The boss demon's hand curled into a fist as he slammed it against the stone wall. A piece of it broke and fell to the ground as dust swirled around the area that had been hit. The three remaining Vestal demons bowed their heads out of fear as their leader displayed his annoyance. One of them raised his head and addressed his leader to offer placation.
"Master," he uttered, "I will avenge the demise of…"
"Silence!" the demon's master screamed. Extending a hand to the demon who spoke, an athame appeared in the demon's hand and without warning, the demon ran himself through with the dagger, killing himself. His face carried a pained expression as he slowly slumped to the ground. As the life drained from his body, flames slowly began to flicker around him, gradually becoming a majestic conflagration that consumed him completely until nothing remained. The remaining two Vestal demons did not dare to look at neither their comrade nor their master. "We must proceed with caution. The Complete have proven to be more of a challenge than I thought. I suppose their reputation is deserved. We shall see how they fare against me. They have never dealt with the likes of my power. I will destroy them, from the inside out."
The two Vestal demons nodded in agreeance with their leader, but kept their eyes fixed toward the ground. Only when they were spoken to did they raise their heads in obedience. They watched as their boss' eyes once again clouded over as he stared into the wooden slate. They watched in silence as he looked into the slab of wood as if it were showing him something. To them, they only saw a piece of wood. To him, though, he saw the evidence of his servant being vanquished by one of the Complete. It was not even the one he wanted. The mystical piece of wood showed him what he needed to see in order to make his next move.
"We must move quickly now," he ordered. "You will attack our target when he is alone, away from his brothers. If they interfere with my plans at this stage, everything could be ruined, and I will never gain enough power to leave this cursed place."
Holding out his hand, a larger slab of wood materialized on the ground. It rose up until it was waist level to the Vestal demons. The leader began to speak to them as he waved his hand mystically in the air. With every flick of his hands, images began to appear on the wooden slate.
"You must corner him at this place," the leader explained, continuing to wave his hand. The images became more and more clear. "He will do everything in his power to stop you, but the two of you can easily overpower him. With the initial shock of his loss clouding his judgment, he will fall prey to you and you will bring him here."
The two Vestal demons looked intently at the wooden slate. It showed Wesley and another with him. They were instructed to eliminate any obstacles in their way of obtaining their target. They once again bowed their heads, acknowledging their master's words. They were well aware of his power, having witnessed it twice already. They knew that his power would be the end of the three brother witches, enabling him to escape his prison. While they were free to come and go, they could never know freedom as long as their master remained trapped.
James walked aimlessly through a vast gray area. There was neither a definite beginning nor a definite end to this place. It stretched out infinitely in every possible direction. Even the sky was colored this strange shade of gray, making it blend into the rest of this peculiar world. James continued to walk, hoping that something could alert him to what was happening. Looking around, James noticed that all of the buildings seemed empty and lifeless, as if he had somehow landed in a ghost town. Any establishment that he entered looked the exact same: dull and devoid of life. He began to wonder what had happened to him. With his younger brothers, Matthew and Wesley, nowhere to be found, his mind raced through a list of all the demons and warlocks they had faced, trying to single out one with this sort of power, the power to send people to alternate dimensions. His thinking was interrupted, however, when he heard a faint voice far off in the distance.
"Hey!" the voice called out to him. Or was it to someone else? Someone was calling him, James reasoned, because he seemed to be the only person around.
As he strained his eyes he could barely make out a silhouette of a young woman running toward him. At her current distance, James only saw medium length blondish hair swinging freely from side to side as the woman ran. As her more delicate features slowly became visible, he realized that her expression was one of distress. She wore a pained look on her face, and the frivolous frolic that James believed he had seen before instantly became a desperate dash to escape from her assailant, who James could now see faintly behind her.
He was at a slight disadvantage without his brothers; they were strongest together. But this time James was all alone. He quickly sprang into action, as usual. He took off running in the direction of the woman. The distance between them was greater than he had expected, and he saw that the woman's pursuer was closer to her than he was. This only fueled his determination to help her. Steadily approaching the woman, James observed the swarthy man who was the cause of her distress. He looked oddly familiar to James. His hair, height, build, everything about him seemed so memorable. Whatever it was, though, James quickly put it out of his mind as he focused on his priority.
He still had too much ground to cover, and his enemy was almost within reach of his prey. James desperately reached his right hand in front of him, hoping that he was close enough. Suddenly, he lurched backwards and landed hard on the dirt covered ground. Looking up, he saw that the woman was now alone, her follower having somehow been stopped. He quickly stood to his feet and continued running, finally reaching the woman. Upon seeing her clearly, he felt a strange sensation of déjà vu run through his body. Had he seen this person before, or was it just a fluke?
"Are you okay?" he asked through heavy panting, having covered almost a mile in such a short time.
"No!" she cried out frantically and a little delirious. "H-He's coming to get me! You gotta help me!"
"Calm down!" James responded, trying to comfort her in his arms. He looked around in all directions, but the strange man was now out of sight. "Where did he go?"
"I don't know!" she said, "but he'll be back! He always comes back! Please! Don't let him take me back!"
"Take you back where?" James asked. Looking into the woman's piercing blue eyes, something seemed so familiar about her. "And who is the man you're talking about?"
"It's…" she replied slowly as she looked into James' icy blue eyes clearly for the first time. Her own eyes widened, as if she had seen a ghost. She fainted in James' arms, no longer able to handle the shock.
James was lost. He had no idea of what had just happened. What had he done to make this woman faint? He started to suspect that he had a part to play in this mystery, but his exact role remained unknown. As he laid her gently down on the ground, things got even more bizarre. She opened her eyes, once again conscious, and stared into James' eyes. Her body began to tremble like she was standing outside on a cold winter afternoon in a bikini. She opened her mouth to speak, but before a word came out, she disappeared in a violent explosion of tiny blue and violet orbs of light, leaving him alone again to figure things out. With a puzzled expression on his face, his world suddenly went black.
James jerked upright in his bed, sweat dripping down his forehead. Looking around, he reoriented himself to his surroundings. He was in his bedroom. It was that dream again. Why he was having this same dream over and over again was troubling him. What irked him even more was the fact that the dream was so clear in his mind that he could remember every detail. No other dreams had ever been like this before. Strangely, though, the more he tried to think about the woman from the dream, the fuzzier her details became. Was this some kind of premonition? Was that even possible? He dismissed the notion; Matthew was the one who received those, not him. He looked over at his clock. He had been asleep for hours. He swung his feet over the side of the bed and lazily rolled out of it.
Walking downstairs, the reality of what happened earlier quickly set in; debris was everywhere. The living room was totaled and nothing had been cleaned up so far. He hopped over what was left of the couch and coffee table to the door leading to the basement. He cautiously looked around, half thinking that a demon or warlock lurked somewhere in the shadows. He put it out of his mind and continued to the Book of Light. Sighing, he opened to the first page and decided that it was necessary to figure out why he had had this dream so many nights in a row. He planned on spending the rest of the evening looking for answers.