The night was dark and wet, it having just rained earlier that day. A brunette woman in her mid thirties walked down the streets of the lower garden district. She was wearing a black dress with a matching trench coat. The streets were quiet, something that should have served as a warning sign given that this particular part of town was known for its shops, bars and vibrant nightlife. But she was in her own world, she was going to be late for her performance at the Saenger if she didn't hurry up. She sighed, she would have taken a taxi but there were none. She was the last available actress on hand at the theater who knew the lines for the role of Eurydice from Hadestown. The main travel crew actress and her two understudies had both been severely injured in accidents both on and off set, and she was the only available replacement due to her love of the production being so great she memorized all of the songs and that she was the only actress with the necessary vocal range.
She continued down the street, and as she turned the corner of the last block before the theater, she saw a large group of people. They were all dressed in black, similar to her, but their clothes were older. They looked like something out of the Victorian era, with long black formal dresses, bonnets, suits and waistcoats.
The crowd turned to stare at her, seemingly in unison. Their eyes were all unnaturally wide, and none of them moved an inch as their eyes pierced her soul.
The actress backed up a bit, "Hello?", said, her greeting coming out as more of a question, "Is something the matter?"
The crowd then moved in unison, revealing what had been successfully concealed within their clothes, and hidden from her eyes. They were all holding make-shift weapons; crowbars, kitchen knives, broken bottles and all other manner of deadly objects.
She gasped, and began to retreat backwards in fear. Just as she began to break in a sprint, the mob began to give chase. She rounded the corner of the street she had just left, hoping to lose them by hiding in the back alleys. This plan was foiled when another mob, clad in the same attire and weaponry as the first, came charging at her from said back alleys. She shook with fear, she was trapped. She was going to die. As she began to sob, she heard a voice shout her name from the balcony of a building behind her.
"Patricia Coleman Jones!"
Patricia turned in the direction of the voice, and saw a young blonde man. He was rather beautiful, not that she fully noticed in her panicked state. He had golden blonde hair, green eyes and pale white skin. He couldn't be any older than 18.
"Who are you?", She managed to choke out, praying to God that this man was here to help her.
Another man came onto the terrace, "We are here to help, come with us if you want to live."
This man appeared slightly similar to the first, with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked older, mid thirties to late twenties. His voice held a commanding air to it, as if he was used to giving and receiving orders.
Patricia nodded and let them hoist her up with a rope ladder they threw down to her, taking her up to the balcony seating area of a restaurant, "What's going on? Why are those people after me?"
The blonde and his associate herded her into the restaurant, closed the gates to the terrace and the strawberry-blonde chained them shut, the blonde rushing down stairs and using all his strength to keep the mob from breaking down the main doors. He then spoke to the actress, who had followed him,
"We don't think they are doing this of their own free will, we think they are under some sort of hypnosis.", The man said as he began to stack chairs against the now chained and locked door.
Patricia blinked, "Hypnosis?"
The blonde nodded, "We'll explain later, right now we need to focus on getting you out of this situation alive.", he said as he finished fortifying the door with chairs.
The strawberry blonde yelled down to the other man down stairs, "Aslan! Where's Cassandra? These guys seem to be leaving to go in the direction of the...", he trailed off, horrified, the mob was going in the direction of the theater.
The blonde, now known as Aslan, furrowed his brows and gasped, "She's... oh shit, we have to get to her!"
Meanwhile, a certain red haired tribrid had just taken her seat at the Saenger theater. She was wearing a black suit and white dress shirt with a maroon necktie, and seemed utterly at peace to the naked eye with her serene smile.
Her smile never faltered, even as the lights dimmed. The curtains of the stage pulled back, and standing against a background of a dirty thirties themed bar, was a beautiful young African American woman. She had long curly hair done in updo, and was wearing a beautiful blue evening gown, with sequins sprinkled throughout like scales. She looked rather out of place, given that the production had no character that should match her outfit's description.
The woman smiled at the audience, "My friends, in respect to the injured actresses who were working on this production, I shall be performing a song of my own creation as a prelude to tonight's show." The woman then nodded to a harp player in the orchestra pit, and began to sing along to the melody of the instrument.
Move to me in the night, my sweet
Won't you prove to me
That we might just beat our sorrows
As she sang this, the entire audience stood up, entranced.
And our woes
Tomorrow's winds won't blow
As the woman finished her song, the audience stood still as statues. After a moment, the woman called out.
"Cassandra Mikealson, please join me on stage."
Cassandra then left her seat and made her way through the crowd, which parted like the red sea at the women's request. She then climbed onto the stage and stood in front of the singer, eyes dazed.
The singer smiled, "I take it you liked my song?", she said.
"Yes.", Cassandra answered in a monotone voice.
The woman's smile grew sinister, "Good, because I need you to do something for me.", she then pulled a needle-like blade from her updo.
The singer held the blade out to Cassandra, "I need you to take your own life."
After she said this, Cassandra nodded and took the needle from her. She held it to her throat, drawing blood.
Just as it appeared she was about to sever her jugular, Ash and Griffin burst in. They had torn their way through the crowd via police issued knock-out gas so they wouldn't harm the hypnotized masses. The brothers looked on in terror at the scene before them, seeing their leader/girfriend respectively, about to commit suicide.
Ash screamed, "Cassandra, No!" and both brothers sped through the masses with speed that could give vampires whiplash.
Cassandra looked at him apologetically, "I'm sorry", she said as she dug the blade deeper into her skin, prompting Ash and Griffin to both yell out.
But just as soon as she said this, she took the blade away from her neck, "But I haven't the faintest idea of anything you just said, you see I seem to have a bit of wax in my ears.", at this she pulled out the balls of candle wax she had used as ear plugs, showing each one to the woman in front of her.
The woman looked back and forth between Cassandra and the wax in disbelief at how her plan could possibly fail. As she did this, Cassandra smiled smugly.
Just as the woman realized the severity of her situation and was getting ready to flee, someone appeared from behind a curtain and grabbed her by the arms. This person was Yue, who took his own hair needle from his braid and used it to sedate the singer by piercing her arm.
"Hold still, there we are...", he says as she falls into his arms, unconscious. Cassandra starred on with pride, of course her Yue would find a poison that could safely and quickly sedate a siren, despite the fact that next to nothing is known about them.
As she stares lovingly at her boyfriend, her other boyfriend, Ash came running up to her with Griffin in tow. They were then followed by Eiji and Skip, who were in upper levels of the stage so they could drop sandbags on the singer should the poison fail.
Eiji then harmlessly slapped her arm, tears leaking from his eyes, "You absolute bitch!" he yelled indignantly.
Cassandra yelped from surprise at the impact, "Hey- stop that! Also, who taught you how to curse?"
Eiji frowned, "You did! You swear enough to make a sailor blush! And what were you thinking?! You could have been killed!"
Cassandra grinned cheekily, "But I wasn't."
Eiji grit his teeth, "You-I-UGH!", he exclaimed as he clenched his fists in frustration.
"He does this everytime.", Yue said boredly, now standing beside Griffin after handing the singer off to Ash.
"Cut him some slack, he's still getting used to this stuff. He didn't grow up around violence and death like you, he's still adjusting.", said Griffin, giving the effeminate male the side eye.
Yue looked towards him and raised an eyebrow, "It's been two years since we were turned, 'still adjusting' isn't a valid excuse."
Shorter then walked in, "Green isn't your color, Yut-lung.", he chirped as he helped Ash hand the singer off to the NOPD, and then went to stand beside his fellow Court members.
Yut-lung smirked, "And navy isn't yours, and yet here you are wearing that gaudy navy and silver fleur de lis patterned tie with a black suit."
Shorter winced, "It's all I had in suits that was clean. Elijah wouldn't lend me one of his after I spilled a Bloody Mary all over the last one."
Yue rolled his eyes, "Figures that would be the case.", he then walked over to where Cassandra sat on a prop chair from across the stage.
He handed her a black handkerchief to wipe the blood off her neck and crossed his arms, "I know you would never put yourself in a situation where you could be controlled, so I have to ask. How did you know that woman was hypnotizing people with her voice?"
As she cleaned the skin on her now healed wound, she smirked, "I didn't, I just had a hunch."
"And by that you mean you figured it out with a convoluted method that you can't wait to explain to us over drinks.", said Ash, popping into the conversation after arranging the singer's detainment with the PD, to take the words right out of Cassandra's mouth.
Cassandra stood up, smiling, "Correct, Ash. I'll explain things at The Coven House, as always. Did you get to the actress in time?"
Ash nodded, "Yes, we did. She should be up there on the first balcony."
As he had said, Patricia Coleman Jones stood up in the balcony, looking over the scene in awe. The crowd of playgoers, who had long fallen out of their trance, remained confused at the scene before them. What had happened? Where were the actors? Why were the police here? Who were those young people on the stage? All any of them knew was that the singer had fainted into the arms of some unknown person after she called the red head girl onto the stage. Had the singer done something? Had those two stopped her? Yes, that had to be it. The police seemed to be working with them, so it had to be true.
Patricia then began to applaud her rescuers, and the crowd, realizing the possible heroism of the strangers, began to give them a standing ovation.
The Court of Miracles, now all on stage, turned towards the noise. Cassandra grinned.
"Well, would you look at that. Be rather rude not to give them a curtain call, don't you think?"
She then held out her hands to Yue and Eiji, the two of them standing at her right and left side respectively. With a glance in her direction, they smiled and took her hands, and held their other hands out to their fellow Court members. Shorter took Eiji's hand, Ash took Yue's, Griffin took Shorters and Skipper took Griffins. With all of them connected, Cassandra bowed dramatically at the waist and her Court did the same.
After a hour of calming down the civilians, having Eiji come up with a half true, non-supernatural cover story for the police to tell the press ("She was a jealous actress who wanted the lead role in the musical, drugged people into attacking those actresses for her and drugged the audience with same hallucinogens through the vents"), updating the NOPD and helping them safely detain the siren for her family to come and take care of, she left the theater with the Court. They laughed and joked and fooled around with bouts of vampiric speed and attempts at gymnastics as they walked the distance to The Coven House, celebrating another successfully closed case.
The Coven House had always seemed to be alive, in a way. You could hear the jazz music pouring out the windows and see the shine of string lights reflecting off of the stained glass windows. As soon as you saw the place, you got the feeling like the building itself had a spirit all its own.
Cassandra led the pack towards the club and loudly knocked with the brass wolf knocker on the door, smiling when a familiar pair of eyes staring out of a cut out rectangle in the door widened at the sight of her.
"Password?", a deep, baritone voice asked.
Ash sighed, "Come on, Kong! Cassandra owns the damn place, you don't need to ask her the password."
Cassandra raised her hand to silence him, "It's fine, Ash. If I can't follow my own rules, what does that make me? I created the password system so this place would stay a safe place for the local supernatural community, and so we could have a place to ourselves without nosey tourists. Plus, I like the passwords. I think they're fun.", she smiled at him as she finished explaining herself
Ash sighed again, this time looking to the side in a poor attempt to conceal a blush, "Fine.", he grumbled.
Cassandra smiled at him in gratitude before turning back to Kong. She took a deep breath, turned around and back again, and began to speak in a voice not all her own, "I'm surrounded by idiots.", she said in a slow, deep, regal draw. Her eyes became half lidded as she rubbed her temples to get rid of a nonexistent headache. In that moment, she resembled a certain scarred, green eyed lion more than any two legged creature may have ever.
Cassandra broke character and spoke in her usual low voice, smiling, "So, do I hold a candle to the original?"
Kong said "Without a doubt!", and slid the plank over the eyehole. Seconds later, the door opened and there stood Kong, smiling in host attire with hospitality. "Welcome back Miss Cassie!", he exclaimed.
Cassandra nodded as he took her suit jacket, "It's good to be back, Kong. It's been a few weeks, hasn't it? How are Bones and Alex?"
Kong smiled, "Ask them yourself. Alex! Bones! Miss Cassie is here!"
Two figures emerged from the small late night crowd of customers and employees. A pinkish-red headed boy of about 19 or 20 emerged from the kitchen with a plate of food. After he delivered the plate to a candlelit table with a young couple seated at it, asked if they needed anything else and received a resounding 'No', he immediately started a jog in the direction of his patroness.
"Miss Cassie! We didn't know you and the others were coming!", said Bones jovially as he pulled the girl into a namesake-crushing hug.
Cassandra laughed, "We didn't either, we didn't think the case would close as quickly as it did. But it did, and now it's time to celebrate. Also, Bones, How many times have I told you and the others to just call me Cassie or Cassandra. There's no need to be so formal, we're all friends here.", she said as she broke away from his embrace.
Bones shook his head, "Nuh-uh, can't do that Ma'am. You saved our boss's dumb ass from himself and gave us homes and jobs and a chance at something as big as immortality when you didn't have to do anything, that in itself is more than anyone has ever done for me and the others. We owe you our livelihoods, and I'll be damned if I don't show you the proper respect for it."
Ash then smacked Bones over the head for the 'dumbass' comment as the salmon haired boy began to complain, Cassandra laughed. She had always loved the bond between the Ashes to Ashes boys and her fellow leader, it had always felt so brotherly.
As she finished this train of thought, Alex finished serving small group of female college students cosmopolitans and walked over to their group.
Ash's second in command smiled, "Miss Cassie! I take it your little sting operation went well tonight?"
Cassandra smirked, "Oh, you have no idea, and it's great to see you Alex. Busy night?"
Alex shrugged, "Yeah, but nothing we can't handle. The usual for everyone?", he said
Cassandra nodded, "Of course. Say, why don't you boys take off early tonight, after you get us set up?"
Alex, Bones and Kong startled, "Oh no, Ma'am, we couldn't possibly-"
Cassandra raised her hand, "I insist. You and everyone else here take the rest of the night off. Business seems to be slow tonight anyway, so we won't be putting half of New Orleans on the streets. Plus, you know me and the boys have got our little V.I.P room in the attic. We can take care of ourselves just fine, so y'all go home and start your weekend early, okay?"
The three of them looked at each other and grinned, "Alright!", they all said in unison as they went to do their respective jobs. Bones gave the now finished couple their check and the college students got up to leave as Alex got to making everyone's respective drinks.
Cassandra looked around her domain. She had opened this place two years ago after she had turned Ash and the others. Ash's now immortal gang had followed their leader all the way to the crescent city and were in need of legal, good paying jobs and housing. She had hooked most of them up with civilian consultant jobs with the NOPD, citing that sometimes to catch a criminal you have to think like a criminal. However, these jobs were sporadic at best and only paid so much, so she had to come up with a more permanent solution.
When she heard her father talking about his desire to do something with the O'Connell church, she had an idea. After her father gave her the deed to the property, she had the place fixed up, registered as a business and with that, The Coven House was born. It started out as a gym for the newly christened Ashes to Ashes gang to teach various forms of combat and stretch their legs, but soon she saw it had the potential to be something else as well. She had never been one to be strictly tied to one thing. So she made the place into a classy jazz club with the help of some of the local werewolf clans that worked with her father, and made it so that the place could make a smooth transition from one facility to another when it was opening time for each, while not taking away from the atmosphere of either. She also had the place equipped with everything required of a halfway shelter. Given the city's disaster track record it needed all the available buildings it could get in case Katrina decided to repeat itself. In the end some of the gang worked the gym and others worked the club. Alex, Bones and Kong all worked the club with about a dozen and a half others and two dozen other guys worked the gym.
The club was built like a speakeasy. There was a stage at the farthest wall, where a jazz band was packing up for the night, made of a dark mahogany with rich purple velvet currents. Scarves dangled from the ceiling in various prints and patterns. Framed 20's artwork, musical advertisements, posters and large, framed pictures of tarot cards decorated the walls. The floors were made of the same wood as the stage. The area where the host stood had pictures and portraits of famous New Orleans mystics, voodoo queens, and artist renderings of famous loa. The bar looked like something right out of The Great Gatsby, being made of the same wood as everything else, and having a shiny copper gilding on the rim. The stools and chairs and booths were covered in luxurious, dark black leather. The tables were covered in scarf-like tablecloths, with white candles in purple glass bowls at each table. The club smelled like incense and old fashioned creole cooking. In short, it looked like a place Marie Laveau would go to for dinner.
Cassandra had always loved places like this; places out of time, where you felt like you walked into something supernatural. Which was ironically true, given the fact that the place was run, owned and frequented by supernatural beings.
Alex walked up to her and handed her a virgin Shirley Temple after handing the boys their bourbon and wine and soda (Eiji still didn't like to drink, and Skip was underage), bringing her out of her internal reverie. She shook her head, she always got so contemplative whenever she solved a case. She said goodbye to Kong and the others, and was then absorbed into her thoughts once more.
Cassandra had what most people would consider "It all". She had a loving, large and powerful family. She ran one of the coolest places in town, was well liked by law enforcement and most supernatural communities, had a fancy home, went on interesting adventures what seemed like every other week, was very artistically talented, intelligent, and most of all, had some of the greatest people the world had ever seen at her side, four of which as her lovers. She was happy, yes, but she wasn't complete. She wasn't sure why she felt this, but she felt like something was missing from her life, something big. She didn't know what it was, but she had a feeling she would get some kind of answer very soon.
She looked to her boys, "I'm going up to the attic, don't wait up for me.", she said.
Skip looked both concerned and confused and everyone else frowned. Cassandra wasn't the kind of person who hid what she was feeling, and you could see by the look on her face she had some things on her mind. But when she told you she needed some space, she needed some space.
Yue sighed, "Alright, we'll join you in an hour or so. Call us if you need anything.", every bone in his body was screaming at him to go and talk with his mate about what was eating at her, but he knew he had to put her needs first, even if it was hard.
When they had all come New Orleans two years ago they had consulted Celeste Laveau, a forty something single shop owner and the last living descendant of Marie Leaveau, an infamously powerful voodoo queen from the 19th century. They would have gone to Davina or Freya, but their magic was based out of nature, and had yielded no answers. Voodoo had the practitioners commune with spirits, and they had thought maybe these spirits had the answer to what exactly the mate bond was. After various witchy tests, Celeste had told them that there was a spirit involved, and that the spirit who had linked them to Cassandra and put their romance in four wheel drive was something 'far more powerful than a mere ancestral spirit' and 'unlike anything she had ever seen'.
In the end, she had told them that the bond was indeed only a link and accelerator, and that what they felt were their true feelings. She had also said, in a eerily calm voice, that if she was still around on the day one of them was possibly killed, she would find a nice, quiet place to take a hunting rifle and blow her fucking brains out, because whatever afterlife she was bound for was likely a far better option than living in a world with Cassandra Mikealson on a war path. Hell hath no fury like a Mikealson woman scorned. Same went for those boys of her's. They were each their own special brand of terrifying.
Yue shook his head at the memory. Cassandra would be fine, she always was, but he couldn't help but feel unsettled. He felt like this was... different somehow. Like this was going to get bigger than any of them could ever imagine.
Shorter looked in his direction, concerned, "You worried too?', he asked as he downed the last of his bourbon.
Yue nodded, "Yes, but it's different this time. I'm not like Cassandra, I'm no seer, but I feel like something is going to happen. Something bigger than anything we've seen before."
Shorter frowned, but said nothing as he went to the bar to pour himself another drink.
During this conversation, Cassandra had made her way up the stairs towards the attic. The Coven House attic was a lot different now from its days of serving as a bedroom for her Aunt Davina. The walls, floors, furniture, plumbing and lighting had all been refurbished. The floor was covered in persian rugs of varying colors, reds and purples being the most common. The walls were covered with a blood red wallpaper, patterned with silver fleur de lis's going down the paper in columns. The furniture was mostly loveseats and chaises, with one couch sitting in front of a large red ottoman. The walls had posters of musical productions and movies hanging from them. There was a large book shelf that took up the entirety of the back wall, filled to the brim with everything from Mary Shelly and Bram Stoker to J.K Rowling and Rick Riordan.
The right wall held a bar, and though this one was much smaller than its larger twin down stairs, it held some of the finest aged wines, bourbon and whiskey in all the region. There was a soda fountain behind the bar, for her, Eiji and Skip mostly. Cassandra and Eiji had never been huge fans of alcohol and Skip, though he tried to sneak a glass whenever he could, was 12 and therefore underage. A medium sized black fridge sat beside the bar, which kept food, snacks and blood bags.
The left wall was where the tv hung, a 70 inch flat screen she and her Court used for movie nights, and a stereo that had blasted way too much eighties rock over the years sat below it. All in all, the place was pretty nice.
Cassandra looked around, feeling nostalgic. She and her boys had made a lot of good memories here. She couldn't count the number of times she and Ash had fallen asleep reading together on the loveseats, or the times she had let Yue do her hair or makeup before some event while she tried to finish a movie, much to his annoyance. She grinned as she remembered all the 90's trivia games she had played with Shorter, all her and Griffin's heart to hearts, Eiji's attempts at cocktail mixing, and the times she and Skip went rabid over voltron. She had seen a lot of good things happen in this room, but she felt like she could be experiencing even greater things if she just knew where to look.
Cassandra sighed, something she seemed to be doing a lot lately. All this contemplating was getting her nowhere, but her hunches not to be ignored; nearly two years of detective work had taught her that much.
Cassandra then went over to the ottoman and opened it, reaching past the extra blankets and pillows to the very bottom. When she reached her desired item, she pulled it out and slung it over her shoulder. She liked to keep backpacks filled with her various necessities hidden in places she frequented, one never knew when they would need to leave abruptly for an unknown period of time. She got up and went to the circle window behind the bar, opening the latch. The boys wouldn't be up for over half an hour, meaning she had time to take a quick walk to the cemetery a little ways away from here. The dead calmed her, oddly enough, and she needed to clear her head.
She climbed out the window and jumped down to the ground, something that would have seriously harmed a normal human, but given she was far from that she was fine. She then took her time walking to the cemetery, humming to herself along the way. When she arrived on the hollowed earth, she didn't even blink as she walked on to the sacred land. Most cemeteries in New Orleans had been enchanted by quarter witches to keep vampires out, but with Cassandra being nature's loop hole she was unaffected by this.
Cassandra spent a good few minutes wandering amongst the graves, looking at the tombs and reading the names and epithets engraved upon them. After a while of this, she felt much better. A few minutes more, and she had dropped her backpack by a memorable grave and was conducting her own moonlit dance. Her steps did not conform into any strict category of dance, and were something entirely their own. Though, if there had been any native onlookers, they would have most likely noticed the traditional African and Romani dance moves taught to her by various New Orleans residents at festivals and gatherings over the years sprinkled here and there. She leapt across tombs and landed on small steeples with cat-like grace, her silhouette flickering across the pale moonlight.
She cackled as she stopped on the roof of a tomb to take a breather, this, this was one of the things life was all about. Family, friends, love and freedom. Things like this were what made life worth living. Cassandra grinned even wider as she stood on a tomb steeple and had a wonderfully cliche idea. It might seem like something a disney character would do, but she was a disney nut and she was alone. Plus, a song about her little internal struggle had been flitting about her head half finished for a few days now, so now was as good a time as any to sing it. Cassandra opened her mouth and began to belt out her tale.
Seems so close, but yet so far
Reaching out, towards the stars
She reached out a hand in a futile attempt to grasp the heavens, and let her hand fall back to her side shortly there after.
She walked across the tomb's roof, shoulders squared and smile gone. looking up towards the moon as if it could give her answers. Her mood was dampened, but she needed to do this. She needed to vent about this to someone that couldn't talk back, and who was better suited for that task than the dead? Cassandra took a deep breath.
Try and try but I can't catch hold
She cupped her hands together to form a ball, her movements jagged
There's a fire that burns inside me
She clutched her hands to her chest, fisting her dress shirt.
Cassandra jumped onto another tomb.
Everywhere that I seem to go
Cassandra looked around frantically, as if looking for something lost long ago.
I end up empty handed
She looked down at her hands in anger as she grasped them tightly shut and then proceeded to glare up at the moon from her perch.
Have you seen what I'm trying to find?
Cassandra walked down the length of the tomb, as if trying to put less distance between her and the moon.
I've been looking far and wide
She stuck out her right arm and then her left, gesturing to the world around her.
High and low
Cassandra stood as tall as she could and then jumped down from the tomb.
Low and High
She crouched down and jumped onto the roof of the tomb behind the last one.
In the dark, can't find the light
She hid in the shadow of the mausoleum beside the tomb and then walked back out into the light.
Maybe I've been looking in the wrong place the entire time
Cassandra sat down at the edge of the tomb and looked down at the ground.
Maybe I, maybe I
Should search inside
She stood up again, and just as she was about to silence herself, she saw a flicker of light. It was a lime green in shade, and by all means should not have been there. She looked in the direction it came from; east, around the very edges of the cemetery. Curious, she started towards the direction of the perceived light. She continued to sing, belting out lyrics her soul seemed to be providing her with on a whim.
Was a long dark road, and then there's light
What once was lost now is in my sight
The only right that I leave behind,
The limitations made by my mind
She smiled, her grin growing wider with every line as she stopped to grab her backpack.
It's in the past and I'm satisfied
I think I've finally found it!
She broke into a run.
Have you seen what I've been trying to find
I've been looking far and wide
High and low
Cassandra leapt to the top of a mausoleum she passed and soon leapt back to the ground.
Low and high
She hit the ground and slid base-ball player style to go under some undergrowth blocking her path, and then sprung up back into a run.
In the dark
Can't find the light
As she came out of the overgrown part of the cemetery, she spent a few lines of her song basking in the moonlight.
Maybe I've been looking in the wrong place
The entire time
Now I'm fine
Cause I can find
It deep inside
Cassandra walked towards the place where the light came from, grinning once more. Originally she had started singing her unfinished song for the hell of it, but now she was starting to see how she was going to finish it. Maybe this light would actually lead her to this great change, or maybe it was just a trick of the light. 'Whatever it is', she thought, 'it has my attention'.
Here I stand
It's about time
Ohh
I looked high and low
Just to see what's mine
I believed that it would be
Now I see
Now I see
There's a voice inside of me
YEAH
Cassandra eventually came to the area where the light came from. She grinned wider, this may be interesting.
Now I've seen what I've tried to find
I've been looking far and wide
High and low
Low and high
In the dark
Now I've found the light
I guess I've been looking in the wrong place
The entire time
I've realized
That maybe I
Should search inside
After Cassandra finished her song, she began to wander the area and quickly came across a large, surprisingly free of plant growth mausoleum. It was made entirely out of black marble and seemed to glow eerily under the moonlight. It had what appeared to be torch holders on the outside, meaning it was most likely a few centuries old. It was relatively plain beyond that, save for some sort of engraving on the door of it.
Cassandra pulled her phone out of her backpack and turned on the flashlight. She read the engraved words; Haec est porta dominii maiestatis eius, cavete omnes qui non portant animam regis quondam et futuri.
"This is a gate to his majesty's domain, beware all those who do not carry the soul of the once and future king.", She read aloud in a tone barely above a whisper. One of the first languages her father taught her was latin. Most spells were in latin, so she needed to at least have a certain level of understanding of the language.
She tilted her head curiously, that was an odd inscription to have on a crypt. Usually the inscriptions were in English or French, not latin. Also, the crypt looked suspiciously well kept for being in a cemetery long abandoned by the world.
She walked up the marble steps towards the door. There was nothing that could possibly make such a bright green light outside the tomb, so it had to be somewhere inside if it was still there. Cassandra reached out towards the door and pushed it open, the warning engraved upon the surface forgotten.
The redhead shined her flashlight on the walls of the mausoleum. There were no names or signs of the eternal residents monuments like this were made for. Instead, there was a mirror on the wall in front of the entrance.
The mirror was oval shaped with a silver rim. It was decorated with various designs, but the most outstanding ones were at the top of it. They were two snakes curving around themselves in a chain-like pattern at the top sides, and at the very top a five pointed crown. It was well decorated, but not overly elaborate, and it felt familiar.
Cassandra stared, "A mirror, huh?", she said to herself.
This was becoming stranger by the minute. If the mirror was in here with bodies, it would be slightly less suspicious, but the mirror was in here all alone. No grave markers, no other engravings, no crypts. Just the mirror. If there were bodies, she would also be able to understand the engraving. It could serve as warning for graverobbers to not enter and the 'once and future king' could be a deity of some sort or maybe the deceased. If the mausoleum was built to house the mirror, however, she may just have a mystery on her hands. The tan girl smirked, hopefully this one would be more fun and less dangerous than her last case.
Cassandra walked up to the mirror and examined it from all angles. It seemed unaffected by the elements and time, there was no rust or tarnish on the metal. It looked brand new, but felt ancient. It was a feeling she had experienced before, usually when talking to vampires over five hundred years old. As she finished examining the mirror for anything that could have caused that light, she put her hand on the glass, expecting to find some sort of clue as to why it was there. What she had not been expecting was for a very different hand to mimic her action, and for her reflection to disappear from the glass as the mirror filled with a green smoke. Smoke the same shade of green as the light she saw earlier.
Cassandra gasped, but did not withdraw her hand. She was going to see this through till the end; whatever that may be.
Ah, my dearly beloved
The hand phased out of the mirror and gently grabbed the hand she had placed on the glass. Cassandra stood outwardly stoic, but on the inside her curiosity grew.
A lovely and noble flower of evil
Truly, you are the most beautiful of all
Mirror mirror on the wall
Who is the...
Cassandra smirked, "Fairest of them all?", she finished. The being within the mirror chuckled.
You, who is guided by the dark mirror
As long as your heart desires
Take the hand that appears in the mirror
The hand began to tug at her arm, beckoning her forward. She obliged, making sure she had her backpack with her and putting her phone away inside it. She didn't know where this mirror would take her and for how long, so she had to be prepared for anything.
For me, for them, for you
As the mirror beckoned her forward, she soon began to phase through it. She saw flashes of people and scenes. A grinning man with fire for hair and razors for teeth, a woman with horns casting a spell over a crib, a snarling lion surrounded by cackling hyenas, a voluptuous woman with tentacles holding out a pen and contract with two heterochromatic eels beside her, a woman in a crown red from anger, a man standing alone with a parrot in a desert, and a stern woman holding out a box to a kneeling man. Without so much as a shutter, she continued to walk through the glass.
We are all running out of time
Cassandra was almost completely through the glass when she heard a familiar, child-like voice call out her name. It was Skipper's voice. She heard other familiar voices copy him and felt hands grab onto her free arm, trying to pull her back. They were too late, however, as she was completely through the glass and was taking them with her.
No matter what, never let go of my hand
Cassandra saw flashes of battles, of a silver crown, and of a shining silver sword. She felt herself falling as these visions passed through her sight quicker than an instant, and as these images left her sight, she looked into the green smoke once more. All she heard before she lost consciousness was a laugh in the same tone of voice as the mirror.
Search Inside from Monster high. Yes, I know I'm a child, but you people are here reading this, so don't bite the hand that feeds your depraved little souls. One of the perks of having a 10 year old sister is that you have a very convenient excuse to watch 'children's' movies if your with them and not be judged. Also, Hadestown. I actually went to see the travel cast preform for my birthday about a month ago, and thought such an amazing production deserved a honorable mention. I cried like a baby in the car afterwards, and my mother was both confused and concerned. Do you guys want smut? It might not be for a while given that most characters are minors and/or have experienced extreme trauma surrounding sexual intercourse, but I can make it happen. Let me know in the discussion posts. So long and good night, Thackery Binx.