There was nothing notable about him at all. In fact, most people would not even remember his name or what he does, not even his friends remember much about him. He was just tragically uninteresting, a teacher who led a very dull life.

Once he's done with his students, and once he answered all their questions and observed their application to the branch of magic he taught, he'd return back home where his wife would usually not be waiting for him. She didn't care much if he returned or not, and lately they've been distant with each other like many other married couples who found themselves gradually getting tired of their spouses.

To put it simply, his life was pathetic and going nowhere.

He knew that, everyone thought that, and it was just a common miserable life that he couldn't help but wallow in his misery at one of the local bars. He never thought that the decision he made that day would add something to his incredibly dull existence.

This is how he found himself being led someplace familiar to him by someone he just met. It was one of the many chapels in the city that he used to go to. There was nothing remarkable about it.

What's remarkable was how they entered the chapel. It wasn't from its main entrance, but from a side door that led to a hatch door. Once opened, he walked down the slippery stony stairs alongside his suspicious companion. He had every reason to become apprehensive and alarmed, but he was told what to expect, and he understood the secrecy.

Necromancy is prohibited.

But it was also exciting, and it would cease the dullness engulfing his life. With every step he took, he found his excitement increasing alongside his anticipation. Controlling the dead is forbidden, it is new, and it is power. Finally, an average teacher like him can be something, someone.

The promises were so great, and he found himself amidst a group of people who welcomed him warmly before finally leading him to the one person he was dying to meet.

Briar, the leader of this whole thing. This cult.

"Welcome," She turned to him with a smirk on her face giving her back to some of her members who were drawing things on the walls. She was surveying them. "Seems like we have two new members joining us."

He frowned not remembering anybody coming with him, but a shy woman walked over and stood next him before nodding her head. Briar made a thoughtful sound before she grinned at them both and walked down a few steps to be on their level.

"Let's start the initiation then, follow me."

The two soon-to-be members could not see nor hear the dead Sammy following them when he let out a deep bored breath. "Here we go again."

The room they walked into was not what the dull teacher had expected, it was mostly empty save for a few strange trinkets and strange sketches lying about, but other than that there was nothing but a large circular chalk drawing with candles placed on certain sections of it. This was clearly a ritual.

Someone handed Briar a metal cup, and she glanced at him first before beckoning for him to come closer. Unsure on what was happening, and very nervous, he took a few steps forwards and held the cup when she handed it to him.

"Stand in the middle." Briar instructed, and he did so while the shy woman that came with him watched silently. She, too, was becoming nervous. Rituals were never anything good, but they were here to become necromancers. It was something they had to accept. "Now bleed into it, just a little bit."

Sammy shook his head. "Better not do it."

However, Sammy was a ghost, and only Briar was aware of him which made the little laugh she let out a little bit out-of-place to the other two. Still, the teacher found a sharp knife-like protrusion near the handle of the cup, and he pressed his thumb on it resulting in a little blood trickling from it.

He made sure those drops fell inside, and Briar was heard uttering incantations the moment he looked up at her waiting for the next step.

There was no next step, and he stood right in the middle of a ritual before he remembered that offerings were always required for them to work. It almost made him panic and throw away the goblet to flee for his life, but it was already too late when the candles went out signaling its success and he stood there shaking with the cup in his hands wondering what the offering was.

But nothing happened, not really, and he was surprised to see a young man who was not there before. He didn't hide his bewilderment as he stared at Sammy who gave him a wave.

"Hey."

Clearing his throat, he gave a nod to the young man. "Hello."

The shy woman stared at where he was looking in confusion, she could not see anyone standing there yet. Briar didn't care enough to clarify as she told him to step away so the same could be done for the shy woman.

"You're lucky you survived." Sammy sniggered beside him before being shushed by Briar who gave him a glare, but that's when he noticed the strangest thing.

There was a mark on Briar's neck which wasn't there before, and he held his own neck wondering if he had one, too, now. It seemed like Sammy had guessed his unasked question since he attended those initiations hundreds of times before, and he spoke tonelessly as he informed him that he did indeed have the mark on his neck now.

"It helps you identify other necromancers. Other people cannot see it."

"Oh, I see." He nodded his head watching the same thing that was done to him be done to the shy woman. But then he awkwardly glanced at Sammy who arched an eyebrow at him. "Are you...dead?"

"I thought it was obvious."

"Oh." He cleared his throat not knowing what to say to that. It was true, though, it should have been obvious since he wasn't able to see him before and the fact that Sammy looked unnaturally pale and a little bit strange. The odd thing about his appearance was how it seemed like he was a little bit blurred, as if he was being looked at by someone who needed their sight to be corrected, but other than those oddities he did not look any different than the living.

Sammy used to be a living person once, and the teacher didn't know why he expected spirits to be something different, something less human.

Maybe because it is true now, spirits are not human anymore.

But he didn't get to think more about that when his attention was back on the ritual being done on the shy woman. Briar had approached her with knitted eyebrows and touched the woman's neck.

"It didn't work."

The woman titled her head, perplexed. "What? What didn't work?"

The teacher noticed that the candles were still burning bright, the ritual was not complete. No, it wasn't that, the ritual was a complete failure. It simply had no effect.

Briar didn't bother to answer the woman when she looked down at the cup in her hand where she bled, sometimes squeamish people would fake bleeding into it, but there was a decent amount of blood there.

"Such a shame." Briar clicked her tongue with a disappointed shake of her head, and that's when she smiled sadly at the woman. "Not everyone can become a necromancer."

The shy woman deflated, and Sammy walked away passing through the door leaving the three of them there.

"So, um, so what now?" The woman stuttered looking utterly crestfallen as she held her cup. She wanted to join this cult. She wanted all the power it promised. She wanted so many things, it cannot just stop there.

Briar gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze before she gentle took the cup away. This woman knew about them, but couldn't join them. It was such a shame, but she was also an additional soul to her collection. "Now you die."

The woman stepped back as if she was burned by Briar's touch. "W-what?"

Before she could do anything, and before she could protest or defend herself, the door opened with Sammy peering through it as two other members strode to the woman and grabbed her by the sides leading her away kicking and screaming.

The whole thing was being witnessed by the teacher as he found himself grateful that he wasn't in that woman's place, and Briar turned around smiling at him when she waved her hand and all the candles went out.

"My warmest welcome to you." She said placing a hand behind his shoulder and leading him out of the room. "Someone here will teach you the basics, and if you need anything from me, talk to Sammy first."

And throughout all of that, he didn't realize that Briar never asked for his name. Members were just numbers to her until they prove their worth.

The clock was ticking for him already.