The Birdcage

There's Two

"Think about it. There's two of them!" Nyx said. "It makes sense. Take the ouija board for example. One of them was talking to us, then the other intervened and stopped it!"

"You mean one of them has been helping us?" Perry questioned.

"Yes! Maybe. I don't know. But they're competing; working against each other."

"Why would they do that? Ronnie asked, looking freaked out.

Jayson shrugged. "Territory? Prey? Mating? Most demons aren't greatly complex."

"Why us?" Ronnie asked.

Nyx nibbled her lip in thought. "Maybe... I don't know... It needs help?"

"Mutual convenience." Jayson supplied, catching her train of thought.

"Yeah, exactly!" Nyx agreed, building up pace now she'd been given the words. "It can't get rid of the other by itself, else it would have done so by now. We're investigating anyway; it's hoping we'll take out its opponent for it!"

Sounded logical; the others nodded in agreement.

Katherine wore a thoughtful expression. "No." She interrupted suddenly. " The question is, why you?"

"Excuse me?" Nyx asked.

"Why you?" Katherine repeated. "Because it's not coming to us; it's coming to you."

"Wait, which is it that breaks you out of your room at night?" Ronnie blurted out.

"The first one- the invisible one that wrote the note. But I think the other one locked me outside."

"Tentacles who shape-shifts and turns out the lights?" Jayson checked. Nyx nodded.

Ronnie looked uncomfortable. "Well... I mean... There's many reasons it might focus on her. Maybe... She has a special ability that can defeat the other one."

"Or maybe," Perry spoke, shooting Ronnie a very confused look about her stretch of an explanation. "They have a connection?" Perry looked around the table. "Oh come on, we're all thinking it. We're warlocks; we're part demon."

Suddenly, Nyx felt all eyes at the table on her. She shrunk, embarrassed into her seat. "Well, I don't know!"

"Just saying." Perry said.

"Well, you can just say whatever you like, I don't know."

The hall had begun clearing out, and so they all stood to go. Nyx snatched up her tray and matching over, dumped her waste into the bin. "Let's talk about this later." She huffed, before striding quickly out of the room.