-Personal journal, 89th day, unknown date.
Magic. All I have of it is hearsay from books and stories, for as of now I am too afraid to directly ask Hexen or even Belladonna, since I am trying my best to delay my apparent inevitable involvement in the supernatural.
Magic has many origins and specializations, but from what I gather it's separated mainly into two types of magic users. Those that make a deal from a higher beings for magic and those that strengthen their bodies trough virtue or sin.
The closest comparison is the difference between joining the Corporate World or trying to become a Top athlete. I don't know which is worse, all I know is that I am trying my best to avoid becoming either.
Neither light or dark shall be my path, so I am determine that no matter what happens I will forgive those who strike me. No matter how much suffering is inflicted on me I shall not hold a grudge.
Call me a coward, call me a weakling, but this weakling shall survive, even if it means getting down on my knees and begging like a dog.
I will defy this world, for it cannot trap me in its game of light vs dark if I don't play the game.....Why do I feel like I am making a terrible mistake?
Is this one of those scenarios where by trying to avoid something you end up right into that something?
Should I go with the flow, avoid it? A mixture of both? Or none?
This is too much, I feel like I'm losing my mind and I'm already crazy.
Or am I the only sane man left?
I can hardly wait for the test results.
I'll write about what happens tomorrow.
I hope.
Ch 2- Only you are never passing.
Ross was currently doing the one thing that most muggle boys in these types of stories didn't do, and that was prepare his house against a magical attack.
This was one thing that always bugged him, why did in the stories they after discovering the supernatural was real, did not take precautions? If you find out that you live in an area that's predisposed to hard winters or flooding then you stock supplies and did a dam.
The same thing was what Ross was doing, he was not certain which method worked and which was just superstitious nonsense, thus earing on the side of better safe than cursed, he prepared almost every single magical counter measure from simple ones like rings of salt to the absurd like!@#!@$@#$@#% $@!#$!@1 !3121$!@@$, the reason that was censored was that it was such an embarrassing counter measure that not even the author could bear writing it.
At least that was what Ross should be doing, instead he had been currently dragged to another round of coffee and treats by Hexen. And as he tried to pay attention to her blabberings his mind flashed back to the previous encounters.
"So, there's this boy....at my....Sunday school....that.....he really likes me and...."
"Congratulations on getting a boyfriend." Ross replied casually.
"And you're okay with that?" Hexen said in confusion and Ross had to fight back the image of all the other books he read where the girl had to choose between the Bad Boy and the Good boy. They all ended in only one way. That was why Ross was not even considering Hexen as a romantic prospect.
Being the Good Boy in that kind of relationship was like trying to ice skate uphill.
"Yeah, introduce him to me next time." Ross said happy that he nipped in the bud any love triangle nonsense.
Xxxxxxxx A few days later xxxxxxxxxx
"Hexen, I do believe we are missing one mysterious gentleman." Ross said as he found himself once more sharing coffee and cake with her and her alone.
"He said he had more interesting things to do than this." Hexen said with an angry tone.
"Well, everyone is an idiot from time to time." Ross replied and immediately regretted saying those words as Hexen smiled, a bit to friendly, at him.
"Oh why are all the hot ones so big jerks and troublemakers?"
"Well, extra material is needed to make something hotter than others, perhaps a portion of their brains have been 'redeployed' for that purpose?" Ross said and Hexen giggled at that.
"Ross! That's my boyfriend your badmouthing!"
"And yet I am not hearing any denial from you." Ross teased back and Hexen smiled as she gave him a playful swat on the hand, that lingered too much on his palm.
Ross panicked at that, since he realized that this was quickly becoming too intimate to be considered friends hanging out.
Xxxxxxx The next coffee meeting xxxx
"He actually had the gall to flirt with his exes. All of them at once! He just flirted with all 3 of them like it was nothing! I'm his girlfriend and it didn't crossed his mind that I'd have a problem with that!" Hexen ranted to him over milkshakes and burghers.
Ross would take this change of menu as a sign that her supernatural beau had really screwed the pooch this time.
Perhaps literally, considering the bits and pieces that Ross had heard from Hexen over the years that described the decadet lifestyle of Hexen's people.
"Didn't you tell me that your faith is polygamous? Maybe that is why he did not see an issue with his behavior. I am not on his side, I just want to help you find and answer as to why." Ross replied, he quickly learned that when talking to a woman and offering counter arguments, you always had to say 'I am on your side', less she turn her wrath on him.
" Well, I am not like him! I'm also half mortal and I like my monogamy, thank you very much." Hexen replied before she looked at him with worry that she hadn't said something she shouldn't have.
Ross wasn't sure but it was probably about the word mortal. There was something different about this one. Ross was curious on how long it would take for Hexen to come clean to him that she was supernatural.
"You should go and do some hobbies of yours. Have some fun, blow of some steam. When confronted with life situations like this it's best to do it with a clear head." Ross said, and Hexen smiled both for his advice and for the fact that he didn't inquire into her using the term 'mortal.'
"You always could make me feel better. Oh Ross, my sweet Ross, why are there so few men like you in the world?" She asks and gives him a smile as she puts her hand over his.
The very same hand that he uses to take medication for psychosis. Every time he uses it it's a reminder that he does not know whether Hexen truly is magical, or it's all a product of his diseased brain.
"It's probably for the best." Ross said in earnest, with fear of the idea of there being more men like him.
But Hexen takes it as a joke and gives him a kiss on the cheek and invites him to the movies.
At the theater Ross is as still as a statue. He does not remember what are the boundaries for a man to go to a movie with a woman that is taken, but he is fairly certain that the woman snugging up to him and eating his popcorn is not something that they do in the friend zone.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx End of flashback xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This was the most recent coffee date and Ross was wondering what he was doing wrong? He was literally the only man in this entire town that did not try to win Hexen's affections or drool over here and here she was spending all her free time with him!
"Can you believe the nerve on that guy! To actually say that?" Hexen asked him.
"At this point it would be a surprise if you actually didn't have some story about your boyfriend being a....difficult person to be with, might I suggest th-" Ross words died in his throat as Hexen pulled out her ringing phone and blocked the incoming call.
From the name on it, it was clearly her boyfriend on the other end and she just hanged up on him to spend uninterrupted time with Ross. This was getting out of hand.
"Hexen, as your friend-" "My friend, my dearest sweet friend Ross, who is always there for me. Always comforting me." Hexen said with a bright smile as she put a hand over his and this time gripped it as she looked deep into his eyes.
"Oh no, I just fell into the Good boy routine. The Bad Boy brings excitement, danger and drama, the Good boy brings calmness, stability and peace. And that's would I've been doing! I just Shanghaied into a Bermuda Level love triangle all for the sake of some cake and weak coffee.
"What's wrong?" Hexen asked as he saw the despair on Ross's face.
"Nothing. Just the usual." Ross said and took his evening dosage a half an hour early. It was irresponsible, but it gave him an excuse to get his hand out of Hexen's grip.
"Ross, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
"This is nothing new."
"What is it then?"
"I'm a schizophrenic. This is medication that keeps me sane."
"I had no idea! I'm so sorry." Hexen said with compassion in her voice.
"Don't be, mind disease nowadays are more of an inconvenience than a sentence, that is if they are properly treated. Gotta go now, have work to do at home." Ross said and got up to leave.
"You don't deserve to suffer Ross. I just want to see you happy." Hexen said with sincerity.
"I'm fine Hexen. Life gives you lemons, you make lemon cake to go with the lemonade. That's my philosophy." Ross said and left as Hexen watched him go.
After their coffee and cake session that was one step away from adultery in Ross opinion he went home in order to see what new countermeasures he could set up.
And the countermeasures where a good thing as the house shook suddenly as Ross was certain that someone was trying to curse him.
Checking the refrigerator Ross found that the milk that was good this morning had gone sour all of a sudden, the indicator of a hex or a curse on his house.
Moving quickly to the attic and holding onto the railings in order to not fall and break his neck, Ross found what he considered to be his most potent countermeasure.
An iron bell, blessed by an ordained priest, Ross took a hammer and struck the small bell. It's sound echoing through the house as it seemed to affect the force that made it tremble, like fire burned a beast.
BANG BANG BANG BANG
The house's shacking became more unhinged and more chaotic with each ringing of the bell.
BANG BANG BANG.
Ross closed his eyes as he continued to ring the bell, the increased intensity of the shacking not deterring him, rather it encouraged him as his situation became more and more desperate.
BANG BANG
Ross was now like a cornered rat. And when that happened the rat would stop running and go for the cat's jugular!
BANG
And then it was over, the shacking stopped and Ross looked towards the East.
He could not hear it, nor see it or smell it, but he could sense it, a great backlash of energy had manifested somewhere far, but close enough to the town of Calliope.
Someone, something had just tried to do him harm.
Ross acted quickly, he lit scented candles of holy Myr and put a circle of salt around his body as he curled up in a ball and slept with the bell in his embrace.
A knock on the door woke him up at midnight.
The hour of the children of the night had come.
His parents where currently not here so Ross was alone, that might be a good idea considering the circumstances.
A tapping on the window caught his attention and Ross saw that it was Belladonna floating outside of it.
He quickly moved to open the window.
"Ask me in, I cannot enter without an invitation!"
"Of course! Come in, you're invited!" Ross said and immediately Belladonna flew inside and checked him for wounds and then with vampiric speed checked the house.
"You're safe. No one's in the house. I sensed foul magic in the air so I came here. Stay here, in the circle of salt and keep that bell near. I'll go and ask the other vampires if they have any idea who did this." Belladonna said and then put her hand around her neck and pulled out a....crucifix necklace.
"Saint Michael, he who vanquished Satan from the Garden. He will protect you. Do not be afraid to pray to the Arch Angels to summon their might trough the portal to Heaven." Belladonna said and handed it to him.
"You....you are a Christian?"
"Is it so surprising that the Vampire race would be into a religion that says 'Eat of my flesh and drink of my blood'?" She asked cheekily.
"I suppose not, but you gotta give me the juice details latter." Ross asked.
"Anytime, for now stay safe while I get to the bottom of this."
"Thank you Miss Belladonna."
"It's Donna! Call me Donna!" She said in good natured exasperation.
"As Miss Belladonna commands." Ross said and did a mock knightly sweep of a cape that made the Vampire giggle before she gave him a hug and flew away.
Ross went back to sleep as well, then a great gust of wind blew his window opened and there in his room was Hexen.
"Ross! I was so worried!" Hexen said and squeezed him in a tight embrace.
Then she started coughing like crazy, the fumes from the Myr affecting her.
Ross immediately opened the window and broke the circle of salt, though he was surprised at this reaction.
Myr was supposed to affect demons not humans, but then again he supposed that he was not coughing since this was not his first night sleeping with Myr burning around so he was used to it, but Hexen wasn't.
"Easy, don't bust a lung after we got through the earthquake."
"Earthquake? Oh! Right! The Earthquake!" Hexen said and Ross could tell that she just realized she let her mask fall and openly use magic to rush to what was a magical attack. Ross thought that this would be the case, Hexen was on the reckless side, so he gave her a way out.
Ross wondered how long until Hexen confesses her true nature to him.
"It's allright. I'm okay now." Ross said to her.
"You are, and I'm gonna make sure that you're gonna be fine and healthy and happy....and whole." Hexen said and then exited through the window.
"Wait Hexen! What are you..." Ross words fell on death ears as she was gone. So focused on her whatever idea she had popped in her head that she did not bother to try and hide her supernatural abilities.
"Oh this is bad. It's always bad when the heroine rushes of without explaining what's going on." Ross said as he laid down and remade the circle as he kept a tight lid on the bell.
Sleep would not come as the hours passed and Ross could not take it anymore. To many stories always reached a point like this, where horrifying consequences always awaited from attacks like this and rushed responses.
"If this is one of those stories where the muggle bites it, if this is the end. Then I'm gonna go out with a bang!" Ross said and leaped to his feet, putting the small bell on his belt. And then putting on a backpack and gear set that he had prepared for situations like this.
Ross exited his house and looked around the darkness. He knew that foul things were happening tonight, so foul that he could not ignore it.
So he decided to face it head on.
It was not hard at all to know where it was happening, all he had to do was look around and find the direction from where the coldest wind blew, a wind so cold that it send shivers down his spine. A direction towards an unknown place that made every hair on his body stand on its head and every fiber of his person screamed 'stay away from there'.
"And as Achilles mounted his horse and the boy gave him his shield so that Achilles may go to fight Boagrius, they boy said to him that 'he would not want to fight the great warrior' and Achilles replied with 'That is why no one will remember your name'. Smart boy....dumb man...and so am I." Ross said as he made his way towards the direction where he sensed the darkness coming.
He went against every one of his natural instinct.
But fear had overwhelmed him, so much fear that this rat would bite back, even if what laid in the darkness was a lion.
"At least you're still with me." Ross though as he looked towards the sky, the stars and the moonlight, the only source of light in the dark. He gripped the crucifix he got from Belladonna as he made his way towards the deepest, darkest part of the woods.
Already he could feel the dark forces and the monsters converging on him.
It seemed that despite trying to avoid it, he now was smack in the middle of a supernatural story.
With only his fear he trudged forward to face the unknown after suffering a curse, teenage drama, a frightened vampire and a witch on the warpath, and this night was not over yet.
It felt like the darkness would never come to pass as he made his way forwards into the woods.
Just another day and night in the town of Calliope.