Tame Your Fears

Familiar By Thy Side

Nicholas Scratch knew exactly two things that his mother didn't. Talis could have another form if he wanted, and her abilities had passed onto him in a mutated form. He found that much out when he was five, the first time his powers had acted up. Nicholas nearly blew up their house and Mom had been ecstatic, fixing the damage with a wave of her hand and taking him out for ice cream immediately after. Siphoning the power from the son of the Scarlet Witch probably resulted in more than ice cream. But currently all he got was a rock for a seat as Billy moped on a branch nearby, trying to pretend he wasn't getting an incredible adrenaline rush from the magic use.

"You know, just because it's just us two now doesn't mean we have to summon more witches. We'll do fine on our own." He said, drawing runes in the mud.

"We wouldn't be on our own if you didn't throw Jen and Lilia in the mud." Billy snapped back, crushing something in the palm of his hand.

"You started it!" Nicholas protested, "I wasn't going to do anything before you fed my mother to the mud monster that surrounds us."

"She killed Alice!"

"Alice blasted her! She knew the risks and then she chose to fuck around and find out!" Nicholas shot to his feet, "You know who else did that? Wanda. At least my mother never started a civil war or enslaved a random town."

"No, she just murdered hundreds." Billy hissed, "So I'm going to wait here until the Salem Seven caught up to us and do what my mother couldn't. I'm getting rid of the Harkness line."

"My grandmother tried that." Nicholas shrugged, "Didn't quite work out for her. Didn't work out for the Scarlet Witch. I doubt it'll work out for you."

"And your plan to just keep walking down the Road? We'll die before we reach the end." Billy threw his hands in the air, "You're even more insane then your mother."

"I mean, it's that or I throw you in the mud to join the others." Nicholas wiped the dirt off his hands, "So, as the Ballad says, let's go 'Down, down, down the Road.'"

"I hate you." Billy muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets and starting down the path.

"Pot, meet kettle." Nicholas skipped by him, waving his hand to drag a root out from the dirt as a bit of a warning. His power was draining quicker than he expected but so long as Billy stayed nearby and eventually was forced to use his magic again, he'd be able to fill up his power bank again.

They found the next trial easily, it's a little hard to ignore a random suburban home in the middle of a forest from a horror movie. Nicholas climbed over the porch instead of taking the stairs just because he could, and leaned on the door, "Should we knock? For Mrs. Davis' sake?"

"You don't call her Mrs. Hart?" Billy asked, tracing the door, "No moon phases."

"No, she was my babysitter after school. I don't get the excuse of not knowing her so I don't need to use her name." He knocked anyway, before pushing the door open, "What do you think is in there?"

"Nothing good." Billy sighed, "But I doubt you care."

"You're right about that," Nicholas slipped inside and looked down. "Weird, nothing happened."

"Maybe it's like the last one." Billy replied, shutting the door and locking it with a click, "There are a lot of paintings in this room."

"Imma touch one." Nicholas snickered, dodging Billy's outreached hand aimed to stop him and slamming his palm on one of the older portraits. Nothing happened, his fingertips just grazed oil on canvas and pulled away unchanged. He made a face, "Boo, nothing happened."