Chapter 1: Welcome to my world

Define normal; is it a family of 4, white picket fence, 2 story house? Or perhaps normal is going through life just doing the best you can with what you have?

But what if I told you what is normal to you isn't normal for me? I was born in a world not many of you could understand. Some call us the Devil's children, because they are afraid of us.

The truth is, not everything is what it seems. There are other kinds of people out there, you just aren't ready for us. We aren't evil; of course there are those of us who are good and bad, not unlike "the normals". That's what we call the regular humans with no powers or supernatural phases.

I have lived my life so far, in the 17 years I've been alive, wanting what everyone else considered to be normal. Again I ask, define normal. There are so many different translations, from all kinds of different perspectives, on what's normal.

Maybe I'm as normal as my kind will ever be, but nothing feels right about having to live in fear of showing one's true self without having to deal with the normals trying to run us off or burning our houses down trying to deliver themselves from evil that's upon them.

My name is Cember, by the way (I was born in December, which is why my mom chose to give me that name), and I'm a Caster, a breed of witch. Not to be mistaken as a hexenbiest. Just thinking about their woge makes me shudder. Unlike a hexenbiest or any other supernatural creature, a grimm sees the true nature of a caster. If they are evil, they look very very dark, almost grey skinned with blazing firey orange eyes. But a good caster's true appearance will look angelic, and our eyes are bright golden in color.

I'm not even sure grimms exist, I've only heard of them through stories my parents have told me, but why wouldn't they? My family and I are all casters, my dad died closing a portal putting away an evil caster named Ziera; my best friend, Maysen Simmons, who I grew up with, and his dad are both Coyotls (Maysen's mom died during giving birth to him, she was a kehrseite-schlich-kennen, a human who knows about wesen). There's all kinds of wesen.

Wesen is the more politically correct term for what we are. And tho we call the regular humans "the normals" the correct term for them would be kehrseite (humans who don't know about wesen).

"Cember, are you meeting Maysen at the park today?" My mom asked.

"Yes mom, I'm heading out right now." I said throwing on a coat and walked out the door. The park was only a 10 minute walk, Maysen lived half way there. He was waiting for me at the end of his driveway.

He smiled widely, "About time you showed up. I've been standing out here 15 minutes now."

"I know, you ready to go?" As much as I would like to say we were going to the park to just hang out, that wasn't the case. Maysen had gotten into some trouble with the law over some minor misdemeanor 5 months ago, and was given community service. He didn't want me to help him, just wanted me there to make it less boring, but I always help him.

He shrugged. "I'm as ready as I can be, I guess."

On our way there we saw a group of 4 men ahead, and it was apparent they had seen us too, as there were now walking towards us. "This isn't good." Maysen said.

"What?" I asked, wondering what he meant.

"They smell like weed and alcohol. And I can smell something off about them."

"Let's just keep walking passed them and just not mess with them." I said, trying to remain calm.

Maysen, looking at them intensely and said, "Yeah, we can try that."

As they were now right on top of us the tallest and roughest looking one stopped and looked at Maysen. "Hey kid, you got any cigarettes?"

"No. No I don't. Excuse us, we're just passing by. We don't want no problems."

The rest of the guys gathered around Maysen and me, Maysen was right, they did smell like weed and alcohol. "Ooo I love the smell of fear. Makes them taste so much better." One of the men said.

"Leave us alone!" I hollered angrily at them.

The tall rough one rushed at me grabbing my face and that's when Maysen woged. He attacked the tall one, but the rest of them rushed to assist their friend. All 4 of the men were woged, they were all Blutbaden.

I was just about to use a power force to throw them off Maysen when out of nowhere this woman with a black hoodie ran in and the next thing I saw was heads flying off. She looked at me and I saw her empty black pit eyes, there was nothing in them but my own reflection. "A grimm?" I whispered. She had cut all 4 of the Blutbaden's heads off. And went toward Maysen, clearly going for him next. I ran in front of him throwing my hands out in front of me sending a force toward the grimm throwing her a good few feet away from us.