There was a knock at the door, and I paused with my handing reaching towards Ping's injury. "Coming!" I called, moving towards the door. Pulling it open I saw Violet on the other side holding a bag of fresh McDognalds take-out.

"Surprise~~" Violet said in a voice that was simultaneously sing-song and monotonous. "I brought sustenance!"

"Violet? What are you doing here? Wait, what time is it? Shouldn't you be back at work?" I said, as Violet pushed past me and kicked her shoes off in the entrance.

"Once I heard you had fainted and were going home early I knew I couldn't just let you have a sick day all to yourself, so I improvised and here I am."

"How did you know I was here?! For all you know I could've gone to the hospital!" I suddenly realized.

"A girl has her ways," Violet said ominously. "Is there someone else here? I heard you talking."

"Oh there's just--" I looked over at Ping, who was now lounging on top of Violet's head with a smug look on their face. "Nobody! Nobody's here! I was just talking to myself!"

"Really? I heard something about 'heroes' and 'daemons' or whatever. Was it larping? Are you a larper, Sue?" Violet said, tossing the fast food on the small table next to my open kitchen and looking around the apartment. "Man, these are your new digs? No wonder you haven't invited me over yet, especially when we're in the same building now."

The apartment was cozy for one person, and that was exactly the problem: one person. After walking through the main entrance, there was the open kitchen to the left, which felt smaller and less equipped than the break room's at the office, a table just in front of it with a couple chairs, a dark green couch with an almost knit exterior that I had bought at a thrift store for real cheap, a TV, and two windows at the far end. The only other doors were one that lead to the only bathroom, and the one that lead to the bedroom that was hardly big enough to fit a twin-sized bed and a single dresser.

I never planned on inviting anyone over, really. Well, except for maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend, but there were other decoration rules for that. And it's not like my love-life ever really kicked off for that anyways. So, instead, with the smattering of "vintage" thrift-store furniture, I decorated my abode with colourful strings of lights and an old lamp with a stained-glass shade.

"Also what's with this light, lol," Violet said, pronouncing with human words. "I bet this place is great to get high in. You wanna toke up tonight?"

"Wh-what? No!" I said, flustered. "Anyways, did you just come here to make fun of my decor?"

"Oh, yeah," Violet said, pulling the fries out of the bag and eating a few as she crashed on the couch, flipping over to face me. "I wanted to talk about today as well. You were acting pretty weird. Well, weird-er than usual. First you talk about seein' things, then you faint, then I hear some people saw you crouched down in some sort o' fetal position near the elevator?"

"Huh?" I said, feeling the colour drain from my face as I realize people could see that. Could they see the fight? Did it just look like I was play-fighting? "Wh-what else did they see?"

"After that? I dunno, nobody said anything. They just said they saw you kneeling there, then if I asked if you were still here they just shrugged and said they hadn't seen you in a while. Figured you went home or something."

"Oh, I see," I said, feeling a bit of a wave of relief wash over me as I let myself collapse into one of the chairs at the table.

"Anyways, don't dodge the question," Violet said, cradling her head in her hands as she looked at me intently. "What's goin' on, Sue?"

"N-nothing," I said, trying to find some sort of excuse.

"Tell her you were fighting evil incarnate," Ping said, floating over by ear. "Or that you made fresh calamari or something."

"Shut up!" I said, swatting Ping away. I remembered that Violet was there and could see her squinting at me inquisitively.

"That doesn't seem like 'nothing' to me," Violet said. "Are you sure I shouldn't be calling the hospital or something?"

"No, don't!" I protested. "Really, it was just... the cold! Yeah, I forgot to dress appropriately for the rain and I guess the cold got to me. I had a really bad stomach ache after fainting too, which is why I was kneeling."

Violet continued to scrutinize me. "Okay, I won't call the hospital, chill. God knows how expensive those rates get anyways." She pushed herself to her feet and walked over to the table, fishing a burger out of the bag and unwrapping it gingerly. "But really, you know you don't gotta hide things from me. I got your back, girl, I'm not gonna spread any mean rumors or something." Violet took a big bite, and through her mouthful added, "Well, not about you anyways."

I sighed and took a burger from the bag as well. "I don't know," I said, mostly truthfully. "I think I'll need to get back to you on that."

"Well," Violet said, wiping a smattering of grease and condiments from her face with her bare hand. "Don't come to work if you don't feel much better, okay? I'm not gonna let myself or any of my friends run themselves into the ground, y'hear?"

"I-I do," I said, with a nervous laugh. "And, thanks."

"Don't sweat it," Violet said. "Anyways, whaddya got on this TV? Any games? C'mon, you gotta have something."

The day continued like that, but out of the corner of my eye I could see Ping the whole time, and sometimes I caught him licking at the wound on his shoulder.