The Pact

Danny walked up the stairs and went to his room, with his afternoon tea in his hand. About a 100 missed calls from Linda were there. Danny rang her over and over again, but she didn't pick up. So he thought that she might be asleep.

Linda was his best friend even before they were in a relationship. He was worried about her. And there was a huge chance that Linda might be stuck with another system just like him.

He thought of visiting her the next day. Danny had a lot of blogs to post and some covers he had taken to design. He also wrote a story for another small income. But since he just started, he couldn't make that much money. 

When he finished all the work on his laptop, it was about 10pm. He usually stays up late to chill, chatting with friends and listening to songs. So he did the same today. 

After chatting for hours, Danny slept at about 1am. 

< 07:00 a.m. >

The alarm beeped, waking Danny up. He quickly went down stairs to drink some water and brush his teeth first. After doing those he got dressed in his clothes he wore in his house. The t-shirt and the short pants.

Conor had said to meet him at the coffee shop at night. So there was time left till night. "Hmmmm.. Wonder how he knows all these spells?" asked Danny from himself, being suspicious of Conor. 

Sitting in Danny's usual messed up bed, he checked his phone. No messages or calls came from Linda after he went home. That was weird since she would've called him all day long. 

Danny opened his window wide open. He could see some lights working inside Hannah's house. Danny walked down to the kitchen to get his breakfast and his morning cup of milk.

"Morning bro," said Clara with her sweet voice as usual. "Morning Clara. Any plans today?" 

"Nothing much. Just gonna go over to Katie's house." said Danny as he sat down beside her. Aunt Bethany had cooked pancakes as usual. But Danny and Clara never got tired of eating pancakes, because Aunt Bethany did have a special skill for making pancakes.

"What are you gonna do today bro?" asked Clara from Danny. "Probably the freelancing work kiddo. Gotta work. Have some blogs piled up."

"Hehehe.. ok, have fun brother." beamed Clara while Danny ate his pancakes. "Thanks sis. You have fun too." said Danny as he stood up and went to do his dish. Danny was a very fast eater. 

After he did his dishes, Danny went straight to his room and sat down on his bed. Then he placed his laptop on his lap and started to type his blogs. He liked to post blogs and write books. And he was good at it too.

After hours flew by, typing and typing in his MacBook, he looked at his alarm clock. It was 04:40 pm. The time was about right. Danny always spent half his Saturdays in his MacBook. 

It was almost 5:00 p.m. but he was still not done with his work. It was stressful but still, it was what he liked to do. After about another hour went by, Danny finished his work. 

Conor asked him to be at the coffee shop at 7pm. There was only about an hour. Danny took a wash and got ready to go out. He wore his usual leather jacket and denim trousers.

Then he got his phone and wallet to take off to the coffee shop. He looked at his wrist watch. It was 06:30pm. The town wasn't that far from Parker's Lane. 

Danny left the house and stepped into the street. Suddenly, Hannah came out from her house too. Her dad was out in the garage washing his car. 

"I'm going off for a little walk in the town with some friends, dad. I will come back before 9pm." called out Hannah to her dad. "Ohhh.. So you made friends already? Well good, kid. But be sure to be safe." her father said as she stepped out of the house. 

"Thanks dad. I'll be safe. Goodbye daddy!" beamed Hannah as she took off to the street waving her dad. Danny slowly sneaked away from the street without Hannah seeing him. As Danny was one or two houses away from Hannah's house, he waited for Hannah to arrive.

Then Hannah came along the pavement of the street wearing her light blue sweatshirt with the hoodie and the sweat pants. She was holding her umbrella so she didn't quite see Danny. "Hoi Hannah!" called out Danny as she walked past him. 

She quickly turned around in surprise. "Danny! Hiiii!!" yelled out Hannah in surprise. "I just saw you walking by," beamed Danny. 

"Ok.. Now let's go right? At least my walk to the town wouldn't be boring." said Hannah as she started to walk again. Danny went with her. Walking up the neighborhood they could see some houses and the old people doing gardening or watering the plants. 

Parker's Lane was a very peaceful place. But on some nights, people go missing. The mystery has never been solved. Or the mystery itself never got much attention, because the victims weren't growing in numbers. And mostly the victims were people above 18 years, so the unsolved crimes have just been known as suicides.

These crimes happen at least twenty or so times in the town, "Calliberone", per year; this town has been known for frequent suicides. So most of the children in the town did not like to stay there. Some became weirdos to the world as some escaped the town hoping for a better life.

"So, Hannah... Why did you move into Parker's Lane? Most people here try to escape this place." Danny asked the girl as she walked beside him. 

Hannah looked at the boy. "Well.. I didn't like it either, but my mother and father were running a little low in their economy." said the girl looking a bit sad. "Ahhh.. Well that happens to many, not only in Calliberone. But in every town in this goddamn country." 

The girl smiled, but Danny knew she was hiding the pain. Danny felt a little out of the mood for asking her that. "Anyway! Did you fight any other supernatural uhh.. humans?" asked Danny trying to move away from the awful mood.

"Yes.. Some.. It's an awful experience Danny. But without that, we can't survive. Some hate this, but some weirdos loves this." said Hannah angrily. "Oof.. heh.. Weirdos huh?" said Danny looking at the ground. The pain of being called a weirdo since kindergarten and when the girl you like, dislikes weirdos, the pain is unbearable. 

But Danny was used to it. "Well it's 6:40! We should hurry!" said Danny looking at his wrist watch. "Yes.. Let's hurry!" 

They both went faster and Danny wasn't in the mood to talk much now. Deep down, he knew that it hurt. But even deeper within, there was a feeling telling him that "This is what I'm born to do.."

After about 10 minutes, a taxi came. "Let's get in! Or we won't be able to catch a breath when we get there.." said Danny showing the girl into the taxi. 

Both of them got on, and the taxi dropped them off at the entrance of the town. Calliberone was not much of a busy place. But it did have somewhat a great number of people.

The city was big. The coffee shop was near the city entrance. Most people from the suburban area drop in there to get a cup of coffee before going into the large town. 

Even some of the people who lived in the city came to take a cup of coffee from there. It was the best coffee place in Calliberone. It looked like an old pub, but even though it was a coffee place, on Saturday nights they served a little special wine.

"Calibur's Mead" was the name of the coffee shop. Danny looked at his watch. It was 7:10pm. They were already 10 minutes behind. "Oh shit! Dude must be burning!" affrighted Danny. 

"No no.. Haha.. He seemed to be a patient guy. So don't worry Danny." chuckled Hannah as Danny paid the taxi. They crossed the street and entered Calibur's Mead.

As they pushed the door and entered the house, they saw Conor sitting in one of the tables in the middle. 4 chairs were available at the table he was sitting at. An empty milkshake was sitting on top of the table.

Conor was wearing a denim jacket. He was sitting there lonely waiting for Danny and Hannah. Then Conor saw them coming. "Oh you're here.. You guys are early huh?" asked Conor, giving off a totally fake smile. 

"Hehe.. Yes we are." crowed the girl. Danny and Hannah took a seat in the 2 chairs that were available on the table. "So.. Drinks on me! What do you guys need?" asked Conor from the two.

"Hmmmm... Strawberry milkshake?" said Danny with a grin on his face. He was always a free food lover. "Same.." said Hannah looking at Danny. 

"Interesting.. A young man who likes strawberry milkshakes!" thought Hannah, covering her mouth and chuckling. 

"Wow.. Strawberry milkshakes it is." Conor signaled the waiter and he came to his table. "Young man do you need anything?" asked the waiter.

"3 strawberry milkshakes." said Conor as he gave the waiter, the empty glass sitting on his table. "3 strawberry milkshakes coming right up." said the waiter and went back to the juice bar. 

As they waited for the milkshakes to be served, they had a little talk about the pact. "So, you guys agree to the pact right?" asked Conor from the other two. "Yes. I agree. How about you Danny?" agreed Hannah and turned to Danny. 

"Yes. Me too. But, never mind, I'll get to learn things on the way." said Danny, agreeing to the plan too.

"Okay. Now, as you people might have some ideas about these things, real magic is actually harder and darker than the fantasises you've seen before. It's hard to survive every week by killing and sucking the life source of humans. There are people out there, trying to kill humans just to level up, and reach the level of immortality. As a beginner, I have no experience with these immortals, so we have to keep a low profile until we get powerful enough to face our enemies, or our prey, to survive this game. That's all I should say for now, keeping a low profile also means keeping mouths shut in public places." explained Conor as the waiter made the milkshakes. 

"Sure thing." said Danny and Hannah nodded. Then after about a minute later, their milkshakes came to the table. "Here dear sir," said the waiter as he served the three. 

"Thank you," said Conor, as he started to drink his milkshake. The other two drank the two strawberry milkshakes too. Conor got the menu and placed a tip inside when he got up. 

"Finished right guys?" asked Conor from the two. "Yes," they replied and stood up to take off from the bar. A few people were in the bar. The time was 7:30pm. Most of the people in town finish their work after 8pm so it wasn't yet crowded, for the Saturday night special.

The three of them went back to the road. Some cars were entering the town and some were leaving. At night, Calliberone was very beautiful. The brightly lit lights filled the streets. 

Conor stopped a taxi and got in from the front. The other two got in the back. "I'm going to the upper Parker's Lane." said Conor to the driver. "Ok.. it'll take about 20 minutes," said the driver as he started to drive. 

After about 20 minutes, they reached Conor's house. The taxi driver dropped the three of them off in front of his house. "Ok.. guys.. let's go in." said Conor and took them into his house. 

Conor's house was nice. It was neat, for a boy's house. "So, what now?" asked Danny from Conor. Hannah was shocked by the neatly placed set of books in the bookshelf. 

"Now huh? Now we're going to my room. Before 9pm we must do this pact, because my mom will drop off at the house after 9pm." said Conor as he walked up the stairs. "Come on now." 

All three of them went upstairs. There were two doors in the hallway. Conor opened the one on the left and went inside. Danny and Hannah followed.

Even the bed, the table and the floor were neat. It was mind-blowing. Hannah and Danny looked at eachother. There was jealousy written in those two eyes. 

Conor took two tools and placed it around his neatly prepared table. "Here take a seat please," said Conor.

Both of them sat down. Danny looked at Conor. Then he remembered something that he wanted to ask. "Hey brother.. how did you learn all the spells needed to these pacts and stuff. I mean you only had the system for one week right?" 

"Yes. I only had it for one week. And I learned these from a book. When I get this system, we are granted with a spiritual book. It is written in ancient symbols which the user of the book can only read in their mother tongue. The symbols convert as we read it. Each time the player levels up, we gain new abilities, new spells and all. It's a magical thing." 

Conor answered Danny's question. "Oh.. That's awesome." said Danny as his suspicions faded away. "We shall begin now." said Conor and stood in front of them. 

Conor closed his eyes. "Summon." 

Suddenly, a black smoke emitted from Conor's hands and by the smoke a book was created. As he looked at the pages of the book, a purple light emitted from his two eyes. 

"Among us, a blood pact shall be made. Vowed to be cursed, not to harm each other until we reach the  peak of immortality, until the end, we shall vow, we shall be cursed by our own blood.." the mage chanted as he held the book in his hand, the light emitting from his eyes slowly turning into a fire.

Suddenly, he whispered something from a language that cannot be understood by the other two. It was the runic language itself. After the chanting Conor placed the book on the floor and took a butterfly knife that he was keeping in his back pocket.

"Each one of you shall now give a drop from your blood to finish the pact." said Conor as he made a cut in his hand from the knife. Drops of blood fell onto the pages of the book.

Then he gave the knife to Danny. He also made a cut in his palm and the blood dropped down to the pages. Suddenly a bright emitted from the blood that was now merging into one. 

And at last Danny gave the knife to Hannah. She did the same. And her blood also merged with the other two on pages of the book. Suddenly a large cloud of smoke surrounded them and it started to spin around in a swirl. 

Danny or Hannah couldn't see anything from the smoke. After a few seconds, the swirl cleared up. There was no blood left on the pages of the book. The book has closed on its own and the eyes of Conor returned to their normal state.

"The pact is done. From today onwards, we're a team." said Conor as he took the book. Then the book disappeared with a black smoke, leaving absolutely no trail. 

"Good. Now we can trust each other." said Hannah, looking a little relieved. "So.. How to test it?" asked Danny who was still a little suspicious. 

Conor took his knife from Hannah's hands. Suddenly, he tried to stab Danny. 

*WHOOSH* 

Conor got thrown away and flew into the wall, as the knife reached Danny's body. He was literally untouchable. Getting up, Conor asked, "Confirmed?"

"Pretty much." said the boy, clearing all his suspicions now. Conor took a look at the time from his phone. It was 8:20pm. "Okay guys, we'll settle up for today. We shall meet back tomorrow. At about 10am tomorrow, I will come back to my house." 

"Sure," said Hannah who was in a little hurry now. Then Danny and Hannah got up and took off from Conor's house. Conor waved them goodbye as they got off the lawn and hurried home.

Hannah's deadline was 9pm. It'll take at least 15 minutes to walk back to their houses from Conor's. "Well today was good. I hope to see you again tomorrow." said Danny as they walked home.

"Yes, I feel I'm a little safe now. It was nice meeting you Danny. We shall meet again tomorrow." said the girl too. Then they departed on the road and went into their houses. 

Danny walked up to his room, took a shower, got his dinner and went to bed. It was almost 11pm when he went to bed. It was another tiring day for the week. As Danny laid back on his bed, he quickly fell asleep.

[ The Witch Hunt has begun ]

Suddenly, Danny woke up, jump scared by the sudden change.. A new set of words were written in his head. "What the fuck is it now?" 

Suddenly a set of howls boomed throughout the neighborhood. Danny was shocked. What was the system telling him?

"Ummmm.. The Witch Hunt has begun?"