ii; mayun

“Oh, he didn’t again.” Seulgi shot a glance at Hex and the boy with horrified eyes.

“Yeah. He did. And I had to pay for his drink.” There’s a sharp edge in Hex’s voice, she was clearly disgusted with whatever state the boy in.

 The boy slumped down onto the divan once Hex released her grip on his upper arm. The witch then took her seat back and glared at Seulgi, which made the girl sighed and finally walked away from the room.

Hex scratched her hair in annoyance. She nudged the boy’s shoulder several times but he only let out muffled groans. Finally, she gave up and grabbed her cigarette pack, pulled out one and stuck it between her lips.

“Who is him?”

Joy’s question made her hand which was reaching for the lighter stopped midway. She looked like just realized that the reason for bringing the boy here was because of Joy.

“Oh. He’s a Ranger.” She lit her cigarette after said that.

“Ranger? You mean like Power Ranger? He doesn’t like one?” commented Joy, her eyes studied the boy. Hex frowned, her powdered brows knitted together.

“What power ranger?”

Joy pressed her lips into a thin line. Of course, Hex probably never heard of the popular TV Show.  Joy didn’t watch too much TV Shows, but she remembered when she was twelve, she used to watch Power Ranger.

It was the early days of her stay with Irene. At that time, Irene was a university student, busy with projects and group works. Joy was alone in their apartment most of the time, and she was afraid. Irene knew it, so she asked her parents to buy them television. It was a small screen, twenty-one inch and came with a DVD player. One day after her class, Irene brought her to the DVD store and let her pick whatever show Joy wanted. At that time, Joy was clueless. Back in the orphanage, she never got any glimpse of luxury named television. Hell, she didn’t even remember if she lived properly before Irene came and beg for her parents to adopt Joy.

Irene.

Again, her life began with Irene.

“What does he do?” She decided not to confuse Hex more.

“Killing demons,” Hex replied with matter-of-a-fact tone and put down the cigarette to the ashtray. She glanced at the sleeping boy and shook her head in a hopeless movement. But Joy caught a glint of softness in Hex’s eyes when she laid her eyes at the boy.

Seulgi emerged from the attic door and she held a glass in her hand. She pulled one of the boy’s arm so he got up in sitting position while Hex supported his back and took the glass from Seulgi’s hand, then brought it to his lips.

“Drink.”

 The boy groaned and tried to move his head but Hex forced him to drink whatever black concoction in the glass anyway. The liquid dripped from the corner of his mouth, slithering on his sharp jaw to his fair neck and his white shirt like a dark vein.

“Ew.” Joy couldn’t help but wince at the pained face of the boy. The drink must taste terrible.

“Easy, Girl. It’s only to make him sober,” Hex grunted. By the time the boy finished the drink, his eyes snapped open and he blinked several times. His two hands were on his side, supporting his slouching body, and he turned to Hex, to Seulgi, then to Joy.

“What?”

His voice was deep and heavy with a slightly strange accent, hoarse from the drink. He sounded genuinely confused with the menacing looks from the three females in the room. “Who is this?” He moved his chin to Joy’s direction, but the question was directed to Hex.

“Ask me.” Joy said firmly. She was rather irritated with his attitude. She was here, and he talked as if she wasn’t present. Rude, she thought.

The boy turned to face her and tilted his head to one side. He stared at Joy, eyes explored her from the head, all over her body, then back to her eyes. Under his pair of dark eyes, Joy felt a rush of heat climbed on her cheeks and chill sensation crawled on the back of her neck. But the boy only shrugged when he had done inspecting her.

 “I guess you’re Hex customer.”

Joy blew a strand of hair fell in front of her eyes and snorted. “My sister is dead.”

He raised one brow in a questioning look. “Well, sorry to hear that but I suppose it doesn’t have anything to do with me?”

“Her sister was a seer,” Hex answered him. Joy could see he tensed up when heard about that piece of information.

“Seer….” He murmured. “The seer who died two months ago? I heard the news but got nothing new. Can you tell me the details?”

So Joy retold again her story and the occurrences surrounding Irene’s sudden death. The boy listened to her with eyes glued to Joy’s face. Hex, leaned her back on the wall, crossed her arms, and cigarette on her fingers. Seulgi, sat next to the boy, eyes shut. But the three of them listened to her story intently.

“I believe you know something about my sister's death?” Joy demanded when she finished her story. But the boy shook his head slowly.

“I don’t know much, but this killing on seers… it seems like done by the same people,” he said. Joy let out an exasperated sigh.

 “The death of the seers started three months ago. The victims are all known seers according to my investigation. But the death was always the same, set up like an accident. At first, I suspected it’s the work of wanderer demon. Seers possess a unique energy which attracts the wanderer demon. But wanderer demon kills with eating them, literally. So, if it’s the work of wanderer demon, the body won’t be found anywhere,” he explained.

“So, you don’t know anything?” Joy rubbed her face and massaged her temple.

The boy put his head into his hands and ran his long fingers through his blonde hair. He looked as depressed as Joy.

“I collected information from the Realm, sought advice from wise mages and traded news with the people there. I narrowed down the possibilities. Demon’s killing usually leaves brute trace, or not leaving any remnants at all. Faerie’s magic is for healing, and some deception maybe. But they don’t travel to this side of the world much, still, we could include them into our suspect list. The last suspect we have is human. I don’t know if the murderer is a mage or just ordinary human, but the killing itself is a work of magic. The only thing for sure is there is no accident.”

“Have you asked the High Mage?” It was Seulgi who asked. The boy shook his head.

“You know it ain’t easy at all to enter the Inner Wall.” Seulgi bit her lower lip and cast a worried glance to Joy.

“How about Xiu?” Hex was still calm as ever, but it was clear that this matter also bothering her.

 “He just came back from Lautan. I planned to go to Xiu when you came and dragged me here,” he mumbled. Hex rolled her eyes.

“You were drinking.” The witch simply stated.

“Yeah, whatever. Now I need to go back.” He stood up on the divan and about to walk to the door when suddenly he fell. It turned out that Hex purposely put one of her legs to trip him.

“My money. Give it back.” 

The boy muttered low under his breath and rubbed his head in a pained face. “You can just ask me!” He fetched some coins from his jacket's pocket and threw them to Hex. The woman only gave him a grave grin.

“I’m off,” he said.

But Joy already stood up, grabbed one of