Fletcher’s shoes pounded against the asphalt. Heart racing, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, all he could do was keep running. Cars sped past him, leaving the scent of exhaust fumes hanging in the air. Finally, he came to a residential area with a proper sidewalk he could run on rather than the side of the road. He couldn’t figure out how long he’d been running for but his chest burned.

Nothing about what Ellis did made sense. Fletcher liked Ellis; he was a good person. A good friend. Why would a good friend do that? Fletcher tried to rationalize it. It couldn’t have been that Ellis had a crush on him, that wasn’t plausible. It had to have been to prove the point, a poorly executed idea to show that people could like him.

He stopped running as he reached the end of the driveway. The house accompanying it was an older Victorian style painted a pale blue and white. It was Roman’s mom's house but Fletcher had no intentions of going there. He wasn’t sure how he ended up there. Considering it a sign, Fletcher headed up to the black door and knocked. If anyone one knew what was going on with Ellis, it would be Roman.

“Hello?” Marta answered the door. She looked different from her normal appearance. Her outfit, although very likely something she’d designed herself, was casual, sweatpants and a t-shirt. Even her sleek black hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail. “Are you alright, Fletcher? You’re panting.”

“Is Roman home?” Fletcher ignored her question.

“He is. However, he’s grounded.” Marta pulled the door closer to herself, only letting her face be seen.

“I’d like to talk to him. It’s important.”

“Should have told him not to pierce his tongue-”

“Please Mrs. Duvall?” Fletcher gave his classic puppy dog eyes.

“Make it quick.” She muttered open the door for him.

The Duvall house had large arched windows that let an almost unruly amount of natural light in. It had been a while since Fletcher had been inside but for the most part it remained unchanged. Walls covered in photographs of the kids, notably more of Declan than Roman. The interior design was a mix of vintage furniture and whatever took Marta’s fancy. The kitchen however was jarringly modern compared to the rest of the house.

Sitting at a marble table, Roman and Declan were playing some sort of card game but each turn they took went faster than the last. Fletcher wasn’t sure what it was but they were playing it very competitively. When Roman finally looked up, his eyes went wide at the sight of Fletcher.

“Hey...” He sounded entirely unsure of himself.

“Can we talk in private?” Fletcher asked nervously as he looked back at Marta. Roman looked at Declan and tossed the card over to him and then he looked over at his mom who shook her head with a death glare.

“Sure.” Roman smiled as he spoke, thrilled with any chance to disobey his parents.

About half a second into the walk to Roman’s bedroom, Fletcher realized his room was moved from the last time he was there. They climbed up the stairs as Roman explained he and Declan switched rooms after his mom caught him sneaking out, she figured he wouldn’t be able to get out with the window being a ten-foot drop. His tone made it sound like the effort was wasted.

Roman’s bedroom was uncomfortable. Neat, but almost unlived in. Clean linen was the only scent despite the candles lined up on shelves. There was nothing in the room to signify Roman lived there. The art work speckled throughout the room seemed like something a senior citizen would hang in a retirement home. It seemed more like a guest room than a teenage boy's room.

“So,” Roman started as he shut the door behind him.

“Ellis kissed me.” Fletcher blurted out.

“Oh shit.” Roman took a seat in an old wooden swivel chair and propped his feet up on his desk. Fletcher chose the small blue armchair over sitting on the bed. “Color me surprised.”

“Yeah...” Fletcher scratched the back of his head, overwhelmed with the desire to say everything that came to mind. “I didn’t think that he would like me. I mean, I know he’s gay but I always suspected he was into you. But then again who isn’t?”

“Ellis has been in love with you since third grade. I’m just surprised he did anything about it.” Roman replied.

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“Hey, don’t put that on me. It’s blatantly obvious, you just didn’t notice.”

How could he have been so blind? Fletcher’s mind retraced his interactions with Ellis and suddenly it started to click into place. The idea of Ellis having feelings for him didn’t bother him nearly as much as how Ellis decided the right time to act on it was when Fletcher was so twisted up with his actual girlfriend. Maybe Ellis wasn’t a good person, Fletcher thought.

“Why did you come here?” Closing his eyes, Roman almost looked like he was going to go to sleep.

“I don’t know, I just ran.”

“So, you booked it out of Ellis's car and ran in the complete opposite direction of your house and decided to hang out at my mom's.” Roman laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. “Ellis must be losing his mind right now.”

“Sorry, I didn’t really think about it.”

“What do you want?”

“Huh?”

“What did you come here for?” Roman asked as if it was obvious. “Because I don’t have any way to help you. Unless you’re looking for a sign to break up with Beck because I am more than happy to tell you that you need to cut her out.”

Fletcher rolled his eyes and crawled onto Roman’s bed. He knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted his girlfriend back, he wanted his friends to be normal, he wanted the stupid ghost kid to stop screeching like tv static everyday but those were things he couldn’t have. With a long sigh, Fletcher pulled the grimoire out of his bag and tossed it at Roman who barely caught it.

“Translate it.” He demanded as he stretched out over the bed.

“I can’t-”

“You can, you don’t want to. I am beyond certain with the internet and with a little effort you can do it.”

“I hate you.” Roman said but Fletcher doubted he meant it. Roman always did have an attachment problem.

In spite of Roman’s misgivings and hesitation, he was fairly decent at Latin. With a web page pulled up and a Latin to English dictionary, he was almost competent. Henry appeared at some point to continue his never ending tv static screeching although Fletcher didn’t particularly mind. It kept his thoughts off of Ellis. Slowly, Henry shifted his way over to Roman’s desk. Much like a cat, he gently pushed a glass closer and closer to the edge. Roman’s head was so far into the book he didn’t notice.

“Eh.” Fletcher said halfheartedly trying to stop him. Henry aggressively slapped the glass off the desk, shattering it against the wall.

“What the hell?” Roman looked up.

“That would be Henry’s doing.”

“Tell em’ to piss off.” Roman said as he stood.

Not bothering to grab a broom, Roman picked up the larger shards of glass and piled them into his trash can. Henry hovered around Roman almost fascinated by the cleaning. As Roman grabbed a shard, Henry bent down and pulled it away from him.

“Ow!” Roman twisted his hand around to see the small trickle of blood.

“Henry, stop it.” Fletcher said with an authoritarian tone.

“What does the demon kid want?”

“Do I look like I speak tv static and screaming? We don’t even know what happened to him”

“Oh yeah! I didn’t tell you.” Roman paused as he pulled a page off of his desk to use as a makeshift broom. “Henry and a couple other kids went missing from the school. They never found any of them.” Roman gestured nearly two feet away from where Henry was standing. “And clearly that didn’t end well for him.”

“He’s annoying.” Fletcher started watching Henry viciously tap at the spell book. Standing up Fletcher took a look at the word that seemed to fixate him. ‘Cor’, Fletcher had no idea what it meant.

Just as quickly as he appeared, Henry flickered away. There was a soft knock at the door before Marta waltzed in. She stared down at Roman waiting for him to acknowledge her but of course he wouldn’t. Fletcher guessed it was some sort of game.

“I heard something break.” Marta said. Based on Roman’s crooked grin, she’d lost his little game.

“Knocked over a glass. It’s fine.” He replied as he returned to his chair.

“You should-”

“Be more careful- Did you really come up here to tell me that?”

“No, I wanted to know where your passport is.”

“I don’t know, ask dad.”

Roman and Marta’s relationship was complicated and fascinating. It seemed more like roommates than a parent child relationship. It wasn’t just Roman’s lack of respect but the way Marta seemed to have washed her hands of his behavior. She wasn’t there to try to help bring him up but rather to pick up the pieces of the damage he created.

“Is it at your dad’s?” Marta asked, stepping further into the room.

“Probably.”

“Okay, go get it. Don’t tell your dad.”

Fletcher couldn’t help but laugh at her body language. It mirrored Roman’s almost perfectly. The two were certainly more similar than either would admit. Marta leaned herself against the desk and looked over the spell book. It was certainly just a ruse to hide her motives surrounding the passport but Roman was smarter than that.

“Why?”

“I booked a March break trip for us. Skiing in the swiss alps.” Marta answered but Roman motioned for a better explanation. “Your dad wants you to go to Tuscany with him and Evelyn.”

“And where is Declan in all of this?”

“Italy. That was his choice.”

There was some irony in Roman’s bullshit philosophy about privilege when his family dilemma was where to vacation. Roman seemed to take some sort of satisfaction in the situation. Roman smiled and propped his feet back up on the desk before he said,

“So, I have a choice.”

“No.” Marta slapped his feet down. “I don’t trust you to stay here and I don’t trust your father to keep you in line. I don’t want to deal with an international incident.”

“I could go skiing.” Roman said as if it was a hard decision.

“Great. Did you look at the brochures I gave you?”

“Yeah, you can go now.” Based on how tightly Roman clenched his jaw, Marta was starting to win.

“I gave you your options.”

“Can we have this conversation when Fletcher’s not here?”

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s not here because you're grounded.” Fletcher couldn’t grasp Marta’s logic. “Summer camp or come work for me for the summer.”

“Neither. As per your agreement with dad, I will not be working in the fashion industry in any capacity. Roman pauses and puts his hand on his chest. “It’s simply not a safe environment for a child.”

“I’ve had Claude as an intern since he was fourteen. The environment is fine!” Marta snapped as she got up and stood by the door frame.

“Take that up with Robert. And while you’re at it, ask him for my passport. Shouldn’t put a kid in the middle of that dispute.”

“This conversation isn’t over.”

“Oh, but it is.” Roman stood up and shut the door in Marta’s face.

It made sense why Roman’s parents were distant towards him. There was a ferocity in him that seemed to know no respect. Fletcher had seen Roman be polite; he was more than capable of it but he made no effort for the people who cared for him. His manners seemed to be reserved for the teachers at school, waitresses and the coach. Marta just took the disrespect and that surprised Fletcher more.

Although the vacation didn’t make any sense. Why would two people who seemingly constantly argued over who had to deal with Roman suddenly demanded his presence. With little reaction, Roman flipped back to the book. He scanned through dog eared pages unbothered by the entire interaction.

“You okay?” Fletcher asked, expecting Roman to react like a person.

“Yuppers.” He replied with a cheeky grin.

“It must be hard to not to get along with your parents.”

“It helps when you know they are hardly human.” Roman paused as he picked up his notepad and tossed it over to Fletcher. “Besides the real reason my mom doesn’t want me to go to Italy is so Evelyn can’t have cute family photos and the only reason my dad wants me there is to make Evelyn happy. I don’t care either way- Translation starts on the next page.”

Ignoring Roman’s overly complicated family dynamic, Fletcher flipped through the translation. The first section seemed to be some sort of incantation while the rest was a list of ingredients and instructions. It was a rough translation but they needed an artifact of great value to the spirit, a pomegranate and a human heart. That was the word Henry was so fixated on. Heart, Fletcher thought.

“So, we just need to chuck a pomegranate, the grad ring and a human heart into sacred water on a blood moon. Easy enough.” Roman said caustically. “What the hell is a blood moon?”

“It's when the moon is in a total lunar eclipse.” Fletcher answered as he looked up when the blood moon would occur. “April thirteenth. We’ve got three weeks.”

“Two. I’m not the only one gone for March break.” Roman turned his back to Fletcher, continuing to look at the spell book.

Henry reappeared, sitting on the bed beside Fletcher. A calmness washed over him; the normal screeching was absent. Slowly, he reached up to Fletcher’s cheek. Henry’s hands were ice. He locked his hand onto Fletcher. Trying to pull away, he struggled but was unable to break Henry’s eye contact. Suddenly, his body jolted uncontrollably. Pain shot down his body but he couldn’t get it together to make a sound.

He felt like a backseat driver in his own body.

“So where do we get a heart?” Roman spun around in his chair.

“I have an idea.” His voice came out strained and a bit cracked but Roman didn’t notice.

It wasn’t Fletcher talking.