Words with Fiends - 24

Dr. Liana Moreau stopped at the student union to pick up a coffee and a muffin on her way to her office. She paid and turned to leave but decided to pick up a copy of the student newspaper. It was usually trash, but she did like to keep abreast of things going on within the campus. Her fingers slide along the top copy, then froze.

Right beside the official newspaper was a small stack of pamphlets. Anger rose within her.

The Lez List

By Dr. Liana Moreau

The Lez list...what the actual fuck?

She picked it up and screamed. It was a short publication of the hottest women on campus, including photos and rather specific measurements. Liana herself held the cover, wearing a totally inappropriate outfit.

She grabbed the whole stack and rushed off to her office.

She knew that demon was going to print a zine, but she never imagined...

She hadn't played again since that loss. She hadn't seen the point. Sure she'd never wear a button up again, but life would go on. She felt like a zine in her name would be easy to dismiss as slander and just ignore it.

But this.

This.

This was too much.

She could still try playing it off, but that photo compromised her. All the other photos were taken from afar, like a stalker, but the photo of Liana was intimate, private, deliberate. Who else could have taken that photo?

Fuck.

She threw all the zines in her trash bin and slumped down into her chair.

She'd seen it from the beginning. There was no way to 'win' this game. The more you played, the more punishments you'd end up with. It was designed to trap you in an endless cycle trying to win freedom, but always having it just out of reach. She thought with just two punishments she could just ignore it and live her life...but that was obviously not what the Fiends wanted.

She opened the app and stared at it.

"Leviathan...let's cut the bullshit. You aren't a computer program any more than I am. Come out and talk."

Her phone started to shake, so hard she nearly dropped it. Her screen flashed red and the chibi demon appeared on her screen.

Trust me. You do NOT want me to physically incarnate in your world. Not if you value human life...

Liana gulped. Just what was this thing?

She tried to put on a brave face and rolled her eyes, "Whatever. I just want to know how to sever our relationship. What is it going to take?"

The demon's eyes glinted.

Sever? But we were just starting to get to know one another...
If you really want to get rid of me it's simple. What do demons want?
Human sacrifices!

"Human sacrifices? What? I'm not killing anyone."

The fiend laughed.

We do not desire ****. We desire corruption.
Use your authority to drag others down.
Sell us your students. Buy your freedom on their lives.

Liana shook her head. She didn't have the strongest sense of justice, but she couldn't imagine herself selling out her students to the fiends.

"There has to be another way."

Play the game and find out.

Liana stared at her screen.

Special Offer Start a game within the next minute and receive a list of Sienna's current punishments and perks.

Liana gulped. Sienna. The whole reason she'd been tempted in the first place.

"F-fine. Whatever. If I can get rid of this Zine it'll be worth it."

She frowned as she saw her starting tiles. A lot of vowels. Not too good.

She ended up playing ALOHA for 16.

Thankfully Leviathan didn't have anything better. It played CIGAR, also for 16.

Liana grinned, she could use that. She played SKID off CIGAR for 27.

Leviathan countered immediately with ZIN. Unfortunately the Z on was a double letter and made two words, so it got 43 points and the lead for it.

Except for a P all of Liana's tiles are 1 pointers. Thanks to her S she can see some big scores, but they all use PW tiles. Finally she sees a way to get lots of points. She puts her P to form ZAP and her O to form HOD. OP for 32 points. A good word, but not enough for the lead.

The lead grows larger as Leviathan plays XI-XI. With the X on the double word tile of course. 38 points for a 22 point lead.

It's her final turn. A 22 point word won't be enough. She needs a big score.

She gulps.

She needs a punishment tile.

Thankfully she'd picked up something worth some actual points, the Q, but it wouldn't be enough unless she used it on the PW tile.

She had ****.

SQUARE. 73 points.

As if to mock her effort Leviathan played IT. 2 points.

She'd won, but not without paying a price.

The game showed her options for her reward and she chose to get rid of ZINES. She hoped, but doubted, that it was retroactive, but at long as it didn't happen again she could play it off as some ex with a vendetta.

As for her punishment.

SQUARES - You are fascinated by squares. Be careful not to stare at one too long or you might find yourself entranced.

Entranced? What the hell did that mean?

And avoid looking at squares? Everything was a fucking square.

Well...no. She supposed her phone, her computer, her office...it was all rectangles, not squares. Maybe she was safe.

She rubbed her temple, what the hell was she going to do now?