All too well

Jasper looked confused up at Norah as she spoke about someone being ready. He furrowed his brows as she put her hands on the fox who immediately started howling and screaming in pain. “What are you doing?” Jasper wondered worried since the fox was in pain, but before he could get a reply, he could feel how the aura changed as someone teleported to the house. Jasper looked up seeing what he was certain was Norah’s parents. Killian Jones and Paisley Priest.

Killian had sent Mary-Jane off with a couple of packets of seeds for Norah to plant in her garden. As soon as he picked up the different energies he ran towards his girls and with a quick ability got the soul demon pushed away with a simple spell. “Sweet pea, she can’t contain it,” he said, sitting on his knees next to Norah, seeing how the fox almost rolled around on the floor in pain. “She’s too you-” His words were stopped as he was bitten by his youngest daughter. The teeth tore his arm up and made the toxic blood spill. He hissed in pain. “’Tarah!” he yelled hoping she might be able to do something. Mary-Jane bit him again, but this time, she didn’t tear, she just hang onto his arm, digging deep holes. Killian was certain that Mary-Jane wouldn’t be able to contain the magic already, and that Norah might be provoking something that she should keep her hands off.

Norah snapped her gaze towards her father as he tried to tell her that Mary-Jane wasn’t old enough. And as she did, everything seemed to get out of hand. Mary-Jane let her teeth sink into his arm. Piercing through the skin, the metallic smell of blood formed in the room soon after. “Idiot”, Norah hissed and let her hands dig into Mary-Jane’s fur, letting the magic flow through her.
Atarah ran towards Killian, looking at what was going on. “What the hell is happening?” she tried, as her fingers had to grab around Mary-Jane’s jaw, and even though this wasn’t something she wanted to do, she started pulling them from each other so Killian could get his arm out of the fox’s grip. An invisible force knocked her back just as she did, the same with Killian. The black eyes that Norah had possessed just a moment ago started to shine in a bright blue light. Blue flames formed around her and Mary-Jane. A short gasp left Atarah as she pressed down on her chest, feeling how power was sucked from her and the surroundings. Things that should cast a shadow had none. They were all drawn to their oldest daughter in the room.
“What is going on!?” she called out again, not understanding why Norah was behaving the way she did, nor why Mary-Jane was screaming in agony, clearly not able to figure out what form she needed to take.  

Norah let her hands dig into Mary-Jane’s fur, which only made the fox clench its jaws tighter around the arm in pain. “She’s a kitsune,” he hissed under his breath and let a hand grab onto Norah, hoping to get better contact with her and hoped that he would be able to restrain her magic more than what the necklace she wore did.
Mary-Jane believed she had never been in so much pain before. Both mental and physical pain. She was determined that she was going to faint sooner or later, but somehow, there was something in her mind, somewhere that was keeping her awake, calling for her, but it seemed dark. She tried to hold onto her father with her jaw clenched onto his arm, both wanting to get help and wanting to get away from everything, but communication was way too difficult when she was transformed, and she was unable to change back. Atarah forced her jaw open which caused lots of strain on Mary-Jane’s jaw.
Almost as the jaw was opened, the couple was pushed back from a magical, powerful source. Killian groaned and got as well as possible up from the fall and saw the flames evolve before him. Everything lost shadow and got bland to look at. Killian could secondhand feel how power was pulled from Atarah. He looked towards her wondering whether or not Norah was starving her mother from all of the darkness that Atarah usually fed from. “She’s killing her,” he yelled correcting his eyes towards his daughters again. Now, he knew that it might not be what Atarah was asking about, but that was the first priority. Norah was merging her powers with the darkness, and it certainly didn’t look good from Killian’s eyes.

Almost like a knife, Killian let his hand strike through the force that had pushed them away and started to move towards them, though the air was being swirled around in the room, making everything much more difficult.
Red flames started to form. They mixed with the blue flames, making three flames swirl around the daughters. Blue, red, and purple. Even though Killian noticed this, he continued to walk toward the circle and into the fire. He groaned as he tried to press himself through it. His clothing caught onto the flames and blisters started forming on the bare skin. “Hanna!” he yelled hoping to get through to the oldest daughter. Finally, he got through the flames and fell to his knees next to his daughters. He placed a hand on Mary-Jane and felt how magic was flowing in her. A strong source just like Iris, that would intimidate most and make witches and warlocks hunger for power. He let a hand find the opposite side of Hannah’s face, placing it on top of her ear, and pulled her close. “Listen!” he yelled, hoping that Norah was paying attention. “You’re disturbing her magic!” he told her. It didn’t seem like he could get through to her, since the magic continued to pour into the youngest daughter. “Shit,” he hissed before he grabbed harshly onto Mary-Jane’s skin in the neck. If he couldn’t get through to Norah, he could at least overpower the dark magic so Mary-Jane wouldn’t get corrupted.

Magic started flowing from Killian and into Mary-Jane. Green magical and almost electric-looking veins appear, hovering over his arm in a flow towards the fox. The fox’s screams from the poor girl shifted back and forth into growls things seemed to be stabilized, making the fox grow steadily in size and another tail grow.

Atarah groaned as she tried to push herself up from where she had been sitting; she could feel how weak she was feeling, that the nightmare fuel that generally kept her replete for longer than an ordinary soul demon could go without feeding.
On the other hand, Norah felt the small crack of the amulet that she had around her neck. Then all sound disappeared, leaving her completely deaf to her surroundings. Not that it would have mattered either way. Consumed by the power flowing through her, she no longer saw what she was doing, only focused on the screaming fox underneath her hands—forcing her to her full potential. But then something happened; when the powers from her father tried to push her out, Norah’s eyes snapped up, looking at the old warlock. Her hands moved from the soft for, and she slowly got up from where she had been sitting. Then the woman looked towards the soul demon gasping for air, feeling overwhelmed with how energy was being sucked out of her. Then as if someone had fired a gun, Norah disappeared. Swallowed by the shadows, she now had in her control. A control that no one should have. At least not for someone that young and with such a fragile mind.
“Shit”, Atarah hissed, looking towards Killian sitting with their youngest daughter. “Do you have things under control here?” she asked, getting up on shaking legs. She needed to go after her if they wanted her to come back as their daughter and not like some being that no longer would recognise them.

“Hanna, Hanna!” he called as his oldest daughter in the room stood up, but she heard nothing, and within a second, she was gone. Killian cursed and turned his eyes to the fox instead, but only for a moment before he looked towards Atarah who spoke. His eyes locked on hers, “Ask me again,” he said, “Ask me – again,” he repeated to make sure she understood what question he wanted to have her ask him. A small smile grew on his lips, and he gave her a confident nod. “Yes, I will marry you. Don’t make me come for you,” he told her; meaning that he didn’t want to come and split them apart or that any of them got hurt. He knew that if he had to follow them, it would take a good amount of his power, and depending on how long he stayed he would get corrupted, just like Norah was in danger of corruption every time she spent too long there. As soon as Atarah had disappeared his eyes turned to his daughter. This was going to be such a long process for the poor girl, having to adapt to the power way too early. Still with a blistered hand on Mary-Jane and sitting in the middle of the circle of red flames, he pulled his phone up and called for assistance. His little brother might after all be the only one who would be able to help Killian contain Mary-Jane so she wouldn’t explode, nor that her soul would leave for the astral world.

Killian groaned as Kieran pointed out the obvious. He was in a pickle. The soul demon who had been unable to do anything, smiled a little as he was asked if he enjoyed the show, “Yeah, I didn’t want to interfere with all of that,” he said and let the fork point towards the chaos that Killian sat with. “Norah is also in problems, but her sweet mother, Paisley, is looking after her,” he explained to Kieran to keep him up to date, now that Killian was too focused on the task at hand.

Killian shortly glanced toward the jewelry that his brother had in his hand. Killian was quick to put his hand in Kieran’s, so the jewelry was between their hands. Killian could immediately feel how it eased himself, making it easier to stabilize Mary-Jane. Her growls and howls lessened. Even though it was easier now, it was also going to contain the corrupted dark magic that Norah had tried to give her. Stabilizing everything made Mary-Jane get an unusual black ear and one of the tails got spots of black in it. The fire also seemed to dimmer, but still gave a lot of heat. “We should grab a cuppa when ‘Tarah gets back with Hanna,” he spoke a little tired. He looked at Kieran. “Thank you,” he spoke calmly, letting his eyes rest on his little brother while he let a healing spell fix the blisters he had gotten.

“Interesting” Kieran lifted a brow as the demon explained things without really answering. A gift that some had, and he rarely liked. But at this moment, he didn’t really mind it; rather refreshing in a way that one could lean back and eat cake while shit hit the fan around you.
As they finally managed to stabilise Mary-Jane, Kieran let out a small huff of air as he sat down. Turning his head, he looked at his brother as he said they should grab a cup of tea when Atarah came back with their daughter. “Really, tea?” he laughed and then looked towards the demon boy. “Won’t you be a good lad and bring me a piece of that cherry pie? Does smell rather good,” he chuckled, letting out another sigh as he took in the environment that they were in. A slight rural hum left him as Killian thanked him. “Don’t worry about it”, he simply answered, as he looked back at him with a softer smile forming on his lips. “So where are Atarah and Hanna?” he asked, still not understanding what had happened for Mary-Jane to shift this early.

Killian looked towards his brother as he asked if tea was on the menu, “Well, I really could use something stronger after all of this,” he sighed before he looked down at his daughter.
Jasper looked at the pie for a moment before he looked at the other ancient warlock. “Certainly. We just got to save a good portion for Norah. I think she needs it,” he spoke while walking into the kitchen and found everything to serve the pie. He looked over his shoulder. “I can make both of you a cup of tea if you’d like?” he wondered before he turned his attention back to the things in the kitchen. As soon as he had gotten everything ready, he walked back to the newcomer and handed it to him. “Name’s Jasper. Former substitute for Norah at Interpol,” he presented himself before he walked back to his own slice.
Killian’s eyes didn’t leave Mary-Jane, who’s eyes were wild. His blisters were removed with a spell and as her breathing slowed and she eventually closed her eyes from exhaustion, he pulled the bigger fox a little closer, letting a hand rest on her soft fur. Now the magic could work without resistance, though the resistance that she had given had been from pain. From now on, the tails would appear in slow, calm motions. He looked over at his brother who asked about his wife and daughter. “The shadow world their powers are connected to,” he sighed.
“I think her former mate is there too,” Jasper informed, which made Killian look up at the demon.
“What?”

Jasper nodded friendly to the two ancient men, once again that he agreed that the pie looked good. Killian on the other hand clenched his teeth as his little brother mentioned that she might end up in a similar situation as Willson. “Right now, we just got to get her back,” he replied in the same serious tone as Kieran. He knew very well what consequences there were, though he might have had a little too many things running around to be able to focus on what had been important. He would of course pay attention to Norah and give her one on one lessons, sadly for her, every day. He would even make sure that it was a part of her working hours, just to make sure she didn’t think she could ‘flee’.
The only thing was… Was it too late?

Leigh felt like he had been walking around forever. He was aware of every sound and even believed that he could see shapes in the darkness. Every sound was aching his ears, making him put his hands on top to lower the sounds. It was like cold water ran down his back when he heard a known voice. With hesitance, he removed his hands from his ears to hear so much more clearly. Norah. He started running. It felt like an eternity, and he wasn’t getting anywhere, but eventually, she was there. “Norah,” he said watching how darkness seemed to revolve around her. “What’s going on?” he wondered, never breaking eye contact with the black eyes.

“How are they doing?” she asked, letting out a soft sigh as she looked at both of her sleeping daughters; then she looked back up at Jasper, there was something familiar about him, but she couldn’t quite place it. What a mess this was, “how about you get Norah in her bed, and we get Mary-Jane home?” she asked Killian before turning her gaze to his brother; Kieran looked at Norah and let out a small sigh, as Killian took her up to her bed. “I can stay and watch over her if you want that” Atarah sent her brother-in-law an appreciative smile, she would very much like that, and maybe she should stay here herself, but she also wanted to be there for Mary-Jane when she woke up in her bed. “Call when she wakes up?” she asked, and Kieran nodded with a smile and got up from the floor he had been sitting on. “I’ll be sure to do that”, Atarah mouthed a; thank you and then turned as Killian came downstairs again. “Everything okay?” she wanted to know before they got back to their house.

“Unconscious,” he replied to his fiancé, having both gals close to him, drying some sweat of Norah’s forehead. He looked up at her pulling a slightly worried smile. Not that there was anything to worry for now, but a parent could never stop worrying, could they?
Suddenly Kieran and Atarah started to make a deal about taking care of Norah and Mary-Jane separately, which Killian wasn’t the biggest fan of when they were in this condition. “We got spare rooms,” he reminded them, and got up from his seat on the floor where he had been sitting with his daughters. “There’s space enough for both you and Norah,” he said to Kieran and looked towards his fiancé a second later. “Might be easier to have both under the same roof,” he said, pulling a soft smile. Maybe he just didn’t want to leave any daughter right now, and he certainly didn’t want to be too late if anything happened to any of them.

She folded her lips and then nodded before her eyes once again looked toward the pie-eating demon; “and what of him?” she hummed, looking toward Jasper, then she let out a sigh. “Never mind, nice meet you, please do close up before you go,” she said before walking over and easily she made all five people, including herself, disappear and reappear at the house Killian owned in Hope Gardens. “Here we are” she then helped with getting Mary-Jane into her own bed before walking into the spare room that hadn’t been used since Iris and Mary-Jane’s grandmother had died. She had still found it odd how Killian had ended up taking care of his ex-wife’s mother, but then again, there was a lot of this she questioned in everything that had been going on since they hadn’t been together anymore, much like she also knew that Killian had questions of hers; but it was like it was topic they had never really breached, maybe they were scared of what they would find? “I’ll make us a cup of tea”, she announced to the brothers before giving them both a small smile before walking into the kitchen.

Jasper looked up as he was given attention again. He waved with his hand, as to tell her she didn’t have to worry. The demon wanted to reply to her, but she closed the conversation herself, which made him nod before he gave her a thumbs up.

They reappeared at his house in Hope Gardens. Atarah took care of Mary-Jane. Killian’s familiar, in the form of the elephant shrew, got up on the dog’s back and followed into the room to look after the young girl. Killian made sure to carry the oldest daughter into the room that had once been Starla’s. Every kind of machine and medicine had been removed a long time ago even though Mary-Jane hadn’t liked the process of that a whole lot. As soon as he had gotten the daughter under the covers, he gave her a short kiss on the forehead and let a stronger illusion of him sit in the living room right next to the bedroom, just to make sure that he could keep a good eye on her. On his way back he heard how she announced that she would make them a cup of tea. “Thank you,” he said before he looked at his brother. “I’m glad you could come,” he said, feeling a little tired. “You’re staying for a cup of tea, right?” he wondered.

It was like her body and soul separated. She felt so disconnected from herself as she stood in the kitchen; it was only as the cold water washed over her hand holding the kettle that she realised that she had zoned out completely. A small, annoyed sigh left her as she put the kettle on the counter and went to get a cloth to get the water that had splashed around the sink.
But it happened again as she started drying it up, making the cloth rub in a circle the same time over and over, even though she needed to move to a new area if she wanted to be effective. It had been such a long time since she had been in the shadow world, longer than a few minutes to teleport from one location to another, but it had been different this time. She had felt how it was drawn to her like it wanted her to stay. What scared her the most was the longing in her heart to stay behind, not because she didn’t have people she loved here. If she was being honest, she couldn’t honestly explain what had happened or why it had made her so distant.

It took a while, but she finally managed to get everything in order, and another sigh escaped her as she found some cups, thinking that Kieran would stay for a while; maybe she could lie down while they talked without feeling guilty about doing so.

Kieran turned and looked at his older brother. “I could stay for a cup” he nodded; last time he had been here, things had been somewhat chaotic because one of Killian’s children had shown up and done quite a number in showing just how displeased she was with him. “But I might just end up asking you questions that you don’t feel like answering,” he said with a slight smirk before he lifted his hand to tell Killian that he could go first, then he would follow—letting his eyes take in the subtle differences since Atarah had moved in. It was astonishing how much more it felt like a home than the first time he had visited.

Killian gave his brother a short smile and nodded to his brother as he accepted staying for a cup. He gave a short, tired chuckle as his brother told him about difficult questions. “Let’s see where the conversation goes,” he said with a soft, tired smile. Of course, his brother could ask as many questions as he would like. Killian would do his best to reply them, or at least think twice about them.
As soon as his brother gestured for him to go, he went in to check on Atarah. He could feel how she felt somewhat disconnected, which was why his hand found her shoulder and he leaned a little down, standing behind her. “Maybe some rest would do some good?” he wondered. He understood very much that this was a difficult time, and he could almost feel the pull she had, though he wasn’t certain was it was about. He would have to take that discussion another time.