A/N: Yay! I finally updated! It's about friggin TIME, isn't it? Please don't hit me with any sharp objects or anything, I've just had writer's block on this story for a reaaaaally long time now. But the muse has descended again. Yay.

Ooo, I forgot! Thankies to all my lovely reviewers! You guys are way too nice. ^_^ I don't deserve all these compliments, especially since I know I suck at writing. (Yar, I have very low self-esteem.) Anyway, I'm done rambling now. Everybody review! Compliment, criticize, or flame--tis up to you (although flames will be laughed at).

Meg swore and sat up, looking around for the pencil she had dropped. Rising, she got down on her hands and knees and searched all around and under the bench, but the pencil was apparently gone. Sighing, she rose and shut her journal.

Guess I'm done writing for today, then. Stretching, she squinted in the sunlight, trying to make out the handle for the door back to the attic. The handle was excellently disguised, having been painted as a blue something-or-other that fit into the overall roof composition perfectly. At last she found it, and yanked open the door.

The journal she tucked under her arm, careful not to drop it the way she had last time she'd been in here. She was halfway through the attic when she paused and looked around, not even sure what the hell she was looking for.

There was a set of drawers standing right next to her, with several drawers laying strewn on the floor around it and one sticking out at an odd angle. She peered into the drawer, and saw nothing but a small, thin dagger within. Curious, she picked up the dagger and examined it.

The dagger was curiously dust-free for having been stuck up in an attic for so long; the hilt was made of ebony, with an engraving of twin serpents coiled around each other. Only one eye of each snake was showing; one had an embedded sapphire for an eye, and the other a ruby. The blade was well-polished, and looked almost supernaturally sharp.

The world had become somehow distant and surreal, and she wasn't really sure anymore what she was doing. Slowly, as if in a dream, she watched her hand move the dagger to her arm and slice into the skin, and stared at the carmine blood that welled up from the wound as though fascinated.

She awoke all at once, staring about the room with wide eyes. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was seeing a knife--and now she was sitting in her bed, with a bandage wrapped around her lower arm. What the hell had happened?

"You're awake." It was Jason's voice, but he sounded odd in a way that she couldn't quite place.

"What the hell happened?" Shoving aside the sheets, she rose from her bed and stretched.

She heard him take a deep breath, and exhale. "It's sort of a long story."

"Yeah, well I don't have anything better to do."

"That was...the Dagger of Decousion."

Sounded like a weapon in some RPG. "Which is?"

"Decousion is a creature which is commonly known as a demon. It was sealed into that dagger some time ago, by a certain sorceress--probably the most decent thing she ever did in her life. However, there are conditions to it's imprisonment."

He paused. After a moment, she got tired of waiting for him to continue. "And these conditions would be..."

He sounded reluctant to continue, but he did. "Decousion has something of a talent for mind control, especially when it comes to those with untrained magic. The conditions of it's imprisonment are that if it somehow gets mage's blood on it's blade...it will be free."

Meg had a sinking suspicion she knew what was coming next. "So you're telling me that I..."
"You set Decousion free. Indeed."

"Shit." Sighing, she collapsed on her bed.

"I'm afraid I must agree with that assessment of the situation."

She giggled in spite of herself; something about that formally-stated sentence just struck her as being funny. "But then that means I'm a mage."

"An untrained one. But yes."

"Well, then. Will you train me?"
A pause, and then, "I cannot."

She sat up again, something striking a nerve. "Well, why the hell not? And why don't you ever come out of those stupid rooms of yours, huh? Why do you always have to be so damn secretive? I've been living with it for a week and I'm sick and tired of it!"

"You don't--Meg?"

She didn't even hear him. She had already left her rooms and was stomping out into the hallway, heading for the double doors that led to the master bedroom. Reaching the doors, she pounded on them with enough force that it sent echoes all through the hall. "Let me in!"

"No!"

"Yes!" She leaned on the door. No success.

"No!"
"I said yes, dammit!" Digging in her jeans pocket for a lock pick, she retrieved one and set about picking the lock.

"The locks are magicked against thieves. And I said no."

The lock disintegrated, burning her hand. "Shit. Well then let me the hell in!"

"No!"

She leaned against the door, getting a sarcastic look on her face--she really hoped that Jason Taylor, wherever he was, could see it. "Trust me. I can outstubborn a mule, just ask any of my friends. Or enemies, for that matter. You're not going to win."

"I doubt that. I've been practicing at being stubborn for a lot longer than you have."

"Bullshit! You're only four years older than me!" Pounding on the door some more, she began muttering a highly inventive string of obscenities under her breath.

"This door is not opening, no matter how many times you knock!"

Leaning on the door again, she folded her arms over her chest. "Yeah, well--"

Something thick and black materialized in front of her. It looked like it was made of liquid smoke, vaguely human-shaped but far too skinny to be any human, even the most anorexic one. It was completely nude, with a woman's breasts but a set of male genitalia that Meg hastily diverted her eyes from.

Decousian the demon reached out a long, slender finger, touching it ever so gently to the doors. They swung open without a hitch. The demon grinned mockingly at the one who had released it and bowed, then was gone.

Meg took a deep breath, telling her heart to stop hammering in her chest, and walked inside the master bedroom and looked around. Okay, ton of bookshelves, desk in the middle of the room, chest of drawers, a gigantic bed with velvet curtains--where the hell was Jason?


"Get the hell out here!" she demanded.

With a growl that was so beastial it was frightening, he stepped out from the concealing shadows. "Fine!"

He threw back the hood of his robe. She screamed.

The creature that was Jason Taylor was definitely the most inhuman thing she had ever seen, and probably the ugliest. His head and hands were entirely covered in coarse black fur; his hands ended in five wickedly sharp claws rather than fingernails. He had a very short muzzle, more of a suggestion of one than anything else; his nose was large, flat, and black, and he had fangs that showed even when his mouth was closed. His eyes were the strangest part. One was almost entirely a vertical slit, while the other was mostly horizontal. They were both mostly made of pupil, without any visible iris. And he was large, as well--his head practically scraped the ceiling, and the ceiling in this particular room wasn't exactly low.

She scrambled backward in a frantic need to get away, and tripped over the desk chair in her haste. It sent her crashing to the floor, where she managed to crawl backwards until she was crouched in a corner. She didn't have enough presence of mind to climb to her feet and run; all she could do was stare at this--this monster.

"Now you know," he growled, low in his throat. "I'm...a monster."


Somehow, the uncanny echo of her own thoughts made her recover her senses. Grabbing at the corner of the desk, she pulled herself to her feet and began to run, straight down the hallway and downstairs at a speed that was most definitely dangerous to her health.

As she ran out the great double doors and headed for the gate to leave this damned place, she thought she heard laughter behind her. It wasn't quite what one would classify as demonic, but somehow she knew it was Decousian.

A/N: Short chapter, but I've been inspired to write this story again, so you'll have more soon. ^_^ Will Meg ever come back? Will Decousian wreak havoc on Jason's castle? Will I ever get a life? All this and a free box of Spearmint besides, on the next episode of Cursed Rose!

Er, I had to say it. Sorry.