"NO!" Lesley roared as the bullet missed and the Shadowbringer turned, hissing as Harley hung limply from the creature's tail, his head lolled back as the pink tip of the Shadowbringer's tail protruded from his chest.

The creature flicked its tail and Harley slid off his tail, and Lesley's heart nearly stopped as Harley landed on the floor, motionless as his eyes went glassy and a red flower of blood bloomed across his shirt.

The Shadowbringer shook its tail, which was slick with blood, and the crimson liquid splattered all over the floor.

Harley's blood.

Lesley raised her rifle, and something shut off inside her.

Bang.

The Shadowbringer shrieked as its tail bent, blood spurting out from the crook.

Bang.

It pounced at her, as pink liquid began oozing down its left leg.

Bang.

It screeched maniacally now, as the thick gooey blood began dripping from under the cloak it wore, and it turned tail.

Lesley slammed a red button on the side of her rifle and the cartridges changed, as a motorised voice spoke, "Ultimate Snipe."

Lesley pressed the trigger.

Three deadly bullets slammed into the creature one after the other as it sprinted out of the house and out of view, and its shrieks hit fever pitch for a second before dying down entirely.

"Bad move," Dyrroth spoke, and Lesley could hear the arrogant undertone in his voice. "Your brother's right there, and I could kill-"

Wordlessly, Lesley pointed the rifle at him and fired, and the bullet whistled through the air and hit him in the throat.

Dyrroth gagged as black blood spilled from his neck and he choked and fell to the ground, clawing at his throat.

The same robotic voice spoke. "Ultimate Snipe over."

Lesley dropped the rifle, and ran over to Harley.

"Harley?" she shook him, hoping for a reaction. He didn't move.

Lesley felt for a pulse, and got a heartbeat.

She stood up, ripping off the heel area of her pants and pressing it to where Harley bled, lifting him like a sack of potatoes.

She carried him and was about to get to the living room when Dyrroth spoke again. "It's funny when you think how all of this was your friend's fault for keeping the Shadowbringer."

Lesley stopped in her tracks. "What?"

Dyrroth blinked. And then he fell to the floor, convulsing with laughter. "He didn't tell you!" he shrieked, cackling maniacally. "He didn't tell you!"

"Tell me what?" Lesley growled.

"The Shadowbringer went to him! He gave it a place to live!" Dyrroth howled with laughter.

"No, he wouldn't," Lesley started, before her insides went cold.

She remembered Gusion telling her Shadowbringers were extinct. That he wasn't attacked by one.

He was covering for it. He lied to me.

"This turned out better than I expected," Dyrroth breathed, having recovered from his laughing fit.

"Shut up," Lesley snarled, and Dyrroth let out a final cackle before he tapped the gem on his chest, allowing a hole to open beneath him and swallow him up.

Harley groaned in her arms and Lesley snapped back to her surroundings.

Her traitor of a best friend could wait.

Lesley hurried to the phone and called Rafaela.


Gusion collapsed on the side of the road.

He'd been running for what seemed like an hour now, and his house was still not in view. Luckily, he knew he was going the right way, because he'd seen his house, very far away.

With a groan, he picked himself up and continued running.

Somehow, finally, after a mixture of sprinting, jogging, walking and stopping, he got home after another hour.

He pushed open the door, and slammed it shut, locking it up.

He didn't even make it to the sofa before passing out.


Lesley waited in the corridor until Rafaela came out.

"What did you say he was stabbed by again?" she asked.

"Shadowbringer," Lesley replied. "How is he?"

"The Shadowbringer hit him right where his heart should be," Rafaela said, and Lesley's heart skipped a beat.

"But your brother has dextrocardia situs solitus."

"Is that a disease?" Lesley asked as she tried to recall a time she had heard of it.

"No," Rafaela explained. "It's a medical condition where people's hearts are on the right side of their bodies, instead of their left. Which would explain his miraculous survival."

Lesley blinked. "So he's fine then?"

"He is," Rafaela said, and Lesley's insides unclenched. "He should be fine in an hour or two. Which is what I'm curious about."

"Why?" Lesley asked.

"A few days ago, you brought Gusion in after Dyrroth attacked, and we found Shadowbringer venom-a lot of it, in fact. However, Harley doesn't have even the slightest trace of any poisonous toxin. Another thing is that Shadowbringers can detect blood, like sniffer dogs. As a result, any Shadowbringer would know that the blood is clustered at the heart. It would have been terribly obvious that Harley's heart was on the right."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that either this Shadowbringer was spectacularly inept to the point where it didn't know that the area where blood is pumped is the heart and it didn't know how to fire its venom, or this Shadowbringer was actively trying not to kill Harley but incapacitate him. If it was trying to kill him, the results would have been similar to how Gusion was."

Lesley nodded mutely. It didn't matter if the Shadowbringer had tried to save her brother using its last slivers of free thought-she had killed it.

She now had a best friend to deal with.


Gusion pushed himself up, groaning as a headache flared up.

He walked up, ignoring the sensation of his brain pounding against his skull.

He got to the bathroom and gathered water in his palms, before splashing it on his face and shaking his head.

In a much more clear-headed state, he walked back to the living room when the events of last night hit him like a truck.

Oh, hell. He snatched up his phone from the dining table and flicked it open to see Lancelot's message.

Harley got injured last night. Les isn't happy.

"Damn it," Gusion swore and got out of the house, going next door.

He knocked on the door, and it creaked slightly open.

Gusion frowned. Lesley was a freak about keeping the door locked. She had once sprinted for about three kilometres straight after Harley left the door unlocked.

She'd only left it open once before, and that was when she had attempted suicide.

Gusion pushed the door open, fear building up inside him.

Lesley sat on a chair, rocking back and forth on the final legs of it. Her pink hair, usually in two neat braids, was untied and cascaded down her back.

The table was completely shattered in front of her, and she was slamming her rifle on the floor.

She didn't seem to have noticed him.

Gusion shut the door behind him. "Hello, Les."

Lesley looked up and the crazed look in her eye unsettled him. "Hello, Gusion. Take a seat." She beckoned at another chair in front of the remains of the table.

Gusion gripped the top of the chair and dragged it over to him, making a screeching noise. He saw Lesley's grip on the rifle tighten as she winced.

"Sorry," Gusion said, wondering why she didn't like the noise. She hadn't shown an aversion to it before.

He lifted the chair and put it behind him, sitting on it.

"I heard about Harley," Gusion decided to get the ball rolling.

Lesley slammed the rifle harder on the floor but didn't say anything, and Gusion's sense of worry increased. Had she gone catatonic with grief?

"I'm sorry," he continued.

"You will be," Lesley said, and the plain way that she said it made Gusion a lot more nervous.

"Will he be fine?" Gusion tried, leaning forward in his chair.

"He will be," Lesley stopped rocking her chair, and looked him in the eye. "Do you know how he got injured?"

"No," Gusion blinked.

"He was stabbed," Lesley went on. "In the chest, by a Shadowbringer. You know, those animals that you said were extinct?"

Gusion's throat went dry. "Les, listen, please-"

"And guess what's the real kicker," Lesley went on as if she hadn't been interrupted. "There was a lot of venom in your body. And we both know that you know exactly what Shadowbringers look like, so where did the venom come from?"

"Dyrroth's poisoned knife," Gusion stammered. "He, uh, stabbed me. And tried to cut out my heart."

"Poisoned knife?" Lesley asked. "What happened to the monster that definitely wasn't a Shadowbringer?"

"Uh, yeah, that came later, and blasted me. After Dyrroth stabbed me," Gusion attempted to clarify.

"Dyrroth said that you took the creature in. And just a few days ago, there was a lot of dark energy around the room, the exact same kind I sensed when I came home and discovered you hanging upside down. It's also the exact same one over there, you can sense it if you don't believe me. Of course, you have to try hard-you've been living alongside that type of energy for how long now?"

"2 weeks," Gusion blurted out.

"So there was a Shadowbringer?" Lesley raised an eyebrow. "I really didn't want to believe Dyrroth, but it all just makes sense, like a murder mystery, doesn't it?"

Gusion blinked rapidly, as his mind raced. "Les, I can explain-"

Lesley stood up so fast Gusion didn't even see her move. "Oh, really?"

Gusion stood up, knocking his chair back in fright. "Les, please-"

"My name is Lesley," Lesley stood up, and gripped the rifle so tight her knuckles went white.

Gusion gulped. She was angry. "Les-Lesley, you're not thinking straight, calm down-"

"Calm down?" Lesley asked, her tone unwavering, and Gusion knew he'd said the wrong thing. "You would have got Harley and me killed-did we mean anything to you? Your friend could have murdered us."

"Where's he?" Gusion blurted, and the thunderstruck expression on Lesley's face made him unsure of whether he should continue. "Where's Helcurt?"

"Helcurt," Lesley spat furiously as her features twisted in an ugly sneer. "Is dead."

Gusion felt like he'd been through a rollercoaster. "What?"

"Wow, Gusion," Lesley shook her head. "My brother's in the goddamn hospital, and yet your friend is what you're worried about."

"You killed him," Gusion's tone went flat, and he realised that the whirlwind of emotions was what Lesley had to go through when Harley was bleeding out.

"He would have killed my brother," Lesley snapped.

"HE WAS MIND-CONTROLLED!" Gusion roared. "IT WASN'T HIS FAULT!"

"He's a Shadowbringer," Lesley growled. "They're all dark."

"Not all of them," Gusion defended. "Besides, didn't you say that dark creatures are victims of circumstance?"

"We both know Shadowbringers are exceptionally dark creatures."

"No," Gusion snapped. "You think so because of your experiences. Helcurt's different."

Lesley reeled back like she'd been struck. And then her fists clenched. "Well then, go off with your Shadowbringer friend. Never come back here again."

Gusion realised that he'd just defended Helcurt in the most wrong situation. "Wait, Lesley-"

"Go off and coddle his dead body," Lesley snarled.

"Les-"

"Or at least die trying. Maybe then everyone else would be happier. I know I would."

That left Gusion dumbstruck, and he stood there feeling like he'd been sucker-punched in the heart.

Lesley looked like she regretted it for a second, and then kept her cool.

Gusion licked his lips, which had suddenly gone dry. "I thought we were friends."

"And I thought meeting you was a good thing, but we're both wrong," Lesley shot back.

"Right," Gusion muttered, as blood thundered in his ears. "Right." And then he turned on his heel and left, suppressing the tears that threatened to flow.

He let himself cry only at home, mourning the death of a friend and the loss of another friendship.