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[center][b]6 Months Ago[/b][/center]

Marie shook off her fear and anxiety, floating quickly down to the street and scanning for Joseph’s figure in the crowd of people that had collected to witness the horrific scene displayed on the highway. A small collection within the crowd began cheering as Marie came into view. Marie had no time to waste, Joseph was a mystery to her and there was no telling just how much power he possessed. She shot past the crowd, barreling down the streets as fast as she could, hoping to see him hidden somewhere within Chinatown. 

After ten minutes of searching, she pulled out a small pendulum from within her cloak, a crystal held at the end of a silver chain, and began chanting Joseph’s name. The pendulum responded by spinning clockwise, then back and forth, until finally it pointed in a straight line. Marie followed the path her divinatory tool had laid out, a twisted, gnarled path that took her to remote locations of the city where anything other than darkness scarcely resided. Eventually, she came across a hooded figure running into an alley. Recognizing the figure as Joseph, she flew ahead of him, blocking his path. Sure enough, Joseph removed his hood and looked upon the White Witch with a wicked smile on his face. 

“Nice to see you again, Marie.” He greeted her with a devilish grin. Marie jumped at the mention of her own name, caught off guard by his apparent insight. Before she could protest, he continued. “Don’t act so surprised, I’ve had Holt keeping an eye on you since the first time we met. I knew you were the White Witch all along.” A black mist descended upon them, centralizing and forming into the ghastly image she had seen several times before, Joseph’s familiar spirit. Holt gave her an almost apologetic look, as if he were sorry for having spied on her. Marie decided to strengthen her resolve. She couldn’t deal with a threat like his if she were always shocked and scared. 

“Then I guess there’s no point in denying it,” she replied, removing her raven mask and revealing her beautifully pale visage, eyes puffy and red, cheeks flushed from exhaustion. Despite being utterly terrified, she managed to keep a stern look. She took a deep breath.

“I’ll bet you’ve still got a couple of questions you want answered, am I right?” He asked condescendingly. “Well, lucky for you I’ve got some time on my hands before my next job.”

“Job?” she questioned with outrage. “You just killed an innocent man and walked away like it was nothing!” She looked around to make sure she wasn’t heard. Luckily, or unluckily, the two of them were in complete isolation.

“You think he was innocent?” he chuckled. “Come on Marie, you know better than that. We’re witches, we don’t care about innocent, we care about ourselves and very few others. When someone wrongs us, we get even, it’s just that simple.” 

“What the hell could he have done to warrant a death curse?” she screamed, still afraid to take action against him without knowing what sort of protective charms he had in place.

“Well, he didn’t do anything to me per say, but he did something pretty nasty to one of my clients.”

“Clients?”

“Maybe I had the wrong idea about you, Marie. Maybe you’re not as smart as I thought, because the answer to all of these questions is glaringly obvious.” Marie wanted to punch him, she wanted to become physical, but she just stood there, eyes like daggers. He continued. “We’re witches, Marie, we’ve been selling our services to the highest bidder since the Middle Ages, and we don’t ask questions, we just take their money and get casting.” 

“So when someone asks you to kill a man, you don’t ask questions, you don’t care that you’re about to take an innocent life?” Marie raged at him. “Do you even know who that man was?”

Joseph nodded, “Of course I do. He was the proprietor of a local restaurant chain. And if you must know, he wasn’t all that innocent. My client was an employee at one of his restaurants. She told me that he made a habit of visiting the different restaurant locations and roughing up the female employees in the storeroom. She told me that something needed to be done, and here we are.”

Marie went silent. She stood there for a moment, desperately trying to care about the man she had once believed innocent, and finding only apathy where empathy should reside. Had she been in a similar position, she would have done the same, if not worse. She looked at Joseph, her eyes filled with uncertainty. He moved forward and gently held her shoulder. “No one’s innocent, Marie,” he said softly, patting her shoulder then moving around her to the wall at the end of the alley.

“W-wait,” she called out to him, her voice a whimper. Joseph turned around, sporting his signature grin. “I . . . uh, I don’t know what to do about this. I’ve been playing the hero, but if this keeps happening . . .” She was at a loss. The White Witch had come when Chinatown needed her, protecting them from petty criminals and a few raging metahumans, but the supernatural, her area of expertise, was a different story. Magic isn’t black and white as most think. There is no true morality that binds a witch to doing good or evil as both have their place in the craft. Marie could have decided then to abandon the darker practices, but that wasn’t something she was willing to give up. She believed in getting even, and tonight’s events were just that, someone getting even. 

Joseph could see Marie’s dilemma. “Well you know what they say, Marie.” She gave him a confused look. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” 

“W-what?” 

“You’re a talented witch and the only one who’s been ballsy enough to pull a stunt like White Witch. You want to make a difference in Lost Haven? Try expanding your area of influence. Stop chasing down criminals and start doing what our kind has done for centuries, appealing to the people who need you most, desperate souls willing to do anything just to have things go their way. Besides, that half-assed occult shop can’t be enough to pay for your rent and cover the cost of living in the city.” 

Marie wasn’t sure how to respond. He was right, of course. Madalena was her friend and she loved her job, but Shadow of the Moon wasn’t rolling in cash. Marie had come to Lost Haven to be a cunning woman, and now she was given the opportunity to be a true influence within the city, operating in secret, still behind a mask, still having an effect on the city as a whole. She was too overwhelmed to speak, so she nodded, moving closer to him. 

Joseph smiled, taking her hand in his and with the other, pulling out a small length of chalk from his coat and drawing a sigil on the wall, the inside resembling an imp or devil. The sigil glowed a bright red, the wall around the sigil beginning to separate, moving away from the wall and forming a door leading to a long corridor. The two walked through the wall together and down the corridor, Joseph opening the ornate, red door at the end. As he did, a brightly lit tavern with several tables, rooms, and strange denizens came into view. Marie looked in astonishment, she was entering a place where all the strange and fantastical things commingled. Joseph looked back at her and with a grin said, “Welcome to the Red Devil.”