Magicians (Re Draft)

XXI- Rose

XXI- Rose

I woke, restless and sweaty from another nightmare. I was short on cigarettes. My stress enveloped me like a raging ocean storm, swallowing me whole. That's when I would wake up gasping for precious breathes of air.

I felt my head plug up. Just like it always did when I tried magic. It was this curse. I knew it. Desperate, I grabbed my jacket, slipped my cold feet into my shoes and fled out my bedroom window into the October night.

Racing down the street, keeping away from people, tears slipped down my frightened face. Flickers of my nightmare licked at my mind like a whip. I shuttered, and gave out a whimper.

I had gone without sleep for three days. Horrible images flickered in my head of past nightmares. Horrible images. Gruesome images.

I tripped, but caught myself and sucked in a breath. Quickly, I made my way towards Malediction library. The cold wind tossed me back and forth like a paper bag. A storm was coming. A bad storm.

I staggered up to the boarded up door and knocked on it. My knocked echoed inside. Nothing happened. I knocked harder as lightening flashed in the sky. I winced and banged my hand in the door till my knuckles began to bleed.

Suddenly, a circle of light glowed on the door and an eye appeared.
"Rose?" I heard a groggy voice call from it.
"I need to talk to you," I growled. "Now."

"Come in," The Shadow Masters voice yawned. I closed my eyes and walked through the door, into the main lobby of the library.

The Shadow Master sulked down the stairs, his robe flowing behind him. His black hair stood up like bad bed hair always did, around his mask.

I didn't pay attention to the tears running down my face. I just stared at the dreamon.

"I'll make a deal with you," I almost cried. "Just break my curse."

His eyes glowed brighter when I mentioned a deal. He slouched against the stair railing as I shivered, cold from the storm.

"Please," I begged. "Take it away from me. I can't take it. It's been giving nightmares. I didn't tell anyone about it, because I didn't want them to worry. But it's driving me mad. I need this curse gone."

Sweat dripped down my face as he folded his arms and said, "what will you do for me. I do something for you, and you do something for me."

He emphasize the part about him strictly.

I gulped and said, "anything."

"Anything," he glowed.

I closed my eyes and slowly repeated, "anything."

"Great!" He practically laughed as his blue smokey thing almost bursted into fire.

He paced down the steps and snatched my wrist. Quickly, he pulled me up the steps with great haste, his shadow dancing larger then mine across the walls.

The Shadow Master dragged me into a separate study covered in papers and books. Clearly, he had been doing some hard core studying in here.

He threw me into a chair and pushed everything off a table. Papers and books hit the ground with a thud as he scooted up in the chair.

The Shadow Master slammed his hand onto the table, which then bursted into blue flames. A symbol burned into the wooden surface.

An hourglass, in the middle of a pentagram surround by a circle. I stared at it in awe and said, "what's this?"

"My demon symbol. You use it summon me, and only me," he said rolling up his sleeves. "Now are you sure you want to do this. No re-dos."

I nodded and stuttered, "a-anything to get rid of this curse. I'm so sick of feeling plugged up and scared."