#finnagan

           “That’s it. The end. It’s over,” Finnagan groaned hitting his head against the table in the Diner. He should have stepped in and stopped Estee. Tried to change the phrasing. Something ANYTHING, but the damn parasite had been right there! It was pretty much impossible to do a personality switch when Fresh was looking right at him. It had nothing to do with getting caught by Fresh himself. If Finnagan wanted to keep this version of himself alive inside his soul at all he couldn’t go out when Fresh was looking at him due to THAT THING.

           The mind parasite, that mental abomination that had invaded his very essence through those stupid injections, always paid special attention to what Estee said and did when Fresh was looking. Keeping the broken shattered remnants of the majority of what had once been Finnagan, “happy” and “calm” and “cooperative”. It made Finnagan sick to his stomach. He’d been in a lot of bad spots. This wasn’t even his first time playing hide and seek with something trying to control his mind. It was something that could be endured, worked around, overcome with the kind of careless patience only a technical immortal could manage.

           That was the thing though wasn’t it? He wasn’t immortal anymore. He was pretty damn sure of that. He didn’t have access to most of his powers. Any he did have access to were blocked due to the threat of the shock collar (which never mind the pain it was the loss of concentration that would be the problem in most cases). Fresh was also incredibly possessive and kept an almost constant eye on his “favorite toys” way too closely. He wasn’t getting a chance to do much even in those moments when he could move.

           Now on top of everything else, he was stuck with that damn promise.

           “That stupid cat! She must have told him,” Finnagan groaned. He didn’t even have the energy to be mad anymore. He kept his head on the table staring past the edge at his shoes. In his universe, spirits, the magical near godlike immortals that wandered the world practically unnoticed by most humans, had certain rules that bound and dictated what they could and couldn’t do. Much like the conventional laws of physics that applied to physical objects these were laws that could not be easily broken.

           In this case, it was the law of one’s given word. Words held power, a heavy physical weight to them, which spirits could feel. Humans, so much less sensitive to the magic of the world and mostly protected in their ignorance, did not carry the weight of those words they carelessly bantered about. Spirits, beings who had been there when words were first made and used and knew the full extent of their ability, were very much affected and aware. That was why spirits took care of things like names or promises. Nothing could hurt a spirit more than careless words. For all that Finnagan acted the idiot. He in particular watched his words.

           But the mind controlled broken personality that Finnagan had come to call Estee had no such understanding.

           “Obey his words, never argue, remain his toy forever,” Finnagan mumbled repeating the damning conditions again. He had the uncomfortable feeling Fresh had been very careful with his wording there but not perfectly. “Forever” was an impossible thing to accomplish even in magic. It was possibly his only real “out” from this neat little trap.

           He didn’t like the idea at all though.

           He laughed and the laugh sounded lonely broken and slightly insane as it echoed off the walls of the diner. He found it ironic really. The one thing that he’d done so many times before getting trapped as a human. The one thing he’d done so much out of sheer carelessness. The one thing he hadn’t done in almost a year. The one thing he had been trying so hard NOT to do for the past week in this hell hole. The one thing he was sure would help him out now from this predicament. The one thing he felt almost too scared to try.

           He thought about it now and laughed, tears spilling from his eyes as he kept on laughing hard and harder and harder.