1 Chapter One "333"

I walked into the diner off 2nd Street. It was crowded. People chatted not noticing me. I took my normal seat towards the back of the room. The waitress brought me a cup of coffee, one shot of creamer on the side. I smiled at her as she set it before me. Not saying a word. I admired her walk as she went back to the kitchen. I took a sip of the coffee. It burnt my tongue. I touched my tongue with my index finger. Calling upon the healer Apollo, my tongue felt normal again.

I analyzed the room, looking for anything that intrigued me. A group of men sat at the table in front of me, business men, wearing suits and ties, their uniforms of status. The rich ones were dressed by Italians, the less successful by Men's Warehouse. Staring at their phones looking bored. To my left sat two women, attractive, housewives probably. They overly expressed happiness, trying to excel one another in well-worn masks. Behind me sat a family of five. A warm heavy feeling entered me. I could feel their love for one another. I took notice of a girl, dressed in blue. She had tan skin, light purple hair, brown eyes and a nose ring that glistened in the light. Greek descent I presumed. Something about her tantalized me. Her smile radiated joy to the people who looked at her.

"Let's get started." Seth said. I nodded in agreement. "The brown-haired man in front of you. Make him knock over his water." Seth commanded. I nodded and started to clear my mind. Feeling the room with my mind's eye. Staring at the cup of water, I began to visualize the man tipping it over. To the extent of feeling him tip it over. I repeated this eleven times. Taking a sip of coffee, I caught the eye of the lovely purple haired girl who sent back a glare. I winked anyway. I heard the cup of water hit the table.

"Success." I mumbled.

"Good job, you have come far." Seth said.

"Makes me wonder why The Order of Chaos denied me." I said softly with remorse.

"OC was not your path. Forget about it. I gave you the memories of the trials back. Don't make me regret that!" Seth said. "Now, make those two nice looking women come sit with you." I rolled my eyes. Seth and freaking mothers I thought to myself. I began with banishing the remorse that still lingered in me. I closed my eyes, visualizing the women getting up and sitting with me. Feeling their breath as they conversed with me. Seeing Seth smirking at them. Feeling the buzz of the unknown that came with meeting new people. I peered into my coffee. Swirling it with my mind's eye. It reminded me of a year ago when I spent hours, upon hours, trying to conjure the energy to slightly swirl my coffee. I created it effortlessly now.

"Excuse me, may we sit with you?" One of the women said.

"I would love it if you did!" I said with a grin. Curling my hair, with my thumb. A gesture that was linked to love energy I had stored in the Ether. The women both started to blush. I felt their lust for me. "What is a pair of fine ladies, like yourself, doing in a dive like this?" I asked.

"We drop our children off at school on 3rd street." The women replied in unison with a slight giggle. They perked out their breasts, putting on their best mask of joy. I stared into their eyes, feeling bad for them. I felt the pain they did their best to hide. I consumed all the negative energy that I was able to from them. Purifying it and sending it back.

"Try to read their past now. It will take much focus, but I believe in you." Seth instructed. I stared into the minds of the women. Taylor and Cameron. Nice women, good humans.

"How is the divorce coming?" I said feeling Cameron's past. Her green eyes showed sadness as I spoke, breaking the mask she wore. She did not question how I knew about the divorce. I assumed that was Seth's doing.

"It is quite devastating, honestly. I haven't told the kids yet. I can't bear what it will do to them. I was willing to work through everything, but Harold filed anyway." Cameron explained. I nodded as she spoke, feeling no pity.

"Harold has someone else. Tammy. She is not even pretty! I can't imagine why he decided to start seeing her. I did everything for the family! He never showed love for me, I should have never married him!" Cameron gently sobbed.

"Make her feel the love she once had for Harold. Saying a word is forbidden. I want pure energy manipulation." Seth commanded.

I rolled my eyes as Seth restricted the saying of a word. Spinning my thumb in my hair again, drawing from the energy in the Ether. This time I thought of Harold. A red-haired fellow, chunky and short. I thought of his righteous qualities and sent them to Cameron.

"God, I cannot believe I loved him!" Cameron burst with resentment.

Seth glared at me. Anger filled me, I hated messing up. I banished the anger. Focusing this time on the love Cameron had for Harold. It was buried deep below mounds of hate.

"I suppose he is nice to me sometimes. I remember when we used to go to Poppies Ice Cream in high school. He used to tell me how pretty I was. How he loved how perfectly our hands fit together. Cameron said, feeling the energy I was sending her. "He doesn't see those things anymore!" Cameron said switching from love to hate.

Seth glared at me again. I took a moment to think. Then, I sent energy to Taylor this time instead. Trying a new strategy. Sending the feeling of love for Harold. Making sure I felt it myself. I felt it when Taylor received it.

Suddenly Cameron surprised us by saying, "I guess I did cheat on Harold first. Just to see if he cared for me! Maybe that is what started it all. Me. I do still love him. We made a perfect team. I suppose it is my fault too that the marriage is failing. I haven't looked at it from his perspective before." She got up distractedly and walked out the door, dialing Harold.

Pride filled me, making me grin. The connection between Taylor and Cameron was deep enough that the energy I sent to Taylor leaked into Cameron. Seth called the technique "using the backdoor."

"Easy peezy." I said to Seth. Taylor looked at me confused. She was unable to see him. I looked into Taylor's bright blue eyes.

"Forget me." I demanded. I got up from the table, leaving a twenty on it. Winking at the girl with the purple hair as I left. Again she glared at me. Seth informed me he had a class to teach on campus at OC. He left the light body he was inhabiting and went back to his earthly one.

I was relieved when he left. Training had taken a large amount of energy from me. Plus, I had been working overtime to keep the thought of the job I had taken out of my head. Seth would have read it easily. He could not know. The job broke the Oath I took when I became his apprentice. I never understood why I had to take the apprentice Oath, since I wasn't a member of OC. I wished to operate like every other entity that was not. Of my own free will. I walked back to my loft on Illinois street. Hoping that everyone was home, to help me complete the job. I lived with five people, two rejects of OC and three runaway kids. I needed everyone's energy to complete this job.

"Who is home?" I yelled as I entered the loft.

"We all are. Waiting for you actually. We have completed the preliminary banishing." Jonah said.

I nodded in approval as I walked up the stairs to our temple. Everyone was sitting in a circle. I went to the back of the room and grabbed the cursed book and set it in the middle of the circle. Our job was to break the curse that made it unreadable.

"Hanna believes that the book is cursed by a demon with the number 333. A demon of illusion. She could not control him because the Altaians made a pact with him long ago." I explained to the group.

"Can Hanna take us to Atlantis for payment." Cricket said with a smirk. He was the youngest person living here. Merely fifteen. I ignored his comment.

Jonah and I joined the circle. Everyone grasped hands as we cleared our minds. Jonah gave the sacred call. We entered the Ether. I hadn't been to the Ether in a couple of months. It felt sublime. A grey skinned man hovered over the book. He had red glowing eyes, a long grey tongue dangled from his month. He laughed with a low frenetic rumble.

"What is your name!" I demanded from the being. The grey skinned being smirked at me. Putting my hand in the air, I counted down from three.

"What is your name!" We all demanded in unison. The grey skin man screamed in pain. The etheric temple we were standing in started to shake violently. I started to count down again.

"What is your name!" We demanded in unison. The structure around us continued to rumble. My vison started to blur.

*

"Mad Dog?" I said to a girl who sat in a chair across from me. I stood in my home in Seattle. "Mad Dog?" I said again running to embrace her. "Where have you been? We thought you died in the Kathmandu operation. No one could find you!" I hugged her, tears rolling helplessly down my cheeks.

"I never died, honey. I am here" Mad Dog said smiling.

"I have missed you so much! I was lost without you." I said still holding her in an embrace. "Where have you been?" I asked.

"I have been with you, honey." Mad Dog said softly. I gazed into her eyes, letting myself be lost in the feeling of her being there. I felt total bliss envelop me. Mad Dog looked better than ever. Her red hair was cut short as she always had it. She wore her favorite shirt, blue with a pocket for her chewing tobacco and a red bandana. A pocket watch dangled from her neck.

"We could have sworn you were lost forever in Kathmandu. I looked for your soul in the Ether for years. I assumed you had moved on to the next life." I said, feeling the resurgence of emotions I had buried deep in my mind.

"I have been with you, honey." Mad Dog said softly again. I continued to feel her soft skin against mine.

"How can I help you move to the next life? Am I the anchor that keeps you on this plane of existence?" I asked, worried I was keeping Mad Dog here and had been blinded by my love.

"I do not need help. I enjoy being here with you, honey." Mad Dog said.

"What do you mean? You do not wish for your next life?" I said breaking the embrace. The lights flickered and the room spun.

*

"Mad Dog is gone!" I declared at the being standing before me. I saw the grey skinned being now.

He mouthed to me "I have already won."

I came out of the Ether. "Oh no!" I exclaimed. Everyone was having a seizure around me. No one was holding hands, making the magical circle void. I franticly searched my brain for what to do. I said the sacred word and went to the Ether again. I stood in the Etheric temple. The grey skinned being hovered over the book. Everyone was talking to him, thinking he was something else. I screamed at them, unable to make them snap out of the trance. I kept screaming as I moved towards them. I tried to touch them, but they eluded me.

"333, Demon of Illusion, I demand you enter me. All of your being. Enter me!!" I screamed. Everything went black.

*

Seth was teaching in a classroom, twenty students sat before him. Students who had been recruited to OC and accepted into the order. Students that were formally being trained in the art of bending the Universe to their wills. It was a frustrating class session; the students were not grasping the lesson. Seth felt a deep ache in his chest. He ignored it and continued to teach the class. The pain increased, making him take a knee. He searched the room to see what evil was causing it. Nothing was there. The ache turned to a sharp throbbing pain. The feeling a master gets after his apprentice has died. A part of Seth had left this world. He screamed from the dreadful pain. The class looked at him with shock. Then he vanished.

"What in the hell is going on!" Seth howled as he entered our temple through a portal. Six people lay on the floor. "Oh no." Seth said in a soft voice. He went into the Ether without saying a word.

"Jonah, explain to me what is going on." Seth said looking around the Etheric temple.

"We were trying to rid the book of 333." Jonah said, his voice quivering.

"Show yourself demon!" Seth demanded. A small spark of fire came out of his mouth as his words roared through the Ether.

I appeared, crazed, with red eyes. I could see myself from behind my eyes. I was moving and speaking unable to control myself. Seth moved quickly towards me. He roared words in a language I was unfamiliar with. He put his middle finger on my forehead continuing to speak. Something inside me started to move around. Squirming around violently. I threw up. The demon had left my body and stood before Seth. I returned to earth and fainted. Seth commanded the demon to tell him its name. It declared it was Choronzon and bowed before Seth. Using the demon's name Seth banished Choronzon to the Abyss. Everyone returned from the Ether, fainting upon entering their physical bodies. They had used too much energy. Seth returned as well, consumed with rage. He drew a portal to OC and walked through it, to finish his class. Leaving all of us passed out on the floor of our temple.

*

I awoke in my bed. Jonah sat beside me.

"I gave the book back to Hanna a few days ago. She was grateful, even tipped us." Jonah explained.

I thought through the past events that had just occurred. Our reputation on the underground streets was going to be elevated tenfold. Undeserving, I felt depressed. Banishing the feeling I got out of bed. I could not predict what Seth's reaction was going to be to the past events. He was impossible to psychically read. I wagered different probabilities in my head. Preparing for the worst, I called to everyone in the loft. I had been unconscious for three days. No one had heard or seen Seth. That did not mean he wasn't checking on me using his light body.

"Listen up everyone. I am activating Raven Six to its full extent. I do not know what Seth's response will be for me breaking my Oath to him." I said breathlessly.

"It has been three days and the old geezer hasn't done nothing. If he wants to erase your memory or whatever, we will just fight him. Who cares if he teaches at that fancy pants school." Cricket uttered.

"We can't take him. He has three hundred years on us." I stated continuing to analyze the situation I had created. "Jonah draw the portal. Remember to do multiple jumps, so it is harder to track. Go to the safe house in Kiev." I commanded.

"I understand." Jonah said with a grin that gave the impression he was feeling superior to the others. He was the only one of the group powerful enough to create a portal. He drew it, and everyone stepped through. I walked upstairs to the temple and took a seat in the middle, drawing a circle around myself for protection. My brain felt jumbled as I contemplated what defenses I should create. I felt fear, immeasurable fear. I let myself dwell on the fear for a moment.

I told the group, "The Oath I have broken had a punishment of removing my memories." I lied, the punishment was the death of my soul. It would be consumed and trapped. Unable to live on any plane of existence. Bending into itself over and over again for eternity. I banished the thought, needing to focus on the now. I started creating defenses quickly. I made them as complicated as I could. Using as much knowledge I had learned from the underground instead of Seth, hoping this would make it more difficult for him to attack. I continued doing this for hours. I reached a point where I felt ready. There was no more that could be done.

As if on cue Seth appeared. In his physical body. He stood there, evaluating the room. Analyzing every trap and defense I had created, as he looked for the best first move.

"I will do no magical act for another entity. Did you forget that this was in your Oath? I Will do no magical act for another entity!" Seth roared. "It has been two years. Your apprenticeship was for ten! Did they not teach you mathematics in human school? Ten years you must abide by the Oath!" Seth roared his voice getting louder with each breath.

I sat in my circle calmly, waiting for his first move.

"You not only broke the Oath. You took a task beyond your capabilities, with a team of underground fools!" Seth said in disbelief. "It is unknown in school history for a master to take an apprentice who has not graduated from OC, let alone one who was a reject!" Seth continued to yell.

I was calm, wondering why he cared to lecture me. I was prepared for immediate battle.

"Possession! Only someone looking to be possessed gets possessed, you feeble minded dunce! I cannot begin to understand what you were thinking." Seth said lowering his voice with a hint of sadness. "Lower your defenses and die with honor. I will even allow a normal death without magic. You can move on to the next life." Seth commanded. I pondered his offer for a moment.

"I will not." I responded. Seth became truly enraged. His face carried a reddish pigment. He fell to the floor. Breaking out in a hysterical laugh. It roared through the room, banishing all my defenses.

"Those were pathetic." Seth said with tears of laughter in his eyes.

I sat there calmly, creating my magical circle again.

"You remind me of myself more every day." Seth said shaking his head. "Happy hour is only for thirty more minutes at Pete's Pub. We shall learn defenses today." Seth said drawing a portal and stepping into it.

I didn't move, thinking through Seth's game plan. I had broken the Oath. It couldn't be this easy.

Seth popped his head through another portal. "Let's go, you silly fuck. I couldn't kill you, I love you too much." Seth said smirking.

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