Another night crying myself to sleep. I am such a damn whiny, useless, fragile little girl. I am 30-freaking-years-old. I should have my life together. I should own all this crap. And here I am, going on two weeks, shuttering myself up in my apartment and drifting off with more tears on my pillow.

“We...” Charlie began.

“Are lost,” Ivonne interrupted. She put down her phone, which hadn't been able to get signal or a GPS lock for almost an hour.

“Well, maybe a little...” Charlie admitted.

“This is you last chance, Mister Sebastian,” Telroy said. He flipped his wand idly, mockingly in his left hand. “Last chance ever to beat me in a duel. How does it feel, knowing you'll lose. Knowing you've lost to me every time?”

Magic is just so different now, y'know? It used to have some class, some artistry. The great masters of the Renaissance really knew their conjuring. I still feel like the best work of human history all came before 1900.

Now it's all prefab cantrips, pop magic you can buy at the store, pick up in an afternoon.

How long does it take for a killer to grow tired of killing? For someone who made their life's work the destruction of others to step away and realize the legacy they'd left was one of only blood and suffering?

I was there the day they came, you know. The dragons, I mean. The day they started showing up in the skies all over the world.

“And, done!” I said to myself triumphantly as I clicked the button for the final upload. This has been a project several years in the making. Now all I had to do was sit back, wait, and see what happened.

“You know you still have to report this, right?” Jeremy asked. His face showed some concern, but that was belied by his wry smile.

“I already did, jerk,” I said. “Not that anyone's going to care.”

So I guess I'm living in the future now.

“Look,” Kevin said. “What I really need from you right now is to listen and not interrupt me. Is that okay?”

“Huh?” Jacob asked, looking up from the computer screen. “Oh, yeah, sure.”

“I like people,” HARIS said. Its voice was pretty much perfect these days. Good enough for any verisimilitude test you care to throw at it.

“How many have you actually met?” I asked.

Male? Again? The fracking timing on this always sucked. Just when I think I've figured out some kind of pattern. Damn it.

“The problem is I'm underqualified for everything,” Elias said. He continued clicking his way through the job listings, his eyes scanning them without really processing. They all looked the same at this point.

“Underqualified?” Rashmi said. His voice cut out a few times, courtesy of his cheap microphone. “You have a fracking PhD.”

There's nothing left for it but the tears.

Twenty years we had together. Twenty long, good years. So many adventures. So many dreams fulfilled.

“So have you asked Issy out yet?” Ramon asked as he sat down at the table across from me. His tray was laden with carbs, as usual. No idea how that guy stayed so thin.

“Nope,” I replied.

Rick looked over the half dozen friends sitting around the table, laughing, sharing stories, like not a moment had passed. “How long has it been since we were all together?” he asked.

“I dunno,” Jenny replied. “Ten, maybe eleven years? Whenever it was that Eric and Suresh got married.”

“Do these things ever stop itching?” I complained. My arms were nearly rubbed raw from my absent-minded scratching.

“If they do, it means they stopped working,” Reggie said. “In which case you'd be dead.”

“You don't get it yet, do you, harlot?” Thanis shouted. He smacked Illiandra across the face, hard, nearly toppling her over. “You belong to me.”