Down below, Dorden was a brumous city. The air carried its own smell we called Eau de Funk that got worse when it rained. If you lived here long enough you got used to it.

[It's really hard on my nose.]

I stepped out onto the sidewalk in a throng of people. "You've been with me for, what, four months? And you're still not used to the smell of this shithole?"

[Technically it's been six.]

"Right," I stopped on a corner and surveyed the area. My right eye began to burn."What kinda pizza you want today?"

[Surprise me.]

Dorden wasn't all winter days and sunless skies. Deep beneath the fog it held a secret. Unbeknownst to its mundane residents, Dorden practically swirled with the supernatural. They could be a neighbor, a friend. Even the bird on a stupid tree. I've lived here all my life and didn't have the faintest clue.

Until Chenor came in to my life.

My eyes finally settled on a woman sitting at a bus stop with a load of groceries at her feet. Her leg bounced up and down as she had her hands clasped in front of her.

I waited to cross the street and found myself standing right in front of the woman. Up close I could see just how tired she looked. Brown weary eyes with bags underneath, lips turned down in a frown. Hair strands blew in her face from a messy bun.

I pulled a scroll from the inside of my coat pocket and held it out for her to take.

She stopped shaking as her face lit up with recognition. A smile graced my lips when she slowly took the scroll without taking her eyes off me. I turned on my heels and left, leaving her with her arm still up and staring blankly at my receding figure.

[She looked awful.]

"Then I hope she gets us Hawaiian."

[No, no, no. I'm sorry.]

I shook my head and went on my way.
Auras. That's how I chose people. Using Chenor's golden right eye I could see a spectrum of colors emanating from each and every being I laid eyes on. My eye burned everytime I used it though. The woman's just so happened to be a warm crimson. Irritable and afraid.

Maaaadaaam

I stopped dead in my tracks, darting my eyes in every direction. Nothing caught my eye except dilapidated buildings and the occasional rusted car piece. This part of the city did have a higher crime rate than the rest. Which in turn made it house fewer people.

[What is it?]

My eyes roved over the area once more. "Nothing. Thought I heard something."

I ignored the clench in my stomach and walked at a faster pace. The Road to Nowhere was my next stop. It's exactly as it sounds. A road that led to absolutely nowhere. The city was supposed to fix it years ago. What the hold up was was beyond me.

Now beneath the overpass, I stood with my hands in my pockets and waited. Not soon after, a woman with a messy bun showed up with a small pizza box in her hands. She tentatively stood in front of me and shifted on her feet as she looked around.

I probably shouldn't have picked such a dangerous place to begin with. The location changed every time I granted a wish in case someone decided to run their mouth.

"You've read the scroll." She nodded. "You still wanna make a wish?"

She furiously nodded her head.

Here we go."What is it that you wish for?"

"I wish I had un buen job to support mi familia. Please."

I clapped my hands making a flutter of black butterflies erupt from my palms. Like ash, they broke into tiny fragments before vanishing in the air.

"Your wish has been granted."

Not much of a spectacle, I know.

She jumped enveloping me in a bear hug with a tight squeeze."Gracias, gracias."

When she pulled back, I could see tears streaming down her face. Ones of relief. She handed over the pizza box and scurried away.

That was the third and last wish for today. When I first started, I granted at least five a day. Now I've gone down to three because of. . .health reasons.

[Health reasons? Is that what you're calling it? You're-]

"Quiet," I hissed."We're gonna see if I can get rid of you today."

At the edge of the city in a lot with an abandoned school bus lived my friend Bobbie. She's been helping me figure out how to get Chenor out of me-with no success.

[We're being followed.]

Before any dread licked at my spine, I kept walking at a steady pace.

[They're on the other side of the street. Thirty feet away.]

This wasn't the first time I was being followed. There have been instances over the past few months where Chenor would warn me that I was being followed. I figured it was random people looking to get their wish granted. Just another thing to add on to the voices.

[They crossed over. Twenty feet behind you.]

I ducked behind a car and slipped through a broken fence. On the other side, a rusted truck provided the perfect cover as I slid underneath it.
Two pairs of shoes appeared in my vision. Moments after, the head of a bald man appeared.

"It's a cat," he said, confused.

"What?"

He stood."There's no one under there."

"Impossible." Another man ducked down to observe.

I zipped out making him jump back. I hissed at the both of them and jumped on the hood.

"See," the bald man gestured to me.

They both looked around per the non-bald man's instructions. I knew for a fact they were cops, or detectives seeing as they didn't wear uniforms. So it wasn't random people looking for a wish to grant. Why were the cops following me?

It wasn't until they both left that I finally hopped down to change back.

I braced myself as my bones stretched and cracked. Black fur receded as I grew in size. Sharpened claws turned back into nails. Tail disappeared. Fangs retracted. Eyes adjusted. I shook a little as the transformation ended. It was easier the other way around.

[Comes in handy doesn't it?]

I sighed and reached under the truck for my clothes and pizza box. Changing into a demon cat did come in handy. The entire city was my bed and endless scraps were at my disposal. I threw my clothes on in a rush and sped to Bobbie's.

The sodden ground covered almost the entire lot with only patches of grass here and there. Barrels and miscellaneous objects made the lot seem like some kind of garbage dump.

[It is a dump.]

A set of sunfire eyes from the black cat that roamed around the lot followed me on my way up to the bus. It meowed as I walked up the steps only to find Bobbie hunched over what looked like several notebooks.

"There she is," she waved me over without taking her eyes off whatever she was doing,"Can we stand over here please?"

I sat my pizza down and took off my coat. Several of the seats were missing from the inside and various plants leaked through the open windows. There were bottles and tupperware containers strewn everywhere filled with god knows what.

She put me inside a circle I'm assuming she drew out in chalk. It was surrounded in several markings and sigils I hadn't a clue what they meant.

[It looks like gibberish to me.]

We stood face to face as she began. She reached into her pocket for a small water bottle with some kind of liquid inside. She screwed off the top and threw the liquid at my face, catching me off guard. My lips pursed in disdain while she sat the bottle down, turned her palms toward me, and began to chant.

"Tuam invocavi ad Luciferum gobshite unde, ad daemoniorum!"

My ears began to burn as I felt the warmth of the circle beneath my feet.

"Et daemonium periit. Unde venerant redire profundum inferni!"

My mouth opened in a silent cry as I fell to my hands and knees.

"Did it work?" I breathed. I looked to Bobbie.

"I don't know." She tapped her lips in thought. "Let me ask the demon inside me"

"Che-"

[I'm still here.]

I rolled my eyes and stood."Nope."

"Shite." Her arms dropped to her sides.

"So what was all that then?"

She sighed. "A bolloxed up spell obvi. . .ous. . .ly."

I looked up at her confused."What?"

"Your ears."

I turned to see my reflection in the window."Bobbie!"

"I am so sorry." She covered her mouth with her hands.

"I look like an elf." I fell back into the seat and peeked up when I heard her trying to keep from laughing.

"You don't get any pizza. I'm sharing it with the cat outside."

She burst out in a fit of laughter.

As the clouds covered the setting sun, a woman leaving an office building silently celebrates at being hired on the spot for the job of her dreams. She brought her hands together and squeezed her eyes shut, thanking God for sending an angel in her time of need. With a wiggle and a jump she walked home with more pep in her step.

She couldn't wait to go home and tell her sons the news. With haste, she cut through the same alley she took everyday to make it home faster.

Oblivious to her surroundings, she didn't notice the twine coming from the other end of the alley.

She stopped dead in her tracks. Her fingers trembled as she brought them to her neck. A thin line painted her neck and fingers red.

Her head slowly slid from her neck and hit the ground before her body followed soon after.