Iris stood at the window, peaking through the curtains.

She was counting the seconds in her head, a grunt of annoyance leaving her when her mum turned around again to pet her familiar.

Damn that cat and its adorable green eyes.

Finally, the woman opened the car door and got in. Now it was only a matter of seconds until she left. Iris grinned at the thought. She was going to the annual council meeting, leaving Iris and her brother alone for three days. Well, almost alone, they were supposed to stay with their aunt, but she wouldn't be arriving here for the next hour or so. They still had Salem, their mother's familiar, with them though.

The car started moving, Iris' eyes trained on it, until it finally made its way around the corner.

"Gone!" A huge grin spread across Iris' face, and she turned around to look at her brother. "They're finally gone!"

Ezra didn't seem to hear her, or maybe he was just ignoring her.

Either way, Iris didn't appreciate his lack of a response.

"Ezra."

There was still no reaction. Iris frowned.

Brushing her hair out of her face, she walked towards her brother and stopped right in front of him, her shadow falling over his comfortably seated figure.

For a moment, there was no reaction. Finally, Ezra sighed and looked up from the book he'd been so engrossed in. "You're blocking the light."

Iris snorted. "Ez, I don't know if you've noticed, but we're alone. In the bakery. Are you seriously telling me that you just wanna sit around and read?"

Ezra looked at her for a second. Then he continued reading.

"You can't be serious!" Iris snatched the book out of her brother's hands and ignored his weak protest that only consisted of the word 'Hey!'.

"What even is that?"

Ezra's eyes widened, and he stood up, reaching out for the book, only to be stopped by Iris grabbing his wrist and sending a rush of magical energy coursing through his veins.

"Ow," he whined, clutching his arm. The shocking pain subsided, leaving only a feeling of numbness and a slight tingling.

He hated that feeling.

"'Tactical Submission'? Seriously? Ew." Iris scrunched up her nose and dropped the book into his lap. "Don't read porn when I'm in the same room as you. That's weird."

Ezra blushed and clutched the book to his chest. "It's not porn. It's an emotional journey of romance and angst between two men who-"

"Fuck. I know." Ezra was about to protest, but she cut him off again, raising her hand to symbolize a 'Stop'.

"Before you try to continue this pointless discussion - it's porn, it literally says 'BDSM' on the back -" Ezra groaned. "- let me remind you of the fact that we are alone in a building that possibly contains centuries of magical knowledge. Aren't you curious of what we might find in here?"

"Snooping around in mum and dad's stuff is a bad idea," he said. Still, Iris could tell he was intrigued by the look in his eyes.

"Maybe. But who knows what's hidden in here? We could find an old artifact or a spellbook or something - maybe even one with advanced spells! Just imagine that."

"Those spells are called 'advanced' for a reason. We haven't even finished our basic training yet - and old artifacts are often cursed."

Iris sighed. She knew he wanted to. "Oh, come on!" she said, grabbing his arm and yanking him out of the comfortable-looking antique armchair. She dragged him out of the room and just when he was about to protest-
"Maybe we'll even find you a hidden BDSM cellar!"

Ezra groaned, and even though Iris wasn't looking, she knew he was blushing. Both of them knew that she was never gonna let him live that down.

With Ezra's protest smothered, they left the backroom of their parents' bakery and found themselves in a corridor that looked very much like their mum had decorated it.

The walls were painted a dark navy blue and the carpet was fluffy and black. A few pictures of their family lined the wall and there was a wooden commode at the end of the corridor that had a clock and a framed picture of young Iris and Ezra cuddled up on the couch on it.

Ezra couldn't help but smile at it.

"There," Iris suddenly said and pointed at a door next to the commode. "I wanna check that room out."

Ezra sighed, but knew he wouldn't be able to talk his sister out of it.

Besides, he was a bit curious himself.

He followed his sister to the end of the corridor, passing a few doors he already knew; the door to the actual bakery, the door to the kitchen, the bathroom, the storeroom.

Until they eventually reached the unknown door.

Iris was visibly excited, bouncing on her feet a little and a wide grin spread across her face. She reached out and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"Goddamnit!"

"Well, did you think they'd just leave the super important stuff they might have in here completely unprotected?" Ezra smirked.

"Shut up!" Iris grunted, brushing a hand through her hair while simultaneously pulling a bobby pin out of it.

"Are you really gonna try that?" An exaggerated sigh left Ezra's mouth, seemingly full of disappointment. "You know that only works in movies - besides, if there was something super important in there you wouldn't just be able to-"

"Ezra, if you don't shut up-" Iris was cut off as the lock clicked. The door creaked open. She turned around and smiled at her brother triumphantly who just slightly shook his head and sighed.

She then pushed the door open and made a hand gesture motioning Ezra inside. "Ladies first."

He decided to ignore her mocking, instead he said: "There's no way I'm going in there first. This was your idea."

Iris rolled her eyes. "Pussy."

She stepped into the room and Ezra peaked inside, afraid he'd lose sight of his sister in the absolute darkness.

"Do you see a light switch?" he asked, trying to make out anything in the room. Iris snorted.

"I don't see anything, so no."

Ezra held one hand out and focused his magic. He could feel the warm tingling running down from his arm into his palm where it heated up and produced a small flicker of blue light. Another flicker, then it took the shape of a small sphere.

He looked up, this time actually seeing something. They were standing in-

"A bathroom. Great." Iris rolled her eyes. "What a waste of time."

She immediately turned around and strode out of the room.

Ezra made to follow her, when he felt as though something was tugging him back in.

Against better judgement, he stopped for a moment. A strange thumping, like a heartbeat, filled the quiet. It was gentle, distant, yet it was clearly there. Ezra went further into the bathroom, the thumping growing louder. Something was drawing him in and it became stronger with every step he took.

When he finally stopped, he was standing in front of a sink. It didn't seem to be out of the ordinary, yet something told him that there was something special about it.

He reached out, as if he was in a trance. When he lifted his arm, he realized that the thumping was in fact a heartbeat. It was his own heartbeat.

The veins on his arm were clearly visible, coloured an unusual shimmering blue. They were pulsating.

As his hand got closer to the sink, his veins shone brighter, along with the sphere of magic he was holding.

He was sure there was someone or something calling his name as well, but he was so focused on the thumping that the voice was completely drowned out.

Finally, he could see what was so unusual about the sink. There was a symbol engraved into the side of the water tap. He'd seen it before, in one of his books. It looked like a gate with a triskel and a bonfire beneath it.

He carefully let a finger slide over it, the metal cool to the touch. His fingertip tingled slightly and he was overcome by a shudder as his magic flowed into it. There was a slight glow to the metal and the sigil lit up, now a glowing blue.

The splashing sound of water tore him out of his trance.

He snatched his hand away, eyes now trained on the shimmering liquid that poured into the sink. It looked almost silky, like melted metal, except for the fact that he didn't know of any metal that looked like that. It was beautiful, a light, almost transparent blue, shining so bright that it illuminated the whole room.

Ezra felt as if he was falling into another trance just from looking at it. There was only one word he could think of to describe it. It was magical.

The stream of liquid became thinner, until finally, there were only a few drops falling into the sink.

When the last one of them had flowed down the drain, the shining of the sigil slowly died down, leaving the sphere of magic in Ezra's hand the only light source.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Ezra instinctively stumbled a step back and was immediately glad he did when the sink rumbled and slowly started sinking into the ground, revealing some kind of pattern behind it.

When it got lower, he realized that there were once again sigils ingraved into the wall. Finally, the sink fully disappeared into the ground, a white tile sliding over it to cover it up.

It was then that Ezra realised that there was, in fact, a small door in the wall. Ezra wasn't exactly sure what kind of person it was made for, it seemed to barely fit a cat.

"Well, that was certainly something."

Ezra flinched at the voice and turned around in a sharp motion, almost stumbling forward.

"Merlin, Iris, don't scare me like that," he said, his pulse once again clearly audible as he clutched his chest and took a calming breath.

Iris just rolled her eyes and came in, finally turning the lights on while she was at it.

"So, what've we got here?" she said, coming to a stop beside her brother.

Her gaze slid over the small door, scrutinizing every sigil that was carved into the frame before she moved on to the runes on the door itself that surrounded the small hole in the middle, barely big enough to fit a finger.

She let out an appreciative whistle.

"I knew you had it in you."

With a grin, she kneeled down, Ezra instinctively taking a step to the side to give her space.

"You know what, maybe we should just go back and explore the kitchen instead. I bet there's lots of cakes we could -"

Iris groaned. "Seriously? You just found a secret door behind a sink and you don't wanna know what's behind it?"

Ezra kept quiet. He did want to know and Iris knew that. But that didn't change the fact that he had a bad feeling about this.

"Okay, this door is weird," Iris said and shuffled back.

"You're not gonna pick the lock with a bobby pin again?" Ezra raised his eyebrows as Iris rolled her shoulders.

"I would if there was a lock. But there isn't, it's literally just a hole. A fancy hole, but a hole."

"Aren't keyholes just fancy holes though?"

"Hold that thought." Iris balled her hand into a fist and Ezra suddenly realised what she was about to do.

"Wait, don't -" Once again, his protest was ignored as Iris surrounded her fist with flickering red magic and smashed it into the door as hard as she could.

Her fist never touched the actual door, instead hitting a barrier of magic that sent her hurling through the air with as much as force as she had used to hit it.

Out of reflex, Ezra swung around and reached out to her, the warmth of magic flowing through his veins and reaching his hand, as a glowing blue energy formed beneath her, catching her and dampening her fall like a pillow.

He immediately ran up to her, relieved to see her get up and smooth her shirt down. "Are you alright?"

She nodded, making the last bit of worry he held ebb away. "Thanks for catching me."

Then her gaze drifted back to the door. "Now let's see how we can get this little thing to open."

"Are you crazy? You just got hurled through the air!" Ezra exclaimed, shocked that his sister would even suggest such a thing. Then again, it was his sister.

"All the more reason to open it. I bet there's something super important behind it."

"There's no way in hell we're-"

"How about we try ruining the sigils? There won't be any magic left to protect that door if we do," Iris cut her brother off, who groaned in exasperation. He absolutely hated how stubborn his sister was.

Finally, he walked back to the door, kneeling down in front of it, Iris doing the same.

"At least that's not as stupid as your last idea."

Iris grinned, pulling a pocket knife out of her jacket. "You know, hearing that from you means so much to me."

She didn't wait for a response, instead tried to ram her knife into the wood. However, the knife immediately flew out of her hand, smashing against the nearest wall.

"So, that didn't work."

"Tell me something new," Ezra said, "Now that your other plan was a failure, how about we go back and eat cake? I'm hungry."

Iris rolled her eyes and pulled a granola bar out of her pocket. "There, eat that."

"I hate-"

"That's because you're an idiot. Now shut up and eat, so I can finally concentrate."

Ezra rolled his eyes, opening the granola bar nonetheless. He took a bite and immediately wanted to spit it back out, the sticky yet grainy texture absolutely disgusting. It wasn't even sweet. Still, he forced it down, bravely taking another bite as he felt small bits sticking to his teeth.

“You know what? Maybe the door has been open all along. What if you just have to stick your finger in that hole and pull it open.”

Ezra frowned, forcing a bite down his throat. “If there's really something important behind it, it shouldn't be so easy to open.”

“But that's the thing. It's easy, obvious-”

“And someone could open it by accident and get to the super important stuff inside.”

Iris rolled her eyes. “At least let me try.”

“Wait, you're just gonna stick your finger in that hole? Aren't you afraid that something on the other side could bite it off?”

“Optimistic as always, Ez.”

“Just don't say I didn't warn you.” With that, Ezra went back to eating and tried to force the last bit of the granola bar down.

Iris didn't waste too much time thinking. She just reached out to the door with her pointing index finger and pushed it into the hole.

It glided in easily, the wood being surprisingly smooth instead of having the splintery, rough texture it normally had. Must've been waxed.

Iris bent her finger, trying to pull the door towards her, when her fingertip was overcome with a stinging pain.

She yelped and immediately pulled her finger back out, taking a look at the blood smeared all over the tip.

“Oh, shit, did you actually lose a finger?” Ezra immediately shuffled towards her, sighing in relief when he saw that her finger was still in place.

“No, but something just stung me.”

“Well, that's just great.” Ezra's brows furrowed in worry as he cramed a handkerchief out of his pocket, handing it to his sister who gladly accepted and wrapped it around the wound. “Let's hope it wasn't poisonous and get out of here, I'm so done with this creepy bathroom.”

Iris didn't even think about giving up. She desperately wanted to know what was behind that door, especially now that she'd got stung by it. And she was going to tell her brother just that, Ezra already about to sigh at the determined look on her face, brows furrowed and jaw set, when suddenly, a light click filled the room.

They both turned to look at the door as it slowly creaked open, obviously not having been opened in quite a while.

“I don't like this.” Ezra tilted his head, trying to make out something in the darkness behind the door. It appeared to lead into some kind of shaft, barely big enough for a person to crawl into.

Iris grinned. “Oh, but you have no idea how much I do.”

She didn't even wait for him to state his opinion and just crawled right in, her bloodstained handkerchief landing on the bathroom floor.

“Wait, you can't just crawl in there, something just stung you, remember-”

But Iris was already almost lost in the dark. Ezra groaned, cursing under his breath, before he made to crawl in after her.

“You know that this is a terrible idea,” he said as he made his way through the cold stone shaft, the light that came through the open door slowly starting to fade.

The rough texture of the floor scraped Ezra's skin, doing nothing to lift his mood.

“Oh, shush. This is gonna be great.” Iris slowed down a bit. Ezra, not expecting that, kept going as fast as before and ended up with Iris' shoe smashed into his face.

“Ouch.”

Iris chuckled. “Oops, didn't mean to.” She then sped up again and kept crawling ahead.

Ezra got the feeling that that was exactly what she'd meant to do as he brushed the dirt off his face.

He immediately stopped in his tracks as a sudden bang echoed through the shaft.

“What was that?” Iris tried to look over her shoulder to see what had caused the sound, but didn't have much luck.

Ezra, on the other hand, knew exactly what had happened. “The door just closed. Seems like we're stuck in here.” He glared at his sister, hoping that she could at least feel it through the darkness. “I told you this was a terrible idea.”

He knew she rolled her eyes that. “Well, I guess we have no choice other than move forward now.”

Her grin was practically audible and Ezra sighed, frustrated. How had they even ended up in this situation?

They continued ahead, Iris occasionally stopping to kick her brother's face and Ezra internally cursing this whole damned situation.

Finally, they saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Ezra wouldn't have complained if it was death at that point.

Iris grinned, excitement rushing through her as she sped up, the light growing closer and closer.

Until there was suddenly no ground beneath her and she fell out of the shaft with a yelp, landing flat on her stomach.

“Ow...”

Ezra's eyes widened when he heard his sister yelp. He'd been so focused on his internal swearing, he hadn't even noticed Iris disappearing from his sight.

He sped up, panic building up in him. “Iris? Are you-”

His words were cut off as he screamed, the ground under him suddenly gone.

He fell out of the shaft, glad when he landed on top of something soft. Until that something yelped and he realised it was his sister.

He immediately crawled off her, as she slowly got up, holding her back. “Oww, you idiot,” Iris whined, “I think you just broke my back.”

Ezra sighed, knowing it wasn't that extreme. Still, his brows furrowed in worry as his sister kept rubbing her back and whining. “Sorry about that.”

He then took his time to look around the room they had landed in. It was bland, just a big box of polished, grey stone, the only unusual thing being the small, glowing, white spheres that lined the ceiling.

Ezra immediately recognized them as magic, wondering just how long they've been up there.

Then he noticed a small box, standing right in the middle of the room. It was beautiful, made out of dark steel with runes and vines engraved into the sides of it, while the top showed two intertwined snakes, reminding Ezra of the caduceus. Under the light, it seemed to have a red shimmer to it.

“Woah, that looks cool,” Iris said as she made to stand next to her brother. Her lips curled into a grin. “I bet there's something awesome inside.”

“I don't think whoever put it here wanted it to be opened.”

But Ezra was once again ignored as Iris ran up to the box and picked it up. “Wow, it's heavy.” She held it up to her ear and began shaking it, frowning when it made no sound. “Whatever is in there is hella weird. Or it's empty.” Iris didn't want to think about that possibility. She'd put so much effort into finding that thing, it couldn't just be empty. “Guess there's only one way to find out.”

Ezra walked up to her, biting his lip, brows furrowed in worry. He just knew that they shouldn't be doing this, his unease evident in his unnecessarily slow steps.

“Oh, come on, we've waited long enough, no need to make it even longer.” Iris frowned, tapping her foot impatiently.

When he finally reached her, he took a closer look at the box, the detail that had been put into the engravings even more evident now. It had a simple lock, similar to one you'd find on a jewelry box. Maybe that's what it was.

But then again, why would anyone go to such lengths to protect a piece of jewelry?

“Ready?” Iris asked, not looking away from the box.

“No.”

Iris flicked the lock of the box open, immediately dropping it when she and her brother were sent crashing against the wall by an invisible force.

Black smoke oozed from the box, a light giggle filling the room. At first, it was barely audible. Then it grew louder, stronger, until it had turned into a manic laughter, the voice so shrill that it hurt Ezra's ears.

He dropped onto the ground, hands pressed against his ears, yet the laughter only grew louder. A glance to the right told him that Iris wasn't exactly doing better, her face scrunched up in pain as she lay on the ground, hands just as tightly pressed against her ears as Ezra's were to his.

Long, slender clouds of black smoke shot out of the box, flying around the room. First it were only five, then ten, until it were too many to count. With each one came a new voice, each one laughing or giggling maniacally.

Ezra winced in pain, the sound too much for him to handle. His head pounded, his ears ached, his consciousness started to fade.

Suddenly, the clouds all flew towards the shaft, disappearing into it one by one.

The laughter grew faint, until finally, silence overtook the room, all that was left to remind of the moment before a pounding headache in both of the siblings' heads.

Ezra got up, slightly dizzy as he tried to regain his consciousness. The black dots tainting his vision cleared, the headache starting to ebb away.

He flinched when he saw a movement in the corner of his eye, immediately turning towards it.

It was a cat as black as coal, eyes glowing like emeralds.

“Salem? What are you doing here?” Iris asked, her voice coming out a bit hoarse as she was still fighting to keep her eyes open.

Salem sat down, the familiar looking at them as though he was judging them, the intensity of his green, glaring eyes boring into them.

“Wait...” Ezra's eyes widened as a question formed in his mind. “How did he get in here?”

As if on command, the cat morphed into what appeared to be a human, a tall, tanned male standing in front of them in a split second.

“You should be damn glad I did or you'd be nothing but a puddle of blood by now!” he yelled, “I only left you alone for five minutes and somehow you managed to screw everything up!”

Ezra couldn't even bring himself to say anything, his mouth wide open and eyes trained on the male looming over him. Realization hit him like a train, his attempt at speaking failing and instead only leading to incoherent blabber.

Iris seemed in a similar state. She struggled to get her words out, stuttering. First, she only managed a mumble, but then-

“D-Demon. You're a demon.”

“And you're fucked.”