"Do not be afraid; our fate
Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift."
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

When Rory enters the room, it's dark apart from the warm glow of the lit candles. There's many of them, of various sizes and shapes, scattered throughout the room. Their shadows dance across the walls as the flames flicker, casting enough light to illuminate the scene before her.

Rory doesn't take in the blood painted across the room, splattered against the walls and floors, she doesn't take in the foul smell emanating from the bodies spread haphazardly about, still and sprinkled in red like the rest of the room, and she definitely doesn't take in the pentagram roughly drawn on the floor and what could only be blood.

She sees a girl kneeling in front of the pentagram, faced away from Rory. She chants softly under her breath, in the midst of her ritual, but Rory doesn't take that in either. All Rory can think is that she doesn't get paid enough for this shit.

"Quite the mess in here," says another voice. It echoes in Rory's ears, low and laced with its usual hint of amusement.

If Rory were to look back at him, she would bet that his eyes hold that same amused glint, a joke hanging in the air only he seemed to ever get. But, Rory refuses to acknowledge the newcomer. She knew he was here because where else would he be, if not here, bothering Rory? At this point, she's used to his presence. "Looks like you got here too late, huh?"

His tall frame leans against the entryway, his dark hair and attire almost concealing him in the night. Rory doesn't answer him, not that he was looking for one in the first place. Unperturbed by his companion's silence, he continues speaking while looking around the room, "This her family?
How sad."

His voice holds sympathy, but as the candles flicker and shadows dance across his face, a smile tugs at his lips.

Rory, on the other hand, can't help the scowl creeping onto her face. This is definitely not what Rory had on her to do list today. From what Rory can see, this is not some "low-key" job. What kind of deal would come at the expense of these all sacrifices? Frankly, Rory is not about to find out.

The floor creaks beneath her boots as she makes her way to the center of the room. In a swift motion, she grabs a handful of blonde hair. Surprised, the girl abruptly stops her chanting with a shriek as Rory yanks her head back. Rory drags the girl away from the circle as she kicks and claws at Rory's hands, trying to break free.

When they are a good enough distance away, Rory pauses, but doesn't release her grip on the female's head. Instead, she kneels down so that she is eye-level with the girl, who stops trying to fight Rory, and instead settles with a scowl.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" She hisses. Rory is now able to get a good look at her. Despite her sharp words and attitude, all Rory could see was a teenager, probably no older than sixteen. Her face and clothes are stained with red, matching the rest of the room. Her eyes, though trying to hold Rory's gaze, waver and Rory can see the fear building.

"Do you have any idea what the fuck you're doing?" Rory growls at the girl. The girl purses her mouth shut, to Rory's irritation. She tries to look away, but Rory forces the girl to look at her by taking her face in her hand and physically turning her head. The girl squirms in pain over Rory's grip, but still doesn't say anything.

"Rory- What the hell?" Rory spares a glance at the voice. Her previous companion is gone, in exchange for a now groaning Lux taking in the sight before her, "I'm not cleaning this shit up."

"We told you to wait for us," Zane grunts, coming in from behind Lux. He takes one look at Rory and then groans in a similar fashion to Lux, "Why do you always find the crazy ones?"

Rory rolls her eyes, "She was about two seconds around from summoning some evil shit, At least I got here when I did."

Turning her attention back to the girl, Rory collects herself and holds her gaze, "What were you trying to summon?" When the girl still doesn't answer, Rory grits her teeth, but presses on.

"Should we just hand you over to the police? Let your corpse rot in a cell, huh? Look at what you've done." Rory gestures to the carnage of the room. As if seeing the bodies for the first time, the girl bursts into tears.

"I didn't-! I didn't mean to...He.. He promised, he..." The girl shakes with sobs as she tries to speak, but Rory becomes alert at her words.

"Who promised?" Her hands and on the girl's shoulders now as she becomes more frantic. This already annoying situation just got even more complicated. If this girl already made a deal, then they were really too late. Maybe there is still hope, Rory tries to reason. Maybe she's just jumping to conclusions. Maybe-

As if on cue, the flames of the candles erupt into a blast of fire in the middle of the room. The hairs on Rory's arms stand on end, only to be promptly burned off by the wave of heat.

Zane's "Goddammit!" mimics the thoughts in Rory's head as she watches a boney arm burst from the ground and latch onto the girl's leg. With a scream, she grabs wrist as she is pulled toward the fire.

Caught off guard, Rory stumbles and is dragged along with the girl."Bitch-!" Rory grunts, and she claws at her wrist, trying to pry the fingers off. Right before the two are pulled under ground, Rory pulls hard enough to yank her arm free. She falls back on her butt, and watches as the girl's body is engulfed by the fire and disappears with the flames.

She sits there a moment, the only sounds filling the room come from her breaths as she tries to still her heart. Her arm stings, red welts already forming and blood drips from open scratch wounds.

"So uh," Zane finally speaks up, "Who's cleaning this shit up?"

+++

The walk to the bus station is relatively quiet. The night is rather cool compared to the last few nights, Rory actually being able to walk comfortably without too much thought to the normally frigid November nights.

As Rory walks, she keeps her focus on the ground, the footsteps of her friends following behind her the only indicator that they are still there. An air of understanding has settled over the three friends, no words needed to explain their collective failure this last encounter. No words are needed to explain how they barely arrived in time, how the very thing they tried to prevent from happening is exactly what happened. Likewise, there are no words needed to describe the scolding waiting for them when they return.

After everything today, Rory dreads this the most. Lux and Zane are lucky because they'll get off easy. Rory is gonna get the brunt of it, she knows because that's how it always turns out. Somehow, all of the blame will fall on Rory, and she'll take it all in. Lux and Zane will get an earful at most and then they can go home, but Rory will have to live with it everyday. Just thought makes her want to claw her ears off.

The group walks further into town, the previously empty streets now gaining more people as they reach closer to a busier part of town. As they enter the station, Rory doesn't notice the glances and stares directed at her, specifically her blood cladden arms and clothing.

Realizing that his friend looks like a serial killer, Zane quietly takes off his jacket and slips it around Rory's shoulders. In her daze, she accepts it without any thought and embraces its warmth.

Rory feels Lux drop her head on her shoulder. In response, she moves her head to rest on top of her blue-haired friend's. Together, the three friend's remain like this for a while, bouncing around to the movement of the subway, watching as people came and left.

Rory's pocket pings at the same time as her friends and they all look at their phones. She sees a notification that the payment for their last mission has come through and been deposited into her account.

Zane snacks his lips in annoyance as he reads the same message. "This is even less than last time! Damn, how am I supposed to pay rent with this?" He mutters.

"Alright, do I buy these concert tickets or do I pay my car note?" Lux muses out loud to herself.

"Time for second jobs?"

Rory feels her friend's sentiments. Her bank account wasn't in the best of shape either, especially since they've been getting such low ball jobs lately. She's barely getting by as it is, she's gonna have to cut back, again. Awesome, another tick to her crappy day. Her stomach surges and she has to keep holding herself together.

After parting ways with her friends and walking the rest of the way to her home, Rory is relieved to find the house quiet when she enters. She supposes it would be, considering how late it currently is. She didn't plan to be out for as long as she was; not expecting to walk into a literal murder scene.

In the moment, Rory didn't have a lot of time to react to the horrid scene. While it was far from her first rodeo, she would be lying if she said it wasn't unsettling. As much as she tried to block it out, she knows that image will stay with her for a while.

Rory shuts the door and locks it behind her as she kicks her shoes off to the side. Without bothering to turn on the lights, she navigates her way through the dark living room and makes her way upstairs into her room. She flicks on her light.

The first thing she does is remove Zane's jacket and toss it on the floor off to the side of the room. Dark red stains adorn the gray sleeves and she barely recognizes the pain in her arm.

Plopping down on her bed, she takes a moment to examine her new wounds. That girl really did a number on her. The scratches have stopped bleeding, dry blood flaking on her skin. The marks weren't that deep, but they ached.

Rory should probably get them cleaned up, and should probably get cleaned up in general, but suddenly her body is so heavy and all she wants to do is curl into a ball. It is as if all the stress she had been holding back came spilling out all at once. She becomes aware of the pit that has been forming in her stomach, threatening to spill all of its contents.

The image of the lifeless bodies flashes through her mind again and the next thing
Rory knows is that she is kneeling in front of her bathroom toilet, spilling out what little she had in her stomach.

A hand brushes one of her braids from in front of her face and ticks it behind her ear. Rory stiffens at the touch, but another wave of nausea has her heaving again.

"Who would have thought you had such a weak stomach," Asta says, now rubbing circles onto the sick girl's back, "That was nothing back there compared to what you're used to." Rory doesn't say anything and instead focuses on evening her breathing.

"Or maybe that's not it... Perhaps that poor girl? Doesn't she remind you of someone?" Rory grits her teeth and clutches harder on the toilet. Amused, Asta kneels down next to Rory and leans in close. "Afraid that you'll end up like her? Huh, a demon hunter afraid of demons?"

"Leave," Rory whispers, there's a quiet chuckle and just like that she's alone in the bathroom again. Shakily, Rory raises up her hand. A black circle marks the palm of her hand, a constant reminder of the deal she made long ago.

The Circle is many things. It represents not only the world, but life itself. What goes around comes around, and what begins will end and will begin again. The center of the Circle is where you find yourself.

Sometimes, creatures from other circles find their way into this one. Circles should never intersect. Those who are unfortunate enough to know of the Circle have no choice but to work for it and keep the Circle intact, and in return the Circle compensates their work.

In other words, they hunt demons, they get paid.

Rory uses the word demon lightly because if there's anything she's learned along the way, it's that sometimes the scariest of demons are the ones that appear as humans.