⛩️
Rome's nightmares always started the same way.
The silence came first. Total sensory deprivation, like having his ears plugged from water pressure at the bottom of a pool. The only sound was the thump, thump, thump of his heartbeat.
Then the weight arrived. Something deeper than physical. Existential dread, maybe, if he wanted to sound pretentious about it. Fear so deep it needed a face.
So his fear gave the darkness eyes.
Twelve equal flower petals bloomed in the irises. Kind of like those time lapse videos you would see on YouTube.
Some part of his brain screamed that he'd seen these eyes before, that they'd been watching him his entire life through mirrors he didn't know existed.
Then he fell.
He always fell.
Rome woke up gasping for air, the vertigo from free falling in his dream catching up to him.
His head throbbed.
Fuck, someone clocked me good.
The blindfold covering his eyes felt like rough burlap against his skin. His hands were zip-tied behind his back around what felt like a metal chair.
Fantastic. Someone had come prepared for him specifically.
The air tasted like pennies and that underlying smell of humidity. So, basement or warehouse then.
Water dripped in the distance.
Plink. Plink. Plink.
Rhythmic enough to be annoying, irregular enough to prevent him from using it as an accurate timer.
The concrete beneath his boots felt gritty when he shifted his feet. He scraped his heel to listen to the echo. Large space, then. High ceiling based on how the sound dispersed.
Then there was the feeling.
It crawled across his skin like static electricity, raising every hair on his body in waves that moved from his spine outward. He always got this feeling when something unexplainable would happen. The last time was when he saw that thing in the alley last month that he'd convinced himself was a hallucination from a bad batch of energy drinks.
This felt stronger. Like standing far too close to power lines.
He strained against the right zip tie first, then the left. Same resistance. He flexed his fingers, trying to create space through blood flow restriction, but the plastic held firm.
The dripping water was behind him and to the left. His breathing bounced back faster from that direction.
That same feeling intensified suddenly.
Was someone in here with him?
"Hello?"
"Stupid," he hissed immediately after. "Real smooth, Rome. Why don't you ring the dinner bell while you're at it?"
Then he heard it.
Click. Clack.
The sound of stilettos on concrete.
Click. Clack.
They weren't approaching in a straight line. The sound moved around him in a wide circle, taking its time. Whoever wore those shoes knew he couldn't see them, couldn't track them. They were establishing dominance through patience.
Click. Clack.
The sensation on his skin surged with each step, like one of those radiation detector things.
Click. Clack.
Then came the smell.
Takoyaki.
"Really? Couldn't finish your snack before the kidnapping?"
The footsteps stopped but that feeling persisted.
A primal thrum that resonated in his bones and made his pulse quicken in ways that had nothing to do with fear.
The fuck is wrong with me?
The air pressure changed. Someone stood directly in front of him now, close enough that he could feel their body heat through the cold basement air.
Fabric rustled. A hand touched his face and ripped away the blindfold.
Rome's eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light. When they did, he immediately wished they hadn't.
The eyes he saw from his nightmare filled his vision.
The woman who owned them was without a doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Long white hair fell around her face in waves that caught the single hanging bulb's light like fresh snow. She wore a fitted black suit jacket over what looked like expensive casual wear, the kind of put-together look that screamed money and power.
She took another bite of takoyaki, chewing thoughtfully while studying him like he was a specimen in a jar.
That's when Rome saw the aura.
He didn't see it with his eyes exactly, but with whatever system was making his skin tingle. This faint purple energy was shrouded all around her, concentrated by her breasts, her hands, and mostly her eyes.
"Well, you're more interesting than your file suggested."
"My file?" Rome croaked.
She popped the last takoyaki ball into her mouth, made a small satisfied noise, then tossed the empty container over her shoulder without looking. It landed perfectly in what he could now see was a trash can ten feet away.
Show off.
"Rome Angelo. Age seventeen. No living relatives. Currently enrolled as a full-time student at Pacific Community College while working construction part-time." She circled around behind him. Her fingers trailed across his shoulders as she moved, and the contact made the purple energy flare. "Bounced through fourteen foster homes. Consistent reports of 'unexplainable phenomena' wherever you stay. Objects moving on their own. Shadows that don't match their sources. An unusually high number of accidents."
"Who the hell are you?"
"That's one way to ask for my name." She completed her circle, coming to stand in front of him again. Those lotus eyes studied him with an intensity that felt like physical pressure. "Though I suppose given the circumstances, some vulgarity is warranted."
She leaned down, bringing her face level with his. This close, Rome could see the faint blue veins visible around her eyes, could smell something expensive and floral beneath the takoyaki.
"Here's what I need to know, Rome. Are you a Demon, or a Shaman?"
He stared at her. "I'm a construction worker."
Her laugh was genuine and rich. "Oh, I like you already. But that's not really an answer, is it?"
"It's the only answer I've got, lady."
"Amelia," she corrected, straightening up. "And that necklace you're wearing tells a different story."
Rome's blood went cold. The obsidian pendant had been around his neck for as long as he could remember. He'd never taken it off. Never even considered it.
"How do you know about..."
"These eyes see many things." She tapped the corner of her right eye, and the lotus pattern pulsed with violet light.
She leaned in again. This time her eyes weren't just glowing. They were active, the petals rotating faster as she examined him.
"That necklace is a seal. A very old one, very powerful, designed to suppress and contain." Her voice dropped lower, losing some of its playful edge. "And when I look at you with my eyes fully open, do you know what I see?"
Rome didn't want to know. Every fiber of his being screamed that he didn't want to hear what came next.
She told him anyway.
"I see a human body. Normal physiology, normal spiritual pathways. But underneath..." Her finger touched his chest, right over his heart, and the contact sent electricity arcing through his entire nervous system. "Something that's been sleeping behind that seal your entire life."
"You're insane," he managed.
"Am I?" She straightened, pulling a phone from her jacket pocket. A few taps, then she turned the screen toward him.
Crime scene photos. Three bodies sprawled in a warehouse, their skin gray and sunken like month-old fruit. They looked mummified, completely drained.
"Three bodies were found in the warehouse district last night," Amelia said, her voice clinical now. "Drained completely of life force. Hollow shells. The kind of damage only a demon could inflict."
Rome's stomach dropped. "I didn't..."
"And you, Rome Angelo, were the only person with a demonic signature we found at the scene."
"That's impossible!" The laugh that burst from him was edged with hysteria. "I was helping my buddy look for some urban legend ghost. I didn't kill anyone!"
"Your friend Jake Mendoza confirmed your presence there through his social media check-in at 10:47 PM." She swiped to another screen. "The estimated time of death for these three was between 11:00 PM and midnight."
"I didn't... I can't..." The words tangled in his throat.
Amelia pocketed her phone. Her eyes stayed locked on his, and he watched her pupils dilate slightly as she studied his face.
"Your heart rate just spiked to 140 beats per minute. Pupils dilated. Breathing pattern suggests genuine panic. Performance would look different." She tilted her head. "You don't remember what you did?"
"Remember what? I didn't do shit!"
She picked up another container of takoyaki from a table.
"You must be hungry, you've been unconscious for six hours."
She held a takoyaki ball in front of his mouth. The absurdity of the gesture would have been funny if Rome wasn't pretty sure he was about to die.
"Say aah..."
"No thanks."
"Suit yourself." She popped it in her own mouth instead. "Where are my manners? Proper introductions. I'm Amelia Beleth, head of the Beleth Clan, one of the Four Great Families. I'm also the first-year instructor at New Pacifica Shaman College."
She set the container aside and placed both hands on his chair's armrests.
"And I'm the person who's going to decide whether you live or die in the next five minutes."
The lotus patterns in her eyes spun faster.
"So let's try this again, darling. What. Are. You?"