Hex rolled over in his bed, his wings still made it uncomfortable to sleep. Wait, wings? He sat up, checked if the wings were gone, and checked the clock. It was almost noon, he had slept for over ten hours, and the effects of what he thought to be acid still didn't wear off? He started to freak out and hyperventilate, he was terrified that it wasn't the drugs, because he was so used to things like that being not real.
He contemplated leaving his room, but he was afraid Owen would see him in the state he was in and freak out as well. He heard a knock at the door. Oh no, he thought, that was the worst possible time to have a visitor.
"Fuck," he whispered as he slipped out of bed. Wait, he thought. It said something about friends.
"Oh shit." He put a hand to his face and left his room.
He got to the door, there was still knocking every fifteen seconds or so.
"Sorry, we're busy, come back later," he boomed.
"I know you have my box, it was activated, somebody in there has magical powers right now, right? Please let me in," a woman's voice responded.
"Wait, what? Shit, okay." He shook his head and opened the door.
There stood a tall woman with long dark purple hair, purple eyes and pale white skin. She wore a purple tank top with a purple tear shaped gem on her necklace. The woman brushed dust off the back of her black jeans.
"Ah, I was right. Do you want to know how to retract your wings and claws?" She smiled at him.
"You can see them too?" A pang of hot fear hit him in the chest, but sizzled away once he realized that the woman could fix his problem.
"Yes, do you want to get rid of them for now?" The woman nodded.
"Yes, we can worry about the box later." He nodded heavily.
The woman went through the procedure with him. He followed her instructions, and he was able to retract both his wings and his claws into himself, and look like a normal person again.
"Thank fuck, I thought I was stuck like that forever." He breathed a sigh of relief.
"I can sense that more people in this building have gone through the coming of age ritual." She pointed behind him.
"Oh god damn it, I actually do remember whatever that thing was saying something about friends." He put a hand to his forehead.
"We will have to help them as well." The woman folded her arms.
"What's your name, by the way?" He closed the door behind her.
"Zlyena," she said.
"That's a weird name. And I'm guessing you aren't from here." He locked the door and looked to her.
"I'm not, I lost the box you opened on accident as I was traversing the universes trying to find my daughter." Zlyena frowned.
"Why didn't she wait for you?" He was confused, was there bad blood in the family? He also had a 'this is fine' switch he had when he would use hallucinogenic drugs that he had just flipped as a coping mechanism.
"She was trapped in a prison and flung through space, she landed on Earth, so I had to come through here first." She made a gesture with her finger signaling that she jumped from universe to universe.
"That's so strange, why would anyone do that? Did she do something bad?" He was still confused.
"No, the only thing that they saw was bad was her bloodline, her father is a demon, and they didn't want any half demons walking around." She shook her head slowly.
"That sucks, I hope you find her soon." He was genuinely being nice to her, because she helped him without asking for much in return besides the box, which she didn't ask back for yet even.
"I have, she's on Earth, she's fine now. I came here to retrieve something of mine and help you and the others out." She gave a small smile.
"That's good. We should probably help Owen and… Din..." He went silent. He just remembered her. He tried to keep her as an amorphous blob or a bubble in his head so he wouldn't assign a gender to her, but the bubble was popped, and what she really looked like popped into his head.
"Something wrong?" Zlyena asked.
"No, it's nothing. Let's go." He turned around and tried to hide the very dissatisfied look on his face from her.
"Hex, what the hell is going on?" Owen came out of his room, he had brown wings.
Very fitting, he thought, since everything about him was brown. He and Zlyena helped him learn how to retract his wings and claws.
"And you just have to focus, try to feel and imagine them going back in." Hex balled his fists and closed his eyes as an example.
"Alright." Owen nodded, and performed it. It was successful, and he smiled while looking at his then normal hands.
"See?" He relaxed his hands and opened his eyes.
"There's one more person left, then we can talk about what comes after." Zlyena walked to Din's room, which was next to Hex's
"You two can do it for me, right?" He looked to the both of them.
"I thought she was your friend, why will you not help her?" Zlyena stared at him and her brow furrowed.
"She's not my friend, I've only known her for about a week, she's more of an…" He made a hissing sound as air was sucked in through the gaps in his teeth. "Acquaintance."
"Ah, I see." she nodded, and patted Owen on the back, gesturing him forward.
They went into Din's room. He waited outside until they were done. A bit of time passed, and Hex was wondering if she was having trouble with the procedure. He was just about to go check up on her when the three of them left the room. Din smiled and waved, her hands were normal, and no wings could be seen.
"Thank god, I was just about to go in to check up on you," Hex groaned.
"You didn't need to worry about me, I'm fine. Still tired, though." Din rubbed the sand from her eyes and tiredly turned in a circle. Her hair was gelled in a peculiar manner, it went to the right and then curled to the left in one big, singular curl. Her shirt also had angel slits, just like his and Owen's, that were a fashion statement, they reached from the top of her shoulder blade to halfway down her back.
"You guys sleep in way too late." Owen shook his head.
"That happens when you stay up, don't know about her though." Hex pointed to Din.
"I was on my laptop until morning." Din shrugged.
"Ah, alright." Hex nodded again, but softer that time.
"Where is the box?" Zlyena looked around.
"It's on the couch, where I left it," Hex said, then yawned and stretched.
He went over to the couch and retrieved the box. He brought it to Zlyena and handed it to her.
"Thank you, I will be back soon." She turned around.
"Wait, why do you have to come back?" Hex piped up.
"For your training, of course." She turned back, box still in hand.
"Training? Why? Can't you just leave us like we are?" He raised his hands in front of himself.
"And let the Demon Hunters slaughter you? Not likely." She scoffed.
"Demon Hunters? I thought that meant they only hunted demons?" He was dumbfounded, it said demon in the name, why them?
"The name is a cover, they will kill any magical creature they see, and you three are magical creatures now, so I must help you learn to defend yourselves," she said with a sigh.
"That's fucked up, how did I never know about this?" Hex was always the activist type, and if anything bad was going on like that, even Owen knew he'd want to know about it.
"It is, and they like to be secretive. If you see any people with a beige long coat and a DH logo stitched onto one of the sides, run, at least for now." She lowered her head and unlocked the door.
"That seems to be in plain sight though, pretty much." He wondered why they would wear identifying clothing if they wanted to be secretive.
"It's so other Demon Hunters can recognize each other," she said.
"Oh, right. I guess that would be useful," he said.
"Well, goodbye for now." She turned and waved.
"Bye, see you soon." he waved back.
He went the rest of the day wondering if that was all a fever dream or if it was real. He had never felt nerves like the ones on his wings before, so he decided it was real. He didn't think he could make up an entire person from his imagination and have Owen and Din play along. He decided to ask Zlyena herself what the box was originally supposed to do when he saw her again.
Read the rest of the book here: https://www.moonquill.com/book/113