Sapphyra

Care to explain?" At that moment, those three words spelled doom for me.

"I...you see, what had happened was–" As my brain scrambled to come up with a feasible answer, an alarm went off in Guy's back pocket. Was I saved by the bell?

"Oh boy. New monster alert, uptown this time." Guy mumbled, pocketing his phone quickly. He nods at Rupert and picks me up, bridal style, out of nowhere.

"Hey what the–put me down!"

"Dynamo, what the hell are you doing?" The president's voice was cold and menacing. I'm not sure which of these two I should be more wary of anymore.

"I'm gonna need my Cleanup girl to be close by...you know, for her job. Right?" He looked at me, slyly winking with one corner of his mouth ticked up.

My Cleanup girl? We're gonna circle back to that one later.

"Right, yeah it's probably better for me to be on standby. Safer too, I mean think of the optics–"

"Go. I tire of your infomercial antics." Rupert sighed, waving us off.

I didn't breathe properly until we were outside, amongst the city lights and darkness.

Wait, darkness?

"What happened to the sun? It's so early in the morning!" I gave him a second to respond but he seemed lost in thought, focusing heavily on the gargantuan snake in front of us.

"Oh, sorry, here." He sat me down gently, then motioned towards one of the buildings still standing a few feet away.

"I'd advise hiding over there. I'm about to do my best impression of a pretzel maker." He grinned, giving me another wink as he flew off, delivering a punch into the reptile's nose. Its body recoiled back and snapped forward, smacking into Guy and sending him flying into a newish cafe building.

His jokes were horrible but at least he was sturdy.

"Great, another building for me to clean up...it wasn't even that old."

While Guy was busy keeping the monster occupied–and destroying public property, I stayed in the shadows. I know it's my job to clean up, but after meeting Rupert and listening to the way he raved about me-like I'm some sort of mystery? I couldn't help but think, maybe he was right?

Maybe I could do something more.

Don't interfere.

Chovy's words haunted me, like a record stuck on repeat.

"Darling, move!"

My pulse quickened as I searched for the voice and immediate danger. Whoever it was, they weren't calling out to me but to the person a few feet away from me. My heart ached as I recognized who it was.

Dax, my kind and portly bus driver, was on his hands and knees crawling away from the fight. A woman called out to him from several shops away. I think that's his wife.

I didn't think. Just like with Penny, my body moved on autopilot. Standing next to him now, I helped him walk with his arm over my shoulder and my hand on his waist.

"S-Sapphyra? Where did you come from?"

"I was in the neighborhood. You should hobble a little faster, Dax."

He frowned, all the wrinkles showing at once on his otherwise youthful, plump face.

"Leave me behind." He said, struggling to push away from me.

Someone tossed a car in our direction. I reached up, blocking it from hitting us with a single hand. Was there smoke coming from my ears because I was super pissed off. Dax took a step back, though I'm not sure if it was because of the environment or me.

I grabbed him, tossing him over my shoulder violently. Tiny cracks in the pavement started forming.

Don't interfere. Keep your head down.

Fuck that.

"Sapph, what are you doing? I told you to leave me behind! It's my time to go!"

"Says who?"

"I..." he struggled. "It just is!"

"Is that so? What about your wife then, huh? And your kids? Do they get a say?!" I was yelling, making a scene, but I lost my last fuck when Dax decided to hit the escape button on life.

The ground shook beneath us with each step we took. But it wasn't from the fight.

The shaking was from me. I was just too angry to realize it.

"S-Sapphyra? Stop it. Y-you're just a janitor!"

I grabbed his skull, getting in real close. We were nose to nose so there was no misunderstanding what I said next.

"Yeah but I ain't cleaning up your bullshit Dax. You're gonna live, whether you like it or not."

Meanwhile, back at Rupert's mansion...

President Rupert paced back and forth in his office, eyeing the rising smoke from the direction of the city where Dynamo had fled to. He'd fled with his prize.

And Rupert couldn't stand that. He would bide his time for as long as he could but results must be shown. Changes to the system were just on the brink–if he could just get Sapphyra to agree to a class change.

A cold truth washed over him; he didn't have to wait. He was the goddamn president and if he wanted someone to change a class, by god he'd make them do it.

Rupert pulled up his laptop and pressed away at a few apps. A city map covered in red dots representing every citizen filled his view. But not Sapphyra's, hers was pink. He clicked her dot and entered the command. There was no hesitation when he pressed enter.

But there was certainly a frown at the response he got.

[CLASS CHANGE UNAVAILABLE.]

"What the hell do you mean unavailable?!"

[CLASS PROMOTION IN PROCESS]

He blinked a few times, reading the response over and over again just to be sure.

"That's impossible. Classes don't promote, that's not a thing." He mumbled in awe yet he welcomed the predatory smile that followed.

If he wasn't obsessed with Sapphyra before, he damn sure was now.

Back in the city streets...

"Here ma'am." I gently tossed Dax onto the ground next to his wife. She covered his face in kisses and then slapped the taste out of his mouth.

Good.

"Ow! Darcy, what the hell, woman?!"

"How dare you scare me like that! 20 years we've been married–if you want to die so badly then I'll kill you myself!" she screamed at him through her tears. I tried not to laugh as she took off her shoe and beat him over the head with it a few times.

Then reality hit me.

"Wait...Dax went out there willingly?"

Darcy nodded, stopping her assault. Dax cowered in a shop nearby.

"Yeah, fuggin' idiot of a man. Kept muttering something stupid, he had a blank stare in his eyes earlier...I didn't think nothin' of it at the time but–"

"Darcy." I gently grabbed her by the shoulders, centering her. "What did he say? What was he muttering?"

"Oh that? He kept saying; things are the way they are for a reason. Stupid, defeatist attitude if you ask me..."

She kept talking but I couldn't hear her beyond the roaring in my ears. It felt like the floodgates had opened.

I checked on Dax again, gasping.

He had his head down on the table–a blank look just like Darcy said.

And with jaws wide open, the world-eating snake was coming right for him.