Hoax

Neri folded her hands demurely in her lap, carefully pretending interest in what the people around her were saying.

She was currently in her “boyfriend’s” house, surrounded by his extensive extended family. Strangely enough, both his immediate and extended family all lived smooshed into the same building. Despite this…unusual setup, they seemed nice enough.

It was almost too bad that every one of them would become her victims.

When she had met Jack, she knew that there was something different about him; she felt an energy coming from him that most mortals did not possess.

He had magic.

Magic was a rare, delicious commodity on Nadii. So, of course, it made sense for Neri to take advantage of it. She got close to Jack and manipulated him into taking her to his home. People with magic often inherited it.

And, surely enough, his entire family vibrated with magic. It was the largest group of magic folk that she had ever found. Exactly thirty people lived in that one house; three full generations of people.

“Our family really is pleased to have you over, Miss Neri.” Mr. Green, the oldest member of the magic-family, said. “Would you do us the honor of staying with us for dinner?”

Yes, indeed I will. It will be a most magical experience, she thought, careful not to let the words escape her mouth. Instead, she used a much less revealing, much more bland response. “I’d be happy to.”

And so, Neri resigned herself to more dull conversation for the next two hours.

When the family dinner was nearly ready, Neri excused herself to go to the bathroom. As soon as she reached that place and locked the door, she released a pent-up breath, and with it, the illusion that clung to her like a wet shirt. Her honey-blonde hair melted into a dead black color, and her eyes, including the sclera, changed from a pleasant brown to a dark reddish-black—the color of ‘forbidden magic’, as some humans called it. Instead of a nice blouse and jeans, she wore a single tight black garment with a living black snake wrapped around her waist.

She examined her hands. There were only three scales left on the back of her right hand. The little black patches were starting to dissolve.

How much longer can I hold the illusion? she wondered. It looks like I have to hurry.

Her snake uncoiled from around her and slithered up onto her shoulder, scales rustling dryly against her dress. Neri stroked its head lightly.

“You’ve been so patient, my little basilisk. Just wait a little while longer, and then you can drain all of their power. I won’t be able to hold up that illusion for much longer, anyway.”

Neri was an apati, or Dark Hoax—a humanoid creature that sustained itself by draining magic from others. Each scale on an apati’s body was a physical representation of the amount of magic they had left. If Neri didn’t drain anyone’s magic soon, she would die.

She waited in the bathroom until a member of the household called out that it was dinner time. Then, fighting a wave of dizziness, she used some of her remaining life force to recreate her illusory appearance and left the bathroom.

As she walked down the hall, she felt her illusion flicker a few times. After it stabilized, she heard a gasp from behind her and whipped around.

The hall was dark and empty. The tingling presence of magic did not alert Neri’s senses to any other living being there. She sighed in relief and turned around, continuing to the dining room.

Paranoia will only ruin my acting. she scolded herself.

The family was gathering at the long table. Neri found Jack, and she went to sit by him, making sure to compliment him in a cheesy teenage-lover way as she sat down. He laughed and gave her a still cheesier compliment. She would have gagged if she wasn’t trying to deceive him.

Once everyone in the dining room was seated, Mr. Green clapped twice. Everyone quieted.

“Neri, we’re happy to have you with us tonight. I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay. Now, since I dislike giving long speeches—” There were a few stifled snorts—“let’s eat!”

“Wait!” a voice called.

A girl of about fourteen burst into the dining room. It was one of Jack’s nieces, a girl named Ella. Her eyes were wild and she clutched a thick book. She pointed at Neri, and then opened the book and pointed to a picture of an apati.

“Neri’s not a human, she’s a Dark Hoax! The way she looks right now is an illusion. I saw her real form when she was walking down the hall! Get away from her, quick!”

Neri screamed inside. That cursed girl. So that gasp in the hall hadn’t been her imagination.

“Ella.” Mr. Green said sternly. “This is not a good time to be pulling pranks on us! I specifically warned you not to do this kind of thing while Neri’s here.” He turned and met Neri’s eyes. “I am very, very sorry about this. Ella will apologize at once.”

Neri stood up. She didn’t have much time left anyway.

“There’s no need for apology.” she said. “Ella’s right. I am a ‘Dark Hoax’, as you dirty humans like to call my kind.”

She released her illusion, laughing at the horrified faces around her.

Her basilisk shot from its perch on her shoulder and sank its fangs into Jack’s shoulder. Reddish darkness pulsed around him and his color grayed away, eyes dimming. When the basilisk released him, he slumped, and several scales rippled into existence on Neri’s right hand.

The basilisk looked at her for directions, and she pointed at Ella. The horrified silence that had filled the room as Jack was drained of his magic broke with her scream as the snake shot forward and bit her. Members of the family tried to attack Neri, but she raised a force field around herself and lazily watched the show.

But for some reason, though the basilisk was latched onto Ella as tightly as it had been on Jack, no energy pulsed from her. Neri shrugged. Sometimes there were nonmagical duds in families like this. She commanded the snake to release her and attack the nearest person.

The basilisk got to each and every magic-filled person, easily bypassing their numerous attempts to keep it away. With each bite, more scales formed on Neri’s arms.

Before long, Neri was surrounded by twenty-nine people slumped in their chairs and on the ground, their skin and hair gray and dim. Their breathing was minimal. When they woke up, they would have incredible headaches—losing a full supply of magic did that to people.

She chuckled. “It looks like this family’s having a power outage.”

Only then did she realize that Ella had disappeared.

“Whatever.” she said, shrugging and stroking her basilisk’s head. “What could someone without magic do against an apati?”

Ella ran.

Her stomach hurt so badly from her terror that she stumbled as she climbed the stairs to her bedroom. Her collarbone had four fresh holes from it that bled heavily. She had to escape. She had to run.

When she got to her room, she shut the door and locked it as quietly as she could, then got a bandage and slapped it over her wound.

“I’ll never play another prank again.” Ella moaned. “If only Grandpa believed me!”

That’s when the tears began. They cascaded from her blurry eyes and soaked her belongings.

She had to get away. She grabbed her extradimensional purse that Aunt Amelia made for her and began stuffing her most important books and a stash of snacks in it. She didn’t have any money. How would she survive?

Her cat looked at her curiously.

“Come on, Socks. We need to leave.” Ella reached for her silver tabby.

“I am not going in that bag, if that’s what you’re planning.” Socks said clearly, her voice sounding exactly like a cat meow.

Ella froze. “You can talk? My bestiary doesn’t say anything about talking cats on Nadii.”

Socks got up and stretched. “That book doesn’t quite have everything in it, you know. And I’m not a cat, actually. I’m a volemcattus, a very special, very rare creature that is essentially a flying cat.”

Ella shook away her shock. She didn’t have time for this.

“If you can fly, you need to come with me. There’s a dark hoax downstairs, and she’s stolen all of my family’s powers! We can’t stay here anymore. It’s not like I have any powers to help them anyway.” She shouldered the purse and shoved her window open.

The warm evening air blew gently at her hair and golden sunlight left her partially blinded as she swung her legs over the ledge. Refusing to look down, she painstakingly clung to the brick wall and started her descent.

“Why in all the silly things would you climb down?” Socks mewed disdainfully. “Like I said before, I can fly!”

“I’m too big to ride you.” Ella grunted, and slowly moved her hand down to grip another brick.

Socks snorted. After a moment, a shadow passed over Ella’s head, and there was a whooshing sound of fur against air, and then two giant white paws wrapped around her waist and took her from the wall.

Ella shrieked for a second before stifling the sound and grabbing onto the paws with all her strength, using sheer willpower to stop herself from slipping.

She shut her eyes tight. She flew for a ten-second eternity, and then the great paws set her gently on the ground. She promptly retched and groaned.

When she looked up, she saw a giant-sized version of Socks standing beside her, fluffy tail flicking and huge, furry wings arched proudly over her slender form.

“Any volemcattus can change their size, although I suppose I forgot to tell you that.” she said, and folded her wings in. As she did, she shrank back to the housecat size that Ella was used to.

The house that they came from—the house that Ella grew up in, and that she had never gone this far from—was a mere speck in the distance.

“What am I supposed to do?” she asked softly. She didn’t know much about dark hoaxes, other than the fact that her bestiary said that they were extinct. They were supposed to be the reason that magic was so rare on Nadii; it used to be plentiful, but magic could not be inherited by descendents of a dark hoax’s victim. Over the years, magic had become more and more rare as the parasites sucked the power from even the world itself.

Ella thought about all of the powers that Neri had consumed, a stinging sensation burning her eyes. Never again would Grandpa Green have visions of the future; Aunt Amelia lost the ability to create extradimensional spaces. Her cousin Benjamin would never create another tiny, sentient robot. Her mother would never fly again.

Ella’s shoulders started shaking as sobs gripped her body. Would her family have listened to her worries about Neri if she had had powers herself? Would they have believed her accusation against that monster if she had the ability to dispel illusions?

Why was she the only member of her family who was completely powerless?

Sensing her sadness, Socks came and leaned heavily against her, summoning up an airy purr. Wetness fell from Ella’s eyes onto the cat’s fur as she leaned over and stroked her head.

After a few minutes of sitting there with Socks, Ella reached into her bag and pulled out the bestiary. Surely a dark hoax-apati-thingy would have at least one weakness, right? She couldn’t leave her family with that monster forever.

She flipped the book open to the page it had last been on. The wounds in her collarbone pulsed painfully as she looked at the picture it depicted. She ripped her gaze away from the picture and started reading.

Dark Hoax (Apati)

The Dark Hoax is a parasitic monster that works in tandem with a basilisk to suck the magic from living creatures. Because they can only feed on magic, they caused their own extinction by consuming nearly all of the magic available on Nadii; once a creature’s magic is drained, they cannot pass magic onto their descendants .Dark Hoaxes do not generally attack nonmagical creatures, for doing so wastes their stores of strength.

When they find a magical creature, they take it hostage and ‘milk ‘the last of its magic from it for approximately a week after the initial draining.

The skin of a Dark Hoax is impenetrable when they are in their natural forms. Their only vulnerability through this form is through the basilisk, for the two creatures are inseparably connected. However, this vulnerability has never been successfully exploited, as the basilisk is unnaturally fast, and paralyzes its victims with its bite before they can react.

Ella moaned. There wasn’t much there, and what was written was not promising. She was unsure why she hadn’t been paralyzed when the basilisk bit her, though.

Socks peered at the picture on the page. “Those basilisks are nasty beasts. Before you adopted me, I had a heck of a fight with one. It almost killed me, but I managed to strangle it first.”

“Was it connected with a dark hoax?” Ella asked.

“No.”

“Oh. Do you… do you think that one connected to a dark hoax would be harder to beat?”

“In my years, I’ve had a dragon friend or two. They told me that the only difference between a basilisk connected with an apati and one that isn’t, is that the unconnected ones eat the creature, and the connected ones eat the magic and then they occasionally eat the creature. I think they’d be about the same, but the apati would get in the way. They have access to all the powers that they’ve stolen from other magic beings.”

Ella sat in silence for a minute, her fingers brushing lightly at the bandage on her collar. Why hadn’t she been paralyzed?

“I don’t know how, but I need to help my family.” she said, surprising determination pushing her onto her feet. She was powerless, but she had to do something. Socks looked at her curiously.

“You don’t have to follow me, but I’m going to try save them, or at least die with them.” she told the cat.

She set her gaze towards the house and tightened her jaw. The wind blew at her face, rustling the grass around her.

And then she started walking.