Marissa

Jamie and Donovan clenched their fists together, trying to keep their fingers from turning to dirt. "What the hell is this?!" Donovan screamed. "How do we stop it?"

Jamie muttered a curse word and said "Warlock." They both got up from the ground, their eyes turning lupine, hairs sprouting from their bodies. They jumped and shifted into their wolf form. In this form, they had stopped disintegrating, but the color of their fur was fading. It looked bleached out, and they seemed smaller than usual.

"Damn it." The warlock smiled. "You nulled my spell with your own curse. Clever. Luckily for you, you're not my targets today. Hey! Bats!"

He called to the other guy with the messed up face. "Let's go!"

The other guy was still feeling his face, smoothing it out. He stopped and finally turned around. "Wait a minute. I think we need to shed some light on the situation, before these mongrels do anymore damage."

When I got a look at his face, I gasped. It was Axel. Whatever previous damage that had been inflicted on his face was gone. He still had the same twisted smile as always.

"Are you an idiot?" The warlock replied. "We had one job. We've done it. Frederick's dead, and that means we have conclusive evidence. There's nothing else to be done except returning her to the coven." To this, Axel raised his hand, as if to interrupt him, but he let him finish.

"Shouldn't it be common courtesy to tell the people you're hunting why you're hunting them?

These three don't know why they exist. They don't know why they're hunted. All they know is that every supernatural creature wants them dead. The least I could do is enlighten these mutts before I use their pelts for my bathrobe."

Samantha

Everything went still after the apparition vanished. I could still hear the cackling fire upstairs. I could hear the gas leaking and worse popping. But neither I nor Allen made a sound. After it dissipated, Allen dropped his arms to his sides. He tried to look at me sideways, without catching my eye. That wasn't necessary though. I was just staring off into space, unsure what to do next.

He probably didn't want to interrupt me because he thought I was grieving. To be honest, I'm not sure what I was doing. I guess I was just waiting for an answer. A sign, telling me to keep moving forward. The best thing Allen could've done was shake me, or slap me out of my illusions. Sadly, he didn't.

I was starting to notice every little thing in this room. The shards of glass caught my attention The smoke from above was burning my nostrils. I saw Allen's right arm grow and heal. It was moving slowly, but his arm was taking on the wolf form like the rest of his body. I wondered how long he could keep that form up.

Did it strain him? Did it require any effort at all?

I had no idea. I made a mental note to ask him, if time stopped standing still and we were able to move past all of this.

Suddenly, a mirror appeared at my side, putting a pause on my depression. It was similar to the mirror I created earlier, but it was all black with shiny runestones placed all over it. Donna emerged from a swarm a smoke that had combined together. At first, she looked just as she did earlier, malevolent, sick, and ominous, but she closed her eyes and concentrated.

She was concentrating hard. It looked like she was in pain.

Finally, she let out a huge breath and her skin returned to normal. All of the evil black lines had disappeared. She looked healthy.

Donna ran up to hug me, and I embraced her.

My body glowed yellow, and all my wounds started to heal. I sighed with relief. She reached out for Allen's hand, and even though he was sightly reluctant, he took it.

The golden glow surrounded him too, and his arm healed instantly. He started to shrink, and after a few seconds he was back to his human form. His clothes were different. He had on a purple hoodie with black pants, and his shoes were good and white. I never tried to change his attire, so I knew Donna's magic was overriding my own. My clothes changed too, but not into something better. They just mended themselves and looked exactly as they did when we entered.

"There. Now, it's time."

She let go of us, smiled, and backed up. A sphere of light hovered above us, and it flickered a little. It was similar to a hologram, because it's light filled the room and everything looked just as it had before we entered, in pristine condition.

Allen let out a small outburst. "Why the..." He tried to touch the couch, and his hand went through it. "Oh. Okay."

He turned back towards me, and Donna's hands were shining. She flicked her wrist, and three necklace appeared.

"Where did you find it?" I whispered.

"It was hidden in Mama's room." She said, and her chest started rising quickly. She was probably on the verge of crying. "I went back in there. Everything had turned to ash except the bed she laid on." Donna wiped her face with one of her hands. She was trembling. "This necklace was glowing, shining through the rubble. I tried to tell her that I found the necklace, I tried to wake her and let her know..."

Donna couldn't speak anymore. I stepped forward and held her. She almost collapsed in my arms, dragging me to the floor with her. With Allen for support, I stood back up with Donna in my arms. She was sobbing so loudly I bet the neighborhood could hear her. That is... If the neighborhood was actually real.

"Sam." Allen whispered. "What's the mirror for?"

Donna, stopped her crying for a second. That must've reminded her of what we came here for.

She stood up on her own, and wiped her tears of my face. "We use the mirror to capture the curse. It's like a demon, and it's going to have a few last words for us when we banish it forever."

Allen listened intently to what Donna said. He nodded to show he understood, then he stood right next to me in front of the mirror, and we looked at ourselves. He started checking out his clothes. He smiled at the mirror and said, "I look good."

My body may have been healed, but I didn't have the energy to laugh. I just smiled and shoved him a little. Donna handed me the necklace. "Go ahead," she urged. "Put it on."

I took a deep breathe and put it around my neck. Allen held my hair up while I clasped it.

Just like that, Donna's magic extinguished. The hologram like sphere was gone. Everything was back to ash, rubble, smoke and fire. The fire just spread to the downstairs area too. Parts of the ceiling were raining down on top of us.

The mirror swirled into a pool of fire, and a burning figure leaped out of it and tried to grab me.

But Allen's reflexes had gotten faster, and he didn't let it happen. He threw himself in front of me, and the figure grabbed him instead.

It didn't appear to be choking him though. It seemed to just be holding him, or perhaps it was using Allen as an anchor to stay on this side of the mirror. It's back half was still stuck the mirror. I'm not sure if it was my eyes playing tricks on me, but I could've sworn I saw faces in the fire.

The burning figure sighed and sounded exasperated. "You did it." It growled. "You actually did it." I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do! All I knew was getting this necklace would break the curse.

"Lemme go!" Allen growled. I could feel Allen's emotions, and he seemed extremely mad that this thing was holding him.

"Gimme a second boy, I have something to say."

Allen stopped resisting, but his hair kept growing and his eyes were already wolfish.

"Damn you!" The creature said to us. He looked at me and Donna. "Both of you! No, all three of you! Your family's ignorance and greed had kept me alive for years, and you ruined it. If your soul was worth anything I'd take it for penance."

Loud bangs and booms sounded all around us, and suddenly, the house was falling apart twice as fast. The ash was starting to vanish in white light, big physical objects that hadn't been destroyed created loud explosions when they disappeared, causing more destruction to the surrounding area.

"Neither one of you is getting away scot-free. Your accursed family was never meant to have magic in the first place, and I intend on righting the wrongs of your simple-minded ancestors."

Donna's body and mine were simultaneously engulfed in purple flame. It felt like it was draining my life force and my energy. My body felt fatigued, and I thought I might pass out from exhaustion. The way I felt couldn't compare to the way Donna felt. She was screaming in pure agony. Her skin was peeling, the black marks appeared and she looked like she did when she fought us earlier.

"Aside from pissing me off boy, you've done nothing wrong." He released Allen, who jumped back in disgust. He looked like he was on the verge of transforming. He took a swing at the cursed figure and went straight through him, into the fiery mirror behind him. Allen's hand caught on fire, and to put it out he slammed it against the ground, punching out the flames.

He tried to grab Donna but he couldn't. The purple aura repelled and burned him too. She dropped to her hands and knees and stopped screaming. I was determined not to drop. I was determined to stay awake. She sent out a blast of magic upwards, and half of the ceiling blew up, revealing the dark night sky. Then she stood up, grabbed the figure, and screamed into its face.

Green flames came from her mouth, engulfing the figure in flames. As he screamed, I had one last idea. There was nothing left to lose. Especially since the figure was trying to drain our powers right now. I stretched, and yawned, and brought my fists up to my chest. I flexed every muscle I could, and wore all of the magic I had as a barrier between me and the purple flame. The flame extinguished for a minute, but my hands still vibrated with a purple tinge. There was no escaping this. I was going to lose my powers, but I was determined not give the curse what it wanted.

"ALLEN!" I shouted. He was standing behind me, trying to shake off all of the fire. The purple fire clung to him, unlike the orange in the mirror. He looked surprised and wild eyed.

"What?!" He yelled back.

"Thank you." I whispered, and punched him with all my power, with all my force. He was wrapped in ball of orange light as he blasted through the wall and out into the fake neighborhood.

"NO!" the shadowy figure screamed. "NOOOO!"

The purple aura around me dissipated, and I felt normal again. Well, as normal as one could feel if they were trapped in a burning house. I heard a loud shrieking cry, but I didn't know where it came from. It didn't seem like it came from the figure, and I was really close to Donna, so it couldn't have been her.

Then, to my shock, the purple fiery aura around her dissipated too. Shaking and convulsing, she raised tried to stand up.

"I WILL NOT LET YOU DO THIS! YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY VICTORY FROM ME!"

Everything in the house illuminated. Brighter and brighter, so bright it hurt my eyes.

"Sam," Donna said weakly, calling for me.

"Can you promise me to do one thing?"

I was holding her, and she didn't even feel human anymore.

"Yes! Yes, anything!"

She coughed up blood, and then she started to glow, like everything else in the house.

"Promise me you'll look after my daughter."