Jack

I woke up sitting on the hallway floor. Emily sat next to me. Neither of us had any idea how we'd gotten there. Emily had missed the entire episode between Mark and Bloody, and I'd had to explain what happened. Then I panicked and looked in the living room.

Mark was lying on the floor, out cold. His arm had stopped bleeding, but there was still blood everywhere. We propped him up and I ran to the bathroom, grabbed a washcloth, and ran it under the tap for a moment. Coming back, I cleaned the blood off Mark's arm.

It occurred to me to ask Emily whether the name Bloody came from her fondness of knives. But when I did ask, Emily just smiled.

"Actually, Bloody is short for Bloody Mary," she said. "I call her that because she reminded me of a story I read about a girl and her reflection. And she kind of gave me that vibe, like she's mostly just my reflection. So I started calling her Bloody Mary, or just Bloody for short. She didn't learn to knife fight until later."

"When did she learn?"

"When I was in college, she was entranced by the concept. She got me to let her take over for a half-hour every week in exchange for her staying quiet the rest of the week. The deal lasted a whole year. Then I graduated and moved, and she couldn't get to the lessons anymore. It frustrated her like you wouldn't believe."

"How good is she?"

"Very. She was the top of the class when she left, and it wasn't exactly full of idiots. She nearly got kicked out once, though. She gave her opponent a small cut."

"Ow."

"Yeah." Emily stopped as Mark groaned and winced.

We helped Mark sit up and Emily fetched an ice pack for his head while I apologized over and over and Mark insisted it was fine. His speech was slightly slurred, but that was just how he talked sometimes, so I didn't worry about it.

Mark apologized to Emily once we got him up on the couch. Emily had looked at the bump on his head and decided no permanent harm was done. To any of us.

Still, I wondered at what happened when Emily and I were out. Last I remembered, Anti was headed for Emily's room and Mark was on the floor. Then I was sitting on the floor with Emily, and the knife was put away. I had felt Anti happy, something I always thought was bad news, but now I wondered if it was just Emily. Or maybe Bloody. Maybe he just liked being with them. One or the other talked him down, at least.

Something occurred to me.

Anti, when you said Bloody was better, what did you mean?

I meant she was a better fighter. What else?

How do you know?

Anti was quiet. I learned Bloody's trick.

What trick?

She can leave Emily behind when Emily falls asleep. I can do the same. We've been meeting up at night and fighting to practice. She beats me every time, but I'm getting better.

Why didn't you tell me?

You hardly ever talk to me.

You need me to initiate conversation?

No, but you get really annoyed when I do it.

Point taken.

The day was otherwise normal, and I did a local multiplayer with Emily and Mark for one of my videos, so the day sort of rounded of as average.

In the middle of the night, I woke up with a headache and a sharp pain on my cheek, just above my jaw. I heard Bloody laugh in the hallway and someone else growl.

It took me a moment to realize the cause of my headache. Anti wasn't in my head, and the drop in pressure made me feel awful. Rubbing the back of my head, I got up and walked around Mark's bed, almost snickering at his sleep face. Opening the door to the hall, I saw the weirdest sight.

Bloody, her back to me, was facing off against a man that looked like me, only his eyes were a deep green. He held Anti's knife in one hand and clutched his jaw with the other. Blood slowly dripped from between his fingers from a cut just above his jawline. More blood decorated the tip of Bloody's knife.

The man looked straight at me, but Bloody just said, "Not bad, but remember; if I can cut your face, most likely I am just as capable of getting your neck." Bloody noticed the man's gaze and turned. "Sean! I don't believe you have been properly introduced." She beckoned me over. "This is your alternate, the one called Anti."

"Hello," Anti said, reaching out to shake my hand. His fingers passed right through mine. Bloody laughed.

"Go back to bed, Sean. You could use the sleep." Emily turned back to Anti, taking back up her position. "Remember, Anti," she said, sounding an awful lot like an instructor, "I know they say offense is the best defense, but if you don't defend yourself properly, you'll die in a few swipes. We are not octopi; floundering leaves your whole body open to the knife. Let's try it again."

I turned and went back into my room as Anti and Bloody began to circle, ready to fight again.