Salem Falls

“Are you sure?” Evelyn protested on the phone while Louis jiggled the keys into the lock on his front door. She was on the phone with Niall again, who was making a speedy recovery from the brink of death, thank God. Now, he just had to deal with Evelyn nagging after him every few hours to take his tonics and elixirs and to go on a good jog to promote blood flow to get all the dark magic gunk out of his veins. Louis found it odd that there was such a human resolution to the threat of dark magic poisoning, but he wouldn’t dare question Evelyn. Not after he saw her save someone’s life.

“Ni, I don’t care if you feel fine, you’ve got to take care of yourself,” she insisted impatiently, kicking off her shoes in the front hallway. Louis loved the look of how comfortable she was entering his house, almost like it was her own. “Is Siren there? Give her the phone. No, I’m not going to yell at her.”

“You want to talk to Siren?” Louis questioned with a quirk of his eyebrows before ushering her upstairs into the makeshift movie room. He was dismissed with a wave of her hand, and not entirely liking that, he reached out and tweaked at her sides until she doubled over with laughter.

“Louis, quit!” she protested, kicking at him until he was a good distance away. “Yeah, Siren? Hey, it’s Evelyn. Be sure he’s taking that tonic. Just because he’s the hulk now doesn’t mean he’s exempt from treatment.”

Louis sighed and turned to a mini fridge in the corner of the room, pulling out a pair of sodas for the two of them, as well as selecting a movie from the collection on the wall. Fine. If Evelyn wanted to chat with her mortal enemy on the phone, she could go right ahead. He got to pick the movie then. And he picked The Godfather.

Evelyn began laughing, which caught Louis off guard. He snapped his head around to see her smiling, on the phone with Siren Chaveaux. Who was this girl and what had she done with his girlfriend? He gave her a look of confusion, but she only waved him off again.

“Sure, of course. Well, if you need anything, just let me know. I’ll see you guys later.”

And with that, she hung up the phone and turned to Louis with a grin. “What was that all about?” he questioned. “Since when do you like the Wicked Witch herself?”

Evelyn shrugged, her full lips turned into a much coyer smile this time. She looked amazing, legs folded beneath the folds of her dark purple dress, the same style she always wore – perhaps it was the Lunar Circle’s uniform, or something. Louis didn’t care either way, the way it skimmed the tops of her thighs when she stood up nearly drove him insane.

“Niall likes her so much, so I may as well try,” she responded serenely. “And besides. I think I may have seen that good side of her he likes so much when she was sobbing like a child in your arms.”

Louis couldn’t help but smile at that. Siren crying was a sight he was unlikely to see ever again. He marveled at the way Evelyn could forgive so easily, the purity of her heart showing through even if she didn’t mean for it to. That was something about Evelyn he would never be able to get over. She gave and gave and even forgave. And never once batted a lash. Something about her definitely was magical, even if her powers were weak.

“Come on,” Evelyn beckoned, kissing his cheek with playful lips. “Are we going to watch this movie or what?”

“You better like it, or you’ll sleep with the fishes,” he quipped lamely, trying to hear that gorgeous laugh again. He extended the DVD to her, expecting a roll of her eyes – girls were never much for movies like these, he found. But instead, her face lit up.

“Oh, I love this one,” she breathed excitedly. “Mob culture is so interesting, don’t you think? Very strange.”

He could only shake her head as she bounded to the couch, cracking open her soda as she went. There was just something so uncommon about Evelyn and god, he adored her for it. He had always been fearful of getting close to girls – he was always attracting the wrong ones with his ‘toughness,’ his parents money, his good looks. When Evelyn came around, he wanted to push her away, he really did. But she was the kind of girl you just couldn’t get rid of, even if you wanted to. And god, that was the last thing he wanted to do.

And it was having her by his side in these terrifying times that helped him be brave.

The death of Ezra Nanzig had rocked her world, Louis knew it. He caught her crying at times, or the traces of her crying – eyes red when she came from the bathroom, nose sniffling when she thought he wasn’t looking. And though he didn’t know Ezra very well, his death rocked Louis’s world, too. But for him, it was a very different fear.

There really was dark magic out there. There was a dark mage in their town, even, and they were using his or her powers to kill innocent humans. Brutally. A chill went up his spine.

He couldn’t shake the thought from his head, of Evelyn squeezing his hand at Ezra’s funeral, of the feeling of immense loss he felt for someone he never really knew because someone he loved felt it first. But he was torn from these thoughts when Evelyn squeezed his hand again in the darkness of the room, the movie playing in front of them. And in moments, she’d closed the space between them, pressing her lips to his.

God, did he want her.

Her hands were suddenly all over him, running over the fabric of his white v neck, and then to the skin of his collar bone, leading the way as her lips lead kisses all down his neck. He couldn’t help but hold his breath beneath her as she moved to straddle him, her skirt flowing lazily around those damn legs. Mindlessly, his hands went to them, tracing the shape of them lightly with his fingertips, sending visible shivers through Evelyn’s body.

Damn, he thought to himself. Because he couldn’t help it.

But suddenly, it felt as though they weren’t alone in the room. It was an ominous feeling, like his parents were standing in the doorway. Evelyn must have felt it too, because she pulled away from his lips to stand up and look into the darkness of the room. Louis glanced around too and saw nothing, but couldn’t shake the feeling.

“Do you see – ” he began to ask, but was suddenly cut off by the feeling of his windpipe being entirely constricted by a pair of invisible hands. Instead, his voice came out as a choked sound, causing Evelyn to snap around in surprise.

“Louis?” she asked, only to gasp when she saw his flailing figure in front of her. Louis could see the fear in her eyes, a fear that matched the fear he saw when Niall was dying. That only made his panic worse, and he began thrashing in an effort to breathe again. The constricting force tightened on his neck, lifting him in the air so he could no longer flail about.

A searing pain came across his cheek, like a white-hot knife was slashing into his skin at the most painfully slow rate. Everything was happening slowly then, he was beginning to run out of air. Evelyn was screaming next to him, reaching out to him only to be shocked by what appeared to be a force field placed around Louis. She yelped out in pain before being reduced to tears, watching as Louis faded in front of her.

“This is what you deserve, Evelyn, for loving a weak, pathetic human,” a dark voice went through the room, causing Evelyn to cry out even leader. “For loving all the weak, pathetic humans you love.”

A pair of blood red eyes appeared in the darkness, a portentous laugh going through the room. And even in his fading moments, Louis knew that same dark mage had come now for him. And it was meant to torture Evelyn who was now frantically screaming on the floor, unable to take her eyes off Louis and not entirely sure what else to do.

She had little magic, and could hardly control what she possessed, Louis knew that much. And more than anything, as the room began slipping around him, he wished he could reach out and kiss her one last time and tell her it wasn’t her fault, that he loved her anyway. That he loved her.

He loved her.

And suddenly, a flash of bright light filled the room. He could hear her voice, strong yet alien, speaking a language he didn’t spoke. She was shouting it into the room at the top of her lungs, loud enough to just keep Louis on the brink. And when the initial burst of light faded, he could see her standing there, hair floating around her shoulders, a tranquil look on her delicate features. Though her cheeks were streaked with tears, she looked strong in a way he’d never seen in her before.

The trees were whipping against the windowpane in her presence, nature working with her to expel whatever dark magic was present with them in the room. Even the orchid in the corner was blooming and bending at her will. And at that moment, the moon shone through the window, hitting them just right. That was all it took. The bright light returned, flushing them all, until the pair of hands lifted from Louis’s throat, the red eyes disappeared. He fell back to the couch listlessly.

Then the room was still.

Evelyn collapsed in a heap on the floor. Louis longed to jump up and go to her, collect her, tell her how amazing she was. But he was too weak. Instead he watched her hyperventilate while he himself struggled to find his breath again. His fingers went to his cheek to find that he was bleeding profusely. He tried to call out to her, but his voice was hoarse. And then, the room was black.

When he came to, Evelyn was back at his side, murmuring incantations as she pressed her hands to his chest, the same way she had with Niall. He fluttered his eyelids upon seeing her again, eyes rimmed red but expression calm and focused. He could feel himself getting stronger, his breath fuller, his heartbeat more assured.

“Don’t move,” she warned immediately, breaking from her Latin dialogue to flash him a weak smile. “I need to finish healing you.”

Her hands travelled then to his cheek, and he could feel the edges of his skin coming back together at her touch, sealing seamlessly as though they’d never been cut. Then to his neck, healing the bruises left by the constricting force. Then to his temples, calming his nerves. And finally, back to his heart. By the end of her spell casting, he felt stronger than ever, stronger than even before the attack.

“One last thing,” she murmured, pressing her lips to his in a strong, passionate kiss. No, that was what made him even stronger.

“It was the same magic that took Ezra,” she stated in a near whisper before he could even ask, her eyes cast to the floor. “I could sense it. It’s a steep, steep magic. So saturated.”

Louis coughed, his voice still weak coming out of his lungs – something that only an elixir could fix, he guessed. “But you were strong enough to fight it.”

Evelyn couldn’t help but break out in a smile, perhaps the most beautiful smile yet. She nodded as she murmured a few words to set the orchid straight again, arrange the blankets on them properly, open the tab on the soda Louis had yet to drink. Louis could only sit and watch in wonder, his mouth slightly agape.

“Evelyn…” he breathed, his lips curling into a smile to match hers.

“Looks like I found my magic.”