Helloooooo! This is a bit later than I wanted but hey at least it's not like three weeks later!

Yes, this is a background chapter based on Mason, Sagemason 's character
And I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter! He even let me have some creative freedom in a few parts of his backstory! And I had fun writing it!

If you would like me to write a chapter like this for a character you have in this book, then feel free to message me and ask!

 But I've reserved the next chapter(s) for the insert of another smol adorable character that I'm really excited to include in the book!!

Recap:

Dogost chooses now to enter the room and starts to cautiously sniff the agitated mind demon

"Be careful!" Nami warns

"I vote we keep her!" Kiki grins happily

"No, Kiki. We obviously can't just keep her here. That would be kidnapping!" I point out

"Technically she did break into your apartment so maybe if we drop those charges and accusations, she'll promise not to tell anyone Firo kidnapped her!" Thresh speaks from outside the room

"Maybe we could just let her go. I mean now that she has her machine there's no reason for her to come back!" Alice points out

"That's true." I slowly nod in agreement

"If we're getting rid of her then we should throw her out of the window." Mason states

"That's the anger talking Mason." Thresh turns his attention to him

"So what?" Mason's eyebrow twitches

"So calm down. I'm the one who's supposed to make sudden irrational decisions." Firo walks over to him.
He doesn't seem to have the strength to look at her and looks away, a guilty look on his face.

Firo sighs

"So we let her go?" Alice confirms as she looks around the room

"But what if she comes back? Then what?" I look at Alice

"She probably won't. Mind demons usually only stick around something for the entertainment." Alice states

"One thing ya need to learn about me, I'm not like most mind demons!" Evi's voice is more distant than before and seems to be coming from a different room

Alice blinks in confusion and we all turn to look at the mind demon, but all that's there is the rope Mason used to tie her.

"She... Got away.."

- - - - - - - 

------I'm switching back to good old fashioned Kat's POV------

Nothing particularly eventful happened after that, a whole week passed where we went to school as normal, Dogost fit right in and really enjoyed being there instead of being crammed in Kanna's apartment. During those seven days, we didn't hear a word from Evi and din't see her at all, even though Thresh and Kanna were very paranoid about her return. Firo was glad to be rid of the mind demon, Kiki was sad to have lost her braiding subject, but the rest of us didn't really think much of it
However, not everything was normal.. Something else was very wrong 

Yes, we were finally rid of the redhead, but someone else had disappeared. 

Mason. 

During those seven days none of us heard from or saw him, he had completely vanished. After the first day, the more paranoid of us worried, he never misses school, but then again maybe he was sick? Or just tired from all the mind-demon shenanigans? But after the second day, we were all worried, Firo tried her best to hide her concern, but it was obvious that she cared. We tried to give him space and respect the fact that he wanted to be left alone at the moment, but after a week, Firo was tired of it.

That Monday we didn't have school, so I decided to go over to their apartment just for fun, Kiki and Alice accompanied me. Me, Nami, Dogost, and Alice wanted to watch a movie while we were there, Kiki just wanted to build onto her pillow empire. It seemed the massive fort got bigger and bigger every second.
Firo disappeared in the morning but Nami and I didn't think much of it. Kanna was pretty freaked out though, she thought Firo was going to get herself arrested again but no, not this time.

It was noon when she returned, shoving the door to the main area of the apartment open, a panicked Thresh following her inside.

"I tried to stop her but she's pretty determined to find Mason." Thresh is obviously nervous about something 

Firo holds up a piece of lined paper with an address scribbled on it, grinning, obviously proud of herself. "I got it!!"

"She broke into the school and into the headmaster's office, then raided the file cabinets in there in search of Mason's address.." Thresh sighs. "I told her not to, but there was no stopping her."

"Wait.. Why were you there in the first place..?" Kanna blinks in confusion as she looks at Thresh. 

"Getaway driver." Firo grins. 

"Yeah you've definitely proven that you need one of those." Nami laughs a bit. I laugh and nod in agreement

"Are you saying I'm a bad driver?" Firo glares

"Considering that you almost completely demolish every car you drive.." Thresh points out

Firo glares at him and he immediately quiets, laughing nervously

"More importantly.." Firo starts. "I found Mason's address and I'm gonna go find him." She is determined 

"Wait how did you even know that his address would be inside the headmaster's files? Why would it be there?" Kanna asks, confused

"Well duh, cause the headmaster pays for and provides his apartment." Firo states. After a few moments of silence she looks around, confused. "Am I the only one that knew that?"

"Apparently, yes." Thresh states

"Okay whatever lets go!" Firo turns and walks out of the apartment again 

Thresh quickly nods and follows her

I look around at everyone and we all decide it would be best for us to go too. 

Kiki decides to stay and build  onto her glorious fort. I'm really starting to wonder where she gets all of those pillows

We all pile into Thresh's car and we drive for about fifteen minutes until we reach his address

Firo runs up to the door of the apartment and we all quickly follow behind her, which really seemed to be more of a house. The exterior was a dark navy blue and there weren't a lot of windows, wherever there was a window the blinds on the inside were closed letting no light seep in from the outside.

Firo stops at the door and knocks on it
A minute passes and, nothing
She knocks again, nothing
And again, nothing
Again, nothing
This time she pounds on the door, impatient
A voice does not respond but you can hear footsteps within 

"Mason! I know you're in there! Please open the door!" Firo yells 

"We just want to know whats wrong!" Nami frowns

"You've been gone for a long time.." Dogost whimpers, "We're all worried." 

"Please come out, we only want to talk." Thresh frowns

"I.. I'm not opening the door.." Mason's voice quietly responds 

"What? Why not?" Dogost whimpers. "Don't you wanna see us?"

"I do.. Yes.. But.." He sighs

"But what..?" Thresh frowns a bit

Nothing responds 

"Mason I swear to Hephaestus if you don't open the door I will kick it down myself!" Firo yells, glaring at the door

"I don't think that's a very good id-" Too late, Firo impatiently reels her leg back and kicks the door. It quickly swings open and luckily doesn't fall off of it's hinges

We all step inside the building and look around. It doesn't take long before we spot Mason, who is obviously panicked that Firo kicked his door in and we all waltzed into his home. But there is someone with him, a boy who looked about 17 was floating next to him. The boy had black scruffy hair and was wearing a dark grey hoodie sweatshirt and dark jeans, but he was wearing no shoes. But the most important part of information about the floating boy, was the fact that he was obviously a ghost. 

The second Mason sees us, he panics and disappears in a flash of blue light

Thresh sighs

"Where on earth did he go?" Nami frowns

"No idea..." Kanna sighs

"Why did he run?" Thresh frowns

"Maybe he wants to be left alone.." Nami sighs

"Perhaps...." Kanna slowly nods

"I don't mean to be rude by interrupting... But why is there a ghost floating five feet away from us?" Dogost whimpers, hiding behind Nami

"That's a good question.." Kanna looks at the boy, who seems a bit nervous by our presence 

"Why is there a ghost here in the first place?" Thresh blinks, then looks at Dogost. "Wait- and why are you so scared of it...? I thought you were a ghost too." 

Dogost slowly shakes his head. "Not really.. I'm not all ghost.. More like half ghost.." He explains.

Thresh nods in understanding 

"Hey!" Firo had run out of patience very quickly. She storms over to the ghost and glares at him. "Where did he go? Who are you? Why are you here?" 

The ghost is calm but seems to be examining Firo, like he's trying to match a name to her face.

"Firo.." Kanna lectures, grabbing the back of her shirt and pulling her away from the boy, who seems to recognize Firo's name as he blinks in surprise and looks at her. 

Kanna sighs, then looks at the ghost. "Sorry about her...." 

The boy slowly shakes his head. "It's.. fine..."

Kanna slowly nods.

"Still..." Thresh pauses. "I would also like to know the answer to that question.. Who are you?" He cautiously approaches Firo and Kanna.

The boy pauses for a moment, then nods to himself, "My name is Jake.." He admits

"And why exactly are you here?" Alice adds in

"Well.." Jake pauses, then sighs. "I'm Mason's older brother.."

"Brother..? But you're.." 

"Dead, yes I am.." Jake sighs 

All of us are unsure on what to stay

"How.. How did you end up.. Like that?" Firo asks after a few minutes of silence. 

(Exposition tiiime!)

"That's a long story.." Jake looks at her and pauses, then sighs. "Our family was rather normal, all of us were human, not a single one of us had any sort of power.. Except for Mason..." He pauses and sighs. "At first it was fine, everyone was excited that he had been born with the ability... But that didn't last long.." He sighs, frowning. "Everything suddenly crashed down around us and Mason was targeted for research.. If a human with powers could be born from a pure-blood human family.. They wanted to know how.. At first Mason complied, he answered their questions but never once wanted to be tested on... He told them over and over again that we didn't know how Mason could have been born with abilities, but they never did believe him.. Eventually his verbal answers weren't good enough, the organization wanted to replicate the process and know how. Eventually it went passed them just thinking we weren't being cooperative.. They thought we had discovered a way to just give humans abilities, and they wanted that ability for themselves." Jake pauses and sighs. "They were greedy and persistent.." 

"Humans.." Firo rolls her eyes, earning a light hit on the head from Kanna. 

"Don't interrupt." She lectures 

Jake continues. "Their hunt slowly went beyond just finding Mason, our entire family was hunted down.. Anyone who had information was valuable.. Mason was eight years old when it all ended.. They set a trap for all of us..  We had been on the run for a long time.. And even though we thought we were safe, we were far from it. We thought we were getting farther away from them, but really we were just getting closer and closer to them... We found an abandoned warehouse and decided that would be a good place to stop and rest for a few days..  but they were waiting for us...  Mason was taken and the rest of us were..." He looks away from us. "Mason was the only survivor... But it was far from over for him.. When he awoke, he was alone and frightened.. He wasn't sure where he was or where we were or what happened.. His fear didn't last long.. As soon as one of the members of the organization decided to make a smug comment about the fact that we had all been killed, he was beside himself with grief and dread.. But his sadness slowly turned into a blind rage.. He completly lost control and the entire organization's facility was teleported piece by piece randomly across the world, he even teleported the people inside and the area around the research facility. They tried to control him but it didn't work.. He escaped and lived on his own while he was still on the run from the organization, but this time he was all alone. After two whole years of their futile attempts to recapture Mason for further analysis, they gave up and disbanded.. Mason was considered too dangerous, and they slowly gave up on him." Jake pauses, and smiles a bit. "It got better for him though. Three weeks after that he ran into the headmaster of your school, and she decided that she wasn't going to allow Mason to live in alley ways and waste his potential.. She gave him a home and she pays for this place, and pretty much everything for him. She truly felt bad for what had happened to Mason and helped him.. Unfortunately, Mason continuously blames himself for what happened on that day, he thinks he was responsible for our deaths, and he feels terrible for "forcing" the head master to take him in.." He sighs and looks back at us. 

"Please, talk to him.." Jake begs. "Please try to reason with him and tell him it wasn't his fault! He takes blame for everything bad that happens.. Even if it's not his fault.. He cooped himself up in here because someone he.. Well, he feels responsible for not protecting, them." 

Kanna slowly nods in understanding. "We'll try to talk to him.." 

Jake immediately perks up. "If I'm right about this then he probably hid himself in one of the dark empty rooms upstairs.. He's probably waiting for you to leave."

"Then he'll be disappointed, we're not leaving." Firo looks determined. She starts to walk towards the stairs  

"So then she's the fire girl..? Interesting..." Jake disappears

Firo doesn't seem to notice or care about what Jake said as she walks up the small flight of stairs that led to the upper level of the apartment. Of course we all followed her in order to make sure that she didn't do anything stupid

There were only about five doors on the upper level, and after about a minute of random guessing the room and searching it completely, Firo was able to find ason.

We could tell when she found him because she gave a very subtle signal:

"There you are!" Firo yells, annoyance in her voice 

I quickly run into the room as soon as I hear her yell. 

Firo had attached herself to Mason and had trapped him in a hug around his waist and wasn't letting him move, despite him being taller than her. She was trying to prevent him from teleporting away again, and it was working 

"Should we stop her..?" Thresh pokes his head into the room 

"Maybe..?" Nami seems unsure. 

"He'll teleport away again if we stop her." Kanna states 

"Why did you just barricade yourself in here?!" Firo yells. "I- We were so worried! You've been gone for a week!" 

Mason sighs. "You were kidnapped by a mind demon and I wasn't there to help you.." 

"She didn't kidnap me! It was more like house arrest.." Firo points out

"And Firo kidnapped her first." Thresh points out

"Plus, why do you even care? It wasn't your fault! Jake told us that you're constantly blaming yourself for things you weren't responsible for.." Firo sighs. "So you're blaming yourself for what happened with the mind demon?" 

"Yes.." Mason sighs. "Wait-- you talked to Jake?" He blinks in surprise

"Yes, we did. And quit it." Firo glares. 

"What? Quit what?" Mason looks down at her, confused 

"Quit blaming yourself for crimes that you haven't committed!" Firo glares 

"I can't help it.." Mason sighs. 

"Oh don't give me that!" Firo lectures. "It's NOT your fault!! You're being unreasonable!!" 

"I-" 

"No!" Firo cuts him off

"But I--"

"No!" Firo cuts him off again, actually releasing the hold that kept him still and instead actually genuinely hugging him 

Mason blinks in surprise
All of us were surprised by this, actually
Firo isn't exactly the hugging type

"Please, Mason.. It's not your fault..." Firo sighs 

"Firo.. I..." Mason pauses and sighs. "Okay.." He slowly hugs Firo back 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AAAHHHHHHHHH I ACTUALLY LOVED WRITING THIS CHAPTER 

I KNOW IT WAS LONG AND I KNOW ITS AN EXPOSITION CHAPTER BUT 

...

...

I SHIP FIRO AND MASON SO MUCH
IM SORRY IF ANY OF THE PEOPLE READING THIS DON'T SHIP IT

BUT I SHIP IT AND Sagemason, THE CREATOR OF MASON, SHIPS IT

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

IT'S CANON 

DEAL WITH IT 

That sounded aggressive and mean sorry I didn't mean for it to!

Okay I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but it will probably be out next weekend at some point

Bye!!