ROOTS | MICHAEL LANGDON | AHS: APOCALYPSE

TWO: NOT HOGWARTS

"I'm not giving you the head for some insane shit!"

"You're discriminating against my religious beliefs, Mr. Butcher man!" Mead wagged a finger at him. "Where's your manager? I'm gonna talk to your manager!"

"You are rude." Michael spoke, shaking his head at the man. "Don't ever talk to her like that."

The man behind the counter just laughed. "Fuck you! And fuck that batshit crazy bitch!"

Lights flickering made Eve drop her act and stick her head out from behind the aisle to take a look at Michael. With a shink! five knives stuck themselves into the man behind the counter.

-

Eve stood in the shadows, watching Michael alone in his jail cell. Madame hadn't explicitly said what was going to happen or what she needed to do, so she decided to stay with him until she knew.

He had done exceptionally well at defending himself while being questioned, she noted, especially for someone with no previous practice with their powers. She even struggled while harnessing the energy flowing through her veins.

"You're not a lawyer," Michael said, turning around to face his visitor.

The man laughed. "I'm a friend."

"I don't have any friends." Michael said, turning around to face away.

Maybe he was right, for now at least.

"I think I can help you, Michael," Ariel spoke again. "If you let me. I saw your tape of the interview with the detective. It was impressive."

Eve smiled. She knew who this man was, her father had shown her him one of the first times he brought her to the human world. It was the Grand Chancellor Ariel. The idiots thought he was a warlock.

"I'm not with the police or the social service or any part of the government. I'm a warlock, and I think you are one."

-

Because Eve knew where the warlock school was, she ditched the two and used transmutation to teleport herself there and wait.

She hid behind the tree line, using her superior hearing to tell when they arrived and when she should enter.

"This place is underground?" Michael questioned.

"It wasn't always." Ariel said, "An actual building stood here once." Eve rolled her eyes as he told his sob story of how Cordelia outed them and thus resulted in the place burning down.

As they got closer to the sculpture, Eve took her cue to follow them in. She was a pro at moving silently and didn't need to worry about being caught.

While Ariel took the time to show Michael around and introduce him to his new students and teachers, Eve had made quick to enter his mind and find the room Michael would reside in. Upon finding the memory of its location, the halfling smirked to herself, left his mind, and used the shadows to move around the place.

She entered, then went back into the shadows and waited.

-

"Hello, Michael." Eve spoke, coming out of the darkness. "I've been waiting quite some time to formally meet you."

The boy in question turned around. When Ariel had shown him his room initially, there was no one else there.

"Where –" He began but changed his mind after noticing that peculiar warmth again. "You're that girl, from the supermarket." Eve nodded. "Are you following me?"

Eve smiled sweetly. "I've been watching on you for awhile. You've probably noticed." He tried to keep his expression concealed but failed, allowing his apprehension to be revealed. "It's been exceptionally warm for some time, hasn't it?"

He thought back to the first time he felt the same warmth, shortly before his grandmother had passed. It couldn't be possible, the first time he felt this way was when he saw that little girl with the tall, dark man talking to her. The girl in front of him couldn't be the same child he saw before, unless –

"How old are you?"

"Physically or in timely increments?" she asked rhetorically. He stared at her, unblinking. "I'm like you."

"Like me?" he asked, knowing he should feel threatened by her.

She showed him her red eyes. Unlike him, she kept her otherworldly features when she showed her demonic side. It was what she got for being the Demon of Lust's daughter.

He waited for her to explain. "I don't know how old I am. I grew as fast as you did."

"You're not answering my question."

"I'm half-demon, Michael." Eve said bluntly. "Just like you, I was prophesied. You were born to be the Antichrist and I was born to be your equal, to help you."

"Are you the same little girl who spoke to my grandma that day?"

Eve nodded, and he fell into her arms.

She had always been there, watching and protecting him. She always stayed. She was there when his biological father denied their relation, when Ben gave up on him, and when the Satanists came and Mead brought him in. Her warmth was proof of it.