"Why?" a terrified and desperate woman shouted out to her assailant. "I thought you loved me!"

"You have something that I want," a man replied to her in a very dark, but matter-of-fact voice. "And I will take what I want."

"But I don't know what you're talking about!" she pleaded with tears streaming down her face and dripping onto her gray blouse, staining it.

Robin Acker sat helplessly in a chair in her own home, her hands and feet bound tightly by thick ropes so that she could not escape. She had been dating Daniel Lyles for just under a year now, and their relationship had been nothing short of a dream for her. They met at a beach in Miami; she was sunbathing and he was surfing. As he returned to the shore, he happened to catch a glimpse of her, lying alone, and decided to strike up a conversation. They exchanged pleasantries, small talk, and gradually moved to more interesting topics. He told her about his job as a delivery driver for a shipping company, while she mentioned that she was a makeup artist. The two of them discussed the highs and lows of their respective jobs, and shared a significant amount of laughter.

The afternoon at the beach went along so pleasantly that they decided to extend their encounter to dinner and drinks. They got to know more about each other and made the mutual decision to begin casually dating, which eventually led to a more serious relationship. Daniel found that he was infatuated and intrigued with Robin, constantly wanting to know more about her background, her family life, her interests. Robin dismissed it as just wanting to get to know her, and never really thought anything more about it; she was simply thrilled that she had come across a man who seemed to show a genuine interest in her. To that effect, she volunteered as much information about herself as he could take in, and in return he entrusted her with some of his innermost secrets…except one.

The one thing that Daniel kept carefully hidden from Robin was that although he was interested in her, it was not because of the reasons that Robin would have thought. Daniel had done a lot of research on Robin and discovered that she possessed a coveted, yet nascent power that he needed to move forward in his own plans. With her not even knowing about this mysterious ability, Daniel knew that he had to proceed cautiously and help her to slowly develop it so that he could take it. After all, he was a warlock; his primary goal was to kill witches and steal their powers.

"Haven't you ever wondered why you're always so knowledgeable about so many things?" Daniel asked, tiptoeing around Robin and savoring the feelings of terror that Robin exuded. He took them in, inhaling deeply as if her fear was an overpowering scent of which he could not get enough. It almost seemed intoxicating to him. "You never thought it was weird that I was so interested in that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Robin repeated adamantly, shaking her head vigorously. "You're making a big mistake! Please…you're scaring me!"

"Robin, my dear Robin," Daniel explained, stopping to look into her brown eyes, "I have to tell you something that I was hoping you'd figure out on your own, but oh well. You see, you're…for lack of a better word…a witch."

"A what!?" she exclaimed in disbelief. "There's no such thing as witches, Daniel! What is this all about?"

"Think about it," Daniel told her. "All those feelings of déjà vu that you have all the time. You've talked about weird dreams you've had that somehow came true. Sometimes you feel like you know what's going to happen before it does. Sweetheart, that's not a coincidence; that's your power."

"My power?" she repeated, her eyes displaying a combination of disbelief and shock. "I don't have any powers. I'm just plain old Robin Acker from Miami, Florida. I do people's make up. I'm a regular person."

"But you're far from regular," Daniel contradicted. "You are, in fact, a witch. You just don't know you're a witch, and you haven't developed your powers fully…at least not yet. That's what brings us here. I'm getting tired of waiting for you to figure this all out, so I'm going to speed things up a bit."

"You're going to WHAT?" Robin asked. She was still resistant to everything Daniel was telling her. None of this made any sense. Witches and magical powers were so far out of her realm of possibility that she did not know what to make of this situation. As far as she knew, Daniel was messing with her for some reason, teasing her.

She suspected something was strange when he first offered to tie her up in his seductive voice, suggesting that they try some new erotic activities. She was hesitant at first, but he persisted and convinced her to try it. In the back of her mind, she could almost feel that something was wrong with the whole idea. He had never brought anything like this up in the time they had known each other, and as far as she knew, neither of them had any complaints about their private lives. At the moment he blindfolded her, she thought she saw images…flashes…of what was happening to her. She could swear she saw him wrapping ropes around her hands and her feet, securing her to a chair. It was as if she was outside of her own body, watching herself be bound and blindfolded. She dismissed it as nervous anticipation of what Daniel insisted would be an unforgettable night.

"Your power," Daniel clarified for Robin, "is what I've been waiting for you to develop. In order for me to grow stronger, I need more power. You have the power that will help me to get to where I must be, well you along with a few other people. I've mapped this out for a very long time. You see where I'm going with this, right?"

"I…" Robin started to say, but she was speechless. No matter what Daniel said to her, it all seemed like a bunch of nonsense to her. All she felt was confusion and fear.

Without warning, Daniel roughly placed both his hands on either side of Robin's head, frightening her even more and causing her to scream. He ignored her and closed his eyes, concentrating on what he needed to do. After several moments, a small orange light began to emanate from his hands, penetrating into Robin's head and instantly silencing her. She inhaled sharply as her eyes shut and more images began to flood her mind. Memories of past events in her life replayed themselves and she was there, watching them as if they played on a television screen. This was exactly like when she thought she saw herself being bound by Daniel. She was once again outside of her body and witnessing herself leave her parents' house to go to the prom with Miles Carmichael. She saw herself walking across the stage at her graduation from high school. She saw herself shaking a man's hand as he handed her the keys to her first car. Her most memorable moments were clearer than ever, and as she saw them, she could almost feel them. For the second time, she relived the joy, the exhilaration, the anxiousness, the happiness, all of the emotions associated with each memory. Suddenly, the images stopped and she was back in her room, tied to a chair.

"Wh…what did you just do to me?" she asked in a low voice. She felt exhausted from having experienced such a vast amount of memories in such a short amount of time. "I…I saw my…my graduation. My…prom. My…"

"I used one of the powers I've acquired to awaken your own," Daniel said, removing his hands from Robin's head. "I can't take your power if it isn't already awakened inside you. It's not really the way I imagined this would go, but hopefully it worked enough for you to understand more."

"Understand," Robin repeated, in more of a monotone voice. As she settled down, the possibility that what Daniel said to her slowly turned into reality. Things were making more sense now. Witches and magic were real, and she knew that because she had a magical power; she could see visions of the past, present, and future. "Wait a minute. If I'm a witch…what does that make you?"

"I think you should know that by now," Daniel said to her, in a more sinister tone as he gently caressed her face with his hand.

Robin immediately shuddered as her world went dark again and images flooded her mind's eye. Daniel's touch had triggered her power of premonition. Cars are routinely driving across the San Francisco Bridge. A young teenage girl is in a clothing store. Her pink cell phone drops from her purse. A handsome young man picks it up and hands it to her. She reaches out and grabs the phone, but stops as her eyes widen. She seems to space out for a moment. There is a flash. Now three young men are standing in front of the young girl and two other teenagers. The three young men throw something at Daniel. Daniel throws his hands up in defense. She calmed herself and tried to hide the fact that she had just had a vision of some sort.

"A warlock," she spat in disdain. "You've just been using me to get my power. What about the past year? Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"It used to mean everything to me," Daniel answered. "Unfortunately, I gave that up a long time ago…when my true love was killed. But with your help, she and I will be together again soon."

Reaching into the side of his pants, he produced an elaborately designed dagger with ornate markings on it. Both the handle and the blade were the same bright silver color; curved engravings ran from the hilt to the tip seamlessly. The engraved etchings seemed to spell something out, but they looked more like hieroglyphs than actual letters. The only distinguishing feature that separated the blade from the hilt was the fact that the hilt was grooved, allowing it to be easily held, while the blade was flat and razor sharp.

He twirled it playfully around his fingers as he once again circled Robin, who could only follow him with her eyes. Her power of premonition no longer latent, her mind wrestled with trying to balance what she had just found out with what she was currently going through. While she wanted to remain as calm as possible, her vision confused her. It had nothing to do with her and how she might be able to get out of this situation. The only part of the vision she could connect with was the part concerning Daniel. But who were the others? What were they throwing? Why did he throw his hands up? So many questions rushed through her mind, none of which she could come up with an answer.

"If you already have powers of your own," she asked "why take mine? What good is my power to you?"

"More than you think," Daniel said as he teasingly slid the blade of the dagger across Robin's chest, relishing the idea of torturing her. "You have no idea how powerful your magic is. So much so, in fact, that it had to be split…"