I disappear in a second, becoming part of the darkness and letting it guide me to him.

When I reappear behind him, I know he senses me there. But she sees me first, and her eyes widen and she steps back from him, but by the time she's even a foot away from him, she can't move. She falls backwards onto the street and lies there, shaking in fear. Oh, that's so rich I can hardly stand it! Shaking! In fear! Of me! It's absolutely wonderful that I can inspire such fear in such a creature merely by appearing in front of her.

In a moment, she's up again, the little bit of clothing she wears soaked through. And then she's slammed to her knees in front of me, babbling about how sorry she is and how she didn't know and she was only trying to seek favor with me and wasn't trying to make me angry or anything. Deep down inside me, I know it wasn't her fault, but the part of me that makes me who I am ignores that. It wants to punish this vixen, so it will. But it has more important things to do before that. So I shove her to the side, brutally skinning her wafer-thin knees in the process. She shrieks in pain, but I'm ignoring it, because he's finally turned around.

Oh, yes, he certainly has turned around. He doesn't look so radiant in the twilight glow as he does during the day, but he is certainly beautiful. He's got a look on his face that tells me how disgusted he is with me, and I laugh, delighted.

"Larissa, why do you always have to do stuff like this?" he asks me quietly so our little vixen over there doesn't hear.

"Honey, you can speak up. There's not a person in this world that would dare to listen in on a conversation I'm having with someone," I say nonchalantly. "So tell me, dear...what brings you to this side of town, hmmm?"

"I've been looking for you," he tells me. "We need to talk."

"Do we? Whatever could we possibly have to talk about?" I ask, feigning sincerity.

"You know damn well what we have to talk about, Larissa," he says. I cringe at the use of my name.

"Don't...call me that," I snap. "If you have to call me anything, I prefer Lady."

"Of course you do. You always were one for dramatics, Larissa," he says, rolling his eyes. I'm trying so hard not to get angry at the boy, but he does make it so hard on me! I feel my anger rising, but I smooth my facial features and smile at him.

"Remind me again," I coo. "What do we have to talk about?" He frowns at me and I can see him getting angry too. Oh, so he's trying to get a rise out of me? Ha, well, good lucky, pretty boy.

"Where do you want me to start, Larissa?" he says, using my name on purpose. "We need to talk about us. We need to talk about this wrath that you insist on raining down on everyone. We need to talk about your treatment of the humans. We need to talk about you. We need to talk about me. Pick a topic and we'll roll from there, Larissa."

"I'm going to give you one last chance to stop using my name. Or else I might get very, very angry. And I'm sure you wouldn't like that...now, would you?" I say, letting a slow smile spread across my face. Absently, I scratch at the scars on my arms. He notices.

"What did you do to your arms, Larissa?" he asks. I immediately take my hand off of the scars, glaring at him.

"You really want to find out, don't you?" I ask dangerously. I'm no longer standing on the ground. I'm levitating so that I'm at eyelevel with him, and then I'm above him so that he has to look up to see my face. "You really want to find out how I got these scars? Maybe you'd like a matching set, hmm?"

"Larissa, calm down. It was an innocent question," he says, trying to calm me down. I detect a hint of magic in his words, just an undertone, but it's enough to set me off.

"Stop using that fucking name!" I scream. "And you can stop with your ever so discreet little magical attack on me too, because I felt that. You should know that it won't work on me. I won't let it work on me. How fucking dare you?"

The wind is picking up now, whipping around in chaotic patterns that never repeat themselves, never cross over each other. The little vixen I pried off of him appears to have passed out, though she's still frozen in place by my spell. He himself has encased himself in his own protective shield to stop the bits of debris picked up by my impromptu windstorm from piercing him. But that won't do. He's gotten me angry, now he has to deal with the consequences of that action. So I dissolve his shield. But before the first bit of the debris has hit him, I surround him with an air bubble of my own. Then I let the darkness cover me as I dissolve into a mist that the wind carries around him.

"You want to talk to me?" I say at one point. My voice sounds as though it's coming from all directions. "Then find me first."

I see him starting to get frustrated, so I start taunting him. "Oh, if only you were back in your own element," I say, trying to get a rise out of him. "If only it were daytime. Then you could attack me with your precious beams of light or something. Burn me to death to stop me. If only you were strong enough to do that in the middle of night. But you can't, because you're weak, where I'm strong." I cackle then, hooting and howling like I said something hilariously funny.

"You see, my dear boy, you can't get to me. You may hurt my body...but I have a thousand pathetic minions who would willingly give me their body to take over and make my own so that I can live. You might try to hurt my mind, but it's so twisted and messed up that there's nothing left to hurt. I'm twenty steps ahead of you at every turn and that's the way it's meant to be. You will struggle, but you will never win, Ryan!" I scream before disappearing with the passed-out vixen in tow, leaving my former friend on his knees on the wet street in total darkness.