Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Wind Knoll's Curse ❯ Chapter 3

Scarlet remained locked wide-eyed on the redheaded creature that had her. She was about to scream again even if he had her mouth cupped with his hand but she was stopped when her father's voice started booming behind her door to her bedroom.

 

“Scarlet, dammit, what the hell are you doing in there!” Chris growled furiously as he pounded upon her door with his fist. He was trying to sleep and was angered that his daughter was causing such a fuss after midnight. Turning the doorknob to really let her have it, he opened it up to hunt her down through the candlelit room.

 

The redheaded demon panicked at the elder male he didn't recognize as he looked at the room that Chris was wandering within just a short distance away. Gazing at the startled young girl, he held his finger to his lips as if to shush her. “I am not here.”

 

Scarlet looked at him confusingly and still with fright before her father finally made his way to the doorway of the bathroom that was right near her bedroom door.

 

As Chris looked at her, he couldn't help but notice how pale she looked and how frightened she seemed. He cocked his brown, bushy brows at her wondering what had her so scared aside from his entrance as he came closer not even seeing the demon standing close by his daughter. The bathroom was too small for him to get in and really let her have it so he remained at the doorway to scold her. “What the hell is wrong with you, Scarlet? You should be asleep! And what is with all these candles?”

 

The young woman stood there confused. She was wondering why her father wasn't seeing what she was seeing. The creature was right there next to her staring her down and making her nervous. Why couldn't he see it? Not wanting to spill the beans on the redhead next to her as he asked her not to, she tried to force on a smile through her shaky expression. “It—it was just a rat. I was getting ready for bed and this rat was in my bathroom but I got it.”

 

Chris' fingers tapped upon the off-white lining of the chipped woodwork of the bathroom doorway. He felt something was amiss about her behavior and, for some reason, sensed she was lying even if her excuse was possible. He didn't have any proof that it was a lie as he turned his attention to the candles. “What about the candles?”

 

“Oh—umm—well, dad, don't you think they look better?” Scarlet continued onward in her lie best she could. “And, besides, I won't be running up our electricity bill with my lamps and things.”

 

The redheaded demon remained put as he continued to eye the man that was looking back at the candles as if to debate on what to say to her. His finger positioned on his mouth a moment, he continued to tap them as if trying to remember where he had seen him before if not trying to remember his name.

 

Scarlet's father merely nodded a few times before looking at his daughter angrily. Grabbing onto her neck tightly as if to choke her, he was merely pinching her skin there causing Scarlet to whimper in pain while begging him to let go. “You make one more sound tonight and you are going to sleep out on the streets tonight, you hear me!”

 

“Yes, yes!” Scarlet insisted as she grabbed onto his wrist to stop the pain from being any worse. “I am sorry, I will go to bed!”

 

The demon remained on the sidelines, not interfering as he watched the young girl who called him be thrown upon the tiled floor. Scrunching his face up at the actions of the abusive man, he came closer to his face though Chris flinched not a bit from where the demon was standing directly in front of him. “Well, what a rude person he is.”

 

“Shut up,” Scarlet hissed silently while her dad was about to leave.

 

He caught her silent words as he threatened to run back in there to teacher her another lesson. “What did you say?” Chris asked angrily, showing that he wanted a rephrase of her grumbled words.

 

“Nothing,” she answered fearfully, bringing her body close to the side of her shower.

 

“And I want this crap on the floor cleaned up,” he demanded pointing to the spilt cream Scarlet dropped when the visitor surprised her. Feeling tired and still enraged, Chris pulled himself out of her room to go back to his own across the hall where he was sleeping peacefully.

 

Scarlet remained on the cold tiles for a moment, flinching from the slamming of her door as well as the pain she was given from the burn to her hand. Her fingers wrapping tightly about her left wrist, she bit her lower lip and closed her eyes tightly to show her pain in the matter. “Holy hell—this really hurts.”

 

The wind demon squatted down on the tile floor to look at the injury she had obtained. The young woman panicked and scooted closer to the shower behind her like a frightened animal that had been cornered. From where he was, he could see the wind diagram on her hand and couldn't help but nod to himself realizing why she probably burned it into her. “You worshipped someone else, didn't you? Or did you even worship someone at all?”

 

Her gray and green eyes batted slightly as Scarlet shook her head a few times at the redheaded man before her. “What—who are you? What do you want?”

 

“I am Jin the Wind Master. As for what I want—well—I should be asking you that, actually because you summoned me,” Jin answered as he stood upright.

 

Scarlet's eyes widened further as she examined the male from head to toe. “No, no,” she said a few times as she got to her feet with her burned hand closed to her body. “This must be a mistake! I asked for someone totally different, not you! I was looking for a man with long red hair and a human looking body with robes—a Jin the Wind God who protects Wind Knoll!”

 

Jin couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as he shrugged his shoulders. “That is me. He is me,” he chuckled as he headed out of the bathroom for a moment to look at her room.

 

Scarlet was quick to follow, forgetting about the pain in her hand for a moment. She refused to believe that this man was the God she had been told about. It made her want to faint but she refused to do so as she caught up with him in her bedroom.

 

“I have many names in this town,” Jin continued as he looked at the pictures in her bedroom. “Jin the Wind Master, Jin the Wind Tamer, Jin the Wind Messenger, Jin the Wind Demon, and known by most as—Jin the Wind God.” His hand came across her bed and in doing so it came upon the spell book Scarlet was using. Picking up the book, Jin looked at the spell as well as the image of the man she was expecting. “And apparently I have many different forms too,” he chuckled softly. “You humans are so funny. You take a thousand year old story and rearrange facts. You never get your stories straight.”

 

The young woman remained silent for a moment as she shook her head several times furiously. “Then…what the hell are you? Are you a god or a demon?”

 

“Seriously, sweetie, what do I look like to you?” Jin asked as he sat down on her bed to show off his fangs to her as well as point to his horn jetting slightly from his wild red hair. “I am a demon. But don't worry, lass, I am a friendly one not like those others that want to bite your head off as your myths and fairytales describe.”

 

“No…this can't be right!” Scarlet insisted as she slunk down to the floor beneath her in shock. “You—I was told I worshipped a GOD!” At that moment, she about suffered a panic attack from realizing the truth about her religion there in Wind Knoll. All this time she thought she was worshipping and staying true to her beliefs that were pure and holy when all this time they were demonic and satanic. “What—what about Touya the Ice God? Do you know about him? Is he a demon?”

 

Jin could tell she was in denial still over what was before her very eyes for it was there in her tone and gestures. Resting upon his palms that were slightly behind him on the bed he sat upon now, he couldn't help but look elsewhere as if refusing to answer her. He knew it would only resort in her possibly injuring herself and he didn't want to be responsible for that.

 

“Tell me, please!” She begged in a high whisper so as not to alert her father again. “That is why I summoned you to begin with, I want to know about Touya the Ice God and about my mother he took years ago.”

 

His blue eyes wandering back to the pleading human, he thought on what to tell her. He knew telling someone that was once so dedicated to their beliefs the truth always either drove them mad or to sickness. It was one of the reasons he hated being summoned by minors or young adults.

 

Scarlet could still tell his resistance in the matter as she was eager for answers, the same eagerness that drove her to do the spell to begin with. Furrowing her brow in thought, she wondered what to do to make him tell her what she wanted to know. She risked a lot to bring him there and she wasn't sure how long he would stay. Remaining on her knees, she brought herself closer to his feet there on the floor. Her right hand gripping onto his nearest ankle, she placed her forehead upon the top of his foot gently regardless of the fact that he was a demon. “Please, please,” she begged softly, “tell me what you know about him.”

 

Jin cocked his brow at the girl as he sighed through his nostrils. Crossing his arms over his chest, he wiggled his foot a bit as if to get her to let go. He didn't mind being fawned over and given gifts like the people at his temple did, but there was a line he drew every once in awhile. “First I want you to take a deep breath. I don't want you having a heart attack on me.”

 

She didn't care about taking a deep breath at that moment. She wanted to know the answers she was seeking from the wind demon. There on her hands and knees, Scarlet looked up at him with a puppy dog type pout. “Please tell me?”

 

Massaging in between his eyes, he knew it would be no easy way to tell her what she wanted to know. “Touya is known as many things like I am and with the same titles. But, like me, he is known simple as Touya the Ice God or Ice Master…or Ice Demon.”

 

Scarlet stared at Jin wide-eyed as she sniffled back the tears she was about to spill knowing that her beliefs were all a lie. “But—but what about my mom? She died and she worshipped him!”

 

Jin couldn't help but laugh a bit even if the circumstances didn't call for it. “Why are you asking me, lass? Why didn't you call Touya or go to his temple to ask?” Seeing her right palm slightly from when she was wiping the tears from her eyes, Jin spied the snowflake design upon it recognizing it as Touya's trademark. “Aye, so he did indeed baptize you.”

 

Knowing the demon was looking at her mark on her left palm, she quickly lowered that hand with an angry frown upon her face. “I didn't call to him because he took my mother so why should I look to him for what he did?” Scarlet got to her wobbly feet best she could to go clean up the mess she made in the bathroom upon Jin's arrival. “And I don't know who baptized me seeing as I haven't looked at the scriptures about you all for so long. I am betting it was a priest at his temple.”

 

The demon remained quiet for a moment as he sat there upon the bed still, looking down at his feet to gather his thoughts. “Why are you taking it out on us? Touya and I were the ones who were spotted here and it was YOUR ancestors who chose to erect statues and then temples in demons' honors because of our powers. We didn't tell them to.”

 

“Then why are you demons still here?” Scarlet demanded to know, turning from the bathroom to yell at the wind demon boldly.

 

“Goodness, you're very snappy,” Jin retorted, rubbing the back of his neck as he got to his feet. Standing there in his shinobi attire, he towered over the young woman at his almost six foot height. “If you want to know the scriptures, I will tell you a bit—while you clean up the mess you made so you don't get in trouble.”

 

Scarlet looked back at the bathroom door before eyeing the demon once more with a furious look on her face. “I don't want to know the scriptures anymore. It's nothing but devil worship.”

 

“I'm not a devil, I am a demon and it's my wind and all the other demons you worship that keep this place safe from other evils far worse than what you are insinuating we are,” Jin pointed out as the young girl soon turned her back on him. “This town is teetering on the very brink of hell and if you don't watch what you say, you may cause chaos for everybody.”

 

Scarlet stopped at the doorway to her restroom as she snapped her head in the direction of the rambling redhead. “Is that a threat? Are you threatening me?”

 

“I am not threatening you, love, I am telling you the truth,” Jin insisted with a sigh of frustration. “Now, do you want to know more or are you going to be ignorant to the very foundation this place was built on? I don't know about your mother nor did I hear about her from Touya, but I can help you get to that point if you want. That's why you prayed to me, right?”

 

“Gee, you sound like a genie,” Scarlet grumbled as she picked up the broken glass on the floor that she could see.

 

“I am not; I thought we went through this. You prayed to me and I am answering your prayer because of that burned design you now have in your hand.” Here Jin pointed to her palm when Scarlet turned to look at him. “You baptized yourself under my light and with my sign so you are one of my children. I share you with Touya now and we both listen to your prayers and your calls. That is what the baptizing is about and is for. It's for you to open your heart up to us and offer your soul to ours so we can keep track of you till you sadly die.”

 

Scarlet listened to him against her will at that moment as she looked at the designs she was now cursed with till her death. Closing her right hand so she wouldn't have to look at it anymore, she gazed back up at the towering redhead she assumed to be a god.

 

“That is why your father couldn't see me,” Jin continued. “He couldn't see me because he's not open to me. His heart is closed off and he wasn't baptized under any demon in this town. It was also a reason I told you to hush because he would think you were nuts to explain I was right there beside you when he sees right through me.”

 

The young woman scoffed as she listened to him. Turning her back upon him again, she went back to work on picking up the glass. “He sees right through me too so there's something we have in common.”

 

“You're not clean,” Jin remarked almost randomly as he looked at her hands and arms he could see thanks to her short sleeve nightshirt she was wearing. “That prayer you just did, you were supposed to be pure and clean. Why did you not keep yourself clean?”

 

“What prayer?” Scarlet asked almost nervously as the demon was so close to her face. She looked down at her forearms he was staring at before eyeing his side profile yet again. “It wasn't a prayer, it was a spell—hey!”

 

Jin grabbed onto her wrist to keep her steady so he could look at her arms better. The young human woman did fight and struggle with him causing Jin to tighten his grip just a bit to show he wanted her to remain still. “Shhh, I am not going to hurt you,” Jin promised as he tried to keep the frightened girl steady so he could look at her arm better.

 

But Scarlet refused to let him look at her makeup covered arms as she tried her best to fight him. “Let me go! Leave me alone!” She growled furiously.

 

The demon didn't want to hurt Scarlet. It was the furthest thing from his mind seeing as he was docile and disapproved of most bad lighting placed upon some demons since all were not evil, human eating, and meddling heartless beasts. However, she was working his nerves that he had little of with being a child at heart and he could get easily angered if things wouldn't go his way. His expression shifted to a pouty anger as his grip got a bit tighter than before as if threatening to break her wrists if she didn't hold still. “Will you stop it!” He exclaimed, expressing his annoyance. “I am just trying to look at your arms!”

 

Scarlet was paralyzed from his demand as she felt like scrunching up into a corner and remaining there seeing as she had had bad times before with men who wanted to yell at her and smack her around. She was insecure about showing off her arms to anyone with all things considered and a yappy demon sure wasn't going to make it any easier for her to reveal what was under the makeup she applied after her shower thinking it was okay to do so. She remained there up against the doorway letting the demon stare angrily at her for a moment or two before shifting to her arms.

 

Seeing she was going to be cooperative now, Jin shifted his ears slightly in interest as he started working on rubbing the makeup off with his palm gently. “The `spells' you were reading are actually prayers. Why it has spell book on the cover I have no idea.” His fingers continuing to work away at the liquid makeup she used before hand, Jin finally got the substance to get out of his way so he could view the abused flesh underneath it.

 

Scarlet's arm was cut up and had a few scars upon them as well as bruises. Jin couldn't help but flinch and hiss at the sight of it even if he was use to seeing far worse in hell where he resided. He knew, however, that humans were much more fragile and such things were rare if not something to worry about when seen in abundance upon a human, especially a female.

 

His look said it all. He was disgusted at what he saw just as everyone else was who ever managed to see them, thus why I hid them with makeup or elbow length gloves.

 

I learned to pick up a knife for myself when my mother died. It was a way to release the pain that built up inside of me and I couldn't express to anyone else. My father wouldn't listen and I had no friends. I tried releasing it through those many blank pages that I filled up with words every night but even that refused to work. Whenever it got too difficult to manage the emotions inside, I would take out the butcher knife I stole from the kitchen and kept hidden in a box under my bed.

 

After awhile of not eating properly, however, I stopped having the energy to do such a thing to myself so they got fewer and fewer. The scars embedded within my arms were a constant reminder of the pain I endured when I was younger. No matter how much makeup I used to make them disappear and pretend I didn't have them I could still feel them there in my skin—almost burning a hole right through the makeup and clothing I would wear.

 

Jin grabbed onto her wrist a moment to show her the marks on her arm as he raised a brow to her inquisitively. “Did that man do this to you?”

 

Scarlet was quick to pull her hand back when she felt his grip was a bit weaker than it was previously. Holding her right wrist within her other hand, she looked away from him with a shake of her head. “No…only some,” she vaguely answered.

 

The demon was quiet once more as he looked upward at the ceiling a moment muttering something incoherent under his breath. Taking in a deep gulp of air and letting it out through his nostrils, he opened his eyes widely with a tilt of his head. “The bruises were caused by him and the cuts are from—something else.”

 

Jerking her head back in slight shock, she looked about the room wondering how he arrived at that answer. “What—how the hell do you know that?”

 

“It's called listening to the spirits around me that are watching you,” Jin chuckled, sticking out his tongue briefly as he pointed upward. “You're on constant watch here whether you realize it or not. I may not be able to watch you all the time and neither can Touya, but these wandering souls sure can.”

 

“Stop it,” Scarlet pleaded as she sunk further into her corner where she was sitting. “You're freaking me out.”

 

Jin looked at her and his look was his way of laughing at her response to him. “Goodness, you'd think seeing something like me would make you believe nothing else in the world could be more of a surprise.” Looking about him as if to watch these souls in her room Jin looked back at Scarlet with a sidewise grin. “These spirits are not evil. If they were, you'd be haunted which you are not.” Jin pushed himself up off of the floor as he walked back towards the room to leave her to clean up the mess she made on the floor of the bathroom. Moving the book from his way, the demon wrapped his arms behind his head before plopping upon it on his back so he could relax. “Just let me know when you need me.”

 

Scarlet watched the demon carefully before turning her focus back upon the mess at hand. Picking up the rest of the pieces of glass she could see, she threw them in her trashcan that was right by the door. The cream had gone everywhere and some of it was even now embedding within the dirty tiles, making it difficult to get all up. Grabbing her wash cloth, Scarlet began to work on the spill though she couldn't help but continue to look over at the demon relaxing peacefully upon her bed now. She couldn't believe that Jin the Wind God was actually Jin the Wind Demon of Wind Knoll. It was hard to register that and as she worked away at what was before her, she prayed this was all some kind of awful dream she would wake up from.

 

Moments later, Scarlet did manage to clean up her bathroom before walking back into her bedroom once she turned off her bathroom light and closed the door silently behind her. The demon remained upon her bed the way he was before with his eyes closed until he obviously heard the door shut. Peering into them when his baby blue eyes revealed themselves to her once more, she sat at the foot of her bed looking at Jin. Her delicate hands touched her messy and dirty comforter, she kept her eyes locked on the demon she had been blindly worshipping and praising for keeping Wind Knoll safe for people before her mother's death.

 

Jin looked down at her from where he remained positioned as he refused to move at the time. Turning his head to the side so he could get a better view since his broad chest was blocking it, he moved his ears slightly for her to show his interest in what was there in her expression and dull looking eyes. “Do you want something?” He asked as he moved his foot inward so it would be out of her way.

 

“I want to know why my mother died and what Touya did during those times for my mother if any at all,” Scarlet explained simply as she remained a respectable distance from Jin. “That's all I want to know. I promise I won't bother you again once I know this and you won't have to bother with me.”

 

The redheaded demon's chest shook with his laughter spasms at her response as Jin stared up at the white painted ceiling. “I do not leave my children even if that is their wish. Plain and simply put, you are stuck with me even once you die. I watch you just as Touya had and probably did in your darkest of times. As a matter of fact—,” here Jin pushed himself up off of the bed to sit upright on the covers he was upon, “—I can sense his energy here. It's faint, but I can tell you he's been here before.” His childlike gaze caught Scarlet's cold, hard look as he shrugged with a toothy grin. “You were just too boneheaded to listen to him.”

 

Having to be called such an insensitive name to her face made the young woman boil over slightly. “How dare you!” Scarlet scolded angrily, clutching her fists upon the bedcovers. “You would be the same way if someone close to you passed away!”

 

Rolling his eyes playfully at Scarlet, Jin turned to face her with his legs crossed as he rested his arms upon his thighs. “Anyways, as for Touya, you are going to have a lot of sucking up to do when it comes to him. How long were you loyal?”

 

Turning away from his face, she snorted at him, “Sixteen agonizing years since the day of my birth.”

 

Crossing his arms across his chest that held his crisscrossed white stripes of clothing, he cocked his head to the side to examine her expression. “And I am guessing when you turned sixteen or sometime that year, your mother passed away and you pushed him out of your life, blaming him for the death.”

 

Scarlet was silent having to hear that and be reminded of that horrible year.

 

“Okay, question answered,” Jin retorted, rubbing the back of his head a bit. His wild hair seeping through his fingers as he did so, he concentrated on the wandering spirits around him to get further answers. “And you're—twenty-four about to go on twenty-five in May…” Pausing for a moment, he recollected the date. “May second is your birthday so it's been almost nine years.”

 

Hearing all of this information being handed to her, she couldn't help but stare at the demon with a slight twitch. “You freak me out so much when you do that…”

 

Something in her expression made Jin throw his head back and laugh as he closed his eyes from the overwhelming trembling his body caused from the laughter he expressed. Once he stopped, he grinned widely whilst he opened one eye as if to wink at her as Jin pointed back at the ceiling. “Well, since you won't tell to me, I might as well talk to your rather talkative roommates.”

 

Scarlet refused to crack a smile at what was taking place as she let the demon find all of it as amusing as he did. She just wanted to find her answers from Touya and at that moment she was beginning to wish she had just summoned him to begin with. The demon was getting annoying, and he was starting to work on her nerves just as she did with his earlier.

 

The demon managed to get his laughter under control as he grinned still not wanting to lose the humor at the moment seeing as the one he was dealing with was so dreary. “Okay, as for Touya, I would say go to his temple every night when the fog has cover the town.” Seeing the fear and having it waft his senses, Jin raised his hands to prevent her from freaking out on him. “Just listen, okay? I will guide your path for you. Just pray to me and I will come to you and guide you to his temple. It isn't far from here for I saw it when I was flying here so you should be just fine. Go to his temple and pray to him as well as bring him gifts. Say the scriptures of his temple out loud all night until you can't any longer and then sleep there.”

 

“Sleep there?” Scarlet asked confused and out loud even if he asked her to remain silent till he was through. “How can I sleep there? I have go to work starting later today and then to my college classes at one. I cannot sleep there and not have my dad find out! He would really let me have it…”

 

Since he couldn't get her to stop, Jin simply pressed his finger to her lips to make her do so. “Just trust me, okay? I know your trust has been shot but I think you could do this for me for at least once.” Removing his finger from her lips, he opened his hand and turned it slightly as he shrugged. “I mean, you are willing to do anything for answers of your mother's death, right?”

 

Scarlet rubbed her upper arm as she thought about all she would have to do to get those answers. It summed up to an incredible amount and it made her hesitate in answering. She would have to worship a demon and a demon that she had grown to despise since she was sixteen years old. Releasing a sigh of mixed emotions dwelling within her, Scarlet eventually nodded. “Yes, I am willing to do anything it takes.”

 

Jin raised his hands quickly up to his chest to use almost as a buffer as he explained further. “Now, remember, you cannot get her back okay? I don't know if that is part of your schedule or not but you cannot get your mother back from where she resides now—do you understand?”

 

Hearing this, Scarlet looked at Jin through her stringy bi-colored hair. She was slightly intrigued by his statement for it indicated something. Moving forward on her hands, she tilted her head at the demon as if to listen to him better. “I know that.”

 

“Good, I was just making sure you knew because demons can be teasers to human kind. If we were to come with a logo it would be `every request comes with a price',” Jin clarified with another shrug as his sight shot back up at the ceiling for a second. “So, my advice, don't ask to hear from your mother. Hearing from her in the afterlife might sound like the next best thing to getting her back in the flesh, but the encounters will eat you up inside so don't ask him to do that.”

 

Her heart leapt within her chest at knowing she could ask to hear her mother from beyond the grave. It was a ping of hope at that very moment within the dreary, densely lit room. But her hopeful smile turned into a saddened frown quickly when the demon's threat rang clearly within her mind shortly after. Huffing sourly at him, she narrowed her eyes at the wind demon to show her frustration. “Why do you things have to be demons?”

 

Jin turned on his pouting face mixed with annoyance as he eyed Scarlet almost scolding. “Why do you things have to be inconsiderate humans?” He lashed in return as he pointed at her. “Scarlet Baker, you cannot always get what you want so learn to deal with that. If you don't want my help, I will leave you be as you are right now.”

 

“My name—I guess you got that from the `spirits', didn't you?” Scarlet asked, ignoring the topic at hand for the time being.

 

“Well, you certainly didn't tell it to me, did you?” Jin almost sneered as he crossed his arms across his broad chest. “Besides, your da was yelling at you when I was in the bathroom, and I don't have these pointy ears for nothing, you know.” Wiggling them slightly for emphasis, he placed his hands back on his thighs to sit there slack. “Anyways, whenever you want to go just let me know. I can hear you miles away—all the way up to the very peek of the Black Wood Mountains.”

 

Scarlet cocked her brow at Jin as she watched his ears move, catching their movement this time out of the others he wiggled them without her knowing. “Your ears are that good, eh?”

 

“Just let me know,” Jin said in conclusion as he pushed himself off of the bedcovers. “Oh, and a word of advice,” he continued, pausing at the windowsill. “Whatever you do, don't listen to those girls at the store you're working at. They may be right in knowing we're demons but their worship and incantations are something that they have spilled black blood all over. I've asked them countless times to stop with Hiei and Shishiwakamaru but it sadly never works. I'm beginning to believe they are completely shut off to us now with how dark they practices are.”

 

Walking over towards the window, Scarlet brought her hand up to her chest as she watched him about to jump out her window though, for some reason, it worried her little. His advice given to her, she nodded once to let him know she understood though not entirely why it would matter if they were demons and the workers at the store were performing demon worship. “I promise I won't.”

 

The wind demon said not another word as he quickly dove out the window. Catching his self in midair, he flew quickly towards the Black Wood Mountains where his temple resided at the base. Scarlet watched from the window he jumped from in awe that he actually could use the wind and was the wind guardian she was told of since birth. Her hair blowing about the currents of air he gathered, she watched through her strands as the thick fog engulfed him almost making the demon seem like a phantom in the night.

 

Pulling herself back inside from the cool night air, Scarlet looked at the many candles she lit as well as the spell book there upon her bed. Was that real? She asked herself as she headed for the first candle sitting there upon her writing desk. He just left and it feels like I either woke from a deep daydream or just hallucinated the whole ordeal. Scarlet knew it was real as she stood there examining the candle within her hand.

 

Blowing out the dancing flame there upon the wick, she placed the pure white candle back down where it was beforehand. It was almost three or so in the morning and she knew she had better get some sleep if she was to wake up to help at the store she was indebted to. Eventually the lights went completely out within Scarlet's bedroom. Just like the other houses on Lavender Lane, it soon blended in with the heavy fog that had gathered about the night and was sweeping through the town. It looked like a ghost town there without a bit of life for the coming few hours.

 

 

Author's Notes: Yeah, I thought I would be a smart butt and just tell people who don't know the exclamation point is always highest in command especially when someone is shouting. So even if someone is asking a question, exclamation point still beats question mark. Just thought I would clarify that for those who don't know and thought I was nuts to leave out so many question marks. I actually learned that in my college grammar class and stopped with the obsessive combination when learning the truth. xD;