Page 5 of Crazy as Hell

Deciding to laugh it off like it was a big joke, he said, “I’m just a little short until payday. What’s wrong with asking a friend for a little help?”

“If we’re such good friends, why are you here when you know I was supposed to start testing at the magical academy today?” Her voice was cold as ice. “You were going to lie and say you needed money to buy a suit for an interview. If I wasn’t around, you were going to sneak in here to grab some money from my tip jar.”

“Wh-what?” he sputtered. “I would never do that!”

She damn well knew he would because she had witnessed that very thing happen with her own two eyes. The jar she kept hidden in her closet was filled with the tip money she proudly made at the pizza parlor. She had been shocked and deeply hurt the first time she had watched Billy use a key to sneak into her apartment.

Hell, she hadn’t even known he had taken her spare key.

After making sure he was alone in the apartment, he had made his way straight to her closet as if he had done so many times before. He had taken just enough money from the jar that she wouldn’t notice. And there hadn’t been an ounce of guilt or regret on his face when he had stolen her hard-earned money.

“If you want to wine and dine rich girls, do so on your own time and at your own expense.”

Anger and embarrassment made his cheeks flush bright red. He surged to his feet and practically lunged across the table as he reached for her. “I don’t know what your fucking problem is—”

She didn’t even have to open her mouth or lift a hand to bitch slap him with a powerful blast of magic. She tempered it so it was just enough to slam him back in his seat without knocking him and the chair over. It was an advanced wind manipulation spell that shouldn’t have been possible for a witch like her to achieve with just a thought. At least, it would be impossible for who she used to be.

But now, she was so much more.

His eyes went wide with shock. “How the hell did you do that?”

Ignoring his question, she said, “That was your one and only warning. Don’t come at me without expecting to get slapped back a thousand times harder. The only reason I answered the door today is I want to make a few things very clear to you. I am not your ATM, nor am I running a free grocery store here.” She tapped the table with a fingertip. “Now, give me back my spare key.”

“I don’t have—” He let out a loud gasp as he stumbled away from the table. “Holy fuck, Naomi. Your eyes are flickering like green fire,” he whispered, his voice full of fear. “Why are they doing that?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “They started doing that after I died the thirty-fifth time. Or was it the thirty-sixth? I wasn’t very good at keeping track back then.”

She’d always been careful about who she told about her unique situation, but this cycle, she decided to forgo that caution. It was a waste of time trying to find plausible explanations. Besides, she had told him the whole truth during one of the earlier cycles, and he hadn’t believed her.

“Wh-what?”

She shook her head. “Never mind that. It’s a long story I don’t want to get into right now. I don’t know why my eyes glow sometimes. They just do.”

Especially when she was angry or feeling some other strong emotion.

Glowing eyes were usually a trait reserved for gods or other exceptionally powerful supernatural beings. They served as a visible sign of the immense power and magic they possessed. Even then, their eyes didn’t glow the way hers did. They didn’t flicker on and off like enchanted traffic lights, flashing unpredictably whenever something inside her shifted or made her emotional.

The strangest part wasn’t even the glowing itself. Over the course of countless time loops, she’d consulted demons, angels, fairies, and other powerful beings who might be able to help her. Several of them had tried to gauge her magical abilities, only to come away even more confused after they couldn’t accurately sense her power at all. To all of them, she was nothing more than a regular human.

It was as if her magical aura was invisible to their senses.

Despite that, her power reserves continued to increase with every lifetime. She could feel it. Sense it. Techniques that had once drained her now came naturally, and spells she could barely perform before had become almost effortless. As long as it was useful to her, she no longer cared why.

She watched as he slipped a key out of his pocket and set it down onto the table with shaking fingers. “Something very strange is going on with you.”

That was true enough.

“You can leave now.”

As he stiffly headed for the door, she briefly considered just letting him leave without saying anything else. Then, she relented. Even if he was an asshole, he had saved her from being bullied in the group home when they were younger. Because of that, she felt like she at least owed him some friendly advice.

“Just a warning. The girl you are going on a date with tonight? Her dad has checked you out. He might be a legit businessman, but he has connections with some very bad people. After you hook up with a random girl at a club next weekend, he is going to send some guys to beat the crap out of you and teach you a lesson. It’s going to take an expert healer to keep you from dying. Even then, your shattered leg is never going to be the same. If you want to be able to keep breathing, make sure not to piss him off. If you don’t like her, stop pursuing her and make a clean break.”

He simply stared at her for a long beat of silence, then whispered, “How in hellfire can you know all that?”

“Because I’ve already lived it. Believe me or not, that’s your choice.” She paused, then added, “Stop being such an asshole, Billy. Life will be a lot easier on you.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it again without saying anything. With a curt nod of his head, he left, quietly closing the door behind him.