The following days were all filled to the brim with Ragmar-adjacent visions, at home, at school, even out in public. For example, one day at school, a darkness cloaked creature reminiscent of a horse (but still having similar features to the demon) "chased" him through the street and out into moving traffic. Needless to say, that did not end well.

Luckily, he only suffered minor injuries, however, this did end up warranting a 40-minute lecture on road safety from his mother, as well as the last fragments of control Jake had left.

Now, instead of running from these figures, he ran towards them, and coincidentally, the places the figures appeared in usually contained a lot of people, causing an abundance of unnecessary conflicts that could've been avoided if Jake just ignored what was going on.

But who could blame him? It's not everyday the stuff of your nightmares comes to life and haunts you on a daily basis.

By this point, Jake was tired, and had just decided to live with it. But then he realised something. He didn't know how he hadn't realised it sooner.

Jake has powers. 

Even better, fire powers. One of the most dangerous things in the whole world. What's some creature who only ever appears in your dreams going to do against that? He won't stand a chance! Right? According to what his mother told him, Ragmar was some kind of demon. 

Jake wanted desperately to find more about Ragmar, his powers and other useful information from the book, but his mother had hidden it, so Jake couldn't steal it, even if his moral compass was pointing north.

He decided he couldn't tell her about the visions, as he felt it would only cause tension between them, especially after what had happened the night he found the book.

But if he didn't tell her, or ask her about the book, he wouldn't be able to resolve this war going on inside his head, which would only escalate things to an even further degree.

Suddenly, he had another click moment in his brain. He remembered seeing the other lines of families that had powers. One of those being Killian.

Half of his best friend Nathan's last name. Nathan Killian-Martin. 

This couldn't be real, could it? So not only does he discover he has powers, but his best friend since childhood too? This only made him believe even more that this was some elaborate prank to teach him the lesson of "not concerning yourself with things that aren't yours" or something like that.

But the evidence was too astounding. The dream he had that night, him being adopted, the visions he's been having lately.

It all fit together nicely. Almost too nicely.

It was Saturday the next day, and Jake had a plan. And while yes, this plan did involve stealing from and lying to your mother, Jake argued that it was for the greater good.

You could also argue that it technically isn't stealing, as the book wasn't being used by anyone, and it was just there, in his house, free for the taking. And it technically isn't lying if Jake's mother never specified how long he had to keep the promise for.

Yeah. Not stealing, not lying. Taking what nobody would've stopped you from taking, and slightly defiant loopholes!

…………………………………………………

A large, cloaked figure sits on a throne, made of what looked like bones and dead wood. Many skeletal figures stand around the throne, bowing.

"It's fine dude, there's know way he'll ever notice!" A short skeleton walks down a dark hallway, talking to another, taller skeleton. 

"Alright fine, I'll trust you, but if he finds out, we're dead." The taller skeleton responds.

"Bro, we're already dead! We're skeletons, duh. There's nothing he can do to us that hasn't already been done." The short skeleton replies, affirmingly.

"But wait," the tall skeleton says, "I'd feel bad for lying to him! Even if he doesn't find out." 

"Goodness gracious, he's the King of Demons for Pete's sake! And besides, it isn't really lying. More like…. a loophole!"

"Who's Pete?" The tall skeleton asks.

The short skeleton says nothing, only wearing an annoyed look on his face.

The skeletons continue down the hallway, where they end up in the throne room.

"Lord Ragmar!" The short skeleton says, bowing. "We have done as you have asked. Now about our pay…"

"Nothing." 

"Come again?" The short skeleton replies.

"You get nothing." Ragmar says, with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"But what about all the work we did!" The short one exclaims. "Yeah!" The tall one backs him up.

"I never promised you anything. So you don't get anything. Now get out of my sight before I kill you."

"Kill us? We're the best skull warriors around! So don't think killing us will be so easy!" The short one responds.

"Hey, don't rope me into this." Says the tall one.

"It seems you've forgotten." Ragmar states. "I was the one who found you all, on the brink of extinction, and brought you here, out of the kindness of my heart, and this is how you repay me?" He had a sarcastic tone in his voice.

"Oh yeah? Well we never asked to be saved! Let alone by you!" The short one uttered.

He lunged at Ragmar, holding a dagger in one hand, and a club in the other.

"Didn't I tell you to get out of my sight? It seems you skeletons don't have brains."

In a matter of seconds, Ragmar had rushed forward, striking the skeleton with his blade, all that was left of him was a pile of broken bones.

"Let this be an example of what not to do when speaking to your ruler." Ragmar was about to sit back down in his throne, until he noticed the tall skeleton exiting the throne room out of the corner of his eye.

"And where do you think you're going?" Ragmar scolded.

He pointed his finger at the tall skeleton. He tried to run, but it was too late. Ragmar had fired a blazing beam from the tip of his finger, reducing the skeleton to ash.

"For those who were thinking of defying me, consider that a warning." The entire room was filled with silence. But a fearful silence, one that let you know not to mess with whoever was causing it.

"Now," Ragmar demanded. "I hope you've all cleared your schedules, because I've got a new task for you all." 

The skeletons were curious as to what this "new task" could be. But they all knew that if they didn't at least try, they would surely meet the same fate as the other two skeletons who tried to go against Ragmar.

"Well spit it out already, what's this task?" A skeleton shouted from the crowd.

"Find Bartholomew Vols. And once my part of the plan is done, there will be no human on this planet left able to challenge me."