Cain’s hand brushed against my side. The only trace of him ever hitting me was a ripped shirt and a screaming pain in my side. I almost lost my balance, as tears pearled at the corner of my eyes.

I blocked the next attack with my knife, holding my hand behind the blade, in hopes of extra support.

Then, throwing all caution and common sense to the side, I dashed towards the figure.

My blade made contact with flesh. But it hadn’t been the cloud-like cloak that the figure wore. Instead, my knife pierced through two little arms, raised in a guard above Cain’s head.

I jumped back, horrified. If Cain was protecting this person, then I stood no chance of getting out of here. Unless I used my ‘Long Voyage’ skill; my options were suicide by stabbing myself, or suicide by Cain.

I couldn’t do either. I had worked too hard to get him to guard me, and if I were to leave him here, even gods wouldn’t be able to predict his fate.

But by some sort of miracle, the look in Cain’s eyes changed. It was as if life had returned to them. We locked eyes, and I raised my knife in a guard, unsure if I’d have to block his attack again. He looked at the knife, then at his hands, before suddenly turning around and launching at the figure behind him.

They had clearly not expected that, as they yelped out in pain.

I couldn’t even track Cain’s attacks with my eyes. He was moving so fast that had he not been wearing such colourful clothes, it would have been impossible to track him at all. I didn’t have the time to let out a sigh of relief, as the figure fell to the ground, and slowly evaporated into thin air.

Cain turned towards me with a questioning expression that matched my own.

Could it be that this person had the same skill as me; teleporting and resurrecting upon death?

“Must have been a shadow puppet.” Cain broke the silence, as he kicked the ground where the figure had been. “Never seen one that can cast though. Mine sure can’t.” He added quietly.

I looked around. The wall of white surrounding the tree had vanished and was replaced with an evening sky. There were hardly any people around, as the thick layer of hail, which was slowly melting under the summer sun, was discouraging most from continuing their walk. I quickly folded the knife and hid it back in my bag.

“Are you alright?” I asked Cain.

“Yea.” He smiled, for what seemed to be the first time. “That was a weak target, an easy one to kill.”

I frowned at his word choice, making a mental note of having a conversation with him about killing, especially within city limits.

“I was talking about your arms. I did stab you after all. Unintentionally, but still.”

“Oh, that? That was one of the weakest stabbings I’ve ever felt. Really, who taught you to fight?”

I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not based on his expression.

“I wasn’t talking about luck points.” I said as I shook my head, before gesturing for him to follow me.

I checked my phone to see exactly what time it was, but the screen was black. That seemed strange, as I was pretty sure my battery was close to full when we left this afternoon. Then, the screen turned on, displaying ‘20:16’.

“Oh, damn.” I swore once I realised that my phone had been the only thing affected by the ‘blackout’ skill earlier.

“Aright, aright, I’m coming,” Cain said, as he caught up to me.

He was still looking at me with that questioning expression, which I returned with a smile.

“We get to live and see another day.” I joked.

That seemed to have been a good enough answer for him, as he happily followed me out of the park.

***

“So, who’s after you anyway?” He asked.

I slowed down my pace, trying to think of an answer.

“I don’t know.” I replied honestly. “It happened before as well, and I thought it was a random attack, but now, well coincidences don’t happen twice, do they? And in such a short amount of time as well.”

“Could be random.” Cain spoke.

I looked at him with a perplexed expression.

He looked up at me, and frowned.

“Isn’t that universal everywhere? Or did you just grow up sheltered? We are all born evil and have to fight our instincts or learn how to use them to our advantage, or else we will become like those men.”

“Who taught you that?!”

He looked at me, wide-eyed. ‘Isn’t that common knowledge?’ he seemed to be saying.

“That’s not how the world works,” I began, “yes, some people are bad, and other people struggle with instincts, and power, and sometimes those groups overlap, but they still remain a minority. People don’t go around randomly attacking one another. There is order, there is law, in a place like Paris especially-”

I stopped in my tracks, suddenly doubting the words coming out of my mouth. Was that really true? Was there really law and order in the world? Was that crazy man on the train an exception to the rule, or rather a prime example of Cain’s thesis?

“It’s a complex issue.” I concluded out loud.

The world wasn’t all evil, and perhaps one’s outlook on it heavily depended on the situation they were in. Either way, Cain wasn’t buying any of it.

“Thebes.” I corrected myself out loud.

“You can keep calling me Cain.” The boy said with a neutral tone. “Don’t know where you picked that name, but it fits me.”

“How do you know that?” I smirked.

“Well, you haven’t called anyone else that, so I presume it’s not just something you say when you can’t remember what someone’s name is.” He shrugged.

I tried thinking back to any instances I’ve called Cain by that name to his face. I couldn’t think of any off the top of my head, but it didn’t surprise me, considering I had been mentally referring to him as Cain, and only correcting myself to ‘Thebes’ when I remembered to do so.

“Well, all right then Cain.” I agreed. “Do you remember what my name is?” I added in a joking tone.

“Weak blond lady.” He smirked.

“It’s Laura! I have told you several times.”

He scratched his ear, pretending not to hear.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head in disapproval. But I couldn’t help but smile. This type of banter could only mean that he was getting to trust me and that I should no longer worry about him running away.