The months flew by without any spotting of Thomas Pitch or the stolen sword. Mid-September quickly rolled over to October. At the end of the month, the Archangel held a wild Halloween festival in the Celestial Realm, where many Harmonies partied in costumes.

There were contests thrown about who was the best dressed up. Candy baskets were hidden throughout the grounds, forest, and buildings beside the hospital wing.

The newly founded friends, Sara, Kate, Timothy, and Nathan, had a blast finding their baskets. The hunt was harder than they thought. They laughed uncontrollably at the festival but also the sugar rush from eating too many sweets.

November came around the corner, with the bitter wind entailing the coming winter. The Choirs pursued nonstop to find Pitch. They looked through camera footage around the world, nevertheless, with no luck.

Everyone was frustrated at not finding him, especially the Archangel, with each passing day. However, he refused the High-warlock to bring the Harmonies down. His sidekicks cooked up a big Thanksgiving meal to feed the army, with the Seers coming over to discuss any news about Pitch, which no one had.

On a long table with the biggest turkey, anyone could come across, a dispute was happening.

“Who shall cut the turkey?” asked Ricky, eying the huge chopping knife that only a butcher would dare touch.

Nathan jumped from his chair and exclaimed with confidence, “Me! Me!”

The Harmonies stared at the Nephilim with whom they had made great friends, although they were unsure why he stayed with them. Timothy shook his head. Nathan and he had a good friendship going on. “If we let you cut the turkey, you'd instead be amputating your arm.”

Everyone agreed with a nod and laughed at Nathan's offended face. He stammered, “That’s not true!”

Reaching for the platter, Sara grabbed the gigantic knife. She studied the blade; the Archangels, her friends, and the rest gaped at her. With the knife pointed to the floor, she asked someone to bring the tray of the big hunk of meat over to her.

Andrew gave the platter to her, Sara lifting the carver—the blade gleaming from the lights—and she began delicately cutting the turkey with expectancy to everyone’s surprise; well, they realized they shouldn’t have been.

After the regular pumpkin and pecan pie dessert and a fight over what was better, Demetrius faced his girlfriend. He scratched behind his neck nervously, and when he breathed out his words, his body trembled with anxiety. After clumsily leaving his chair and straightening his dirty blonde hair, he went on one knee and asked, with eyes glimmering with pure love, “Will you marry me, Ashley Harper?”

Everyone else had expected this. With batted breaths around the table, Ashley squealed with delight, jumping up and down with happiness dancing on her complexion. “Yes, yes!” She kissed him, Sara gagging and the Harmonies glaring at her.

The engaged couple announced a few weeks later that they were going to get married in the spring.

December crept in too fast for the Harmonies' taste, and the Celestial Realm filled with the buzz of a grand holiday. There were decorations of Christmas trees, lights on the stairs’ railing, and colorful tinsel wrapped around the stairs and railings.

Throughout the quiet months of not seeing Pitch, Michael wanted only a few Prowlers out. He kept Sara and Kate from missions until the Choirs heard news or spotted the High-warlock, worrying Pitch might kidnap or kill them.

Yet he couldn’t deny his people going Christmas shopping and continuously living their lives, although he only let Kate, Sara, Nathan, and Timothy buy presents for a day until they returned excitedly.

There was no crematory for introducing Nathan and Timothy into Michael’s sidekicks, but since they hung out with Kate and Sara every day, people assumed the boys became the Archangel’s new Prowlers. Michael treated them as such, telling them they could go on missions with Kate and Sara once any information about Pitch was heard.

Sara missed the adventure of going on missions with her friend and had fun wrapping presents decoratively. She did her routine exercise, training, and watching shows throughout the weeks, and she hung out with her friends. Sal had helped her wrap presents and continued to be an annoying ass to her.

Early morning on Christmas, the Prowlers raced to their living room, their flooring dedicated to them. The pungent smell of fresh breakfast greeted them as they walked in the door. Presents were laid under the humongous pine tree. It was decorated by the teenagers with different colors of lights, ornaments hung on its limbs, and a bright star shone on top of the Christmas tree.

Stockings hung above a roaring fire. Nathan and Timothy were surprised to see their stockings stuffed with things, which made them all the happier.

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They waited for Kate’s brothers and Ashley to start unwrapping presents, chatting with elation. A comfort settled around them, feeling secure among each other and treating each other like family as if they had no one else in the world.

Michael walked in late in the evening to give each of his sidekicks a present, giving Sara and Kate more gifts than the rest, but no one minded, especially the girls. He stayed with them the whole night, baking cookies with the girls, and for the first time since the start of Pitch’s appearance, there was no mention of him.

He had to leave at midnight; that’s when everyone separated to go to bed. They brimmed with happiness from gifts, but even more so with their dynamic group.

A party for New Year’s Eve erupted on New Year’s Day. Many Harmonies had partied a little too much. The poor Choirs had to carry them back to their rooms and give them medicine so they didn’t puke everywhere or have a raging hangover the next day.

The teenagers joined the party on and off, mostly going to gaming events, playing corn holes, board and video games, bingo, coloring, and other art activities. They went to a basic cooking class since none of them knew how to cook.

Sara accidentally caught her hair on fire from being too close to the stove trying to make stew, and her clothes started to burn. She cursed like a sailor, trying to pat away the fire on her while her friends were too busy dying of laughter. Everyone else stared at the girl. Some dropped their utensils down in shock, unsure what to do or whether to help her or stand back.

The assassin had put up her hair after that. The scent of burnt hair floated in the air.

Also, her friends made sure to tell her father after that, who almost looked like he would either have a heart attack or burst out laughing with them.

In mid-January, snow poured down from the cloudy skies, with inches covering the grounds. The Choirs still had no clue where Pitch was. The teenagers dashed outside with their heavy coats to build snow forts and do snowball fights, with other Harmonies joining in.

The air had a snap of a chill in February, but San Francisco became unusually warm, around seventy degrees, for about two weeks. This made the teenagers sad, with no more cold days ahead of them to battle victoriously in snow fights. They settled back into the rhythm of their days, wondering if Pitch was dead, but Michael assured them that he was probably planning his next moves.

The Archangel noticed as more days slid by that his daughter was bored and stuck in the Celestial Realm. Even Kate had asked if there were any missions to get rid of their humdrum days and start saving the world again.

By late February, Demetrius had come back to Michael to investigate any suspicious activities among the humans. “I spotted a strange video on a train this morning.” He put his laptop in front of Michael, showing footage of a group of people looking around at a train passenger.

A German shepherd dog sniffed towards them and growled at the ground. A cop walked up to them, detecting their strange behavior and asking them to put their hands in the air while he patted them down.

Raising his slender eyebrows, Michael was unsure if the video was anything unnatural. Demetrius told him to keep watching. When the group of people didn’t cooperate, the cop impatiently asked them to put their hands in the air. However, they dashed away from him. The police pulled out his gun and gave them a round of shots, scaring the passengers on board.

The bullets had frozen in the air and shot back at the cop, who fell to the ground and died. A passenger pushed one of the groups, and the person stumbled back and caused the rest of them to fall. Glass bottles filled with colorful liquid spilled out of their coats.

“Ah,” muttered Michael, “illegal trading potions among the humans on the train.” He recognized magical potions any day. He knew that those groups of people were witches and wizards because they were experts in making them.

Demetrius said, “I wouldn’t need to come to you if I didn’t need help. I can’t manage to capture them all. They might even be trainees. I’m guessing they are Infernals or on their own.”

In the video, the wizards and witches were pissed about their mission being uncovered, killing everyone in the one train compartment. They left by jumping off the train since those kinds of Galas couldn’t teleport.

“I guarantee those wizards will be back to keep smuggling potions and kill anyone who notices. I’m surprised they didn’t wipe the camera footage; that was a bit careless of them,” stated Demetrius.

“That’s good for us,” claimed Michael. “We got them in the act, and they have to be stopped. You are right; it would be impossible for you to deal with them alone. There were four wizards in that group, and I don’t expect anymore to be on that train because they might catch the wind with the Harmonies.”

Even with the Pulse of Deception, there were plenty of humans who knew about the supernatural race. It wasn’t because the Choirs messed up creating the Pulse of Deception, but there was a strange mix of genes that made the mundanes able to see past the deception; many mundanes had those genes; about one out of a thousand had them.

Thirty-two million humans around the world have that genetic. No matter how many times Choirs tried to ‘upgrade’ the Pulse of Deception so no humans could remember, it never worked.

Michael said, “I’ll have my girls with Timothy and Nathan do your task. I know my daughter and your sister have been wanting to do a mission lately.”

“Oh, that’s perfect!” Demetrius nodded, pleased to have his sister assigned to this because he knew she would do well on it. “Thanks, I know you could’ve helped me.” He paused, hesitating, and then added, “Are you attending my wedding, sir?"I would love for you to come.”

Michael smiled. “I wish Demetrius, but I have a policy that I don’t attend weddings for anyone, even my sidekicks, but thank you for asking.”

“I understand,” replied Demetrius, hiding his disappointment. “Please tell me how the mission went when Kate and Sara are done.” Although he knew his sister would give every detail once she came back home safely.

“I will,” said Michael with a firm nod. Once the Orchestra left, he texted the group chat for the teenagers to come to his office immediately.