VEE

The tasty muffin disappears quicker than I expected. I lick my finger before picking up crumbs from the plate with the tip. As I place one in my mouth, the world around me contorts as if sucked into a vacuum. Sound drops away simultaneously—chatter, mugs on china, the sound of the espresso machine—all gone. My stomach flips over and I grip the table edge, focusing hard on my surroundings. They ripple as if a stone dropped into a large puddle, growing murky as the silence continues.

Has Seth pulled me to him again?

The world settles. No. I’m still in the café, beneath the low-hanging lights above the table, my scrunched wrapper on the plate, half-drunk coffee alongside. Syv stands still at the counter ordering a second coffee for herself.

But nobody moves.

Heart stuttering, I grip harder and turn my head to the window. The world outside has switched from a busy, vibrant street to a landscape photograph of a day in a Californian town.

Nothing moves.

I close my eyes and focus on the table’s hardness, the coffee scent, and the chocolate taste in my mouth.

Reality still exists. I’m the same Vee, in the same place.

But the world has freeze-framed.

I stand and pull my phone from my pocket with shaking hands. Blank screen. I turn it on and off again. The battery must be dead, because nothing happens.

A doorway to the café rear bangs closed and a man walks across the swept wooden floor towards my table, carrying a plate. Seth pulls out the chair Syv left moments ago and sits.

I squeeze my fingers around the phone and it bites into my palm. Right now, shock has pushed out my nerves around Chaos, and I intend to keep control.

I have information he doesn’t.

I’m the step ahead this time.

“Man, it’s hard to get you alone.” Seth picks up a teaspoon and stabs it into the chocolate cake. The gooey middle spills onto the plate and he wrinkles his nose.

The Chaos I expect each time we meet isn’t the one in front of me now. All along, he’s remained the slight, nerdy guy who looks like he doesn’t see the sun much. This is the same man who befriended me online. The guy who recruited others under his moniker DoomMan and sucked us all into his lies.

Has he kept this human form to rub our noses in the mess he created? To remind us of every mistake we made, each day he spent with us burrowing into our lives and planting doubt and disharmony?

Chaos doesn’t give a shit if we know what he looks like, because he’s certain he’ll take us down.

He’s heard the prophecy, he thinks he knows the truth about who I am. But he doesn’t.

There’s a reverence in his face I recognise, one I saw fleeting glimpses of in the time he lived with us. He doesn’t reach out or touch me. There’s no physical attack the way he unleashed last time. But the dark power surrounding him is enough for fear to attack my calm veneer.

“Seth.”

He looks up and smiles broadly. “Verity.”

Our pleasant greetings are backed by joint disdain and mistrust.

“What did you do?” I ask.

“When in particular? I’ve been busy.”

“Just now.”

Seth rests back in the chair and surveys the silent tableau around. “Pretty cool, huh? Manipulating time and space is exhausting but fun.”

I bite the inside of my cheek and don’t reply.

He licks chocolate from the spoon and then points it at my plate. “I had muffins here the other day, though I prefer the café on the other street. Lot Six Zero. Have you tried there?”

I straighten in my seat. “Are you living around here?”

“No. Just visiting, daily. Well…” He rubs his nose. “Spying, I guess. I saw the angels visiting today.”

I look back with no response.

Seth shakes his head and spoons cake into his mouth. “It hurts, y’know?”

“What does? The cake?”

“No. The guys. All that time we spent together and they never quite trusted me. Angels appear and suddenly the boys trust them.” He scoffs. “Bloody idiots.”

“The angels aren’t trying to divide or kill us. Perhaps that’s why?”

Seth’s brown eyes meet mine and he leans across the table. “Aren’t they?”

“They helped keep the portal closed the other day. They stopped you killing the guys.” I glare back. “And stopped me killing you.”

Seth’s laughter hits my nerves as sharply as a toothache. “I wasn’t killing you all! Man, you’d know if I was.”

“Don’t bet on it,” I growl.

He merely smirks.

“If a sparring match in the desert wasn’t the right place, I’m guessing a city café isn’t either.”

“I told you all, repeatedly, I’ll kill them one by one in front of your eyes until you give in. Then if there is the smallest chance you can beat me, there’ll be no point for you because your lovers will be dead.”

The people are frozen around me. Nobody would see if I attacked him now. The secrets in their world could remain hidden.

“But if you did want to try now, everyone would die when I blew the café apart.” He gestures at them. “I mean, they’re all going to die anyway but it would be so… boring.”

I shrug and look down at my phone, as if staring hard enough would reactivate it.

“How are your boys?”

“They’re okay. I’ll tell them you asked after them.” I can’t help the sarcasm edging in and rein it back. Seth wants a reaction and I won’t give him one. Not yet.

“Are you scared of me?” he asks.

“Are you scared of me?”

He chuckles. “No. You’re an inconvenience, but this will end soon. Have the angels told you where yet? I’m a little impatient. I bet that’s why they visited your lapdogs.”

I sip my coffee. Ugh. Cold. “I imagine so. I left them talking. Do you think you’ll survive this, Seth?”

“You won’t.”

His words hang heavy in the air between us. “Perhaps not, but if the story is true, Seth, neither will you.”

“To be honest, Verity, I really don’t give a shit. Xander is right about the prophecy bullshit. There’s nothing anybody could create that would destroy me.”

“Really? Who do you think I am, Seth?”

“Truth.”

I mimic one of Seth’s favourite tactics: I smile and remain silent. He doesn’t know. This childlike god has spent millennia using his power to create toys to play with. Like a kid with Lego blocks, when he gets bored he smashes and starts again.

Is he really so self-absorbed he’s never considered his own origins?

“No, I’m not Truth.”

He snorts. “Can’t you read? You were in Joss’s book—the Four Horsemen and their Fifth. Truth. Verity.” He pauses. “Don’t pretend you’re not Verity because I know you. I feel you as if you’re part of me.”

I splutter a laugh. “That’s so romantic. I never knew you cared that much.”

He scowls. “I mean, I’m a hundred percent aware the girl in front of me now is the one I’ve spent time with recently. But it really doesn’t matter who you are, because you’ll be dead soon.”

“Yes. It matters who I am, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting with me and asking questions right now.” I nod at him. “I annoy you, don’t I? You can’t figure me out.”

Seth runs his tongue along his teeth and narrows his eyes.

I watch him, a silent staring match. “If you’re aware what was written in the book, who do you think Order is, Seth?”

“Ripley and his demon entourage.” I tip my head and doubt flickers across his face. “Isn’t he?”

“There are orders all over the world—a word used for many types of societies and organisations. Then there’s me.”

“You?”

“Seth, you’re Chaos and I’m Order. When the universe created you, it created me too. I’m your equal, Seth.”

A muscle in his cheek twitches. “Is that right? Did your feathered friends tell you this?”

“That’s why I can kill you,” I whisper. “That’s why we’re at stalemate. Apart from I have my ‘boys’ as you call them. They make me more powerful than you.”

He chuckles. “Order? You think you’re a goddess to my god? The boys might treat you like one, but there’s nothing to prove this crap.”

“Believe what you like.” The doubt that flickered on his face grows, and I smile at him.

“I can see you have part of my power. I always saw and sensed that,” he replies.

“And so did they.”

“Well then,” he whispers and leans forward. “I’ll kill your boys. I’ll wipe them off the face of the planet—out of the fucking universe. Then we’re one on one, and you will die. Just like the prophecy says.”

“Or maybe the part of me that will kill you dies. I can survive.”

He laughs. “No. You won’t. How many bodies do you think I’ve spent time in? Human forms can’t hold my power, and you have no chance at staying alive in yours. The human you who causes all these problems will be gone too. The pathetic girl who needs men to look after her and make her whole...gone.” He makes exploding gestures into the air.

I tighten my mouth. “They don’t look after me. We support each other. We’re part of each other because we love each other. You can’t possibly understand that.”

“I do. And I think the angels do too. I suspect this is inconvenient if their weapon fell in love with powerful allies.”

He smirks as my expression changes. There’s so much I haven’t considered or been told. He laces his fingers together on the table.

“And we have other powerful allies,” I say.

“Your angels? They work for God. The person who captured you. Who constrained you in body after body, hid you from the world over centuries. Who weakened you and divided your powers between his own creations.” He sneers. “Of course, he wants to fucking help you kill me! Haven’t you figured it out yet? Don’t you know where your Pony Boys came from? You’re all trapped and are doing his dirty work.”

“No, I’m here to bring Order.”

“Sure you are, Truth. His order. Do you think God and his army will trust somebody who holds a power to match mine? You’re aware now. You know the truth, Truth.” He chuckles. “If you’re Order, they want you gone too. You’re a threat.”

My mouth dries and I hold Seth’s gaze, refusing to show that his words worry me because they could be true.

“Oh, come on, Vee. They kept you trapped. They’re scared of you.”

“I don’t care, I just want to live and…” I pause. She’s here again, the emotional girl who spills through.

“To be with your lovers and live happily ever after?” He clutches his chest. “So adorable. Heart-breaking. You’re weakened, Vee! You’ll do what it takes to save them. Your God knows that. And they’ll do what it takes to save you.” He pauses. “Which is pretty damn pointless when one or all of you are dead.”

My triumph that I equal his power slips away. Seth has managed the same as always. He’s snuck in doubt. Are the angels lying when they say they’ll help us be together? Do they want me destroyed too?

He rests his elbows on the table and leans in, face close to mine. “Their ‘prophecy’ sees Chaos killed by Order. How could one exist without the other? We should take them down together.”

“You mean you think I’ll join you?” I ask incredulously.

“You could survive if you did. We could. We could create our own world. Together.” He points at me and I recoil as he almost touches my chest. “If you contain Chaos, then I contain Order. Isn’t that right?”

“Apparently.”

“One way I managed to control myself as a human was to maintain order in my life. You saw how neat and tidy I was. People recognised my weirdness. Whispered I was OCD.” He smooths his hair and grins. “By keeping my body and surroundings in check, I could control the desire to wreak havoc.”

“Yeah, we all saw that you’re weird, Seth.”

“And Logan saw your darkness,” he continues. “You brought chaos into the Horsemen’s lives. Love. Anger. All emotions. How can your life be neat and ordered when you have four lovers? Ones whose overwhelming desire is to love you and give you part of who they are? Look at the way you’ve torn apart their lives. Man, watching you guys create chaos was impressive.”

“So, a little chaos and order help in life.”

“Or shows we’re symbiotic. This really is an interesting conversation. I honestly thought you were an angel weapon but this… Man, I don’t need to kill you.” He smiles slowly. “I need to take you back.”

I shove my chair back and stand. “No fucking way! If you try one thing here, I will fight you alone.”

Seth’s sly smile grows and he laughs. “Not yet. Soon.”

Seth raises an arm above his head and clicks his fingers. I sink forward and steady myself on the table as the world sways back to normality again. The sudden change from quiet to the cacophony hurts my head. He stands too.

“Look as though you have some questions to ask your angel friends.” He pushes back his sleeve and checks his watch. “Well, time is of the essence, as they say.”

Syv turns around from her place at the counter and the mug she’s holding smashes to the floor. She doesn’t register the coffee coating her shoes and pooling around her feet on the floor, or the waitstaff rushing over to pick up pieces. Syv stares at Seth, unmoving and face drawn by fear.

Seth lazily turns his head to see who I’m looking at and Syv takes a step back when their eyes meet. “Syv! Sorry I missed you, I was just leaving.”

Shadows pass the window and the café door opens as new customers walk in. Syv’s head snaps around to them and the anxiety dissolves.

“Vee?” asks Xander. “What’s happening? Why’s he here?”

“Dropping by for a chat.” He slaps a hand on the table. “Wow, did she ever have some interesting information.”

The four guys crowd the doorway and somebody pushes past Heath to enter. Xander steps towards Seth and I ready myself to intervene if he forgets himself and attacks Seth. “I’m okay. He was leaving.”

“Without causing trouble, I hope,” says Ewan.

With a tight smile, Seth stands. “See you soon.”

He strides toward the door he came from ten minutes ago, and as he passes Syv, he snatches her sleeve. No protest or yell emerges from her lips as the pair vanish into Chaos’s void.