Lily... That was the name of the woman... the witch that Parvati seemed to have a vendetta against.

Greg sat with his legs crossed on Trish's bed, thinking about the mysterious woman. Just who was Lily, and what did she do to make Parvati have such a grudge against her.

He laid back on the bed, his arms crossed behind his head.

That same day that Parvati had told him about the intricaties of the witches, as well as about Lily, he made his trek into this very room to ask Trish about the conflict. Despite the fact that Parvati had clearly not wanted him to know at the time.

After having his fun with Parvati, Greg had left her room and was on his way towards Trish's room. Parvati had wondered why he finished with her so soon, and he had told her that he was going to go as Trish for another round of Feral Fighters X. Of course, this was a lie, but she seemed to believe him.

Greg had always been curious by nature. Perhaps even nosy to a fault. It was because of this that he decided to cut his appointment with Parvati's feet short, and ask Trish about the story behind this Lily person.

He reached her door, which was cracked open enough for him to walk through. Once inside, he saw that Trish was sitting at her computer, viewing what looked like a video on YouTube, though from his distance and because of his size, he could not tell what it was.

"Yo!" He called.

Much to his dismay, she did hear him; she kept her attention on the monitor in front of her. He looked closely, and saw that she had headphones over her ears.

"Great..." He said to himself before starting to walk towards her.

Her room was still as messy as ever, with several of her clothes strewn across the floor, and her sneakers lying right in his path. He walked around them, past the other articles of clothing that stood as tall as a small hill compared to him, and eventually made his to the chair that Trish was sitting in. Standing to her left, he looked up at her. She still had not noticed him down below.

"Hey, Trish!" He called again.

She did not respond. It seemed that his voice could not penetrate through the sounds from her headphones. He looked underneath the chair and saw that she had her socked feet crossed underneath it, with the soles facing towards the back. At this point, he figured that there was only one thing he could do. He walked under the chair and, with a bit of a smirk, began to tickle the sole of her left foot. Immediately, her foot shot forward, the same time he heard a "Ahh!" above. In a matter of seconds, the chair had pulled out further from the desk, and he soon found himself standing between her feet, while looking at the face that was looking back down at him.

"Well, now that I've got your attention," Greg said, "I want to ask you something."

"And what is that?" Trish answered.

"What the deal with this Lily chick?"

Trish shook her head. "Didn't you hear in there? She and Par hate each other."

"Yeah, I know, but... why?"

"Geez, you're nosy. Does your owner know you're in here?"

"Yeah, I told her that I was coming in."

She sighed. "Alright." She then reached down and grabbed him with her right hand. She then pulled him up to where she was and placed him on the desk in front of the large keyboard.

"They weren't always like this," Trish started, moving the headphones from her ears to around her neck. "In fact, the three of us were pretty close-knit. We went to high school together, though they're both two years older than I am, so that didn't last too long."

"Yeah," Greg said as he sat down. "I had a few friends back in high school that graduated before I did. I never saw them again."

Trish nodded. "Well, that obviously wasn't the case with us. But anyway, while we were there, we fell into three categories that everyone saw us as."

"Which were..."

"I was the tomboy. I played on the girls' sports teams. I wasn't the best, but I was up there. Par was the smart girl. She graduated as the valedictorian of her class. She would often help me with any problems with schoolwork that I had." She chuckled. "Lily... Oh boy..."

"What is it?"

"You know when Par was calling her a 'harlot' not too long ago, right?"

"Yeah."

"That... is somewhat true. Even back then, Lily was very popular with the guys. She was the cutest of the three of us, or so the other students said. She decided to take advantage of this and... well... Many of the girls didn't call her the 'School Slut' for nothing."

"Wait... If she was as bad as you said she was, why'd you and Parvati hang out with her?" Greg folded his arms. "Someone like that would probably mess up your rep."

"Yeah, but outside of that, she was a nice person. She was also a bit smart. Not as smart as Par, though."

"So, where'd it all go south?"

Trish sighed. "I don't know how exactly it started. When I saw them after my graduation, I could sense some tension between them. Though I didn't know it at the time, the two had their magic powers awakened at around the same time while they were gone, so maybe that had something to do with it. Either way, whatever beef they had between each other, it wasn't as bad as it is now. Not by a longshot."

"A year ago," Trish continued, "Par was seeing this guy, and-"

"Let me guess," Greg interrupted. "Lily stole him from her."

"In Lily's defense, she didn't know that he was seeing Par when she hooked up with him, though Par still partly blamed her. The shitstorm that soon followed should have told her to drop that loser. But she stayed with him. Then..."

~~~

Par and I were standing outside of the door to Lily's house. I had just rung the doorbell, and seconds later, Lily opened the door.

"It's about time!" She said jokingly.

"What is this thing that you want to show us?" I asked.

"You'll see. C'mon in!"

We followed her inside. Her house was a bit smaller than our's. In fact, the front door led right into the living room, which was connected to damn well near every single room in the house. But she had a basement, so it made up for it. Kinda.

She led us through the living room and into her bedroom, which was through an open door on the right side of the far wall. As soon as we walked in, Par and I were shocked at what we saw: In Lily's bed was Par's ex, his limbs chained to each of the four posts.

He looked dehydrated, and he had been stripped of his clothes, except for his boxer shorts. His chest had a lot of cuts on them; even worse, there were some similar-shaped scars mixed in with fresh cuts, which meant that he had been here for a while. There was a gagging ball tied into his mouth, which obviously stopped him from talking. Though as soon as we walked in, his face lit up as he recognized the both of us. We could barely make out our names from his severely muffled voice as he attempted to call us.

I looked to Par, who's initial shock had turned into anger.

"Lily," she said. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"This guy is a manwhore," Lily casually responded. "He'd go after anything that has a set of boobs. I proved that when he hooked up with me."

"You didn't answer my question," Par said. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Yeah," I said, still stunned. "This is just..."

"I wanted to make him suffer for what he did to my best friend. And for every other girl that I bet he did this to."

"This is too far!!" Par yelled. "Are you insane?!"

The guy started to nod his head rapidly. Lily turned around and slammed her open palm on his chest, where there was a higher concentration of the fresh cuts. We heard his muffled scream of agony.

"Shut it, you manwhore," she ordered. "I didn't put that ball in your mouth for nothing. I don't want to hear your mouth."

"Lily," I said. "Let him go."

"No, I can't do that. He knows too much."

"So you're going to keep him here forever?! He knows too much about what?!"

"Oh, Parvati here knows." She then smirked at Par.

I looked at her, and saw that she had a horrified expression on her face. Her hand was covering her open mouth.

"You didn't tell him, did you..." she said.

"No, I didn't," Lily answered. "I showed him."

Par's anger returned. "How could you be so stupid?! We're not supposed to tell anyone about those!!"

You see, this was three months before my powers had awakened, so, at the time, I had no idea what they were talking about. Of course, I do now.

"Well, this guy won't be leaving anytime soon," Lily said as she looked towards him. "If he did, he'd just go to the police and rat out our entire organization. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

Par was about to say something, but held back. Instead, she gritted her teeth in anger. I was expecting her to lunge at Lily at any second and start beating the mess out of her. Yeah, I had never seen her fight anyone ever, but I really thought that she would do it that time.

"Besides," Lily said. "This was his idea. He's into S&M. I'm just giving him what he wants. I bet he secretly likes this."

"Even so," I said, "You're taking this too far. You gotta let him go. Surely you're not that demented!"

Lily laughed rather manically, before giving a rather sadistic smile. "We'll see, won't we?"

~~~

Greg was stunned at what he just heard. He had no idea that this Lily person was so... sadistic. No doubt that it was because of that that Parvati had warned him to stay away from her.

"There was one last war of words before Lily got mad and kicked us out," Trish said as she brought her elbow onto the desk and rested her head on the palm of her hand. "When we got home, Par started to swear in... I think Punjabi. She threw a vase and shattered it. She even yelled at me for some reason. Man... Par may be slow to anger, but once she gets started, it's quite a scary sight."

"Wow..." Greg said. "That's not something I want to see anytime soon."

"Yeah, you're right about that."

"So, because Lily tortured the guy who cheated on her, she practically hate her?" Greg shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know... I doubt many women would be THAT angry over that..."

"I guess she was shocked over how heartless such a close friend could be. That on top of stealing the guy she had been in love with, and then him learning about their 'secret' powers pretty much did it for her. Anyway, Lily later called me and apologised for what she did. She claimed that she had a severe rush of power that she went overboard with." Trish sighed. "...I forgave her."

Greg's eyes widened briefly in surprise. "Why'd you do that?"

"It's just the way I am. I've always been a forgiving person... It's how I was raised. Forgive and forget, right?" She gave him a half-smile.

"I see... What about Parvati?"

"Par is the polar opposite. Once you cross her, that's it. She's done with you. So you can guess what her response was when Lily tried to apologise to her."

"Hm..." Suddenly, a thought lit up on Greg's head. "Wait. Did Lily get caught by the head witches Parvati told me about. She said that you all are not allowed to use your powers to hurt humans."

"So Par told you about the inner workings of us witches. Yeah, that's true, but for some reason, Lily managed to get away with it. The perfect crime, I guess."

"What happened to the guy?"

"I have no idea. Lily never told me."

"You still talk to her?"

"Well, yeah. I told you, I'm a forgiving person. Plus, I hated to have to lose a friend that I've known for 5 years."

"What does Parvati think?"

Trish got a somewhat annoyed look on her face. "What do you think she thinks?!"

Greg dropped his head. "Sorry..."

"She doesn't like that I still talk to her, but she understands how I feel. But she told me to watch my back." Trish stood from the chair that she was sitting in. "At first, Lily started coming over here occasionally to try to beg for Par's forgiveness. Of course, each time was a no-go, and now she just comes over to annoy her. They can't be under the same roof anymore, so I have to be the one to get Lily out, since she doesn't listen to anything Par says."

"I see... What would she do with me?" Greg asked as he stood up. "I mean, it's not often that you see a guy of my size."

Trish reached towards the desk and plucked him from it. She then set him in her open palm.

"If she finds out that you belong to Par..." She paused for a second. "...She'll probably steal you."

Greg gasped. "Why?"

"To annoy Par."

"Is that it?"

"Pretty much."

Greg shook his head. "Childish."

"By the way... What did Par tell you about Lily?"

"...Just what she looked like, and to stay away from her."

"And you said that she sent you in here to learn about what happened?"

Greg paused for a few seconds. He could not lie at this point. If he did and said that Parvati had indeed sent him in here to hear the story, and if Trish discussed this with her, then it would mean trouble for the both of them. And after what Trish had told him, he wanted to avoid making Parvati angry at all costs.

"No." He quietly answered.

"What?!" Trish said, a bit irritated. "You mean Par didn't want you to know about this? You lied to me."

Greg shook his head. "Technically, I didn't. You asked if she knew that I was in here, and she does."

"Don't give me that loophole crap! Now I'm going to get in trouble if Par finds out!"

"Shhhhh!!!" Greg made the shushing sound as he brought his index finger in front of his lips. "She doesn't have to know. I'll just pretend that you never told me."

Trish stared at him. "You think that'll work?"

"It could..."

"Hm..." Trish walked towards her bed, and knelt down and placed Greg on the floor beside it.

"What are you doing?" Greg asked as he looked up towards her, before grinning. "Are you going to step on me as punishment?"

"No. That would be rewarding you."

Trish pointed towards Greg, and soon, a light eminated from the tip of her index finger. It shot from her finger, to a spot right next to him. After the light disappeared, Greg saw that a broom, a mop, and a large bucket of water were in its place.

"Your punishment is to clean under my bed," Trish said.

"What?!" Shocked at what he just heard, Greg's mouth dropped. "C'mon..."

"Do you want me to tell Par that you tricked me into telling you about her and Lily?"

"...No..."

"Good. I want it done by the end of the day." Trish stood upright. "You're the perfect size for such a task. Anyway, I'm going to go get something to eat." She then turned to her left and walked out of the room.

Greg sighed and picked up the broom and mop with one hand, and the heavy bucket of water in the other, and made his way underneath her bed. One there, he saw just how large the space was underneath in relation to his current size. In addition, it was dark, the only light coming from outside of the bed. Of course, it was messy, with dust balls and dirt from her sneakers all over the places where he could see rather clearly.

"Jesus Christ..." He said in astonishment.

This is the punishment he must endure for going behind Parvati's back.