ROSEMARY

We left Atticus going to the x-room while Lucas and I searched for the correct door. The 20’s psychedelic architecture was so uncomfortable. The main hallway connected with every room of the foundation, but the inner structure was terribly confusing. Connecting rooms whose doors were in the extremes of the hallway, rooms on different floors whose doors were next to each other, and the lack of a building plan made the foundation the most annoying place to walk.

“It’s here,” Lucas said opening the ñ-room.

Finally, we entered the vision room. A small place with a table and three seats in front of the one-way mirror connected with the x-room. Fenix was sitting, looking down, and playing his fingers like they were two legs on the table. His right leg shook down and up. He was nervous, but there was an inner feeling that was telling me that something was wrong.

Atticus got into the room, making Fenix’s eyes narrow towards him. The plan was obvious, although his domination cannot force Fenix to say the truth —domination was a more physical than a psychological way to mental control— making him lose control of his body would be enough to make him sing his secrets due to the fear.

"Well, we want information about the incident." Atticus rolled up his sweater slowly, letting us see his defined arms. Then he put on his cold and rough expression, producing goosebumps in me. I loved when he let free his bad side, which we knew he had no matter how much he wanted to hide it.

"I want you to ..."

" ♪ ♪ ♪ It's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Even though the sound of it is

something quite atrocious ♪ ♪ ♪"

Fenix sang at full volume with his eyes closed

"I want you to ..." Atticus tried again, raising his voice.

"♪ ♪ ♪ Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I

Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I

Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I ♪ ♪ ♪"

Fenix continued with his song, moving his head right and left with the rhythm.

"get up and jump."

Atticus tried one and another while Fenix started the song each time Atticus tried to say a word. Lucas and I stared at the situation in disbelief. That was extremely bizarre.

"What happens?" Lucas asked, blinking more than usual like he was trying to figure out if it was a real situation or a product of his imagination.

"I don't know," I answered.

After some attempts, Atti pushed the metal table and completely lost his cold attitude. Luckily, the table was reforced to bear supernatural strength because he didn't hold back.

"Why are you so frustrating?" he yelled. Atti didn’t lose control usually, but even he had limits.

"A lot of people have the same question," Fenix shrugged.

Atticus' eyes became red and his veins started to turn dark. He was entering predatory mode and I wasn’t sure if he could control himself if he continued in that way. I knocked on the mirror. Atti took a deep breath and looked at us through the window. He showed his hand and exhaled all the air of his laugh as a sign of surrender.

"C'mon Lucas, now it’s our turn," I said, still looking at the shameful face of Atti. He had been working so hard to control his bloody instincts that he was going to torment himself for that little slip.

"Good cop bad cop," he said, signing first him and then me.

I went to the door with a firm step. The short burned bird was starting to make me mad. "I have a better idea, bad cop and man-eating monster."

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LUCAS

I didn't wait to end my Friday night in that way. My plan was video games and maybe some alcohol that my father had hidden in the garage. I didn't want to scare poor Fenix.

"Rose, maybe we could … we could stop." She turned back, crossed his arms, and looked at me with narrowed eyes. I gulped. How she was so intimidating measuring a head less than me is a thing that I'd never understand, "I said be-be-because, okay, he's a weirdo but he doesn't de-deserve that we tor-r-tortured him." I stuttered.

She turned forward."We'll erase his memories. You don't fill your pretty head with nonsense. Let the true players do our magic."

I signed and let my shoulders down. It happened to me again. I wasn’t nervous usually, I was a super-hot nice werebear who came out of the closet at nine years old. Shit, I was self-confident, but the stuttering thing always happened to me in this kind of moment. Verbal confrontation was not my thing, if I had to choose a bare fistfight was more my thing. Like if a physical fight against Rosemary was an option, knowing her tricks it would lose before putting a finger on her.

We entered the room when Atticus came out. He seemed tired, his forehead was sweaty and all the veins of his neck were visible through the skin. I thought of making a joke about it, joking about who was stronger was our thing —of course, I’m—. But he wasn't in the mood after such a weird interrogation. I knew Atticus wasn’t the best with his mental control skills but the way he screwed out in front of Rosemary was going to piss him off for days.

Rose put her hand on his shoulder, and both of them looked into each other's eyes, sharing a confident smile. That was more than a crush, they were really in love. I have seen romcoms whose characters have less chemistry than them.

I entered the room after Rose and looked at Fenix. The guilty feeling started to hit the pit of my stomach. I hadn't spoken with him for a long time. His skin was more tanned than I remembered him. What hadn't changed was his wild chestnut brown hair.

He smiled at me and I looked down avoiding his eyes. The guiltiness was more intense each second. Rose sat down in the unique seat. She was as sweet as ever.

"Well, Fenix, why do you make things so complicated?" She asked.

"I dunno what you mean, you're who is making this complicated," he smiled showing all his teeth.

I think he wanted to be funny, he had this weird sense of humor of saying the most unexpected bad joke at the worst moment. But he wasn’t aware that playing with Rose was more dangerous than playing with fire, knives, and chainsaws all at the same time. A very very bad idea, even though she didn't have all her powers at this moment.

She made a villainous smile, which could terrorize any Disney villain. "If you wanna play, we play. Lucas."

I looked at Fenix with sorrow and started turning. I was wearing orange loose track pants and a white striped tank top, clothes that fortunately resisted my changes, not like my sneakers. I brought my face closer to him and turned it into a bestial form with long fangs. He didn't look away. He didn’t make even the most basic terror expression. He didn’t look scary at all.

"I don't want to be impolite, but your breath smells awful," he said.

I stayed frozen with my fangs some inches from him. I dunno how to react to this response. He was fucking relaxed with my monstrous face near his. Suddenly, the door opened with a strong bang. My dad looked at us moveless, trying to figure out the situation. His police uniform was wrinkled and his hair and face were wet. My mind connected the dots quickly. The mayor needed someone from the police office to handle the issue. And who better than the father of one of the involved, because this was what I had become the moment that I had decided to take Atticus to the forest

The mayor had called him in the middle of his gym routine with a problem with his —usually— problematic son. Pissy was a very nice way to describe what he must have been feeling at that moment.

"Hi, Mr. Garcia," Fenix said, raising his hand a little.

Dad looked at me again with an angry face."What is happening here? and where are your shoes?" I turned into my normal self meanwhile the sensation of ‘I would be punished for a long time’ ran through my body. He took me by the arm and led me out of the room.

FENIX

It had been a very strange day. I had repaired a witch ritual; I had been dominated —sounded better than really was now that I think about it; my classmates had interrogated me. A good day if you ask. However, I was playing a very dangerous poker game against a dangerous poker player.

Rose looked at Lucas and his father while they left the room. Mr.G was pissed. When they closed the door, Rosemary’s attesting came back to me. She analyzed me for a sec, creating tension. Atticus was easy once you have the trick to resist domination. Lucas was a lot of things but not someone with the skills to threaten. But Rose, well, she was a different story.

"I'm starting to be angry, and you don't wanna make me angry," she said with an intense look.

Her magic was clearly weak. I mean, her hair and makeup spells almost didn't work. She had changed from a super-model to a pretty high school girl, she looked like a real person in this way. I could almost see a soul inside her. But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to destroy me in any second after recovering her powers.

"What do you want to know?" I said accepting that an open-door policy was my best option at this point.

"I want to know how an average boy modified a powerful witch's ritual, how you resisted the domination, and who you are in general."

"First, ouch, I consider that I'm above average. I only repaid the mistake in the ritual with a few small iron bars. You're welcome, by the way."

"I don't make mistakes," she said, getting up and heading to the door.

"The orientation was wrong,” I yelled, scared that if she didn’t believe me, I would be screwed. “The obsidian was toward the magnetic north, not the real north," I explained.

She sat again and looked at me with what seemed like interest. "The book doesn't say anything about that."

"Well, the book which you read is wrong." I crossed my arms trying to fake confidence.

"I'm hearing." She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow in expectation.

"I will tell you everything, but it has a price," she remained impassive. "I want a fairy contract in which the foundation promises not to erase my memories and not retaliate against my family or me. I have important information that is of interest to you."

She remained silent, analyzing me again. I knew I was pretty handsome but his long and pounced looks started to feel highly uncomfortable. Finally, she made a move, to my misfortune, that move was getting up and leaving the room. I was definitely screwed.