Magi and Djinn World Tour- Student of the Dark Arts

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Horror, I saw the new Nosferatu and was soo flipping happy! Inspired by the macabre that is…

Bram? We love ya, big guy! THIS ONE IS ON US.

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Chapter 21: Paper Wind – Up Dolls

( The title came to me. Paper dolls are shikigami. Wind up dolls are dolls with a master to turn them on against their will. Find out!)

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Raku didn't dare feel alone in the room. Chas was there, yet he still wasn't entirely.

He wasn't sure what that even meant. There? Was he in bed, in school? Raku shivered and went to close a…

The room was in the House if Mystery. He observed the walls; laden in trinkets and ancient schools of olden days about new realms.

Here, the windiw remained shut. There was never a windows at all, ywt he'd nearly let in a demon from the outside to greet him in the in-between. The dreamer and his nightmares might never meet. Ignito had never allowed those gates to open wide before. What…

~ What?~

Raku turned back to the mantle in the room, fires smoking up wards and out in a clouded puff as he covered his face with a hacking gasp of air.

The crisp cackle was a whisper to his ears as the boy crawled back at what his eyes believed as, only a dream.

~ Lothos…~ The teen gasped, remembering on shaken a voice that he hated. No, he knew this devil's real face more than anything!

~ I cannot wait to see you again, my dear prince.~ Lothos was longing, kind every day since Lilu had left them to one another. His eyes shown with that same soft glee that had the child seep in a sharp intake too quickly.

It was not until the nights after the grooming and the meals that the boy pieced together it's real plan to take him back to its chambers. To do away with the fear and falsehoods as some old fairytale. One woven by horn priests and touch starved widows.

Red hair as fire, long as a lord's mane. Eyes as hot as cinders and his teeth. Oh, those lips beckoned the want from another it could not find.

Roku was gone and never coming back.

In his black and red, Raku knew where he'd later learned how to dress like a tyrant. This man was close to Lilith by their very flesh. And to him, to Roku…

He existed because that THING had decided to place its paws –

~ You're thinking, my dear. I've only come to tell you some good news. ~

~ Any news by your word is always poison.~ Raku snorted and tried to stand, the demon swaying in his cape as he rose. Black boots, a regal disposition as a renaissance lord. His eyes trickled with a tick of impotent rage. Withheld, as he didn't step quickly. He simply scanned over the little runt.

Little. He knew better than to think it.

~ Your body…how puny. I know of you, dear pet. This is not the way –

~I was raised back to a time when I had my thoughts.~ Raku soat again, his breath quickening as he found the knob.

~ Flee, and this will be our ticket out. That man, Chas? And of course, I know every thought.~ It smiled triumphantly. Raku's gut curdled as he hurled himself out the door, only to end up back in the room he'd left. He tried again, the demon grinning as it used the books in this room to craft a throne for itself via levitation magic. It took to fabricating A wine glass of a blood red substance. Ralu ran to the windiw, finding it locked shut. His head hurt, his heart hammering away as the demon sipped its sweet nectar.

~ Get out of my head, demon-

~ Who said it was yours that I was talking?~

~You always did that!!~

Raku scrambled back and searched fir a book, levitating what he could before he held a hand over his chest with a groan. ~ You won't this time be the one to free me. To allow me dominion? Perhaps.~

~My….book…~ Raku gasped, his breath lost as the demon only stayed at its makeshift throne, swirling the wine as red as blood. ~ Lilu isn't here. You can't even free her if you tried, pet. I know your pain. I have always known.~ It seemed confident. It wasn't even here. ( So, Lothos is definitely the villain kind if freak but he's more attracted to Raku through his role. Not as he is. Will be explained. Raku is not exactly Bi but he falls under asexual without knowing this. Heads up!)

Uncoordinated, he had to catch himself on his wrist with a near yell.

~ So weak, dear godling .~ Sighed the demon with long fingers to its temples ~ We trained that weakness out of you. Yet it found its way back. There is only one way, and you know…~

~ I can't be like you any longer.~

~ Of course, but you never were. A. Half – blood. Like me?~

Raku's eyes of lowered amber peered back. He was no longer human as he feared. Ever more so, Lothos saw right through how no matter what, how he could never be human fir fear of the entire world he'd built coming apart.

~ If you become a god-awful cave baby anyway, what good would it do? Hum? You kept your part, you even wanted to become a god when the time came. So, what happened to that pact-

~ It was broken.~ Raku said in a low whisper. ~ You're no longer allowed to shelter me. I know the truth.~

~ You don't know half of it all, kid.~

Right, Lothos…he'd bitten necks, devoured and cursed long enough to gain a modern form of speech. He was a modern devil in a modern land, or so it appeared despite his wardrobe malfunction.

~ You're think that I don't belong. That my appearance would be off putting. That is why, little exiled Djinni, we demand respect. What did I teach you to do to command –

~ I'm not him. I'm never going to….b-

Raku held a hand over his mouth as his eyes shut, twisting closed. He screamed into his hand as something tar black flew from his mouth. A bike he'd known ….he….

~ Are you sure that there isn't a little bit of a Red lord left in you?~ Lothos sat up and leaned into his fist while swirling his red elixir away from the book throne.

~ She never told you. That darkness belonged there. It was just the kiss of life you needed to bloom. I was there for your sake. Always.~

~ You tainted me…I…!~ Raku couldn't stop. The vomit was black. Turned blood that had no odor. No scent as it was in sporadic moments. He wretched over and was to all fours. Lothos's boots squished through the puddle as he cocked his head down at the boy at his feet. The red mixed atop his head as the caking scented of iron.

Raku kept vomiting until as he passed out, he heard the sky echo his name.

And a –

~ WAKE UP!!~

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Far worse than dying, far worse.

His body remained cold as a living corpse while someone shook his shoulders upright.

The gust of wind, there was nothing.

"Lad."

"Raku??" Jen was there as the phone stayed crackling by her side. ~ Laddies, I'm on my way to John. Hold tight.~ Big Jenny was there. So…wait…

" No…we, we have to –

"Fir your own safety, you can't budge an inch, lad." Chas forewarned the boy, getting under him to lift him bridally onto a lounger in the room "I…he won't-

"John is fighting too. You need rest, rest up." Jen helped, the feeling in his limbs not of his own power. He must be cursed by that…that…blood sucker! If only they knew that Lothos was no ordinary succubi. He appearance of a young king. A demon of a hybrid kinship. Like Raku, his soul was bound to the earthen. He could never be of the child – kind or have one, so…

" He won't have me…"

Jen frowned, Chas not whipping round to ask. "Rest." He ordered as the fire was given more wood. A ward was brought up there as he went to the door and did the same to it. "Jen, keep an eye. I'm going to check over the apartment."

"Let me –

"No." Chas was a character going out to hunt, as Raku saw that glower before.

It stung badly that Chas wasn't going to win his life back this time so, he shut his eyes, wanting to cry but fearless of it.

~ One, one time you defy and the world twists into position. He can be freed from his curse, only a little while?~

Raku gasped, calling out to Chas as he flung the door back a pinch. The boy got up, wobbling and dead footed. "No! Don't go!! You won't stop it! Please!"

~ Losing your crutch is just the push. I'm your brand new Ignito, so stand and watch him suffer for your disobedient defection.~

"GET. OUT!" Raku was riled up as it made sense. The damned spirit's voice was in his head. It wasn't out there. A part of it had infected his purity. His carefree will. Ignito…ignito wasn't there to stop it this time as Raku cried out in agony. "Stop….stop! Stop! Stop it!"

Jen stood over him with her fist as light. Then…

"I'm sorry…." She zapped him clearly to rest. The sizzle was soundless as the dim lamps and that cut from reality sent the boy back into his own mind. To face an old nightmare that should have stayed below the earth.

Dead, as Raku took its place for as long as it couldn't strike at his body. The scars were through time as his mind acted to clutch the pain instead. To take Chas's from him.

Something Lothos had not predicted or had, was that Raku in fact needed to fulfill a wish.

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John took up a cross with a stake to it. If this were a vampire, then that death god was there at their door a few weeks ago for a reason. John's number popped up as he dialed it on speaker. " You need to say the word, John. We have a breach."

~ Chas…~

"John, why do you…" The man paled up. "The demon, it got to im. I know a possessed child when I've seen her face. Is Zee?"

~ Same, I'm afraid. And Chas.~

The man had to ….

"John, quit fooling around. Where –

~ We fell into the spot it wanted. There was no way…I knew it…can't go back –

A sucking, suckling damned sound had come through the phone. As a beast to the barest id bones, the answer was clear. ~ It's here…lock, everything up. ~

Chas's snarl was greater than the free feeder's.

Lothos wasn't the culprit exactly.

Atticus had lent his body to it, as John lay in the cot as it pricked a mark below the breast at his rib. Zee lay with wide eyes on the floor. This thing, had attracted them to a residence. A false one, and by the time John was sure he was bamboozled by it, Zee had him knocked out, tied to a bed while it took her blood. Then, it revealed a darker part and he was it next on the menu.

He wad wrong. Vampire was correct to identify, but it still looked too young. To strong. Not dead enough.

Then, it's face morphed while Atticus begged to have his body back. It was alive, and it's old body may have well turned to ash.

It didn't bother with it's corpse, it stole new flesh by taking itself to new bodies. By raising its newly burrowed self and making Atticus young and vile as he'd never seemed – only to completely devour the last of Atticus's soul with its contents.

Blood red hair and a smile to dazzle the angels in heaven, John was pulling nothing out, no stops as it won his blood. His family.

"Your blood is a raw flavor, yet I know one build of iron and gold." It crooned wkth a sighing cackle. "You'll not keep us from our meeting, Constantine. Unlock the house for me…" It beckoned in his ear, tgreats of more pain as its long nails dug in deep.

"Give back my little wish - granter." It licked its lips of his life force, waning away. John's eyes shut as a steady migraine increased.

Screaming madness to each ear as the room started spinning. Blood loss. So, much of it…it was... Raku …

That was until John… he had reason not to give in. The beast nnnnnnn ann easily bit harder into his pecs as John shouted a cry so bloody, while Zee lay on her side on the floor by the sullied bed.

Ah, maybe blood - less.

Life less, he squeezed shut his eyes to not think of her death. Not his fault.

It terrified them both, after the loving touch of this…Lothos. Oh, it knew wgere to strike. The good friend Lilu kf all demonkind. Raku was trained by this thing to seek somwthing that had failed. Failed, yet it didn't see thijgs that way at all.

For, as Raku had warned of it…This was no ordinary shadow in the back of an ageless fairytale. No vampire. No demon. No incubus.

All three.

A shifting workd from within was about to topple as John heard Chas no lojger shouting. As the demon took a vein, and sweetly, cut it.

( Based on the first copyright dodger of the Bram revamp. Hah.)

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Well….huh. New chapter to come! He is not dead, read on! Zee, I won't spoil it.