He had wanted to meet her again. That’s what he had said after meeting her for the experimental hexes. The one that backfired but thank god not on the way that the spell was intended. She could come whenever she wanted but he urged her to come as soon as she could again. Well she had time today or at this point. There wasn’t much to do and trying to relax was a bit impossible. For some reason she had had her first nightmare again and the dolls that she always took with her were staring at her with unblinking eyes and she had got the shivers from it. Today would be an interesting day, she thought as she was reading the newspaper in the lunch room of her hotel. Victoire was perched on her lap and some sort of purring or how you would describe a fox to make that sound. She was enjoying or trying to enjoy a cup of coffee but her taste for those things still had not returned and she wasn’t sure how long it would take before that could possibly happen. She would just have to be patient, and otherwise continue on to look like a normal young woman as she was doing now.

As she was almost done reading the paper, the most important parts at least, she folded it and put it back on the table. She got the coffee cup and looked over the rim to the weather outside. It was raining, that was nice compared to the sun that she now hated more than ever. As soon as she finished her coffee, she let Victoire jump of her lap and the two of them would leave the lunch room of the hotel to go to visit dear Mabuz and his experimental nonsense. The last time she went there it had been a very windy day but now with just the rain, she was there in no time. As she arrived he immediately stood up from his chair, which was totally new for her. She let her eyes linger over him but he wasn’t bleeding or anything, if anything he looked tense. Normally he would just go on with the part of his experiment and ignored her until he needed her. Apparently he had been waiting, anticipating for her to arrive, ”Well what’s going on doc?” She tried to be as casual but she didn’t like it any second. He ignored that but beckoned her to come closer and pointed at a vial or bottle with a white liquid, she looked at it with distaste since she wasn’t sure what was going to happen, ”I will test this on you.” She stood up straight immediately and narrowed her eyes at him with a flash of anger, ”And what will it do?” He muttered some words that didn’t make any sentence and thus made no sense at all but she thought shortly about the money and nodded. There was nothing she couldn’t handle.

Mabuz guided her to a backstore room in his shop that was completely empty apart from one armchair. He asked her to sit down and she did, it looked far from innocent because there were belts on the chair, which held her wrists, ankles and even one for her head. Mabuz closed them all one by one and made sure that they were tight but didn’t hurt her. His eyes only held some sort of sorrow but she was sure he didn’t feel bad for her, he would do everything for his experiments and that was alright, if he just told her what was going to happen. He got the needle with the vial of white liquid and added that together so he could put the needle in her right upper arm and let the liquid enter her body. That didn’t hurt but soon the scenery in front of her eyes started to get vague and shaped in seconds after each other. The walls became metal plates, and was that blood? She licked her lips, thank god she had eaten recently. It more looked like an abandoned factory or warehouse than the shop she had just been in, had she just been in a shop? It was as if the liquid was playing too much with her mind and she tried to focus. She remembered Mabuz and her lilac eyes went to search for him, he was nowhere to be seen. There was a person in the shadows and she wanted to yell at that person to come closer when for some reason the light finally focused on her.

”Mom?” Her mind went completely in some terror shock, Lilja Olafsdöttir stood in front of her, covered in blood, her teeth changed into fangs like her daughter and she was laughing. She had never been afraid of her mother but the nightmares it made so much sense and she tried to get herself out of these belts that buckled her to the chair. She screamed trying to get the mother monster away from her, screaming that she knew she was dead and that it wasn’t her fault. Thank god for Nastasya she didn’t confess the murder of her father but she would try to get Lilja as far away from her as was possible. She couldn’t hold on to the scream much longer and her blood magic didn’t work, that’s when her eyes started to trigger the black around the corners and before she knew it everything was black.

When she woke up again, Nasty was on the ground and Mabuz was coldly looking down at her, he didn’t have to tell her that she had to get up. She was furious and had to use every bit of self control not to turn his head away from his body or bite him to kill. He gave her the money without saying much about it, but actually it was nothing compared to the disaster he had let her endure, ”I might need you again, to make this better.” She spit at his feet to show how big of a no that was and she walked away from him, she would find her way to the store front where Victoire was cowering and she opened the door to let the fox out and followed without looking back.