Next day

"Hello girls, I am your new tutor," the woman has entered the small botanical room with her bright blonde hair tied high above her head, dressed in long thigh high boots, with a crimson red top, jeans, and bright red lipstick – while her eyeshadow is a sparkling gold.

In a strange way, my first thought – is she a stripper?

Rude to judge... but it just seemed a little lavish to be so glammed up for this kind of job.

I sit on top of the desk, legs crossed, while Gerry and Juny sit on the floor, messing around with some of the pot plants we took care of.

I always take in the information and convey it – while Juny and Gerry pretend not to pay attention.

We did it for protection, feigning stupidity was a way to keep eyes off of all of us, rather than trained on each of us so closely.

Our new tutor puts her suitcase on the table and looks us over, her nose twitching a bit, "...when was the last time you girls had a shower?" A legitimate question. We could shower, theoretically, whenever we wanted – we just didn't, because there was no locked bathroom, it was all open, and security liked to watch. I hold up three fingers, "3 days?" she asks, I shake my head, "3 weeks?" I nod, and she has to take a moment to consider those details, "Oh my god... that's atrocious, I will have to have a word with –" I shake my head, and the tutor immediately stops talking, raising a brow, she then reluctantly nods and changes subject, "My name is Carmen Myers. You can call me Carmen. You must be Selene," I nod, and she looks to the floor, where Juny and Gerry are now watching her with apprehension, "Juny...Gerry?" They both point at each other, just to be a pain, "Well," she looks back to me, "Lovely to meet you all. I have on record the last tutors quit from disruptive behaviour?" I shrug, and Carmen continues, "Well I'll be different and more approachable. What do you want to do? We'll do it. That's where we are going to start. Anything you want. What are you girls interested in, what's the first thing that comes to mind?"

Juny slams down the plant they are toying with and she immediately signs to Gerry, who immediately picks up her notepad and scribbles down an answer.

She holds it up and shows Carmen.

Carmen seems relatively impressed, "Swimming? We can go swimming –"

"In the die pool," Juny clarifies.

Carmen looks confused, so I jump off the table and walk toward a map of the local area on the wall and I point to the place we enjoy most. We were taken there in summer, for vacation, the waterfall fell into a basin of clear water, and was surrounded by cabins. It was called Disappointment Falls.

Carmen goes to inspect the map, to see where I am pointing, and she looks from the location down to my tired eyes, I didn't sleep well last night, if at all, "...so you are mute completely?" I nod, "Is it by choice?" I don't know. I've just never known how to talk in the first place. I could never make a sound – so perhaps it was a problem with my vocal chords, damaged or otherwise, "I will try to organise a day trip," she says.

I walk myself toward a window full of plants that Juny herself potted, and one of the venus fly traps looks hungry. I pick a fly off the wall and drop it into it's mouth. Insects did not fly from me. I don't know why, maybe because I was so silent? Maybe because I was cursed? Ha...

I watch the venus fly trap swallow the fly, while Carmen walks over to Gerry and Juny and sits with them on the floor.

Before she can start talking to them, the door is opened abruptly.

"Miss. Myers?" head of security waves her back, "Don't get too close. They've killed staff before for being that close to their little games."

Carmen raises a brow, "I was never informed of that? Besides, I am a vampire," Carmen jokes so easily, "– I can hold my own, thank you sir – and I specialise in matters of sanity... or lack of. Thank you. You can leave."

The security hesitates and shakes his head, "Suit yourself. You signed the waiver, yeah?"

Carmen doesn't answer, but ignores him, and faces Juny and Gerry.

"Today, we will do some art therapy. How about that?" Carmen suggests.

I sign to Gerry, and she smiles and nods.

Juny pretends to be difficult, whispering to our new tutor, "How about I kill you instead?" she looks at Carmen directly.

I hold my breath.

Carmen keeps a straight face – then laughs good naturedly.

"Very good," Carmen genuinely seems impressed by Juny's humour matching her own. And we're all impressed Carmen doesn't take it to heart.

Breathing easy again, I watch from the window as Carmen sets out some art supplies.

I look at the door, where the back of the head of security stands.

He wasn't wrong. But he wasn't right either.

We didn't kill staff. At least, not all of us together.

I had killed two people in this facility.

On my own.

Once I drowned a nurse in bath water, and another time I actually killed another inpatient, after sticking a blunt knife in their neck. Both those times were not my fault. Both incidents were strange, and they happened on a full moon. It was when the night terrors would be the worst. It was only if someone woke me up in the middle of the terror I was dreaming, that I couldn't control myself. Like the devil himself possessed my bones. Those moments I was most terrified of myself. Because I had no control. It was only getting worse every year. The feeling that I would eventually lose it altogether, lose it... lose it... as in... lose all control to the devil himself.

But last night – in the forest, while awake, and faced by those monster sized Lycans?

I felt like something was scarier than my own mind.

And strangely enough, I felt drawn toward that feeling again. It almost felt safe.

****

7 days later

Carmen secured a day trip for us. We liked her so much that she was allowed to take us on her own. On a strict deadline, mind you.

We would be gone for 3 hours. Midday to 3pm.

If we weren't back by 4pm, a team would come to help us with whatever trouble we faced.

And so we're here, at Disappointment Falls. Carmen drove the bus, we took swimming outfits – which Carmen bought us.

The creek is empty, the sun is out, and it's basically perfect.

In a one piece black bathing suit, I've left my bag by the pebbles on the edge of the pool.

Juny, Gerry and I walk in together, our steps in perfect sync as we walk over the smooth pebbles, into the cool and perfect reflectionless water.

When I look over my shoulder to see what our tutor is doing – I don't expect to see something that makes my gut clench.

Carmen has gone to get the last bags out of the shuttle bus she hired to drive us here with, but she's kneeling by the back wheel – and in her hand, is a sharp blade. She slams the blade into the tyre, and then she takes it out, and slips it back into one of the travel bags.

Carmen did it on purpose?!

I quickly turn back to Juny and Gerry, keeping this information to myself.

Carmen was friendly – my instincts, our instincts combined, were never wrong. So what was Carmen's intent?

A 3 hour swim was our limit, the busted tyre would at least prolong our stay.

Carmen did mention that she'd like to camp overnight, but after such a thing was refused by the headmaster at the facility, she did say to us she'd teach us a few things about camping anyway, while we were outdoors in the middle of nowhere.

So what was her goal?

I still had no idea. Other than something obvious – she wanted us to stay out here.

She also liked to joke consistently that she was a vampire.

Maybe she was going to kill us? Haha?

All these ideas wrack my brain –

Water smacks me violently in the face, and when I squint both ways, Gerry and Juny are bombarding me with splashes. I quickly dive under and swim out of harm's way, coming to the surface smiling – and looking back at the bus.

Carmen is now heading back over with her camping equipment, waving to us – but then she's distracted... her phone is ringing.

Out of her pocket, Carmen takes out her phone and immediately starts to walk toward the trees.

In a stealthy move, I quickly wade closer to Juny and Gerry, and they stop mucking around from the expression on my face. I sign to them, listen to Carmen's call. I grab a hand each, and we quickly form a circle. When we formed a circle and when we all held hands and put our foreheads together, we could concentrate on that one thing we wanted.

Her distant voice is instantly amplified into our minds.

"Sloan, baby, of course I'll fuck you after I get back–" Carmen starts to laugh, but then continues, "...look, I have to head back... yes, yes it's all set..." I wait for it, holding onto Juny and Gerry's hands tighter, because I know they feel put off by her intimate discussion, but I need to know what the hell she's planning, "Of course, hell it is," she adds – causing Juny and Gerry to squeeze my hands even tighter, "Swift. Quick. Efficient. I told you, babe – I got this. Unlike those lazy fucking Sentinels – you'd think they could stick to a promise. But, sometimes a woman has to take the reins of a woman's cursed job... haha... very funny, Sloan... no... yes... no... okay stop, you're not going to fuck them before the demon army. You know Lucifer's command. Stop. I need to get back to the girls. What now–?"

We've heard enough.

We break hands, we meet eyes.

Fuck.

I sign.

Run.

We start to run through the water, splashing toward the banks.

A few moments later, Carmen returns quickly.

"Hey girls, where are you going?! I got lunch for you!"

We all hear Carmen call out calmly, and as I'm slightly in the lead, I realise running isn't going to get us very far. Where exactly could we go?

I stop.

Juny and Gerry copy me, halting, and they look to me for my new plan.

I sign for Carmen. And then I put a finger to my throat, and draw a line.

"I told her it's the die pool," Juny whispers, nodding.

Gerry signs to us, I'm hungry anyway. Let's eat first.

We all turn for Carmen, where she's setting up a picnic blanket.

We get out of the pool and towel off quickly before we join her, as she sets out sandwiches made by the chef.

"I am sorry girls, we actually have a flat tyre," Carmen lets us know, what I saw, as we eat, "I told the headmaster – he's agreed, we can camp one night. Isn't that cool?" Juny and Gerry forget to react positively, so I nod over enthusiastically and hold up the crust of my sandwich, smiling, "Now, I also have a treat for you girls," Carmen mentions, opening her backpack, I freeze – wondering if she's about to take out a gun, or that knife. Instead, she just spills out some bottles of paint, "You can swim, you can paint, and do whatever you like. Relax in nature. Relax your minds. Then we'll sleep under the stars. It'll be beautiful. Maybe we'll do a little hike, not too far off track, of course... there are some dangerous corridors in the forest... that you really don't want to get lost going down," Carmen murmurs to herself, laughing dryly.

"Red," Juny is staring at Carmen, and Carmen was about to check her phone, but quickly looks to Juny.

"What?" Carmen asks.

"Red," Juny repeats, calmly, "Red eyes. Blood."

"I have come to my own assessment on your love for the words associated with blood and death, Juny," Carmen stays calm, "Do you ever have issues with your monthly cycle?"

I pick up my notebook, and I write down a question for Carmen.

I think she's obsessed with demons. Do you believe in demons?

I rip off the page and give it to our tutor.

She reads it and smoothly responds, with a lie.

"Of course not, Selene," Carmen shakes her head, "Demons aren't real."

"Wolf-men. We've seen them hunt," Juny whispers, trying to catch Carmen off guard. She certainly does, as Carmen is instantly wide eyed.

"L...? Well, probably a dream," Carmen suggests quickly, laughing lightly.

I finish my sandwich, then I get back up and ignore the paints.

I look back to the water.

My hope, was that Carmen would take a small nap in the sun.

Or at least, the very moment she had her back down, I was going to strike.

I walk back into the water.

"Selene," Carmen unexpectedly calls my name. When I look over my shoulder, Carmen adds, "Don't swim too deep on your own. Be safe."

I ignore that and keep wading back out into the calm water. The waterfall is a trickle, with less rain than usual this month.

Disappointment Falls.

A little like humanity.

Carmen was set to betray us tonight.

Hell was real.

And it was calling to us. First those monsters in the forest were drawn to us. Now some kind of bitch from hell itself had come to catch us.

I didn't even know why.

But I refused to be a pawn in the devil's game. Whatever he wanted from the three of us, he wasn't going to get it. I'd fight to the death if I had to.

"Oni," Arma snarls my name, "Why aren't you eating?"

"What did father teach us?" I growl back from my seat in the roots of Hell's Tree, in the Lycan's Temple's black garden, "About treasure?"

"To protect it," Arma throws a bone at me violently, "Eat."

"What is treasure?" I ask again, my nose smelling my own desire on the air.

"What is rare, that is treasure," Amon picks up a little lantern with a pixie trapped inside hanging from the branches. Amon gives it a shake and the glitter from the trapped pixie lets off more light, "Like this pixie bitch we trapped years ago as pups."

"...obviously, rare metal, rare souls..." Arma rips off the leg of a deer, and starts to eat it whole.

The fleshy leg bone thrown at me, lying at the tips of my bladed claws, lies unappetising.

Instead, my balls are aching.

They've been aching all fucking week.

"Anubis fucked a Fairy – Cleo gave birth to us," I remind them, "Now we act as lone Sentinels, with no real purpose aside from obeying commands – and orders. Bring the three witches to the demon army. Fetch them. Like dogs. That's how we're fucking treated. Even though we're born demon and fae, not demon and man – our nature is not like a dog, like Onyx, like Sardonix... who cares about bones? Dogs! We are even different from our beloved father... we have no need... to obey... anybody... anymore..." my throat is rough with my boiling rage.

"What do you want, Oni?" Arma asks, looking at me with impatience as blood runs down his chin, neck and torso from his bloody feasting.

"What you want, what you want," I snarl at them both separately, "I want. What I fucking want. And we all know, what we all want."

Arma scoffs and kicks the carcass over to rip into it's ribcage with his claws, taking out the bones, cracking them one at a time, "The forbidden fruit," he snarls, blood spitting everywhere.

He speaks of them. The three. Rare. Marked Witches.

"They belong to no one," I say more calmly.

"They're gone in the head," Amon reminds me, while poking at the pixie behind the glass, grinning at it, "They're fucking crazy."

"Not with us they weren't," I lower my tone to a satisfied growl, "She obeyed me immediately, without hesitation. She also answered me immediately, without hesitation. Selene is a good bitch."

"Geraldine," Amon grins with all his teeth, "Couldn't stop staring at the blades of my claws."

"Juny," Arma kicks over the carcass once again and this time rips it in half, it's safe to say he likes to play with his food, "I like the way she screams in terror and excitement. Both."

"They'll be dead soon," Amon reminds Arma, "The demon army will fuck them to death. The screams won't be for us. If they die. Lucifer said he made them to die young. 25 years. Free. And then eternity as ghosts in the soil of hell. They are not ours. They never have been."

"However," I interrupt, "They are the only three Marked Witches on the planet – therefore they are rare. Marked personally by the devil, and therefore given extraordinary magical powers. And yet we protect the rare. We preserve the rare. In confines if needed. Impenetrable confines. Anubis has such temples for the rarest Ancient Gods he tortures and bleeds – perhaps he has an empty tomb for the rarest witches to be sealed within."

"You want to save the three insane bitches, from a demon army – only to throw them in a fucking tomb?" Arma asks me, always against my ideas, "WHY?" I can tell Arma is nervous, because it means disrespecting the devil.

I lick my fangs and turn to see Amon's reaction.

"To preserve their life?" Amon asks.

"Precisely," I answer, polite, just like my father.

Arma picks up and throws the empty carcass across hell's ground, snarling his fury, "You're both idiots. Extreme in your ideas – when the answer is so fucking simple."

"Enlighten me then," I kick the meaty leg back at Arma, he picks it up, bites to rip off all the flesh in one go, then tosses the clean bone into the burning forests of Hell. Amon's ears immediately perk up and his eyes narrow on the thrown bone, but then he shakes his large wolf head and focuses on Arma for his 'simple' and 'obvious' plan. I roll my fucking eyes. I wait for Arma, who is picking flesh out of his teeth first.

"We mark them as ours," Arma grins – and snaps his jaw together, "Pump them full of our seed. Change their scent. Tether them to our balls. You don't need a fucking tomb, brother. We just need to bite them and taste their blood –"

"You have one problem with your genius fucking plan," I snarl, thinking as logically as possible, "They need to choose us don't they? We cannot force them to be Lycan whores. We have not seen that desire in them to be slut-pups... yet... and so... we'll seduce them first to see."

"How will we do that?" Amon grins, when he slaps his hard dick and appreciates the length of it. That's usually all you needed. But we didn't have time to hope. And I refused to fail.

"We'll make them indebted to us," I conclude, "We will save them from the demon army. Tonight. And they will return the favour. Then we will mark them. Or if they are unwilling to submit to Lycan grace... I will ask my father for a secure tomb. Either way they'll live. Do we have an agreed plan? Arma of the Abysmal. Amon of the Void?"

"Oni the Soulless," Amon looks me in my eye, "I am curious. You've eaten them all. Now... you seem intrigued to keep one alive. Do you think a witch can feed the endless darkness in you? Is us all?"

I don't answer. It's why I wasn't in a pack. Or any of us for that matter. We were too selfish in our nature to share – we could barely tolerate each other.

But we were blood, and we were all the same – empty.

We did not belong with the living.

Anubis told us such. He drilled that fact in from a young age. We belonged with soulless things – like the rare, the wicked, the inanimate precious. All things without light.

But the whores we took were the dead already.

The ghosts in hell – the damned.

And we had never been with a mortal, Anubis, Onyx, Sardonix – all the Lycan Kings banned us from mating with mortals, knowing we would only kill when we tasted mortal flesh.