Chapter Text
You walk through the boardwalk, a smile playing on your lips as your eyes scan the crowd. As you pass by the comic book store, the two young brothers eye you suspiciously from their spot at the edge of the displays. You shoot them a mischievous grin as you glide past, eyeing the comics with feigned interest.
You knew the boys were suspicious of you–they had been ever since you’d rolled into town a few weeks ago. Perhaps avoiding them would have been the smarter course of action, or perhaps just getting rid of them outright. But where was the fun in that?
“You know, it’s a full moon tonight.” You comment absently, your fingers lightly dancing over the tops of the comics. “You boys should be careful; you never know what might be out tonight.” You pull out a comic with a werewolf on the cover, showing them with a sarcastic grin. They glare back at you.
“Oh, we know what’s out there.” Alan replies tartly.
“Yeah, we know better than anyone else in this town what really goes bump in the night around here.” Edgar says, learning in to squint at you. “And how to kill it.” It was clearly meant to be a threat, but it was hard to take this 15 year old Rambo-wannabe seriously. You laugh lightly, the sound lost in the crowded streets.
“You don’t say?” You reply, looking back at him with a knowing glint in your eye. “Well, if I run into anything that isn’t human I’ll know exactly who to call then.” You say with a smirk, putting the comic down as you turn to walk away.
“You’d better watch yourself lady; you’re not the only freak in this town.” Edgar calls out as you walk off. Now what did that mean?
As you weave your way through the crowds, looking for a target, you thought about the Frogs and what they’d said. You were confident they didn’t know what you were just yet. They were suspicious of you, but that was as far as it had gotten. But clearly they thought you weren’t human–and they seemed to think there were others here who weren’t as well. If they were right about you, perhaps they were right about the others. But then what were they? Were they a threat to you? If there really might be others around, you would have to be more careful from now on…
You spot what you’re looking for, and the smile creeps back onto your face. A small group of men–five of them, surfers, clearly drunk–standing around some bikes parked at the edge of the boardwalk.
Jackpot.
You approach them, a flirtatious smile playing on your lips. They see you walking up and they all start laughing mischievously, elbowing each other and pointing at you; smiling devilishly. Pigs. You keep your thoughts from showing on you face as you look them over.
“You boys look bored.” You say, looking up at them through your lashes. “I know someplace we can have some fun; if you’re interested.” They look at each other, smirking, before looking back at you.
“Oh yeah? Where’s that?” One of them asks, looking you up and down.
“My friends are having a party out on the dunes; but we didn’t invite enough guys.” You smile. “So what do you say? You boys seem like you know how to have a good time.”
“Do your friends all look like you?” One of them asks, making the other boys laugh. You smirk.
“Does it matter? I’ll be there either way.” You reply with a wink. The boys all smile, giving each other knowing looks. They all quickly shuffle to get on their bikes. You move to get on the back of the nearest one, holding onto the boy tightly as you point out where to go. You speed down the road, eventually making your way to the dunes. There are other parties going on, but you guide them to the outskirts, to a bonfire far away from the others.
You step off the bike, heading toward the fire. The men follow behind you, looking around. There’s no one else around; just you, the boys, and the bonfire. A boombox sat quietly in the sand, forgotten in the darkness.
“Where are those friend’s of yours?” One of them asks.
“They must be getting beer.” You reply, standing at the base of the bonfire with your back to them. You kick off your shoes, digging your toes into the sand as you close your eyes. You hear them get closer to you, letting them approach. When they’re just close enough, you flick your wrist, and the boombox bursts to life; your cassette already in the player. Depeche Mode’s ‘A Question of Time’ slowly creeps to life as the men look around for the source of the noise. While they’re distract, you quickly turn, throwing out your arms. They going flying, each landing on a different point on what will eventually be a nice-sized pentagram around the bonfire. You smirk as the struggle against their invisible bonds.
“Now now boys, no need for all that; I promise this won’t hurt a bit.” You say, brandishing a large, ceremonial knife out from the bonfire. The two boys who can see begin to scream, cause the other boys to ask what’s going on; drowning out the music. Honestly, what was the point of making a killer witching hour playlist if the sacrifices were just going to drown it out?
You lift a hand, and a trench begins to dig itself in the sand under the boys in the shape of a large circle. After it connects itself, it begins to form a star, making the boys the five points, with the bonfire as the direct center. Once the pentagram trench has been dug, you look up at the moon, completely full in the clear sky; it was nearly time. You smile to yourself–this was actually going to work.
You move to your first sacrifice, saying the words and holding the knife over your head as he screams. Ugh, what a baby. You thought absently. Focus, y/n–human sacrifice is serious business. You remind yourself. You repeated the incantation, then angle your knife just right, and plunge it into your victim’s heart. The blood runs down, spilling into the trench below. You stand, scrunching your nose in disgust as you look at the blood on your hands, and move on to your next victim.
You repeat the action for the rest of the men; saying the incantation then stabbing them through the heart. The blood flows into the pentagram until it’s completely full, flowing down into the fire. By the time you’re done, you feel exhausted, but you still have to finish the spell. Just one more piece; just one more.
You’re making your way back over to the bonfire, Eurythmics 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’ playing from the boombox, when you feel a chill run down your spine. You spin around, looking across the empty dunes. You know you’re not alone, and whatever was out there, it wasn’t human. You hear someone whistle and your head snaps around. A bleach blonde in a leather jacket is suddenly standing by one of your sacrifices. He had not been there a second ago.
“Damn, you really did a number on these guys.” He says, nudging the dead man’s face with his boot as he admires your work.
“Don’t touch him.” You hiss.
“How’d someone like you manage to kill five guys on your own anyway?” Your turn to the sound of the new voice. A blonde with long blond hair, dressed like a glamrocker was standing next to another body. “They’re not even tied up.”
“Paul, she’s clearly a witch.” You spin, there’s another one. A handsome brunette with long hair. “This must be powerful magic to require five sacrifices.” He comments, looking around at the scene in front of him. You scowl.
“So what exactly were you planning to do with all that mojo?” Another voice. You turn back around and see another blonde, this one with curly hair, crouched down poking at one of the corpses.
“I said don’t touch them!” You snap, but you were quickly losing your resolve. One inhuman creature you could handle, but four? That was going to be tricky. You didn’t even know what they were yet.
You stood with your back against the bonfire, the four newcomers standing at points around the base of the pentagram. You scowl at them, then quickly smirk. You knew had to play this right if you wanted to survive.
“Seems a little unfair; you know what I am, yet I’m still in the dark about you.” You say, keeping your eyes focused and your hand clutched tightly around the knife. The bleach blonde smirks back at you.
“You mean you can’t just use your magic to tell?” He jokes. “Doesn’t seem very useful.”
“It has other uses.” You reply.
“Like whatever you were doing here?” He says, gesturing to the body at his feet. “What was that again?” You clench your jaw, then smile sweetly.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” You offer. “Tell me what you are and I’ll tell you what the spell does.” He laughs.
“Tempting offer, witch.” He says, taking a step toward you. “I have one better; we kill you and call it a night.” The boy’s handsome face contorts into that of a monster, and you instantly know what you’re dealing with.
Vampires.
The four rush you, barely giving you time to react. You throw up your arms, and the bonfire roars to life. It moves forward, swooping around to embrace you in a protective shroud. The vampires roar and jump back as the flames lick at their skin.
“Aw, doesn’t feel too good, does it?” You smirk. “I imagine hellfire doesn’t agree with you bloodsuckers too well.”
“Witch.” The glamrocker spits.
“Yes?” You answer sweetly, taunting him.
“You know you can’t stay in there forever; you’ll run out of magic eventually.” The brunette observes.
“And you can’t stay out there forever–you’ll run out of moonlight soon enough.” You reply, jabbing your thumb up at the full moon above you.
“So it’s a good ol fashioned Mexican standoff.” The curly-haired blonde says with a smirk. “Guess we should get comfy then.” He says, plopping down in the sand.
“Wait, seriously? You’re just going to–what? Hang out?” You ask, looking at him.
“Either that fire comes down and we kill you, or the sun comes up and we leave. Until then, yeah–we’re hanging out.” He replies with a devilish grin. The other boys move to sit around him, and you can’t think of anything else to do but sit down yourself.
“So what’s your name, witch?” The pretty blonde boy asks.
“Excuse me?” You ask, looking back at him through the fire.
“Well, we’re gonna be here awhile; might as well get to know each other a bit.” He says with a shrug. You squint back a him.
“You’re trying to kill me.” You snap.
“You don’t have to be like that about it.” He mumbles. You roll your eyes; clearly, he was not the brains of the operation.
“My name is y/n.” You reply curtly. He perks up.
“I’m Paul! This is Marko, Dwayne, and that’s David.” He says, pointing to the curly head, brunette, and finally the bleach-blonde. You smirk.
“Well thank you for being so polite Paul; it’s always critical to know names when performing curses.” You say with a wink. Paul winces as Marko smacks him on the back of the head.
“Way to go Paul.” Marko chastises, and you laugh from your seat on the other side of the fire.
“It won’t matter if we kill her first.” David replies, smirking at you.
“Why do you want to kill me so bad; what have I ever done to you, huh?” You ask, scowling at him.
“A pack of vampires is enough for one town, we don’t need a witch doing human sacrifices drawing anymore unwanted attention to us.” He replies. “Nothing personal.” He adds with a smirk. You scoff.
“I don’t always do human sacrifice; I just needed it for this spell–to keep my old coven off my back.” You say before you realize what you’ve just told them.
“Oooh, what’s that mean?” Marko asks, leaning a little closer, though still careful to avoid the fire. You groan.
“That’s none of your business–besides, it doesn’t matter anyway. You guys have ruined the spell, and I can’t cast it again until the next full moon.” You say, hugging your knees to your chest. And they’ll have found me by then.
“So it sounds like we messed up your spell, and now you’re in trouble.” Dwayne says, you look up at him in surprise.
“I’m in more trouble from you right now, thanks.” You snap, looking away. He looks over at David, who rolls his eyes.
“What are we listening to?” Marko says, standing up and moving over to your boombox. Your mixtape was currently on 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ by Kate Bush. He grabbed the boombox and ejected the tape.
“Hey! That’s mine!” You say.
“You mean this weird electro mess we’ve been listening to was your work?” He asks.
“It’s called ambiance you jerk; you try making a human sacrifice blood magic mixtape sometime and let’s just see how you do.” You reply defensively. The boys all laugh at that, and you feel your cheeks grow hot.
“Marko, put on the rock station!” Paul requests. You roll your eyes. The glamrocker likes rock–shock of the century.
The tone shifts then and the boys really do just hang out the rest of the night. You hate to admit that you don’t totally hate them; they’re actually pretty fun, once you get to know them. They were vampires, creatures every witch knew never to trust, but they didn’t actually seem like bad guys. And it had been so long since you were able to be your whole self around anyone–not hiding any aspect of yourself, or putting up a front to go unnoticed. This might have been the most fun you’d had spending time with another group of people.
If only they weren’t still planning to kill you.
It was getting closer to dawn, and you were teetering dangerously close to the edge of your magic. You knew the boys would need to leave soon–flee back to the safety of whatever dark space they slept in during the daylight hours. But then you also knew you had precious little magic left; you couldn’t hold up your protective, flaming barrier for much longer. The boys knew it too; they could see how tired you’d become–how weak you looked.
“Getting sleepy y/n?” David asked, looking at you through the fire as he paced around the perimeter of the flames.
“No way; I could run a marathon right now.” You reply, though it’s clearly a bluff. “Though I bet you’re feeling a little sluggish this close to dawn, huh David? Why don’t you boys call it aday,? You could all use the extra beauty sleep.”
“Ouch, no need to make it personal y/n.” Marko replies, smirking. You laugh, but each breath is labored.
“Come on y/n, we all know you’re barely standing.” Dwyane says.
“Yeah babe, you aren’t gonna last much longer.” Paul adds, smiling. You looking back at them, you vision blurring.
Shit.
You feel the last of your magic drain out, and the fire swirling around you dissipates. You fall to your knees, watching them surround you as you black out.