the story

[bytter]

It's told like a story; an old wives tale passed from mother to daughter, from friend to friend. The year was 2014, they say in hushed whispers, I think in the summer. Their youngest daughter slaughtered everyone in that house and stole their magic. None of it is true. Well. Not all of it. It began long before Louise's sixteenth birthday. It began at five, when her magic began to manifest fast and huge and more spectacular than her siblings before her. The fortune tellers spoke of great things and so great things began to be expected. Unfortunately for Louise's family, her talent did not accompany ambition or motivation. Louise did not need to try or excel because she simply was the most brilliant witch to grace the Grimshaw family since her great great grandmother. Her parents pushed, as all good parents do. They pushed so hard that they let their own talents stagnate. Her siblings became sloppy and as Louise grew, so did her brewing teenage resentment. Where were you when the Grimshaws died, they ask. The entire family gone in the fall, their magic taken and the absence felt by every witch and warlock in the state. Where you at home? Where you alone? What could possess a girl to murder her own family? Well. Now she really is the most powerful witch of her time; wouldn't her parents be proud? ( written by bytte ) It's the summer of 2016 when it happens. Gabriel Andres is just a family man, adopted by his own parents, who never learn that his ascendancy had magic. Neither does he, who grows up unaware of this fact. He gets himself an education and a job, a wife and two kids. Then one night he goes to sleep and everything changes. His name is Adam Grimshaw. One of the four siblings in this great family's last generation, a young man who had great potential for magic until it was taken from him by his youngest sister. He was just twenty-six when he died, he says. Then he corrects himself and explains that no, he was murdered. The family is nothing but an angry whisper of what it used to be, tethered to that horrible house, the family home where Louise still lives, granting wishes to those who can make unusual payments of equal value. You're going to take me there, he declares. Because Adam managed to drift away and he finally found himself a body with sufficient magic to house his spirit, but not enough power to banish it altogether. Gabriel is the perfect host and there's really nothing he can do about it. Eventually, his mind is pushed down. Adam takes over. In order to have less of a hassle on his back, he murders Gabriel's immediate family. Then he takes off to find a witch. It will be no simple task, however. The house he needs to find is an ever shifting being, appearing to those who need its magic. The man whose life he took over is still deep inside, and sometimes he manages to come up for air. On top of that, Louise is a powerful fucking witch, and Adam has some catching up to do. That's okay, though. He has more than enough time. And madness.