“Hey, hey, keep breathing for me, okay?” Willow whispered, the cool tile floor pressed harshly against her side as she laid next to her friend. Red’s back shook with her sobs, her red hair tousled and spread across the stark white floor. She didn’t touch Red, knowing fully well it could make the panic attack worse.

Red took a deep breath, and rolled over, her watery eyes watching Willow carefully. It was obvious that she was shaking with fear. Red hasn’t had a panic attack this bad since they were in middle school.

“Just breathe, it’ll be okay.” She whispered again, watching Red take another breath. Her blue eyes were bright against her red rimmed sclera.

“Wh-what are...fuck.” Red cursed out, tears coming out in bigger bursts, her hands shaking even more. She curled up tighter into a fetal position, cradling her shaking hands into her chest. Willow shook her head, shushing Red.

“Just breathe for me, okay? In and out. In,” Willow mimicked a deep breath, gesturing for Red to do the same.

“And out.” They exhaled at the same time.

“In.” Willow made the gesture again, and Red paused. She stared blankly at Willow, sobs still escaping her.

“C’mon, Red, please.” She pressed, pleading slightly. Red snapped out of it and took another deep breath.

“And out again.” Red was shaking less now, tears slowing. Willow smiled, and mimicked a deep breath again. Red followed, and exhaled on her own this time.

Willow watched as she took another breath and heaved herself upwards to sit on the cool tile floor.

“We good now?” Willow murmured, slowly rising to sit up on the floor. Her dark hair spilled over her shoulders, probably full of dust and tangles. Red nodded, her mouth pressed into a straight line, her mind processing everything that’s happened in the past hour.

“Yea… seeing pictures of No-Face’s..victims just...made me break down.” Red spat out, glaring at the classroom door.

“You’d think they’d have some discretion. You literally..saw it happen.” Red hummed and nodded.

“I’m fine with the gory pictures, but the stories with them? No. Makes me think of me and my parents.” Willow nodded in understanding, absentmindedly running her fingers through her hair to tame it to some degree.

“Unfortunately all the stories are the same. He kills the parents- er, victims and covers the kids in their parent’s blood.” She replied, pulling her hair into a ponytail. Red was doing the same, tying her hair up into it’s normal bun.

“It makes me go back to that time. When he..” She readjusted her cloak and slipped her hood back on. Red opened her mouth to say something but closed her mouth quickly after.

“We don’t need to talk about it yet, okay? Just breathe.” Willow smiled gently, tossing her hair back over her shoulder. She rose from the ground, offering her hand to Red. She gently took her hand and allowed Willow to hoist her up off the ground.

Red stood an inch or two taller than Willow, which, admittedly, didn’t bother her at all. Totally didn’t bother her that Red shot up a few inches over summer even though they’re sixteen and supposed to have stopped growing. She totally wasn’t salty. Shut up.

“We should get back to class.” Red groaned out loud at Willow's suggestion, dramatically waving her arms to the ceiling. Willow had a small bit of gratitude for whatever god had decided to not give Red a spoon right then and there.

“Do we really need to though? I just had a panic attack.” Willow let out a huff of exasperation at Red. She motioned for Red to follow her, and thankfully, she did.

“Red, it’s ten in the morning, school isn’t even close to being over yet.” they turned out of the deserted hallway, walking side by side.

“Yea and?” Red said, pulling out her phone to scroll through a book. Probably a cookbook. Or a book on vintage spoons.

“And we have to actually attend class to pass our classes, dumbass.” Willow snorted, rolling her eyes. They continued down the hallway in total silence, occasionally glancing into classroom doors.

“Don’t counter me with logic and reasoning, that’s not how our banter is supposed to go!” Red exclaimed sarcastically, flailing her hands again.

So what if they were taking the scenic route back to class, what were they gonna do? Expel them? Probably. Oh well. Life was short, might as well live it to the fullest.

“I’m allowed to lead our banter however I want, thank you.” Willow snarked, flashing a grin at Red. Red responded in kind by sticking her tongue out.

“Oh really?” Red challenged, now grinning as well. They shared a look. Red raised a brow in question. She nodded, and, in unison, they took off running. She knew the goal. She knew Red knew the goal. They’ve done this since they were kids.

They run until someone runs out of breath. Person who stops first loses and buys the other a dessert of their choice. Piece of cake. More like easy as pie, since Willow was going to win.

Willow’s done endurance training for years. Red has followed her for this routine ever since she moved into Willow’s house.

She turned a sharp corner and saw a flash of Red’s cloak not far behind her. They kept running. Willow knew her record, roughly around five or seven minutes of non stop sprinting. She couldn’t bring herself to remember Red’s record.

They practically flew past the glass corridors that circled around the huge courtyard. She grinned, and pushed open one of the doors outside, and took off. She heard Red struggle to slow down enough to follow her. She knew Red made it outside when she heard her thundering footsteps behind her.

It was a straight shot across the courtyard at this point, Willow didn’t have time to take in the cavern walls around them and glistering crystals that sparkled like stars.

Red’s breath was starting to sputter behind her. Her grin grew bigger and she slammed into a door that led her into another hallway. She spotted stairs a few yards in front of her. She ran for it, sprinting up the stairs and narrowly avoiding some tall guy. Blood rushed in her ears as she thundered up the steps. Red seemed to almost crash into him as well but managed to scrape by without stopping.

She continued sprinting down the hallway and glanced back at Red. She was maybe a few feet behind her, give or take.

Red opened her mouth, eyes going wide. Willow turned around, grinning even more.

“Will-!” Red’s voice called out as she slammed into a wall.

“Ow.” A voice above her groaned, staggering at their impact. Not a wall. Definitely not a wall. She stumbled away, grasping at her nose.

“Son of a mother fucking dick!” She sputtered out, feeling the blood drip out of her nose. She put a hand up to catch any more blood.

“You kiss your boyfriend with that mouth?” A voice rumbled above her, and she sharply glanced up, green eyes meeting ice blue and straight black hair. Vladimir. God, typical vampires.

“I don’t date and you know it, you dickwipe.” She growled out, and he sneered at her, fangs flashing in the light. Red gently tapped her shoulder, reminding her where they were. Right, school. Can’t get into fights. No matter how tempting.

“What a shame that is.” He let out a low whistle, leaning against the wall and letting his hair fall into his face. He chuckled at her, and shoved his hands into his pockets. She lunged forward, and Red grasped her at the elbow, pulling her back.

“Alright, get to the nurse’s office, doll, or else you’ll have every vampire come running at the smell of werewolf blood.” he quirked a grin that made her freeze, and leaned towards her.

“Unless you want every vamp here so I can defend you.” he whispered, watching with cold eyes as she growled, and he was fucking lucky Red was there to drag her away from the impending fight. Didn’t stop her from flipping him off though.

“You know you’re risking suspension everytime you almost get into a fight with him.” Red started her lecture, which in turn caused Willow to roll her eyes.

“He started it. Not my fault he wants to sleep with everything that has a pulse.” They’ve done this so many times, either by themselves or with their other friends. It ended the same, with Willow rolling her eyes and Red lecturing her more than Alistair would; if she actually got suspended of course.

“But you seriously need to reconsider what could happen if you actually get into a fight with him.” Red scolded, pulling her towards the nearest bathroom down the hall.

“It’s just because of the stupid no werewolves and vampires fighting rules, you know that.” Willow retorted, yanking her arm in a half-assed attempt to free herself from Red’s grasp.

“Yes but-” Willow cut her off with a wave of her hand.

“Yea, yea, I know. Just because my father works at the school doesn’t mean I get off scot free.” She droned out as Red pulled her into the bathroom, guiding her to sit down into a stall and handing her some toilet paper.

“God, what an ass.” Willow snorted, then coughed as the blood shot up to the back of her nose. Ouch.

“Yea, I get that a lot.” That little comment got her a sharp smack on her head. And a small grin was trying to bust it’s way past Red’s glare.

She tore up the paper and stuck it up her nose, and pinched her nose. She got enough nosebleeds during boxing practice, this was nothing.

“I meant Vladimir.” Red spat out, leaning against the stall’s wall, typing furiously on her phone. Willow rose a brow, and grinned.

“I know what you meant, I’m just giving you a taste of your own smartassery.” Red scowled at her, and rolled her eyes. She continued to type.

“What’s the blog post about this time?” She asked, watching Red with curious eyes. Red glanced up briefly, and continued on.

“No-Face’s current movements. He’s started to go after high tier shadow creatures now.” Red explained, turning the phone towards Willow, who gagged at the sight of a mutilated body, strung up in a tree, chest carved open and empty. There wasn’t a soul. Just like all his other victims.

Not that souls could be photographed anyway. They just looked like a standard human heart when photographed. Or if a human was looking.

And yes, they (they being shadow creatures) also had hearts and shit, but they aren’t a guaranteed death if someone were to be shot or something in the heart, as long as the soul was safe and unharmed it was all good. Yea, it’d hurt like a bitch but it would be as drastic as if you had gotten a bullet graze.

Unless you actually had A) A gun for killing shadow creatures or B) A different type of weapon that kills shadow creatures. They actually have to be able to harm the souls of shadow creatures, or else it’s basically null and void.

Sure, lower tier shadow creatures could be killed with other things, like Willow, being a werewolf (which was a lower tier creature) herself, could be killed with silver. Red, on the other hand was a shadow mixer, meaning she was a medium tier shadow user.

Shadow users were on a whole different level than shadow creatures. They had different levels, starting from shadow walkers and going up to shadow demons. Red was born a shadow mixer and was well on her way to becoming a shadow thrower. (after shadow thrower was becoming a shadow mage, and next would be shadow demon) Blood users also followed this scale of power, though they weren’t at as much of a risk as shadow users were. She got off topic. Shit. what was she thinking about? Oh! Shadow users. No. yes? Fuck.

“Willow?” Fingers snapped in front of her and she jolted out of her thoughts. She looked back up to curious and concerned blue eyes.

“So, like, would he go after my dad or something?” She joked, knowing fully well No-Face wouldn’t be able to even come close to her father, who was in a high spot in the council. And he certainly didn’t fuck his way to his position, so it had to be his power. And even if he did fuck his way up, Willow would definitely have more siblings if that was the case.

Red hummed in thought for a moment, and nodded. A sick feeling of unease crept into Willow’s stomach.

“He would go after people of that tier, but I think he’s too weak to go after Alistair.” Red explained, seeming to sense Willow’s spike of anxiety. She let out a small sigh, relaxing against the toilet.

“Start with that next time, jesus.” Willow muttered, pulling her hand away from her nose to check if the bleeding stopped, and frowned.

“Not my fault you went into panic mode, you know I always have more information than I give.” Willow moved her gaze up to Red’s and stuck out her tongue. Red’s neutral scowl scrunched into a confused, almost comical expression.

“It’s your fault for not being clear enough, dumbass.” She put fresh pieces of toilet paper in her nose, tossing the bloody paper into the toilet.

“Whatever.” Red walked backwards, slipping through the stall door and ended up outside, her cloak rustling slightly from the movement.

“Hey! Don’t just ditch me!” Willow called out, rushing to get up out of the stall. Red laughed gently, and stood still beyond the stall.

“Calm yourself, I’m just going to get the gatorade in your locker. I’ll be back.” Red called, probably completely aware Willow was flipping her off. A few seconds passed, and Red had disappeared. Theoretically, Red could get the gatorade within thirty seconds, just because of how many shadows were around.

Shadow users are able to walk among the shadows, and even teleport using shadows. It was just one of the many things they could do.

Meanwhile, low tier creatures, like werewolves and vampires (there’s more than that but this is a brief generalization.) had very little soul power compared to high tier shadow creatures.

Souls had different strengths and different presences. A high tier shadow creature had a bigger presence, but is more at risk. A low tier shadow creature is less at risk, but have less abilities that they’re capable of.

Jesus, I studied too much for my Soul Theory test. She stared up at the ceiling, knowing full well that by the time her third block she’d be thinking of some stupid meme Savvy had sent her at three in the morning.

“Are you lost in your own head again?” Red’s voice startled her out of her thoughts. Shit.

“No…?” She tried, and opened the stall door with a hesitant grin. Red quirked a brow, and handed her the red drink.

“You’re such a bad liar.” They grinned at each other. Willow pulled the toilet paper out of her nose, not surprised that it finally stopped bleeding.

“Leave me and my lying abilities out of it.” Red grinned at her, and Willow twisted the top of drink. She hated gatorade with every bit of her very existence. She couldn’t find a lime flavor in gatorade and red flavor was only a second best. Tolerable if anything.

“Not my fault you suck ass at lying.” Red snickered, checking her phone.

She pushed past Red out of the stall, and they walked out of the bathroom. Willow was relieved to escape the claustrophobic odor of the bathroom.

“So, I texted Savvy, and she teleported our stuff outside the classroom.” Red said, blue eyes watching Willow carefully.

As much as Willow loved Savvy, the girl had little to no control over her fire. When Savvy was approximately eleven, she had teleported into class and had physically combust into flames. That’s how everyone found out a bunch of new things about the blonde demon. One, genetics certainly came into play, considering both her parents were teleportation demons. And this revelation caused the divorce to happen too, and because Savvy was never exposed to fire before, Savvy had gotten first degree burns everywhere.

So, needless to say, Willow had good reason to be wary of Savvy using her powers. Almost every time Savvy teleported something when she wasn’t focused, something was set on fire.

“If she burned my homework, I’m skinning her alive.” Willow sighed, taking a gulp of gatorade. Red huffed a laugh, glancing into classrooms as they walked past.

“I warned her to be careful, she’s aware of how you feel about her and her fire.” That comment made Willow frown.

She was just overly cautious, and Savvy had an uncontrollable power. She felt bad on how she felt but it’s nothing she could do about Savvy’s inability to contain the fire. It was rather fitting though, fire was uncontainable, just like Savvy. You couldn’t control it without putting it out completely.

She winced at that last thought, and sent a silent apology to Savvy. Not that she was aware she had been apologized to for a thought, but it still helped Willow’s conscious settle.

“I just have trust issues.” Willow muttered, glancing away from Red, who nudged her with a pale elbow.

“Yeah, I get that, but does Savvy know that?” Red did have a point. She watched the floor tiles pass under them as they walked back to their classroom.

“I’ll let her know.” Red hummed in contentment, and they walked in silence. Did she ever hurt Savvy by not trusting her? Probably. Don’t get her wrong, she loved Savvy and always will. But is her mistrust of her powers really all that bad? She didn’t know.

“You better. She doesn’t realize how you feel about her fire.” Red explained, rapidly typing on her phone.

“Yeah. I know.” she hummed slightly, processing the conversation. She took a deep breath, eyes watching as Red’s fingers skimmed over the screen.

“Is it because she’s a hybrid?” She shot her gaze up to Red’s, bewildered.

“Where the fuck did you get that idea?” She asked, eyes wide. She had nothing against the fact that Savvy was a hybrid, as much as the supernatural community disliked the idea of hybrids being made because of the soul risks and the overpowered nature of hybrids.

Though honestly, she was fascinated by hybrids. There were so many variables with them. She just...didn’t know how to trust their powers when they’re so out of control.

Savvy’s soul, as far as she was aware, was overly huge. Teleportation demons already had a fairly large soul, and combine that with a Fire demon’s soul, her entire body could be damaged in a certain way and she could quite possibly die.

It was fascinating yet disturbing.

Fascinatingly disturbing?

She should really stop trying to be poetic.

“You have Shadow Physics next, right?” Red asked suddenly as they turned a corner. She nodded, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“Yeah. Alistair wants me to take it just so I can help be prepared when Vanessa gets her powers.” She chuckled, shaking her head in disbelief. Red tilted her head.

“But you’ve taken other Shadow user classes too though, right?” Red’s second question came tumbling forth, and she glanced over.

“Yeah. I want to go into Soul theory and all of that. You know that.” She said, squinting her eyes at Red. “And to get into the more advanced soul stuff you need to take all these shadow user classes.” Red hummed, and pointed ahead of them. Their bags sat innocently against the hallway wall.

“I just want to be a chef.” Red muttered, shaking her head slightly.

“You’d be good at it. You can walk around a kitchen and hit everyone over the head with a spoon.” Willow joked, flashing a smile.

“Yea, I probably will. By the way you owe me an apple cheesecake.” Red poked Willow’s side playfully. She tilted her head curiously and let out an oath. She lost the race.

“Fuck! I lost! Dammit!” She internally cursed Vladimir for being in her way when she should’ve known he was there.

“Ha! That’s what you get for being overconfident!” Red teased, mouth stretching into a cheshire grin.

“Oh whatever. Vivian’s?” She asked, already knowing the answer. Red rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, duh. We always go to Vivian’s.” Willow nodded in acknowledgement.

Vivian’s was the bakery they always went to after a race. Vivian was a blind shadow mixer who ran an amazing bakery and Red’s biggest inspiration.

Vivian helped Red find inspiration in herself and something to distract her thoughts. They’d also bonded over being shadow mixers and Vivian had taught Red everything she knows.

“Yeah, I know. Just clarifying.” Red stifled a snicker, shaking her head.

“Well, see you at the end of the day.” Red grins. They got closer to the bags and picked them up, and knocked their fists together in farewell.

“See ya, bitch.” Red snorted, and gave her a playful glare.

“Technically, you’re a bitch.” She turned on her heel and walked away from Willow, who was giving her the finger.

“Fuck you!” She called after her, and turned to head the opposite direction.

“Love you too Willow!”