Chapter 1:

I cannot believe I'm here. How did this all happen? I was fine, I had everything planned. No mistakes, I did what I was taught. So how come I ended up on the backseat of that car, watching my house burn down, escaping the safe life that I had planned for myself. I was finally getting out of there. Maybe going back to the beginning would help me make sense.

Two years ago, I moved in a small abandoned house in Walhalla, North Dakota, less than a thousand habitant. I had escaped my old life in California where my name and my reputation had made it difficult for me to stay anonymous any longer. The successive disappearances of every member of my family had started to arouse suspicions. So I left. Again. People in Walhalla did ask questions when we arrived with my uncle, who was barely ten years older, ready to settle in, coming from nowhere. My new name was Betty Miller, orphan after a car incident that killed both my parents, and now raised by my uncle Tom, the new physics teacher. Everything was going fine, I did not get much attention here, my academic results were spotless, like my behavior. I had a few friends, though no one close enough to share my deep secrets and all of that crap. The kind of life I had dreamt to have as a kid.

But they found me, like they always do. What is the phrase? Where angels go, trouble follows. Well, it must be the same with witches. Tom and I were on our usual investigations. Two college kids had been slaughtered by some kind of animal over three weeks. Nothing to alarm the cops, animal attacks are not really unusual in North Dakota. But we had to follow up. Tom did not want to let any demon spot me here, or we would have to move again. He liked the place. So we went looking for answers. The bodies were shred, we couldn't even recognized the victims. Demons with claws then. The murders had not been committed during full moon, so we were not expecting werewolves; and Tom was afraid that they might be the victims of hellhounds, which meant that demons were in town. That was not a good sign for me, we had to act fast and get rid of them before they found out that Betty Miller was actually the witch all Hell was after. Luckily, my "uncle" had good relations with the sheriff department and the council committee; everybody loved him in this town. Everybody loved him at school too, which was no wonder: besides being a very handsome and charming man, Tom was also kind, caring, one of the good ones. He started training me a few years ago, even before the last member of my family died. He had been a hunter for decades, ever since his family had been slaughtered by a group of vampires near L.A.; which my aunts later killed. You might think he was looking for revenge, but I would rather say he was craving for peace. He had never tried to live a normal life after this, and I felt responsible for that. How can a man like him date when he has a girl hidden in his closet? He had had a few girls, of course, but nothing seems to matter apart from the training. We had spent so much time taking care of each other that the rest of the world started to fade away. It was then quite natural to spend our Friday afternoon questioning the victims' families. First one was Matthew Corin, freshman at UND; his mother gave us the usual answers : "he didn't have any enemies, everybody loved him", "he was such a sweet kid"… She was really suspicious of me being here though, and she did not really buy my story about an elegy in the school newspaper. One thing I have learnt is that people are never "such sweet kids", everyone has a secret, a flaw. One trip to his room pretexting a bathroom break taught me that Matthew's was popularity. When his mother claimed that everybody loved him, what she actually meant was that he was popular in college, but before, not so much. No pictures on the wall, no signed yearbook, no sign of a social activity. Was he the type of guy to exchange his soul for popularity? Could be.

"So what did you find?" Tom asked once we were back inside the car.

"Nothing special, I guess he was kind of an outcast in high school, but grew popular in college"…

"Just like many other kids" he interrupted. "Let's check the other family". As he started the car, a black impala parked behind us in front of the Corin's house. The Feds.

"Let's move on, I've got some homework waiting for me at home" I pointed out.

The other family was more helpful. Chloe (that was the name of the second victim) was in third-year of med school, she had been attacked while visiting her parents for a weekend. She had never been successful at school but everything changed two years ago, when suddenly she succeeded at everything she did without even a change in attitude. Her parents seemed to think that maybe someone might have been jealous of her. They even went as far as to hint at a woman she had met here in Wallhalla, at the time when everything changed for Chloe. We are definitely dealing with a Crossroad Demon.

"So how are we doing this?" I asked Tom.

"There is no "we", you've got homework to do, remember?" he grinned at me.

"Don't be ridiculous, you know I need the training, we can't let her escape, it's too dangerous"

"Exactly, it's too risky, the stakes are too high, drop it" This was the end of the discussion.

Like I was going to listen to him. Tom may train me, but he was only human and this was too dangerous.

There was not many crossroads in the small town of Wallhalla, about ten actually, but there was only three that both victims had in common. After much trouble, Tom agreed to bring me with him to search the crossroads for signs of a trade, on the condition that I would disappear when the demon showed up.

The second crossroad was the good one. We found two boxes there. Tom drew some entrapping symbols on the ground so that the demon wouldn't escape and summoned him. I pretended to go away, but stayed hidden instead, just in case. And I was right.

The demon appeared and when it realized that it was trapped, got hold of Tom's arm. I panicked. I couldn't let him die because of me, like the rest of my family. I reappeared and threw an energy ball at her. She was thrown on the floor, Tom crawled away, and I was pushed down on the floor too. That, I did not expect. The guys I thought were Feds earlier on were aiming at me with a gun. The taller one killed the crossroad demon with some kind of knife, her black spirit vanished in the air, and helped Tom stand up. What the Hell? They were clearly hunters, so why did he want to shoot me?

"Wait, what are you doing?" yelled Tom, finally.

"Listen, man, she is not who you think she is…" The shorter one replied.

"Who you think she is", what did that mean? Did they know who I really was? Were they working for the other side?

"She is not a demon, she's a witch…" Tom argued, probably as lost as I was.

"Exactly, she's a witch, she needs to be killed or all the murders won't stop, I don't know what she told you, man but…"

"Wait, what?" I commented. "I never killed anyone! What kind of hunters are you? You know the legends with the broom and stuff aren't real, right?"

"Yeah, smart move, pissing off the guy aiming at you with his rifle, young lady"

"She didn't do it, the crossroad demon did; it was collecting the souls. Witches don't rip people apart" Tom argued.

"Witches have magic, they can do whatever they want, especially for revenge"

"There's a difference between the good witches and the bad ones, dumbass. If I were a revengeful witch, you would already be dead by now" I said, my face still on the concrete. This was starting to get on my nerves. Either they did not know what they were doing or they were trying to justify themselves for capturing me and send me straight to Hell. It was impossible for me to watch Tom's expression, so I trusted my guts and decided they were just morons.

"Listen, I know what you are doing, just let Tom go, and I'll follow you so that you can get the reward, if you're stupid enough to think they will nicely give it to you without killing you first. You are hunters after all"

It worked: the shorter one turned me over and asked "what reward?" They did not look like hunters at all. More like underwear models, I would say. One was very tall, athletic, rather long dark brown hair. The other one was slightly smaller, with a rounder face and green eyes. Though they did not look the same, they had some kind of resemblance. They were probably brothers: hunters don't track in groups unless they are family. And they sure were hunters; I could tell by the way they were dressed. No demon would be dressed like workers or hikers. It would be hard to fight those guys, even with Tom's help, and using my powers on them could kill them, I couldn't risk it.

"I'm not a fool, stop pretending you don't know who I am. We all know you are here to take me straight to Hell where demons will welcome me with open arms. So drop the game "oh she's a bad witch, let's capture her" ok, there's only two stupid guys here" I replied.

"What the Hell are you talking about? Who are you? We are no Hell bitches here" said the shorter one, while helping me get up. Apparently my little trick worked: they were as stupid as they were handsome then, good to know.

Tom started speaking: "She's a witch. I don't know what you've heard, but witches are supposed to be good. The ones you are hunting are those who turned their back on good, natural magic. Some demons are after her, because she is hunting, like you, she's a threat. So we are hiding here, in Wallahalla. Now, because of your little intervention, the demon probably saw her and there may be a chance that the word is already spreading down there, so if you'll excuse us" He took my hand and we walked away.

"Wait a minute, what can we do to help? We can find you a new identity, or help you fight…" said the taller one.

"You've done enough, thank you." We had no time to waste on hunters. If Tom was right, we were already in danger.