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12. Cursed

I elbowed his chest, or whatever part of him my elbow was closest to, winning a grunt out of him. "Shut the fuck up you little shit."

We didn't have to wait long until the two people left the hallway. We freed ourselves from the tiny room. "I thought I was just supposed to smile and nod when we see people?" Zander questioned as we made our way to the mysterious lab. "What was the point of pushing us into a closet?"

"I wasn't ready." I replied, looking around cautiously.

"Or maybe you just wanted to kiss me but you got scared and didn't do it."

"There it is." I pointed to the lab next to the bathroom. "Okay. In there, there are scientists and a frozen red eyed woman. We need to draw out the scientists so we go inside and find out more about the red eyed woman."

"Why don't we just knock and ask them if we can come in?"

Oh my god. "We can't. Their work is classified. It's secret and no one is supposed to know what they're doing."

"Well," He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at me. "If that's the case, why are we trying to break in?"

"Because!" I groaned. "There's someone with red eyes who was following me starting from when Orion took you in, and I want to know if she is that stalker or is anyone dangerous. Also, you mentioned that if someone is cursed, their eyes turn red. What if she's cursed and we can help her. Like, what if solution 15 breaks the curse just like it broke yours?"

Zander thought about my words for a moment. "Okay fine. But what do I get in return?"

"What?"

"If I help you be nosy, what would I get in return?" He batted his eyelashes at me.

"I don't know! We'll talk about it later." I said impatiently, glancing at the hallways to see if anyone is around.

"Grumpy human." Zander clicked his tongue. "What do I do then?"

I shared him my plan. I just created it on the way here and saying the words out loud makes me less confident about what we're about to do. Zander said to me, "Don't worry. I got this." And it didn't help very much.

The first step is to mess up the security cameras. I don't know how magic works in real life, but Zander didn't need to say spells to do them. I watched as purple light travel from his fingers to the cameras on the ceiling, kind of like and her pretty red energy lights thing, except it's purple. Little sparks burst from the cameras, so he may have broken them. Next, draw out the scientists from their lab. I specifically told Zander how I wanted them to leave, so that there aren't too much panicking and destruction, and it will be a bit more plausible in a scientific lab's environment.

Zander and I hid on the girl's bathroom. Once again, purple lights traveled from his hand to the inside of the lab, going straight through the door like a ghost. We waited for a couple of minutes. It felt like two hours until the Russian speaking scientists came running out of the lab. As expected, they ran out of the hallway.

"Perfect." My heart skipped with excitement and anxiety. "Let's go!"

Entering the lab, Zander and I saw white, cold smoke all over the room. It's nothing but liquid nitrogen, which is contained in all the laboratories in Virgo as precaution for when certain technical devices overheat, or a quick way to put out a fire. Zander sent a ball of purple light to the liquid nitrogen emitter on the ceiling, which causes the fog in the room to clear out after a few minutes.

"Piece of cake."

I made a mental note to ask Zander how his magic works later on: what are the rules, since they apparently exist. For now, I focused on the red eyed woman that is resting in the end of the room, her frozen body laying on a metal desk. We don't have much time. The two scientists will return soon, most likely with some technicians to check what triggered the liquid nitrogen emitter.