Doorways onto Disintegrating Demons, Time-Travel and Volcanos

"It Was the Longest Twelve Hours of My Life..."

 It was the longest 12 hours of my life...

You know, when most people return from a week of vacation, they have suitcases to unpack, extra loads of laundry to do, extra trash and recycling to purge, and several dozen missed emails to catch up on...But I...Well, I had fourteen escaped demons to hunt down.

There are days I regret certain life choices. And today is definitely one of those days.

And how, you may ask, did I find myself in this situation?

So, it all began with my apprentice Cecil (who, by the way, is currently one of the life choices I find myself regretting). I would have hoped that after four years of apprenticeship, we had graduated to the point where I could safely entrust him with house-sitting and watering the medicinal herbs I need for my potions for a week. Perhaps, just perhaps, he managed to overlook the written instructions that I left him with the words " no matter what, do not touch the ruby skull" written and underlined in red. Of course, that also supposes that he inadvertently misheard the same verbal warning I gave him during our last set of lessons before I left for my brief vacation. Either way...here we are. You can guess what happened next: Cecil decided to play with the ruby skull.

I'm not sure exactly what he did: I'll have to ask him if I ever find him again in another life.

Once I arrived home, having cut my "all girls' getaway" at an all-inclusive in the Caribbean tragically short, and once I finished cleaning up what was left of Cecil, I found myself under intense time pressure to recapture all fourteen escaped demons before the next new moon. Missing even one would mean the descent of the entire city into the fourth circle of hell. No pressure, right? And doing all that with a massive hangover, no less. Another note to myself: in the future, all vacations will be scheduled for the full moon.

Twelve hours is quite simply not enough time to complete a task of that magnitude with any comfort or confidence in success. However, on the plus side, the city will not be experiencing an unexpected relocation at this time.

And how did I do it? you may ask next. You know...I don't think I'm ready to talk about that. Maybe after a few drinks. More than a few drinks. Who's buying?