In the alley next to where she used to live, Bobbi sees the angel– Samael, the demons had called him– and one of his friends slip out a formerly boarded window. In their hands, Bobbi sees a bag, which by the looks of it is filled with stuff. And if she had to guess, it was her stuff.

          The same stuff she was going back for.

          The angel and the woman linger in the alley for a moment before heading off, leaving the entrance they made still open for Bobbi to go through. Whatever the two of them had, they could keep it. A couple of bottles of ingredients weren’t worth Bobbi’s life. 

          Bobbi tells her familiar, Amais, to wait in the alley until she comes back. Bobbi makes her way up to her old apartment and stops in the doorway. She always thought it was stupid when witches got attached to their covens, but Bobbi would be lying if she said she hadn’t started to get attached to this place. She’d been there for eight months, longer than she’d been anywhere since her old covenstead burned down. This was beginning to feel like home.

          It felt cruelly ironic that she burned this one down too.

          Bobbi takes a deep breath and pushes back the memories. She makes her way to the cabinetry where she kept all her supplies. She runs her hand over the engravings she carved into the wood, keeping it safe from all harm. She opens it up and reaches inside, searching for a box. 

          She doesn’t find it. Bobbi pulls out her phone and turns on her flashlight, to make sure she’s not missing it. When Bobbi doesn’t see it, she curses, “Shit!”

          The box contained her only payment for helping the demons with their little traps. And now, she didn’t even have that.

          Like Superior Tessa always said: “make your bed with demons, lose more than your soul”.

          Bobbi hated when Superior Tessa was right.

          The witch sighs. She reaches into the bottom of the cabinet and pulls off the board base, revealing where Bobbi stashed several books. Some were related to the occult, others were more personal like a memoir, some were just ones she hadn’t gotten around to read by one of her favorites, W. E. Collins. She tosses them all in her backpack, one she’s enchanted to carry more than it can physically hold.

          If Santa’s real, then he’s not a saint, he’s a witch, Bobbi thinks to herself. In light of everything, she smiles. As long as she’s still able to smile, she’ll be fine.

          Once she’s done packing the rest of her stuff, she and Amais are off, leaving behind the place she once called home yet again.

 

 

 

          The bus will only take Bobbi out as far as Phoenix, from there she has to find her own way up to Flagstaff, although Bobbi is grateful simply to have found a bus that will take her as far as Phoenix. She’ll manage from there. 

          As the bus reaches the city just before nightfall, Bobbi plays a mindless game on her new phone while Amais rests his head on her lap. She scrapped her old one as soon as the plan fell apart and she needed to run from the demons. It was just like the coven had taught her: don’t leave your shoes muddy. Anything from your past life could be used to follow you. 

          Bobbi hated how much the coven’s words still stuck to her head.

          When the bus comes to a stop, Bobbi hops off. She doesn’t have a plan to get to Flagstaff yet, but on the bus she was able to book a motel for the night. She’d find another one for the next night, but it was important to rest now and then. As Bobbi starts walking to her motel, she passes by a breakfast restaurant that’s still open. Bobbi’s stomach grumbles at the sight of sausage links next to pancakes. Breakfast has always been her weakness and she hasn’t eaten anything more than fruit and snack bars for the past eight hours. 

          Amais wags his tail next to her. Yeah, she’s been feeding him treats, but he also hasn’t eaten anything in a while. It’s enough to convince Bobbi to go inside. “One meal can’t hurt, right?” Bobbi asks Amais. The dog sneezes.

          The restaurant is nearly empty and no one seems to mind Bobbi’s dog, so long as he doesn’t bother the other customers. Bobbi picks a small booth for herself and Amais rests underneath the table, waiting for whatever Bobbi will sneak him. 

          Bobbi orders herself several plates of food. In total, she orders three different meals, costing her quite a bit, but definitely worth it. Bobbi has enough saved up through less than legal means to relocate ten times over, she can spare two extra dishes. She puts all but three sausage links on a separate plate and sets them down by Amais. The two enjoy their meals, quiet and content.

          Bobbi thinks about the demons. She gave them as little information as she could to keep herself anonymous to them, which isn’t easy with demons who apparently tracked her down in just one night. Still, they would have no reason to know about Bobbi’s safe house in Flagstaff. Unless Dana had some sort of ‘witch’s intuition’ or something. But even then, Bobbi feels she can trust Dana. A sort of witches bond. Or then again, maybe she can’t. What do I know, Bobbi thinks, I made a deal with demons.

          As the thought runs through her head, someone runs their hand over Bobbi’s table, causing her to jump.

          “Woah, easy there pretty lady, I don’t mean no harm,” a man says. 

          Bobbi looks up and sees a man in a leather jacket smiling down at her. He’s got a faceful of stubble and a tiny cut across his cheek. From his angle, he’d be staring down at her no matter what, but Bobbi can tell he’s looking lower than her face.

          “Go away, I’m not interested,” Bobbi says, looking away from him and focusing back on her food.

          The man chuckles. “Why the hostility? I gave you a compliment. I haven’t even introduced myself yet.”

          “Let’s keep it that way.”

          The man laughs again. He sits in the other booth space, facing Bobbi. “I’m Ken, nice to meet you.”

          “It’s not.”

          “And you are?”

          Bobbi sighs. She looks up from her food and smiles at Ken, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I’m not interested, you can go before I call someone over.”

          Bobbi can feel Amais growling under the table. He’s resting on her foot. Ken apparently hasn’t seemed to notice the dog inches from his feet. Good, Bobbi thinks. She doesn’t want Amais to attack yet, because then they’ll get kicked out and they’re both still hungry, but if need be, at least Bobbi has her dog. 

          Ken raises his hands in mock surrender. “Hear me out first, at least. You’ve got quite the beautiful smile.”

          “Surprised you noticed after staring at my boobs the whole time.”

          Ken smiles and looks to the side. “Well, it’s not my fault you’re very clearly blessed. If you didn’t want them admired, maybe you shouldn’t have worn something so revealing.”

          Bobbi’s wearing a blue tank top with a black denim jacket overtop. The jacket covers so much, you would never be able to tell her shirt doesn’t have sleeves. Revealing, my ass, Bobbi thinks. Wait, no, he’d say that about me wearing pants, for chrissake.

          “I’m just gonna say this once, so listen closely,” Bobbi says. “Go. To. Hell.”

          “Well, what do you say you and I sin a little tonight so we can go down there together?” Ken says with a smirk. He reaches over and takes one of the three sausage links on Bobbi’s plate, eating it.

          Alright, that’s it. Bobbi sits back and says, “Amais.”

          The dog already knows and barks loudly at Ken from under the table. Hearing the dog once, Ken jumps and looks around panicked. Hearing it twice, this time from beneath the table, Ken falls out of the booth into the aisle. Amais rushes towards Ken, just barely staying off of him until Ken’s backed to the wall. Ken’s eyes widen in fear and he can’t take his eyes off Amais’s jaw.

          “Hey lady, get that dog out of here!” a waiter yells. “We told you as long as he leaves customers alone and, well…” the lady lets the thought hang in the air motioning to the dog.

          Bobbi sighs. She picks up the last two sausages and drops enough cash to cover the meal on the table. “I should get going anyway. Amais, down.”

          The dog backs up and sits, no longer growling, but still staring at Ken. Ken’s breathing heavily, and looks from the dog to Bobbi. He gets up and heads for the door. “Bitch!” he yells at Bobbi.

          “Ow, my feelings,” Bobbi says dryly to herself. “C’mon, Amais, let’s go.”

          As Bobbi and her dog leave, Bobbi tosses Amais one of the two sausages, which he gratefully consumes. Bobbi eats the last link herself and the two walk over to her motel. For tonight, it would do. Tomorrow, she was off towards Flagstaff.

 

 

 

          Bobbi’s been in Flagstaff for five months. Everyday she uses a spell to listen to spirits in the Veil to make sure Jeriel and his demons aren’t hunting for her. As far as she can tell, they’re not. As the days go on, she starts to relax some, slowly thinking if the demons were after her, they’d have found her by now. Beyond that, there’s been interesting news from LA: apparently it’s now the home of an angel. And not just any angel either. The same one she’s seen before. 

          Bobbi’s no stranger to the celestial. The coven taught her everything they knew about angels, although some of the information is fairly wrong. Still, one thing she knows for certain, constantly repeated, the one thing Superior Tessa always told her to remember about angels: they’re the greatest weapon to exist, and the presence of one means certain death. Which is why the news of the angel in LA just staying in LA is so strange to Bobbi.

          The witch doesn’t have time to worry herself about an abnormal angel. Bobbi has more important things to do, like searching for home listings on her computer. As much as she loves her safe house, it’s not meant to be a long term place to stay. She’s gotta get a move on and find an actual place to stay soon. 

          After searching for an hour and emailing possible locations, Bobbi closes her laptop and prepares for her daily spell. She laughs to herself. It’s like reading the paper, but hearing random spirits whispering. 

          Bobbi Flynn, the Daily Whisper number one reader.

          She’s going stir crazy in her safe house. 

          Bobbi does the spell and sits back, scrolling on her phone as she waits for the spirits to start talking. Before she’s even done putting in her password, the spirits start talking. They’re speaking faster than Bobbi’s ever heard them, panicked. None of them are whispering and some of them are practically shouting. 

          Bobbi listens intently. She tries to discern what the spirits are saying. Bobbi does a quick spell and pulls her notepad to her. She casts another spell, and words start appearing on it. The notepad is transcribing everything the spirits are saying. On the paper, three words start appearing more often than others.

          ‘Legion is free’.

          Legion? That sounds familiar. While the spirits keep rambling, Bobbi goes over to her bookshelf and pulls out a demonology classification guide, written by an old witch who dealt with demons and actually cheated demons out of their deal. She wrote a guide which Bobbi looks through now. 

          Bobbi flips through page after page until she reaches a chapter titled Legion. She scans through the page, not that interested, until she keeps reading, and her eyes widen with every word.

Bobbi drops the book and looks at the notepad again. ‘Legion is free’. Oh god…

          The witch goes through a mental checklist on the house wardings. If what she read about Legion is true, then it won’t matter. Nothing will matter anymore. 

          Bobbi picks up the book again. She rereads the last line on the chapter for Legion.

          ‘Legion is periodically freed from their prison in Hell to hunt. While they have a target in mind, anyone is a potential target. Legion does not care. If Legion is free, pray they are not near you. Pray do not find you.’

          Bobbi thinks. A bloodthirsty killer who scares even the Devil has been set free on Earth. 

          “Where am I gonna run?” Bobbi asks herself. She looks at the giant map of the US she has hung up on her wall. She runs her hand from the east coast towards the west, passing over her isolated safe houses for when she needs to disappear. None of them seem good until she reaches California.

          Bobbi has an isolation house in the California desert, but her finger doesn’t stop there. Instead, she keeps running her hand until she gets to LA.

          The home of an angel, she thinks. And not just any angel.

          Bobbi turns to Amais, who chews on a rubber toy on the ground. He stops and looks at her. Bobbi crouches down in front of her dog and scratches right behind her ear.

          “Hey boy. Can you find me my bag? We’re going back to LA. We need to talk to an angel.”