Loki nodded.
“This J.G. mentioned that whenever she feels a weakness toward one of her victims, like liking them or feeing attracted to them, she’d confuse them by manipulating their feelings somehow.”
“Manipulate?” Loki frowned.
“Like playing victim and asking them to save her. She keeps doing it until her weakness toward that person subsides and she can kill him eventually,” Axel wiggled his eyebrows at Loki.
“That’s what she told me, yesterday,” Loki said, almost talking to himself. As much as it was all he wanted to here, he was also disappointed. Something inside him made him wish she did need his help.
You’re better that way, Loki. Now you have no excuse to not let her play her games. All you have to do now is kill her and get back home. She’s like any other manipulative demon you’ve met before.
“What?” Fable sneered at Loki. “Did she really ask you to save her?” Fable’s eyes widened. “Really? I can’t believe you. What’s wrong with you, Loki? She needs your help.”
“She was only playing me,” Loki avoided Fable’s eyes. He thought that if he’d stared at her longer, he might have softened and changed his mind. Fable’s admiration for the vampire princess was contagious.
“Talk to me, Loki,” she pulled him by his arm. “How could she ask you to save her, and you still want to kill her?”
“Stop it, Fable,” Axel said. “She is definitely playing him. Can’t you see what this diary says about her manipulating those she feels soft for?”
“Yeah?” Fable snapped. “According to your diary, she has a soft spot for Loki. After all your research why didn’t you ask you both ask the most important question? Why does she have a soft spot for Loki?”
“That’s what’s bugging me,” Loki made a fist. “So please stop talking about it. I have to kill her, and you’re not making it easy for me with all your theories. My life depends on it.”
“Your life?” Fable and Axel said in one breath.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Loki brushed his shoes against the floor and watched it for distraction.
“I don’t know what he means, Fable,” Axel said. “But believe me; you didn’t see what she’s capable of.”
“Say something, Loki,” Fable pleaded. “I thought I liked you. Don’t make me regret it.”
“I don’t know what to think,” Loki snapped. “Axel’s discovery and that diary he found says we’ve uncovered the mystery behind one of the greatest fairy tales of all time. If that’s true, it means we’re going to change history if we tell the world about it—well, at least the fictional history of fairy tales. Which should be fantastic, but I’m sorry if I don’t share that feeling with you, because the truth is that I don’t care. I don’t belong here. I don’t believe in fairy tales, and I don’t want to. I came to kill her and that’s what I will have to do.”
Loki took one last look at the siblings, and something struck him as unusual.
“I’m going back to finish her,” Loki said slowly. “I advise you to stay away from me. I should thank you for the help, but my life is nothing but trouble, and I don’t want you to catch my curse.”
“And our life is all pink bubbles and ice cream,” Axel rolled his eyes. “I’m the most popular, un-pathetic, loved, boy in school. Can’t you see that?” he mocked himself.
“And my life is great, too,” Fable said. “My mother was never a lousy witch, and no one ever mentions this in school, or belittles me and reminds me that I’m nobody. I’m just walking on sunshine.”
“Alright, stop mocking me. I understand,” Loki said. They were telling him that he’d been whining all the time and that if he thought he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, they were no different from him, only they faced their fears and enjoyed their days. “But it’s time to split. The journey ends here.”
“Where are you going,” Fable said.
“It’s daylight, and I think the vampire princess should be sleeping in the coffin somewhere in the castle. It’s the perfect chance for me to get the job done,” Loki said. “Axel kept convincing me that we should go after midnight yesterday, but after I gave it a second thought, it makes better sense to visit her when she’s asleep during the day.”
Axel fell from the chair, trying to catch up with him. Fable’s tender hand touched Loki’s. “Wait,” she paused. “I think we should come with you.”
“Why?” Loki wondered.
“Why?” Axel snapped, standing up. “This is the great adventure I’ve been waiting for all my life. I feel like Tom Sawyer!”
“And you?” Loki gazed back at Fable.
“I’m actually worried about you, Loki,” she said.
Axel’s face blushed with anger. “Take your hands off my sister.”
Fable blushed and pulled her hand away. “Stop that dirty mind of yours,” she said to Axel. “Loki’s a good friend. What’s wrong with you?”