To be cunning

My body was screaming to run away and to be honest I agreed with my body. I turned around and was just about to run all the way to Scotland myself when Alaric grabbed hold of me and dragged me up the stairs.

''I don't wanna die yet!'' I yelled in complete panic. Lucifer had the same reaction on my shoulder but luckily for me didn't leave my side. I think I would've lost it if I hadn't had Lucifer on my shoulder because Alaric is crazy.

''Shush little bro this is going to be so much fun! Oni barely gets any visitors besides me!'' Alaric said with a triumphant look on his face. He was clearly enjoying my panic. What a complete sicko. I might have to reevaluate my opinion on him.

When we got upstairs I was immediately completely enveloped by cobwebs. I surely hoped Oni wasn't some giant spider spirit. Alaric dragged to the middle of the room and bit his finger.

Blood was streaming out of his finger and he made a circle off his own blood. He then yelled some words I couldn't understand and waited for a minute. He turned to me ''She's coming, hold onto your kidneys, she likes those.''

''My kidneys?!'' So this is how my second life ended huh. Eaten by a female kidney monster in the form of a spider. The circle started emanating light and it was like a heartbeat filled the room. Or it could be my own I wasn't sure. Suddenly a freezing wind brushed past me and stopped in the middle of the room.

The wind grew stronger and now there was actual snow falling in the attic. When the snow dispersed there was a girl standing in the middle of the circle. She could've been 12 or 60 I wasn't sure. Her face was youthful but her eyes were filled with dread and I was happy that I emptied my bladder before I entered the attic. Oni seemed to be cute but she had this cold feeling to her. One moment she seemed like a young cute school girl and the other like a demonic grandma who liked cosplay.

''ALARIC!'' Oni shouted. Suddenly she had a mischievous smile on her face ''What are we plotting now? Are we going to disembowel this young boy? Or maybe the cat that's sitting on his shoulder?''

Disembowel??? I held my stomach out of reflex so that nobody could disembowel me. Lucifer did the same thing which was honestly pretty cute but I was way too terrified to think anything was cute.

I bowed and shook in terror ''Please your Highness ,Ghost ,ma'am and snowbringer please don't disembowel me.'' I tried to plead with the ghost or whatever it was but I clearly didn't enjoy my pleading.

''GHOST? You dare lump me in with those floating corpses?!'' I just kind of stood there when she said that. I said my goodbyes to my family in my mind and prayed for their safety. Suddenly Oni smiled and gave me a light tap on my shoulder which made me pee a little.

''I'm just messing with ya kid. A friend of Alaric is a friend of mine! But still kid, don't call me a ghost again or I'll haunt you for the rest of your life. I'm a spirit and you'd be best to remember that!''

I tried to smile at her but my smile didn't reach my eyes. It looked like I was trying to swallow a melon. ''Hahahahaahah'' I laughed maniacally, the nerves were really getting to me. But after a little while of laughing like the Joker finally I could organize my mind a little.

''Isn't haunting exactly what a ghost does- Nevermind. Nice to meet you Oni. I'm Anthony, I'm here because this dumbass thought it was funny to see me soil myself.'' I pointed at Alaric when I said that.

Alaric just shrugged and acted like he wasn't aware ''I told you it was going to be funny, not for who.'' Alaric showed me his trademark devilish grin but before he could open his mouth again he was blasted out of the room by Oni.

''Thank you.'' I sighed, Alaric was nice but you never knew when he could prank you. And in his case pranking you meant almost losing your life. Oni looked at me and observed me. She apparently liked what she was seeing and nodded.

''No problem, Alaric can be a bother sometimes. But you know what would be awesome? Getting some sweet revenge on him.'' Oni rubbed her hands like she was plotting something and I was all-ears. I would do anything to get my revenge. This new emotion raged in my veins that I had never felt, the need to get revenge, it was… frightening to say the least.

I bowed to my new master ''I'll do anything you wish my Master.'' Oni laughed maniacally ''Good, Good, now rise my apprentice.'' I rose to my feet but before I could fully stand-up Oni slapped my neck. Lucifer hissed at Oni but after a second a brilliantly light shone in my neck.

''I've shared some of my power with you. When you're in a tight spot just say the words 'Oni-Chan' and you'll be able to unlock my powers.'' I just kinda stared at her with a straight face. Oni-Chan? Seriously, what's with all the weeaboos in this damn manor.

''Where did you learn those words?'' I inquired. Oni looked at me with a devilish grin similar to that of Alaric. ''Alaric showed me, I especially like the anime that's called Hen-Tai or something like that.''

I covered my hands with my face ''This can't be happening'' I muttered. I quickly snapped out of my stupor ''But what about my revenge?'' Oni smiled again. ''Patience young one, I'll teach you how to be cunning and sly, to be smart but not shy, learn under me and I'll show you how to apple pie!'' Oni said laughing maniacally.

''Apple pie?'' Oni immediately stopped laughing ''I made it up on the spot okay, I couldn't think of anything that rhymes with shy.'' I shrugged my shoulders and we got to planning. And I have to say. Oni was a great master, she was the embodiment of a Slytherin.

That's probably because she was cold and calculating much like snow and wind. She was the Spirit of the Winter after all. She also taught me about Spirits. You have many Spirits of nearly every element and season but some Spirits are weaker than the other.

Oni was the embodiment of the Winter and because she was well-known among wizards and muggles so she has a large domain. The larger a domain the greater the power of a Spirit. Also Winter is a season where the most suicides take place and where the darkest feelings are created which heavily influenced her character. She was one Spirit I definitely didn't want to cross. She was as frightening as a demon, that's also where she got the name Oni from.

She had many names in the past also known as Chione, the daughter of the Winter Wind Boreas. But many didn't really believe in the fact that there was a ''bringer of the winter'' but everyone knew there was snow and ice. Therefore Chione's/Oni's domain had gotten bigger than Boreas and Boreas had almost disappeared.

Now Oni had taken over the domain and had gotten way stronger than Boreas ever had been. I spent the entire morning and afternoon in the attic and had learned a lot in that little time. Oni taught me how to analyze people's habits and their weaknesses which I wasn't sure of what it had to do with getting revenge on Alaric, but it was great training and Oni enjoyed my presence. She seemed lonely. Maybe she didn't embody only the feeling of pain when being graced by the winter wind but also how other people feel when they can't see their loved ones because of the snow. Lonely.

Besides getting trained by Oni to be cunning and sly we had also mocked up a plan. Alaric had run out of his allowance given to him by Lycan and he was desperate for the new Battle Angel Alita volume that had come out. So Oni snapped her fingers and the volume snapped into her hands. But according to Oni, Alaric was also scared of snakes. So she snapped her fingers again and a huge anaconda snake flopped onto her shoulders.

Lucifer let out a weak ''mEow…'' It almost seemed like he had a voice crack. I was kind of hesitant about the anaconda though. Anaconda's are known to eat bats even though it's uncommon. And I didn't want the anaconda to squeeze me to death. But Oni assured me that it would be fine since she told the snake to only attack Alaric. Which made me think, is she a parseltongue? Clearly not but how could she command it? Perhaps the conjurer of the snake can control it?

I wanted to inquire with her about it but before I could say anything I was thrown out of the attic with the snake being thrown after me. Lucifer jumped off my shoulder mid-jump and landed safely while I fell hard on my back. Lucifer stood on my chest and looked down on me and meowed. Like he was saying ''Pathetic.''

I got back to my feet and agreed with the cat. ''I know I know, I won't let her do that again. I promise.'' Lucifer just looked at me like he was thinking ''Yea sure, and pigs can fly.''

I sniffed but didn't say anything. Lucifer jumped on my shoulder and started rubbing his cheek on mine, desperate for attention like always. Not like I minded though. The thing is I got the manga and I got the snake but Oni didn't actually tell me what the plan was. I assumed she wanted me to think of a plan on my own.

When I looked at the snake I saw he had drastically shrunk in size. The anaconda looked like a toy snake now. Which was convenient because now I could maybe hide it somewhere so when Alaric tried to pick up the volume he would immediately get scared by the snake.

I decided to go to his bedroom and put the volume on the bed but half of it was covered by it's sheet. So you could see which volume it was and it would immediately attract Alaric's attention. I put the snake under the volume and asked him to stay there. The snake seemed to understand and closed his eyes in wait.

I hurried out of my bedroom and headed to my bedroom. I stood in front of my mirror and flirted with it. ''Hey mirror, looking good today! Nice and clean, just how I like it.'' I licked my lips whilst saying this to complete the fuckboy pick-up line.

The mirror blushed ''Eheh thank you silly.'' And just like that I was in. If you wanna get onto a Tsundere's good side just compliment them and you'll be fine. Next part of my plan was purely hypothetical, Oni did hint at it but I wasn't sure it would work.

''Now my beautiful mirror, If I… Hypothetically of course, asked you to use the mirror that's in Alaric's room and let me spy on him, hypothetically as well, would that be possible.'' The mirror quickly answered quickly ''Hypothetically yes, all mirrors in this manor are linked with me.''

Yes! This meant I could even watch whilst Alaric was being choked by the anaconda. My day couldn't go any better. Before I set up the plan I had sent Alaric a note coming to meet me in his bedroom with girly handwriting. Another one of his weaknesses, Alaric was very gullible if it came to girls. Oni had told me that he once dressed up fully for a female vampire when in the end she only wanted him to come over and fix this muggle problem she had. He could be easily used if you included women in the equation.

Through the mirror I saw Alaric enter the bedroom. Of course he was disappointed when he didn't see a girl lying on his bed but his disappointment was quickly replaced with glee when he saw the manga volume laying on his bed. He quickly went to retrieve the volume but suddenly his hand stopped right before grabbing it. Had he grown wary of the obvious laid trap? I saw he was puzzled but he grabbed it anyways.

When he grabbed it he immediately saw the anaconda he screamed. I could hear his scream all the way from my bedroom. But out of nowhere the anaconda grew in size again and began to entrap Alaric. In his panic Alaric couldn't think straight and he was getting constricted by the anaconda.

I ran down the hallway and decided to act like his savior. I went up to Alaric who was rolling on the floor like a madman who had been set on fire and whispered to the snake to let go. The snake let go and apparently believed it had done its purpose and disappeared in a big puff of smoke.

Alaric stood up and thanked me from the bottom of his heart and even offered me to read the volume first if I wanted to. I refused but I was happy how it all turned out. I had tricked Alaric into thinking he owed me a life debt and now I could call that debt in anytime I wanted. Overall, it was an absolute win and it was all Oni's doing who taught me how to be cunning. A truly valuable lesson.

I was just about to go back to my bedroom to thank my mirror when there was a loud pop right in front of my voice. It was the house elf, Nilsey. ''Dinner's ready my young master'' She said in a high voice. I nodded and said I understood and Nilsey bowed and was off with another pop.

''Dinner huh, I had forgotten all about food whilst plotting my revenge. What about you Lucifer? Are you hungry?'' Lucifer meowed which I took as a yes and I headed downstairs to sit with the rest of the family.