[1.02] Orders are Absolute (Part 1)

“Hear my call.”

“I summon thee.”

“Come forth, demon!”

“Ughk.” As Angelica blinked herself awake, the cocktail of bizarre dreams and unfamiliar voices faded away. The fog of her mind quickly lifted, but there was still something not quite right. Her perspective was off as she let her eyes drift around the room, struggling to focus on anything. It was like her head was laying on the top of her bed even though she was sure she was sitting upright. So the girl closed her eyes and gave her body a good shake.

[Active Skill: Transfiguration Lv.1 unlocked]

[Beguilement increased]

Huh, why did I think that? She must have not been fully awake yet. At least this time when she opened her eyes, everything was how it should be, and she was sitting upright properly. But when she looked down at herself… “Why am I naked?” Angelica always slept with clothes on, so it was certainly an oddity. She glanced around and found her outfit from yesterday tossed to one side of the room. Weird, but whatever.

More importantly, during her scan, she found her cat at the foot of her bed. It wasn’t an irregular spot for him, so it wasn’t surprising. However, he was clearly upset by something, at full attention, staring at her with ferocity. His entire body was hunched upward, standing on all fours with his back lifted toward the sky. Every single hair was on edge, his tail straight and puffed.

“What’s wrong, Cherub?” The owner asked in a slightly babying voice as she moved a hand toward him, only to pull it back quickly when he hissed at her. She repeated the attempt, this time a lot slower. When her fingers inched near, the feline took a shy step forward and sniffed them. He then hesitantly shifted his head under her hand, allowing an awkward pet to happen, still eyeing his owner the entire time.

“Is… something burning?” It was Angelica’s turn to sniff the air with trepidation, trying to identify the source. She hunched over the side of the bed and stared at the floor, her eyes widening. The circle she’d painted had changed color entirely, from barfy pinkish orange to pure black. She ran the tip of a finger along one of the lines and it came back covered in some powdery residue. “Sulfur?” She gave it another good sniff. “Just what the hell was in that paint?”

That must have been why the store was so eager to get rid of it. And the smell could be the reason she was feeling so weird, also explaining the head fog and strange dreams. She was used to paint fumes, but this was on another level. And it would also make sense why her cat was so upset. She bent down, trying to scratch at the paint with her fingernail, but it didn’t even cause a scratch. Before she could try again with more fervor, there was a sudden throb of pain in her head.

It was the same spot where she’d been hit with the book the night prior. She ran her hand through her hair and felt a weird welt, so she hopped out of bed and to the bathroom. When she tried to inspect the area in the mirror, though, she found absolutely nothing, not even a sign of yesterday’s injury, just the regular roots of her hair.

Angelica poked at the spot again, and while she saw herself touching nothing, scraping against her skull, it really felt like there was something there, something bulging and a little pointy. Just when she was about to give up, she suddenly felt the same throb again, but this time on the other side of her head. Angelica felt over there as well, and it reproduced the exact same feeling.

That wasn’t the only part of her body that felt off, either. Between her shoulderblades and just above her butt, it felt like there should be weird bumps, but there was nothing at all. “The smell must still be getting to me.” She returned to the main room, turned on the ceiling fan, and opened all the windows—surprised to find that the sun was still rising.

The apartment dweller finally checked the time. It was still early in the morning, far earlier than she’d gotten up in months. She knew she must have gone to bed pretty late, yet strangely, she felt perfectly energized. Perhaps she should act on that before it would inevitably cause her to crash later. While she wasn’t tired, she was certainly still hungry, and the issue of her rent and being completely broke still remained.

What was the best way to deal with it, though? Angelica couldn’t push it off any longer. At the very least, she’d need some money by the end of the day so she didn’t starve, and more importantly, so she could buy Cherub some more wet food. A quick glance showed he still had plenty of dry left in his bowl. But if that’s all he was fed in a day, the spoiled brat wouldn’t stand for it.

Completing more commissions for her regulars would be the easy answer for quick cash, but there was no guarantee they’d pay her today. She could repeat her efforts from yesterday and go sell art services on the street. However, her supplies were all but exhausted. The drawing pad had maybe two or three pages left, and she wasn’t sure her paints or markers had enough juice left in them to even complete that many. It’d be an outcry of poor customer service if she suddenly had to stop a piece in the middle because it was impossible to continue.

“Oh, it’s the weekend, I could do that,” Angelica realized. “And I can definitely get there before they start too.” The idea weighed heavily on her, another quick way of earning money that she hadn’t done in some time, not since her college days. Even when she’d had to resort to dumpster diving before, she hadn’t considered that option. Perhaps it felt too much like regressing in her life. Yet now, on the verge of starvation, she wasn’t stuck on the same hangups. Maybe enough time had passed to get over it, maybe her pride had just been shattered past the point of caring. Since the girl was full of energy, she was surprisingly motivated by the idea, and it wouldn’t hurt to get out for a bit while her apartment finished airing.

She went over to her dresser and dug through the few outfits that actually resided within, ones that she never wore anymore and weren’t worthy of the dirty piles still on her floor. Angelica pulled out her old track suit from her cross country days in college, something she’d continued on from high school. She had even gotten third place in the regional championship as a college sophomore, but that was as high as she’d gone. In her third year, she’d dropped it, much to her mother’s dismay, right around the same time as she really started to delve into art.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Alright, I’m heading out, Cherub. I’ll be back with your wets, I promise.” The borderline hermit actually went outside for a second day in a row, something she hadn’t done since she’d gone to a convention months ago. By mistake, she’d purchased a two-day pass and didn’t want to waste the money. So she spent the time staring longingly in the artists’ sector, hoping to one day be worthy of joining them.