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She met her first demon at age seven.

Ellanor stood quietly next to her father in her lavender fairy costume, her small hand holding onto two of her father's fingers as he stood next to her. Other children ran past her with laughter and bags of candy, seemingly having much more fun than she was at that time. She frowned and looked up to her taller father who was busy having a conversation with a man he worked with. She tugged on his fingers and once more he replied with 'just a moment'. She sighed dramatically, slipping her hand away from his grasp and began to impatiently chew on her bottom lip as she watched other children run from house to house in the dark. Her large dark blue eyes followed the next family that passed by, her lip being released from her teeth as her eyes locked with another pair.

It was a child not much older than her, a friendly smile spread across his pale face. The moment her eyes locked on the alluring set of his own, she was already in a trance. She briefly wondered where his own mother and father was, but that thought was instantly gone as he waved her over to him. She returned his smile and began to walk in his direction, her bag of candy slipping from her fingers as she went on her way to the unknown boy. His smile widened as she got closer and before she knew it, he had turned and ran off. She opened her mouth to call for him to wait, but nothing came as she broke into a light jog to keep up with him. She turned a corner, her curled pigtails bouncing against her shoulders as she tried to catch up. Ellanor came to a stop when she saw him standing under a street lamp. His smile remained as he stood beside a fence that belonged to a boarded up home. The street was empty and the laughter was no longer heard from other children. She looked over her shoulder. How far had she gone? She became worried when she realized that she was no longer with her father, returning her gaze back to the boy.

A small gasp escaped her mouth as he was now standing directly in front of her, his green eyes staring into hers. Her wand fell from her hand as she remained frozen in her spot, instinctively sensing that something was wrong. She shouldn't have left her father's side. The boy tilted his head as his smile continued to grow and his pupils thinned into slits. "Don't be afraid," he told her in a sweet voice. After he spoke, his appearance began to change. His childish hands slowly became bony with his fingers stretching out as well as his nails into sharp points. His clothes tightened before beginning to rip as his body began to grow as a low growl became audible as he transformed into his true self. His teeth became too large for his mouth as they grew and sharpened just like his nails. "I'm so hungry!" He shrieked in his true voice and before Ellanor knew it, her body flinched as a warm liquid splashed against her face and body. Her eyes flew open as hands were felt on her shoulders and she was turned around to face her father who had bent down to her height.

He stared at her blood-covered face, his hands gripping her shoulders tightly as he tried to calm his breathing and heart. He was mad and she could tell. "What were you thinking?! Why would you take off without me? What have I told you, Ellanor?" He yelled at her, unconsciously shaking her once to emphasize how scared he was. "All you had to do was wait! You could've been killed!"

The young girl instantly let the tears fall from her eyes at the tone of his voice that he had never used on her before. Not only was she confused and scared at what she had just seen, but now he was screaming at her? "Shit," he grumbled, pulling the bloodied girl into his arms and hugging her as she wrapped her shaky arms around his neck. His brown eyes stared at the pile of blood and mangled bits of the demon that was about to feed on his daughter just a moment ago. "Promise me to never do that again, Ellanor. What have I told you about demons?"

"That they are everywhere and that they are not our ally."

He held her tighter, frightened due to the thoughts of what could have taken place if he had not located her on time. He effortlessly picked her up, uncaring of the blood that was dirtying his own clothes. Her face was buried in his shirt, her arms remaining around his neck. He mumbled words she did not know before he turned away from the scene, her blue eyes peeking over his shoulder to see no evidence of the demon ever being under the street light.

"Demons are to never be trusted, Ellanor. They're deceiving, manipulative, dangerous, powerful…they're many things. Our job is to eliminate any we come across; no exceptions. Do you understand?"

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16 years later

Ellanor stepped into her younger brothers apartment with a small smile, removing her shoes as she announced her arrival. She removed her purse from her shoulder and placed it on the carpet as she made her way to the living room, finding her brother on his balcony alone. She slid the balcony window open and stepped out of the apartment to stand next to him. She matched his posture by leaning her forearms against the wooden rail, staring down at the busy pool down below them. She scrunched her nose at the smell of tobacco, her blue eyes glancing in his direction. "I thought you were quitting."

"I'm down to only six a day. That's better than what I was smoking before." His matching blue eyes remained on the scene below him, smoke escaping his nostrils as he glanced at his cigarette. "Nev was here, but she needed some air and went out to lunch with her sister."

Ellanor nodded slowly at the mention of his girlfriend and one of her best friends. She sighed loudly, "How is she doing? Is she any better?"

"She's been sleeping throughout the night, finally. She's smiling a bit more, but she's still jumpy…even when I touch her, she flinches. Then, she feels bad for reacting that way when it's me touching her, but I tell her not to. It's going to take time for her to get over the incident and I understand that." His eyes froze on his cigarette, "But she keeps crying. She's crying every day and she thinks I don't hear her in the bathroom or even when she's in the shower. It makes me sick to my stomach that there's nothing I can do to make it any better and all I can do is sit here and wait for it to become a distant memory." He stood up straight and dropped his cigarette, crushing it beneath his shoe before looking at his sister. "I wanted to ask you to help me with this, Ellie."

She raised a brow as she looked at him, "What can I do? I've talked to her and she knows I'm here to listen. That's all we can really do, Dustin."

"Don't act like you're a normal person. You can help her. Did you forget that you can do spells?"

"It never crosses my mind when I'm dealing with friends, Dustin."

"Perform a memory spell," he ordered firmly, holding her gaze as she stood straight to face him.

She crossed her arms over her chest, a frown coming to her face. "Dustin, things happen to people. Life happens and what happened was…horrible, but people can't use magic or me to fix stuff every time something goes wrong."

"If I had the ability to do something like you can, I would do it in a heartbeat. Especially if it's for someone I care about."

"I care about Nev, but I'm not messing with her memory."

"What's the big deal? It's a spell that literally takes a fucking second to cast and you won't do it. She was raped, Ellie. I want her to forget what happened."

"And you can't ask someone else, because?"

"Please. Our—your coven has pretended like I don't exist since birth and even more so now that it's clear that I won't inherit any magic. I'm not close to any of them and I'm not bothering to ask our parents."

"Don't be sensitive. They know you exist."

"They're a bunch of stuck up assholes. I'm not asking any of them. I'd rather gather them all in a house and light it on fire."

"Come on, don't talk like that." Ellanor sighed, "As much as I want to help, I'm not going to. You can be mad all you want, but I don't feel right using magic on Nev. Besides, memory spells are always tricky and anything can trigger a memory to come back out of nowhere. Whether it's months, years…a memory, especially a traumatizing incident is hard to keep buried." She matched his stare before patting him on his chest, "I stopped by real quick to check on you two since I was in the neighborhood. Tell Nev that you two need to come over for dinner sometime." She stepped back into his apartment, not expecting a reply since she knew he was quietly steaming inside due to denying him what he wanted.

He followed shortly after, sliding the patio window shut. "Perkins," he spoke, watching his older sister slip her shoes back on. She paused in pulling the strap of her purse onto her shoulder, her brows furrowing as the name immediately registered in her mind. "Aaron Perkins. Tell me how to get a hold of him."

"Don't be ridiculous. You'd go to him of all people?"

"Problem?"

"Um, yes. He's a psychopath that deals with dark magic."

"Dealt. The rumor is that he stopped quite some time ago and he's exiled. No one speaks to him and he's rarely seen. You're curious and you were interested in his story a few years ago, so I know you know something. What's the big deal? He'll erase her memory for me and that's that."

"What's the big deal? He sacrificed his own child to gain more power. He's insane. Who knows what he'll do to you if you show up on his door step. To ask him—a stranger, for a favor…that's extreme. I'm done talking about this and I'm not going to give you any information on him. What happened, happened. Let it go. Nev is a strong person and will get better in time and the bastard that did it will most likely spend years in prison. He'll get what's coming to him."

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Dustin parked his car in the graveled driveway, squinting from the sunshine as he stepped out of his car and stared at the small house in front of him. The grass was tall and unkempt, the outside of the house just as rough as the yard itself. He wasn't sure if anyone was home due to the absence of a car in the driveway and the curtains drawn over the windows. He confidently strode up to the porch and front door, knocking firmly several times before ringing the doorbell to find out that it didn't work. He stood and looked around, the nearest house a bit far down the quiet street placed in the country. He knocked once more, a frown coming to his face when he was met with silence. He drove all this way for nothing? He brought his arm up to knock louder, coming to a stop when he finally heard humming coming from outside of the house.

He walked off of the porch, calling for whoever was humming the tune and met with no response. He followed the noise, making his way alongside the house and stopping when he saw a man sitting on a lawn chair, humming. His wavy, messy hair touched his shoulders and he wore a simple white shirt and dirtied blue jeans that almost covered his bare feet. His eyes slowly drifted to Dustin, his brown eyes matching his ratty hair.

"I don't get many visitors," he began, his hand twitching and a knife appearing instantly in his hand. "Care to tell me why you're trespassing?"

Dustin took a step back, "Hey—I come in peace. Really. I'm only here to ask you a question and nothing more. Aaron, right?"

Aaron stared at the younger boy, eyeing him from head to toe once before unwaveringly staring into his blue eyes. "I sense you're no demon…and you have no magic radiating off of you. I suppose you're harmless," he grumbled, the knife fading. "How did you find me?"

"A little bird gave me some clues."

"Mm. What do you need? Books, potions, animals—"

"I came here for you. I need your help to perform a spell. Like you said, I have no magic and no one will help me—"

"What's your name?"

"Dustin."

"Last name?"

"Watson."

"Watson," he repeated, "and your mother wouldn't happen to be Patricia, would it?"

"…She is."

"You come from a strong bloodline. It's odd that you were born a worthless human."

Dustin's jaw clenched as well as his fists momentarily, "Are you going to help me or not? I'll pay you as much as you want."

"I don't need money."

"No, but I hear that you've been done with dark magic for some time, but I need you to tap into that just this once for me and I'll pay you for it."

His brown eyes finally left his to stare back out into the empty backyard, his eyes closing momentarily at the mentioning of dark magic. The magic that ruined his life and family and something he wouldn't recommend any other witch or wizard to ever attempt dabbling in. But here he was now, alone with nothing to lose anymore. "What do you need, exactly?"

"A demon," he proudly stated as a small smile began to show itself. "A demon that will do what I need it do. To carry out revenge that I can't accomplish myself."

"…Demons are troublesome," he said dryly.

"I've done my homework and I know what I'm getting myself into."

He gave a short, skeptical laugh. "Do you?"

"What do you care? You don't know me and you're getting paid for this. Revenge is what I need."

"I strongly believe revenge can consume you. Revenge is a dark thing, Dustin." He didn't get a response from the younger man as he held his stare, a frown now on his face. He could tell that Dustin did not settle for 'no' and did not like people beating around the bush. Aaron knew that the young man was blindly diving into dark magic and trouble would be there waiting for him, but as Dustin stated himself, Aaron did not know this young man to care what the outcome would be for him. "Let's go get this demon, then. Just remember that if anything goes wrong, you do not come running back to me."

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