Don't Open That Door - GoM 1

Anniversary - 6

Claire needed a couple of minutes to be able to speak again.

"You," she mumbled, meeting Alex's eyes. "You know all this and you never—?"

"Never what?" Alex raised her eyebrows. "Never thought of chasing them down and make them pay for what they did to our family? Of course I did! A thousand times!" She stood up and started pacing up and down the workshop. "But how was I to do it, huh? Take on a quest to hunt them? Drag you with me all over the country, like Ben Holster did with Aidan and Mark? And what if I died trying, Claire? What would've become of you then? I had to take care of you. And when I say take care, I mean way more than driving you to school and doing your laundry. I had to keep you alive and safe!"

A long silence followed her words, while she turned her back to Claire and stood before the window, trying to calm down. When she glanced back at the girl from over her shoulder, Claire's shock made her flash a tight smile.

"Remember what I told you the night Rob disappeared? Well, this is what I was talking about. Grandpa hunted those ertes half a century ago, and later he tried his best to leave his hunting years behind. But they caught up with him all the same. The ertes' offspring showed up forty-five years later to have their revenge. Grandpa ended up tied to a chair, agonizing for days as his enemies fed on him. And he got our whole family killed in the process. Because there's no coming back from the supernatural, Claire. You and I are the living proof."

"We're alive, Al!"

"And look at us." Alex shook her head. "You were just born when Grandpa started training me. I can tell a hundred different herbs, roots, mushrooms to use in a hundred spells and potions for whatever you may fancy, good and bad. I can use ten kinds of blades and best the best shot in town with any kind of firearm. But I put an end to it. Exactly here. Exactly ten years ago." She motioned for Claire to look around. "Yet here we are, having this conversation. In Grandpa's workshop, surrounded by his catalogs of monsters, his weird weeds and his fancy weapons."

"And the supernatural is back in our lives," Claire muttered, nodding.

"Yeah, because I dropped my guard but an inch and let you buy that fucking pendant with a symbol I didn't know!" Alex came to stand before the girl. "The difference is that I know this shit. And since I don't seem to have the choice of walking away from it, I can deal with it and come to terms with the price I'm eventually gonna pay for messing with it." Her voice and face softened in a proud, loving smile. "But you're gonna marry Ollie, open your diner, raise a beautiful family. You don't need any of this, Claire."

The girl jumped to her feet and threw her arms around Alex, hugging her to whisper, "It's about time you stop worrying about me, Al. Believe me, I do understand what you mean, and it's alright. I'm not afraid. Well, not that much."

Alex stepped back, away from her, scowling. "You have no idea what you're saying, kiddo."

"Yes, I do." Claire smiled. "I'm not a child anymore. I get it better than you think. That's why I'm telling you it's alright. You've been facing it all for the two of us for years, all alone. Well, not anymore. Please, let me stand by your side, not a step behind, and take on whatever comes our way together."

She saw Alex's eyes well, and sensed her emotion. She could only hug her aunt again.

They lingered at the workshop, and Alex allowed Claire to explore around. Flicking through Old Bootter's books, the girl was amazed to so read how many ordinary kitchen ingredients could be used in spells. Alex pulled up a small trapdoor on the floor and showed Claire the square hole, three-foot deep, full of weapons. The girl clapped and giggled, surprising Alex, who had never thought her niece would be interested in any kind of weapon.

Claire took a pair of rusty blades, only one-foot long. "What a shame! They're ruined!"

Alex took one from Claire's hands, scratched the blade softly with her flannel and winked at the girl. Beneath the layer of rust, the blade was bright and polished.

"Grandpa knew his business, kiddo. All his weapons have a spell on them to keep them sharp and ready for any emergency."

"I'm taking them home."

Alex scoffed, closing the trapdoor. "What for? Are you gonna hang them on your wall, between the Dua Lipa and the Lady Gaga posters? Or are you gonna use them to chop veggies?"

"Maybe I can use it to chop an aunt."

"Ten to one you'll chop off your own hand before you even scratch me."

They left the workshop still joking about it and headed back to the house, to finish locking everything up before leaving. But Claire stopped sharp the moment they walked in, gasping.

Alex stopped sharply too, seeing the girl's eyes moved to toward the hall to the kitchen. They traded a look and Alex grabbed one of the blades, signaling Claire to keep quiet. They tiptoed up to the stairs and Alex pointed at the floor, a couple of footprints apart from the ones they'd left earlier. They leaned in together and Claire covered her mouth to hold back a cry. Hiking shoes. With the brand of the cross and the hook.

The girl closed her eyes for a heartbeat and whispered, "They're still here."

Alex's saw the Claire's quick nod to the hall and took a noiseless step to look down the hall. Right in time to spot a shadow in the kitchen, standing near the only window they'd left open. A young brunette showed up at the kitchen door, straight in front of Alex. Her knuckles turned white around the blade hilt. Heat washed over her face, fire in her chest, an overwhelming rage squeezing her throat.

Her voice was a furious hiss when she said to Claire, "Stay here."

The girl didn't have a chance to even try to stop her before she sprinted down the hall. From the living room, she saw Alex charge against the woman, pushing her backwards.

Alex stepped away swiftly, to hit the woman's face with the hilt of the blade and kick her belly. But she couldn't knock the woman down. Instead, she let out a mocking scoff and attacked Alex.

Claire tried to run to help her aunt when a strong hand grabbed her hair from behind and pulled her back. Long sharp nails pressed her throat. She got a glimpse of her captor: the blond girl she'd seen at Stone's cellar! She squirmed and felt the burning cut on her neck, and the cruel joy of the blonde girl threatened to choke her.

"Drop the knife," the blonde said in her ear.

Claire didn't dare to disobey.

In the kitchen, Alex kept fighting with the brunette girl, pushing, kicking, punching each other. Alex managed to cut the brunette's forearm and saw her skin smoke in touch with the silver blade.

The brunette let out an angry cry of pain and the blonde's shouted from the living room.

"Stop, Corban! Or I'm killing your child!"

Alex glanced over her shoulder and saw the blonde had Claire. But the brunette hit her then, a hard blow to her kidney first, another to the back of her neck. Alex fell face to the floor. In the haze of her pain, she saw the blurry shadows dragging Claire out. She tried to get up, scream, anything, but things spun around her and went black.