Footsteps pound into the pavement as a young child attempts to outrun his predator. Cold sweat gathered on his brow from the sheer terror. The street lights flicker over his head as another wave of terror. At least in the light, the child has a sense of security but in the dark? No one knows what happens in the dark or what hides in the shadows.
The child pressed on harder to outrun the predator chasing him, but a child can only run for so long. As he still attempts to outrun a monster that not even he can imagine, he misses a loose cobblestone. As he fell, tears start to trail down his face. First slowly, but as he is frozen in fear they ran more quickly. The sharp talons click against the cold cobblestone, the child starts to shuffle backward trying to choke down his loud cries. The monster is coming.
A hideous hairy body that was holding a dog, a pig, and a couple of snakes with the head of a lioness. Donkey-like ears twitch towards the crying child, yellow donkey teeth gave a malevolent grin. Disgusting yellow talons stretch towards him, he closed his eyes, and a scream resonated in the empty street. Who screamed? He was not screaming.
Slowly the child opened his eyes and stared in awe and relief. He was safe, someone came to protect him. An older girl's voice filled the alleyway, "Lamashtu, far from home aren't you?"
The back of a black cloak brushes against his sore feet. The hood of the cape was lined in the color yellow and a high brown ponytail. He jumped when a person appeared by his side to help him up. The boy looked up to a boy older than his eldest brother. Tears of relief and sadness started to roll down his cheeks, these two were going to die just like everyone else. The boy smiled at him and said, "Stay close kid, we don't need you getting hurt now."
A voice pricked at the air, he shivered and clung to the person standing next to him. They came to protect him or to get rid of the monster, it didn't matter to him. He wasn't alone running from this monster. At the talons of the monster was a glowing pentagram, it seemed to be alive as it pulsed with every move the monster made; it seemed the monster knew this as the talons started to clench at the cobblestone street. Angry red eyes glared to the hooded rescuer, "Foolish little human, you dare to entrap the all-powerful Lamashtu?! You will suffer!"
"This foolish little human entrapped you with a spell that is meant to contain mortals. Do not blame your incompetence on me. Your pathetic attempts to scare me to make me slip in my concentration won't work. You will tell me who sought your wretched being and decided to unleash you from the Realm of Hades."
The boy shivered as he heard the monster's laughter, mocking his savior and it was shaking his very being. He clenched the cloak for the person who stood next to him, trying to reassure himself that he would live to see the next day. The person flinched from the monster's evil laughter, but his hooded savior stood ineffective by the tremors against the cobblestone. He saw the monster's head thrown back as it continued to laugh the cobblestone vibrated making the child fall into the person who crouched to keep his balance. When the monster finally stopped laughing, "So curious foolish little human. Lamashtu will never tell you. You'll never know."
"James, make sure the child is safe. There's a reason why he was targeted by the Ailwards," his savior circled around the monster. The monster snarled harshly to his savior pushing against an invisible source. Outraged that someone knew of the Coven that its summoner belonged to, although it didn't matter. "They're probably missing a couple of their coven members for this anyways."
"How?!" Lamashtu devoured them for their foolishness to believe that they could be its master. Red eyes studied the hooded mortal who started to circle around and watched as the mortal chuckled at the monster. "You will answer the Great and Powerful Lamashtu!"
A pale hand rose to pull back the hood that kept the identity of the person who rescued the child in the dark of the night. The little boy's eyes widened as he took in his savior's face. Long brown wavy hair framed a heart-shaped face. Blue eyes pierced through a person's very being and an all-knowing smirk painted on her face. Her hand felt as she stood in front of the monster without any fear.
The teenage girl spoke with a mocking tone, "They really weren't making it hard to figure it was them. The magic circle dug into the earth so crudely. Leaving their little summon so deep in Friedhelm's lands with no true understanding of where to go, you think that you'd be a bit more intelligent for a demon who prides in being better than the mortal man to realize that they're being used for the fickle ways of greedy men. Shackled to their commands and you don't even know it; so much for being known for not acquiring a master to answer to, Lamashtu. This has Ailward's stench from here to the harbor written all over it."
"Lamashtu answers to no one has no master." The monster tried to step forward towards his savior, he cried out as he saw her lunge; but his cries were overpowered with a shriek from the monster, the glowing circle pulsed brightly. "You! What have you done?!"
"What the Ailwards should have done when they released you from hell."
"No mere mortal is strong enough to send Lamashtu back! When Lamashtu is released, you mortal will pay for the offenses against the Great and Powerful Lamashtu."
"You've mistaken me for some other mortal that had you captured, Lamashtu. It'll do you well to remember this for the next time that someone is foolish enough to release you from your prison: I'm no mere mortal." Her arm shot out, a yellow mark on her the palm of her hand started to glow brightly against the darkness of the night. "RISE FROM HELL, BAPTISTE!"
A howl rose to the skies as the monster shot forward as the magic holding her there released. The boy's savior jumped up. It looked as if she had wings attached to her when she leaped up in the air. She twisted her body to land crouching in front of both her partner and the little boy. Her arm, palm still glowing, shot out to the thin air before gripping a sword that appeared. Her stance was tense as she stood up, glancing back at her partner and him. "Lamashtu will take great joy in tearing you limb from limb before devouring you, mortal!"
A scoff echoed the street before she raised the sword to prepare for a swing from a high arc, the glowing palm formed yellow-tinted energy that circled around the handle of the sword to the tip of the cold metal. When she swung her sword that energy that encircled the sword flew towards the monster. Blood painted the street as the monster gasped for breath. Talon soaked in the crimson puddle, red eyes stared in fear as the mortal started to walk slowly to the monster. "I-impossible!"
The steps of his savior echoed the beat of his heart as she continued to walk across the street to the monster who started to edge backward away from her. "That's not possible. No mortal is stronger than Lamashtu!"
James tried to shield the child from watching his savior slay the monster as a gallant knight rescuing a royal from a dragon, but the child knew as the last he saw before he fell unconscious was his savior rushing forwards with her sword poised for the kill; she was going to kill the monster that killed his family, she was going to kill the thing that would haunt him for nights. The piercing scream of the monster echoed in his head as he was lead into nightmares that would end with a blue-eyed pale brunette protecting him from harm.
"Return to your master, Baptiste, for you have severed your purpose well." The girl whispered before the sword faded out of this realm. Her pale hand clenched before fishing into her cloak for a lighter to burn the blood before the twinkling lights from the stars gave way to the sun and someone reported his to the police.
As she turned to her partner who was cradling the child, her blue eyes strayed from the child to her partner. His dreadlocks swung as he walked towards her, "The High Priestess would have wanted this to have no witnesses, Isabel."
"You'll learn soon, James. When the Laws of Magick concerning mortal men are broken by demons who are chained to Hades' Realm; it doesn't matter what High Priestess Gabrielle wants, it's what is better for Magick. After the patrol we've had, after this week, after I specifically warned Gabrielle and her husband; there is no way there will be no witnesses. The police believe there to be a serial killer, James."
James glared as he lifted the unconscious child. "This is better for our Mortal Realm?!"
"My spell flew through him, James."
"So?" James turned to cradle the young child in his arms closer, unconsciously trying to protect the child from the horrors of their secret world. His brown eyes glared harshly at Isabel's blue eyes that were piercing him, much like when they first met.
He faltered in his argument; the last time she had looked like this was when she had told High Priestess Gabrielle that he was her apprentice and that Gabrielle can go shover her guilt "where not even sunlight could reach". When he and others were being introduced to the Thuban Coven, they were to go through tests to determine where they stood in the Coven. Isabel walked down from the high tables before the test began.
She declared him off-limits to everyone in the Thuban Coven, protecting him from the harshness of the training that took most of the lives of introduced members. Also protecting his sickly father, by extending her protection outside of the Coven. He pushed harder, such innocence shouldn't be tainted by their world. He remembered what happened when such innocent steps into their world. "That automatically means that you're allowed to dictate who enters our world? He's just a kid, Isabel."
Blue piercing eyes shifted from him to the child in his arms, those all-knowing eyes drank in the small child with understanding. "My simple breathing soul detainment spell flew through him, James."
James sharply took in a breath. "Wait… You mean-"
"The child was touched by magic and left immune, like the ones we learn about in the prophecy. He's one of the keys to locking the gates of Hell. That is why he was targeted."
"Isabel," James breathed slowly, eyes wide. "He's going to be hunted."
"I know," Isabel said as she brushed back the small boy's bangs. The two Wiccans tensed before two white glowing butterflies landed on Isabel's hand. The two teens relaxed. The mother survived and was safe. "Get him back to the apartment and put him in my bed. I have a feeling that the night is not over yet, James. Keep him safe."