"Michelle, I'm begging you, you've gotta believe me!"If his hands weren't trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, Kyle would've gladly introduced Annie's flapping gums to the business end of a sock.The entire trek, his ears had been battered by her broken record impression.From the second he'd pegged her as Sally's murderer, Annie had been belting out that same refrain, desperate to convince Michelle of her innocence. Too bad Michelle was an immovable object. She'd simply manhandled Kyle out of the chair, hauled him out of the basement fungeon, and carried on like Sally had never darkened her doorstep.Now they were gunning for the super secret location of the Lither family piggy bank.Picture this: dead of night, ominous forest, our ragtag bunch of misfits trudging through the gloom.Michelle was on point, navigating the twists and turns that would supposedly lead to untold riches. Kyle was the filling in the captive sandwich, hands rocking a stylish hemp rope accessory behind his

The witching hour hung heavy over the forest as Michelle and Annie trudged onward, Kyle stumbling along between them.Inside the prison of his skull, the AI droned on, a broken record stuck on a single cryptic phrase.The very incantation Annie had uttered to unleash her aquatic assault."Look, if you're so gung-ho about mastering the mystic arts, why not cut to the chase and ask Glinda and Elphaba over there for a crash course? There's only so many times I can repeat this before my circuits start frying." Even the long-suffering AI was reaching the end of its digital rope."Bold of you to assume they wouldn't just use me for target practice."Kyle was no closer to deciphering the arcane formula, but he'd be damned if he threw in the towel now."Don't leave me hanging, buddy. Hit me with that magic spam."Thirty mind-numbing minutes had passed since his eureka moment. Thirty minutes of Kyle's world narrowing to that single phrase, an all-consuming obsession.Thirty minutes of Michelle

Life is full of illusions. Your phone is vibrating in your pocket, that cute barista is into you, and you can turn the tables on your captor.Kyle found himself firmly in the grip of that third illusion.Trusting in the AI's ability to put the incantation on loop, he focused all his mental energy on the words, intent on mastering the binding spell and using it to gain the upper hand on Michelle. And the AI didn't let him down, dutifully repeating the mystical phrase ad nauseum.No, the one who let Kyle down was Kyle.No matter how many times the AI looped the chant, no matter how intently Kyle concentrated, he simply could not wrap his mind around the intricacies of the spell.By focusing his thoughts inward, he found himself back in that strange mindscape. Everything was just as he'd left it - an endless expanse of inky black nothing, the luminous blue triangle thrumming with eldritch power. The AI's voice echoed through the space, the incantation repeating over and over, just as it

Half an hour after Annie's untimely demise…On the other side of the proverbial chessboard, Kyle's situation was scarcely any better."…so you'd sacrifice your own partner just to get one over on me?"Not that Kyle was suddenly overcome with righteous indignation on Annie's behalf. He simply didn't know what else to say, short of condemning Michelle on moral grounds.And he HAD to keep talking. Silence was tantamount to surrender at this point. After all, he and Michelle were still engaged in "negotiations"… even if said negotiations had long since departed from Kyle's imagined script.It was his last shot at survival."What sacrifice?" Michelle's already frosty demeanor turned positively glacial. "Sir Lither, I fear I've been entirely too accommodating for the sake of our partnership. It seems to have given you the mistaken impression that this is a casual conversation between equals."Accommodating, his foot.Kyle felt the noose tightening around his neck. It was painfully clear tha

In a daze, Kyle dreamt once more.He was back in middle school. A drowsy afternoon, the math teacher at the front, back turned as he wrote on the chalkboard. The chalk struck the board with dull, heavy clacks.Kyle's head spun.He couldn't make out what was being written, everything blurred as if out of focus. His gaze locked onto the raised lines of the teacher's shirt, the only clear detail in a sea of haze.Kyle stared, transfixed, neck and cheeks itching.The math teacher turned. It was his boss's face, a man in his forties, spectacled, lips painted.Pointing at Kyle, he bellowed: "Moon Prism Power, make up!!""…"Kyle jolted awake once more.Emerging from the bizarre dream a second time, he felt like he'd been crammed on a subway for hours, ready to hurl. Mercifully, he wasn't bound in some strange locale or wracked with pain. Only a dull ache in his left cheek, slightly swollen.His left cheek…Senses returning, Kyle recalled what had transpired.Michelle's fist, slamming into h