Bewitching the Demon ✓ (GxG)

Twenty-Nine

“Already?” Leslie's heart sank a little. “It's already time for the binding ritual?” She gulped.

    Sage nodded. “Yeah… It looks like it.” They wetted their lips. “I mean… Everyone our age is heading down that way.”

    “Crap,” Leslie mumbled to herself. That's it! You're fucked. You're just completely and utterly fucked. You're gonna die. Your demon's gonna kill you—-and you're gonna die the most gruesome death known to man.

    “Calm down, Les,” Mycah began to say to her once he noticed his friend's unease. He made his way closer to her as if to comfort her. “It'll be okay.” He gently put a hand on her back. “You met Kara briefly. She wasn't all bad, was she?”

    Oh, yes…, she began to think to herself, not at all putting up her mental block to keep her friends from reading her thoughts. I did meet her, yes. And she did seem alright. But, that could've all been an act. She could've tried to fool me. Maybe her plan is to slaughter me. Or, she plans to torture me as Ignat did. Leslie bit her lip, a million thoughts racing back and forth through her mind, keeping her on edge and refusing to let her relax even for the briefest moment—-they gave her no chance just to sit back and breathe whatsoever.

    Mycah glanced over to Sage, seemingly concerned by Leslie's panicked thought process. Oh boy, he thought as he sucked in a breath. He continued to rub Leslie's back gently as he looked over to her once more. “Leslie…” He inhaled. “You really think all of that, don't you? Do you think Kara will hurt you? …Just like Ignat did?”

    Leslie stiffened, paling a little. “Crap,” she mumbled under her breath, sighing shortly after. Then, she asked Mycah, “You heard all of that?”

    Mycah nodded, looking to the stone ground. “Y-Yeah, I did. Sage did too. You… didn't have your mental block up.”

     Leslie exhaled heavily before putting her block up once more. Shit. Now both of your friends just heard you rambling like you were mad. “Um…” She sighed yet again. She started to fidget with the edges of her jacket, nervously as she looked to the ground, using the tip of her leather boot to outline the cracks within the stones of the floor.

     “Yeah…” She blinked her eyes closed, hoping to block out any possible judging stares from her friends and Nicolas. “...I just think that maybe…” She inhaled. “Maybe she's just got some sort of ‘nice girl' facade… Maybe she's something far more cruel hidden within.” Leslie opened her eyes and looked up once more, her fingers still playing around with the zipper at the bottom of her jacket. “I mean… She's a demon after all.”

    Sage eyed Leslie. “You know… Demon doesn't automatically equate to ‘evil’, ‘cruel’, and ‘heartless’, Leslie.”

    Leslie turned away from Sage, Mycah, and Nico—-her red gaze pointed out toward the intricate, stained glass windows that had been unchanged since the tenth century that must've taken forever to design. “But, doesn't it?” She began to say as she casually made her way over to the window, resting her palms against the window sill, temporarily forgetting about the dust that resided there for the time being.

     “Isn't that what a demon entails?” Leslie's cold, accented voice rang outward. “Death… and doom…” She sucked in a sharp breath. “Damnation and hellfire.” Demons are bad luck, she thought to herself. They bring death and suffering wherever they go. She drummed the tips of fingers against the ledge near the window. Her eyes were locked on a tree down, far below the tower. “Torture is a demon's favorite pastime. Why should this Kara girl be any different?”

    Nicolas spoke up in response to Leslie's declaration. “Because she is different.”

    Leslie lifted her hands away from the window and turned to face Nicolas, Mycah, and Sage once more.

    Nico continued to speak. “Kara's a whole hell of a lot different than a typical demon… Her favorite pass time isn't torture or anything like that—-it’s Dungeons and Dragons.”

   Leslie raised an eyebrow, repeating what Nicolas had just said. “Dungeons and Dragons?”

  “Ha. Nerd,” Mycah commented.

   Leslie sighed to herself, brushing the dust off her hands. “Maybe I'm judging her a little too harshly.” Maybe you're not judging her harsh enough, Leslie's mind seemed to echo out to her.

    Silence temporarily fell across the room—-the only sounds were those of the students moving across the hallways outside the dorm room and Tomi who was playing with his toys.

    “Come on,” Sage said, moments later, breaking the silence. “We should get ready. We need to bind ourselves.”

    “Nicolas… Would you mind staying here and watching Tomi for me?” Leslie asked the young boy.

     Nicolas nodded. “I can do that.”

     “Thank you,” she said to Nico before she, Mycah, and Sage left the room to join the ranks of young witches moving about in the torch-lit corridors of the academy.

     In no time at all, young practitioners of the arcane arts filled the dining hall that had been temporarily converted into a ceremony room.

     Leslie held her breath as Iris went through the A surnames.

    Soon, Iris got to the B surnames. “Badosa. Barley… Barton, Bekav… Bell. Bishop.”

    Mycah whispered to Sage as they got up, “Good luck.”

     “Thanks. I'm gonna need it,” Sage replied before going up to the altar.

     Leslie tapped out of reality once more as more names were called.

     “Kovacheva.” Iris's tone seemed to turn sour at that.

     Fuck, Leslie thought to herself as she got up and started to head over to the altar. Come on. You can do this, she told herself. Leslie stopped in front of the altar and took a deep breath before looking over to Iris to await her command.

    Iris gestured to the cleaned knife. “Cut your hand,” she commanded the young witch. “Let your blood drip into the bowl. It is an offering to the spirits that hold our realm to that of the demons.”

    Bullshit, Leslie thought to herself as she picked up the knife. Demons already live amongst us and you know it. There's no such thing as ‘the demon realm'. Leslie took a deep breath before dancing the blade across the palm of her hand and letting it bleed into the bowl. She closed her eyes.

    Iris began to speak something in classical Latin as she did for each ceremony—-within the words, there were minor changes that were specific to Leslie and who she'd be binded with.

     “Open your eyes,” Iris's voice hummed so distantly.

    Leslie opened her eyes, seeing nothing but darkness around her. She looked behind her and it was exactly the same—-darkness. “Hello?” She called out.

     No response.

     A chill creeped up Leslie's spine. Not creepy, she began to think to herself. Totally not creepy at all.

    Leslie looked back the way she was facing when she first arrived within this endless realm of darkness, noticing a figure—-Kara. She slowly approached her. “Hello?” She began again before she waved a hand in front of the demon's face.

      No response yet again.

      Leslie snapped a few times, but still she got nothing. She can't see me, the witch began to think to herself. She doesn't even know what's happening.

     “Place your hand against your demon's,” Iris said, from so far away. “Let your blood pool into hers.”

     Here goes nothing. Leslie took a deep breath before raising her bleeding hand against Kara's. She felt hers and Kara's blood seeping through their fingers and down their wrists. Leslie closed her eyes again.

     “Awaken,” Iris's voice echoed.

     Once Leslie's red eyes opened again, she wasn't in the realm of darkness or the dining hall anymore but instead in her own quarters—-in her own bed.

     Iris’s voice whispered to Leslie and her alone, “The binding is completed.”