Seth tossed and turned in his sleep. He was clutching his backpack to his chest, the black box inside throbbed with darkness, the tendrils of shadow reaching out for his mind.
Master. Master, I will serve you, Master. Just let me out, Master. I will serve only you, Master. Master. The wraith's whispers echoed through his head.
He growled a little and tried to block out the noise in his dreams, yet it still came back, and stronger, with more voices.
Master! Master, free us! We'll serve you! Only you, Master. Please, I'm lost. I need someone to hear me, Master. Listen to my voice, speak to me! O, Great Shadow Charmer! Master. Master! Master.
Seth woke in a cold sweat and the voices slowly faded from his mind. He lay there, gasping and blinking in the darkness, trying to calm down. A hand came out of nowhere and grabbed his shoulder, he punched the assailant and the person stumbled back with a grunt and a thud as they hit the ground. Seth quickly sat up and leaped out of bed, quickly snapping into a defensive stance that Bracken had taught him earlier that summer.
"Good punch." Bracken grumbled, turning on the light and pinching his nose closed as the silver blood ran out of his right nostril. "Great aim; did you know where my nose was?" He asked as he swallowed back the blood and straightened his back again, un-pinching his nose.
Seth winced, "Sorry, Bracken. I just thought-"
"I was an enemy, yes I know." Bracken finished for him, nodding in forgiveness. "It's fine, but you were having a bad dream, it looked bad. Was it one of the ones you've been having recently?"
Seth nodded and let out a sigh as he sat back down on the bed, "Yeah, a bunch of undead were calling out to me again. Telling me to free them, talk to them, listen to them… They kept calling me 'Master', I hate that, and it's creepy."
Bracken nodded and sat next to Seth on the bed and pointed to the backpack that Seth had been clutching tightly in his sleep. "Was the voice of the wraith in the box the loudest?"
Seth nodded and swallowed, his mouth felt dry and sticky. "Yeah." He reached in the bag and drew out the smallish, black box with seals and charms on it, "It shouldn't get out, it is bound by the box and my word."
Bracken regarded the young Shadow Charmer with experienced eyes. Seth's eyes would take on a formidable darkness whenever he thought about something related to his chosen path in life. Bracken knew that many Shadow Charmers had easily fallen to darkness in the past, but he would not let Seth suffer the same fate.
Seth turned the box over and over in his hands looking carefully at the words and markings on the bindings. He then lifted the box flat on the palm of his hands so it was level with his eyes and stared at it blankly.
The unicorn watched this worriedly, studying the ever-darkening dark circles under the boy's eyes. Then saw Seth's eyes flash a deep, blood red; Bracken smacked the box out of Seth's hands and put a hand over Seth's eyes.
"Seth Sorenson, can you hear me?" He questioned, quickly scanning the boy's mind.
"Yes, of course I can." The words came from Seth's mouth calmly.
Bracken frowned, "Tell me something you like."
"…Banana Pudding."
"Now tell me something you dislike,"
"… Centaurs."
Bracken uncovered the boys' eyes, "Welcome back, Seth."
Seth squinted and blinked, "What happened?" He asked hazily, looking around the hotel room he was sharing with Bracken and Warren.
Bracken shook his head and patted Seth on the back, "You just started using your powers for a moment there, you might have been trying to break the seals on the box."
Seth looked over to where the box lay on the carpet, and walked over to retrieve it. He put it back in his backpack and turned to Bracken, "It's in my backpack, see? I won't be trying to open it anymore."
Bracken relaxed slightly and took the backpack from Seth as the boy went to go get a drink of water, but he still sensed something deeply wrong with Seth's mind. Something wasn't right, but it was so slight, so small that he just overlooked it. A little mar on the psyche of the young Shadow Charmer, left there in his mind like a seed, waiting to grow.