theblackeyedman

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Ten

Dante was completely unnerved when he woke up.

He wasn’t in his bed, Mystia’s home, his car, or anywhere in Urias. Dante was somewhere completely eldritch. An aura of ancient power hung suffocatingly in the area. The air smelled thick like wet clay, charcoal, and old parchment. Looking around the area, he noticed a grove of black bark trees. Each tree with deep runic carvings cut into them to reveal the pale wood underneath. Magda and Az were still unconscious on the ground beside him, their Halloween costumes wet from the thick fog rolling through the grove.

When he tried to stand, he found he was just as dizzy as he was when he passed out. He struggled to sit up, but he quickly laid back down when it seemed like he would throw up close to or on his friends.

A familiar, non-threatening voice spoke up from the grove, “Mortals do not belong in this forest, Dante. The only safe path is the road into Urias.” In the fluid motion of a shadow, The Black Eyed Man suddenly stood towering over the three.

He still looked young, disheveled, and exhausted. All five of his eyes were open, and he was obviously examining Magda and Azuriel with a few as they spoke. The more he stared at the man, he noticed that the smell of clay, charcoal, and parchment was just the way he smelled.

The Black Eyed Man held out his hand, and a small blue light floated above his palm, “I believe this spell belongs to you, Dante?” Danny nodded, and then groaned, the vertigo was messing with his head. The Black Eyed Man frowned, watching them, and he seemed to finally realize the pain the three were in. “Gentle movements, the forest does not have a welcoming atmosphere for people who do not belong. Magic barrier and all.”

He sat down besides them. He tapped Magda’s forehead lightly and spoke quiet words in a language Danny couldn’t begin to comprehend. A trail of black light rapidly shot through Magda’s veins. It looked horrific, and Dante was completely concerned. Until she sat up with a soft yawn.

“What...?” She murmured sleepily, rubbing her eye gently to get the sleep out of them.

The Black Eyed Man did the same thing for Az, who proceeded to slap his away and murmur, “Five more minutes..”

Magda’s eyes widened as she watched the man, “You...”

The Black Eyed Man said something, but Dante wasn’t exactly listening. He was completely focused on stopping the vertigo. Suddenly, the man tapped his forehead.

The feeling wasn’t exactly describable. It didn’t just feel burning like most magic Dante had encountered. It felt like an oil substance pushing through his body. It felt warm, but only slightly more so than his own blood. This was absolutely something strong. It was powerful in a way Dante couldn’t really describe, and the whole experience left him just smelling traditional ink.

He felt better. The vertigo had stopped. Dante frowned at the man as he sat up, “What was that?”

The man clicked his tongue, pausing from his seemingly unpleasant conversation with Magda. “That, Dante, was my blessing. I don’t do healing spells—“

Azuriel snorted from his half asleep state, “Because it clashes with your aesthetic?”

“It does clash with my aesthetic,” he scowled at Az, “but that was basically a protection spell mixed with a cleanse that will allow you to take and perform magic better.”

Magda looked at Danny with concern before returning her attention to the Black Eyed Man, “I don’t even know how you expect me to save the girl!”

Dante and Az shut up. They knew very well that they were missing a part of this conversation.

The Black Eyed Man makes a face at Magda, “Magdalena if you must know—“

“I do! I do must know, you jerk! You can’t just send people on strange quests without details!”

Dante cut in as well, “I can’t just stop Cain if I don’t even know who or what or where he is! Get specific with your details!”

He seemed a bit caught by surprise with the two kids yelling. “I.. Well...” he stammered.

“Spit it out, old man!” Azuriel yelled for them.

“I don’t have the details!” The Black Eyed Man seemed just as confused and stressed as them, “I know bits and pieces of a prophecy and I’ve recorded it but I don’t have the level of power to just ascertain the future and all its details!”

“You’re one of the four Evils you dip!” Magda yelled at him, “What do you mean you don’t have that power!?”

“All our power comes from Faced Serpent, if she’s working with Cain everything is blurry, you know this Magda!” He scowled, looking away.

Dante picked at one of the amulets he was wearing. He watched The Black Eyed Man before deciding he could be trusted. “Then what do you expect us to do, dude.” Dante frowned up at him.

The man blinked all five onyx eyes in surprise. “You need to see the Seer. My greatest mistake. I can do as much as possible, but the Faced Serpent is giving my power to her. I can barely manage to appear in physical form.”

“Great. That’s just great,” Az grumbled to himself, “We’re gonna do whatever this guy says basically?”

Magda frowned, “Az there’s so much going on, you just have to trust me!”

“I’m not gonna trust you going on some stupid journey to save a kid from a dream! It was a dream Magda!” Az gripped Magda’s arm gently, “Magda your dreams have been bad since...” he cut off speaking. It was obvious to Dante that Magda knew what Azuriel planned to say.

Magda paused, and she slid into Az’s arms to be held in a hug, before murmuring something in his ear that made Az tense and look at Dante.

“Alright...” Az frowned, “if we gotta protect your dream girl, we gotta protect your dream girl.

“Thank you for helping me, your three. I can help you slightly on your journey, but not as much as I would like, obviously.” The Black Eyed Man pursed his lips.

Dante scowled, “We will help you on one condition. I am not continuously calling you the Black Eyed Man, that’s a lot of work. Pick a human name.” Az and Magda nodded in agreement.

The Black Eyed Man groaned, raking a hand through his shaggy black hair, “I suppose. I like the name Deacon.”

Az started laughing, “No way am I calling you that. How about Sebastian Lovelace since you look that goth?”

The man scowled at Azuriel, but Dante could see his expression slip into a pout.

“How about Benjamin?” Magda said, which earned another fit of laughter from Az, “you know, then we could call you Benji.” Magda’s lips quirked into a smile before she started giggling with Az.

“I am an all powerful being!” He snarled, which made Azuriel and Magda laugh harder. Dante almost felt bad for the guy, being picked on by some teenagers after most of his powers were stripped away. Not bad enough to stop him from joining in.

Danny kept his composure, “How about Einstein since you think you’re so smart?” He broke into a fit of laughter with his friends. The man looked almost hurt, and Dante calmed down.

“Listen, how about Prometheus?” They all calmed down as Dante spoke, “You went by it before, and Theus is a cool nickname. What do you think?”

The man pursed his lips, and shut three of his eyes so he could take on an almost normal appearance. “I would not mind being called Prometheus again. This is acceptable.”

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Nine part 2

They spent their evening filling their candy bags with the help of the villagers in Urias. The alpha werewolf Bardou Chanteloup gave them some strange French candy. Vorian answered the door and he gave them normal candy in a reasonable amount. They rang the doorbell again and Valera gave them a large amount of rose water hard candy. Headmistress October Le Doux seemed to be the only one who understood how to give Halloween candy.

By the time their bags were filled, the sun had risen. As Urias’ main population was vampires, everyone had gone inside, except for the small amount of witches and other creatures immune to the light. Dante, Magda, and Az made their way around the village and the quant Edwardian style cottages.

The homes seemed normal to Danny, until he started to really look close. The little iron fenced yards were growing nightshade or toadstools in the garden. Cats and ravens were the animals they spotted the most, but Danny swore he had seen a few owls. A few yards had moondials, and others had the babbling sound of a fresh water spring.

Magda was watching one of the small springs when Az spoke up, “Ya know, in the center of Urias is a large spring.”

“Really?” Magda looked at him curiously.

“Yeah,” Az turned to look at her, “don’t know why you’re all of a sudden into fresh water springs and are afraid of Granny Nox, but whatever.” Az pursed his lips at her.

Magda ignored the very pointed comment, “Where does the spring lead?”

Danny never really liked to interrupt when his friends were having a discussion, but Azuriel wouldn’t have the information Magda was looking for. “Well, it goes underground—“

“Duh,” Magda cut in.

Dante pouted in her direction before continuing, “However, the main well in the middle of Urias comes from four springs in the forest.”

Az started to feel curious, piping in, “Where in the forest?”

“I don’t know exactly,” Dante frowned, grabbing his grimoire from his bag, “But we can find out.” He drew a small sigil in white chalk on the cobblestone, and quietly chanted to himself until a familiar white-blue light rose from the ground.

“Dux.” He murmured softly, and the light raced off.

“OI—“ Azuriel ran after it, Magdalena after him, and Dante after her. None of them really noticed when they were off the cobblestone path and onto moss covered dirt. The warm morning light was lost to the thick gloom ridden forest around them.

Magda noticed the effects of the forest first, she collapsed on the ground with a soft thud.

“Magda?!” Danny knelt beside her in concern, feeling her forehead to see if she had a fever. Although, Dante really had no idea what to do in an emergency like this.

Az knelt beside Danny, wide eyed looking at Magda, “Maggieloo are you... are you...” He was swaying.

“Dude, Az are you alrigh—“ Azuriel collapsed to the ground as well before Dante could finish his sentence.

Dante suddenly found out what had happened to them as the world around him began to feel like it was spinning faster than the Earth should move. Vertigo. He laid down willingly to try to get it to stop, but that only made it much, much worse. Dante clung to the ground as he felt like he was being flipped upside down in on a Ferris wheel as it rotates. He didn’t go down as easy as his friends, but after a few more minutes, he was out like a light.

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Nine part 1

Thud. Dante’s head hit the desk hard as he fell right back to sleep. Logan looked over from taking shirtless snapchats to post to his story, and when he passed out, he rushed over to Danny. “Hey Danny!” He shook Dante awake, which earned a soft, sleepy groan, from the blonde.

“Dude, ‘m fine…” Danny murmured sleepily, “I just need to keep reading this book…”

Logan snorted, “Dude, you’re stressing me out. You know what’s not cute? Stress. Stress doesn’t look cute, so quit stressing me out.” He went back to standing in front of the bathroom mirror and taking selfies.

“You’re so basic!” Danny called out as he sat himself back up. The Black Eyed Man continued every night to make himself a visitor in Dante’s dreams, and at this point it seemed Danny could actually call the Man his friend. Dante lazily flubbed his hands along his desk so he wouldn’t have to actually look for the book he was reading.

A loud knock rang through their room. Three small, but firm knocks in a row. “If it’s Niki you can’t come in!” Logan called out, but they knew it wasn’t Nikolai. All of the rooms were locked with a spell that allowed people who lived there to enter freely, and visitors to be forced to ask permission.

Three more loud, but quick knocks rang out. “Go away, Danny and I are busy!” Logan kept yelling at the door as the knocking became louder and more forceful. After getting frustrated, Danny flung open the door to find Az and Magda. Logan slid out of the bathroom when he noticed Az in the hallway. “Hey! Did you get my snaps?” Danny groaned.

“What on earth are you guys doing that requires being that dramatic?” Danny grumbled, “We didn’t need to go through that whole melodrama.”

Az grinned and tossed a bag at Danny, “Happy Halloween losers! Magaloo and I are going trick or treating, either of you coming with?” Az and Mag were already wearing their costumes.

“Azuriel chose my costume, I think it’s pretty cozy.” Magda murmured with a soft smile.

She was wearing a green t-rex pajama onesie, the hood of it down, her golden blonde hair was tied back in a lazy ponytail, and she had lines on her face like she had fallen asleep on candy wrappers. Like usual, there were bags under her eyes.

Logan grinned at Az, “You look hot tonight,” Azuriel was dressed the part of a very elegant 15th century woman. Every part of the costume was perfectly to period, and most were spattered with fake blood. “But knowing you, there’s a reason more than dressing like a princess?”

“Hey!” Az scowled, “I’ll have you know that tonight I am Count Elizabeth of Bathory, thank you. There’s nothing scarier than a woman who killed girls and bathed in their blood.” Az’s expression shifted into a pout. Danny noted that even though Azuriel’s costume was fairly girly, Az looked distinctly masculine this evening.

Danny finally spoke up, “You two are going trick or treating?”

Magda nodded, and Az spoke for her, “Maggieloo was gonna stay in, eat the candy that Valera brought her, and binge watch all the Conjuring movies--”

“The best horror series,” Magda added.

“Right,” Azuriel added, “but, I promised her if she went trick or treating with me, I would stay up and cuddle with her while we watch them.”

Logan chimed in before Danny could talk, “You know, I could watch with you two?”

“Eh… It’s more a me and Mags thing. Sorry Lolo,” Az shrugged, and he paused to kiss Logan’s cheek. “Anyways, are either of you coming trick or treating with us?”

Logan was pouting as Dante started to rifle through his closet. Danny’s voice was muffled as he stuck his head between various coats and jackets. “I’d like to go with you guys, just let me find a costume.”

---

Urias was far more spectacular than Dante had ever seen it. He had rarely gone through the town, and generally when he was out it was just at nightfall so he could buy textbooks and supplies for the upcoming school year. Halloween night was so different from the dim lit quiet streets that he had seen before.

The night was warm, not in a physical manner but metaphysically. The energy was so vibrant, Danny could feel it. Everyone was bright and smiling, wandering around and enjoying the evening with their loved ones. The shadows of the buildings loomed in dark purples and plums but the brilliant orange and reds of the jack-o-lanterns, the white light from children’s flashlights, and the neon glow of glow sticks beat back the darkness of the evening.

When Danny looked up at the night sky, he saw the most immense expanse of stars he had ever seen. They were a confetti spattered backdrop for the celebrations of the evening. It took Magda tugging on his arm to get him back to the moment.

Kids as young as five ran through the cobblestone pathways, holding each other’s hands as they knocked on neighbor’s doors. Magda mimicked that. She held onto both Danny and Az’s hands, and she made her way to a door to knock.

Danny was so out of the moment, that when Mystia Nox answered the door, he hadn’t even realized they were at her doorway.

“My three favorite children!” Mystia cackled, pinching both cheeks on each of their faces. “Happy Halloween, dearies. Sonny I see you found the costume your mother packed you.” She smiled. Dante’s mom had packed in his suit case a Draco Malfoy costume.

Danny blushed, “Mystia, there’s nothing wrong with Harry Potter—“

She laughed again, kissing his forehead, “Oh I know, Sonny.”

Az cut in, “Danny’s a giant nerd.”

“Um... Trick or treat,” Magda murmured, she seems a bit uncomfortable. Dante and Az didn’t really understand why but they held out their candy bags to Mystia.

She smiled kindly, /dumped/ a fair bit of her candy bowl into each of their bags, and shooed the children away.

They walked off, being dragged along by Magda again.

“Oi!” Az made a face at Magda, “What was that all even about? Mystia is really cool, she probably made all that candy!”

Magda frowned. And she paused. “I’ve heard her voice before... arguing with Vorian and Valera.” Danny paused from walking.

“Alright...” Danny frowned at Magda like he was trying to figure out a puzzle, “We can talk about this after trick or treating.”

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Eight

Magda had grown accustomed to her routine nightmares. Every night when she laid down, she was generally sucked into her usual dream about Farena. Honestly? It had become boring. The fear no longer gripped her, and the thumps of the knife into her skin no longer felt sharp. The memory and pain, like every feeling in Magda’s life, had become so dull.

This time it did not feel dull.

This dream felt real.

She was deep underground, close to some sort of running water. Magda thought it could be some sort of fresh water spring because the chamber didn’t smell like sea salt. It did have some sort of metallic scent underneath the clean smell of fresh water. However, finding the source of the water wasn’t the most important part to Magda. Like most dreams, she was really just being dragged along wherever her mind wanted to take her.

Under the high stalactite covered roof stood what the dream wanted her to find; A circle of figures surrounding a sigil with their hands raised and quietly chanting. Their chanting rang through the chamber as if they were playing heavy boosted bass each word they said. Magda could feel each word in her chest so hard that it made her a uncomfortable.

Magda was drawn closer, and she hid behind a large dark rock to hide herself, but she could very clearly see the three figures. Inside the sigil, Magda could see a girl. The three figures were basically trapping her inside of it so she would be unable to run. She didn’t look like she would run. She was young, Magda thought about thirteen or so. The girl was pretty, silky black hair with alabaster skin dotted with beauty marks. But, her hair was roughly cut, it was as if someone just grabbed a fist full of hair and cut it off with a dull razor.

Her eyes unsettled Magda. It wasn’t that they were a strange color or anything, it was the look they conveyed. They were deep set and they made her look almost ancient and broken. Her peridot eyes were lifeless as she watched the only uncloaked figure move around her. As Magda watched, it took on a much more serpentine form that was just unnatural. It looked almost like a naga but something felt wrong about that description.

The serpent creature moved around the girl, it’s face kept shifting between so many different beautiful women and it never stayed on one for long. The serpent raised a blade and tapped the tip of the young girl’s face.

“Good,” cooed the serpent as the girl lifted her face, “I’m so proud of you, my little lamb.” Magda was confused why the girl would let the serpent woman shove a dagger in her face, but before the girl or Magda could actually react, the serpent pushed the blade right through under the girl’s chin through her jaw.

Magda went to scream in horror but a hand covered her mouth. She turned to fight, but she recognized the person besides her: The Black Eyed Man. He uncovered her mouth, and they both watched in abject horror.

The two cloaked figures flanking the serpent began chanting a different spell as the blood spilled out of the girl. Magda quickly realized the metallic smell from earlier was this young girl’s blood. The ground was completely with it, all four figures were dripping in it. The cloaked figures’ black robes were soaked in blood and the serpent’s scales glistened with it.

The figures lowered their hands and the little girl started gasping and writhing before settling into the blood soaked stone. She was taking labored, shuddering gasps of air into her little lungs. The Serpent cooed pleasantly, and pulled the little girl to her knees by yanking her soft black hair. She laughed when she saw the blank stare of the girl, “Oh, Little Lamb, you’re doing so well,” the Serpent pat the girl’s head and offered a dazzling smile to one of the figures, “Cain, your daughter is doing so wonderfully.” It seemed to Magda that the figure stiffened and the Serpent’s full attention was on him.

Magda was trembling violently, and the only thing silencing her sobs was the hand of the Black Eyed Man. She went still when she found a set of peridot eyes meeting her own. The little girl offered the faintest of smiles, tears spilling out of her gemstone eyes. Magda tried to rush to her, but she was pulled into the arms of the Black Eyed Man. He held her tightly and quietly tried to soothe her as she struggled to try to make it to the girl.

Shink.

The Serpent sunk the blade back into the little girl’s throat, and she collapsed to the floor in a blood soaked huddle.

Again, Magda began attempting to scream, but the Black Eyed Man held her mouth covered still. “Save her,” he murmured solemnly in her ear. Magda turned back to look at him and his face was tear streaked as well. Three of his five eyes were shut, and the open two that rest on his face where a human’s would were filled with soon to be shed tears. He sniffled quietly and put on a brave face, “Save her, and protect Dante.” With those words, the dream ended.

—-

It seemed Magda only woke because she ran into a door. “Oof…” was the only noise that escaped her mouth. Snickering came from close beside her. Az rolled to a seated position in her bed, her snickering growing to cackling. Magda snapped at Az, “It’s not funny!” Her white blonde hair was plastered to her sickly pale face with sweat.

Az immediately stopped and opened her arms silently to Mag. Without pause, Magda crawled into her friend’s bed and laid her head down on Az’s chest. Azuriel smelled like Egyptian musk, an incense Mag had once smelled at an old record shop with Florica.

They just laid together for a while. Magda’s eyes wandered from the tiny onyx horns on Az’s head, to the Star of David necklace she wore, to the random tchotchkes on Azuriel’s nightstand. In a simple black frame was a picture of young Az, and two gorgeous women. One looked strikingly like Az, and the other looked like she belonged picking flowers in a hippie commune.

While both the women held Magda’s attention for a bit, Magda kept staring at Az. She was so young but in that picture…. Az looked distinctly male.

Magda murmured softly, her face against Az’s shoulder, “Is that your mom and your aunt?” She figured she’d rather approach the question tactfully.

“Oh,” Az laughed softly, “nah, that’s my mum and dad before he died.” Az pointed to the woman who looked so much like her. After the confusion on Mag’s face she started cackling again, “Oh man Maggieloo, you should see your face— No, my dad and I are Lilin demons.”

“What?”

“You know,” Az grinned, shifting how she was laying to wrap her arms around Magda, “Succubi and incubi. We’re both, Lilin demons are shapeshifters.”

Mag frowned at her, “Az, I’m still lost.”

“Simplest terms? I’m genderfluid. I mean, I could also shift to any form I wanted, but male and female human are what I prefer.”

“Oh.” Magda was sort of at a loss of what to say to Az, so she just laid her head back down on Azuriel’s shoulder.

Az ran her fingers through Magda’s hair softly, “Hey, it doesn’t make me any less me. I can’t speak for others, but for me, it changes so quickly I don’t ever really expect people to know which I am at which moment. So you’re not gonna hurt my feelings if you get it wrong.” She paused for a moment before tugging lightly on Magda’s hair and laughing, “Although for everyone else you should probably still ask their preferences and stuff.”

Magda laughed softly as well, nuzzling her face into Az’s t-shirt. Eventually, Magda fell into dreamless sleep by focusing on the rising and falling Azuriel’s chest.

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Seven

Logan was notorious for snoring. While Dante had a history of being able to sleep anywhere, this was certainly the exception. Nikolai was also still awake, the blue light of his phone shining over his face as he tapped away quickly and then sat quietly, waiting for the response. With the amount Nikolai’s phone kept dinging, Danny assumed he was texting Belladonna. He tried to lay back down, put his headphones in, and get a few winks, but Danny was just sick of sleeping. His mind wouldn’t shut off. It kept running through which stones held energy, and the blonde girl that had saved his life.

Finally, it all bothered him too much. He rolled out of bed and grabbed his pin covered canvas bag. Niki glanced up at him, and raised an eyebrow, but quickly lost interest in him when his phone went off again. He slipped out of the room quietly, careful not to wake up Logan from his deep slumber.

Danny very quickly realized after leaving the room that he had absolutely no idea where he was headed. All of his pent up energy just caused him to rush out the door with not even a second spent on thinking where he would go. He sighed, and slumped against the wall next to his bedroom door, and slid his grimoire out of his bag. Danny ran his fingers along the old parchment pages of the book, just sitting and feeling the paper against his skin. He flipped through the pages on an impulse, past pages of ancient star charts, watercolor indexing of herbs and alchemical ingredients, and many pages of runes he had just not taken the time to decypher.

He knew it was an old book, but it wasn’t like he had poured over the pages enough to be able to tell how old. Danny really noticed its age mostly as the pages progressed, the ink and handwriting changed. The beginning, for close to a hundred pages were line after line of charcoal runes in a language Danny didn’t even recognize, let alone understand. They became old Latin written in some sort of dark brownish red ink, it started out relatively normal, but then progressively became the ravings of a mad man. A few brief elegantly scripted entries on some very brutal seeming ghost sightings. Many different colored entries seeming to specialize on different things like divination and potion craft and enchanting. Then, the script settled into a sapphire colored ink, the handwriting of his father.

His dad had always told him that the book was owned by an ancient witch, and that the second man was under her curse, trying to reverse it. The book had such powerful magic in the ruins, it had been picked up for such a long time. All of it seemed like such a fantastically impossible story, until he watched his father perform one of the necromantic spells in the book. He saw with his own eyes his father slit his palm and drip blood into the toilet, the final resting place of Dante’s goldfish Captain Shiny Scales. When the fish resumed swimming around in the toilet bowl, Danny’s father Gregory picked up the little fish in his hand and returned it to the fish tank.

It made growing up weird for Danny. Death was never a constant or an inevitable brick wall he would hit, death was always just a suggestion. When childhood friends’ pets or grandparents died, he never understood why their young hearts were crushed. Danny had told a few to get over it, and then quickly lost friends that way. Even when Gregory died, Danny still never could understand why death made people so miserably sad.

The pages felt warm under his fingertips as he ran them over his father’s sapphire ink. He wasn’t really sure what he was looking for, but he had learned to trust his instincts around magic so he continued until he felt a slight tug in his chest. The parchment felt almost hot to the touch here the sapphire ink stained the page. “A dowsing spell?” he thought to himself. It was a very odd one, certainly not traditional by getting led with a stick. It seemed to be to summon some sort of guiding light. He didn’t even know what he would be trying to locate.

However, his hands started moving before he told them to. He grasped a piece of white chalk from the inside of his bag, and he began drawing a small sigil on the wood floor. Danny chanted quietly to himself an a small sphere of white blue light rose up from the center of the sigil.

It raced off.

Dante stumbled over himself to get to his feet, chasing after it as fast as he could. He ran down two flights of stairs, but quickly he gave up. He sat down on the bannister and decided the better option was to slide down. After a few crashes into the wall, and six flights of back way stairwells, he came to a strange landing. The wood stairs stopped, but stone stairs continued down into strange darkness. He didn’t really understand it, but he wasn’t really understanding anything that happened in this place. The only other real noticeable thing besides the stairs was a solid old oak door. The blue light hovered in front of the door, and it seemed to be watching Danny very patiently. It was only waiting on him because the door was locked securely with an iron padlock.

His first idea was to blast the lock into pieces, but he quickly realized the door was most likely protected by magic. Frantically scanning the door for a weakness, Danny’s eyes fell upon a tarnished bronze plaque hung over the door.

VOS TU QUOD CLAVEM

Dante’s Latin was generally lacking, but he could make out enough to understand, “You are key.” It seemed dumb to him, but took a risk and he poked the keyhole on the lock. Nothing. He groaned in frustration, and started kicking the door. The door refused to budge. In a fit of uncontrolled emotions focused at the door, he went to cast a spell and his hand struck the lock by accident.

The metal lock dissolved into a graphite colored glob of what felt like jello in Danny’s hands. The smell coming off of it was vile, and it conjured up memories of metal chain swing sets touched by the sweaty hands of children.

A few seconds later, the heavy door swung open, and when Danny stepped inside, he was completely in awe. The library was massive. A large set of stairs descended to make the majority of the room two stories tall. Like the entrance hall, it had a balcony that overlooked the main room. It was dotted with a few warm cozy fireplaces and loveseats, but for the most part, it was lined with bookshelves. Most were insanely tall and towered over Dante. In the center of the room, however, was mainly half shelves, punctuated by various glass display cases filled with artifacts that simply oozed power.

A candle covered wrought iron chandelier illuminated the painted ceiling, absolutely covered with constellations and star charts that Danny didn’t even try to understand. On the maroon carpet floor was strange gold runes, woven into the floor. Before the steps down into the actual library, there was a bronze plaque inlaid to the wooden flooring, similar to the one above the oak door.

COMMUNIS VOX

Somehow, Danny knew this one, “Common Voice.” It was a translating spell, he pieced together. Most likely so all of the books could be read by everyone. Even though the school was impressive, Dante was still shocked this building could hold a library of this magnitude.

He weaved his way through the half shelving and the glass pedestals, following the wispy blue light, and they both found themselves at a stop again. Danny stood at the feet of a very tall, very inconspicuous bookshelf. The light hovered over in front of a book labeled in dingey grey font, Istoria tou Tyriou, but something told Danny that the Greek history of cheese wasn’t a question he needed answered.

A faint light made something glitter below where the book had been. In delicate gold script on the shelf the book rested on read: VOS TU QUOD CLAVEM. This time he could understand it. “You are the Key,” was the translation.

On a hunch, he tapped the book, channeling his energy the way he had done with the lock, Nothing. The blue light flickered at him as if he were doing something wrong. he picked up the book, and immediately the light zoomed into the bookshelf to illuminate strange runes on the backboard. He wouldn’t have noticed it without the spell guiding him. He tapped the rune the same way he had with the lock, and the bookshelf rippled apart. Once in two halves, the shelving folded in on itself to reveal a stone passageway. As Danny entered it, the bookshelf unfolded itself and the blue light whirred off, leaving him in complete darkness.

The tunnel was tight, damp, and claustrophobic. When Danny ran his hands along the wall to make his way through the pitch black, he could even feel the dripping stone. He must have been under some sort of water source because the air was so humid and cold. Eventually, the tunnel bent and Danny saw light reflected against the soaked stone walls. He could even feel the warmth from a simple fireplace.

He stepped into a small chamber, it seemed very similar to the library but it was the size of a bedroom. It was warm, a few plush red armchairs were sat close to a roaring fireplace. On the wall across from the fire were two staggered glass displays. The tall one was long, with five spots labeled and catalogued, but empty. The lower one was much more interesting, mostly because the glass case that covered it was sitting on the floor rather than doing its job.

The blue light hovered over a small, ancient looking piece of torn velom resting on the uncovered pedestal. Rather than stay and wait for him, the light melted into the volume and was suddenly gone. Answers.

It simply radiated power. The velom made the room smell like ozone, the way the front entrance did, as well as most powerful neutral spells. But, when Danny touched it, the aura of the room shifted. The fire dimmed and the air felt painfully heavy. Every breath was hard for him to take in and it took a lot of effort for him to avoid panicking. The room smelled heavily like wet clay and charcoal.

Dark energy was coming from the text. The runes that covered it seemed to shiver as Danny stared in horror. While he could understand every other text in the library, the runes were impossible to read.

In the center, was a drawing. A neolithic one, ancient and primal, it seemed to come from the dawn of man. Four figures were painted in all red, a tall one, one with four arms, one with five black eyes, and one on all fours. Winding around each one was a black shadow, it loomed over them all in the back and appeared to be a large serpent with a human face. It unsettled Dante.

One line of the runes shimmered and shifted and suddenly Danny could read it clearly.

“A lich, a lilian, a werewolf, a dhampir, and a strigoi to bring about the fall of Eden. The Faced Serpent will force the ancient’s hand. The loss of a child of night to force the godling into painful light. The five ancients and five elders bend at knee for neophyte.”

It seemed unfinished, but everything in his body screamed for him to drop it, but as he continued to stare at the shifting image he felt trapped. The serpent’s body moved across the red figures and seemed to be tangling them up. Suddenly, the trance broke. He dropped the velom sheet. This had not been answers. Knowing this would most likely get him killed. Dante ran out the way he came without a second thought, desperate to avoid what he read.

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Six

The trio rushed down down the elegant staircase, occasionally tripping over each other; they would have been on time, but Bella insisted on brushing out Magda and Az’s hair as well as picking out their outfits. “First impressions.” Bella chidded as she did her best to smooth Az’s surprisingly tangled hair. They made it to the grand staircases that Nikolai had shown Magda earlier. The entrance hall was beautiful, and she hadn’t taken the moment to appreciate it when they came in.

It was a large room, about two stories high. The set of staircases curved around a large archway, which lead down into a hallway Magda could hear loud happy voices from. A balcony from the second story looked over the entrance hall, from which one could easily see the many doors lining the hall, which supposedly led to the classrooms. On the first floor, the beautiful redwood flooring was scuffed and dirty, hinting at the how old the room actually was. The walls were painted rich burgundy, and rather than being left bare they were decorated with various pictures, coats of arms, and even a few embarrassing oil painting of Nikolai as a toddler that Magda was sure Valera had commissioned.

It had a cozy, lived-in feel to it: coffee tables with modern magazines strewn across them, armchairs sat next to loveseats with cushions were ruffled, and sofas draped in crocheted blankets that were nowhere close to folded. The dark velvet curtains were drawn so the night sky was easily visible. With the lack of light pollution Magda was startled to see that the inky night looked like someone spilt a container of glitter on black construction paper and hadn’t bothered to clean it up.

Because Magda was stopped at the top of the staircase, staring, Az ran into Bella, who in turn, knocked over Magda. All three toppled down the stairs and knocked over a person as they hit the bottom. A new voice groaned, “Hey, can you guys get off of me? Thanks.” Slowly, the four pulled each other to their feet, and Magdalena stood inches away from the stranger. In front of her was a pale, tall, and lanky blonde boy with dark blue eyes. As she focused, his eyes weren’t blue, but indigo, and his nose was spattered with a light dusting of freckles. The boy’s lip was pierced, and what appeared to be jet black runes swirled up his wrists to his shoulders.

“Oi, Ickle Danny-kinz!” Az grinned, dusting herself off, “Why are you so late? Did you have another vision of the spooky spider man?”

“He’s not-- How did you even know about him!? Spiders have eight eyes anyways, idiot,” Dante scowled at Az, “It’s none of your business anyways!” Az snickered. Magda had many questions: ‘Spooky spider man’? Why did Az and Bella know everyone? Who was this Danny guy?

Bella’s voice drowned out Magda’s very busy thoughts, “Dante, how’s your… progress? Should I say progress or condition?” She touched his arm gently and gave him a very sympathetic look.

Danny blushed under Bella’s attention. “Progress would be a better word. It’s going at least. I mean, it’s difficult because I haven’t found a stone capable yet of handling the weight of my soul--”

“Wait hang on,” Magda cut in, her were wide with shock, “What about holding your soul?”

Dante sighed a bit exasperatedly, like he had already explained the process a billion times, “I am becoming a lich, you know what that is, right?” Magda shook her head no and he groaned, “A lich is basically a form of the undead, a witch or warlock that moved their soul into a phylactery. Before you ask, a phylactery is an object that a lich stores their soul in to protect themselves from dying. If a phylactery stays intact, the lich lives forever.”

“Not technically,” Bella cut in, “the transference kills you in the same way becoming a vampire kills you. It also is extremely dangerous and the transference is extremely…” She trailed off when she noticed the look on Danny’s face. He was straining to stay standing, and the tattoos on his skin were beginning to glow with indigo light. Bella picked him up in a bridal carry, frowning, “Again?” Magda watched in confusion but rushed off to one of the doors labeled bathroom, and came back with a wet paper towel, dabbing it on Dante’s forehead gently as he was starting to succumb to a fever.

Dante passed out, as he usually did, and the glowing subsided from his skin. Azuriel panicked, Bella sat him on a couch, and Magda started to religiously tend to the boy. When he woke back up, he was a bit startled to have three girls so worried about his condition. That certainly was new to him. He didn’t have long to contemplate it though, because soon the light picked up and he began to feel that he as being ripped apart by a nuclear explosion escaping through the lines of his tattoos. He began to panic, he had no idea where his grimoire was and without it he was in fairly big trouble. Danny grabbed a little blue stone from his pocket, and threw it on the table with wide eyes.

Magda watched with horror, and without stopping to think of the consequences, she gripped the blue stone and shut her eyes tight. She began murmuring chants under her breath that she had never heard come from her mouth before, and Dante’s tattoos returned to black. An image of a pale man with five black eyes appeared in her mind, and smiled before she opened her eyes. Magdalena looked just about as horrified as the other three looked. Dante was breathing incredibly hard, tears running down his face. Az was helping him keep his hands above his head as he did his best to take in oxygen. Bella was still pressing the paper towel to his forehead and murmuring soothing words to him. No one spoke for awhile, they all sat and tried desperately to calm Danny down from a panic attack.

They took their time.

It took about thirty minutes before Dante was able to bring himself to speak, “H-How… How did you stop it…?” He looked up at Magda with big indigo eyes.

“I-I… I’m not sure…? I just picked up the stone and started chanting words I don’t even know and I saw this man--”

Dante took in a shaky breath, “The Black Eyed Man… Why does he care so much about me?” He kept shakily inhaling and exhaling, he looked like a scared child about to cry. He felt like a scared child about to cry.

Magda finally opened up her hand, and the blue stone was no longer blue. It was clear and completely shattered. “Why was it blue…? Dante what happened?”

“T-That was my phylactery. It’s clear quartz naturally, and it was s-supposed to store and regulate my energy… It was blue because… my soul I guess? I’m not a magic expert man…” he took in another shaky breath, wiping his eyes, “The stone must have just… taken in too much energy. It decided it was done far too close to all of my soul being out of my body… If the transference still continued while it was overwhelmed…”

Magda filled in the blanks for herself, “It would have killed you. Why is it broken now?”

Danny sniffled, “It got overwhelmed by magic and broke, but I don’t need it anymore.” Magda sat down with the other three, and did their best to soothe their new friend.

A long, drawling voice spoke up and interrupted their hard work to calm Dante down, “Mags, mother wants to know why you aren’t--” Nikolai cut himself off and smoothed down his dark hair, coughing awkwardly, “Belladonna? Is something going on?” His eyes flickered a bit jealously over Dante, which was understandable, Bella was practically cradling the boy.

“There was a medical emergency, sorry we’re late, Niki.” Bella smiled warmly and helped everyone stand to their feet. “Now, Niki is right, we are awful late for dinner, and I’m sure everyone is already to dessert at this point.” There was obviously something special about Bella if she could get away with calling him Niki without complaint. She made sure Danny was on his feet firmly before walking beside Nikolai down the hallway between the stairs. Az stayed close to Bella by laying her head on Bella’s back and shuffling along behind her. Magda ended up staying with Dante to make sure he was fine.

He sniffled every once in a while, and he looked completely exhausted. Magda nudged him lightly, “Danny…? Who is The Black Eyed Man?” He scowled.

“Some jerk who doesn’t know the meaning of stalking, and a good night’s rest. He’s been haunting me for close to a year now.”

“Do you actually mean haunted?” Magda said quietly.

“He’s not a ghost, dude, he’s just a giant loser with nothing better to do,” Dante paused for a moment, his eyes focused, and he looked at Magda like he finally realized she was a stranger to him. “Uh… Who and what are you? Why could you do that magic?”

Magda was a bit taken aback as well, because she only knew his name due to Az and Bella. “Oh, right, my name’s Magdalena Moscovici, and I really have no idea why I could do that magic?” She frowned, “Although, I do know I’ve been called a strigoi before.” Dante very quickly took on the appearance like he was punched in the face, but Magda didn’t ask. He had been through enough for the night.

“...Right, I’m Dante Delacroix. Nice to meet you, I guess.” Danny sounded a bit awkward, but Magda figured he seemed like he needed time to warm up to people before being openly friendly like Az or Bella.

The four followed Nikolai into the dining room. It was nearly as spectacular as the entrance room. The room was two stories high as well, and it had three large wrought iron filigree chandeliers all filled to the brim with black wax candles. Magda wondered how they kept the wax from falling on students, but like everything else in Urias, the answer would be magic. Many circular redwood tables filled the room, and each were filled with people; teenagers that were laughing, catching up on their summers, kicking each other under the table, the usual for them.

A table that caught her attention was one with a long black haired boy, a snow white haired boy, a teal haired girl, and a girl with grey skin. They were all laughing and trying to keep adding more and more pieces of their silverware to their faces like it was a competition. The boy with black hair looked like he was winning, but Az kicked his chair and it all fell off his face. The girl with the teal hair stood triumphantly and grinned, seven spoons stuck to her peachy face.

“Dans ta face!” She laughed and repeated herself in English, “In your face, Dakota!” The boy grumbled and Magda followed her friends away from the strange group.

Nikolai found them the only place that was mostly empty, save for a muscular boy with ice blue eyes, brown hair, and who was much more interested in the food on his place than paying the group any attention.

Danny surprised himself by being the first to speak, “Why are you alone?” The boy looked up with a bit of a start, his mouth completely stuffed full, and he pointed to himself with a quizzical look to Dante. Danny nodded.

“Ah, I tend to be sort of aggressive and a bit of a loner, you know.” He had some sort of accent Magda couldn’t place immediately, most likely because his mouth was stuffed.

Bella touched the boy’s shoulder lightly. “You shouldn’t talk with your mouth full, it’s not very polite at all. Chew your food, swallow, and then speak to us.”

The boy blushed and finished his bite before grinning. “Sorry ma’am,” Magda very quickly realized he was Canadian, and Dante snickered faintly, “Is there a problem here?”

“No problem, really, I just think it’s funny you’re Canadian and you said sorry.”

“What? So because I’m Canadian I’m not allowed to say sorry? That’s racist.” The boy scowled at Danny, and when he turned red and murmured an apology the boy howled with laughter, “I’m just messing with you man. I’m Logan. You all are lucky you know, you missed all the lame beginning of term speeches and all.”

Magda frowned, “Wait, so when do classes start?”

Nikolai piped up, “Monday, so just a few days from now. It gives everyone a chance to sort of settle in to the school and make a few friends before actual academics start.”

“Now you’re sounding like a teacher,” Logan snorted and lightly nudged Az to try to get her to laugh at his joke. Az did snicker, although Magda wasn’t sure if it was because Az actually found it funny or if Az just thought Logan was cute.

Nikolai scowled and smoothed down his shirt, speaking in his usual unenthused voice, “And who did you say you were again?”

“Logan Jacob Tremblay,” he grinned and nudged Az again, “at least that’s what my mom calls me when I mess up.” Az laughed again, and this time Magda was sure it was just because Logan was cute.

Danny dug in his pocket and pulled out a little scrap of paper, then smiled faintly, “Oh cool, Mystia said we’d be sharing a room,” he frowned at the slip of parchment, “Can’t read the other name though, she writes in this weird plum ink that has a tendency to bleed.”

A look of absolute horror passed over Nikolai’s face and Bella immediately began to worry over him, “Niki, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

“No…” He murmured in a hushed whisper, “I’m sharing a room with these two.”

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Five pt. 2

When Magda made her way with Nikolai up the front steps of the Diavol and Vrajitoare Academy, she noticed very quickly how impressive it was. The dark bricked building was a gothic style manor, much like Dragos Manor, but it somehow looked much more like a scholarly building than a rich man’s home. When they stepped through the grand front doors, Magda felt hit in the face by the unmistakable scent of ozone and old parchment.

Niki snorted, “Magic. You’re smelling magic. It’s really thick in this building. You get used to it, I swear.” He pulled her further into the building, weaving through many students bustling about with their friends and parents. He led her to a large set of elegant staircases and as they began to walk up one, she felt a cold chill pass through her body. When she turned to see what it was, and she found a burly, fiery haired man directly behind her, just continuing on his path.

“Relax,” Nikolai laughed again, “That’s just Halsnid. He’s a ghost.”

Magda’s eyes widened, “Niki I see him right there, he’s completely solid.” As if on cue, Halsnid lost his corporeal form and was just a ball of light rushing through the crowd.

He laughed harder, Magda had never seen him in such a good mood, “Halsnid is a teacher here, Mag. You get used to it.”

“You’ve been saying that a lot lately…” Magda grumbled as they walked up the stairs together. After the first flight, Magda was sick of stairs. By the seventh floor, she never wanted to see a single step again. She breathed heavy, “Dude, I cannot manage that many stairs each day.”

He laughed and ignored her as he led her to her room at the end of one of the halls. Magda wondered how he found his way around because for sure she would get lost. Niki stopped at one of the doors, and she frowned at the door. A small sign that hung on it read: Azuriel Blackwell. Belladonna Creswell. Magdalena Moscovici.

Magda grinned, “This your friend Belladonna?” Nikolai shoved her.

“Just knock on the door, idiot.” He scowled and shoved her towards the door. When she looked back, he was gone.

Barely, Magda knocked on the door and it swung open. The room was beautiful, a bit more compact than her room in Dragos Manor but that made it cozy. It had three canopy beds, and three trunks by the foot of each bed. There was a desk, seated right in front of the window, and a thick exotic looking rug filling most of the floor. Quiet punk music came from a nightstand next to one of the beds, as well as loud, beautiful singing came from the bathroom over the sound of running water.

Inside, a caramel skinned, black haired girl sat on one of the three beds. She was very gangling, and her body type was a bit boxy, no real curves to her. Her black hair was cut short and made her look like she just woke up because of bed head. Two little ebony colored horns poked out from the top of the girl’s scalp. When Magda walked in, the girl looked up, and grinned. Golden eyes trained on Mag. “Ay! You’re Magdalena, right?” Magda noticed when the girl spoke that she had British accent, “I’m Az. The girl taking forever in the shower right now is Bella.”

Az grinned brighter. “Mags, wanna see something hilarious?” Before Magda had a chance to even respond, Az was holding her phone and tapping it while laughing. “Okay, ready?” She took a second, but Magda nodded.

Suddenly, very loud bass boosted K-Pop came from the bathroom. The pretty singing stopped abruptly and had turned into loud swearing. A curvy, dark haired girl stormed out of the bathroom, glaring at Az. “Fix it, or I will drain the blood from your miserable body, Azuriel.” Her hair was insanely curly from being soaking wet, but that was the only thing about her that wasn’t pretty. Her smooth brown skin was completely and utterly flawless. Magda felt a tiny surge of jealousy, even in death acne still plagued her from time to time. Bella’s eyes were a warm dark brown, which made Magda a bit homesick for Nikolai.

“Daaaaamn, Bells, you’re in a mood.” Without responding, Bella stormed back into the bathroom. Az laughed so hard she knocked herself off her bed and Magda heard the beautiful singing pick up again. Az’s laugh made Magda start giggling too. They calmed down after a bit of heavy laughter, both girls breathing hard. “So, Mags, what are you?”

“Excuse me?” Magda looked at her a bit startled, she had never been asked that question before and honestly, it seemed a bit offensive to her. Both of them overheard the blow dryer turn on, which cut a bit of the tension in the room.

“I mean are you like, a demon, a witch, a--”

Magda stopped her with a laugh, “Ooh, sorry I got so offended then, I’m a strigoi.” Az looked at her with a slightly awed expression.

“That’s remarkable,” Az murmured softly, “A real strigoi…”

“What are you, Az?”

Azuriel grinned, “I’m a succubi,” Az noticed Magda staring her up and down in disbelief, “but really don’t take it like that. I don’t… You know. I’m an energy feeder, so I drain people’s life force to sustain myself.”

Magda frowned, “But you don’t--”

“Don’t look like a succubi? Yeah, I’ve heard that before, honest. I know I don’t look it, but if I wanted to sustain myself that way, I could. However, its gross. People are gross and the thought of it kinda just grosses me out in general.” Magda giggled, Az sounded like a five year old discussing how boys have cooties.

The blow dryer turned off after a bit more pointless discussion, and the bathroom door swung open. Magda was a tad blown away. She already could see Bella was beautiful when she was half ready for the day, but seeing Bella the way she wanted the world to see her was still shocking. Her dark chocolate hair tumbled in wild curls that she had somehow managed to look controlled. She wore dark grey ripped jeans, a surprisingly yellow t-shirt crop top, and black heeled ankle boots. Magda didn’t really understand how someone could make a eyeliner so sharp and precise, but Belladonna did it. She also managed to perfectly outline her lips and coat them in a dark berry color that perfectly contrasted her shirt.

Magda could suddenly see why Nikolai made a point to slip Bella into the discussion every so often.

“Now, what are we discussing?” Bella sat down on her bed to watch the other two with a teasing smile, “How to ruin your roommate’s shower singing time?” She laughed softly.

Magda giggled softly, “Sorry, Bella. Um… I’m Magda.”

“Ah! Niki’s little sister, nice to meet you.” She smiled warmly and extended her perfectly manicured hand to Magda. Magda shook it and smiled as well. “Now, what were you two talking about?”

Az piped up, “How Mags is a strigoi and I’m a succubi.”

Bella laughed and smiled, “Guess I have a bit to catch up on then,” Bella turned her attention to Magda, “I’m just a run of the mill vampire, sort of boring I know.” Az snickered and then frowned.

“Uh, guys? It’s Almost 3AM.”

“Oh shoot,” Bella chimed in, “It’s time for dinner then!”

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Five pt. 1

When Magda’s alarm went off, she was not happy to hear it. Night had just begun to fall, and Valera had made it a point to have everyone up and around by 8PM every night. Even though sunlight didn’t affect her the way it did a normal vampire, she was still following a nocturnal sleep schedule under the Dragos family’s desires.

The old school alarm continued to ring as Magda very slowly worked to get out of her bed, though every morning was a struggle. The beds in Dragos Manor were remarkably soft feather beds, with warm garnet colored velvet bedding. Magda tended to think sometimes Vorian was a bit overkill when it came to the finer things in the home, but after living in a decrepit house for a while, the luxury was appreciated. Finally, Magda smacked her hand down on the alarm clock, and rolled herself out of the bed.

She made her way to the window, pulling apart the wine colored curtains. Urias was a bustle more than usual. The cobblestone streets were crowded with teenagers picking up very peculiar school supplies and hugging friends they hadn’t seen in a while. Oil lamps flickered awake as shops woke up from their slumber. Urias glittered with excitement in a way Magda hadn’t seen it do before. The energy brewing in the village was enough to wake up Magda from her usual morning grog.

Magda pulled herself away from her window, and brushed out her hair the way Valera had demanded her to every morning. “Taking care of yourself is the first step to taking care of others,” Valera had began telling her. For the past month, Valera had babies Magda, making sure she ate enough, took care of her personal hygiene, and kept her from over sleeping. She got dressed, and made her way down to the dining hall. There were three voices coming from Vorian’s study, two she knew well, and one she didn’t know at all.

While she respected Vorian and Valera’s privacy, she overheard her name. Naturally that meant she had to eavesdrop. She pressed her ear to the wall near the cracked door.

The voice she didn't recognize was in the middle of a sentence, “--share with a dhampir, a succubi, a werewolf, and a strigoi.” Magda knew what a strigoi was, a werewolf, and a succubi, but she had no idea what a dhampir was. The elderly sounding voice continued, “I know who the strigoi and the dhampir must be, Vorian. We cannot stop the ancients from rising.”

Vorian sighed, “Mystia, I do not want you speaking about my children this way. They’re safer here, at the school.” He sounded frustrated with the woman he called Mystia.

“It sounds as if the Elders have placed an importance on your pupil, Mystia,” Valera chimed in, and she did not sound happy, “Leave my children out of The Black Eyed Man’s nonsense. I certainly want you to stay the hell away from my Magdalena.” Valera’s voice was a growl, Magda had never heard her this angry before.

Magda rested her hand on the oak door, and went to shove it open to give her own opinion on the situation but suddenly a hand covered her mouth. She struggled for a moment before recognizing the heady scent of roses and musk. Nikolai. He pulled off her and put a finger to his lips. How long had he been beside her? Was he eavesdropping too? Magda’s question was answered when he rested his ear to the wall on the other side of the door.

Nikolai seemed very troubled with the discussion, and from the look on his face, he had been listening much longer than she had. She settled in to listen again to the conversation.

They must have missed a few sentences, because Mystia, was talking about things Magda couldn’t exactly follow, “If Arnhild has risen as The Black Eyed Man suggests, then it’s not long before Amar-Suena, Ixmacane, and Gadaric rise as well! The Ancient One’s magic has already been felt across Europe, you must have noticed that, Vorian! Magdalena is the key to--”

“Enough.” Vorian growled at Mystia. His anger was even more shocking than Valera’s. “I will not have you sending my children out on dangerous errands when we don’t have any more information than what a trickster god gives us. Be gone from my home Mystia. We will see you this evening at Diavol’s banquet.” Magda heard Mystia huff, and stand. Before Magda could react, Nikolai grabbed her hand and pulled her into the shadows with him to hide.

They shared a long glance with each other, silently agreeing this would be their secret. Mystia stormed out of the study with Valera and Vorian not bothering to follow her fast exit. Nikolai and Magda made it down to the breakfast table swiftly before they could get caught.

Soon after they sat down, Valera and Vorian joined them, both seeming calm and in a pleasant mood as they did every morning at breakfast time. “Happy first day of school, both of you,” Valera said with a warm smile, “As well as a happy Halloween.”

Nikolai groaned, “Mom I’ve been going to school for forever, I really don’t see why I need to still be going!”

“Niki, it’s good for you to watch over other young vampires. Especially this year with our little Magda--” Valera beamed fondly at Magda, noticing quickly that she had brushed her hair without being told.

“You do know Magda isn’t really my sister right?” Nikolai scoffed, “Because I really think you two have forgotten.”

Vorian frowned, “Niki, would you rather we throw her out on the street to fend for herself? No, we’ve found her, and she belongs in our family. If not by blood, by the night. She is your sister, and our daughter, end of discussion.”

Niki snorted, and Magda was hurt, until she began to notice what he was doing, “All I’m saying is that there are plenty of orphan vampires out there. Even Belladonna isn’t easily welcomed into here as your child. What makes Magda so special?”

“Because we love her,” Valera spoke up, “and she needs us, why can’t you understand that?”

“Cheap answer, mom. What’s the real reason?”

Vorian frowned at his son, “What has gotten into you, Niki? I thought you liked Magda.” Nikolai and Magda actually really did like each other. She thought he was awful, but over the past month they’ve become very fast friends. Niki sighed and murmured a soft apology to Magda as he began to sip from the goblet in front of him.

Magda had still not gotten used to the whole blood thing. The way she drank it when she had it really unsettled her. It always was a ravenous action on her part, and her pastel clothes got stained by the blood that got on her face each time. Valera had devised a plan to make sure Magda ate well enough while still sustaining a diet that made her comfortable. She poked lightly at the pastry on her plate, and Valera kissed her head. “Take your supplements and go get dressed nicely, we have to get you both settled into your dorms.”

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Four pt. 2

When Dante’s alarm woke him up, he was sure he that everything over the last twenty-four hours were figments of his sleep deprived imagination. It had to be. However as the room came into focus, it was nothing like his bedroom or his car. The low ceiling room was bathed in the early morning sunlight, so much so Danny could see all of the dust moats float around the room. The walls were cobblestone, and it looked like a house a pilgrim would have lived in.

As he looked around, he noticed something odd about the already strange room. No electricity. He glanced over at the nightstand and found a completely melted down candle.

“Must have burnt all night.” Danny murmured to himself as he fumbled for his phone. 7AM, way too early if he wasn’t going to force himself to work today. He yawned, curled back up in the warm bed, and pulled the maroon crochet blanket tighter around him before falling back asleep.

He woke up later in the day when a warm smell hit his nose. It smelled like fresh baked bread and kitchen spices. Danny took a moment, but eventually pulled himself out of bed and to the mirror mounted on the wall. His silver blonde hair stuck up in every weird direction and his indigo eyes could barely keep open. With another yawn, he made his way out of the room to follow the scent.

A kindly voice spoke to him, “Good morning, sonny!” Mystia laughed happily, “You’re just in time for fresh baked bread.” Her pale white grey hair was tied up in a bun with wisps falling out messily. Mystia’s warm sparkling blue eyes trained on Danny as he shifted a bit uncomfortably in the kitchen.

“Mystia… where…? And when…?” Danny rubbed his eyes as he waited for an answer. Mystia hummed, and cut the bread into large slices, slathering them with some sort of butter substance. “Hello? Mystia can you hear me?” She ignored him for a moment except to hand him a small spoonful of the buttery spread. Dante took it, eyed it for a moment, before licking it off the spoon. Cinnamon butter. Mystia and Dante watched each other for a moment before he sighed, speaking softly, “Mystia, please tell me where and when I am?”

She laughed brightly again, smoothing Dante’s hair back out of his face, “Thank you for asking nicely, sonny. Now, we are in Urias, my home, and it is October 29th at 11:24AM.” She smiled mischievously, knowing that was a bit more exact than he wanted. He reacted in panic however.

“October 29th?! Wait I thought it was October 11th!” His eyes widened, but Mystia stroked his hair soothingly.

She spoke gently to him, “The Black Eyed Man simply has no concept of time. He didn’t mean to send you to sleep that deeply.”

“You know The Black Eyed Man?” Danny stared at her incredulously, “How? I mean you’re a really nice person and he’s… creepy!” Mystia chuckled gently and buttered a piece of bread for Danny, and got him a glass of milk.

She gave him the glass and spoke gently, “All mages have at least seen him in fleeting images as they perform their spells. The Black Eyed Man takes a particular interest in people desiring to be a lich. It takes so much information to successfully become one. Now, he told me what he said to you.”

Dante murmured to himself, “The Ancients are rising, Dante, and we wonder if you will help them rise or fall.” Then he frowned, “Who are the Ancients?” Mystia frowned softly and flicked her fingers lightly. A book shot off the shelf and flew immediately to hover right in front of her, flipping itself open.

“The Ancients are the offspring of the First Evils,” Mystia shared the book with Danny so he could see what she was reading.

“What are the First Evils?” Danny read over the book with her curiously.

She smiled encouragingly at him, “They’re beings that came about when humans first started settling into civilizations. Each of the four are aspects that make us… more than human. They don’t just make monsters, the First Evils also created the gods of old. Although evil is certainly a subjective term, and really the morality of these beings is a debate we could have but I digress. The first to come about being was The Gaunt Man, the embodiment of hunger.”

“How can hunger be good?”

“Dante, do you know what drives millionaires to be successful?”

“Greed, but--” Mystia cut him off, her blue eyes glimmering.

“Is greed not a different form of hunger? The Gaunt Man created the first vampire, a man named Gadaric the Conqueror. A vile, violent man who embodied all that The Gaunt Man stands for.”

Dante nodded softly, biting his thumb as he thought out loud, “So that means Gadaric the Conqueror is rising? The Black Eyed Man said--”

She took a momentary breath, and then went back to speaking, “The next to be born of the First Evils was The Feral Child. The Feral Child embodies the wild. She corrupted a Mayan shaman named Ixmacane, and she became the first nagul. The Feral Child is of course the mother of all shapeshifters.”

Danny went to speak, but Mystia cut him off again.

“Then, The Weaver was born, the embodiment of power.”

Danny frowned, stopping Mystia, “I thought you said the Gaunt Man was embodying power?”

Mystia hit him lightly with a wooden spoon and Danny yelped, “You assumed, Sonny! No, The Weaver is specifically lies, deceit, and political power. Not raw strength, but authority. She corrupted the angel Amar-Suena.”

“An angel? There are angels?” Dante paused, frowning deeper, “Does that mean there’s a God?”

“It’s quite complicated, Sonny. I know there are angels, I know there are demons, and I know there are realms known as Heaven and Hell but whether there’s an omnipotent higher power and lower power, I don’t know.” She touched Danny’s head encouragingly, “It’s a good question though. Amar-Suena was an angel, and they were lead down the path of darkness by The Weaver. She created demons.”

He knew he should keep his mouth shut, but he couldn’t help himself, “But then--” Mystia cut him off again.

“Then lastly, The Black Eyed Man. Embodiment of knowledge, not wisdom.” When she smiled at him, her eyes crinkled. “Wisdom would have stopped me from becoming a lich. The Black Eyed Man is the father of all witchcraft. He created the first witch, a seer named Arnhild. Once a beautiful queen but now…”

She trailed off, and Danny took the opportunity to pipe up, “Okay, so then why does any of this matter?”

“They are all the traits that make humanity… more than human.” She pursed her lips, thinking how she wanted to go about explaining it. “Danny, while evil, they have always been the driving force behind humanity’s great feats. They were either revered as gods or demons, or even other things, but they are all primordial beings. They matter because the ones who remember them can still receive their blessings.”

Danny spoke up again, “He didn’t seem threatening,” He was so sure that The Black Eyed Man didn’t actually mean any harm to him. “Why are you telling me all of this anyways?”

Mystia scowled, “Dante, I do not want you anywhere near the Ancients or the Elder Gods. They are far too dangerous, and they will kill you any chance they get. Take it from someone who knows more than you.” Mystia tapped his head gently, smiling kindly, “Why don’t you go out and explore Urias before you have to start school?”

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Four pt. 1

Dante slept rather sound in the back, even as Mystia drove wildly across terrain cars generally shouldn’t be crossing. The high speeds and the bumps didn’t wake him, in fact he didn’t seem to even notice them. Although, that could be because Mystia took great care to protect his sleeping form from tumbling off the seat. Unfortunately, his dreams weren’t as restful as his outward appearance would suggest. Danny’s spirit did what it usually had been doing as he slept, it made a visit to The Black Eyed Man.

The dreamstate was heavily shrouded in fog, just as it always had been. He recognized the dark grove of trees immediately. However, this time something was different. In a clearing between the black barked trees, The Black Eyed man stood waiting for him. Usually, The Black Eyed Man always moved towards Dante, and he never appeared clearly until he slid out of the mist. He waited patiently, hands clasped together and looking at Dante expectantly.

“Dude, what do you even want from me?!” Danny called out, his hands trembling in fear, but Danny was more angry than afraid. Every time he had a second asleep, he had to share it with this creep.

The Black Eyed Man looked shocked when Dante spoke, and Danny realized he had never actually found the courage to speak to him before. The man blinked all five black eyes hard as if trying to clear his head, and then he began to laugh. Danny stormed over in anger but the man spoke before he had a chance to.

“Wow,” The Black Eyed Man spoke up breathlessly after he calmed himself down, “for a while I was beginning to believe you couldn’t speak.” The statement made Danny’s blood boil, and he reacted on impulse again. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and threw it, pegging the man square in his mid-forehead eye. The Black Eyed Man collapsed in on himself, holding his hands to his forehead and taking in shuddering breaths. Dante felt immobile as he watched the man struggle in pain. The Black Eyed Man started trembling, and Danny went to reach out to help him and apologize, but then he realized it: he was laughing.

It took the man another moment, and then a few more to calm down after seeing the horrified look on Danny’s face. He sighed pleasantly, “You know, that’s why I like you Dante. You’re such a spitfire!” The Black Eyed Man handed back Danny’s phone with another bright laugh, “You play cool a lot, but you certainly have a little temper on you.”

Danny noticed as The Black Eyed Man spoke, he had shut three of his eyes and it made him look somewhat normal. Even if the man had black tears dribbling down from his mid-forehead eye, he looked like he belonged at a Hot Topic, not an ancient evil forest. This time Danny actually noticed how young The Black Eyed Man looked, especially up this close.

He didn’t look as put together this time, his black hair was somehow messier, and each completely black eye had a bag underneath it from sleepless nights. He had even ditched the suit for an indie band t-shirt and ripped black jeans. Dante narrowed his eyes at the man before finally speaking up again, “So, what do you want with me, demon?”

The Black Eyed Man picked up cackling again. This time when he spoke he sounded much more informal than he had before. “Man, you’re hilarious. No, demons wish they were me,” The Black Eyed Man retorted, “and even if they got their wish, they still would be nowhere as powerful as me.”

“Sooo, what are you?”

“Aw, Dante, I’m so flattered you care.” The Black Eyed Man smirked, which just made Dante scowl. “I’ve been called a lot of thing before, really. I mean, humans simply cannot agree on their histories!” Danny groaned in frustration at the answer, and the man pursed his lips. He took a moment to think and then he continued on.

“The Elder Gods are the name we’re mainly called.”

Danny groaned again, “There are more of you?!”

The man cut him off. He sounded like a petulant child as he spoke, “Hey, can you shut up for a moment so I can talk? Thank you.” Danny rolled his eyes but the man continued, “Yes, there are more than me, but only three others.”

“Elder gods. Like Zeus and stuff?”

This time The Black Eyed Man groaned, “There you go again! Listen it’s not like that!”

“Then what are you?”

“The Giver, The Muses, The Genius, Prometheus, I am humanity’s guide to being something more, I am the Magi’s greatest ally, I am--” Danny cut him off.

“What are you?”

“The Black Eyed Man,” he said, his voice silky again rather than childish, “The Giver of Knowledge, the last of the Four Great Evils.”

Dante snorted, “Sounds real important.”

The Black Eyed Man glared at him for the comment. He retorted quickly, “Without me you wouldn’t have the ability to even make fire let alone listen to stupid bands on an electronic device, which I pushed into creation by the way!” However the man sounded very childish as he said it.

Danny scowled again, “You’re the one wearing a lame band shirt anyways! You have some real nerve comin’ into my dream and--” the man cut him off.

“I’m here to warn you.”

Dante frowned, looking at him skeptically as he spoke, “About?”

“The destiny you share with a dhampir, a succubi, a werewolf, and a strigoi.” The Black Eyed Man took on an oddly serious expression as he spoke.

“... What destiny?”

“The Ancients are rising, Dante, and we wonder if you will help them rise or fall.”

“But--” The Black Eyed Man cut him off again.

“Seek out the Seer, Dante. Kill her. For now, get some rest. My treat.” He smirked and snapped his fingers before Danny could respond, and Danny quickly faded into deep, dreamless sleep.

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Three

Thud.

He woke up with a start when a customer coughed to get his attention, and he rung her up and sent her on her way before he continued dozing off. Since he was on fall break from school, his boss had made him come in to work a full week at their stupid pop up Halloween store. He would have found that alright and a fun activity, but he was barely able to stay awake right now.

The young man’s skin stung where the fabric of his shirt touched his skin, and he continued to fade in and out of strange nightmares of a many black eyed man. Luckily for Dante, it was a slow day. Suddenly, a voice spooked him out of his stupor.

“Delacroix!” it took a moment but he figured out quickly that it was coming from the headset he was wearing, “in my office!” Danny sighed. He made his way from behind the counter, and stumbled through half empty boxes of random decor his coworker was setting up. He tripped over one, and fell to the ground hard. He groaned, and after laying there for a bit, he pulled himself up and continued heading to Rebecca’s office. He was miserably in pain, but he kept moving.

The office in question wasn’t really an office. It was a tiny little closet filled to the ceiling with boxes upon boxes of glow in the dark spider webs, broken animatronics, and cardboard filing cabinets filled with paperwork from the year before. The assistant store manager, Rebecca, always referred to it as her office, but that was only because she enjoyed having the power to claim an office.

Danny leaned on the doorframe, “‘Sup Becca?” The elderly woman sneered at him, rather than responding immediately. Rebecca had always made Danny uncomfortable, he wasn’t afraid of much, but Rebecca certainly warranted fear. He pushed his silvery hair out of his face nonchalantly in an effort to hide his discomfort.

“Well, what’s ‘sup’,” she began in shrill voice, “is the fact a customer just called to complain she had to wake you at the counter!” Rebecca pointed an accusing finger at the pale boy with another sneer before continuing. “I had to give her a coupon! How ridiculous is that, Delacroix? If you weren’t in Mr. Louis’ good graces…” When she trailed off, Dante began to speak.

He scowled at her, “Rebecca, you literally just have a problem because of how I look.” Which was true. She had never liked him because he was a pierced, tattooed, teenager. She always claimed he was nothing but trouble.

“That’s a write up for insubordination!” cried Rebecca in retort.

Dante began to complain, “Hey! That’s ridiculous--” but he cut himself off as the pain from before washed over him. He clung to the door frame for a moment in silence before apologizing to Rebecca through grit teeth. Rebecca could tell something was wrong, stopped arguing as well. She didn’t like him, but she wasn’t hateful enough to want someone to fall ill.

“Delacroix, do we need an ambulance?” She frowned as she hovered near him slightly, gently helping him to a chair.

“I’m fine, really… Thanks though.” He breathed heavy as he tried to ease the pain from himself. It just felt like molten metal was surging through his veins and he just wasn’t sure he could make it through the rest of his shift.

Rebecca touched his arm gently, “Dante, go home, pick up a shift tomorrow if you can.” Danny nodded softly and he made his way to his feet.

He was working his way to the front, but one of the actually working animatronics shook awake and clown scared Dante into falling over onto the wood floor. He scrambled away the best he could, ignoring the searing pain he was feeling. It took him a minute to catch his breath before he could bring himself to crawl around it.

He pulled himself back up to his feet by clinging to a costume rack, and knocking it down in the process. Danny left a path of destruction in his wake as he stumble his way through the store to the exit. The pain was beginning to overwhelm him, so much so it was nearly impossible for him to pull open the front door of the store. He stammered outside, hit his head on a light post, and barely making it to his junker of a car before passing out.

---

When he woke up, the autumn sunlight had made itself nonexistent. Most of the cars had driven off and all that was left in the lot were the graveyard shift workers. He sat in the cold silence of the moonless night, staring at the constellations before the pain started again. Dante panicked and struggled with his work shirt and wrestled it off to see if he could find the cause.

His usually dark runic tattoos were glowing a brilliant indigo, and they were remarkably hot to the touch. Danny murmured a few curse words to himself before rifling through his canvas backpack with trembling hands. After frantically throwing pens, earbuds, empty coffee cups, and torn pieces of notebook paper around his car, he found what he was searching for.

A black leather book with delicate star charts carved into the leather and embellished with silver ink. The parchment was thick, dusty, and each page was covered with elegant script in sapphire blue ink. Dante continued panicking as he rifled, and nearly ripped, the ancient grimoire, until he found what he was anxiously searching for. He closed his eyes and took in shaky breaths before chanting some Latin words over and over, growing more shaken as he continued.

Finally, he seemed to get the result he was seeking, as the Celtic and Norse protection symbols on his skin slowly darkened back into pitch black on his parchment colored skin. Danny slowly took in deep breaths, and began going through the breathing exercise his therapist had taught him. Breathe in for four. Hold for four. Exhale for four. Hold for four. He finally caught his breath, and rested his head on his steering wheel. His sheer exhaustion forcing him to ignore the blaring sound of his car’s horn as he fell unconscious again.

---

When Danny woke, he wasn’t in his car. He was somewhere… Eldritch. An ancient grove of black bark trees drowning in a thick layer of mist. Danny knew where he was, he had this dream every time he blacked out like this. A silky voice chuckled, “Dante, if you just pushed through the pain…” it trailed off, but it was obviously teasing him. Dante froze in his place, unable to do anything but watch as the pure white man with jet black hair moved through the mist and watched him with five pure black eyes. All of the eyes bore into him, a set of two normally on his face, two below, and one in the center of his forehead. The figure moved closer, speaking in the same silky voice, “Dante I only wish to help you progress in becoming what you were meant to be.”

The Black Eyed Man gave off an aura of being dangerous, but not outwardly malevolent. His white skin was wrapped in an expensive looking black suit, but his hair was shaggy like he didn’t care about that. In the moment, Danny was too afraid to notice it, but The Black Eyed Man looked young, around being seventeen years old.

He moved around Dante rather quickly, chuckling darkly and whispering in his ear, “The Lich you were meant to be, Dante. All you have to do is let it go. Release your soul, and the process will be completed.” his voice was velvety and enticing, Danny wanted to do whatever he told him to, but before he could, something yanked him back into his body.

He looked around his car, startled by the autumn sunshine, and even more startled by the elderly woman sitting in the passenger seat. He yelped, and she revealed a big toothless grin and began to cackle. “Dude!” Danny cried out, “Who are you?!” He pressed himself against his car door to get as far away from her as he physically could in the small car. Then, she did something that was even more surprising than The Black Eyed Man, she hit him over the head with her cane. Danny yelped again, “Hey quit that!” But the woman just continued to cackle.

“I’m calling the police if you don’t get the hell out of my car!” The old woman calmed her laughing, but was still obviously in a good mood. Her pale blue eyes were twinkling with mischief, but no malice.

“Oh hush now, Sonny, it’s time to get you to my home. Your mother Arabella already knows where we’re headed.” She smiled, and suddenly she was in the driver's seat, and he was buckled in the backseat with a blanket wrapped around him and a cup of milky coffee in his hands like a large toddler for a road trip.

“How…?” Danny muttered quietly, but he was rather grateful for both the blanket, and the coffee.

She chuckled kindly, turning around to smile at him, her eyes twinkling. “Magic of course. Now, we want to make it to Urias so you can get all your books and get yourself settled in, don’t you?”

Dante frowned, “Urias? The Romanian hide away for… well… monsters?”

The woman laughed brightly, “The very same! Now I have your permission slip from your mother, a suitcase of luggage for you, and the broomstick your mother gave you--” Danny cut her off, blushing crimson.

“I’m not some sort of common witch who needs a broom, you know! I’m a warlock, and I’m very powerful!” Danny huffed in frustration at the woman, but she just smiled warmly and started the car. “And why should I go with you anyways,” Dante continued angrily, “I don’t even know you!”

The woman hummed a song softly and took a moment before responding, “You should know me, Mr. Dante Delacroix. But I suppose, if you don’t, my name is Lady Mystia Nox,” she turned back to smile at him as he stared in shock, “the only living lich on the planet, but I’m sure you knew that?” Dante nodded mutely. Mystia turned her attention back to starting the car and driving off, obviously pleased with the reaction.

It took Dante a few minutes, but he did speak to her again, “So… when will we get to Urias?” Suddenly his coffee was gone, but in its place a soft pillow rest in his lap and the maroon crochet blanket wrapped around him.

“Just take a nap, sonny, and we’ll be there by the time you wake up,” She winked at him teasingly in the rearview mirror, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep it an easy ride.”

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter Two

Visions flickered across her mind, even though she knew she wasn’t really seeing anything. The strange family from before lingered in her head. Inky darkness was the only thing Magda saw when her eyes opened. She sat up with a start and only managed to hit her head on something hard about five inches above her face.

“Ow…” she mumbled to herself before running her hands along the walls to try to figure out where she was. A coffin. How long had she even been in there? She must have been running out of oxygen. There was no way she could survive being buried alive.

That’s when she broke down into sobbing and pleas for help even though she could tell by hitting the lid that she was already six feet under. Hyperventilating started as she tried to figure out where she was and what had happened to her. When she remembered what Etta had done, she only cried more.

Eventually she calmed herself through deep breathing and tried to reason with herself. She told herself, “I can’t be in a coffin, I’m awake so I must be alive!” She felt her chest, and no sign of what Violetta had done remained. Magda also noticed something more peculiar, she lacked a pulse.

Recognizing that threw her into a panic again. Hopelessly sobbing and wailing that she needed help. Through trembling breaths, she calmed herself back down. “I just have to break the wood…” she reasoned with herself. She understood on a rational level that it was impossible, but when she started hitting the lid it broke rather quickly. Dirt fell in on her, and she started to quickly push it to the empty parts of her coffin.

The dirt would have crushed her, but for some reason it didn’t. She slowly clawed herself up through it, holding her breath as she made her way up, but once again, it didn’t affect her. Magda didn’t know what was going on, but she wasn’t going to question it until she made it to the surface.

Her hand broke through the ground and scrambled to grip onto wet grass and she finally pulled herself back into the land of the living. The moonlight hurt her eyes, but the gentle rainfall felt good on her skin. The water sung her skin as it hit the scrapes and cuts she had received from her ascent. It took her a few moments of heavy breathing and crying before she realized she wasn’t alone.

Three dark figures stood before her, each of which were holding a black umbrella and just watching her recover. Quickly, she sat up with wide eyes and stared back at the trio. “Can… can I help you?” Magda spoke softly, her voice sounding scratchy and her throat feeling even worse. At first, she assumed that they were the family from the night before, at least she assumed it was the night before. She had no idea how long she had been underground for.

The one in the middle was the first to speak before the others could stop him, “That dress looks horrible.” He spoke in a bored, drawling voice. Magda made a face, but looked at her dress. It was her funeral dress, the one she had worn to every one before and now even her own. Unfortunately, the dress had gotten ripped and tattered as she had pulled herself through her broken coffin and the earth. She glared at her clothes, tearing up. Her own family didn’t even have the decency to bury her in pastels like she wanted.

One of the other figures spoke up before Magda could reply. “Nikolai Vali Dragos you leave that poor girl alone!” The voice that came out of the figure was very feminine and chastising, “Niki, she has been through a lot in the past few days, she doesn't need your attitude in the slightest.” A woman stepped out of the darkness to get close to Magda and knelt down by her to gently wipe off some of the dirt from her face with a lace handkerchief. When Mag finally got a good look at the woman she was shocked.

The woman was absolutely stunning, prettier than the four armed woman from before. She had long silk jet black hair, perfectly smooth caramel skin, and silvery grey eyes. She had a kind smile and a gentle touch as she wiped the excess dirt of Magda’s skin. “Are you Magdalena Moscovici?” Magda nodded mutely, unable to bring herself to respond because she was far too focused on staring at the woman. Then the first figure spoke again in his bored, drawling voice.

“Mother, can you not call me Niki, please?” He sighed exaggeratedly and the woman turned her attention back on him.

She spoke with a kind voice, “Niki, I just don't want to let you be so rude to people is all.” She smiled and went over to kiss her son’s head. He shoved her away gently, which made Magda angry. She would have given anything to have her parents, and this brat can’t even find the patience to let his mother give him the slightest bit of affection.

Magda watched them carefully with wide eyes, murmuring softly, “What day is it…?” She certainly seemed a bit dazed as she spoke. Valera laughed gently, the sound was kind and soft.

“Where are my manners,” Valera touched Magda’s head, “today’s date is September 28th.”

“But Florica’s funeral was…” Magda counted on her fingers, a bit too stunned to do the mental math, “September 8th?”

Valera sighed in concern, obviously much more concerned with helping Magda than angry she didn’t seem to understand. “The turn is remarkably difficult for many of us, and as you are much stronger by blood, it just must have taken longer.”

Finally the third figure spoke. “Nikolai, Valera, we’re here to help young miss Magdalena.” He chuckled warmly and moved over to Valera, setting down his umbrella and kissing her cheek. Magda caught a glimpse of him in the moonlight. He was a bit shorter than Valera, who was rather spindly, but he seemed very charming. He had dark hair as well, brown eyes, and skin so pale his veins were easily visible. When he smiled with Valera, something sharp glinted from his mouth. A fang.

Magda focused in on the trio and she noticed that the smell of gravedirt, roses, and blood clung to them. Valera spoke up again, smiling softly, “Vorian, my love, I believe young miss Magda isn’t just one of us, she is most likely a strigoi.” Vorian nodded with a kind smile that mirrored Valera’s.

Magda had pretty much no idea what they were talking about.

“Isn’t a strigoi a type of vampire? That can’t have anything to do with me, can it?” Magda questioned, looking up at the trio with wide eyes.

Valera touched Magda’s head gently, smoothing down her messy blonde hair. “Magdalena,” she spoke, “you already know you’re dead. You also know that how you died was unfair--” Magda cut her off.

“I died because my sister killed me, I don’t think that has anything to do with becoming a strigoi or any type of vampire, I should be dead!” She yelled at the three, obviously irritated she had to explain the cause of her own death.

Valera frowned, and Vorian spoke softly. “Magdalena, the woman who killed your father cursed your entire family. Becoming a strigoi has a few requirements and you fit them all. Being a the seventh child of the same gender in a family, which you are the seventh of Dimitri and Elda’s daughters. Living a life of sin--” Magda cut him off like she did to Valera.

“I didn’t lead a life of sin! I’ve always been a good person! I did my best in school and was nice to my elders--”

This time Nikolai cut her off, stepping up to stand with his parents, but not dropping his umbrella. “My father means that your faith faltered.” When the moonlight hit him, Magda was almost as shocked as when she first saw Valera. Nikolai was utterly gorgeous. The boy looked like his mother, jet black hair combed neatly out of his face, flawless light caramel skin, and warm brown eyes like Vorian. While he was a brat, he knew he was handsome, and generally he got away with it.

It took Magda a moment to refocus on being angry before speaking again, “So you’re saying because I stopped believing in any god when my family died that I’ve suddenly lived a life of sin?” She scowled at him and Nikolai snorted as he looked her over.

“You’ve most likely done a few debaucherous things in your life.” It took all of Magda’s willpower to not haul off and punch him in the face. How dare he judge her that way, he had no idea about anything she’s ever done, let alone her personal life.

Vorian broke up their argument, “The last step to become a strigoi is to die before marriage by being either executed for perjury,”

“I didn’t do that.” Magda spoke before Vorian continued.

“committed suicide,”

“Or that.” She piped in again.

Vorian sighed and continued, “or were cursed by a witch.” Magda swallowed hard and Vorian continued since she didn’t respond. “When the woman, Farena, murdered your father, she cursed your entire family through selling her own soul to the powers of hell. You wouldn’t have known this, but with you and Violetta dead, Farena’s soul has been consumed and she has died as well.”

Magda paused and frowned. Valera started finger combing the dirt out of Magda’s hair gently and Nikolai sat down on a headstone to wait for this conversation to be over. Magda couldn’t bring herself to speak, thinking about all of this was horrible and brought up all this grief she hadn’t even let herself deal with yet. Valera was the one to speak next. “Magdalena, we would like to invite you to come with us.” Magda looked up at her and Valera continued.

“We live in a small village called Urias, you must have never heard of it,” Valera smiled kindly as she spoke, “because it is a village for creatures of the night. Beings who would not be accepted by humans. It is hidden in the vast Devora Forest.” Magda knew that name. The Devora Forest was a so called haunted forest close to the city of Cluj-Napoca. A six hour drive from her home in Bucharest. She had heard stories of her friends who had family in Cluj-Napoca that had gone into the forest to explore and only found themselves turned around by thick fog.

Vorian chuckled gently, “Magdalena, in the village of Urias we help run what in the simplest terms can be called a boarding school. The Diavol and Vrăjitoare Academy.”

Nikolai piped up, “Basically it’s a crash course for new vampires, demons, witches, and werewolves.”

“Or anything in between. We try to be accommodating,” Valera mused. “Generally it’s a four year school, however it can be longer if needed.” Magda had so many questions she felt like her head was spinning, and the three must have noticed because they stopped talking about it. Then Valera made a soft shocked noise. “We forgot to feed Magdalena!” She cried out before she started fawning over Magda.

Magda leaned herself against her own headstone, “I don’t feel hungry,” she protested weakly, “honest, I feel fine.” But Valera could not be persuaded to stop. Nikolai took out a small bag that looked like a juice pouch and offered it over to his mother who quickly bit off a corner.

“Magdalena, please drink this.” It was weird, but Magda felt sure she could trust Valera, so she took the bag gently and started to drink.

Immediately she spit out the liquid onto the grass. She was so startled by it that it made her feel fairly nauseous. The taste in her mouth was metallic and heavy, and it obviously had to be blood. She knew it was blood when she took the bag and she was still shocked when she took a sip.

It took her a few moments before she started drinking from the bag again. The metallic taste bothered her, but it wouldn't stop her from draining it. Valera smiled warmly and kissed Magda’s head. “See? That wasn't so bad, now was it?” Valera pulled Magda into her arms and Magda could smell roses very heavily on her.

After accepting the hug from Valera, Magda pulled away gently and looked up at the trio. She sniffled softly as she looked at her family’s graves. She took in a deep breath before speaking quietly, “When do we leave?”

[theblackeyedman]

Chapter One

The brilliant morning light hit Magdalena’s dirt streaked window and broke through the sheer curtains. Her room was messy, but many pieces of furniture remained untouched. Most knick knacks and bookshelves were shrouded in a thick layer of dust. All of her pastel porcelain figurines unrecognizable under the grime. Disgusting dirty clothes, cellophane wrappers, broken china plates, and half eaten meals were strewn across the floor. Even in such a chaotic mess, the only thing making a noise was the small ticking of her wall clock. Outside, the streets of Bucharest were busy as people rushed in the late summer warmth. Inside in the quiet, she was trapped in a dark, bitter dream. Magda kicked her blankets wildly and struggled with her sheets as she slept, only to further tangle herself in them.

The images were fuzzy, but she watched as a middle aged woman knelt over a bed. The woman had obviously not been taking care of herself. Her long slate grey hair was matted from neglect, and her face has completely tear soaked. She began doing something that looked like punching the pillows, but she must have been sitting on top of something. Spots of dark red started to hit her face as she continued her hitting motion. “Dimitri must pay!” An unrelenting voice in her her nightmare continued to shriek at her over, and over. The woman refused to let Magda sleep peacefully since her father, Dimitri’s, death, and it was no surprise she continued again. It was every single night for the past six months, and of course, it was always much worse after a tragedy.

“Dimitri, Elda, Sorine, Lizuca, Maria, Diona, Florica!” The voice continued to violently bellow repeatedly, just as it had done with its previous statement. A pounding started as it spoke, punctuating each name. “Dimitri! Elda! Sorine! Lizuca! Maria! Diona! Florica!” The pounding got louder and louder, until Magda’s fight with her bedspread knocked her off her mattress.

Tears rolled down her face as she sat up in the cocoon of blankets that she had accidentally created. The pounding wasn’t more than a gentle tapping on her door, and quiet female voice spoke from the other side. A young blonde woman, Violetta, gently opened the door and joined her sister on the floor. Violetta’s pale face mirrored Magdalena’s sorrow, but she wiped the tears off her little sister’s face. She spoke quietly, like it was painful for her to even whisper, “Magda, we have to get dressed and leave.”

“No… I know… I just… don’t want to,” Magda spoke up finally, “I’m sick of wearing that dress, Etta.” Violetta smoothed down the wisps of white gold hair that had escaped Magda’s braid before wiping her own eyes. Magda murmured to herself, “It’s so stupid… I hate seeing all black.”

Violetta smiled sadly, “Well, not everyone can share your opinions regarding pastels and funerals. Even if.. Even if Florica agreed, I’m sure our aunts and uncles would be scandalized.” She managed a soft giggle and kissed Magda’s forehead.

Magda sniffled and sighed, “Florica would have wanted us to wear flowers and celebrate her. She wore all pastels for everyone else’s funeral, she wouldn't want me to wear black.”

Etta kissed her baby sister’s head again softly, and paused for a moment before speaking again, “I need to go make some final preparations for Florica’s funeral,” she squeezed Magda’s arm gently, “I’ll meet you in the car after you’ve changed.” And with that, she left the room.

Slowly, Magda got dressed in the long sleeved jet black dress she had been wearing since her father’s funeral. Even though Etta had been so clearly against bright colors, Magda felt obligated to her older sister to wear something cheerful as well. She slid on a pair of knee high pastel yellow socks that had pink roses embroidered onto them. Florica’s favorite.

Magda was the youngest of seven girls, and while she was closest to Violetta in age, she was always so much closer to Florica. Florica had been in the car with their sister, Diona. Diona was texting her boyfriend while driving, and had drove her car off the road into a tree. She had died on impact, however Florica had made it out alive, but catatonic. Violetta had just approved pulling the plug on her.

Magda tied up her blonde hair in a messy bun, but without trying too hard. She tucked in a few dead, pink roses into her hair that had been given to her by an extended family member during Diona’s funeral. She looked completely disheveled; this was the seventh funeral in the past six months, she didn’t try to look too together anymore. She frowned at herself in the mirror, she thought she looked like a banshee, her robin’s egg blue eyes were bloodshot from how hard she had been crying. She put in a few eye drops to try to combat her miserable appearance before going down to the car to wait for Violetta.

After sitting down and waiting patiently for her sister, the door opened up and Etta got in the driver side. Her sandy blonde hair was tucked in a french twist, with their late mother’s mourning veil covering her face. It did her well, because Violetta wasn’t even trying to hide how red her blue eyes had become. She wore all black, her blouse was tucked into a medium length pencil skirt, and she had obviously made no attempt to honor Florica’s wishes of celebrating life. She smoothed down the fabric of her skirt before speaking gently, “Are you ready?” Magda nodded and sighed softly, and Violetta drove through the city to the graveyard they had become all too acquainted with. Etta put her hand on Magda’s shoulder gently, and offered a teary but sweet smile. “Magda… why don’t you go explore for a little while? I know you like the forest…” She kissed her sister’s head, and shooed her off.

Magda wandered around the old graveyard, weaving her way in and out of the headstones as she saw fit. It was a man made clearing of an elm forest. All of the graves were surrounded by the trees, so it always felt secluded, like a place you wouldn’t accidentally end up in. She slipped out of her socks and shoes, taking a bit of time to feel the warm grass between her toes. Out of nowhere, a drop of water nailed her in the center of her forehead. Rain. Warm summer rain started drizzling down from the cloud covered sky. For a moment, Magda was happy to stand in the light pitter-patter of the rain. Even as it began to pour, it took her a bit before moving out of the storm.

She made her way to the elm trees, and sat down underneath one to hide from becoming soaked to the bone. She stared out at the headstones becoming a darker color in the water, before she caught something curious. Her eyes fell on a very peculiar looking group of four. As soon as they had her full attention, all of their eyes turned on her.

The four were all in black, as if they were headed to a funeral. They appeared to be a family as they stood together, but something about them was just so troubling. Looking at them directly, you wouldn’t notice anything overtly strange. However, as Magda continued to stare at them, making unbroken eye contact, she noticed they certainly weren’t human.

The man leading the family was very tall, almost to be seven feet, Magda guessed. He was also remarkably skinny, like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. He wore a very expensive black suit, tailored perfectly to his odd body type. It would have made Magda giggle, but when she stared at his face the situation didn’t seem as funny. He looked like Nosferatu was late for a business meeting. It really would have been hilarious, but his dark eyes and terrifying smile sucked out all of the air from Magda’s lungs.

Gently, the white haired woman beside him placed a hand on the man’s arm, and broke the trance Magda was in. She was definitely intimidating as well, but not in the same way. Her sharp features made her stunning, and her figure was one that Magda assumed she worked hard at getting so perfect. The woman dressed in all black like the others, but she looked like she belonged in an award show rather than a graveyard. Her hair was pure white, like spider silk, and she wore it rather short, both sides shaved and the rest slicked back. Only as Magda continued gawking at the beautiful woman, did she realize that she was holding onto the hands of the two children beside her. As well as rest her hand on the man’s arm. She had four arms.

Shock ran through Magda, and to try to break away from the woman’s gaze, she turned her attention to the two children. One had jet black hair, and he appeared to be about seventeen or eighteen, and while he was dressed in a suit, he sure looked unhappy to be in a suit. The other child was a little girl, she appeared to be about the age of seven. Her hair was coppery, and completely and utterly tangled. She wore a black dress, but no shoes.

They both looked normal until the boy blinked, and the girl grinned. Magda started with an open mouth, the boy had five solid black eyes that were easily hidden under his messy black hair. The little girl scared Magda a bit more, very large baboon like canines protruded from her mouth when she smiled.

The family did something that shocked her worse than they had already done. The man smiled at her, chuckling. The woman rested her fourth hand over her heart and looked at Magda sympathetically. The boy smirked and winked the two eyes on the left side of his face. The little girl smiled brightly, which was horrific, and waved excitedly as seven year olds are known to do. As soon as they had completed their gestures of acknowledgement, they vanished.

---

Magda made her way back to the graveyard chapel a few hours later. It seemed to be the only place in Bucharest she actually knew very well, and now these weird people had made her feel like she was missing a huge piece of something. She slowly walked through the Moscovici headstones, trailing her fingers along the wet stone. Her family had moved from America to Romania after Dimitri’s death to be closer to her mother’s family, so Dimitri’s body was back in America with his family’s graves. After the weird group of people left the rain had stopped, and the sun had began to dry out the area. Butterflies flitted around the many flowers people had left for their loved ones.

Eventually as she was making her way through the headstones, Etta called out to her. Magda put her shoes and socks on and headed inside of the chapel. The funeral was simple and solemn. But, all of the extended seemed emotionally drained, and sick of the deaths and quite frankly, bored with it. Magda stuck out in the crowd of black, both due to the flowers on her and the fact she was soaking wet. Violetta and Magdalena stayed in the chapel long after the funeral, staring miserably at the coffin in silence.

After what felt like an eternity to Magda, they gathered their things, and they left. They remained silent, and they kept the radio off as they drove through the forest to get back home. When they parked the car on the street, Violetta stopped Magda from leaving the car, and held her sister’s hand crushingly tight. “Etta… are you alright…?” Magda spoke quietly, and began to dry her own eyes with her dress sleeve.

“Magdalena… No matter what happens… No matter what I do… I love you, and all I do is to protect you.” Etta’s hands were trembling miserably, and she looked… scared. Magda frowned, but nodded gently and left the car, weirdly eager to get far away from her.

Their family home looked old and broken, as none of the girls had taken care of it after their mother Elda’s death, and none of them had planned to. It was their grandmother’s home, but she hadn’t been in it since they had been in Bucharest. Violetta being twenty one, and Magda being almost seventeen, they were fine on their own, except for cleaning. Etta was messy, and Magda just never found the energy to clean lately.

The house was located in the suburb of Kiseleff, and compared to all of the beautiful homes around theirs, it looked like disgusting mess. A few of the windows were broken in, and everything looked covered in a thick coat of dirt. The lawn was overgrown but all of the plants on the property were either dead or dying. Magda walked over the dry grass and the fallen leaves as she made her way to the front door. Violetta stayed sitting in the car, which earned some strange glances from her younger sister.

The door creaked as Magda went inside her home. She turned on all of the lights in the kitchen, and grabbed one of the last bags of chips from the cupboard before heading up to her bed. She sat by herself on her unmade bed as she ate them, before tossing the empty bag on her floor. She flopped down on top of the covers, not even caring to take off her shoes and she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The dream started the same as it had last time. “Dimitri will pay!” She stood in the master bedroom and watched as the same withered woman from her normal nightmares raised her arm and brought down the knife on an already dead body. Blood soaked the bed sheets and Magda watched as the woman stabbed Dimitri over and over as she heard the woman repeat herself. She switched her words after a while, starting to rhythmically stab the body as she spoke as if it were an incantation, punctuating her words by bringing down her blade. “Dimitri! Elda! Sorine! Lizuca! Maria! Diona! Florica! Violetta! Magdalena!”

For the first time in her dreams, Violetta’s name and her own were added to the list. The stabbing thud had become much louder, and a searing pain bloomed in her chest. The voice started to scream the names as the stabbing feeling started to become more and more painful to Magdalena. That was when she woke up.

Violetta stood over her, blood dripping down her wrists. She looked empty as she brought the knife down on Magda’s chest and repeated the process just as the woman in her dream had done. She was on top of Magda, sitting on her chest with a knee on either side of her. Etta seemed to be trembling as she plunged the knife into her sister, and she started to cry as much as she could while she bled out. “Magda I am so sorry… Magda I’m sorry… I couldn’t leave you all on your own...” She continued to bring down the knife on her little sister until she collapsed. Magda struggled under the weight of her sister, feeling for a pulse and sobbing in pain.

Her older sister had died. Their combined blood soaking through the sheets and clothes. Breathing became difficult with the weight of Violetta crushing her chest and the blood seeping into her lungs. Magda was suffocating. She choked on her own blood, trying to cough it up and out of her chest but all she did was push what little air remained in her lungs away. Bright dots flickered across her vision, and void slowly engulfed her.