"What do you mean?! It’s right there. It’s standing right fucking there!"

[Host, you must not harm the Empath.]

Frustration bubbled in Anna’s chest. The Empath faced her, his head coked to the side in a curious fashion. "Oh, this one is different huh?"

"System!" Anna screamed, her hands trembling so hard sweat dropped down her palms. "Please...I’m begging you! Any other task! Please!"

[Host, you must not harm the Empath.]

Anna shook her head, despair evident in her eyes. "No...no please, don’t do this! Please!"

"Anna you need to leave!" Tristan yelled. But she didn’t hear him. She couldn’t hear him, not while she was screaming at the system to do something.

The reply was the same.

Slowly, Anna’s hands lowered to her sides. Her black spores vanished, returning to their pale pink color. Her knees wobbled and she fell to the ground.

Before her body could hit the floor, Tristan rushed forward and caught her.

"Anna..." his voice was full of emotion. His voice cracked, and he held her tighter. "I’m sorry,"

"You are so foolish," the Empath sighed. "This is why you left home? For her?"

Anna’s heart sank. "What...what is he talking about?"

"Nothing. I swear it’s nothing. Don’t listen...don’t listen to him."

"Is this the lie you’ve told yourself? Or have you deluded yourself into believing them?"

"Shut up!"

"The least you could have done was tell her the truth." The Empath walked up to them and crouched down. He smiled, looking at both of them like they were interesting objects.

"Tristan, what the fuck is he talking about?!"

Tristan shook his head, repeating "I’m sorry" over and over again.

The chill in the air settled inward in Anna’s veins.

Everything snapped into place.

"You..." she looked between him and the Empath.

It was then she saw it.

How could she miss it the first time? They looked alike. The same blinding beauty that can be seen from miles. Their ethereal nature. The facial expressions and emotions that were slightly wrong, almost too perfect.

A dozen tiny instances started piecing together in Anna’s head.

She pushed him away, skittered to the farthest corner of the room. "The cliff...my detector...it was reacting to you. And the...all the devices it was you who ruined them all!"

"Anna please, I’m sorry. I promise you I never meant to harm you in any way."

Hot tears of betrayal filled her eyes. "You didn’t mean to hurt me?! You’re a fucking Empath! This entire time I was...we were...fuck! I thought I..."

"This is why we stay away from them. Just look, you’ve broken her tiny brain."

"Shut up!" Both Anna and Tristan yelled.

The tears dripped down Anna’s face. The back of her throat burned with bitterness.

"It was you. My assassin, that was you."

"No! It wasn’t me! I promise I—"

"Do you know how we assume human form?" The Empath asked Anna. "Take a wild guess, you’re pretty smart."

Horror settled in the pit of her stomach like a cold stone. "No..."

"He was dying already! All I did was—"

"You had no fucking right!" Anna screamed. "You killed him and now...now you’re wearing his face like a stupid AI program! All this time, I though you were on our side! How...how could you?!"

"I’m sorry. I didn’t think it’d get this far. Anna please, you have to believe me."

He looked sincere. Enough to fool anyone.

Anna heart shattered into a million pieces. At first, Tristan was just an annoying soldier that wouldn’t leave her alone. Somehow, the line started to blur. She began to see him as a friend.

At the restaurant, she truly believed that he was a good person, just maybe too weird.

"I’m going to kill you." She hissed, gathering her black spores again.

[Host, you must not harm the Empath.]

"What the fuck do you even want from me?!" Anna screamed at the air, resisting the urge to yank her own hair out.

Then, the Empath spoke.

"Anna Carson."

Her blood turned to ice slurry. "How..."

With a flick of his wrist, the Empath suspended Tristan to the wall.

"Don’t touch her! Let her go please! I’ll come back, I promise I’ll come back!"

"You had your chance to return peacefully, brother. Keep your mouth shut now, my business is with Miss Carson."

Anna’s anger chipped away bit by bit as she glanced at Tristan and saw the raw, unfiltered fear in his eyes. He struggled against the invisible bonds keeping him in place, his veins and muscles bulging, his eyes so wide Anna could see his full irises.

Fear in turn gripped her heart.

Without thinking, she turned and ran.

She’d barely taken two steps before the Empath caught her ankle and pulled her back forcing her to sit up."

"You’re a strange one," he murmured, eyes narrowed as he peered into her face. He tapped her forehead with a long, sharp nail. "Up here, you’re someone else. Someone not of this world. How did you get here?"

"Let them go. Let him go!" Anna spat in his face.

He calmly wiped her spittle off like it hadn’t happened. "Now I’m curious, can I harness such power? Perhaps pay a visit to this...primitive world of yours?"

Anna tried to imagine, for a split second, Empaths and Dream Weavers and Mirrors storming her world. All she saw was blood. Destruction.

Her spirits shattered. Her shoulders sagged and pitiful sobs welled in her throat.

"What do you even want? Why are you doing all this?"

"It’s all thanks to your friend. You see, he had something important to do. But instead of focusing on his task, he went and chased you. Isn’t that romantic?"

Anna glanced at Tristan. He’d gone slack, still terrified, his eyes pleading with her.

"Romantic?" She whispered.

The Empath raised his brows, appearing genuinely shocked. "He didn’t even tell you? What did he even say to you in all the time you’d been together?"

"He’s just my friend," Anna said, defeated. "There’s no romance. Nothing. You’re just hallucinating. Just stop already. You can take him back, I don’t care. Just stop."

"So cold, and to think he had so many...fantasies of you." He said as he rose to his feet.

Tristan began to struggle even harder. Screaming at Anna to run. Anna hadn’t heard him sound so scared before.

She wanted to run. Bolt for the door no matter how much carnage was outside.

But her feet wouldn’t move.

She remained pinned to the ground, her legs tucked under her, her arms pinned at her sides.

The Empath stepped back and took a long sweeping look around the room before his eyes fell on Anna again.

"Don’t worry. I’ll show you." He said. His eyes flashed and glitched, like corruption. The air around him turned to static, humming with energy, tasting like blood.

Images flooded Anna’s mind.

Dozens and dozens of images.

She opened her mouth, and a long, inhuman scream of pure agony came out of her.

Her eyes rolled back, her body convulsing in rapid spasms. Yet, the images of her body violated over and over again, continued to flood her mind.

***

Tristan watched the woman he loved fall apart and knew the exact cause.

The same set of images played through his mind.

"No! No! Stop it! I would never do such a thing to her! Stop!"

The Empath faced him, smiling coldly. "Are you sure? How long will you continue to lie to yourself?"

"I’m not lying. She’s not—"

"Not what? Able to handle such? She’s a beastbloom, I believe she can handle whatever you dish at her. Look, see how beautifully she falls apart. Can’t you taste it? The full range of her emotions?"

Tristan couldn’t bear to watch Anna’s face full of pain. Yet he knew the Empath was right.

Anna’s emotion was the first thing he noticed. In the entire palace, she stood out. She was full of so much. Pain, anger, hope, emotions Tristan didn’t have a name for.

What started as a simple missing from Father turned into a week long observation of the strange Princess with her spectrum of emotions.

And another week.

And another week.

And somehow, Tristan knew he didn’t want to go back. Not until he understood every single emotion of hers.

When the opportunity presented to get a real body, he wasted no time taking it. Now he could get even closer to her.

The General Games were a breeze, the previous owner of the body was an excellent soldier, well known and loved.

Tristan soon began to feel emotions he didn’t think existed.

That’s all Empaths did. Feel.

Being around Anna was like being exposed to new levels of sensation.

How could he not get addicted?

How could his curiosity not turn a little into romantic interest?

"Please," tears gathered in his eyes. "Please, spare her. She’s hurt enough already."

"I know. All the darkness, all the secrets. I know all of them. And I want you to watch."

Anna collapsed to the floor, shaking, sobbing, clawing at the floor in an attempt to get away from the horrifying images in her head.

Whatever was left of Tristan’s heart broke.

"I’d never touch her without her permission..." he sobbed openly. "I’d never...I’d never force myself on her. Stop showing her lies. I won’t do those things to her. She won’t look at me ever again...stop, I beg you. Stop."

The Empath didn’t reply. He watched. Drank in Anna’s emotions, her pain, her fear, the crushing weight of her despair.

"I understand now why you disobeyed Father for her." The Empath turned, a dark glint in his eye. "Her emotions are truly exquisite."