BANDIT

On Friday morning, Bandit stands next to Bones on one side of the cauldron in the kitchen off the Great Hall, Ephraim on the other. They're trying a locator spell for Faith that Ephraim said will definitely work since it seemed to work with his dad two months ago. Bandit has stopped telling the two of them that they're wasting their time on it. Knowing Prudence, she probably put a protection charm on her so that none of them will know where the hell she's keeping Faith. The longer Bandit stays here at the school, the longer she realizes that Prudence might not be the best person to be running this school. Putting a memory loss spell on the students, hiding someone that's been brought back from the dead, keeping those protective stones she gave to Minx all to herself until her last resort. And what about storing Jade in that solitary confinement space? That can't be ethical.

"All right, now we wait." Ephraim instructs, staring at the wax paper he and Bo are stretching out over the steaming cauldron.

"I'm telling you, Faith most likely has a charm on her." Bandit reiterates. "You're not going to find her."

"Can't you just have a little bit of faith?" Ephraim glances up at her. "No pun intended."

"Not when it comes to this stuff, no." Bandit says dryly before nudging her brother. "By the way, Desmond is coming over for the holiday."

Bones snaps his attention to the side to look at her. "What? Why?"

"Because I invited him." Bandit knows right away that he's annoyed with the company. She should've known he would be. She considers herself to be somewhat of a hermit but Bones is a whole other story. "His parents want to spend it with themselves-- which is incredibly selfish in my opinion-- so I did what the honorable friend would do and I told him that he could come to our place. It's not like we do anything big anyway."

"I hate when people come over." Bones pouts, staring down at the blank wax paper.

"We've never even had anyone over for Yule." Bandit reminds him.

"Yeah, exactly. Why start now?" Bo flickers his eyes at her but doesn't turn his head again. "I don't even know the dude."

"He's kind of nerdy." Ephraim chimes in.

"He is not!" Bandit protests.

"I have linguistics with him." Ephraim lowers his side of the paper so more steam hits the bottom at full force. "He raises his hand every two seconds to answer shit."

"He's smart. And there's nothing wrong with being smart." Bandit tells him before looking back at her brother. "Are you really annoyed about this?"

"Yes, and I will remain annoyed until I probably get to spend time with the dude." Bones glances back at her. "Don't go finding soulmates here."

Bandit stifles a laugh, nearly tossing her head back at the joke. "Who said anything about soulmates? I'm not even dating him."

"I'm just saying that everyone in this Hell forsaken place isn't who they say they are." Bones tugs at his end of the paper, his expression impatient as it reaches Ephraim. "Dude, this isn't working."

"I don't know why." Ephraim tugs at his end, too.

"I already told you guys like, thirty times and neither one of you wanted to listen." Bandit sighs. "You're not going to find Faith unless you ask Prudence yourself. Ephraim, you're good with controlling minds. Why don't you go force her into telling you?"

"Yeah, let me just do that and get myself in even more trouble than I've been in for the last few months." Ephraim says sarcastically.

"Okay, well if locator spells won't work, then what?" Bones lets Ephraim take the wax paper away. "I don't really know where we go from here."

"Has anyone heard from Nina?" Bandit wonders. Minx told them that Nina was rushed to the nurse's wing last night after fainting in the woods. Apparently there were dancing kids twirling in a circle around them, singing a song about dying when they looked her in the eye. Bandit's guess is that the mysterious her is Betsy.

"Nina still hasn't woken up." Ephraim ravels the wax paper back into the round.

"Maybe the kids are more dangerous than we thought they'd be." Bones waves his hand, the fire from under the cauldron vanishing.

NINA

The mattress Nina wakes up on is so stiff and thin that it might as well not even be here at all. She lets her eyes adjust to the plain walls ahead of her, where other beds are neatly made with tucked in sheets and fluffed pillows. The lights are dim and mellow, made to not be too bright upon waking patients. Her brain feels groggy, like her head has been crammed with a ton of bricks upon bricks upon bricks. She turns her head to the side where Minx is on the bed next to her, her legs dangling over the edge facing Nina while her head is resting on her own pillow, her eyes shut.

It all comes rushing back to her. The woods, the kids, the short spurts of memory coming back to her. Nina swallows, her throat as dry as a desert. She sits up, the springs of the mattress moaning under her weight. The corners of her mouth are stringed up, barely lifted into a smile. She remembered. It wasn't much but it was enough to get her started. She remembers that incredibly dark room, that table, the light above her head, the figure with horns. Her smile fades at the last part. She touches her stomach where she once carried Alejandra, rapidly blinking at the thought of something with horns being the--

"Hey, you're up." Minx stirs as she sits up in her own bed, her eyes puffy with sleep. "Gah. I must've fallen asleep waiting for you to wake up."

"I'm sorry." Nina shakes the thoughts from her head just until she stops feeling nauseous. "If I would've known you were going to stay here, I would've tucked you in."

Minx flaps her hand at her. "It's okay. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit." Nina admits nervously, shifting under the blanket. She tugs at a loose thread on the white sheet. "I remembered."

Minx hesitates before responding. "You what?"

"There was someone with me in a dark room." Nina's voice cracks at the reverie. "I don't think it was human."

Minx's mouth forms an O as she stares at her in awe. She glances down at the linoleum floor and then back up at her friend. "Did it have a face?"

"I couldn't see one, it was too dark." Nina wants Minx to leave so that she can sit here and cry into her pillow until a nurse tells her that she's free to go back to her dorm where she can cry there. "It had horns. That's all I could see."

"Demons usually have horns..." Minx says slowly, as if the thought hadn't occurred to Nina. "You don't think he...?"

"I do." Nina doesn't have to wait for Minx to finish. There's no doubt in her head that whatever happened in that room with that thing is the result of her getting pregnant. And if that's the case, then her child is the offspring of something truly and utterly evil. Tears flood her eyes at the thought. "She's my baby."

"And that hasn't changed." Minx reaches over to her to clamp her hands over Nina's. "She is still your baby. And we don't know for sure what happened down there. We'll figure it out, though."

"Don't sound so positive." Nina sniffles, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "It took me this long to only see a few flashes of memory. I don't think I'll be seeing the big picture any time soon."

"Don't sell yourself short." Minx squeezes her hands, looking her in the eye. "Those flashes are enough to tell us something. And now that your memory has come back, even just a little, it might work easier to remember the other stuff."

"What if I don't want to remember anymore?" Nina's voice quivers. The image of the man with the horns is too much for her to take. What's going to happen if she ever remembers the rest of him? She's going to be looking at her own daughter's face for his eyes and his nose and if he has any ugly skin qualities that demons usually have. She's going to spend the whole rest of her life staring at Alejandra and waiting for her to take after her dad. "I don't think I want to know anymore than what I know right now."

"You can't say that." Minx's face softly falls. "We've been working so hard for you to remember--"

"I've remembered enough." Nina interrupts her, pulling her hands away from under Minx's. She doesn't want to think about it. She should be going home either tonight or tomorrow morning. She just wants to see her daughter.

"Nina, good, you're awake." An old nurse is shuffling her way with breakfast on a tray. "How are you feeling?"

Nina quickly wipes the tears from her eyes as Minx leans back away from her. "Tired. Groggy."

"We're going to be doing some observations on you, if that's okay." The nurse's name plate reads Dorothy Miles.

"Observations?" Nina doesn't want to have to stay here any longer than she has to. She just wants to get home and see Alejandra.

"This is the second time you've fainted within the past two and a half weeks." Dorothy explains. "I think that it would be best for you to stay here until we figure out what's going on."

"I didn't eat a lot yesterday." Nina tries. "Maybe I need some more water. Please don't keep me here, I have to get back home."

"Nina, I think this is a good idea." Minx takes the nurse's side, glancing up at the old lady.

"You know what I passed out." Nina hisses at Minx.

"It won't be long, I promise." Dorothy sets the tray of breakfast down on Nina's lap.

The bacon and eggs and toast makes Nina want to vomit on it all as soon as the smell reaches her nose. She takes a bite out of the dry triangle of toast anyway. Perhaps some food in her system might be good. Might even be enough to get her out of here.

MINX

Minx opens the door into her dorm room after leaving the hospital wing to change into her backup uniform for today's classes. She promised yesterday that she would meet Felix in the west wing tower before the day begins so she only has an hour to spend with time before classes start. She quickly changes into her other uniform dress, flipping her hair out from under the back and slowing her process down when she notices Jade's missing altar. Jade's missing pictures from her nightstand. Minx opens the doors of the wardrobe, the naked hangers gently clanking together from the swoosh of air swarming inside.

Minx grabs her bag full of her books, taking another glance at Jade's side of the room. The last time she left, at least Minx got a warning. But then again, Jade slipping out of here without mentioning it does seem like a Jade 2.0 thing to do. Perhaps her conversation with Bones about the memory spell really came to blows. Enough to send her home.

Minx leaves House Aradia after searching the common area and kitchen for any of her friends so she can ask them about Jade but they're all MIA right now. She'll talk with them later, maybe even with Nina if she's up for filling them in on what she saw in those flashbacks. Could the kids have something to do with it? Were they doing some memory gain ritual around them, forcing Nina into recalling what happened to her in that very spot she fainted at last time? Minx had goosebumps all the way back to the school when Nina hit the ground. As soon as she did, the singing stopped and the kids disappeared. The woods grew so silent that Minx wasn't even sure the world was still alive. She didn't hear any faeries or wild life creatures or birds or even her own breathing. It's like her life became a silent movie: Minx and the Apocalypse.

Minx climbs the stairs to the west wing tower, slowing down on the spiral staircase as she listens to childish laughter floating down towards her from above. Her eyebrows pinch together as she quietly climbs the remainder of the steps. Her stomach does a flip so hard that she almost falls backward down the curved stairs. Felix is seated on the floor behind the coffee table, a blond boy and a blond girl on either side of him stacking blocks. Minx immediately recognizes the children as two of the ones that were dancing in the woods last night. Their eyes are still dark enough to be abnormal but Felix doesn't seem like anything is wrong, like stacking blocks with dead kids is completely normal.

"Felix..." Minx doesn't take a step closer, afraid that the children might recognize her from last night but neither of them look up.

"Hey, there you are." Felix smiles up at her and then gestures to the two blonds on his sides. "They're cute, huh?"

"I need to talk to you downstairs." Minx stares at the blond girl, who is smiling up at her without showing any of her teeth. Her hair is damp. "Now, please."

"Okay..." Felix steps over the coffee table. "Be right back, guys." He follows her down the spiral staircase until they reach the common area at the bottom. "They're not my kids, if that's what you were thinking. I found them up there when I came to meet you. They don't even talk--"

"They're dead." Minx whispers.

Felix's lips part at her words. He doesn't say anything for a long second, shaking his head in disbelief. "How do you know?"

"Have you not seen their eyes?" She whispers, afraid that one of them upstairs might hear. "I've seen them before, my friends have too. They were killed by a woman named Betsy Behrman who used to run the children's ward here in the late 1800's. She's dangerous and those kids might be, too."

"They seem harmless, though." Felix thumbs over his shoulder, as if telling Minx to climb back up those stairs to watch them be perfect angels.

"But you shouldn't be playing with them--"

Minx is cut off by the sound of clinking coming down the stairs behind Felix. The two of them watch a little toy block rolling down each of the steps until it plops down onto the floor at the end. The letter facing up on the side is M. M as in Minx? She brushes past her boyfriend, trotting up the steps.

"What are you doing?" Felix follows her to the end of the steps but doesn't begin the climb. "You just told me not to hang out with them and now you're going up there?"

Minx reaches the top, where the children stand side by side on the curved window seat under the windows. Their backs are turned, the little girl's blue dress shiny in the light. It takes Minx a second to realize that not only are they holding hands but the window they're facing is missing, the glass removed.

"Hey, get away from-- No!" Minx watches the kids jump out of the window together. Even though that Minx knows they're already dead, she fumbles over the coffee table and onto the window seat, throwing her head towards the gap they jumped out of but her head connects with the glass.

"Minx!" Felix rushes to her side, his hand on her back. "What the hell are you doing?"

"They jumped." Minx puts both hands on her head, lucky that she didn't break through the glass. She can already feel a knot forming under her skin. "The window was gone and they jumped."

Minx feels Felix wrap his heavy arms around her, keeping her own hands on her head. The attempted banishment that she and the others did on the school clearly didn't work. Something else has to because those kids have got to go.

JADE

Slanted winter sunlight cuts through the glass of Jade's bedroom back at her mom's house. She rolls over onto her side, stretching her legs out beneath the covers. She never thought she would be this happy waking up in her own bed. During her first year at the academy, she loved everything that Quarta Luna had to offer. Now, she finds herself not wanting to step foot back on grounds until she's worked out all of her inner demons. She never even knew that she had this much until recently. She has a lot of work to do when it comes to Sage and her friends. She's not stupid-- entirely. She knows that working things out for herself mentally is the only way she's going to be able to work things out with the people she cares about.

Jade rolls out of bed, snapping a black turtleneck with a black cardigan and matching jeans onto her body with the flick of her finger. She reapplies her black eye makeup the same way she got dressed. She slips on her black ankle boots and studies herself in the body mirror hanging on the back of her closet door. This is a step forward, she thinks. At least she doesn't look grungy anymore. She's edgy, yet mature. She's already making progress.

Jade ventures down to the kitchen where her mother stands at the stove, flipping pancakes onto a plate where a stack of them is already waiting. "Good morning."

"Morning." Ms. Waithe says over her shoulder. She wasn't the happiest camper when Jade returned home last night but she wasn't mad about it either. She ended up going to the academy right after Jade explained that she needed to come home for awhile. She had a long talk with Prudence about Jade's well being and that they've both decided that some time off would be good for her. "Do you want some pancakes? I made plenty."

"Sure." Jade puts them on a plate with her mind, spreading them in butter and drowning them in syrup.

Ms. Waithe shoots her a look.

"What?"

"You seem to be using magic quite often."

"Well, I am a witch." Jade cuts into her pancake with the side of her fork, shoving it into her mouth. "What are you doing today?"

"I am going to the magic shop to work." Ms. Waithe turns off the burner and sets her skillet in the sink, running water over it. "This time of year gets pretty busy with the Winter Solstice. What do you have planned now that you've dropped out of school?"

"I didn't drop out completely." Jade says through a mouthful of pancake. "I'll go back, just on my own terms."

"You do know that you can't just keep dropping out like this, right?" Ms. Waithe looks serious as she rests her palms down on the island that Jade is sitting at. "I don't know what you're going through right now but just because things get hard, doesn't mean you quit."

Jade swallows her food. "I know that, mother. Thanks."

"I don't think you do know that." She shakes her head. "Your sister told me how worried she is about you. I know that you want to keep things to yourself but you do know that I would be willing to listen, right?"

Jade swirls her fork around in the pool of syrup on her plate. She doesn't know what it's like to have a mother that will listen to her problems or offer up advice. Ms. Waithe has been gone for most of her life so it's not like Jade would know how to even talk to her about something as serious as dying and coming back to life with the help of her coven. Unless Ms. Waithe went through something similar when she was her age but Jade highly doubts it.

"I know." Jade finally says.

"Well do what you need to do and get back to school." Ms. Waithe grabs her purse off the island after slipping her arms through the sleeves of her long black trench coat. "You still have a lot to learn."

Jade watches her mother leave the house, the front door clicking shut behind her. Jade doesn't have an appetite anymore but she shoves the rest of her pancake into her mouth.

SCARLET

Scarlet stands in her spacious living room once classes for the day come to an end. The room is furnished with with a sleigh white couch facing the grand fireplace, a small piano in the corner where a cactus is perched. The mantle is lined with nick-knacks that Sebastian seems to have an obsession with: chalices, a pig statue, a snow globe featuring a twister in the middle with a house in the eye. Scarlet hasn't ever diminished his taste in decorating. She sees that it's all very unique, very Sebastian. Over the years, she's made sure to remind him that this is their house and not just hers paid for by her parents' money. She wouldn't be where she is today without him. He's more than just a butler.

"You know, I think this is the first year I can actually call this a Yule season and not have to worry about a lecture?" Scarlet is laying out a table runner across the coffee table, little red tassels hanging off the ends.

"From your dad?" Sebastian is carefully placing the items on the mantle into a box so that he can put up his collection of snowmen figurines. Pretty much all of his Christmas decorations consists of snowmen.

"Yeah. Even though he was a witch, he never liked calling Christmas Yule." Scarlet recalls. She likes the freedom to talk about her parents without having to worry about the guilt that follows or even the shame that her mom and dad would inflict on her if she even spoke for too long. "He never enjoyed the Pagan holidays. That's one of the only things my mom won over when it came to their ongoing battle."

"Well that doesn't sound very witchy." Sebastian leaves the snow globe as the surviving decoration on the mantle, centering it just right under the pine cone scented wreath plastered to the wall.

"Our holidays never were." Scarlet goes on. They've never really talked about this kind of stuff. Sebastian knew that Scarlet was a witch shortly after they moved in. She didn't mind that he knew. But Scarlet knew very little about the holidays when it came to what witches celebrated. It wasn't until Sebastian bought pretty much every book he could find on Pagan holidays so they could celebrate Scarlet's lifestyle along with his celebration of Christmas. "My mom drank so much every year but my dad challenged her by drinking more. Pathetic, really."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"No pity time." Scarlet sorts through the Yule themed mason jars at the bottom of the red tub next to her. They're filled with tiny pine tree branches and cinnamon sticks and leaves that have turned brown and crunchy. She has another filled with all kinds of different feathers she collected herself, a ruby red witch's hat in the center. "I've come to realize we've never really talked about what the holidays were like before we lived together."

"You are not wrong, my lady." Sebastian sets up a few snowmen on the fireplace mantle.

"So what were yours like?" Scarlet wonders aloud. "Were they as miserable as mine or do I win in that department?"

"I think you win, unfortunately." Sebastian chuckles, standing back to survey the snowmen approvingly. "I would go to my grandma's every year before she passed away. My uncle would dress up as Santa and bring gifts out for us all, calling our names in the worst Santa voice I've ever heard." The memory brings a faint smile to his face. "One of my younger cousins once asked where uncle Ron went. Uncle Ron thought fast and said, 'He's on the shitter'."

Scarlet bursts into immature laughter when Sebastian snorts himself. "The shitter." Scarlet repeats. "Very classy."

"Right? It became an ongoing joke every year after that." Sebastian covers his mouth with a fist, trying hard to contain his joyous laughter that manages to put a smile on Scarlet's face every time she hears it. "Someone would ask where uncle Ron is and the rest of us would chant, 'On the shitter!'"

Scarlet laughs with him before she realizes that it's just a memory and how he doesn't spend Christmas with uncle Ron or that younger cousin or anyone else who participated in that chant. "Well why don't you spend Christmas with them anymore?" Her smile quickly fades. "I feel somewhat guilty having you all to myself."

Sebastian looks at her over his shoulder after closing up the box of nick-knacks.

Scarlet feels her cheeks sink. "In a non-romantic way, obviously. Get your mind out of the gutter."

"I will when yours does." He smirks. "And, my grandma passed away so my aunts and uncles had to sell her house. We all kind of do our own thing now. Plus, I like our new traditions. Yule-slash-Christmas is something everyone should celebrate... even though they're pretty much the same thing."

"So you like pretty much doing nothing the whole day other than watching your clay animation Christmas movies?" Scarlet grins up at him, content that he likes doing nothing just as much as she does.

"Rankin Bass will forever be iconic." He points a finger at her. "And yeah. I like spending time with ya."

Scarlet looks away from him before she can see the pinkish color flooding her face. She clears her throat and closes up her own bin after setting out the remainder of the mason jars. "There's a dead woman at Quarta Luna who we think might be stuck in limbo. She murdered a bunch of children during the late 1800's there when she worked in the children's ward."

Sebastian blinks at her, setting his box down on the piano. "What?"

"I'm being honest with you and keeping you in the loop." Scarlet rises to her feet. "You said that you wanted me to come home if there was anything too dangerous to stay there."

"Yes, I remember that conversation quite fondly." Sebastian has gone from looking nostalgic to annoyed. "What part of murderer isn't dangerous to you?"

"I think she only targets young kids." Scarlet continues. "She was a schizophrenic. I haven't seen her yet, haven't even seen the kids. But I wanted to tell you so you know what's happening and that it's nothing too terrible to come home from."

"I don't like the sound of this." He shakes his head at her. "The thought of you staying in a school where a child murderer ghost woman is sounds crazy."

"Do you trust me?"

He doesn't hesitate. "Of course I trust you."

"Then trust me on me telling you that if it gets too weird, I'll come home." Scarlet promises again. "Trust me, after what happened in October, this is fairly easy to deal with."

Sebastian stifles a laugh. "Well I'm glad one of us thinks so."

She claps her hands together once, relieved to have that out in the open now. "So what next? The kitchen?"

RILEY

Meanwhile, Riley barrels through the little Salem mall with Vera by her side-- whose arms are weighed down by heavy shopping bags filled with gifts that she plans on giving the rest of the family. A small part of Riley believes that her sister is going to attempt to shower everyone in gifts in a form of an apology for the last five years she hasn't spent Yule with them. Riley would be doing the same thing, if she were her. Vera has been back for a couple days now and even though Riley is still juggling classes at the academy, she's keeping her word to Vera and spending as much time with her as she can. Riley is the most forgiving person she's ever met and she doesn't mind if that's conceited to say. She's never met anyone who's as loyal as she is herself. She agreed with Vera that she is going to work on things when it comes to their very strained relationship. If shopping with her in the mall is going to help mend it, then she'll do it.

"You haven't bought anything yet." Vera takes survey of Riley's empty hands. "You're making me feel like a big spender."

"I'm not the one trying to buy everyone back into forgiveness." Riley jokes, but only just a little. She does want Vera to know that it's going to take a lot more than a few hangouts to get just a little close to where they used to be before she left. If they will ever get back to that place.

"Are you going to be making jabs the entire time we're here?" Vera's face falls. "Because my voice is tired of apologizing."

Riley won't lie, she'll proudly admit of the one liners she's been using against her sister since they left the house. She pretended to be a GPS in the car leading her to the mall since Vera probably doesn't remember the streets of Salem. She accused the guy that Vera pointed out as a "cutie patootie" in the Starbucks line as an evil warlock that will whisk her off her feet and use her in whatever twisted ways that he wants. And no, Riley doesn't feel bad for saying any of this. Not in the slightest.

"I don't know." Riley pretends to think though her mind is already made up. "Will it make you leave again?"

Vera sighs, stopping in her tracks as shoppers bustle up and down the wide corridor into the tiny stores already crowded with people. "I'm serious. I made a mistake. I'm sure you've made mistakes before. I don't want to constantly be reminded of mine."

"The only reason I'm reminding you is so you know that you can't just come back here and apologize and expect everyone to be all right with you again." Riley shoots back. "I'm so glad to see you and know that you're okay but in the back of my mind, I'm wondering if you're going to sneak out in the middle of the night and ditch us again."

"I was sixteen." Vera sits down on the bench looking over the balcony to the first floor of the mall, the loud chatter of shoppers drifting up over the rail. "Tanner and I were happy together. We really were. When you're as young as sixteen, you have a mindset of thinking that you know everything about everything there is to possibly know about everything." She grins at herself, fiddling with one of the straps to her many shopping bags. "Tanner told me about his parents and the dark arts. He promised me everything when it came to black magic. Said that I could have everything I wanted."

"He lied?"

"No." Vera shakes her head. "He gave it all to me. I was living in this mansion. You would've loved it. I had my own zoo in there. Tigers and monkeys, bats, and even llamas. I could get anything I wanted whenever I wanted it. Didn't have to worry about money or going to jail for anything. It was like I didn't even exist."

Riley shifts on the bench next to her, spinning the loose button on her navy blue coat. "Then what?"

"I got tired of not existing." Vera's eyes are distant, like she's watching herself in front of her, tumble through a downward spiral. "I got tired of snapping my fingers and getting exactly what I wanted without having to do anything for it. Tanner stopped being around. He was being brought into some plan to blow some government facility. Just for the hell of it. I stopped existing to him and I stopped existing to myself. I don't know if he even knows that I left."

"Is that something you're willing to risk?" Riley's eyebrows pinch together. "Him finding out you've run away?"

"I don't care." Vera looks her in the face. "I've stopped with the black magic but I do know a thing or two on how to handle myself. Plus, I'm back with my family and nothing is going to take me away again."

Riley reaches out to hold her hand, the statement music to her ears. "You don't know how happy I am to hear that."

"Yeah well, you don't know how happy I am to say it." Vera grins.

"Come on. I want to buy you an early Yule gift." Riley gets up from the bench, holding out her hand for her sister to take.

Vera grabs her hand and gets to her own feet. "Is that right?"

Riley nods in approval and leads the way through the Santa elves scampering towards the large chair where the mall Santa waits with a child on his lap. "I hope you like jewelry."

NINA

On Saturday morning, Nina returns home once the nurse at the academy says that she's good to go for the weekend. Nurse Dorothy couldn't pinpoint Nina's reasoning for fainting this second time but is guessing that it's from being light headed. Nina wouldn't doubt it. Seems like every time she remembers that fateful day in the woods in depth, her entire world comes crumbling down around her like falling Legos until she can't dig herself out. Nina doesn't care what the nurse told her the reasoning was, just as long as Nina was able to come home to Alejandra.

Nina scoops her daughter up into her arms the minute she gets home. She inhales the sweet and innocent smell of the girl, squeezing her tight. She refuses to think of her daughter as the offspring of evil. She's Nina's daughter. Not the daughter of a demon.

"Too hard!" Alejandra exclaims from her mother's grasp, kicking her little legs.

"Sorry, buggy." Nina releases her from her hold, setting her down on the living room floor. "I just missed. Extra this week."

"I missed you too." Alejandra claims but is already waddling away towards the toy box on the other side of the room. How it has anything left in it, Nina doesn't know. The entire living room is littered with toy trucks and train sets that Alejandra seems to obsess over. Two Barbie dolls are kissing on top of the coffee table while an audience of Colin's old figurines watch from the floor.

"Hey, girlie." Emilio kisses the top of Nina's head from behind. "I didn't even hear you come in. I'm glad I got to see you before the storm, though."

"Storm?"

"A huge winter one coming our way. Supposed to be bad."

"Working on another sculpture?" Nina lets herself sink into the plush cushions of the couch, hugging a pillow to her chest.

"A porcupine growing out of a dragon's egg." Emilio plops down on the other couch, just under the beach painting Collette did when Nina was around seven. Her mother would lock herself in the upstairs art room, painting for hours during the hot summer days that kept Nina and her siblings outside. All she would listen to was her mother's humming drifting out the window when she'd ride her bike through the front yard.

"Wow. That's a new one." The thought of the finished piece makes Nina smile, securing her hug on the throw pillow. "I'm excited to see it."

"You all right?" Emilio looks closer at her, glancing at the singing Alejandra as she races out of the room with one of her baby dolls. "You look paler than usual."

Nina self consciously touches her face. "There's been a lot going on at the school. I've been remembering things about... that day."

Emilio never really looks surprised or shocked in a bad way. Or even disappointed. But perhaps Nina has never gave him reason to be disappointed or shocked. Instead, he just blinks. "Yeah?"

"Yeah..." Nina crosses and then uncrosses her legs, wondering if talking about this is going to make him uncomfortable. Her dad has been her best friend ever since she's been old enough to tell secrets to a friend. She can trust him with anything. "I was kidnapped. And... taken advantage of. I don't think I was fully awake the whole time. But there was someone, in this room, this dark room." She swallows the bile crawling up her throat. "He had horns, dad."

Emilio's face drains of color. He scoots to the edge of the couch, rapidly blinking down at his lap and then to the floor. "And did you see anything else?"

"No." Nina confirms. She feels more than uncomfortable and she can tell that he does, too. But after that checkup with the doctor shortly after this entire incident, there were no signs of forced entry. That counts for something right? It can't be like someone forced their way in. They had to have used magic to get her pregnant-- if that's even possible. Last she checked, there were no spells or rituals for an immaculate conception.

Unless they covered their path.

"We're going to figure this out, Nina." Emilio promises seriously. "And when we do, we're going to bury the bastard that did this. Demon or not, it's dead, whatever it is."

Nina flinches at the word demon. Her dad thinks it's a demon too. Emilio is well educated in the world of magic. Knows all of the little things that most witches don't when they focus on the general knowledge of witchcraft.

"Do you know of any demons that do this stuff?" Nina asks.

"Not off the top of my head." Emilio denies after thinking for several long seconds, clucking his tongue. "But I have some books upstairs in the closet of the art room if you want to look through them. I don't think those copies are sold anymore."

"Yeah, that would be good." Nina gets up from the couch, tossing the pillow in her spot. She starts up the stairs, taking two at a time until she reaches the top. Colin and her mother are out getting dinner so the entire upper floor is silent of noise.

Nina opens the door into the art room that's only used when Collette is on break from teaching history at the high school. A canvas depicting half-painted twin girls standing outside of an ice cream truck stands in the middle of the room, a white sheet splattered with colors wrinkled underneath the easel. Nina steps towards the tower of boxes crammed with old books against the wall when she notices her daughter facing the wall in the corner. Her brown curls are illuminated in the sunlight breaking through the window on the other side of the room. She's swaying from side to side, whispering to herself so low Nina can't hear any words she's saying.

"Baby?" Nina takes a step towards her, the sight of her daughter standing the way she is sending chills up her spine. She continues forward when Alejandra doesn't answer, still whispering to herself like she never even heard Nina speak. Nina reaches out to touch her shoulder. "Alejandra--"

Alejandra jumps when Nina touches her shoulder, whirling around and screaming at her so loud, Nina stumbles backwards onto the floor. Alejandra stays where she is, her mouth a gaping hole in her face as her shriek cuts through the room like a knife. The worst part isn't how much noise is coming from a girl so tiny, but the way she's staring at her mother. Her brown almond shaped eyes are glued to Nina on the floor, tears flooding her vision and streaming down her face. She hasn't even paused to inhale any breath.

"Alejandra!" Nina cries out loudly, her own eyes filled with her own set of fresh tears.

Emilio comes barreling into the room just as Alejandra's mouth closes and her cheeks go dry. "What the fuck was that?"

"Dad, language." Nina croaks from the floor. It seems to be the only sane thing to say right now. If she starts explaining what just happened with Alejandra, she's pretty sure she wouldn't be able to finish.

"Papa, can we paint?" Alejandra's voice is tiny again, like how it should be. She races over to the little bottles of paint on the floor, picking up the red color.

Nina stares at the girl for the first time ever as if she doesn't know her. Alejandra looks innocent as she stares up at Emilio with the red paint in her hands, her smile warping her face into Nina's cheerful product of something terrible. The fear of giving birth to a demon child is going to be the death of her.

EPHRAIM

Quarta Luna is pretty empty on the weekends, especially since most of the students either live in Salem or in one of the surrounding counties. The main common area is mostly quiet anyways but with a lot of the students being gone, it's even more silent. The way Ephraim likes it, especially when his sister isn't nagging at him about their mother.

"You do realize that it's all your fault, don't you?" Ericka is sitting on the other side of the table behind one of the leather sofas, a heavy load of homework laid out in front of her. "If you wouldn't have gotten into even more trouble with your little Scooby gang, she wouldn't be in the situation she's in now."

"Bringing Faith back from the dead was not my fault, okay?" Ephraim keeps his voice low, even though the only other resident in the room is a girl on the other side doing a spell in front of the lit fireplace, burning love letters. "And even if it was, I would know that mom getting fired is my fault so I wouldn't need your commentary."

"I'm just speaking the truth." Ericka hisses. "Why were you out that late anyway? Is it apparently a thing to sneak out of dorm houses at night?"

Ephraim wants to say Duh but then he remembers that this is only Ericka's first year. She has a lot to learn about the academy. How most of the bad things that take place happen at night and it's probably safer for her to think that everyone stays tucked in bed the entire night. "It was just a one time thing. Faith only wanted to fly again. Scarlet and I were just doing her a favor."

"Of what? Being whisked off by the headmistress?" Ericka grunts, flicking a piece of blond hair over her shoulder. "Yeah, remind me to never ask you for any favors."

"I can't study in here if you're going to be lecturing me the whole time." Ephraim shuts his herbology book and shoves it deep into his bag.

"Well you need to think of something, Ephraim." Ericka leans over the table, her voice barely a whisper but a loud barely hushed voice. "Mom doesn't have a job right now. She's sleeping in a hotel for tourists. She's not even allowed on campus, into her own home! We are going to be spending Yule in a hotel room."

"I'll try figuring something out." Ephraim gets up from his chair. He understands that he played a hand in his mother's suspension. He doesn't need Ericka reminding him about his faults. Ephraim leaves the common area, leading the heavy doors glide shut behind him. He storms down the hallway, slinging his bag onto his shoulder.

He sure as hell doesn't want to spend the holiday in a hotel room. That would be terrible. And depressing. And he would constantly feel guilty for forcing his family into a fucking hotel room--

Ephraim is yanked to the side, tumbling over his feet and against the brick wall of an alcove just near the stairs. His yelp echoes down the corridor as he finds himself staring at Faith. Faith. As in Faith Goodman.

"Faith?" Ephraim asks her breathlessly, touching her arm to make sure he isn't hallucinating like Nina did. "What the hell? How are you here?"

"I got out." Faith pokes her head out of the alcove. "I don't have much time to explain. She's going to be looking for me."

"Where were you?" Ephraim demands.

"There's a secret room in Prudence's office." She begins. "She locked me in there and I could hear her talking. She was saying things to someone about figuring out a way to send me back. She knows a way, Ephraim." Her eyes grow glossy. "She knows a way and she's going to go through with it. She's going to try and kill me--"

"Are you sure?" Ephraim asks, grabbing both of her shoulders until she looks him right in the eye. "Did she say that?"

"Not those words but--"

"Not those words?"

"No." She answers gravely. "But she's going to try and figure out a way to get me to return."

"I won't let it happen." Ephraim swears. He doesn't care what he has to do to send her away. As long as Faith is safe and far away from here, he'll feel a lot better. He doesn't care if he never even sees Faith again. As long as she's alive. "I promise you, I won't."

"I don't want her to do it." Faith shakes her head. "I want to go on my own terms."

"I know."

"If she does a spell on me, I'm bound to go back to Hell." Faith's head doesn't stop shaking. "But if I die, a natural way, I might be able to go to Heaven. I think I have a chance."

Ephraim opens his mouth to respond but he doesn't really know what to say back to this. It's not like she can just make a natural force happen in order for her to die. Ephraim pulls her into an embrace. "We'll figure things out. In the meantime, we have to find a place for you to hide."

"I don't want to hide anymore, Ephraim." Faith pulls away from him. "Prudence is going to find me no matter what."

Ephraim isn't going to let that happen. He doesn't care how many spells he has to learn to make sure it happens. "Not unless I have anything to do with it."

SCARLET

Scarlet places the pentagram wreath she made last Yule season on the tree in the family room corner, taking a step away to approve. The snow outside is picking up the pace, a complete white sheet of flakes gravitating towards the ground in swaying dances. The picture window is outlined with red and green tree lights leftover from this tree, creating a perfect view of what this season is about.

"I think this room just got ten times more comfy." Sebastian is sorting through the tree ornaments from the couch, sifting through the ones Scarlet made and the ones he bought at the dollar store-- a manic buy during their first year together when they realized they didn't have any ornaments. They're cheap and only a few have survived over the years but they're one of Scarlet's most cherished decorations at this point.

"You sure do love the tree every year." Scarlet grins at him as she makes her way to the clear bin in front of him. "The snow is getting worse."

"You might as well stay here all of this upcoming week." He suggests dramatically, taking a reindeer ornament out of the tub. "Don't want to risk you going back when the streets are covered."

"The storm's gonna be bad, I can feel it." Scarlet reaches into the tub, taking out the little bear ornament with Baby's 1st Christmas engraved onto the sock with 2002 on the other. One of Mrs. Vidal's beauty queen friends got it for Scarlet her first Christmas.

"Then stay." Sebastian tells her. "We can start a fire, let it burn for days straight. I can force you to sit through an entire marathon of Rankin Bass movies."

"Tempting." She grins at the idea. Being cooped up in the family room with movies and a fire as the storm hits the rest of Salem does sound like heaven-- in the least romantic way possible. She misses spending all this time with him. That's one of the many downfalls of being a student at the academy.

"Or you could sneak me on campus." Sebastian gets up from the couch to add a few of the cheap red and green ornaments to the tree, placing them on the higher branches. "I'll finally be able to see what you see every day."

"Trust me, Quarta Luna isn't what it's cracked up to be." Scarlet hangs another ornament closer to the bottom of the tree. "Hey, where's our other tub? The ones with the white and gold ornaments."

"Oh, I left that one in the garage. I'll be right back." Sebastian snaps his fingers and trots out of the family room and towards the garage off the kitchen.

Sebastian's iPhone blares from the end table to the left of the couch. Scarlet glances down at it from over her shoulder. "Sebastian, your phone is ringing! Do you want me to answer it?"

A muffled response from Sebastian sounds on the other side of the house. Scarlet is almost positive it's a Sure!. She picks up the phone, where an unknown number is displayed across the screen. She slides the little green telephone icon across the screen, putting it to her ear. "Sebastian's phone, this is Scarlet, how may I help you?"

"Scarlet?" A girl's voice asks on the other end, full of confusion. "Uh, this Bianca. How do you know Sebastian?"

"I'm his employer." Scarlet rests her elbow on her forearm over her stomach. "And roommate."

"Oh, okay."

"Is there a message you would like me to take for him?" Scarlet glances down the hall where Sebastian doesn't seem to be returning from. "He should be back--"

"This is the girl he met the other night at Snookers bar." Bianca continues, a slight rustling sounding on her end. "Just tell him that I called and if he could call me back, that would be great."

"Sure." Scarlet agrees and she listens to the click from Bianca's end. Scarlet hangs up the phone just as Sebastian comes down the hallway, carrying another large bin of Christmas ornaments.

"Left it in my car." Sebastian sets down the plastic tub on the floor. "Did you answer my phone?"

"Yeah, Bianca called." Scarlet grunts, letting him pop open the lid to the tub. She tries to shake the feeling from her chest but she doesn't know how. She isn't sure if it's annoyance at the girl's voice or if she just didn't like her name or if it's some weird form of jealousy-- which it probably isn't-- but it's an unknown clenching feeling, like her heart is being tested with a tight grip.

"Bianca?" He sounds puzzled.

"Snookers?" Scarlet prompts.

"Oh, right." He snaps his fingers before digging into the shimmering ornaments reflecting the Christmas lights from the tree. "Bianca."

Scarlet watches him through the branches on the other side of the tree, glaring at him. Of course he doesn't want her to stay here to wait out the snow storm heading their way. He only suggested it because he knew that her school schedule would prevent her from staying. He would rather snuggle up on the couch with Bianca and talk about their time at Snookers. Judging by the satisfied look on Sebastian's face, it must've been a good one.

"I didn't know you went to bars." Scarlet comments dryly.

"I don't usually, but after a busy night at the skate rink, my coworkers and I grabbed some drinks." Sebastian explains casually, clearly unable to read the tone in Scarlet's voice. "It was pretty fun."

"Bianca must've thought so too. She wants you to call her."

"Okay." Sebastian stops in front of the bin of ornaments, watching Scarlet's face closely. "Something feels odd, here."

"What do you mean?"

"I might not be a witch but I know a change in energy when it happens." Sebastian forces a small laugh, something he only does when he's uncomfortable with something. "So what's up?"

"Nothing, just tired all of a sudden." Scarlet lies. She can't exactly tell him 'what's up' because she doesn't exactly know herself. She has no idea what this feeling is in her chest but she isn't a fan.

"Do you find me going to a bar weird?"

Yes. "No."

"Okay..." Sebastian studies her, unable to get a read. "Do you find a girl calling me weird?"

Yes. "No. Why would I think that's weird?"

"Nothing, just making sure." Sebastian reaches for another ornament, raising his arms to hang it close to the top. His shirt inches up, revealing the waistband to his boxers. Scarlet looks away.

That damned Bianca.

JADE

The fast snowfall has picked up late evening that same day. The little white flakes melt as soon as they reach their landing, the white snow clouds in the sky bright enough to keep the night from darkening. Downtown Essex is made up of brick roads and little shops and businesses sandwiched between one another, barriers of thin trees jutting out from the ground. The roads have completely covered with snow and Jade has found herself as the only one still out here, migrating from store to store in hopes to buy her sister something pretty for Yule. She doesn't have anything particular in mind but her mom would always tell her that the perfect gift speaks to the buyer.

Jade stops outside of a frosted window of a toy shop. A train is speeding in a circle on a plastic track, a fake Santa Claus holding a candle stands in the middle, his beard fluffy with curls. Jade stares at her reflection in the glass, her glass beanie pulled over the crown of her head, her scarf wrapped snugly around her neck. She looks away disapprovingly and continues down the snow covered sidewalk. Blotches of orange from the lampposts heat the icy snow underneath. The snow breaks from under her black boots, regretting coming out so late. She should've came this morning when all the shops were bound to be open. She slows down as she goes to cross the street where cars haven't crossed it most of the evening. There's a figure lingering up ahead, the woman's cloak dragging through the snow behind her. She has her hood up, a hint of her face showing in the glow of the lamppost looming over her.

"Jade Waithe, girl of night. A powerful head, she rose from the dead." The lady croaks.

Jade's heart does a tiny flip at the lady's words. She stops walking as the lady glides towards her. "What did you just say?"

"You're a lost one, you were laid out to rot. Listen closely, ignore me not." The lady goes on, her hands deep into the pockets of her cloak. She pulls out a crystal ball the size of an ornament, a fog of white swirling on the inside.

Jade steps closer, the lady's cloak casting a shadow over the entire upper half of her face. Her red lips are rather wrinkly, her pasty skin lacking moisture. She holds out her hands, the ball sunk in between, holding the mysterious fog preventing Jade from finding her reflection in the orb.

"A ball of life, a ball of time. Keep it guarded, keep it fine." The lady proceeds, listening closer so that her voice is a whisper. "The resurrected receive, but never give. You have a gift, you're gifted to live."

Jade watches the orb drop into her palm. It's heavy. Heavier than a glass filled with the thickest liquid possible. Jade brings it closer to her face, inspecting the cloud inside. She looks back up at the lady, who's drifting off into the winter night without another word.

"Where are you going?" Jade calls out, taking a few steps after her. "Who are you?"

But the lady doesn't answer, she disappears into the curtain of falling snow like she was never even here to begin with.

The end.