Nightmares Vs Magic

Dove and Bence stared at each other for a split second, their eyes darting to the vintage designed buttons next to the doors. Bence had pressed the one for the rooftop. Dove practically lunged forward, rapidly pressing the button for the third floor.

It felt like the movements of the elevator stuttered for a moment, due to my immediate response. I was almost scared that I had broken it for a second before I felt gravity shift around me, and the elevator began going down. 

They both seemed to hold their breaths as the lift went down, waiting until the old-fashioned ding as the doors opened, and they both rushed out. 

It was my first time coming to the gym floor, not like I had purposefully tried to avoid it... I just never wanted to meet the supposed happy-gym-goers. The ones who may or may not try to look for new recruits to whatever new exercise groups they're creating. Although, people aside, I should've given this floor a chance, it's actually really neat.

The entrance from the elevator was first greeted with a lobby room and a receptionist. Bence quickly flashed his employee ID and told the receptionist that they were there to pick someone up. Dove, copied Bence and took out her intern ID. 

The receptionist nodded and watched as they ran past and into the wide threshold of the first room, giving them a nervous, passing glance. 

"Stay close to me. There are arrows and easy directions back to the lobby, but aside from that, this place is like a maze." Bence told her as he made sure she was keeping up with him alright. 

"Like the basement floor?"

"No. The basement has a maze function for security reasons. This place is unintentionally like a maze due to the unplanned training rooms that were added over the years."

Dove hummed, looking around.

First, we passed the room with the typical dumbbells and weightlifting stations. It actually wasn't filled with all the types of lift-crazy people I've heard of. Either that or I've just been too antisocial to see how casual they looked in real life. I saw a wide entrance connecting the room to a gymnast area, where I could see some people working on their balancing. Bence and I went through a different threshold, connecting the weights room to a room filled with treadmills. 

"If you heard Annabelle talking to Claire about gouging eyes out, which room would that be in?" Dove asked, reading the labels of each room. They were flat, rectangular name tags with bold letter that were placed above the thresholds. 

Bence was easily navigating the gym, not even looking at the room labels. 

"Most likely one of the self-defense classrooms, although she's never been one to use a training room for its intended purpose for some reason."

A few more turns through more thresholds and they walked into a room that had multiple thresholds to multiple different classrooms. One room was filled with people practicing simple self-defense, the people were in pairs practicing. Another room had people practicing Krav Maga, with some partners having fake weapons. 

Dove followed Bence into the training room that had people practicing mixed martial arts. Dove was surprised to see the stoic woman she met only two times, seemingly observing the students in practice. Some students were holding strike pads as the other practiced their hits.

The stoic woman noticed the two immediately as send a short wave before flicking her finger to beckon them over, making it clear she was not going to move from her observation spot. She was a strict teacher in the sense that she was not going to overlook or miss anything. 

"Afternoon Ursa. How is practice going?" Bence walked up and asked her as his eyes scanned the students, looking for Annabelle and Claire among them. 

"A little less entertaining than usual without Annabelle here. It's not the same watching them try to take this seriously with all these cushions." The woman responded, slowly scanning and turning her eyes across the room. Her hands were behind her back, resting in place. 

This isn't an important detail but it's one I wanted to mention. She had this beautiful, long black hair. It wasn't like the silky-smooth type, it actually looked like it would have a coarse texture. But that added to her beauty in this odd way. And when I say long, imagine it's almost as long as Annabelle's, except Annabelle's hair is almost long enough to be braided into a rope, that can be tied into a noose, to hang someone. Ursa's hair was long enough in that it was clear she refused to cut it.

As Dove listened to Bence and Ursa's conversation, Bence was more urgent while Ursa acted more relaxed despite her stern look. 

"You're worried she's teaching a woman to gouge eyes out? You of all people should be happy about that? So what if the client learns how to hurt a stalker? Don't you read the bible?"

The necromancer lets out an annoyed grunt, hands on his hips. 

"Yes, but when it comes to Annabelle, I worry on who she'll use as an example." 

"She's smart, and quick. The other person will be able to learn from the experience too. Maybe learn how not to get their eyes gouged out." 

"You're not helping."

"Never said I would."

Dove began to let her eyes and thoughts wander as she soon realized their conversation was going nowhere. She looks around the room to see all the people practicing. She was about to take a step away from the two bickering adults before one- no, two faces, popped into her vision. It was like they came from thin air, or from the dust in the air that she didn't notice. 

"Hello!" A masculine voice said out of the blue. 

"We heard you were looking for Annabelle?" A feminine voice followed. 

Bence looked over his shoulder, seeing the twins appear in front of Dove. His expressions said that he was familiar with their particular way of surprising and greeting people, and he was unamused by it. 

"Hi Dad!"

"We love you, Dad!"

They both said in sync and in a teasing manner, moving almost as much as Annabelle in her hyper state. Almost. 

They had the same brown eyes, and the same tanned face, although only the guy had his hair out. The woman kinda reminded me of my grandma in a way, with her headscarf, although she wasn't as hyper of course, and she didn't greet people while floating upside down. 

The twins seemed to notice Dove's staring and eyed her with funny looks. 

The girl asked her in a teasing tone, floating right side up and onto the floor. "هل ترى شيئا يعجبك؟"

Dove blinked back into focus as she began to put two and two together.

"Oh uh, s-sort of, more like you remind me of someone." She wrapped her arm across her chest to grab onto her shoulder, awkward. 

"Uhh, you must be the twins I heard about. Um, Jalal and Malicka, right? And,,, wait did you call Bence Dad?" 

Bence turned around and stepping forward and checked her to see how bothered she seemed. Dove gave him a nod, showing she was fine, before he turned his head to look at the twins. 

"I told you not to call me that. It confuses people, and I never raised you."

The guy, Jalal, who had black, straight hair similar to Ursa but with a brown hue, playfully put his hands on his chest as a playful act of feeling hurt. The woman, Malicka, did the same, and they turned to each other in sync, mimicking each other's movements a little too in sync, better than what any twins or paired dancers could do. 

"After all we've been through!"

"Oh, to think you could be colder than a corpse!" 

They said in a dramatic tone, to which Bence and Dove gave little reaction, except Dove's irises could be seen trying to follow their movements. Bence sighed, yet he didn't seem as annoyed at their dramatic actions. 

"Dove, these two are the twins, Jalal and Malicka." He said within a sigh. "They work mainly on this floor, but with their powers and magic, we may end up seeing them on the detectives' floor on a rare occasion."

Dove nodded, watching as the twins noticed they weren't humoring their actions, and returned to acting normal. Jalal fixed his posture and stood back up, tall and with hands on his hips that paired well with his laidback smile. 

Malicka went back to floating, lifting her feet off the ground so that she could elevate them in the air, crossing her arms behind her head to rest her head against, as if she were lounging across an invisible chair in the air. 

"Nice to meet ya!"

"Nice to meet ya!"

They both said to her, and Dove could only awkwardly bow her head in greeting, even though she knew that it was an Asian greeting gesture and not an Arabic one. She wished she knew the greeting gesture of her own culture, but she didn't. There was a detachment in that department.

"Hi." Was all Dove could squeak out, darting her eyes to look anywhere except at the twins, to which they found funny as the sister leaned an arm on her brother's shoulder. 

"Why are none of the other students here reacting to this?" She asked to no one specifically while referring to the general scene in front of her.

Ursa passed her as she noticed a student had fallen down. "Watch and you'll know why." She murmured in passing. 

Ursa walked up to the student who looked like they were having trouble with their legs and somehow picked them up like a kitten by the scruff of their neck, their partner trying to help. Dove frowned as it looked painful to pick up a person that way, before Ursa suddenly grabbed the person's shoulders, turning them around revealing their opened back. Dove's eyes widened. 

It was like the zipper in their spine just went down during practice, and I was at the perfect angle to see the dark red- no, wait,,, it wasn't flesh, it was red, but it wasn't flesh. It looked like fur that was matted in blood, like how hair looks when drenched in sweat. And Ursa, just zipped them back up and scolded them about being careful with their skin zippers.... Not all werewolves have the same transformation methods...

While Dove was observing something new, Bence left her space and time to learn as he interrogated the twins.

"Do either of you know where Annabelle went? She should've had a client with her that we are currently working with."

"You just missed her. The lady didn't feel like practicing because-" Jalal put up both his hands to form air quotes. "-she wasn't wearing her athletic clothes and therefore 'couldn't get into the work out aesthetic', or something."

"Annabelle looked kind of annoyed, took her up to the rooftop garden." Malicka answered finally, shrugging as she floated. 

"She did what?!?!" Bence raised his voice, immediately garnering Dove's attention. She snapped her attention back to him as he seethed. He may have also caught the attention of some other students before Ursa worked to turn their attention away and back to their lessons. 

"Why didn't either of you stop her?!?"

Both the twins put their hands up in mock surrender, although clearly, they would never truly be afraid of Bence, they clearly tested his patience a lot without any fear. 

It wasn't because they didn't respect him, they cared about him a lot. You only tease the people you are close with. It's the same way shy people are only hyper around the ones they trust.

"Oh, c'mon it's not completely restricted from visitors!" Malicka told him.

"Yeah, she was just taking her to a place with better entertainment."

Bence internally growled as his eye almost twitched, holding up a hand that clenched into a fist in frustration. 

"Still, she's not haunted, and it's preferrable for the safety of the visitors, and us! That they stay away from the garden! Ugh! Dove! We're going up!" 

The girl nodded and quickly followed his pace as he hovered a hand behind her back, not wanting to push her but also needing to quickly make sure she was guided out with him as they began to exit out of all the training rooms. 

The twins snickered, watching them leave, waving. 

"See you soon!"

"See you soon!"

A rare chuckle escaped the lips of Ursa, who had her arms crossed as a smirk glided across her lips. The two looked back at her as she was coming back after having some people take a break.

"He is too pent up sometimes, but he's also correct. You two should've stopped her. I didn't even know she had taken a visitor up to the rooftop garden." She said as her smirk turned into a stern frown. 

"We know but, we got worried she was gonna whip out her phone and take videos and pictures of the place."

"Yeah, and most likely not blur out the faces. And Malicka would've ended up in the frame. We'll reap the consequences later."

-

The elevator didn't have a button for the rooftop garden, which means Annabelle took Claire up using the staircases that were for workers. Bence and I rushed up the stairs as fast as we could. I have never been so glad for all the speed practice I got from racing in-between classes in high school. Those five minutes were never enough when it came to some students who had classes on different floors, or in a different building!

"Sorry if this sounds annoying, but why exactly are visitors not allowed up to the rooftop garden?" She asked following behind him up the stairs. 

"You've never been up to the garden, have you?" Bence answered stoically, though it wasn't cruel, just stern considering the mood he was in.

"No. But I have seen all the products the magic shop gets from this garden."

"Then you've also seen all the poison that also comes from there?"

Dove's mind paused before she spoke again, thinking back to when she listened to Vernon talk about what he grows on the rooftop. She also thought back to when he brought those perfume bottles. 

He grew belladonnas, which are poisonous on their own, and then picked it apart, diluting the berry parts into a perfume that temporarily erases memories. When we first met, he said that there were other plants that he was growing, which he wasn't allowed to talk about.

Dove stopped in her step, following after Bence who also stopped in his tracks as they had already climbed up the final flight of stairs. 

"The rooftop garden is like a place to grow weapons."

"I think you just answered your own question right there." He told her over his shoulder as he began to turn the knob on the door, leading to the garden. 

Not as much light had shone through upon the door first cracking open, Dove was slightly surprised when she didn't have to shield her eyes from any painful brightness. This is because there was like a veil of some sort that covered the garden. 

Have you ever wondered what Alice must've felt when she entered Wonderland? Or maybe why Little Red Riding Hood succumbed so easily when the wolf told her to go pick some flowers? Why Hansel and Gretel chose to go deeper into the woods? How beautiful those places must've been that those children managed to get lost, but I still think that this haven would put all of those magical places to shame. 

It first began with a pair of bushes on either side of the door, followed by trees beside each bush. Both looked like someone had formed the branches to grow into the shape of coat hangers. There was clear path made, where their footsteps still stayed on the concrete of the rooftop, while the path was outlined by wood that lined up and created clear lines on either side, separating the path from the soil that the plants grew up. 

This path eventually split into multiple different paths, and they stopped walking.

There were more than just beds of flowers and berry bushes. there were trees that had enough space in between for people to walk through, yet they crowded all the way up at the branches, hence why it wasn't so bright up on the rooftop. I saw some trees with fruits or berries, a menagerie of flowers of all kinds, and honestly, if I somehow even saw some rabbits and deer, I wouldn't have been surprised. 

Bence called out for Vernon, Annabelle, and Claire, before gently guiding Dove to see the magic of the place. He pointed to the flowers after they called out, and she watched as the flowers turned their heads. It wasn't to turn away from them, as she noticed some flowers looked like they were staring at them before she realized they were all pointing it a certain direction down a specific path. 

"This must be Vernon's doing. Though, I don't know why he would only use the flowers to point us where he is, and not also call out back to us." Dove said as they followed the flowers' directions. 

"He likely didn't actually hear us, and this is genuinely the will of his plants. That boy is well loved by mother nature." 

Dove gave the necromancer a curious look, almost frowning in doubt but she didn't want to doubt him. 

"Really? I thought mother nature hated all humans and wants us dead." 

He chuckled, genuinely chuckled out loud and she watched as a bit of crow's feet formed at the corner of his eye. 

"I think she still does, but Vernon is different. Witches always get an exception."

She hummed beside him as they walked past a bed of Venus fly traps, and then several other carnivorous plants separated in their own beds. 

Then, Dove couldn't help but notice something peeking out from the caverns of a very oddly shaped tree. It was tilted, leaning back and had a gaping hole, like its ribcage was opened, perfect for catching rainwater. She strayed a bit from the path and looked into the trees open stump, noticing some curved bones peeking out from the darkness. They were in rows, similar to a human's ribcage.

"I don't know much about these Witches, as I'm not sure what kind you mean, but I'm guessing they serve the earth in different ways?" 

"You act like you were expecting this already."

Dove carefully stared at the bones, her eyes reflecting memories of certain people and places.

"...There's enough food for everyone, plenty of bad people to be buried. I've seen worse. Vampires, Wendigos, and Witches can find all the sustenance they need." 

She shrugged turning away from it as they walked deeper into this forest Vernon somehow created, that she was very eager to ask him about when they had time together. 

"Vernon doesn't seem like the hunting type to me though."

Suddenly, Annabelle, popped into her vision, swaying upside down from a branch above them, her hair sprawling across the ground as she had undone it to let it flow freely. 

"Lucia tends to be a messy eater, or so I've heard. She's the one who brings the bones to Vernon, the only parts she dislikes eating surprisingly."

"Why do people keep greeting me upside down today?" She sighed at Annabelle's whimsy, attempting to help her down before the girl summersaulted down on her own. 

"Vernon is very extroverted when it comes to the things he likes, Claire was easy to distract!"

"That still doesn't make it okay for you to have brought her here." Bence crossed his arms and said sternly. 

"What were you planning to do if she took a glimpse of this place, and saw the poisonous plants? Much less the fertilizers?" He said, referring to the bones. 

"Vernon and his little friends can hide them. Besides, Claire is picky, I just made sure to quickly shove her over to the most beautiful flowers and there! She's got Vernon occupied trying to help her take the perfect pose with his flower bed."

Dove suddenly got a bad feeling, and after deciding to trust her gut instincts more often, continued to follow the directions of the flowers. It was shocking as the deeper into the garden she went, the more it felt that this was a very large roof. Or was it more like an illusion?

She quickly came upon an opening, or at least what looked like the specific section for flowers of all kinds. Annabelle and Vernon had clearly made sure Claire was only with the non-lethal flowers, as proven by how Claire was seen nibbling on a flower's petals. 

Vernon was going on a calm rant, explaining the types of edible flowers there were edible, and which ones can be used like tea leaves.

"Honeysuckles are the easiest types to grow and use for tea! You'll know they've bloomed when you can smell them from a distance. When you pluck them, be sure to thoroughly wash them but not too rough or you'll wash the scent away, they are delicate." He casually explained, holding up a brittle looking vine or thing branch that is covered in green leaves and long yellow flowers. 

Just as he said, they were in full bloom. I could tell because I suddenly got a whiff of a delightful and gentle scent, it made me imagine a smoother version of honey.

Vernon turned his head to Dove as soon as she stepped into the circle space, waving her over. 

"Oh! Dove! Good you're here! I want to show you some flowers that I think look like your eyes. None of them look correct but I still want to compare so I can search better." 

Dove walked closer, grinning unconsciously. 

"You've been looking for a flower that looks like my irises?"

"Yes." He said affirmatively and unabashedly. Although Dove felt slightly bashful, she didn't show it. 

"Well, I'm afraid I'm a bit busy but I... I will come back to take a look at those flowers with you." Dove carefully said, making sure to stick to her words of never using the word 'Promise' again. 

"Thanks for distracting Claire." 

"You're welcome, but it is a little weird that she is up here. It is technically against the rules for non-workers to be up here."

Claire heard this and stood up from the bench she was sitting on, dropping the flower as her pupils seemed to grow.

"Oh my gosh! Am I breaking a rule?" She asked in an excited tone. 

Before Dove ran out of social energy again, she quickly asked the woman to pull up some photos on her phone, specifically the ones she took in the downtown area. 

Annabelle made a cooing sound and gave Vernon her usual teasing expression. 

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she remembers, not like she would dare to forget!" She said and snickered, receiving a confused head tilt from Vernon. 

Bence tapped on Annabelle's shoulder to have her attention as Dove was busy working with Claire on finding the photo. 

Considering how high maintenance of a person she is, she has many photos and videos on her phone for her work and content. She was certainly dedicated to her craft, and yes, I say craft since she technically does create, even though it is in a rather annoying category of creation.

"We'll be heading back to the beach neighborhood; I've got two sirens who agreed to come with us to act as bodyguards from dusk till dawn. Although, they were intending to go investigate the location anyway, saying they wanted to check on some selkie situation. I'm thinking of helping them, and so it'll just be you ladies by yourselves again, sorry." 

"Don't apologize." Annabelle shrugged, beckoning him to tilt his ear towards her as she whispered. "I feel like Dove could use some girl time anyway."

He nodded, before calling for both of the women as they finally found the photo and were discussing his appearances around her place, to which, she still found no evidence of him physically being around her house. 

"I've got two sirens waiting to meet us before we go back, Dove, you can explain the whole situation to them if you'd like."

Hesitating, Dove seemed to consider it in her head, although she did not give a clean answer as she got up, helping Claire up as well. 

She waved to Vernon as they began to head for the staircases, and he waved back before pointing at the pot of dirt in his hands that he always carried around when outside Macabre House. A little flower sprouted out, with a darker shade of blue then expected, and she couldn't tell whether it was natural, or he created it artificially.

She smiled before turning around and leaving through the door with the others. Vernon looked to the flower he summoned, and frowned, tilting his head as he studied it. 

"This isn't right, delphiniums don't match her eye color either."