Pris au Piège

“Alice’s room. Definitely.”
“And what am I looking for precisely? You weren’t very specific on the phone.” She started to the back of the house, how she knew where I slept was beyond me.

“Any kind of bug, supernatural or otherwise. Traces of demon residue, any type of spell, just general tip offs that a fallen angel has been there. And if there has been, then make sure that there are no booby traps and what not. I don’t know what he wanted or what his plan is but I know his intentions are not pure.” He had his business face on and was clearly not taking any chances.

“After the last time you had someone sweep the house there was a team of sensories,” A type of medium that could detect preternatural residue “why the change?”

“Ouch.” Noelle laughed.

“Noelle is actually a sensory demon. But it’s not what you think, she was a sensory then she was attacked by a succubus who accidentally left enough soul for her to regenerate but not enough to fight off the infection. So now she’s a hybrid! And a hell of a lot better than ten sensories that eat all my food and don’t use proper grammar.” He grumbled the last part. I had never met a woman who was attacked by a succubus, let alone someone who survived the attack. I guess its like when a vampire bites you, you turn as well.

We arrived at my room, to me everything seemed perfectly fine but one look at Noelle made it clear that this assumption was far from the truth. Her nose twitched as she took in the surroundings.

“Fallen Angel you say?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah…” Master said slowly “Why? Is there something else?”

Her head snapped to me “How long have you been having nightmares?” she asked sharply.

I opened and closed my mouth without sound “H-how did you know I’ve been having nightmares?”
She pointed up to the ceiling “What’s up there?”

“More servants quarters, why?” I asked.

“How do you get up there?”

“Hidden staircase in the kitchen,” I pointed just outside my door “but why?” I asked desperately.

She ignored my plea and proceeded to push the wall aside that hid the stairs up to the second floor, then eventually to the attic. We walked up the first flight, she glanced in the large bedroom furnished with two brass beds and a dresser, then shook her head and continued up the spiral staircase. We reached the attic, well more of an undeveloped third floor that only covered the servants quarters. The real attic was over the actually developed third floor, but we called it an attic all the same.

She entered the room, looking at the exposed beams and the floor made of the same maple. I glanced down at the floor where Noelle was staring and gasped. The unfinished attic floor had white chalk markings all over, it was the lay out of my room far below. A large rectangle lay where my bed would be twenty feet below, even a circle for my bed side table.

But why would someone draw a plan of my room in the attic? And why the hell was there a rune in the middle of the floor?

It’s a rune I’ve seen before, it wasn’t used by witches any more though. We just drew them on our skin with coal when we needed it, we didn’t dance in circles naked and chanting to the moon. That stopped in the eighteenth century.

“What the hell does that mean?!” A still boxer-clad James burst out as he circled the rune.

“It’s a dream rune.” I answered quietly before Noelle could.

“Yes, precisely. You’re nightmares have clearly been planted.” She bent down to get a closer look, a heavy sigh escaped her lips “And they’ve messed with the rune.” she murmured “It’s not just making you have dreams its moving you to the dream…”

“That doesn’t make sense. I’ve seen her tossing and turning! She hasn’t left her bed.”

“She doesn’t physically leave her bed-” She held up her hand to stop James from interrupting “It’s like an astral projection. Her mind, maybe even her soul, is being transported to a real place. Not just some figment of her imagination, but her body will stay here. This way she’s still able to feel whatever this person wants her to without having to enter your house. But they had to get in to plant the rune. Has anyone entered the house when she started having the dreams?”

James glanced to me “How long have this been going on?”

I sighed and put my face into my hands “About two months.”

“Two months?! And you haven’t told me?! Damn it Alice!” He stomped around like an angry rhino.

I shrunk away from him, I really hated disappointing him. I felt tears sting my eyes but quickly blinked them away “Don’t yell at her.” Noelle said sharply “It won’t help. She couldn’t have known that this is a malicious and targeted attack.”

“I’m sorry Alice.” He said softly.

“Its okay master.” I nodded softly. My day off was over, he is my master not my friend. Had any other vampire rescued me I wouldn’t be able to have this relationship. I needed to remember my place.

“The point is that someone got into your house! Now think! Who, what, why, and when.”

Realization dawned on my face, “The party. You’re companies party to welcome a new subdivision in Georgia. You had countless people here.”

“You had a party to celebrate something you guys do all the time?” Noelle asked incredulously.

Master sighed heavily “No, this party was to see if one of our higher-ups was giving away company secrets. Like future building sights and more specifically who our clients are. We invited a rival company as well as the guilty party but learned little. That is until a woman from our company announced her engagement to a man from the other. Needless to say we felt a bit embarrassed.”

“And now you have a dream rune set for your friend or whatever you want to call her.”

“Can’t we just wash it off or something?!” Master yelled pacing the room furiously.

“It’s not that simple. Who ever put it up here was clearly making sure it would be hidden but they wouldn’t be so careless as to make it easily destroyed incase it was found. No, they’ll have put some sort of protection around it, or hell even burned it into the floor under the chalk!”

“You’re the sensory! Check for any kind of protection!”

“James, I’m here as a friend to support you. I am not, however, one of your lackeys. So either you play nice or this is the last favor you get.” She was terrifying, but it was fascinating to watch her work.

He sighed heavily before saying in a pained voice “Noelle, please. I need you to check, I can’t have Alice afraid to sleep in her own bed.”
“That’s better.” She paced the room, specifically around the rune. After a tense few minutes she turned to us “There’s no protection. But,” she scuffed her boot along the chalk line “It is burned into the wood. You can’t get rid of it.”

“There must be some way!” He thundered.

“Yes there is. You get the person or creature responsible for it to remove it. No one else can.”

“George.” He growled darkly.

“Now don’t go off guns blazing, what if its not him? Then you just pissed off one of the Fallen.”

“Then I’ll get to tear his head off like I wanted to last night.” His voice was eerily calm, and utterly frightening. He brushed past me and turned down the spiral staircase.

Noelle turned to me “If you ever get tired of He-Man over there, I’m here.” We both laughed, but it was tense and shallow. Things had gotten far too real for me, dreams are okay but this… this is twisted.