Not long ago...
The line was quiet for a moment.
"My name is Nyx Cosmos."
Brittany’s hand tightened on the phone. Trisha had gone rigid beside her, her eyes locked on the screen between them as if the name might rearrange itself into something less offensive.
"And I have an offer for you," the voice continued. It was calm and unhurried, the kind of tone that belonged to someone sitting comfortably while the person on the other end was falling apart.
Brittany’s jaw worked once before the words came out.
"You have some nerve."
"Yeah."
"You killed our friend." The fury came up fast and hot and it felt better than anything she’d felt in hours. "You threw a boulder at our team and Stacy fell and the Colossus crushed her into paste. Her body didn’t even look like a person when they pulled it out. You know that?"
The line was quiet. The woman on the other end didn’t rush to fill the silence, didn’t offer the kind of automatic sympathy that strangers gave when they heard about a death they hadn’t caused.
"Yes, I know that," Nyx said.
"Then why the fuck are you calling us?" Trisha cut in, her voice flat and controlled and vibrating underneath with the kind of anger that stayed quiet because it was too big to let out all at once. "To gloat? To rub it in while we sit here and rot?"
"Why else? I have a business offer for you."
Brittany’s laugh came out ugly and raw. "A business offer. A business offer from the woman who killed Stacy. Go fuck yourself and tell your psychopath boyfriend who orchestrated the whole thing to choke on his own dick while you’re at it. You murdered our best friend and you want to pitch us a deal? What is wrong with you?"
"Are you done?"
"No, I’m not done! You think we’re going to sit here and listen to the bitch who crushed our teammate into fucking paste and then went home smiling? You make me sick."
Trisha grabbed the phone from Brittany’s hand. "If this is some kind of game, you better stop! I’ve had enough of-"
"There’s no love lost between us," Nyx interrupted. Her voice hadn’t changed. The same measured calm, the same unhurried cadence, as if two A-tier fighters threatening her life was a breeze she’d already accounted for. "Your man called mine a fag while you grinned like dumb sluts behind him. You think I care for you and your opinion? Even if it was an act you put on, I don’t give a shit about either of you."
The girls’ eyes widened. They hadn’t expected this from Nyx, the woman widely recognized as the quiet background girl with some quirky, cheeky lines.
Nyx continued, uncaring for their current thoughts. "You’ve spent the past week harassing us on camera and in the field. We’re not kids on a playground. You don’t get to bully us and then cry for mommy when you get hit back. We’re awakened warriors on a monster-infested battlefield, and you actively hampering our growth isn’t you taking our ball away and refusing to give it back. It’s you pointing a gun at our heads and holding us hostage until the monsters or our other enemies ate us alive."
Brittany’s mouth opened. Nothing came out.
"So no," Nyx continued. "I’m not going to apologize. I don’t like either of you. I’m not sympathetic to your cause. I think you both deserve your fate. You’re greedy women who smelled quick money and degraded yourselves despite having an immensely bright future ahead of you, and now you’re paying the price for it. As far as I’m concerned, you two are nothing like me or Alexandra. We were kids whose parents made bad decisions. You’re adults, loose women happy to part your legs for fame and money."
The balcony was very quiet.
Trisha’s grip on the phone had gone white. Brittany was staring at it like it had bitten her, her mouth still open, her face cycling through fury and disbelief and the specific pain of hearing the truth from someone who had killed your friend and somehow made you feel ashamed on top of it.
"Now," Nyx said, and her tone shifted exactly one degree toward brisk. "Are you going to keep bitching to me, or shall we get down to business? I got out of bed when I received the news so as to not wake them up. I’d much rather curl up to my psychotic boyfriend and kiss his cheek than talk to you two."
Trisha was the first to recover. Her voice came out thin and hard. "What’s the offer?"
"Legal protection, housing, and operational support. Runewoven’s legal department takes over your contract dispute. You continue to fight, continue to earn, and you do it under Kaiden’s banner instead of Maeve’s. You walk away from Ashbound tonight and you don’t look back."


VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Demonic Pornstar System