//------------------------------//
// August 29 - Party 
// Story: 7DSJ: The Knife's Edge 
// by Flynt Coal 
//------------------------------//





As heavy techno beats shook the walls of the house, Jade stood with a red cup full of beer, just another face in the crowd. Just moments ago she’d politely but firmly turned down Hotshot, who was already a few beers deep and seemed oblivious to the ring on her finger. All around her were other people she knew from school; people she talked and joked with during and between classes. It was hard to imagine any one of them could be a killer.

Violet’s killer might not even be here, Jade thought. It was very tempting to just allow herself to think that. To simply let the whole investigation go and just enjoy a night of drinking with friends. But she couldn’t do that. Otherwise, Shrinking Violet would be well and truly erased.

“Oooh, I don’t know if I can do this…” Code Break muttered beside her. Jade looked over at her “date” for the night, and once again was baffled at just how different the man standing next to her was now.

Code had taken her advice to clean up his act very liberally. His formerly greasy long hair now looked thoroughly washed and he wore it back in a ponytail. He wore a relatively handsome button-up shirt rather than his usual dark rags, and even his complexion seemed more full of color. He held another red cup in his hand that was still very full.

Jade gave him an encouraging smile. “It’ll be alright, Code. If the murderer is here, she probably won’t try anything with this many people around.”

Code returned her smile with a much more nervous one of his own. “At this point, I’d honestly take a confrontation with a murderer alone over this.”

A loud cheer sounded from where a beer pong game was being played across the room, and Code fully recoiled as if he were suddenly in the path of a lion.

“Large crowds and loud rooms… not my forte!” Code released a shuddering sigh. “And I don’t know how in the world I’m gonna start a conversation with a girl without making a fool of myself.”

Jade put a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “Code, trust me: Nothing you could say will freak them out more than just staring creepily at them from a distance.”

Code had the decency to look thoroughly embarrassed. “Touché.”

Jade, meanwhile, took another look around the crowded room. She had been thinking a lot about this over the past couple of days. Whoever killed Violet must have been someone she knew and trusted enough to take back to her room. There weren’t many people at school who met that description. Jade spotted the few that did sitting around a table in the corner: Sandstone and his friends. Just about all of them had become pretty reclusive since she died, barely even responding to Jade’s attempts to reach out. Jade had thought it was just grief over their friend, but now she had to wonder…. Could there be more than one murderer?

“Hey Jade! Decided to come after all?” Her roommate’s voice preemptively interrupted Jade from suggesting Code investigate Sandstone and the others, and Jade forced a smile on her face as Iris approached.

“Yeah, thought this might be just what I need after the past week.”

Iris wore a small yellow hat over her shoulder-length purple hair, making Jade think of a flower. Her extremely tight baby blue shorts that left very little to the imagination made it clear she hoped to be “pollinated.”

But her otherwise sultry look gave way to one of sympathy. “What happened with Violet has been hard on you, huh? For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Despite all my teasing, I did kind of like her.”

“Thanks,” was all Jade could think to say.

Iris’ gaze then fell on Code Break, and after a few moments of careful scrutiny, her eyes widened with recognition. “Creeper?”

“It’s Code Break, actually,” her date responded, clearing his throat and offering his hand. “I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure, Ms. Nightshade.”

Iris took his hand eagerly enough, eyes lidded seductively as her voice turned husky. “Well not yet, Codey, but the night is still young! Anything could happen….”

Code’s entire posture went rigid, and Iris laughed. “What’s wrong? Never had a girl flirt with you before?” She gave him a sweet smile, bringing her face closer and closer to his. “It’s okay, there’s no shame in that. Honestly… I kinda like virgins.”

Just when their faces seemed close enough to kiss, Iris pulled away. “Come find me later if you want to have some fun, Codey.”

With that, Iris left, adding just a hint of extra sway in her hips. Jade only smiled and shook her head. “Well, if nothing else comes of tonight, at least you might get some experience out of it!”

But Code remained stock still, his wide eyes following after Iris. That’s not a look of a nervous boy around a pretty girl, Jade realized, and then with horror it dawned on her what it could only have meant.

“Code?” she asked. “Is Iris…?”

Code looked at her soberly. “She used the same line on Violet.”

Jade was about to ask which line he was referring to when it hit her. I kinda like virgins. And now, Jade knew why.





Her mind racing, Jade watched as Code Break executed his part of the plan. He was currently talking to Iris, letting her believe that he was interested in her offer from earlier. All the while, Jade was at war with herself.

In spite of all of their differences, Jade really did consider Iris a friend. She wanted nothing more than to believe that she was innocent, and that she and Code were on completely the wrong track. But she knew the dangers if they were right. She could have spent an entire semester sharing a room with a killer—a potentially magic one to boot. She couldn’t just pretend that this was nothing. She needed answers, and one way or another, she was going to get them.

In a few more minutes, Iris left and Code Break approached her. “Okay, she should be waiting for me in the bedroom.” Frowning, he added, “I still don’t like this, Jade. Are you sure you’re going to be alright alone with her?”

With a confident smile, Jade said, “Trust me, I’ve been in way more dangerous situations.” Code didn’t need to know that said situations included battles with warlocks, lesser dragons, and a sphinx.

“If you say so. Still, maybe we should wait to confront her until we’re more prepared?”

In all honesty, Jade had thought about that too, albeit for different reasons than Code was likely considering. If Iris really was a magic user, she might do some serious damage if she decided to be uncooperative… and there were a lot of people at this party. However, Jade ultimately decided it was a risk she’d have to take.

“What if while we’re waiting for the right time to confront her she decides to kill again? She has a lot of potential victims to choose from at this party.” And if Jade was right about Iris’s motive for murdering Violet, letting her get even one more kill would make her much harder to deal with.

“Right. Like me,” Code said with a nervous swallow.

Jade nodded. “You just keep an eye on the door. Make sure nobody else tries to get in while we’re talking.”

Then Jade pulled out her phone and opened an app she had downloaded for this exact occasion. The app had originally been developed as a tool for victims of domestic abuse. Designed to look like nothing more than a weather app, it was actually a way to discreetly record conversations to catch the abuser red handed.

“Alright, wish me luck!”

At that, Code leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “For luck!”

Perhaps Jade would have objected to such a bold action under any other circumstance, but now the almost romantic gesture worked wonders to alleviate some of the anxious tension building inside her. Jade gave him a grin, then steeled herself for what needed to be done.

Weaving between groups of loudly drunk university students, Jade made her way to the bedroom door and took a breath. Knowing that she would never be more ready than she was at that moment, Jade turned the knob and went in.

Iris was reclined on the bed in a deliberately provocative way, having discarded her shirt and extremely tight shorts so that only lacy black underwear barely covered her. Outside the room, the party was muffled as it went on. For a moment, Iris’s brow furrowed when she saw Jade enter instead of Code, but just as quickly she regained her usual sensuality.

“Heh, wasn’t expecting to see you walk in. If you were looking to explore your sexuality a bit, you could have just asked me directly. No need to go through Creeper out there!”

Jade simply shut the door behind her. “We need to talk, Iris.”

Her roommate wasn’t quite sober enough to be able to hide the sudden concern on her face, and to Jade, that was a confession in itself.

“You and Violet were together right before she died, weren’t you?” Jade asked firmly.

“W-where exactly did you get that idea?”

“Don’t lie to me, Iris. Were you with her?”

Iris folded her arms across her chest and returned Jade’s firm glare with a much more indignant one of her own. “So what if I was? Last I checked, it isn’t any of your business who I sleep with, now is it?”

“If it’s true, that makes you one of the last people to see her alive.” Jade took a step closer, her look unwavering. “So what happened after you two hooked up?”

Letting out a slow sigh from her nose, Iris stood. “Y’know, people are usually put off by how forward I am. I’m no stranger to hearing words like ‘slut’ or ‘whore’ hurled my way. But if you ask me, the same people who sling those words spend way too much time playing their love games. Flirting one minute, playing hard to get the next. For fuck’s sake, people should just say what they mean!”

Iris was standing right in front of Jade now, their faces inches apart. But this time there was no overpowering sexuality in Iris’ face. She looked more serious than Jade had ever seen her. “So what do you mean, Jade? What are you so afraid of simply saying outright?”

There was only one course forward now. “Did you kill her?”

“Pfft!” Iris scoffed so hard she spit on Jade’s face a little. “Are you stupid? She killed herself, remember?”

“So the official police reports say,” Jade said. “But somehow they missed the trace amounts of blood all over Violet’s dorm someone had gone to the trouble of cleaning up. That would have taken time. And as I recall, you never did come back to our room that night. No, you showed up at breakfast. Right around the time the body was discovered, now that I think about it!”

Iris opened her mouth in protest, but for a moment only managed a few indignant sputters. “I-I… okay,” she said when she finally remembered how to speak again. “So let me get this straight: in your fucking Looney Tunes reality, I slept with Violet, then killed her and made it look like suicide. What reason would I possibly have to do that?”

Raising her hands in a mockery of a shrug, Jade answered, “I can only speculate about that at this point, but I’m willing to bet it has something to do with the magic circle you killed her on.”

Then with a wave of her hands, Jade summoned arcane power to her hand and thousands of tiny glowing lights converged, forming a shining ethereal representation of the very runes Jade had found in Violet’s dorm. “This look familiar?”

Iris took a step back, staring at the conjuration with wide eyes. “Y-you… how did you…?”

“These particular runes are supposed to grant their user power from a virgin sacrifice,” Jade explained. She knew all of this would sound crazy on her recording, but she wasn’t trying to prove the existence of magic to the world: Just that Iris believed she had a reason to kill Violet.

“You…” Iris growled again. “You really have all of this figured out, haven’t you?”

“Is that a confession, Iris?”

“Is that a confession…” Iris repeated, giggling in an unsettlingly childish way. Then with wide eyes and a too wide grin, Iris shrugged. “Why the fuck not! I killed her! Do you know how hard it is to find a real, honest-to-God virgin in college these days? It’s like finding a goddamn unicorn! When I found out Violet was pure, I couldn’t pass up that opportunity!”

Then with a twitchy shake of her head, Iris found her center again, and her smile was much more in line with the roommate Jade had known. “So what now, roomie? You gonna turn me over to the police? With what evidence? It’s your word against mine!”

Touching the bulge in her pocket where her phone was, Jade only sounded disappointed when she said, “I still have a few more questions for you, Iris.”

“First I have a question of my own,” Iris said. “Why do you care so much? Yeah, I get it: Violet was your friend. But why couldn’t you just let yourself believe she killed herself and grieve like a normal fucking person?”

With a grin, Iris said, “You wouldn’t be acting on a guilty conscience now, would you?”

If she was being honest with herself, Jade had felt guilty ever since she first discovered magic was involved in Violet’s death. And now that she knew that Iris was the killer, that guilt had only doubled. Jade should have been able to sense her power; she’d sensed Applejack’s back in Oklahoma, after all. Perhaps she had sensed magic in Iris, but failed to identify it. Either way, Jade had remained blind to the threat, and her friend had paid the price.

But Jade wouldn’t give Iris the satisfaction. “What the hell do I have to be guilty about?”

Iris giggled sadistically. “She was in love with you, did you know that?”

“That’s an absurd lie,” Jade said, but even to her own ears she didn’t sound too confident. She had always thought it peculiar how Violet always avoided the topic of romance when it came up, blushing and avoiding eye contact. And she never did tell her the name of the person she really liked.

“Oh believe me, she wanted you bad. Too bad for her, you’re serious about that cute guy you’re engaged to.” Iris put a finger to her chin in mock thought. “I wonder if the realization you two would only ever be friends is what caused her to rebound so hard to me.” Then with a grin, Iris said, “So really, if you think about it, Violet’s death was as much your fault as it was mine!”

Jade’s fists clenched hard enough for her nails to dig painfully into her skin, and Jade wanted nothing more in that moment than to punch this person she’d once thought was her friend right across the mouth. It was only the realization that Iris was likely egging her on—hoping for her to do something just like that—that stayed her hand. Still, Jade was angry enough that she did something she otherwise wouldn’t have considered. She pulled out her phone and showed the currently open “weather app” to Iris.

“That’s enough, Iris. Your recorded confession should be enough to guarantee your arrest, but time enough for that later. First those questions I mentioned earlier. Namely, I wanna know how you acquired your powers, not to mention the knowledge to perform a magic ritual of this caliber,” Jade said, nodding to the arcane image of the magic circle.

But Iris was staring right at the phone in Jade’s hand, her own hands trembling into closed fists. “You sneaky bitch!”

Jade barely had time to realize Iris was losing it before the half-naked young woman lunged at her, pushing her against the wall with incredible strength and grabbing the phone from her hands. Jade let it go easily enough. She had planned for this possibility as well.

“The recording of our talk automatically saved to my iCloud. It’s beyond your reach now.” Jade then held out her hand as Iris’ face grew pale. “So if you’d kindly give my phone back? It’s brand new.”

Iris instead let the phone fall out of her hand onto the floor as she clutched her head, gently but persistently yanking at strands of her own hair as she said in a terrified whisper, “I screwed up….”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Jade said dryly, but Iris just kept pacing the room, and something about how terrified she looked put Jade ill at ease.

“I screwed up… I had one job and I screwed it up… oh God he’s going to be so mad at me… he’s going to be so mad….”

Something in Jade’s stomach turned ice cold. “’He?’ Who’s ‘he?’”

But Iris just continued like she couldn’t even hear her. “I failed him… I’m going to be punished….”

The bad feeling in her gut growing, Jade took a step closer to the unstable woman. “Look, whoever you’re worried about, I can protect you from them. But first I need you to tell me everything.”

“You can’t protect me…” Iris said, an unsettling smile growing on her face. She looked at Jade like her last hope for salvation. “But you can save me!”

Then before Jade could react, Iris threw her hand forward and a dark, eldritch energy shot forth, picking up Jade and sending her flying backwards into the door. Jade felt it give way completely before the force of her body, and before she knew it Jade was lying in a heap in the middle of the party, with dozens of intoxicated university students looking down at her in bewilderment.

Their faces matched how Jade felt at that moment. She had been ready for Iris to try something, but she wasn’t prepared for the sheer speed and accuracy of her spell. An amateur couldn’t have done that: Someone had trained her.

Jade then felt black fingers close around her again, and she was lifted into the air. Iris stepped over the remains of the bedroom door, arm outstretched, her hand glowing with dark energy. All around them, the partygoers stepped back, gasping and muttering amongst themselves in shock. Jade tried to conjure up a spell of her own, but with a flick of her hand Iris sent her crashing into the ceiling, dislodging bits and pieces of drywall. Jade was vaguely aware that people were shrieking, but otherwise were frozen in place, too transfixed by the impossible scene to move.

Iris’ eyes were wild, and Jade didn’t think there was a single trace left of the girl she thought she knew. “Yes, you can save me, Jade… all I have to do is deliver you to him, and all will be forgiven. Who knows? I might even be rewarded—ARGH!”

Iris staggered forward from a vicious blow to the back of her head by a chair-wielding Code Breaker, who for his part looked utterly astonished at what he’d just done. Growling, the deranged young woman turned to face the young man holding up the remains of the wooden chair like a shield.

“That fucking hurt, Creeper!” Iris thrust out her arm and another eldritch blast sent Code flying. He landed on the table on which moments ago several young students were playing beer pong, utterly destroying it with the force of his impact.

Fortunately, the momentary distraction was just what Jade needed, and she cast a quick counter spell to dissolve the dark magic holding her in place. Sensing this, Iris turned away from Code as he lay groaning in the remains of the table. Jade wasted no time throwing her back with her own magic, and Iris hit the wall beside the bedroom doorframe like a wrecking ball, knocking one or two pictures from the walls.

Iris didn’t even get back up before retaliating with a knife-like beam of pure energy, but Jade was ready for her this time, and held out both of her palms to absorb the blast in a magical shield. Jade then returned the energy to its sender, and Iris hit the same wall again with a cry of pain, dislodging even more rubble.

Jade noticed a tinge of crimson was added to Iris’ purple hair, and knew she had to finish this now before the crazy girl ended up killing herself.

“Yield, Iris. You don’t stand a chance. I have faced far more skilled warlocks than you.”

For a moment, Iris seemed ready to raise her arm and strike again. But instead her limbs went slack, and she slumped to her knees. In the eerie silence that followed, Jade could hear faint rumbling outside. Evidently, a storm was coming.

Allowing herself a breath of respite, Jade looked around, suddenly very worried about the sheer number of people around them seeing magic for the first time. She’d have to worry about what to do about that later. First, Jade went to Code.

“You okay?” she asked him.

Code sat up, but there was something about the way he looked at her… his face was haunted by what he’d seen. “What… what are you?”

Jade tried to think of something, anything to tell him. “Still your friend, I hope,” was all she could think of. Then she went over to Iris. “You have a lot of explaining to do, Iris. How do you know magic?”

“I’m from one of the Twelve Families of my Order. They taught me everything,” Iris answered, her voice small and defeated.

But something about what she said sounded familiar, and Jade recalled the book she’d been reading just a couple of weeks ago.

“The Ordo Duodecim?” Jade asked without realizing it. “They still exist?”

Iris nodded. “They sent me here to watch you, Jade. He most of all wanted to keep tabs on you. Taking care of those runes in Oklahoma really got his attention.”

The more Jade heard, the more unease filled her. “And who is ‘he?’”

“The Grandmaster of our Order,” Iris whispered, like telling a terrible secret.

“And does your Grandmaster have a name?” Jade asked.

Iris looked at her as if the question had formed a second head on her shoulders. “He has many names, for he is Legion. H-his Eye sees all!” Then her eyes widened in terror. “Oh no… he’s already here!”

Any follow up question Jade might have had was cut off by the sudden darkness that shrouded the room. Jade expected more panicked shrieks from the dozens of others all around them but heard nothing but the approaching thunder. Looking around in the dark, Jade noticed that every other body in the room was frozen in place. Unmoving. Unblinking. Even the particles of dust in the air were perfectly still.

The only other movement came from Iris, who covered her face with her hands and started sobbing. Surrounded by the frozen, unseeing stares of all the others, Jade came to realize just how alone she and Iris suddenly were.

“I-I’m sorry…” Iris sobbed. “I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

“I don’t know that I can,” Jade said, but as a sinking feeling permeated her very being, she realized: Iris wasn’t talking to her.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry….”

Chills ran down Jade’s spine. She and Iris weren’t alone. Someone else—something else—was now here with them. Jade couldn’t see them, but she was more sure of it than anything: Something dark was now here, standing in the shadows just beyond sight.

“No please, please don’t! I’M SORRY—AAAAAAAAAAAGH” Iris’ pleading then became a shrill, agonized scream. With horror, Jade saw that the girl’s own fingers were slowly inserting themselves into her eyes, going deeper and deeper as Iris screamed.

Jade tried to go to her, but found herself frozen. It wasn’t just fear that gripped her; some force blacker and more powerful than any she’d ever felt held her in place. She was just another living statue watching the horror show in the dark room.

It seemed forever until Iris’ fingers were pulled free of her now empty sockets, tears of blood running down her cheeks. Lightning flashed angrily overhead (a manifestation of his anger, Jade thought), briefly illuminating Iris’ now mangled face, and for that brief moment Jade thought she saw that of an eyeless old man in place of Iris’ own. Then Iris stood.

“P-please stop…” she pleaded as her body seemed to walk to the window of its own accord.

Bracing her hands on either side of the window, Iris’ head slammed into the glass as hard as it could, causing cracks to spiderweb across the glass. Then it happened again. And again.

Somehow, Jade conjured up enough will to break through the force holding her just enough to scream, “STOP!!!”

And somehow, Iris’ body did stop. “I’m sorry…” she said softly, almost serenely, and this time Jade knew she was talking to her.

Then with one final bash, Iris’ head went through the window, a long shard of glass going through her neck. For a while, Jade was trapped alone in the dark with Iris’ body, a few dozen frozen students, and him. The man in the dark was watching her now, wherever he was. Heart pounding in her chest, Jade waited for her own hands to make their way up to her eyes. Or for her body to start walking by itself to the window next to where Iris hung limply.

Instead, the lights all came back on, and Jade was overwhelmed as the eerie quiet was replaced by heavy techno beats and dozens of intoxicated voices.

“W-what…?” Jade muttered, breathlessly looking around in terrified confusion as the party carried on as if nothing had happened. Two groups of guys stood playing beer pong on the table that moments ago was crushed to splinters. The door Jade had been thrown through when Iris first attacked her was back on its hinges. All of the damage the house had received from the fight was gone without a trace of having ever been there. With trembling hands, Jade pulled out her phone and checked her recording of Iris’ confession. But no recording was there.

“Jade?”

Still shaking, Jade looked up to see Code standing there, looking at her with concern. “You okay?”

Looking around again at the undisturbed party, Jade said, “You… don’t you remember? Iris, she….”

But Code’s look of complete incomprehension told her everything she needed to know.

“Who’s Iris?” Code asked.

Everything about the party had been restored exactly the way it was… with the exception of Iris herself. She had been well and truly erased.

Then Jade’s gaze fell on the flawless window, and she moved to take a closer look. Nothing seemed out of place… save for a single tiny red stain no bigger than a thumbprint.

Suddenly Jade was short of breath, like she was being suffocated, and decided she couldn’t be in that house one minute more. So muttering an apology, Jade pushed past Code and left the house. Then she continued walking.

It was a twenty-minute walk back to her residence. Jade made it back in fifteen. After ensuring her door was securely locked, Jade spent the rest of the night carefully crafting every protective ward she could think of, and casting it over her room. It was only as the first light of the morning sun started to arrive that Jade finally allowed herself to fall into uneasy sleep.