When Andrew Detmer and Steve Montgomery decided to make a prank hiding their freakishly wonderful telekinetic abilities, they never suspected it would go so far that everyone would believe they were witches. Though it may have never been a thought in the mind of Andrew nor Steve, they quite liked the idea of being viewed as mysterious, all powerful, and even a little creepy. However, this was not always the case, especially back in the year 2012, in Seattle, Washington, at a rave at a farm called Haven Hills.  

Andrew Detmer was not known as a very social person, both inside and outside of school. He was a loner, the outcast, the freak of the school simply because of his introverted nature. He didn't know why this cause bullies to flock around him, teasing and punching and slapping him just for existing. At home, he could say without hesitation that things were even worse, with his mother Karen rotting in her bed, dying from lung cancer, and Richard, his so called "father", abusing him day and night. He didn't know the reason why Richard hated him so much, besides the fact that wherever Richard went, beer bottles were sure to follow. Once again, he thought it was simply because he existed. The only thing that kept him from ending his existence was his mother, and little did he know, in the future, a few other things- and people. It was an average cold, rainy day in one of the rundown suburbs of Seattle, Washington when Andrew decided out of the blue that he was going to buy a video recorder. He had been thinking about it for months and finally had enough money from his odd jobs fixing computers to actually afford one. So that's exactly what he did. He walked to the nearest shop that sold cameras and video recorders, which was twenty minutes away since he couldn't drive himself. It took him only a few minutes to pick one out that was both in his price range and had a good enough quality film that everything wasn't going to be blurry. It was large, bigger than any camera he had ever held before, so big that it covered over half his face when he put it up. It was perfect. He made the long walk back home, cautiously looking through the front window of his house to see if Richard was inside before he just walked right in. Much to his luck, Richard wasn't sitting in his usual spot in the living room, so Andrew took that as a sign to go through the front door, bolt upstairs, get inside his room and lock it, and hope to whatever higher power existed that he didn't get caught. His luck proved to be stable, as Richard was nowhere upstairs and nowhere near Andrew. He took a second to catch his breath once he was safely locked in his room before setting the camera on his bed and going to do some homework at his desk. His room was nothing short of a pig sty, with dirty dishes on shelves, clothing scattered all over the floor, and stray computer parts littered on any flat surface imaginable. He only cleaned once a month, or whenever Richard was out of the house for long enough to get it cleaned. After a few hours of homework and attempting to draw a knight in a suit of armor, Andrew went to bed, not knowing that the very next day would turn his life upside down. 

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The next morning before school, Andrew decided to finally turn his camera on, only to get insulted by Richard through his locked door, but he did catch it live on film. This was one of the reasons he even bought the camera in the first place, to prove his abuse. Once he was done being heckled by Richard, he waited until the man had walked completely downstairs to grab his camera, open his door, walk down the steps, and go outside where a beat up brown car was waiting for him. It was his younger cousin, Matt, who always drove him to school every day because he couldn't drive himself. Andrew didn't really want to drive, and of course Richard would never let him even attempt to touch the front seat of their family car. So, he was fine in the passenger seat forever, letting other people take him places despite him knowing how much of a burden he was. Matt, for some reason, saw him as more of a burden than most people did, and Andrew thought the same about his younger cousin. Matt was the complete opposite of Andrew, loud, obnoxiously loud, social, funny when he wasn't high, and constantly sought out attention from everyone. As Andrew got inside the car, he cringed at how loud the music was, motioning at Matt to turn it down so he could hear himself think. Matt was kind enough to do so, but his eyes stayed focused on the giant camera Andrew holding. 

"Dude, what is that thing? I can't even see your face!" Matt reached over and tried to push the camera down so he could see Andrew, but was blocked by a hoodie covered arm and an extremely pale fist, which lightly punched him away. 

"Screw off, Matt. It's a camera. I bought it yesterday and I'm gonna film everything now." 

"Everything?" His cousin asked. "Like, everything, everything?" Unfortunately Andrew understood where Matt was going and his face scrunched up, making his blue eyes basically disappear underneath his large brown eyebrows. 

"Dude, no! Not everything, everything. Just school and home." 

"Alright, man. Just saying, I completely endorse your habits IF you wanna film everything." Andrew rolled his eyes. 

"I'm not like you, Matt. I have enough self control not to screw everyone within a five mile radius of me." 

"Booooorriiing! Seriously, Andy, when are you ever gonna get laid? You're a senior now, come on! Live a little!" Andrew scoffed and shifted himself so both the camera and his head were facing the window as the car started rolling down the street. 

"I don't want that. It's just gross, Matt. I don't know how you even like doing it." 

"Just cause you're older by a few months doesn't mean you have to suddenly hate everything I do. I don't need a second Mom telling me what to do with my life." Matt's tone was a little bit darker than normal, but Andrew shrugged it off, looking out as the rows of shabby houses turned into forest. 

"Come on, Andy, you need to live a little. Try it! How 'bout this. There's a big ass party tonight at some barn in the middle of nowhere. I'll come get you and maybe, if you get up the courage, by the end of tonight you'll be a new man. Whaddya say?" Matt looked over at Andrew, who clearly had no interest in anything he was saying. 

"Fine. I'll go to your stupid party. It's better than doing nothing all night, I guess." 

"That's the spirit! But, pro tip, Andrew: Don't bring the camera, okay?" Andrew blinked a little, looking over at Matt with a glare on his face. 

"Why not?" 

"'Cause it's a giant fucking mood killer and no girl's gonna wanna lay you with that thing over your face all the time. Come on, Andy! It'll be fine! You can survive one night without that thing! I'm sure by your first glass you'll be having so much fun you'll forget it even exists!" 

"I DON'T drink." Andrew stated firmly. He never had, and he certainly never would, especially not at some run down barn party in Hicksville, Washington with his younger cousin who would probably get so wasted that Andrew would have to attempt to drive them both home. Again. It wouldn't be the first time Matt got so high and drunk that Andrew had to take the wheel and hope to everything in the universe that no pig would pull him over and ask for his ID. He was pulled out of his thoughts by Matt reaching to shake his shoulder. As the hand came down, he flinched and quickly shoved it off, growling lightly at Matt's antics. 

"Just because you haven't done it before doesn't mean you won't do it sometime! You're such a vibe killer, Andy. You know that, right? Can't do anything fun with you sulking around." 

"Mhm. Yeah. Thanks Matt." Andrew couldn't give two shits about Matt's playboy party animal behavior, and he wasn't about to start unless he had to drive them home again. The car was now no longer in the woods, but turning onto a larger road that led to Chumash Valley High School. 

"It's learning timeeeeee!" Matt said in a sing-songy voice as he turned the car into the student parking lot. 

"Hey, get outta the way! Senior car coming through!" He shouted as the maneuvered through the crowd of people in the parking lot to get to his usual spot. He stopped the car and reached into his glove compartment for a small metal box while Andrew got out of the car. Andrew looked back at Matt, seeing him open the little tin and pull out a joint. 

"Come on, Matt. You're gonna be late for homeroom." 

"I'm gonna hang back for a minute, Andy. Guy on the football team owes me a favor." 

"What do you mean, a favor? Like homework or something?" Matt winked at him, his face twisting into a small grin. Andrew's eyes widened as he backed away and shoved the door closed. 

"You're so gross, Matt!" He yelled to no one in particular, since Matt probably couldn't hear him through the closed doors of the car. He trudged toward his school, silently begging for the world to give him a better day, especially with this huge ass camera on his shoulders.

At first, the universe seemed like a selfish, evil traitor to poor Andrew, who ran nearly head first into his bully, Wayne, and had to endure not just a physical beat down, but a verbal one, coupled with his camera getting slightly dismembered. He was lucky it was just a small piece of it that had been ripped off, so it still functioned perfectly, but he did keep in mind that he would have to be more observant about where he was going when the camera was over his face. Lunch passed by with only a cheerleader making a rude comment about how the camera was "Really creepy", and the afternoon looked like it might be even a little better. It wasn't anywhere near what Andrew would consider a good day, especially when being constantly bombarded by students asking him to vote for the most popular candidate in the Presidential race for Senior Class: Steve Montgomery. Tall, dark, and handsome, he was everything you could ever want for Senior Class President. Straight A's, Captain of the football team, a charming smile even constantly grumpy Andrew couldn't ignore. The more he saw of Steve, the more he hated him, solely because he was jealous of how easy he made life look. It wasn't at all because of his beautiful brown eyes or his perfect smile, Andrew thought to himself. It was purely jealousy. That's what it had to be. He shoved away all the leaflets and the crazy cheerleader from lunch who was now sporting a "Vote 4 Steve" T-shirt and made himself a bitter promise that he would vote for Steve tomorrow, in secret, when no one else dared to look at him. He walked back to Matt's car, dreading the return back home far more than he could ever dread the ride to school. In truth, the only bad thing about school for him was the people. Give him an empty room and a teacher and he could get perfect A's all year, but add bullies and anxiety and his horrifying home situation and school suddenly turned into a nightmare. He still kept up his grades, getting nothing below a high B just to prove to himself that he was a smart kid with a good brain who could do something right. Matt's grades were atrocious compared to his, with a mix of C's, D's, F's and one lone A in English class. Andrew figured if Matt was going to fail school, then he could do just that, because he was done trying to get him on a better academic path. Their paths had split long before grades even mattered to Andrew. The drive home was relatively silent, with music being the only voice inside the little vehicle. Matt dropped him off at his house and Andrew dreaded walking inside. He thanked the universe when Richard was nowhere in sight and walked up to his room, making the mistake of not shutting his door. He thought about going to see his mother downstairs, but he figured even that would be a risky move.  He sat down at his desk, his camera laying on top of it, and plugged in the camera to his computer, watching and editing his footage. He was lucky he had such good ears to hear Richard once he had gotten to the entrance of room so he could turn off his computer in time. Andrew got away from his chair, trying back himself into a corner as Richard approached him. It was unsuccessful, with Richard grabbing him by his arm and punching him several times directly in the face and knocking him to the floor before leaving with a "Finish your goddamn homework." Though Andrew had lost most of the hope in his mind for that day being a good one, he did have something on his side. Everything Richard had just done was caught directly on camera. He got up from the floor and sat back at his desk, watching his camera film for a few more minutes before completing his homework and waiting for Matt to pick him up for the rave. 

Unsurprisingly to Matt, Andrew brought along his camera. He sighed internally, but said nothing as Andrew got into the car, only ruffling his dirty blond hair and telling him he was proud that Andrew was finally attending his first senior party, which was also his first ever party. Matt looked pumped and ready to go, while Andrew groaned silently at him. In his mind, parties were the dumbest and most illogical things human beings created, but to Matt, it was paradise. Andrew tried to understand, but he just couldn't. Drinking, and dancing, and sex were all things that he had no interest in doing in his life. Okay, maybe dancing, he could totally dance alone by himself, but the other two were hard "no"s. The driver seemed to be shorter than he thought it would be, and before he knew it, he was lugging his camera inside an old barn at Haven Hills Farm. Everything was too loud and bright and colorful for Andrew, who immediately cringed at the disco lights and EDM music blaring in his ears. Matt started to walk away, but Andrew grabbed the sleeve of his flannel and pulled him back, yelling

"Where are you going?!" 

"I'm goin' my own way, man! Relax! Go get a beer, set that thing down somewhere, have fun!" 

"What?!? No, Matt, I don't drink! Just wait up for me, don't leave me alone!" 

It was too late, as Matt pulled his sleeve away from Andrew's grasp and walked off into the sea of bodies dancing, leaving Andrew alone to film the party. Eventually, he ran into a very interesting person, a blonde girl who was also carrying a camera, but it was far smaller than  Andrew's. They had bumped into each other quite literally and started bonding over their shared love of cameras. The girl's name was Casey Letter, and she was filming for her blog. Andrew wondered how he had never noticed her before until an all too familiar face walked up yelling "Caseyyy!" in a drunken stupor and wrapped his arms around her. It was none other than Matt, very drunk with a joint hanging out of his mouth and a bottle of beer in his hand. 

"Hey, Andy, this is Casey! She's my girlfriend!" 

"Well, not really his girlfriend.." Casey added, letting Andrew know that the relationship was clearly complicated. 

"Yeah you are! My favorite girlfriend!" Matt leaned on her shoulder, making her shift her weight to accommodate his own. It was only then when Andrew realized what Matt was wearing. 

"Dude, is that a crop top?" 

"Yeah, man! Do you like it!" 

"Is it YOURS?" 

"Yup! Made it myself!" 

"Okay, dude, whatever. Nice to meet you, Casey." 

"You too, Andrew! See you around?" 

"Sure!" He called back, leaving them to their conversation about how drunk Matt was. Andrew didn't care about Matt's clothes, as long as they were actually his and not some random girl's that he accidentally put on instead of his own. Andrew wandered around for a little more, thinking about how Matt loved Casey with her camera but completely hated Andrew for his, but was quickly interrupted by one of his least favorite people approaching him. Wayne. Andrew once again tried to back up, but he was grabbed, slapped a few times in the face, and then shoved away, his camera falling to the floor in the process. Andrew picked it up and told himself that it was definitely time to go outside, find someplace to sit near Matt's car, and hope that Casey would bring him out at some point. He found a tree, sitting down at its base, putting the camera down on his lap, and started to cry. He was interrupted after a minute by someone walking towards him. He started to grab his camera, fearing it was another one of his bullies, but it wasn't. It was golden boy Steve Montgomery, who bent down, looked Andrew in the eyes, and asked 

"You okay, man? Whatcha doin' out here all alone by this tree?" 

"I'm just... thinking. Waiting. For someone." Andrew looked down at his lap, hoping if he avoided eye contact, Steve wouldn't hurt him. 

"Hey, I remember you! You're Andrew Detmer! Yeah, I know you! You're the guy who was always such a whiz in that Algebra class freshman year!" Andrew was shocked. No one had EVER remembered him like that. No one cared enough to remember, but Steve did. 

"You... you remember me?" 

"Yeah, man, I remember you! Hey, can we borrow that camera? There's some crazy shit going on in the woods and we've GOTTA get it on camera!" 

"Who's we?" Andrew asked cautiously. 

"Me and Matt Garretty, that Senior guy who I've heard gets all the dudes from the football team!" Andrew cringed internally. Great. He figured what the hell, and decided to trust Steve, nodding his head. 

"Alright! Man, you will NOT believe what we found out there!" 

"What did you find?"

"You'll have to see!" They walked in silence for a minute before Steve finally spoke again. 

"I remember that hoodie, man. Grey zip up hoodie, you always wore that! Is it your favorite or something?" 

"Yeah. Yeah it is my favorite." Andrew actually cracked a little bit of a smile as he looked at Steve directly and hoped that this very attractive guy was not walking him towards his death. 

"So how do you know Matt?" 

"Guys on the team. You? I mean, you sounded like you recognized his name." Andrew sighed out loud. 

"Unfortunately, he's my younger cousin." 

"Oh, dude! I didn't even know! You guys look nothing like each other! You ACT nothing like each other!" 

"That's the point." The conversation was interrupted when the duo got to a large clearing, where Matt was standing, waving, in front of a huge hole in the ground. 

"Garretty! I got him!" Steve yelled, waving his hand around and running away from Andrew towards the hole. Andrew walked quickly to the hole, before pointing his camera at Matt. 

"If you go down in there, I'm leaving you and driving myself home." 

"Come on, Andy! It'll be fun!" Andrew rolled his eyes. 

"No." And with that, Matt took a running start and jumped directly into the hole as Steve went "Garretty, wait up!" He dove in right afterwards,  leaving Andrew alone. He grumbled to himself and jumped into the hole with his camera. It wasn't that much of a distance to the bottom, and Andrew landed on his feet without a scratch. It was dark, but he could see a tunnel, and despite his better judgment, he started to walk. He quickly caught up with Steve and Matt, but only because there wasn't far to go in that little tunnel before they reached a giant cave with a large, blue, glowing crystal dead in the middle. 

"Holy shit." 

"Well this just got a HOLE lot weirder." 

"Fuck off, Matt. Your puns suck." 

"Screw you too, Detmer." 

"Guys, come on!" Steve urged. "Let's go check that thing out!" The three of them walked towards it, Steve taking the lead. The crystal looked like it was covered in robotic vines, but the vines receded when Steve reached his hand out to touch the crystal. As soon as both Matt and a surprisingly curious Andrew touched the crystal with Steve, it turned from sky blue to blood red. They all backed away from it, panicked as the cave started to shake and pieces of rock started to fall down from the ceiling. The three boys took their opportunity and ran as fast as they could out of the cave, Matt first, then Steve, and then Andrew, who could barely get out with the camera. As he was climbing up the edge of the hole, he nearly lost his grip, but Steve grabbed his arm. 

"Dude, you've gotta let go of the camera! I'm sorry man, I'll buy you a new one, I promise!" 

And so Andrew let it go, his old footage and his old life falling into the darkness and ruble of the cave below him, taking Steve's hand and reaching solid ground again.