Just take a deep breath.

“Eren, when we first met you asked me why I helped you. Since then we have come to know each other better. Before we go any further, you need to know the truth.” Tae began, each word she uttered a fight within herself. “My name is not Tae Park, my real name is Ji-soo Chen.”

She raised a hand both to prevent a response and to compose herself. “Please, just let me finish. I know you are wondering why I would lie about such a thing, but what I’m about to tell you will change everything you know.” 

Tae opened her mouth to continue but no words came out. Slowly she trailed off until finally she hung her head with a dejected sigh.

“What am I doing?” She murmured to her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Like a child practicing a speech she glanced at her notes again, and scanned over the confession she had drafted the night before. 

The longer you wait to tell him the truth, the more this conversation will hurt when he finds out himself. She could hear Grace’s advice in the back of her head. He deserves to know the real you.

She clenched her fists. 

What if I don’t want him to ever know the ‘real me’? What if I want him to keep thinking I’m a good person? What if I want him to love Tae Park and never know Ji-soo Chen even exists?

Past the bathroom door in the living room she could hear some of Eren’s conversation with Grace. Introductions had gone very well, as she expected the two really liked one another. 

Tae reread her confession. Her admittance of guilt. Did she regret it? If she could rewind time would she allow Mikayla, Alice or Sylvia to live on peacefully as if nothing ever happened? If there was a way to undo it, would she?

The answer was no. Because torturing those evil creatures felt good. 

Each moment had been its own delicacy. To see Mikayla’s once arrogant and dismissive face alight with fear and mortal terror before she was doused in piss and flushed down the drain. The joy of slowly breaking Sylvia’s mind until it warped into a fragile thing unworthy of existence. Although nothing could compare to the euphoria of shattering Alice’s dignity in the face of death, and feeling her slide down her throat and sizzle away into nothingness within her stomach.

Just thinking about it sent delicious chills down her spine. This was what she lived for. It was who she was meant to be. If that made her a monster in the eyes of wicked people, so be it. Their opinions meant nothing.

“You aren’t ready to learn the truth yet, Eren.” She murmured to herself and began to shred the confession into ribbons. “You have enough to worry about.”

She deposited the remains of the paper into the rubbish bin and returned to the living room, where Grace and Eren were talking.

“I had this one done by an artist originally from Tokyo. It is called a shichibu, or a seven-tenth of a full sleeve.” Grace was saying, with her shirt sleeve rolled up past her shoulder to reveal an intricately designed tattoo on her left arm. 

It extended from around her shoulder to just past her mid-forearm, with beautiful line work which featured stylized beasts in wispy clouds surrounded by crimson petals. She indicated towards one of the two creatures, further up her arm which coiled around her bicep, a bird in flight. “This is a crane. In my culture, it often represents immortality.” She explained.

To Tae’s surprise, Eren felt comfortable enough around Grace to walk across the surface of her well-toned arm. In awe he traced the masterful linework of her tattoo, and observed that even at such a small scale the details only became richer. 

Tae joined the pair and took a seat from across her cousin as Eren reached the point past Grace’s elbow. “It’s incredible… this fox creature, is it a kitsune? The nine-tailed fox?”

Grace smiled broadly. “Very astute of you! In China we refer to the nine-tailed fox as the hulijing.” She turned to Tae. “I believe there is a Korean translation as well?”

Tae nodded. “Kumiho. As the legend goes, it is a fox spirit which may live for thousands of years. They have the ability to shapeshift and often take the form of beautiful human women.” She explained. “Although they are portrayed a lot differently in Korea.”

“How so?”

“In Chinese and Japanese folklore, they fluctuate between good and evil. But kumiho are almost always portrayed as malicious, feast on human flesh, and enjoy killing.” Tae went on. “Although supposedly, a kumiho can become human if they abstain from killing anybody for one thousand days.”

“That’s incredible.” Eren remarked, still fascinated by the patterns that swirled around Grace’s arm. 

“I’m glad you appreciate them. My mother nearly had a heart attack when I got my first one.” Grace chuckled, which caused Eren to stumble on her gigantic arm. “If Tae ever takes you to China, I’ll bring you to my tattoo artist. He’s a speck as well.” She revealed.

“Really?!” Eren asked, shocked. 

Grace nodded. “The details a speck artist can achieve are insane. It takes a very long time, but it is absolutely worth it.” 

“I believe it…” Eren murmured in awe. “All finished on the phone, Tae?”

She shook her head yes. “Yeah, sorry it took so long but we should be ready to go.” 

Playfully Grace poked Eren a few times with her tree-trunk sized finger until he tore his eyes away from her body art. It truly put his own simple scorpion into perspective. Gingerly, Grace wrapped her fingers around Eren’s torso and raised him into the air. 

Like her cousin, Grace handled specks with an unerring level of care and expertise. With ease she transferred him into Tae’s open hands where he was quickly nestled against her chest in an affectionate ‘hug’. 

While she had Eren trapped against her soft bosom, Tae whispered a few words to her cousin in Mandarin. Grace looked a little disappointed, but did not object to her decision. 

With Christmas right around the corner the mall was exceptionally busy. It was a new experience for Tae, who had never been to an American mall during the holiday season. And for Eren, who wouldn’t dream of going to such a dangerous place to begin with. He had never seen so many people congregated in a single location. 

A wide array of bodyguards accompanied the trio, albeit disguised as ordinary shoppers in casual clothing. They kept a close eye on the crowd, and a few stuck close to Tae and Grace to ward off anybody from getting too close. Elsewhere personal assistants coordinated with mall employees to ensure waiting in line was not an issue at any store or restaurant. 

Eren twirled a few rope-like strands of her hair around his arm for further support. A safety harness tied him to a cord on her jacket, but he still preferred the extra safety her hair provided. It loosely billowed around her shoulders, like a curtain which shielded him from the gaze of the outside world. 

Tae checked her watch and frowned. “We got her earlier than I expected. Eren’s appointment with the tailor isn’t for another hour.” 

“We can walk around for a bit.” Eren suggested. “I’ve never been to a mall before.” 

It was definitely the Christmas season. Most of the storefronts were decorated with festive colors and had holiday themed installations. In place of the usual kiosks, several were set up that offered seasonal confectioneries like peppermint and gingerbread cookies. 

Children laughed and played, followed by exhausted but willing parents. Ahead a very large crowd had formed at the base of a massive Christmas tree which extended from the ground floor to the highest parts of the mall some ninety feet in the air.

“What do specks in America do during the holidays?” Tae asked. After they passed a crowd of people in the opposite direction. 

“We don’t really celebrate them. But sometimes children will eat sweet bread and exchange gifts if rations aren’t scarce by the end of the month.” Eren replied. 

Tae shook her head in disgust. “That’s horrible. All this decadence while people are suffering just outside.” She turned to Grace who walked alongside her. “Can we not make some kind of donation? Eren’s commune was stripped of its funding.”

“As much as I would love to, it would actually be illegal to do so.” Grace replied.

Eren frowned. “Illegal?”

“A select few private companies hold a monopoly on supplies for specks. They lobby the government to bar charitable contributions to maximize their profits for providing things like food, clothes, and medicine. Since they are the only authorized supplier they can provide the lowest quality and least expensive products, and speck communes are forced to purchase it at a hyper inflated price or have nothing.” Grace explained. “Specks are considered wards of the state, they cannot self-govern or make decisions for themselves like who they purchase from to switch vendors. And as wards, they cannot sue the government or the companies.”

“One of the reasons people hate us is because we supposedly cost a lot in taxes.” Eren mused. “But if all of our products come from private companies, then why do people despise us?” 

“Taxes fund things like light, heat, and electricity in speck communes. But that is a very small portion of where they go. The rest goes up the ladder into a spiderweb of bureaucracy.” Grace replied with a shrug. “It’s extremely corrupt and exploitative.”

Eren scoffed. “Why am I even surprised?” He muttered. 

Eventually they reached the center of the mall, where the big Christmas tree was set up. Brilliant golden and silver ornaments sparkled against a field of green fir branches contrasted by bands of red ribbon. 

At the base of the gargantuan tree was a snow machine, which blew artificial snowflakes around a cordoned off section in front of the tree. A sleigh filled with gift boxes was pulled by a set of fake reindeer. And of course, a man dressed as Santa Claus sat on a chair with children lined up to sit on his lap and ask for presents.

Tae scanned across the crowd. It would be difficult to push past everybody without the risk of bumping into someone. Although if they-.

Without warning Tae stopped walking. The sudden loss of momentum propelled Eren forward, and he almost slipped off her shoulder. Fortunately the safety harness prevented him from a fatal fall, but he instinctively pulled her hair in surprise. She ignored the slight pain as her hair swirled around him, completely hiding the outside world as Eren tried to push it away in confusion. 

Grace stopped as well. She offered a perplexed expression and followed her cousin’s glare across the mall to a specific place in line for Santa.

A man stood in line.

He was rather young, in his early twenties with a slight stubble now grown into a short beard. It framed his wide nose and matched the color of his dark brown eyes. Dressed in a festive Christmas sweater, it was plain to see he had an athletic build. 

The man from Delphi’s Tavern who harassed us. Tae thought to herself, almost in disbelief. His name was Mike. 

She never forgot a face. It was absolutely him. “Tae? What’s wrong?” Grace asked, confused.

Eren had not freed himself from the vortex of her hair yet. He had not seen it.

“I need to take care of someone in the crowd.” Grace replied in Mandarin. She swung around so her back faced the crowd. “Distract Eren, I don’t know how long this will take.”

Tae brushed her hair away and unlatched Eren’s safety harness. Before he could protest she practically shoved him into Grace’s hands. “I’ll text you with updates.” 

Bewildered, Eren turned around to see where Tae was headed. Grace spun around and began walking in the opposite direction immediately, which cut off his vision.

He frowned. “What’s happening? Is everything okay? She just left in a rush.” He asked, very confused. 

“We forgot to give our limousine driver cash to pay for valet parking, believe me she does this all the time.” Grace lied as she put as much distance between herself and Tae as possible. “We might as well head back and get your suit fitted. She’ll meet up with us later.”

There must be thousands of people in this mall. What are the odds of running into this prick again? Tae ruminated to herself as she vanished into the crowd. Once she was positive nobody was paying attention, she flipped her hoodie up. Too bad your friend isn’t with you, unless he’s in another store.

She watched from afar while he continued to stand in place. Like most of the other adults in the line for the tree, he found other means of entertainment like playing with his phone. It gave her the opportunity to sneak a little closer. 

Many of the people around were not in the line, but gathered in groups around the tree to take pictures or browse the scenery. Tae took out her phone and pretended to text someone as she strolled by, vigilant of Mike’s location relative to her.

What was it you said about Eren? That he was disgusting? Tae thought bitterly. She thumbed her pocket where she kept her wallet. Inside she could feel the narrow outline of a syringe. It’s a good thing I brought this.

This was a very well populated place. Potentially there were hundreds of witnesses, and security cameras in every store. She had to be careful. Grace’s security team could delete or alter things on the mall’s records without too much hassle, but she would rather not need to do damage control on some stray in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

But there were ways around that. Fitting rooms, abandoned shops, elevators, the parking garage. She just needed him to venture there, or set a lure.

Tae frowned. He still had not moved from his spot in the crowd.

What are you doing there? 

She got her answer moments later. From under the tree where Santa was perched, a little boy hopped off the man’s lap and began to run excitedly towards Mike. To her surprise, Mike smiled broadly and got on his haunches to give the kid a hug.

“About time buddy!” She heard him say cheerfully as another kid in line approached Santa for his turn. “What did you wish for?”

“I can’t tell you or it won’t come true!” The kid replied cheekily. The pair began to walk away. 

Tae was too surprised to follow at first, until someone bumped into her which snapped her back to attention. Instantly she slipped through the crowd, expertly weaving between groups of people to keep Mike and the child in sight.

A kid? She thought. Maybe his son? No… more likely his younger brother.

Mike held the boy’s hand and led him through the mall. The kid couldn’t be any older than five or six, and bore a close resemblance to what she presumed was his elder brother. With big dark brown eyes full of wonder and wispy dark brown hair.

The pair explored some other parts of the mall. Every time they passed a particularly impressive display, the kid wanted to see it. Play with all the exhibits, and go into the toy and candy shops. 

Eventually Mike relented and they entered a kind of Christmas wonderland filled with candies and toys. All the employees were dressed as elves. Tae stopped outside and peered through the glass window from behind a pillar. 

That complicates things… 

Through the glass she could see Mike keep a close eye on the kid. To his credit he was a very good chaperone. He kept a reasonable distance to allow the youngster a chance to explore, but never left him out of his sight. And no matter what, he always had a big toothy smile on his face. 

Tae glanced away.

Unlike the girls from before, he never tried to kill anybody, as far as I know. Once again she felt the syringe in her pocket. Maybe this is going too far. 

She continued to follow them when they left that store. It seemed they were done with the mall for the day, and were headed in the direction of the parking garage. Fewer people were around now. 

Soon it was just them. It was harder to tail Mike without a crowd to blend into, but she managed and ducked behind parked cars to keep her cover. Finally she heard him begin to load everything into a car.

If she was going to do it, now was the time. But was murdering a man for a few rude words in a restaurant, in front of his innocent little brother right before Christmas the kind of person she was?

Soon after he and his brother left, Tae returned to the mall proper. 

That took almost forty five minutes?! How am I going to explain this to Eren? She thought miserably as she passed an old store on the very outskirts of the mall. 

Only a single employee operated it, and he seemed half asleep from the lack of foot traffic in this area. Everything on sale was out of season on clearance. Some of it was as old as Halloween costumes and masks that were never sold months ago. 

One mask caught her eye. A white fox with red highlights. It was familiar, they had all been talking about it earlier that day.

The suit fit perfectly. At Grace’s encouragement he picked out a tapered black jacket and a few different dress shirts and trousers to go with it. Unfortunately the shoes would need to be custom ordered. However for his virtual interview he would not need it. 

By the time they left the speck friendly tailor, Tae had still not come back, and Grace was feeling peckish so they visited the food court. 

“Have you ever tried tapioca before?” She asked conversationally and set down her drink and poké bowl for them to share. 

He shook his head no, and looked at the tall icy drink quizzically. The top of the cup was covered in a thin pink colored plastic wrap, like a big sticker. To penetrate it Grace used a thick straw provided by the restaurant with a sharp edge at the bottom. She stirred the amber colored liquid around, along with several black orbs a little smaller than Eren’s torso.

She brought the straw to her lips and took a sip. “Eww. Well, let's not have this be your first time.” Grace said in disgust. “American mall quality boba. Why am I surprised it tastes awful?” 

“I’m assuming the real thing tastes way better?”

“By comparison this tastes like public pool water with added sugar.” Grace chortled and pushed the drink to the other side of the table. “I doubt this poké is any better but I’m starving.”

Eren had never eaten poké style fish before, but he had eaten plenty of rice. It was very sticky, unlike the rice he was used to and the grains substantially shorter. He thought it tasted really good, but surmised compared to what Grace was used to it was probably pretty bad. 

He glanced over his shoulder. 

At first he had been a little worried that like Delphi’s, someone would make a stink about a speck eating in the presence of brobs. However all the nearby tables were occupied by a wall of men and women who had followed them since they left the apartment. With translucent headphones and watchful eyes.

They were Grace’s bodyguard, and apparently Tae’s as well. With them around nobody had the chance to get close. Occasionally a family would shoot them a confused glance, and once someone attempted to take a picture of a speck on a table eating with a normal person, but he was immediately told to leave before he got his phone out by a burly man who protected Grace. 

“Sort of a blunt question,” Eren began, and wiped some soy sauce from his chin. “But what do you and Tae do? You have a lot of protection.” Grace put her chopsticks down and took a small sip of water.

“Are you politicians? Celebrities?” He asked.

“Thankfully neither of us are that high-profile to be recognizable to the average person, especially outside of Asia.” Grace replied with a hand over her mouth to keep crumbs from hitting Eren. “Our family owns the Amrita Corporation.”

“What?!” Eren almost dropped his food in shock. 

The Amrita Corporation?! The supercompany that runs a third of the planet’s economy? THAT Amrita Corporation?!

Amrita was a business titan among titans. It was the largest retailer in the world globally, manufactured the majority of household electronics, and owned several corollaries in other industries including oil and automobiles. 

But what he and most other people knew Amrita for was their pharmaceuticals. Modern healthcare systems practically depended on Amrita’s medical developments for support. Treatments for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s… Amrita’s treatments had almost trivialized most chronic illnesses.

“Tae never told me.” Eren murmured in disbelief. 

“My Aunt Min is the current chief executive officer.” Grace mentioned. “As for me and Tae, we are both operations specialists. Our role is to ensure that on a regional level the company is performing optimally, and to detect any areas for improvement and take corrective action when necessary.”

That means Tae and Grace are two of the wealthiest women on the planet. Eren thought in awe. I’m dating one and chatting over shitty mall food with the other…

“Sorry that took so long.” Eren looked up to see Tae return with a shopping bag. 

“Kovit wasn’t upset you forgot to give him money for parking, right?” Grace replied before Eren could say anything. 

Tae shook her head. “He was very understanding. If you got the suit then we can go home, unless you would like to explore the mall further?”

“That should hold. Let’s head back to town before the snow gets worse.” Mike declared as his teeth chattered and bones froze over. A blizzard was expected to hit in a few hours. If not for the tight schedule between now and Christmas Day, they would have never risked the adventure. 

Xavier grumbled in agreement and pulled the strap which tied the evergreen to the roof of their car taut. Eagerly both young men retreated to the warmth of Mike’s truck, and took a breath of relief. 

To get a Christmas tree to be proud of required effort, but it had been worse than usual this year given the exceptionally bad weather and lack of time to plan appropriately. Once his friend was sure the tree would not fall off the back of the truck in the middle of their drive back downtown, they returned to the road.

Outside of Norwich was mostly vast woodland and snowy forest. Beautiful in the summer when the flowers and meadows bloomed, but an endless desert of cold and frost in the winter. Miles of trees were cut with icy roads barely visible in the thick fog and snow.

Fortunately few people, even locals ventured this way especially so close to a snowstorm so Mike had the road to himself and could drive a bit faster than was advisable. 

Xavier popped the joints in his knuckle. “Your dad owes me. People get paid to do this shit.” He quipped.

“How does a beer and ‘thank you very much’ sound?” Mike replied. 

Immediately after he dropped his little brother back home he had to rush and pick up Xavier to acquire the tree. Otherwise the roads from the upcoming snowstorm of the next few days would shut down most of the roads and the house would go without one this year. 

Fake trees were sold out everywhere, and his mother would refuse to use one anyways. 

“Can you believe this shit?” Xavier mumbled while scrolling through his phone. 

Mike glanced over to see his friend flip through a few different notable news articles for the week. “What’s it say?”

“There’s a middle school in California doing a canned food drive for specks this Christmas.” Xavier laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” 

Mike snickered. “The hell do they need a food drive for? I’m paying like ten percent out of my paycheck in taxes so those little shits can get money just for existing.”  

“What I wouldn’t give to just wake up and know all my needs are being cared for. I swear the world has gone crazy…” Xavier muttered. “Wouldn’t need to work, or go to school, or wake up early…” He mused.

“You get to fuck hot Asian girls apparently!” Mike laughed out loud. 

Xavier furrowed his brow, confused before he realized what Mike was referring to. “Oh shit I almost forgot about that!” He exclaimed. “At Delphi’s right? That girl was fine.”

“And she was willing to fight us over it too! Like holy shit how good is this dude?!” Mike asked. “It ain’t even a real man and it is on a date with this girl or something.”

Xavier wrinkled his nose. “Oh… I just thought of something. How do you think they get it on?” He chuckled as Mike made up his face in disgust. “Does he crawl into her or-?”

Mike had taken his eyes off the road for a split second to glance at Xavier while he was talking. When he looked back he almost had a heart attack. 

In the middle of the street ahead, less than one hundred feet away was the shimmering silhouette of a person. With the snowfall and shroud of fog they seemed almost ethereal, like a phantasmic illusion until the car got closer and Mike could tell it was real. 

He panicked and swerved to the side, his foot stomped on the brake pedal hard which lurched both him and Xavier forward. Instantly the car began to drift along the slippery ice road in and out of control spiral forwards. Mike could feel the inertia pull his body to the side into Xavier, who was briefly pushed up against the window. 

The car was no longer responding to his commands and careened off the road down a shallow snowy slope. Mike gasped as they veered headfirst towards a looming fir tree. With all his remaining strength and a roar he managed to yank the steering wheel hard to centerpoint to realign the wheels, then with the fleeting second of control he had corrected their trajectory to just avoid a headlong collision. 

What happened next occurred in less than ten seconds, but felt like an hour. Almost in slow motion. 

First there was the impact. A loud and great crash which hit Mike like a bullet. His head swung to the side then came to a sudden stop. Then, the airbags deployed a nanosecond later to prevent Xavier from catapulting out of the window. His vision was blurred from a wall of fabric which smashed his face to the side to look out of the car or bury his nose in it. And finally, the car rocked to the side against the tree with a slump.

He had broken bones. Mike was too dazed to tell which ones, but could feel the cracked and aching pain from various points in his body which indicated he was badly hurt. Although excruciating the pain was not severe enough to lull him into shock.

It left him awake.

From the peripheral of his vision, the ghostly figure began to move. It took slow and calculated steps down the hill to the scene of the crash. 

Mike shuddered as the person got close enough to discern features. Or lack thereof, for they wore a white mask like the face of a fox.