So I drove into the woods and wandered aimlessly about, until I heard my mother shouting through the fog

Amelia was not amused. She very seldom was amused, as a personal choice, but this morning was definitely setting a new level for the lack of amusement she could feel.

She had agreed to give Gina the first half of her day with her stepson, because she knew how important being around Nick was for the punk girl’s emotional wellbeing. It wasn’t to the point that Gina was emotionally dependent on him, but it was quite clear that she benefitted greatly from his presence in her life. He was a source of stability for her, and he provided her with the support that she needed.

If there was one thing Nick was good at (and in Amelia’s eyes, he was good at far more than one thing) it was devoting himself to other people. He was considerate of the feelings of others, almost to personal fault.

Gina needed someone in her life who could just be there for her and tell her that she was doing a good job. That it was okay if she wasn’t perfect, because she was doing her best, and she should be proud of that.

Nick did an amazing job on that front, and Amelia was proud of him. That was one of the reasons she hadn’t hesitated to agree when he asked if he could spare some time from their day to go on a small date with her. Not only was it the fair thing to do (as Gina didn’t have as many opportunities for one on one time with him) but it was beneficial for her wellbeing.

So Amelia had agreed.

That had been the primary reason.

The other reason she’d agreed was because her mornings were rather occupied already. Namely, by her agreement with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin to help teach her how to read and write, something the assassin desperately needed.

…Which brought us to her lack of amusement.

Amelia stared with a cold glare at the note taped to the door of the classroom. Well, to call it a “note” would be an exaggeration- it was a doodle. Some scribbles that looked vaguely like letters were scrawled across the top of the page, and below it was a giant frowny face with a tear in the eye.

“…Is this supposed to be an apology for missing class?” Amelia crumpled up the note tightly in her fist. She couldn’t be sure if Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s “apology” was meant to be taken seriously or not, but she was pretty sure that the mischievous mute was messing with her.

And Amelia was a fairly patient teacher, but she didn’t appreciate when her students messed with her like this.

But… what could she really do about it?

Ultimately, the agreement between herself and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin to teach the young woman her letters was just that- an agreement. She may have insisted, but it wasn’t like she could **** the young woman to come to the classroom every morning.

…Although the fact that she HAD come to the classroom, just to leave a shoddy little apology note, was a pretty low blow.

“…To be charitable,” Amelia muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose, “I could assume that she had important business that took precedence and thus decided not to attend.”

She was pretty sure that wasn’t the case, though.

Perhaps I’ve been a bit overbearing, she conceded, adjusting her glasses. We have been holding these lessons every morning for over a week. And then there were a couple of late-night lessons as well that she attended.

Amelia knew that burnout could be a real thing. Even with subject matter as theoretically easy to grasp as learning the alphabet.

Maybe she could permit the absentee student a day of vacation, even if she guessed that it would not be the most productive experience for her.

It just irritated her that she had to pick today of all days.

If I didn’t know any better, I would think she was being considerate that today is my day with Nick, Amelia thought. The notion almost made her laugh. Certainly not. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin would never be considerate about someone else’s time with Nicholas.

The fact that the possessive girl could even spend this much time with her was only thanks to the fact that Amelia’s relationship with Nick was strictly familial.

Amelia firmly believed that if that were not the case, her student would not have become her student in the first place.

With a sigh on her lips and a sudden freeing of her schedule, Amelia tossed the crumpled-up note into the wastebasket by the door and left the classroom, not sure what to do with herself right now.

Then she heard a hushed whisper.

“Psst! PSSST!”

Confused, Amelia turned her head to see a figure dart around the corner. She raised a curious eyebrow, not moving a muscle as she processed what was going on.

Then a hand timidly stuck out around the corner again, and waved back and forth, beckoning her to follow.

Usually, Amelia had more sense than to follow a beckoning hand down a corridor. Especially when she was in a strange hotel like this one, and all by herself. And especially when she was the target of a serious grudge held by the magically-enhanced owner of said hotel.

But she also wasn’t a fan of playing games, and preferred to address her problems directly. So without hesitation she stomped forward and turned the corner to see…

…A woman dressed in a rather farcical outfit.

She had pink hair, long and curly, falling down the bulky shoulders of her long trench coat. Her clothes were baggy and oversized, intentionally so, and they helped obscure her body. To further aid this endeavor, the woman wore a medical mask over her face, along with a pair of dark sunglasses. These concealed most of her distinguishing features. To top it off she wore a wide-brim hat that cast a shadow over what little skin remained visible, which just seemed extraneous.

Amelia was less than impressed.

“…Nola, what are you doing?” She asked in exasperation, crossing her arms over her chest.

The masked woman held a finger over her covered lips and “Shushed” her.

“Shhh! Who’s Nola?” She asked in a deep whisper. “My name is Deep Throat. And I’m here with a special message to assist you, Amelia!”

Amelia raised her eyebrow and cocked her hip to the side. Every cell in her body was giving a “You really expect me to go along with this nonsense?” kind of vibe.

Deep Throat was not the best at reading the mood (but she was very good at ignoring it!) so she pretended like she didn’t know what Amelia’s body language was saying.

“Listen. You didn’t hear it from me. But if you want to fix things, then go to this room.” She took out a notepad, scribbled something down, then tore off the page and handed it to Amelia.

Amelia looked down at the room number on the pad, and raised her head to ask the “mysterious informant” why she should even care about this.

But Deep Throat was gone.

Now, if anyone else in the harem had received a notification like that, they would probably have at least tried to humor the other person. Go see what the weird note was about and what was in the room. But Amelia wasn’t that kind of woman.

She had plenty of natural curiosity but she didn’t suffer fools; there was zero chance of her going to that room.

So she discarded the note once she memorized the room number, and headed off to go about her day.

Amelia managed to make it half a dozen steps back the way she came when someone came dashing out around the other corner.

“Oh! Well, look who it is! Amelia Campbell! How nice to see you on such a fine day as today!” Nola chirped, her green eyes sparkling joyfully. She waved cheerfully at the blonde woman and skipped right over. “How are you doing today? Any plans? It is your date with Nick this afternoon, you know, so if you were planning to do something else with your time, you might want to hurry up with it. Like, right now, maybe?”

Amelia just stared at her.

“…You’re not going to give me any peace unless I go, are you?” Amelia asked in mild frustration. Frankly, she should have expected as much.

Nola blinked innocently. “Go?” She asked, tilting her head to the side. “Wherever could you be going? A room, perhaps? Maybe, a special room? Maybe a room that someone specifically wrote down on a note and handed to you, because it was very important that you go there? Could that be the room?”

“…It could be, yes,” Amelia said in defeat, rolling her eyes. While she wasn’t thrilled at being manipulated and coaxed like this, she also valued her time. And she would not have much of it to herself if Nola was going to keep popping up like this and keep “subtly” pushing her to go to this room that she quite honestly did not care the least about.

So even though it felt like a headache in the making, Amelia begrudgingly gave into Nola’s heavyhanded prodding, and stormed off towards the elevator.

“Well, um, have fun!” Nola waved after her. “Doing your, whatever it is! In some room that I definitely don’t know about! Bye-bye!”

Amelia ignored her.

It didn’t take Amelia long at all to find the room in question, even though it looked identical to every other room in this place. It was strange- it seemed as though this hotel was both incredibly small and imposingly large, at the same time.

She attributed that to Dakota’s mental instability, and ever the polite woman of class, knocked on the door.

Is anyone even here to respond? She wondered. But she didn’t need to ponder that question for very long because a moment later the door cracked open, and someone Amelia didn’t expect to see poked her head out and stared at her incredulously.

“…Amelia?” Dakota looked like she’d just eaten something sour. “What the fuck are YOU doing here, huh?”

Amelia pressed her lips together tightly as several thoughts occurred to her all at once.

The first thing that occurred to her was that her little pink-haired informant must have certainly known that Dakota was here, and had arranged for the two of them to meet.

The next thing she realized was that Dakota was in as foul a mood as always, and clearly didn’t want anyone around, hence coming to some obscure room of the hotel in the midst of a sea of other vacant and superfluous rooms.

Which led to her final realization that if she told Dakota what happened and ratted her informant out, things would probably not go well for her.

All three of those realizations directed her to the conclusion that, for once, honesty would not serve her goals as well as keeping her thoughts to herself would.

“Not important,” Amelia said, taking advantage of her usual lack of verbosity. “I’m here.”

Dakota’s eyebrow twitched in irritation. “Yes, I can see that,” she grumbled, stepping into the hallway and crossing her arms over her chest. “WHY are you here?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? The question Amelia didn’t even know the answer to herself. What did her “mysterious informant” seek to accomplish by having Amelia come to this room? How could she even answer that, when she didn’t know what was in the room in the first place?

Well… she knew one thing that had been in the room, so she took a risk.

“You,” she said bluntly. It was a vague enough answer to mean multiple things, and how Dakota took it would be a good insight into her present mental state.

The other woman made a sour face, and glared at her.

“…You’re here to see me?” She shook her head and snorted in disbelief. “Oh, really… that’s quite rich, I hope you know that. Quite rich indeed…”

She clicked her tongue derisively and narrowed her eyes into a glare. “Well, Amelia… I can’t say I don’t appreciate you stepping forward and being a real pal… but I’m not in the mood for small talk. And you aren’t very good at it in the first place.”

Amelia gave her a frosty stare in reply. Whatever Nola, or “Deep Throat” or whoever she was thought would happen here, it seemed unlikely to happen.

“I see.”

“Yes, you do.” Dakota’s irritation seemed to be growing. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I have business to attend to.”

She moved to close the door, but Amelia stopped her. “What business?” She asked.

Dakota turned and glared at the older woman over her shoulder. “…My business,” she replied curtly.

Amelia supposed it was a rather stupid question worded that way. So she clarified, “You have business in an empty room in the middle of a random floor? That strains credulity.”

“Who said it was empty?” Dakota seemed to be getting defensive, which was a good sign, in theory. As Amelia pondered how to address her, she could see that the other woman was growing increasingly agitated with her.

“Listen, you can go now!” She snapped, narrowing her golden eyes into an even sharper glare. “And while you may have forgotten what happened the last time we spoke, I haven’t. And I’m not in any mood to be around you right now.”

Amelia looked coldly at her. “I certainly have not forgotten,” she calmly replied, shaking her head. “I have a very good memory.”

Dakota’s lips quivered for a moment, and Amelia was surprised by the raw emotion she saw play across the woman’s face, briefly as it may have been.

Then the shadows returned. “…Then get lost.”

Normally Amelia would have been happy to oblige such a request. But not from Dakota, certainly not today.

She shook her head. “I remember quite a lot,” she continued, stepping closer to the menacing woman without a hint of fear of what Dakota could be capable of. “Particularly, I remember your feelings about young Regina and her relationship with my Nicholas.”

Dakota flinched. Just as Amelia had anticipated.

The reason for Dakota’s bad mood right now was…

“Oh, that’s right…” A sly smile slowly stretched across the host’s lips. “You gave up part of your date to Gina… I almost forgot. How generous of you.”

Yes, of course, she almost forgot.

Just like how Amelia “almost” believed her.

“Who I choose to allocate my time to is none of your concern,” she calmly reminded Dakota, crossing her arms over her chest. “I believed that this time would best be spent between the two of them. But it would seem you have a problem with that decision?”

Dakota batted her eyelashes innocently while her fingernails scraped across her cane. “Who, me?” She cooed, her voice as corrosive as acid. “I don’t have any problem with that at all… no, not at allll…”

Again, Amelia “almost” believed her. Or she would, if she were an idiot.

“Regina is trying to move forward,” she stated. “Nicholas is as well. They are both trying to get over the pain they shared and build a better life for themselves. With each other.”

Her words were cruel. But Amelia didn’t say them to be cruel.

She said them because they were the truth. And because Dakota needed to hear that truth.

Even if it hurt her.

“That’s just it, isn’t it?” Dakota’s pale lips twisted into a scornful sneer, and she glared contemptuously up at Amelia. “Those two, getting to be so happy together… really, I am happy for them, Amelia. I mean it! I am!”

Blah blah, “Almost believed,” blah, blah…

“Dakota, if you are unwilling to accept that you can change as well, you will be left behind,” Amelia stated. For once, she conveyed her feelings to someone else perfectly.

And with how Dakota seethed, she knew that her words had the desired effect.

Dakota flexed her fingers opened and closed, and Amelia wondered just what the response would be. A punishment transformation? Or some other form of reprisal? Possible, but that would just be conceding that Amelia’s assessment was correct.

She was counting on Dakota not wanting to give her that satisfaction.

But what she received instead was…

“…So what should I do, then?”

Amelia blinked, not anticipating that response.

It sounded almost…

Conciliatory.

Dakota looked up at Amelia with those big, golden eyes of hers, and Amelia actually saw the humanity in her. It was fleeting and fragile, like the sputtering flame of a dying candle, but it was there.

“…I don’t know what to do,” Dakota said quietly, shaking her head. “I don’t know how to move.”

How to… move?

Amelia wasn’t sure how to process that. It was an odd way to word anything, really.

And Dakota proved a moment later that she did know how to move, by taking a step forward and looking Amelia right in the eyes.

“Help me, Amelia,” she breathed, reaching up and cradling the older woman’s cheek. A very odd and almost patronizing gesture, to be sure. Amelia wasn’t sure how to process it.

“…Dakota…”

“You were always there for me, weren’t you?” Dakota murmured, looking up into Amelia’s eyes. Her golden orbs were wet, like she was about to cry, but Amelia knew better. She could see that whatever spark of humanity she’d seen, it had been smothered once more, tamped down by Dakota’s toxicity again.

“…Dakota…”

“Shh, shh, shh…” Dakota brought her finger up to Amelia’s lips and leaned in even closer. Amelia could see the bags under her eyes. Unthinkable for a woman who could control her appearance with a thought, but completely, unquestionably present.

A twisted grin broke the other woman’s face in half.

“Tell me what I should do… mommy…” Dakota breathed, her hair hanging beside her face in long strands, like a doll who was falling apart. “That’s what you always did ever since I was a little girl… you would always tell Nick and I what to do. So do it again… tell me how to be a good girl… tell me how to be okay with this… you can do that, right? Can’t you? Because you’re my real mom? Not like her… you’re the one who cares about me, right? Like a good mother should?”

Amelia was a woman who carried herself with dignified composure. It was very hard to shake her.

But right now… she felt a chill down her back, and she shivered.