Important Author's Note:
Welcome to my story. This story was inspired by the story Tomorrow by akspick, which I really recommend you go read. I see this story as sort of in between akspick's Tomorrow and the TV series. My story will differ from Tomorrow however (for those of you who read it) in that I'm mainly focusing on Ethan and Benny, and Jane won't be as powerful as akspick writes her.
Also, I'm open to any comments or suggestions as this is still a work in progress. I intend to update every two weeks on Tuesdays (at least in my time zone) so it should be pretty regular. Finally, if anything confuses you feel free to let me know and I'll try and explain it, though I can't reply to anonymous reviews.
On a side note, I don't have anything against gay people or slash, but one of my OC's (a rather minor character though he will show up again) does. I don't agree with his views but there will be minimal romance in this story and no slash.
Enjoy:
"Catch!" Ethan shouted to his best friend, tossing him the collapsible wooden stake. He watched as it flew through the empty space of the warehouse, straight for his partner in the hunt.
Benny turned around and caught it one-handed, swinging around again in one fluid move to stake the vampire charging him. The vampire looked down at the stake in his chest with horror before disintegrating and Benny straightened up, collapsing the stake and throwing it back to his best friend, grinning. "Is that all of them?"
In response Ethan lifted his modified Nerf gun and shot a wooden dart above Benny's head, effectively eliminating the vampire about to pounce on him. He too smiled. "That's all of them." It was impossible to tell that a fight had just occurred in the abandoned warehouse, only the footsteps in the dust indicated that anyone had been in there.
Benny just grinned wider, unshaken by his close encounter with death. "Good, I'm starving." He snapped his fingers and the two friends disappeared.
They rematerialized in the kitchen at their shared apartment. While the apartment wasn't the biggest, it was a decent size, and more than enough for both of them. The kitchen was fully equipped: fridge, stove, counters (and sink), and microwave all on the far wall, with the table shoved in the left corner, only two of the chairs being used. The other corner had the leftover two chairs up against the wall. It was a surprisingly clean room, given that two young men lived there, but that was one of the benefits of having a sorcerer for a roommate. Not to mention that the two were away a lot, and even when they were home they didn't necessarily use the kitchen.
As soon as they arrived Ethan reached out to grab his friend's arm before he could cast another spell. "You are not magicing us another pizza," he admonished.
"Why not?" Benny practically whined. "I even make it nutritionally healthy."
"Because we had pizza for the last three nights," Ethan reminded him, striding over to the fridge. "Tonight we're cooking real food."
"Fine," Benny reluctantly conceded, waving his hand to turn on the stove. As it clicked on, preheating, he turned to leave the small kitchen, "I'm going to put all this away." He gestured at the weapons in his hands.
Ethan just hummed in reply, his back turned, rooting through the fridge and freezer for something acceptable to eat for dinner.
Benny exited the kitchen for the foyer, turning down the hallway to the left and heading toward their official "magic room", where they kept everything magical that wasn't on their person. It was half office-half storeroom, the entire left and back walls covered with bookshelves that housed many different spell books, potions, and enchanted items they had collected over the years. Immediately upon entering, a chest sat to the left of the door, right before the bookshelves started on the left wall, and two desks sat to the right of the door, one right next to each other. One was Benny's and the other was Ethan's but they were often used interchangeably. Finally a counter of sorts had been set up against the right wall under the window. It was here that Benny brewed his potions. The middle of the room was empty, a pentagram drawn on the floor for the more complex spells. Benny dropped off their used weapons on the first bookshelf to the left, grabbing the spell book off of his desk that he had gotten when Ethan and he had gone France last weekend. After checking on the potion he had brewing he headed back to the kitchen, absent-mindedly thumbing through his book. While he was hopeless in the kitchen he could at least keep Ethan company. He entered the room just in time to see Ethan put something in the stove. "Chicken?" he asked.
Ethan shrugged. "It was all we had." He sat down adjacent to Benny at the table, nodding at the book in his hand. "That the new spell book?"
Benny nodded, but before he could reply the doorbell rang. Ethan shrugged at Benny's questioning glance and Benny frowned. They didn't have too many visitors and the ones they did have Ethan knew.
Ethan's seer powers had really developed over the years. Sophomore year he had started to be able to enter people's' minds and feel their emotions just by touching them. Eventually he could get basic emotions off of people by being near them, enabling him to practically sense when people were nearby. He was even able to recognize those he knew just by feeling their emotions. It was impossible to sneak up on him, Benny complained to himself as he approached the door.
He opened it without bothering to look through the peephole, not worried about who was on the other side. He had put the wards on the apartment himself after all and nothing could get in without him knowing it, not even magic. Any spell would stop at the door, and no person could get over the doorstep without his permission. He had even mixed an illusion spell into the warding, ensuring that any mortal not already aware of the supernatural would only see a normal apartment, no spell books lying around, no potions in the fridge, and the magic room appearing as an office.
A worried face greeted him, and Benny frowned pensively. "Can I help you?" By his estimate the man was probably in his forty's, with a little grey hair showing. He was well dressed, but definitely stressed. There was a wedding band on the appropriate finger and a cell phone secured at his hip. He could have been any typical business man, but Benny had a feeling he wasn't there for business.
The stranger looked surprised at his appearance, and looked over him before opening his mouth hesitantly. "I … I thought … well, maybe … um," the stranger floundered, clearly uncertain of what to say, and Benny shifted impatiently, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you could help me!" The stranger finally blurted out.
"Help you with what?" Benny asked quizzically, unsure as to what the man wanted. They dealt primarily in the supernatural, so he had no idea what the man thought he could help with. He and Ethan did both have computer science degrees, but they weren't experts by any means.
The stranger shook his head, seemingly flustered. "Never mind, this was a mistake. You're … you're not what I expected."
But he didn't turn to leave and Benny realized the man was even more desperate than what he had first thought. "What did you expect?" He asked.
"They said you were a Spell Master! Not some kid!" The man seemed exasperated, but Benny wasn't paying attention to that. No one should know that he was a Spell Master. No one should know that a Spell Master lived here.
He turned his head slightly to the right, towards the kitchen. "E!" He called out, raising his voice slightly – best not to give the man any names.
Ethan entered the room cautiously, sensing Benny's apprehension, and glanced his way. Benny gave him a nod in the stranger's direction. Ethan nodded in reply and turned, walking toward the stranger with a smile. "Sorry about that," Ethan apologized cheerfully, giving no indication that anything was wrong. "I was cooking dinner. What can we help you with?" Ethan stretched out his hand past the door frame and the stranger took it, unaware that he was practically giving Ethan his life story – as well as his future.
To the outside world, little was happening, but Benny watched as his friend's eyes fogged up before almost instantly returning to normal. Ethan backed up after the handshake, bumping into Benny as he went to stand next to him. To the stranger it appeared as though nothing had happened but Ethan had used the brief contact to enter Benny's mind and send him one word – friendly.
Benny nodded slightly, but still glared accusingly at the man on their doorstep. "How'd you know I'm a Spell Master?" Next to him Ethan started in shock but Benny figured it was all for show. The man may have known he was a wizard but he clearly didn't know Ethan was a seer. The two of them kept their secrets very close, and the only ones who knew everything about them were each other, they weren't about to reveal anything to a random person they had never met before and might never see again.
The stranger on their doorstep looked seemingly disgusted and glared at the two of them. "Never mind, you're too young to handle something like this anyway."
It was an abrupt change in topic and a far cry from the desperate man he was before, and Benny was confused. As he turned away to leave Ethan shifted his weight, bumping into Benny again and sending him another quick message. He frowned in understanding, narrowing his eyes at the stranger. "We're not gay," he declared angrily.
The man stopped in his tracks, turning back to them in surprise. "What?"
"We're not gay," Benny repeated, sneering at the man – a most uncharacteristic expression for him. "But if you've got a problem with that…" He held up his hand threateningly, as though about to snap his fingers, and the man's eyes widened in fear. He clearly knew what a Spell Master was capable of, even if he doubted the age of the sorcerer in question.
"No!" The man spoke quickly, his eyes wide with fear as he returned to the doorway. "No, I don't have a problem with that."
Ethan scoffed. "You live in a world of magic and yet you can't tolerate others' differences?"
"We'll help you, because that's what we do, but don't expect anything else," Benny continued with a frown.
"What do you need?" The two brothers in all but blood switched back and forth, able to complete each other's thoughts with ease.
The man hesitated, still angry and defensive but clearly in need of their help. "There's a ghost in my house," he finally said. "He won't stop messing with me or my son."
Benny nodded shortly, "We'll get our stuff."
The man looked curiously at Ethan. "Are you a Spell Master too?"
"No," Ethan spoke bluntly, before turning and following Benny to the magic room.
As soon as they were in the hallway safely out of earshot Benny turned to his friend. "I thought you said friendly!" He hissed, glancing back as a reflex to make sure the stranger hadn't heard.
Ethan frowned. "Sorry about that, I got a brief glimpse of his prejudice but I didn't realize it'd be directed at us," he explained. "Aside from that he is a friendly person. His wife was a witch – or spellcaster, sorry, he kept thinking witch – and even after she died he kept in contact with some of her friends, which is how I think he found out about us. He really cares about his son too. I couldn't tell but I think the ghost broke the kid's arm."
"Ouch," Benny winced sympathetically as they stopped just inside the magic room. They hadn't really needed anything, except to talk things out, but Benny grabbed a few health potions off the bookshelves as well as his bag off his desk and Ethan nodded in approval before continuing.
"It seems to be a pretty high level ghost, though either it can't manifest to be seen or doesn't want to. It can definitely affect this world though."
"Like Coach Ed back in high school?"
Ethan nodded. "But a lot more malicious. Coach Ed was just a bully; this ghost wants to hurt people."
"Think you can see it?" Benny asked, sounding almost nervous. Ethan felt the same way, they didn't deal with too many ghosts – especially not ones of this level.
He nodded hesitantly. "If it's not purposely trying to hide I should be able to – otherwise we need to find whatever set it loose."
"Alright," Benny stated confidently as they left the room. "How's the future look?"
Ethan fell into step beside his best friend. "Ghost free," he announced grimly, "but I didn't see how it turned out for us."
Benny nodded in acceptance and the two stopped before entering the foyer. "Alias two?"
Ethan nodded. "Unless he knows, then we'll stick with one."
As Ethan and Benny traveled the world – learning all they could about their powers and protecting people from the supernatural – they used aliases, concealing their true identities. When they were younger it would have made them giddy to be like the superheroes from their comic books but Ethan and Benny had matured. They knew exactly how serious it could get and they had enemies. Alias two had them posing as fraternal twin brothers Evan and Brian White, something they pulled off quite well. Alias one was simply themselves, Ethan Morgan and Benny Weir.
They entered the foyer to find the man still in the doorway, seemingly frustrated. "Why can't I get in?"
"Sorry, you're not keyed into the wards," Benny told him, though he didn't seem very apologetic.
"Did you drive?" Ethan asked.
"Because we're going to need a ride," Benny finished.
The man nodded and the two of them followed him out of the building and to his car. Ethan got in the passenger's side while Benny got in the back, puzzling the stranger. As far as he knew Ethan was a mere mortal and Benny was a powerful sorcerer. But it didn't matter to the two brothers. Their relative power held no meaning to each other and they didn't get jealous. Ethan was the leader. To them it was practically a fact of life. No matter what alias they were using, no matter what guise they traveled under, Ethan was the leader. Even their three powerful vampire friends never debated it. Ethan was the glue that held them all together, and they all knew it. And so, Ethan sat in the front, neither of them caring what the man thought.
The car ride through Whitechapel was mostly silent. The man introduced himself as Thomas Hall and admitted to not knowing their names. They stuck with alias two, introducing themselves as Evan and Brain White. Before too long they pulled into a driveway and Ethan held back a groan as he realized they were in one of the oldest parts of town – plenty of time for a ghost to build up anger.
"How old is the house?" He asked as he got out of the car, looking across the top of it at the house's owner.
"Uh…as old as the town I think," Hall offered. "I'm really not that sure."
Ethan and Benny exchanged a glance as they shut their respective car doors – plenty of time.
"Is your son home?" Benny asked as they walked to the front door.
Hall nodded. "Should be, do I need to tell him to stay out of your way?"
"You both should."
"When did you first notice the ghost?"
They entered the house, both Ethan and Benny continuing the conversation while they canvassed their surroundings. The house setup seemed very similar to Ethan's childhood home, a set of stairs directly in front of them as they entered, living room to the left, and kitchen down the hallway next to the stairs.
Hall racked his brain and Ethan and Benny turned from their subtle inspection of the house to the sound of footsteps on the stairs. A young man stopped on the bottom stair, left arm in a sling. Ethan judged him to be 18, probably fresh out of high school, and noted the skepticism practically rolling off him. "These are the ghost hunters? They're barely older than me!"
Neither Benny nor Ethan responded and Hall took the time to introduce them and reprimand his son. Ethan, next to Benny, shifted and stepped on the sorcerer's foot, ensuring they could talk in private.
"Don't forget about the potion," Ethan reminded Benny.
"I won't," Benny turned to look at Ethan, "did you say his mother was a spellcaster?"
Ethan nodded, understanding his friend's thought process. "Want me to check it out?"
"If you can, meanwhile, what's our plan of action?"
"Remember that ghost detector spell you were telling me about? Try that first."
"But we already know the ghost is here."
"The spell should pinpoint the location so that we know which room."
"Alright, how are we going to stop it from leaving?"
"Something tells me if it could leave the house it would have already," Ethan exited his friend's mind, the mental conversation over, as Hall finished his apology. He had been able to manipulate their mental conversation so that virtually no time had passed outside of it, something that had come in handy more than once.
"Don't worry about it," Benny shrugged off Hall's apology as a look of concentration crept onto his face. He held his hand slightly in front of him, reciting the spell, before flinging his hand away to release the magic. As the magic traveled around the house he turned back to Hall. "Did you figure out when?"
Hall nodded, "After I started renovating the bathroom upstairs, I never finished."
Benny turned – distracted by his magic, which had located the ghost – and Ethan took up the conversation. "What was the last thing you did?"
Hall furrowed his eyebrows in thought and his son took the opportunity to speak. "He asked me to take out the mirror, but I dropped it."
Ethan nodded in thanks, turning to Benny. "Bathroom?"
"I think so, the door is sealed and I didn't exactly power the spell." He headed up the stairs and Ethan followed, slightly jostling the teenager on his way up. They stopped in front of a door and, concentration evident on his face, Benny thrust his hand out. For a moment nothing happened, then the door slowly creaked open, revealing the interior of the bathroom. Ethan noted the surprise behind him and turned to tell the Halls to leave just as a part of the toilet flew out the door.
"Look out!" Benny cried, trying and failing to deflect it with magic.
Ethan glanced back, noticed the jagged piece of porcelain headed for Hall's son, and made a split-second decision, diving for the startled teenager. While his decision had probably saved the kid's life, Ethan suffered from his heroic act, and the jagged edge clipped him, slicing his arm open.
"E!" Benny cried out, taking a step forward toward his injured brother. He blinked, casting a spell he was all too familiar with, and a bandage wrapped itself around Ethan's upper right arm – staunching the bleeding. Ethan blinked, his eyes tight with pain, and looked up and Benny.
"I'm alright," he gasped, looking back at the porcelain that had shattered upon impact with the wall. "Go ahead."
Benny nodded, more determined than ever, and headed into the bathroom, pulling a witch jar out of his bag. As soon as the door shut behind him Ethan winced, using his left arm to sit up. He kept his right arm hugged to his chest, remaining propped up on his left.
Hall rush over, torn between checking on his son – who had hit his head when Ethan knocked him down – and checking to make sure Ethan was all right.
"I'm alright," Ethan repeated, waving Hall toward his son, knowing that he would be fine. Hall smiled at him gratefully – glad that he could check on his son.
After a few minutes, the door to the bathroom slammed open loudly. Benny came out, the witch jar clasped firmly in his hand. He strode over to his friend extending his left arm to help Ethan up, temporarily ignoring the Halls.
"You got it?" Ethan asked weakly as Benny helped him up.
Benny nodded, waving the jar in his hand. "She was mean but I got her," he handed his friend a potion. "I can't heal you because the toilet was enchanted, but this should help."
After Ethan drank the potion, the two brothers turned toward the Halls. Mr. Hall was helping his son sit up and it appeared the teenager had suffered a blow to the head. Benny handed out another of his potions, explaining that it couldn't heal the broken arm but would most certainly help, as well as fix any disorientation from the blow to the head. Hall was very grateful but the boys just wanted to leave. They shrugged off all his thanks, heading back down the stairs and out of the house. Hall was so flustered he didn't even remember that he had driven them. It didn't matter to them though, Benny snapped his fingers for the second time that day and they rematerialized at their apartment. Benny helped Ethan to the magic room where he had more medical supplies. He couldn't magically fix the wound, but that didn't mean he couldn't help. His potion had taken the edge off the pain, and Ethan redressed the wound while Benny searched for a better potion. Eventually he found one that suited his needs, handing it to Ethan and flicking his left hand slightly to dispose of the bloody bandages.
"Like I said, it won't heal you," he told his friend, "but this potion should stop the bleeding. It's a cursed wound, so it will take a while to heal, but I can keep giving you potions for the pain."
"Thanks," Ethan managed to say after he downed the potion. "Did you manage to save dinner?"
Benny chuckled, that was just like Ethan, distracting others about the problems they were experiencing and downplaying his own pain. He never understood how his brother could be so selfless, but it was one of the things he loved about Ethan and one of the reasons why they were always so successful. "I put a stasis spell on the oven," he finally said, "the chicken should be OK, but it hasn't been cooking, do you mind if I heat it up myself?"
Ethan smiled weakly. "I know I told you no magic to make dinner today but I don't think either of us was expecting to have to go fight a ghost. I think I speak for both of us when I say I'm hungry, go ahead and cook it."
Together they headed into the kitchen, sitting down at the table. Both of them were drained and Benny used his magic to prepare dinner, ensuring that neither of them had to get up. Soon dinner was ready, and Benny used his magic to cut the chicken knowing that Ethan would be eating with his left hand. Dinner passed in silence, neither of them willing to muster up the energy to say anything. Eventually though, as Benny magiced the dishes clean and banished them back to their cabinets, he remembered something he had meant to ask Ethan. "Did you figure out if the kid is a spellcaster?" He asked as he helped Ethan up from the table.
Ethan nodded, "Yeah, he's pretty low level though."
"Does he know?" Benny asked.
"I don't think so," Ethan replied, "but I only got a glimpse, so I don't really know."
Recognizing that his friend was too exhausted and in too much pain to think clearly, Benny stopped his questioning and helped Ethan to his bedroom. As Ethan turned in for the night Benny realized that he wasn't tired enough to go to sleep. Instead he headed back to the magic room, pulling out the witch jar in which he had trapped the ghost. He and Ethan had prepared for such events and had a locked chest that could only be opened by the two of them. Opening said chest, he deposited the witch jar beside the other jars already present. He didn't yet know how to dispose of the spirits that were trapped which was why they kept them in a locked chest. All of the spirits that he and Ethan had fought and trapped weren't exactly nice, and it would've been very bad if any of them escaped. The chest was getting full though, and Benny knew that they would have to figure something out soon. He headed back to the kitchen, grabbing the book that he had left there before dinner started the first time. He might as get some reading in, it would be awhile before he was tired enough to sleep - or rather, before the adrenaline faded.