Chapter 5

The Dark Side of the Moon

“Long ago there were forbidden spells. They were called the Bloody Scrolls. Red magic spells that had large gates sketched out on their cover. Your father used one of those spells. And he created you and your sister from one of those spells.”

“Magic created me?”

She nods, “You aren’t a natural birth. That sort of magic was banned by the members of the inner circle."

The woman I knew as my mother was in fact my Cousin Kitty. Cousin Kitty gathers herself, several times fixing her bra as she speaks to me. She was still the same woman. All curves and low rolling voice that shed used to seduce men most of her life. She’d taught me so much growing up. It’s wild to know I didn’t come from her.

“You have no mother. You were twins born of the reddest magic. Twins born to the five families usually carry the same power source. When one twin died, the other twin inherits their power. Usually, this causes one twin to murder the others in the history of our coven. The bad twin is known as the dark side of the Moon.”

“If I’m the ‘good’ twin then this Lilith has to be pretty bad,” It hits me.

“Your father believes so. That’s why we hid your identity all this time. That is why I couldn’t have you know about magic and come to this place.”

“He brought me back,” I tell her, “He’s been communicating with Leon Staten.”

“What? Do you even know who this guy is, Gene? Do you think this guy is really talking to Genesis Bah? Really? He could be using you. How could you be so stupid? I thought you were smarter than that…”

“Calm down lady, I sold him out,” I tell her, “They probably are working on capturing his ass any time now…”

Or killing him. I sort of felt bad.

“Genesis would want you away from this place.”

“You don't’ know what he wants,” I ask, “You denied me my identity.”

The betrayal is deep and compelling. I’d wanted an explanation from her but I wanted one that made sense. Not this. Not someone who would hide so much about who I really was.

“It wasn’t safe. It still isn’t. Your sister disappeared when she was young. No one knows where she is but if you are getting warned by spirits then you are in danger. I came to warn you to leave here.”

I can almost laugh at her at that moment.

Leave? Was she serious?

“This is where I belong. Do you think I fucking need you? I thought you were dead and I was fine.”

“Gene—-please?”

We are interrupted. It’s someone standing there. We both turn and notice Blanco who quickly says, “Ma’am I think it’s about time you leave. The Headmistress doesn’t want our families visiting us while we prepare for the competition.”

My mother looks at Blanco then looks at me. She wants to say more. I can tell. But as much as I knew my mother I think she knew me too. I struggled to trust people and the fact that she would betray me like this was something that I wasn’t sure if I could ever get over.

Right now I needed to find my own path and she lost the right to help guide me the moment she lied about being my mother.

~

I wake up the next day feeling on edge with everything. I walk out to the shared bathroom and notice that the door is open. My eyes get wide when I see that it’s Blanco.

This area was shaped like a college dorm. There was a small additional room off the back of the main locker room, near the showers, with only temporary lockers. Leaving it on the bench, I got my towel and shampoo out of a locker full of supplies. I could hear in the distance one of the showers going. Someone was still in there. Just then the shower stopped. The man who had been showering was there, drying himself. It was Blanco. He looked up at me and didn’t say a word.

I managed to say, "Hi," with some difficulty.

”Hmph…” is Blanco’s only response.

Blanco navigates to the nearest mirror and begins to brush his teeth. The whole I’m pretending to be in my bag but really I’m watching Blanco. Strong features, dark eyes, even white teeth that was almost dazzling even though he never smiled. His body was well-muscled almost being overdeveloped. Defined pectorals were lightly covered with hair that thickened as it descended over washboard abdominals, smoothly joining with the thick pubic mass out of which appeared a nicely sized and shaped cut cock with darker, conical head and small round balls. Sturdy arms and legs completed the picture.

“Do I need to cover myself up?” He asks me still staring at the mirror but acknowledging I wasn’t being very sly.

He turns to me but doesn’t look at my face. He looks down. Taking all this in swiftly with a practiced eye, I found myself to my embarrassment getting a hardon. I swiftly tightened my towel to cover myself as I passed the dark stranger to enter the shower.

Hanging it on the showerhead in the stall, I turned on a cold blast to steady himself. Gasping from the sudden chill, he felt his incipient erection subside.

“Thank you for having my back yesterday,” I state, “With my mother but also with the coven.”

I could not resist turning toward the outer area again and peaking through the stall. Now the dark sexy militant man’s back was to me. The sight of broad shoulders tapering in a perfect V-shape to firm Ass brought lust coursing into my body again. This guy is just too much, he'd never look twice at me. I thought, sighing inwardly.

“Or you can ignore me,” I state.

With an effort, he turned away and got down to the business of cleaning myself up. As he concentrated on soaping and shampooing himself he began to feel calmer. Lack of sex was sure beginning to have an effect. When he turned toward the shower entrance again Blanco had left.

I finished my shower, dried myself off, and went back t my clothing, which was directly in front and some distance away from the double doors that led into the main dorm. As I bent to open it, out of force of habit, I glanced toward the door. To my surprise I saw Blanco, a towel around his waist, standing at the entrance, gazing at me. His eyes met mine, sending a frank and unmistakable message. My breath quickened and I felt his dick stiffen as he held the other's gaze. Finally, the man moved on.

“I just want to make one thing clear,” he states upon returning, “Me and you have nothing in common. It’s true you don’t know ANY blood magic yet?”

“I——“

I can’t answer. I’m too embarrassed. He quickly adds in with a sigh, “As I thought. You are here to learn the basics. I am here to be the best.”

“Maybe those two things aren’t in conflict. Teach me…”

The others didn’t seem to be into magic as much as him. Notch was too into his hustle, Aviva too into her appearance. Circe and Jagger both lacked the emotional discipline. Fatima, Jagger’s sister, supposedly was not allowed to use magic.

And then there was Micko. The one who wanted me to read books.

I wanted to learn real magic. And not just read about people doing it. That left me one option. That left me one choice.

“No,” he states, “You already caused enough trouble. Jagger did wreckless dangerous magic yesterday in an attempt to impress you. You’re a distraction.”

No. He said no. And the way he says it makes me think he means it.

“Please Blanco. I’m begging you here…”

“Stay out of my way….” is all I get from him.

He dismisses me again as though I’m nothing. I’d never met someone so fucking irritating in my life. The rage is boiling all inside of me.

“Hey Jagger,” I call to him, and when he looks I drop my towel… “Some distractions are worth it…”

I wasn’t going to let him turn me down and walk away from me. Not if I had anything to do with it. I give him a coy smile, one I'd seen my mother use a million times with her tricks. And I make my way past him butt naked and vulnerable. The truth was that I had a nice body. I always had been fit through no real work of my own with tight hard abs and a bubble butt that most people would dream of. The truth always was that I never had to work this hard to get the attention of a man.

And as I wonder if he watches me walk out of the room, too nervous to confirm, I realize I’ve never wanted this attention from anyone before either.

~

The disappointment of my mother, strangely enough, is overshadowed with thoughts of Blanco for the next day. We gather in class. There is more arguing with Circe and Jagger. There is more of Aviva gushing over all her possessions including Notch who she treated like some human trophy. And then there is him. Blanco. He rarely talks unless it’s to his sister and those conversations are so low none of us know what they are saying.

I try to drown myself in these books but it’s hard not remembering when he’d used magic against Notch.

“You ready for lunch or you going to stare at Blanco all day?” Someone interrupts me.

It’s Circe. I hadn’t even noticed it was that time.

“He wasn’t staring at Blanco, Circe,” Jagger responds, before twitching turning to me and asking, “Were you?”

I sigh, “I um…”

I couldn’t deny it. I was perplexed by this creation. It made me wonder what all the other men in his family looked like if he could have been created.

“Don’t be intimidated, Jag,” she states, “Blanco is only just three times the man you will ever be…”

Circe enjoyed poking at people and Jagger was the kind of guy who quickly responded when irritated. He goes into one of his aggressive rampages on her and they begin to argue again causing my eyes to drift once more to Blanco.

Notch walks up to me. The whole time Aviva is clinging to his arm, “C’mon. Today we’ll show you the lunchroom. The only other place you get to see our competition.”

I turn to Blanco, “Is he not coming?”

“He slips lunch. Uses it to exercise…”

I grunt. That was just there kind of person Blanco Ferris was. But I couldn’t help myself from wanting to know more.

~

Notch, Circe, Aviva, and Jagger walk with me to the lunchroom. The lunchroom is at the bottom floor of one of the towers and it’s almost exactly how I remembered high school lunch to be.

And just like high school I’m stuck at the table with the rejects.

“Why are there so many of them?”

It had become clear that we were in the minority. The other witch doctor's practices were all across the room.

Circe shrugs her shoulders, “So many assholes…”

“Can you stop being negative if only for a second?” Aviva asks her sister before turning to me, “The other three magic practices are Castors, Talisman users and the Divination users. They all have tons of covens…”

Notch leans into me, “See the ones in the black. They are castors. Use what they call natural magic. Controlling fire, storms, and anything natural. They make the birds chirp and the grass grow."

The Castors had the most users. They wore black robes and carried with them tree branches everywhere they go. There were several covens of these black witches dispersed all over the cafeteria. It felt as though the rest of the witches were just a minority to them.

“Then you got your Purple witches. You’d probably know them as the voodoo type witches. They use magical talismans for their power.”

Just at that moment, I see some purple witches with what looks like dolls in their hands. One of them seems to be doing something right there in front of everyone. It excited me. It was a lot more exciting than reading Micko Boss’s dusty ass books.

My heart is racing so much that I’m distracted and someone bumps right into me. I feel the hard bump and I turn and notice a white boy with pale skin and red hair. He is wearing all black. He looks completely different from the dark and tan brown skin complexions in my own coven. The red-haired boy has these other pale looking people around with them. They all have on white.

“Watch it…pretty boy,” the boy tells me.

A voice states. I turn and surprisingly notice Fatima, Blanco’s little sister standing there, “You bumped into him.”

“Listen, tar-face, no one was talking to you.”

The way he calls her tar-face was cruel. She was a sweet girl who was shy and spoke in whispers. She hadn’t been aggressive with him in any way. It was clear that this boy had a bit of an ego to him. Not the charming bad boy sort of ego that Notch has but the kind of ego that made him come off like a pure dick.

“She’s more beautiful than you will ever be,” I tell him.

I know I shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t be coming to a witch doctor like that. Not in this case. I can’t help it though. There was something about when strong men tried to dominate someone weaker then them that got underneath my skin.

“How about I burn that face of yours so you can look just as beautiful as her,” he threatens me.

Another white witch taps him and says, “Careful Stellan. You know whose son that is…”

“Yeah, I know.”

He puts this stick in front of my face. He points it dead at me. I don’t know what this means. Not really but I have a feeling when I see Jagger and the others running towards me that this isn’t a good thing.

Jagger runs over and pushes the guy away from me.

“Put it down Stellan.”

His pushing the guy away from me causes him to switch it up and point it at Jagger. Jagger reacts differently. He’s angry. I can see it all in his eyes but he’s cautious. It makes me well aware that the stick this Stellan has could be dangerous.

And what you gonna do about it?” The white witch asks, “You goat killers going to start cutting yourselves?”

Jagger looks like he is about to pounce on Stellan. He throws all fear out the window and I’m honestly worried about him. This boy had a lot of anger in him but I was scared wondering if he had the control enough to handle this situation.

Surprisingly Notch grabs Jagger before he does anything dumb. Notch, the calmer, more composed one speaks for us, “We don’t want any trouble Stellan. C’mon, we’re friends.”

“Me and you aren’t friends Boss. You sneak in weed for me. That doesn’t make us friends. Someone had to pay for the disrespect…”

He turns it from Jagger to me. Then surprisingly he turns it to Fatima. I don’t know what he says. He does it under his breath. There is this weird silence and then I see Fatima sneezing. She’s freezing at that moment. I can see her skin to pale which was weird because she had my complexion. But she is clearly being assaulted because her lips were turning blue.

She was being frozen in place.

“Hey...hey!” I hear Notch interrupt, “How about this? You forgive us and I got the best weed in Eden for you. It’s laced with vampire blood. Potent as fuck.”

“Forgive us?” Jagger muses the anger getting the most of him at that moment.

“Yeah forgive us,” Notch responds, “Unless you want to end up frozen or burnt.”

I look at Jagger’s face. Something tells me he didn’t like these men talking to him like that. Something also tells me by the way he grunts his face, bites his lip, and sits back down that he was helpless. And no matter how much he hated it he couldn’t do anything at that moment but tense his body up.

Notch is really pleading with him, “Stellan. Please.”

“Stellan!” A voice calls, “That’s enough.”

I see a boy in white with blue eyes. They are like crystals. He looks at me with those blue eyes...making eye contact with me.

Who was he?

Stellan spits out a quick, “We don’t give a fuck if the son of Genesis Bah is back. The Moreen Island coven better remember your place.”

He releases Fatima from his spell. I run over to her and throw my red cloak around her. I was shirtless underneath but it didn’t matter. The poor girl was freezing.

“I’m ok,” Fatima states.

She is going to sit away from us. I can see how she was moving away but I grab her and keep her.

“You are a part of our coven. You belong to us. Come sit with us.”

I don’t think the others are expecting me to invite Fatima to sit with us. She isn’t expecting it either. She seems to study me as though trying to figure something out when she sits next to me and I continue to warm her.

“What was that about?” Aviva asks, “Why’d he do that?”

“It wasn’t up to him,” I realize, “He was sent.”

It’s not hard to draw the lines or understand his motivation. Stellan has found his way back to another group. I turn and see him finally leave and head over to these people in white.

I turn and see these people in white. Especially the boy with the dazzling blue eyes. They sit in the middle of the cafeteria. There was an aura about them. The way they carried themselves with their head highs and their chests pumped up let me know that they were highly respected.

“I could have taken him,” Jagger states.

Notch crosses his arms, “And have your spirits attack one of us again? No Jagger. Calm down for once. And you—-“

He turns to me. He looks pissed.

“Me?”

“What were you thinking?” He asks, “We don’t do that here? Do you get it? We don’t cause those kinds of problems. These witches are powerful.”

Stellan was a bully. That was clear. But he wasn’t who I was worried about. I was worried about the people who stopped him. I was worried about how obediently Stellan ran back over to them as though reporting back like a good little messenger boy.

“Who are they?” I ask.

“White witches. That group specifically are the Salem witches. They’ve won the witch trials for 5 consecutive years.”

“Not this year,” I add.

“You still on that?” Notch asks me, “Give it up Gene. Those white witches supposedly can get in your head. Fuck up your thoughts. We cant do that kind of magic. We never could.”

“So let’s learn how to. Or would you rather be smuggling fashion magazines?” I ask.

“Yeah,” Aviva states, “I’d rather the magazines. Blood magic is kind of...disgusting. The wounds heal but the bloodstains are a nightmare. They get everywhere.”

I’m shocked by it. I’m shocked by the audacity of her stupid comment. My first impression of Aviva was that she was a tree-hugging, designer wearing airhead but I had no idea of the self-hate she was now spewing from her mouth. She’s not joking. I look around the table at my coven. The way they talked about the white witches was one thing but the vibe was something else. The white witches were loud, vibrant, and when they walked past the red witches all bowed and looked away. The intimidation was clear.

“What’s wrong with you people?” I ask, “Please tell me you all haven’t just given up on this coven. I just got here!”

I just felt the vibe. Even when I call them out on their shit there is no spark. We are just the table all the way in the back that no one cared about. We didn’t even seem to be part of the witchtowers. The other students interact. White witches talking to black witches who were talking to purple ones. But the red witches stuck to ourselves.

It almost felt like we were outcasts.

I look over at Circe, “What about you? You just care about fashion magazines?”

She pauses. Cat had her tongue?

It’s Aviva who answers for her sister, “Circe had a phobia of blood. It makes her lightheaded.”

I look at Circe like she had two heads.

“A blood witch who is scared of blood?” I ask, “How does that make sense?”

She finds nothing wrong with it. The girl had a mouth. A LOT of mouth. One of those nasty sorts of people who just seemed to always have something to say. But somehow through all of that, she managed to not have a bit of power to back any of it up.

Notch isn’t much better. He’s sitting there as though he’s some model relaxing on his height and good lucks. Or maybe on the fact that he had other talents such as smuggling.

Notch shrugs, “I told you already that competition isn’t worth it.”

I can’t believe he’s going back to that same old tired line. He smirks as though somehow the coy smirk somehow validated the cowardice coming out of his mouth.

“So you’ve given up on being witch doctors?” I ask.

Notch shrugged, “Listen. Be cool. We’re chilling. No ones pressed to be the best coven…”

It was almost straight up impossible talking to Notch. It had become clear that he was leading this anti-magic mindstate in the coven.

Jagger shakes his head, “What Notch means to say is you don’t get it. I disagree with him. Sure...I want to be competitive. I hate losing. But we don't have control. Sure I can make things happen with blood magic. But we all saw what happened yesterday…”

I shake my head disgusted, “Back home there were stories about how fearsome the Moreen Coven was. Nightmares people told their children before bed…”

“Stop judging us!” Circe slams her hand on the table.

Her slamming her hand on the table in the way she does causes a few of the others in the room to stop talking.

Circe continues in a lower voice that still had just the same level of anger and vitriol.

“You come here with your stories and your fucking expectations but the rest of us don’t want that. The rest of us are fine. We don’t need to be masters of blood magic. The little bit we know works just fine for us.”

She sits down. And I realize that this is a sore subject for her. Maybe for a few of them. Jagger looks a little embarrassed. Aviva looks defeated. The only one who seems satisfied with all of this is Notch. The others could be moved though.

Especially Circe. She impressed me. There was so much passion there when she spoke to me. You aren’t passionate about something you don’t care about.

There was something there. Something we can use.

~

“Hey, you!”

I turn in the hallway later that week. The week has been draining. For the most part, we spent time getting instruction from Micko on how to waist time. I also noticed how everyone was doing their own thing. No one was in unison. People snuck out at all hours in the night. Notch would leave to do his smuggling thing but strangely enough, Blanco would leave the dorms as well. I’d always know it was him because I could smell the strong smell of masculine wood every time he passed my room.

We were barely a coven and that was becoming clear to me.

I get in class today feeling helpless. It’s hard to tell what time of the day it is in Eden because the sky is always the real dusky red. The kind of light that made you want to take naps, get high, and fuck all day. It didn’t help that all these guys in my coven were beyond sexy including the thing that was running up to me now.

Jagger.

He had on these sweatpants and a red t-shirt, with no robe even though I was pretty sure it was required we have our robes on at all times. I can see his dick print through his shorts. It’s impressive. Thick and round. The kind of dick you felt a guy like Jagger would have.

“I was hoping, me and you can hang out,” Jagger states, “Like alone.”

I’m kind of shocked, “You asking me on a date, Mr. Wright?”

He shrugs, getting up in my personal space. He isn’t shy. Jagger’s getting bolder by the day. And even though it turns me on how he presses up against me with his breath up against my neck and his chest up against mine.

“Maybe I am.”

I shrug and laugh, “Magic makes me horny, Jagger. If you want to go on a date with me you need to prove it.”

I can see this glint in Jagger’s eyes. Honestly, I loved it. I was just teasing him but I wanted to bring out another side of him. I wanted him to channel all that rage he had built up in there.

“I’ll take you on for that.”

The first week goes by pretty quickly. I find myself being drowned in the teachings of Micko Boss who had proven himself to be more of a historian that a witch doctor. He’d gone much of the week without doing any magic and it isn’t until the very last day of the week that he lets us do any at all.

“Not all blood magic requires blood. But all blood magic requires sacrifice. Energy is transferred through the use of spirits. Look in front of you...you all have two flowers. I want you to sacrifice one flower so that the other flower may flourish.”

I hold the two flowers in my hand. I look around the room. Jagger and Circe were barely paying attention. Fatima refused to get involved which was just fine for Micko. Aviva and Notch weren’t even pretending to want to participate in any of this. And then there was Blanco. He had the two plants securely in his hands.

“How?” I ask.

“Through sacrifice. Speak to your ancestors,” Micko states.

“Yeah, I figured that part. I meant, how do I do that? I’ve never done this before…”

The teacher shrugs a little bit walking past me, “I guess it’s not as easy being a Witchdoctor as you thought huh? Gene Bah. You’re just gonna have to figure it out.”

“How’s growing a flower going to help us win the Witch Trials?”

“Who said anything about winning that?” he laughs, “The most you can do is try to survive this place...”

He’s enjoying this. The smug look on his face gets wider as he taunts me walking away. I’d seen the way he’d talked to the other students and it was nothing like how he talked to me. There was something personal in his tone. He got a bit of a rise from the idea that I would epically fail this task without more direction.

I look across the room wondering what’s happening. That’s when I see Jagger. He wants to make a point. He has two flowers in his hands. He crumbles one up with one hand. The other hand begins to change colors. It begins to bloom. It gets bigger and bigger. And it actually also gets closer and closer because Jagger brings me that flower.

“You got a date with me... baby. Stay tuned. I’ll let you know the time and place,” Jagger tells me.

He grabs me kissing me. He does it deeply in front of the teacher and the rest of the coven. I’m shocked by it but by the time his tongue enters my throat I lose control and just allow it. I allow him to swallow me deeply in front of the others. I look over at Blanco wondering if he’s watching. But this time he isn’t. This time he just is turned away.

Circe saw though. And she’s pissed.

What happens next is strange. Circe flower withers in her hand until it turns to ash. The other flower turns into a long vein that she throws across the floor angrily. I watch the look she gives me as she storms out. Somehow I knew I was going to be blamed somehow for that kiss.

Blanco is the next to finish. He does it as though it’s not a big deal and then motions for his sister to get up. She leaves with Blanco turning back to wave goodbye to me. I guess Micko excused her from having to do the spell.

MIcko wasn’t really strict. He was the furthest from it. After about ten minutes he gets bored and just waves us away.

“You guys can go enjoy your weekend,” he states.

Aviva and Notch seem more than ready to get up and leave. I stand there though confused about what’s going on and not willing to just turn in the towel. All the others leave before Micko approaches me. He walks up to me slowly. He has this annoyed look on his face.

He comes right in my face and says, “I told you that you can go.”

“I came to learn magic. I’m not leaving until I do.”

“Well, I guess you have a long weekend ahead of you.”

~

I stay there that night. And throughout the next day. I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I have my father’s notebook glued to my side and I’m reading it trying to figure out what I’m missing. But my father speaks in code language. Quite literally. Randomly he would jump from one thought to putting in a key to decipher words. It made no sense.

I just concentrate on how I can sacrifice one flower to make the flower grow. Sometimes I swear I’m not alone. I hear a whisper. Someone trying to talk to me. I think I’m losing it. But the voices are so low that I can never make out if I’m actually hearing them or if they are figments of my imagination. Nothing works. And I don’t plan on leaving. Not at all.

Until I hear the sounds of footsteps in the middle of the morning.

“Hello?”

My heart races. These towers had the tendency to be somewhat haunting. Maybe it was the echoes that appeared when some people walked while others can make it by its complete silence. Maybe it was the chanting that randomly filled the hallways. Or perhaps the changes in temperature when you get a strange chill up your spine.

I make my ways into the empty stone hallways. The bricks were so grayed out that nothing really occurred to me. My mind was racing though and the first thought that came to my mind was what if my mother was right?

What if my sister found me?

I still knew no magic. I wouldn’t have even been able to defend myself.

I walk down a twisted hall, circling a corner slowly. My body wraps around it and my eyes focus down the hallway looking for something but that’s when I feel something behind me. Something grabs me. It holds me tightly causing me to jerk back.

And I notice who it is.

“Blanco?” I ask.

He looks at me confused, “What are you doing here?”

“I was trying to complete the tasks…”

“From yesterday afternoon?” he asks raising his eyebrow perplexed, “Why the hell did you want to do that? People were worried about you.”

“People?”

He shrugs, “You clearly have your admirers. But we don’t need to talk about them. You need to get back to the dorm and rest. You staying overworking yourself won’t accomplish blood magic. Micko knew you’d never accomplish it without the proper instruction.”

“Then give me the proper instruction. I want to learn,” I state, “No matter what it takes.”

If staying this long after Micko’s class didn’t prove that I really wanted to be a witchdoctor then I wasn’t sure what would.

I don’t think I can impress Blanco. He’s been nothing but negative to me. But at that moment his face softens slightly to me and he raises his eyebrow at me, “Guess you’re not just a pretty face.”

“My mother doesn’t want me here. She thinks I’m in danger. But I’m not the kind of person to run from danger.”

“You are the danger,” he crosses his arms, staring me down as though challenging me in a way that no man has ever challenged me before.

“I can be. If they let me. I feel stifled.”

“Guess you’re way more than a pretty face,” He says, this time putting emphasis on it.

It was probably the nicest thing he’s ever said to me. Looking back, strange enough, I think it’s one of the nicest things that anyone has ever said to me. The fact that the first kind thing that Blanco said to me as opposed to my looks meant something.

I’m so blinded that it takes me a while to realize how strange it is that he is out here.

“Wait why are you out here?”

“Exercising…” he states.

He’s lying. I can tell. I’d seen him exercising. He barely wore any clothes except some tight shorts that emphasized his superior body. He’s lying. He answers too quick and he drops his eyes to the ground. I don’t think Blanco was used to lying. He wasn’t very good at it, clearly.

“I see you sneak out all the time in the middle of the night,” I state, “C`mon. Tell me where you’re going. I know that you aren’t depending on Micko Boss to teach you blood magic.”

“I shouldn’t help you but my sister told me about you stood up for her...with those White Witches…”

I nod, “We should stick together.”

He seems hesitant for some reason.

“Exactly. Which is why what I have to am going to show you next stays between us…” he states.

~

He opens a grand door, “I have a lot of stress in my life. Don’t ask. Either way, I have a hard time sleeping. Until one night. One night I have this dream where someone is talking to me. And I wake up and realize that I have been sleepwalking. My dream leads me right here to this place. To these books.

He opens the door and my eyes drop. I look down at the books and realize that they seem familiar. My mother talked about these exact same books.

“These are the Bloody Scrolls,” I notice.

The same scrolls of dark magic that was responsible for my creation.

“Yes. You were right. They are stifling us. We can do so much more. I’ve been struggling whether or not to show you this being that I found it only the day before you appeared. I felt like there had to be some sort of connection.”

“You found these right before I appeared?”

He nods. It’s eerie. Eerie as fuck.

“In a dream.”

Just them something freaky happens. The foundation of the gargoyle starts to crackle. For a moment I think the entire statue is going to break and topple over. It causes both of us to jerk away and stare at it. Blanco I have to admit isn’t as freaked out as I am or if he is, he definitely has a weird way of showing it. He faces down with the statue until it stops moving.

Then he steps forward, “The book opened.”

“You’re kidding me,” I state.

He looks over at me and shakes his head, “No...the book just opened.”

For some reason, I have a feeling that I was supposed to get up and head towards the book. So I do it. I get up and walk towards the book. At this point, I’m sweating from places I didn’t even know exist. I pick up the book and realized that it has been opened to a particular section of the book.

“Strange,” I point out.

Blanco stares over at me confused, “What is it?”

“Instructions to do something. Something about opening some sort of gate. But what’s weird is that someone has written something on the page.”

Blanco sighs a little bit, “What is it?”

I read the note, “It’s a code.”

I pull out my father’s notebook. All of a sudden all the codes that I’d seen have been to make sense to me as I align them with the key he has written in his notebook.

It was a simple note. One that brought chills up my spine.

I know what you want.  It’s time to bring me back.

-Genesis Bah

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