A Night You Won't Remember, A Moment You'll Never Forget
William Howe
Rose and I had obviously been breaking Agent Rain's rule not to socialize as if it was our high school curfew. Our rooms were just down the hall from each other, and we were the only two on the west side of the estate as far as we knew. Our hushed voices stayed hidden behind her door as we discussed the news that was radiating across the magical community.
The Union had crumbled. The whereabouts of two of the Leaders were unknown, two presumed dead, and Adamas Steele was set on continuing in his birthday celebration, though this time, it would be in memoriam for his lost constituents.
The rumor that was really making the rounds though, was that the Union was raided by Marboro Mortem, a vile witch who was thought to have been dead for centuries. She supposedly killed two Leaders and kidnapped two, leaving Adamas to tell the world that she was back. Who's to say that that's what happened though, because Adamas Steele hadn't opened his mouth about the incident at all.
There were forty-six Union workers dead, two Leaders dead, two Leaders missing, and one Adamas Steele who couldn't bother to say a word other than, "The show must go on."
"Do you think Eddie would know anything about it?" I whisper to her as we sit on the white comforter in her room.
"No... He hasn't really been close to Steele since he's been out of college. I just--ugh--nothing makes sense about this... I mean, Will, what if it is Marboro? What if she's back?" her eyebrows furrow in worry, and I can see in her eyes she's genuinely scared.
"She can't be back," I shake my head. "She's not Demonotin. She's not immortal."
In the dawn on magic, just as people were starting to be born with the gift, one sorcerer turned on all the rest, slaying a majority of them. He went on to develop the craft of blood magic, creating a stigma around using only pure blood: that of children, or female virgins. Demonotin Mortem was sick, slaughtered thousands of families, burned down villages, just to get a taste of the dark energy he created. From there, he fell in love with a girl who he had been using to harness his magic. Marboro was only sixteen when Demonotin killed her entire family and enslaved her to be a blood source. Somehow the two fell in love, a morbid case of Stockholm syndrome. And she became more wicked than him.
Demonotin only killed who was necessary to power himself. She began to kill for the thrill of it.
And eventually, she killed him too.
It was believed that her reign of suffering had ended in the sixteen hundreds when she disappeared off every grid. No word was heard about Marboro Mortem until two years ago, when a man who claimed to be the son of Demonotin and Marboro arose. He called himself the Dark Prince. And it didn't take long for all the prophecies to fall into place that he was the evil The Key was destined to eliminate. Brooklyn killed him a year ago, after he gave us all the chilling message that he wasn't the only Mortem left.
We had all assumed he was lying, but now... Now we took everything that asshole said as law.
We also spoke often of the girl from Realm Two, who looked horrifyingly like Rose's mother. I had to admit that she was absolutely jaw-dropping, something Rose took offense to since I may as well have been saying it about her own mother.
"She's from the Badlands, Will. I don't trust her," Rose was on edge, and she always became an amplified amount of judgmental when she was stressed.
"Rose, I'm pretty sure she's basically your mom. I mean, she obviously didn't give birth to you, and she's not in her thirties, but she's what she would be if she were our age. Even if, my dad was from the Badlands. There's parts of it that aren't all about rape and murder. There's parts in America that are all about rape and murder, how can we act like it's any different?"
