It was the dog barking at a mirror of all things that woke Tony Stewart up.

Such a well trained animal, Maple his dog would usually quietly be in his corner only on the daily walks outside then maybe he'd give the occasion bark.

Now it seemed like years of silence had built up into a sudden burst of noise.

Tony hauled himself reluctantly out of bed, thanking himself that he had increased the insulation of the carpet on the floor.

"All right, Maple all right, let's get you away from the bad mirror and...."

Three things happen almost at once the barking stopped but he didn't notice as he was busy staring in the mirror at a reflection not his own, a beautiful woman with golden glowing eyes looked at him, judging him in a way he couldn't begin to fathom.

He would have stood there fixated if not for the growing pain on his wrist, an old protection charm on his left arm started to burn.

The oddly shaped bangle had started to pulse warmly against his arm earlier in the evening but was now growing in it's intensity.

As soon as it started the pain and heat vanished leaving him, awake in front of a mirror now with only his own image within.

If it wasn't for his throbbing wrist he would have thought it was a dream.

For a short while Tony was confused but after turning to his dog the terror of the situation struck him.

Maple was still barking but no sound was coming out.

It was as if someone had left the volume off on a TV show, Maple was animated in his movement agitatedly so much that he looked poised to bound forward at the mirror.

"........"

Tony's hand grabbed his wrist near to where the charm hung on his arm, it hurt to touch the charm, he tried to remove it but the feeling of searing pins and needles shot through his fingers as he tried to pull it free. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.

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Still sluggish from sleep he made his way to his panic room near his bed, after punching in the code and locking the door behind he could finally hear his own panicked breathing.

"Magic....someone's using magic." Tony said to himself not for the first or second time while struggling to wrap his head around the new shape of the world.

Magic was real.

It was easy to say things like that but it was another thing to actually believe it but very strange things had been happening lately, train cars breaking the laws of physics, creatures that were never seen or catalogued showing up in alarming numbers, the moon changing not just slightly in color and size but the moon now felt different like it exerted a sort of pressure.

These things were both as fascinating as they were terrifying to him and they were all real.

It took a good few drinks to let sleep come but now he felt like throwing up.

He thanked himself again for having protection charms grafted into the panic room walls.

Tony went to the monitors which covered the property but all he could see besides a still muted dog barking at the mirror was a lone figure of a woman standing in the rain. Wet hair framed her face which he could see fairly clearly dispite the rain and because of the cloudless sky and the glaring moonlight.

Then she looked at him, not the camera It felt like she was looking at him directly, like she was watching him from across a room. After all the money he spent on every type of protection, which by the sound of his own breath seemed to work against the strange silence but still he couldn't shake the feeling that somehow she was watching him.

He hit the alarm.

The guards didn't respond, one of them in the monitors was rubbing his ears, while others were in various stages of panic but none of them reacted to the alert.

Everything was silent.

Then he cursed himself as he realized that if the sound was gone then his in-house security team wouldn't be able to respond or understand the situation.

A cold drop of sweat rolled down his back as he pondered his options, the only one that came to mind was getting help and if he was facing magic his only choices were the man who added the charms to his safe room or his ex who made him the charm.

The woman standing in the rain started to slowly walk towards the gate to his home.

Beggars couldn't be chooser so he called his ex who lived nearby and might be able to make it before the woman could climbed over the gate and make it into the building.

The irritated voice of a woman entered his ears and for a second he almost regretted his decision.

"Tony, do you have any idea what time...."

Tony was about to answer but then the woman in the rain did a standing jump landing on the top of the gate which was nearly twice her hight and just dropped down onto the other side before continuing forward to the door like nothing had happened.

The guard by the gate came out but she grabbed at the air next to him and like a puppet with its strings cut he fell to the ground in a slump.

The woman shrugged and opened her mouth her teeth seemed to grow, her jaw stretched wider and wider still seemingly as she looked to shovel empty air infront of her inside her mouth.

"Maple, it's life or death, I need you here now."