The Witch's Glare

I shut the passenger door before climbing into the driver's seat. "Don't forget to put on your seatbelt," I warned as I started my father's car.

"I know, I know." Fenix shuffled around so that his violin didn't take any further damage. The instrument had thin cracks stretching through its body and a broken string that probably made it unplayable.

I knew that he didn't need to play anything to use his powers, but it seemed like he still had a strong attachment to the dying instrument. "Why are you bringing that along?" I plugged the address into my GPS and took off at a fair pace.

"I don't want to leave it alone. It's too valuable," he said almost whispering.

"You could have left it at my house, Fen. My parents aren't the musical type," I couldn't help but grin at the idea of my father trying to finesse his way through classical music.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't want to leave it behind. I usually take it with me whenever I go outside. My dad said...keep it with me," his voice tapered off into silence and he just stared at the violin silently. "He would be so mad that I let it break."

As much as I wanted to comfort him and say that it would be okay, I also felt like it wouldn't help if I did. So, I let silence fill the car for the next ten minutes while I navigated the streets. Only as we were getting closer to our destination did I decide to interrupt the quiet. "What are you expecting to find when we get there?" I asked carefully.

"I don't know... I just know I need to go."

The thought that Fenix might have been leading me into some sort of demon trap had already crossed my mind, but I dismissed it. There was something much more honest about him than the other demons I'd met. Maybe it was because of how young he was, or how fragile he looked. But when he gave me a worn out post-it note with an address scribbled onto it and asked me how to get there, I had the feeling that he would have gone without me if I didn't take him.

"Daddy just told me to go there if the outer family betrayed him and we were separated. I think one of his old friends is supposed to live there," he suggested.

That idea seemed unrealistic when I pulled up beside the building. It was an old herb shop with antique pots on display and decorative vines woven over the building walls. A sign above the door read: Nature's Touch. The smell of potted plants and chamomile hit me as soon as I stepped out of the car. It was a natural scent that put my mind at ease the closer I came to the entrance.

As we entered, the atmosphere seemed to shift from the dry heat outside to a cozy warmth inside. The shop itself was even smaller than it looked from the outside with most of the free space taken up by rows of different plant life. I spotted a row of flowers in front of the counter, but I couldn't find the source of the chamomile scent I'd picked up earlier.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" I called after failing to find a bell to ring.

A moment later, a familiar male voice called out from the back of shop. When the young man walked out to stand behind the corner, I almost didn't recognize him. "Hey Jake."

"Chad?" he had a completely different aura around him. But it was definitely the former baseball team captain, and one of my closest friends. Even after staring at him blatantly for a whole minute, I still couldn't figure out what exactly was different about him. So I settled on asking the obvious question, "What are you doing here?

"I work here, Jake. This is my grandfather's shop, so you could call it a family business. I only work here part time, but I suppose this meeting was inevitable."

I didn't know what he meant by that last part, but I knew this couldn't be the person Fenix was looking for. "We actually came here looking for someone, but I think we've got the wrong address."

Fenix spoke up for the first time since walking into the store. "It's so hard to breathe in here. My voice wont..."

Panic spiked through my veins when I saw the strained look on his face. Was he allergic to one of the plants? Could demons even have allergies? "Do you have any allergies?" I turned him to face me and held his shoulders tightly.

"N-no! Glaah!" his voice came out as a shrill squeak.

"Okay, I'm going to take you to the hospital right now. Okay, Fen? Don't panic," I said while panicking enough for both of us.

"That isn't necessary. He will be fine as long as he stops trying to speak. It's incredibly disrespectful for a siren to try singing in a witch's shop." Chad raised his glare from Fen up to me, and I realized what was so different about him.

He didn't look so harmless anymore.

You guys are awesome, just sayin <3