Gideon wanders through Vee’s library. The wooden floor creaks beneath his steps as he carries her books back to their rightful place. It still impresses him that she’s got an entire wing of her home filled with books. Several tall bookcases that cover the walls, and even more that divide up the room into a maze that reaches high to the roof of the second floor, with ladders set into the bookcases to help reach. The ceiling is covered with multiple glass lanterns that fill the room with amber-tinted light and the whole place is filled with the scent of paper and leather.

  All of the books are in some kind of weird language that he’s never seen before, but he thinks that he’s starting to figure it out thanks to Vee’s lessons.

  He gets to the right spot and sets his stack of books down on the floor before grabbing one.

  “How to Properly Harvest Orc Organs,” he reads the title aloud, then frowns. “Either I’m not as good at this “reading” thing as I thought, or Vee’s reading some weird things again.”

  He slides the book back onto the shelf, then sees that the next one is going to require a ladder. He climbs up to the fifteenth level of books and slides it into place…

  He senses something.

  Something’s above him.

  He absentmindedly climbs higher. He keeps going, higher and higher, until he ends up looking over the top of the bookcase. He sees that there are even a few books up here too. Seeming like they’ve been abandoned. A lot of them are pretty bulky, heavy books with thousands of pages that’re bound with leather and even metal frames.

  There’s a book off in the distance, whatever it is that he’s sensing, it’s coming from this one.

  Gideon climbs up onto the top of the bookcase and starts crawling across it. He accidentally takes a look down and feels his heartrate spike up as he sees just how high up he is. But he focuses himself as he keeps crawling.

  His hand reaches out to touch the dust-covered book–

  He feels something like a chill that starts at his fingertips and shoots through his whole body like an electrical shock.

  Gideon ends up sitting atop the bookcase, cross-legged, and with the book on his lap. He brushes the dust from its cover…

  The book has a black cover that is covered in a golden metal frame. There’s no writing on the cover or spine, instead, all it has is a golden skull design with triangular teeth.

  He turns the book over around in his hands. It looks like there’s some kind of lock on the side, keeping it from being opened. But there’s no keyhole, just a small black gemstone–

  Gideon jerks his hand back as he feels a sharp prick on his thumb. He sees that there’s a drop of blood seeping out from his fingertip. But then he notices something, the gemstone is changing color from black to red…

  The whole book starts changing as well, brightening from black to blood-red, and revealing a single sentence that he somehow knows that he can understand.

  He reads it aloud. “Curse Eater Grimoire–”

  The lock on the side bursts open and the book’s pages start flipping so fast that Gideon’s hair gets blown backwards as drawings of monsters and warriors with weapons flash before his eyes.

  The parchment pages abruptly stop and leave Gideon looking at a strange drawing. It looks like a person, but there’s some kind of strange hole in their chest, and something is coming out of it.

  He looks to the writing and starts reading aloud. “Level One: Mastering your own Curses. To purge your own Curse and subjugate them to your will can be a dangerous process. Proceed with caution. Subjugation can only be accomplished by giving the Curse what it needs. Expelling curses is a simple process, simply hold this book and call out to them.”

  Gideon frowns as he thinks about it.

  Something about this feels wrong…

  But at the same time, he can’t help but want to see if he can actually do anything.

  In all the time that he’s spent with Vee, she’s been making it clear that, no matter how much he wants to learn, he’ll never be able to do magic. How magic users like her are built different from humans even on a biological level.

  He wants to see if he can do something that’ll make him feel like he actually belongs here with her.

  And what’s more, he can feel it.

  The thing that had been calling him to the book, it feels as if it’s looming over his shoulder right now.

  “Come out here,” Gideon says. He speaks in a stronger voice. “I know you’re there.”

  He gets no response.

  He grits his teeth as he stands up, book in hand, and he’s suddenly shouting. “Stop hiding and come out here where I can see you already–”

  There’s a pain in his chest a split second before something black explodes out!

  Pain explodes in his eyes and he cries out as he drops the book, falls back onto the top of the bookcase, and watches the horror. It looks like there’s some kind of black sludge surging out of him. It flows out of him like a geyser, hitting the roof above him, and blocking out several lights.

  It slows to a stop and Gideon ends up lying there atop the bookcase as he gasps for air. He feels like something just bit out his insides and now every breath he takes leaves him feeling like a sack that’s close to collapsing on the exhales.

  His gaze goes to his own chest, the front of his shirt has been torn open…

  There’s a hole in his chest!

  A pure black hole, it’s just a bit above the center of his chest, and it’s pure black on the inside.

  In fact, it looks like the surrounding light is getting drawn into it.

  Gideon can’t help but test it. He reaches a hand towards the hole in his chest…

  His entire hand disappears inside of it!

  He finds that he can fit his entire forearm into the hole without any kind of resistance.

  “Well… that’s weird,” He says. “I hope this isn’t permanent.”

  “It’s an improvement,” a voice makes him flinch.

  Gideon looks up and sees that the sludge on the roof is moving. All of it is gathering up as it slowly starts to drip down towards him. He backs away along the bookcase, putting some distance between himself and this thing…

  The sludge suddenly bursts into black ash and a form drops down to shake the whole bookcase. It’s the same size and shape as him, but its entire body seems to be made out of pure black matter that draws in surrounding light, the same as the hole in Gideon’s chest, but at the same time there are parts of it that’re clear. It has clawed hands and feet, glowing blood-orange eyes, triangular teeth like a jack-O-lantern, and there are two horns on its head that seem to be made out of shifting black flames.

  It rises up to stand, hunching over as it glares at him with those big orange eyes.

  “So, you’re my Curse?” Gideon says.

  Its neck cracks loudly as it turns its head to the side it speaks in a voice that sounds like a monstrous version of his own. “You’re the curse–”

  The Curse suddenly flits forwards and looms over Gideon, its neck continuing to crack as it continues to turn its head from side to side.

  It sounds enraged. “What the hell do you want?”

  This thing terrifies Gideon, he can’t come up with anything to say.

  “Well? I’m waiting. Don’t you have something to say?” Curse says. “What was so important that you called me out?”

  Gideon fights the urge to run away, he gets the feeling that he’ll get eaten by this thing if he tries.

  “Let me guess, you wanted to see if you could learn some kind of special power? Something that’d make you feel like you weren’t worthless?” Curse says. “So pathetic, no wonder you have no family. I bet they took one look at your little eyes and realized that they’d just birthed the most unworthy little freak in the world–”

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  “I know I don’t know too much about this kid,” Gideon’s head snaps to the side to see that Vee is standing on the floor below them. “But I think he deserves a second opinion.”

  Vee reaches to one of the pouches on her belt and pulls out a glass vial. She flicks away the cork with her thumb and chugs the bright green liquid before tossing the vial over her shoulder–

  Vee’s body blurs and she’s suddenly directly behind Gideon. She grabs hold of his shoulders. He gets a feeling like he just got grabbed by the talons of a predatory bird–

  The whole world blurs as wind whips around him and he ends up getting thrown into a wall as Vee slams the doors of the library shut.

  Vee braces the doors with her back and slams one of her vials against the wood.

  Something like a sheet of blued glass spreads out, covering the doors in a barrier just in time before Gideon hears as something heavy slams into them from the other side.

  The barrier is already starting to crack with a sound like breaking glass.

  “All I told you to do was put away some damn books!” Vee snaps at him as she holds the doors. She shoots him a glare. “What the hell is that thing?”

  “Um, a Curse,” Gideon says.

  “A Curse?” Vee says. “Why the hell is there a curse in my library? What book did it come from?!”

  Gideon feels like he’s more afraid of her than he is of the Curse. “The Curse Eater’s Grimoire.”

  “What?!” Vee suddenly looks shocked. “How the hell did you even get that thing to open!? That book hasn’t opened up since my Master died.”

  “I don’t know, it just changed from black to red and I started reading,” Gideon says.

  “Great, well… guess that means we’ll have to burn the house down, thanks a lot!” Vee says.

  “Wait, what?” Gideon says.

  “You can’t escape me!” Curse roars from the other side. “I’ll hunt you down to though any world and strip the flesh from your bones!”

  “Great, a Curse with determination, that’s upsetting, and it’s a talker no less,” Vee says. She furrows her brow. “Well, it does look like it’s still underdeveloped. Maybe he’s still weak enough that I can use my magic to destroy it?”

  “Just try it, Witch-Bitch!” Curse roars before banging into the doors again. “I’ll send you to hell to meet your whore mother!”

  “Rude! Ugh, serious, Gideon, that Grimoire is the one book I have that I was never able to read, so I’ve got no idea what it’ll take to stop that thing,” Vee says. “Best thing I can think of is to run and hope it loses interest in us and leaves.”

  “I’ll kill you all!” Curse howls before slamming the doors again. “There is nowhere you can run where I can’t find you!”

  “Well then, I’ll just have to kill you! Won’t I?” Vee shouts back.

  “Wait! The book said that it’s supposed to help me take control of it,” Gideon says. “Can’t we try that first?”

  “Control it?” Vee says. “Curses are powerful, unpredictable monsters. The only things they understand are death, destruction, and despair. That’s literally what they’re fucking made for and from! Every Curse gets its power from the pain of their host, they reflect back the evil and cruelty that was done to them, and you’re telling me that that is what you want to control?! What the hell were you even thinking?!”

  Gideon feels like his insides are being tied in knots, what she’s saying hurts, but what hurts more is the fact that his mind if going back to what Curse said.

  He can’t help but feel like it was right.

  He’d been thinking the same for a long time, this thing just gave those thoughts a voice–

  Gideon grits his teeth as he stands up and gets right in Vee’s face. “I did it because I wanted to prove that I belong here!” he shouts at her. He waves out to his side to gesture to the Hallows. “You can’t even let me leave your land because you tell me that it’s too dangerous for a human, I’ve been stuck here for months hearing you give me reasons for why I shouldn’t be here, and I was tired of it. You’re the first person to ever make me feel like I had any value and I want to know that I belong here with you. So, you know what? That Curse is mine, just give me chance to get that book and I know I can fix this.”

  Vee raises an eyebrow at him, seeming to size him up. “You know, I think this might be the first time I heard you raise your voice to me,” she says. She cracks a small smile. “Fine, I’ll give you a chance. You’ve got 3 minutes, and then I’m getting my knives.”

  Gideon smiles at her. “Thank you, Vee.”

  Vee reaches to her belt and tosses him one of her vials. “Deadrun potion, your body will be sore as hell afterwards, but it’ll make you able to run like the wind and you’ll be five times stronger than normal.”

  Gideon’s smile goes from ear to ear. “Cool, you’ve never let me use any of your potions before.”

  “Well that’s because I wasn’t sure if they’d make you explode or not,” Vee says. “But if you think you’re big enough to be messing around with Curses, then I guess I’ll stop babying you.”

  Gideon’s smile vanishes. “Okay, I’m suddenly having second thoughts.”

  There’s another violent bang on the doors behind Vee while the barrier continues to crack. “Well it’s either that or face your Curse with nothing,” she says. “I say down the hatch!”

  Gideon grunts, then pops the cork on the flask before drinking the bright green liquid. It tastes like something that she probably found at the bottom of a swamp, but it leaves him feeling like he just got struck by lightning. He quickly finds that he feels like he can’t hold still anymore.

  “Good, you’re still in one piece,” Vee says. “Then I guess it’s go-time.”

  Vee kicks the doors in and Gideon gets to see as the Curse slams into the barrier, snarling as it swings its claws at the transparent surface.

  Vee chugs a second potion as the Curse charges–

  The second it slams into the barrier, Vee punches it. Her fist passes clean through as if it weren’t even there and the creature is flung backwards. The Curse is thrown back so hard that it slams into the wall at the other side of the library.

  “So glad that you’re on my side,” Gideon says.

  Vee suddenly has a hold of Gideon by the scruff of his neck and the back of his pants. “Your turn.”

  “Oh no,” Gideon’s words slip out.

  Vee throws him through the barrier and he ends up on all fours a split second before he throws himself back up and starts running. He rushes through the library and looks for the book.

  He finds it on the floor and nearly throws himself onto it. He opens the book and quickly flips through pages as he searches for where he’d been before.

  He reads the pages that he skims through. “Identifying types of curses, removing curses, destroying curses,” his voice gets frantic as he keeps flipping through sections. He finds the section he’d been at before. “Yes! Becoming a Curse Eater: How to Expel and Subjugate Curses… Give the Curse what it needs. Give it… give them what you need-”

  He frowns as he reads that.

  He keeps reading. “Give them what you needed when the world gave them life.”

  He’s confused.

  The Curse is suddenly standing at the end of the aisle of bookcases. It looks like it’s foaming at the mouth as he prepares to lunge at him.

  He senses something as he looks at it. He’s not sure how or why. But something in him is telling him what to do.

  Gideon braces himself the split second before the Curse lunges at him–

  Gideon wraps his arms around Curse and hugs it as it wraps its arms around him and digs its claws into his shoulder and side. The claws dig in so deep that Gideon feels as he starts crying. Curse snaps its jaws down on his other shoulder and Gideon feels as blood flows down his back. But he fights through the pain and he hugs Curse tightly as he whimpers.

  “Gideon!” Vee shouts.

  “It’s okay,” Gideon winces. He pets Curse’s back. “It’s okay.”

  Curse flinches as Gideon pets him. Seeming like he’s surprised. Gideon’s surprised too, this creature that had terrified him so much… it’s so warm, soft too. He realizes something he hadn’t before, the horns on Curse’s head aren’t horns at all, they’re feathers.

  Curse’s whole body is covered in silky black feathers.

  “You’re not a monster,” Gideon says. He hugs Curse tight. “You’re just sad. I know you’ve been alone for so long that you don’t know how to trust anymore. You’ve never even had someone hold you like this before and you don’t know if it’s real or not. But please believe me, this is real, and I can see you for who you really are.”

  Curse pulls his claws out of him and pries his teeth away. He pulls back to look him in the eye.

  “But now, I guess we’re in this together,” Gideon says, still crying and sniffling a little. He surprises himself as he cracks a smile. “You know, I’m glad that neither of us has to do this alone anymore.”

  Gideon gets to see as Curse’s eyes lose his rage and he lets out a breathy laugh. “You and me huh? What a pair,” he says. He places a hand on Gideon’s shoulder as he closes his eyes and smiles. “Fine, I guess I’ll give you a chance. Let’s not screw it up, okay?”

  Curse’s body suddenly reverts back into ink-like sludge and falls to the ground. Everything that’d made up his body disappearing as it vanishes inside of Gideon’s shadow. Gideon feels something strange, his shoulders and side slowly start feeling better, and he checks…

  His wounds are healing!

  Small trails of steam are drifting up from his various cuts as they seal up from the inside-out and leave him feeling good as new.

  “Well now, that was interesting. I’ll admit, I thought you were dead meat there for a moment, but I’m glad you proved me wrong,” Vee says. She steps up to stand beside him and pets his head as her tone becomes playful. “And that was adorable what you did there. So sweet. “You’re not a monster,” “we’re in this together.” Ah, you act like you’re just chock-full of hate, but you’ve got such a good heart. Don’t ever lose that, Gid.”

  Gideon suddenly feels embarrassed and thinks that his cheeks have turned red.

  Vee gently takes his face in her hands and turns him to look at her. “And… yep, I see that your eyes got an upgrade as well.”

  “Huh?” Gideon says.

  “Something that seems to happen to Curse Eaters, you get some new vision-based powers, I was told that they all get something different, so you’ll have to figure out what those eyes of yours can do on your own,” Vee says as she releases him. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small mirror. “For now though, here, check them out.”

  Gideon gets to see that the whites of his eyes have turned black and his irises are now the same blood-orange coloring that Curse had.

  “Whoa,” Gideon says. He points at the mirror. “Am I stuck like this from now on?”

  “I’d be more concerned with that Void-hole in your chest,” Vee says, reaching her hand inside to illustrate and freaking him out in the process. “Yeah, just as creepy as I remember.”

  “The way you’ve been talking, have you met other Curse Eaters?” Gideon says.

  “Where do you think I got the book?” Vee says with a smile and a shrug. “The man who taught me helped me when I was first learning how to use magic was a Curse Eater. I learned a little bit about how the deal works, but the book wouldn’t open for me, so I wasn’t allowed to learn more much more than the tidbits.”

  Gideon points at the hole in his chest. “So, this thing is called a Void?”

  “That’s what he called it anyway,” Vee says with a wave. She points to his chest. “You should be able to will it away, just take a deep breath, calm your nerves, and once it seals, your eyes should change back too.”

  He does as told and starts taking deep breaths.

  He sees as the hole in his chest quickly closes up, his body returning to normal, and his strength abruptly leaves him.

  He drops to the floor and groans, every part of him hurts. “Ouch. Vee, I think I’m broken.”

  “Definitely in more ways than one. But Yeah, that’ll be the backlash from both the Deadrun and your Curse-Eater awakening,” Vee says. “You’re going to be sore as hell tomorrow.”

  “Pretty sure I’m sore now,” Gideon says.

  “Oh no, trust me, it’ll be much worse when you wake up, you’re definitely gonna want to be dead,” Vee says. “So, before that happens, I suggest you get to work and clean up my damn library.”

  She leaves Gideon there to groan in pain as he weakly raises her a thumbs-up. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Also, make sure you read everything you can inside of that Grimoire,” Vee calls over to him. “If you’re going to be a Curse Eater, then you’d better go all out.”

  Gideon cracks a smile at that. “Yes, Ma’am,” he says. He suddenly laughs lightheartedly. “I’ll do my best!”

  …