Page 113 of Veiled Vixen

Everyone is filled with fear and desperation.

Everyone is making their last stand.

I pull Veila a little further away from Captain Red. Just in case time suddenly starts back up and she is back in the fight.

“How?” Veila says, spinning in place. “How is this happening?”

“Fuck if I know, princess. I guess there’s more to you than meets the eye.”

“What do we do?”

“I don’t know,” I say, running my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know.”

“Should we go find Luck? And the others? Are they all…” Her words trail off as she walks over to the edge of the platform and leans over.

I reach out and grab her by the arm, afraid she’ll fall. “Don’t get too close. There’s no safety bots, remember?”

“Oh, my sun,” she breathes. “Did I do this?”

I cautiously look over the side and see thousands and thousands of people stuck in the moment. “I guess you did.”

“But… I’ve never done anything like this before. All I remember is the red one. Coming at me. And then you”—she turns to look at me—“you took my hand and then…”

“Poof,” I say. “Time stands still.”

“Was it us? Are we…”

“A team?” I say, raising my eyebrows.

She nods.

“Looks that way, doesn’t it?”

“Can we bring time back?” She looks around again. “We can’t just leave them like this.”

“I dunno.” I sigh. “But…” I walk over to Crux and Serpint and push the green-haired girl back. She falls over. Lies there like a freaking statue. Eyes wide with hate. Mouth still open in a scream of anger. “But if time is gonna start up again, then I don’t want us to be on this platform when it happens. Ya know?”

“Yeah,” she says. “Maybe we should take them back upstairs to the harem room? At least they’ll be safe there, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s do that. Let’s get them safe. Then we can think about time again.”