Free (Skeleton Key) Game Master by Scarlett Dawn

stern looking middle-aged woman—grabbed his arm and yanked him away as her face showed obvious shock at his behavior.
    We twiddled our thumbs.
    Two men in dark cloaks stayed.
    They watched us.
    They had been up top with General Finley. The two guys looked pretty uptight. Upper officials, all the way. They really didn’t like being stuck near us, but there was a special gleam in their eyes as they studied us. I felt like a lab rat.
    I didn’t like that.
    But I did eventually smirk.
    I waited for a full minute for the man on the right’s covert, forlorn gaze to come back to us and alter into studying us again. I murmured quietly, “Sorry about your carriage.”
    His eyes widened to saucers.
    I leaned against Lucifer and held his gaze.
    He sputtered for a few seconds. Then he stormed off to where General Finley and the woman were having a heated argument. Apparently, he had decided to join the fray.
    Lucifer wrapped his left arm around my shoulders, fingers spread wide in front of us.
    He cried out quietly in a girly voice, “I think I broke a nail! I’ll have to fix that right away.” He sighed and then gasped, bringing his hand closer to our faces. “Freddy will just cry when he sees this. It’s two nails, not one!”
    I bit the inside of my cheek hard.
    Lucifer had correctly guessed the older, butch man’s flaw. He stopped studying us and an expression of disgust crossed his features, taking Lucifer for a gay man. The last cloak-wearing fool turned and stormed off to argue with his cohorts.
    All around us was chaos. Chaos we had instigated.
    I wondered how long it would take General Finley to put it all together. I relaxed against Lucifer, more now that no one was watching us. The sound of groans was music to my ears as people started picking themselves up off the ground or waking from being knocked out. I watched them covertly making sure none came charging at us in post rage.
    They didn’t.
    Minutes passed.
    General Finley hollered for his group to shut up.
    He cast thoughtful eyes on us.
    The General was clearly in control of his temper now.
    Lucifer and I lifted a free hand each and wiggled our fingers. Harmless. That was us.
    General Finley took a slow perusal of his co-workers pissed off faces and then at the hurt people around us. He blinked. Slowly, like a steam engine train just starting up, he began to chuckle until it became a full grab-your-belly laugh, his tan face turning pink with his mirth. I observed silently until he shook his head at us and threw his arms wide, shouting, “You two are fucking geniuses!”
    We nodded.
    He finally got it.
    We controlled the chaos.
    We stopped it before it even began.
    We let it begin.
    We beat them down.
    When it stopped, we started it again.
    We egged him on to the point he lost control, just as each one of his experienced co-workers had.
    We held them all in our hands.
    We were the eye of the storm.
    And we didn’t like being an experiment.
    Experience, yes.
    Training, yes.
    But when they were lifted up above, to study us, we had bristled. Maybe General Finley and his colleagues would learn from this. Perhaps they wouldn’t.
    Teach us. Show us. Help us.
    But don’t experiment on us.
    Or do…
    And face our wrath.

    After General Finley had calmed everyone down and gotten medical help for those who needed it, he and his chums took us out to lunch. All of them watched us warily, except for General Finley, who couldn’t stop shaking his head and chuckling. I was sure he was embarrassed with himself.
    While we ate, they asked us normal questions about our home lives, normally get to know you stuff, but with my past—or no past in this realm—Lucifer talked nonstop to keep the focus off me. General Finley was quiet in his seat, becoming more and more amused as the time passed by. When we left, he took us back to the keep and walked us to our rooms.
    “I’m sorry about earlier.” The General stared off to the side. “I’ve learned a valuable lesson