If no one notices you, what are the repercussions? What happens when you abide by all the rules, but are still shunned as if your very existence is a slight against all life? Then congratulations, you are above the law. You are already free. Or halfway there, at least. No one suspects you if noticing you is beneath them.

I started with small things. Slurs, deviations from the normal, boring routine. Maybe someone would care enough to correct me then. Maybe someone would guide me back towards the light, or feel sorry enough to take a look.

Maybe I was wrong. I had the protection of innocence once, but it's long gone now. Innocence repels me like a reverse magnet. Sometimes I envy Seth. He doesn't appreciate what's been given to him, but I know better. He could have remade his life. It would have been easy. I haven't been giving him lies, I've been giving him new truths. Anything can be the truth when you're a clean slate.

I continued. Maybe helping the demons was a bit overboard. Maybe my dear uncle didn't deserve to be thrown into prison. He wasn't my enemy. But he was my oppressor. One of them. What can I say? Some enemies don't admit to being enemies. Some don't even know that they're enemies. But at the end of the day, it's all the same. All they had to do was look in the right place. And they didn't.

Seth looked in all the wrong places.

It wasn't his fault.

Except it was.

I don't want to destroy you, Bracken said. Can we fight somewhere else, blah blah blah. Like I don't even matter, like I'm something you can just blow off and forget about. You've always been a procrastinator, Bracky, and you haven't changed a bit. You don't want to change. Nobody wants to change. So that's why they consider it a crime to want to change, to want to be different. Having the moral high ground means nothing. You've taken lives too. A life is a life.

Orange and gray? That's not a bad color combination. White on white is worse, anyway. Orange and gray is the color of fire and smoke, of ashes and embers. White on white? All I can think of is human food. Milk and cream. Rice pudding. Mayonnaise.

Yuck!

Try and name something stupid that's orange and gray. That's right, you can't. A moldy orange? Nice try! I'm darker than that. A pencil? That's not even orange, and even if it was, it's good for stabbing.

Try again. It's what I always do.

Some think this is all a game to me. It's not. Wait, maybe it is. Even I get confused, and that's totally fine. I have all the time in the world, and I can use it in any way I want. I have no schedule, and those who try to impose one on me can jump into a volcano.

I'm not a sore loser, either. So Bracken messed up my horn? I'll figure something out, I always do. Confidence is a hard habit to break. So is darkness.

You want to be my friend, human? I can be the best friend you ever had. I can play dress-up with you, put your makeup on so you look nothing like how you used to. I can feed you potions that will turn you into a bird so you can fly wherever you want. They used to tell me that I'm nothing. Do they say the same things to you? I disagree with them.

You want to fight me, little human? I could use the practice. What's the matter? It's all a game anyway. Be more positive.

I like to Google things. I don't hate technology. Maybe right now I'm looking you up. Maybe I'm typing your name into the search bar as you read this.

Gotcha.