The kid has black hair streaked with flame-red. Like embers dancing on coals. His eyes are bright orange as he stares at his phone screen. He’s wearing a simple black tunic with flame designs and tan trousers. His shoes are at the door, and I slip off mine. He raises an eyebrow at me. “Who are you, nightlight?” “Wilder. I’m not a nightlight.” “Sure you are, with those eyes.” He replies, returning to his game. “I’m Connor.” I only growl in response, walking over to the table in the kitchen and throwing down the knife and invitation. “Oi. You could at least close the door, nightlight.” Connor snaps. He flicks his pointer finger, and a billow of flame shoots towards the door, closing it. His eyes drift over to the invitation, and they widen. He shoots up. “You got one of those too?” I narrow my eyes, folding up the paper. “That’s none of your business.” Suddenly, the thrum under my ribcage grows to be too much, and Sprout explodes out of me. I yelp, falling backwards onto my butt. “Sprout! No hagas eso! Avísame!” I shout. “Oops!” It squeaks, hauling me up. “Sorry, Wilder!” I clutch my stomach, and smoke curls out of my mouth. “You fried my insides.” I hiss. “Oh, don’t be such a drama ruler!” It nudges my shoulder playfully. Connor’s mouth has dropped open. “What is that?!” “That’s-” Sprout spins around dramatically. “The incarnation of Wilder’s abilities and their bestie! Sprout!” “I was going to say the incarnation of my powers and an annoyance.” I add. “But why do you care?” I snap. “You’ve been a jerk the minute I came here.” I don’t have the patience for this. My house blew up, Snaker was taken, my whole life was ruined. I don’t want to deal with annoying jerks. I walk into the unoccupied room with the invitation and knife, dragging Sprout in with me and slamming the door behind us. I collapse on the bed, letting out a groan. Sprout sits on the bed with me. “Hey,” it murmurs. “You okay?” “Yes! Of course. My home was destroyed and my uncle was taken, and now I have a jerk for a roommate!” I chirp. “I’m just peachy!” “Alright alright, I get it. You’re sarcastic.” It snorts, taking the knife out of my hand and setting it on the nightstand. “Now stop trying to stab people.” “What if I don’t win this thing?” I ask. “Will I ever get Snaker back?” Sprout elbows me. “You will win. Nothing can beat chaos.” “That’s a bit cocky, isn’t it?” “AND,” it says over me. “You’re strong. And even if you don’t win. You can still sneak through wherever this is and bust Snaker out yourself.” It stands up. “Want something to drink? I’ll go shake down Connor for some drinks. Or at least some money.” I shoot up. “You can’t steal!” “I totally can.” It saunters off, and I scramble to hold it back. “No! Stop that!” I drag Sprout over to the closet and I shove it in, locking the door. I let out a relieved breath, collapsing on the bed again. “Hey!” Sprout protests. “You are an idiot!” I snap back. “Stop it!” I hear a knock on the door, and my hand immediately jerks for the knife. Connor opens the door.
“I can hear you two.” He says flatly. “Why do you look like you’re gonna fight me?” “I think you can guess pretty well.” I growl at him. “What do you want?” “Well, I’d very much prefer not to be ‘shaken down’ by a smoke guy, for drinks or money.” He sets a cup of apple juice on the nightstand. I narrow my eyes at it. “It’s not poisoned, I swear.” Connor sighs, walking out and shutting the door behind him. “Lemme out!” Sprout shouts. “No.” I retort, reaching for the apple juice and sniffing it. Smells fine, at least. I down the cup, not tasting anything unordinary. And I set it back down on the nightstand. I sigh, leaning back. Nothing for me to do. All my art stuff is gone. I burrow under the covers. Might as well get some more sleep. Summoning those serpents was hard. “Wait! Don’t go to sleep yet!” Sprout squeaks. “Lemme out!” I groan. “FINE.” I flick my hand. Small snake, please come. And a chaos serpent erupts from the ground. It looks like a normal size version of the giant serpent I summoned earlier. “Let Sprout out, please.” I order, closing my eyes. And I slip into a nap. “Wow.” Connor’s voice jolts me awake. “You must’ve been really tired, nightlight.” My eyes fly open and suddenly the knife is at Connor’s throat. But I’m not holding it. Sprout, who has dozed off on the floor, snaps its head up. “Uh… Wilder. Get the knife away from your powers before something unfortunate happens.” Sprout says, its voice serious. I grab the knife out of the air, setting it back on the nightstand. Connor has frozen, eyes wide, and his breathing has quickened. “Okay…” he murmurs. “I actually thought everything was over for a moment.” “Sorry.” I hiss, getting up. Someone else nearly died again because of me. Damn it! Connor holds up an invitation that’s not mine. On the back, there’s coordinates. “It’s the morning. They gave us the place.” I scramble for my own invitation, checking that one too. Sure enough, there’s GPS coordinates. I pull out my phone, punching it into the app. The location shows up along with a road route. Sprout peers over my shoulder and grins at me. “Poor GPS. If only it knew cars weren’t our thing.” It claps my back. “Summon that giant serpent, Wilder! We’ll be there in no time!” “Not inside, idiot!” I snap. “Giant serpent?” Connor asks. “Usually I just use flame thrusters.” “Yeah well, Wilder’s powers are godlike!” Sprout chirps proudly. “Okay. Well, I’ll see you two there.” Connor says, heaving open the window. “See you!” The soles of his shoes light on fire, and he shoots into the sky fast as a comet. I tug on my heeled boots and jump out of the window as well. Giant serpent, please. I need to get somewhere fast. The giant snake erupts out of the ground under me, as big as a large work building this time. I smack into its head, yelping. I scrabble for a hold before finding one in some grooves in between its scales. Sprout lands on the snake after me, and disappears under my ribcage again. This time, Sprout seems a little more mellow instead of bombarding me. I show the snake the GPS coordinates in my phone, and it nods before slithering through the streets. I narrow my eyes at the pathway on the screen. “Does this go across the OCEAN?!”
