It was like being underwater.
WOOOOOSH
A stream of bubbles rushed past, searching for the surface.
Blub… Blub…
A school of fish, following the current.
The water was cold. It seeped into the very bones of its victims.
On the surface, on land, it might've been a bright day. Maybe, most people would need sunglasses just to go outside. Lather themselves in sunscreen to hide from the giant fireball in the sky.
Not down here.
Down here, the sun didn't exist.
Light didn't get this far, so neither did heat.
It's a kind of lonely coldness no human will ever experience.
Cecilia Rios was drowning.
She felt her chest expanding as water filled her lungs. The cold tore apart her skin and muscles to get to her bones. Her head felt like it would explode from the pressure.
None of it mattered.
Her jaw. Her jaw hurt the most.
It was like it had been shattered and put back together, over and over again. Shattered, put together. Shattered, put together. Shattered, put together, Shattered, put-
"Get up."
She shot into an upright position.
She was dry. There was no water.
She was alive. All the pain was gone - except for her jaw.
Her jaw still hurts.
When she looked around, all she could see was blackness. It wasn't dark. Just… empty.
"This is not a nightmare, although you may assume it is."
Someone was here with her.
No - she was here with someone else.
"This is my mindscape. My palace, if you will. I can be all around, or-"
In an instant, a woman appeared before her. Her eyes were pure black. Instead of a mouth, she had a pincer, and eight long legs shot out of her back.
Other than that, she looked exactly like Cecilia.
It all came rushing back.
She'd skipped school to surprise her mother on her birthday. Had bought a pair of dice with her lunch money. She thought it would be a nice gesture - she never got to buy her mom things.
And then everything went wrong.
Something got inside her. The feeling had been like nothing she'd ever experienced before. She imagined it was something like being put through an iron maiden, except the relief of death never came.
That wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was her jaw.
The way it had been forced open. Torn apart. The way it had forced itself back together when the… the thing retreated. She couldn't even begin to describe the pain, just remembering it made her ill. It was like having her skull split in half, but ten times worse. The release of death never came.
"W-why?" She didn't know what else to say. She could barely think, not while this - this thing, the source of all her pain, this thing that had done who knows what with her body, this thing-
"Why?" A finger tapped against its chin as it thought. "Well, you just happened to be the perfect host, i suppose. Luck is a beautiful thing, wouldn't you say?"
She shot up.
She was sitting again. This time, she was awake for real.
It was bright. Morning. It seemed like she was in a small hospital bed.
She didn't bother taking in her surroundings. She didn't care. It didn't matter. None of it mattered.
Luck.
All because of luck.
Why did she have to skip school?
Why did she decide to visit her mom at work?
Why did it have to be there?
Why did she wear what she wore?
Why did she have to be perfect for it?
Why did it have to choose her?
WHY ME????
***
Her jaw still ached.
She still remembered the day of the funeral.
How brightly the sun had shone while the casket was being lowered. The brightest it had been in days. Not a cloud in the sky.
Even at the age of 6, she'd known the world was laughing at her.
That was when she decided to be as strong as she could, so that one day, the world would stop laughing.
She had worked so hard. Accomplished so much. Done as much as she possibly could…
Was she really going to quit now?
She clenched her jaw. The pain spiked, but she didn't care. If it was going to hurt, it was going to hurt. She wasn't going to cower away.
She threw her legs over the side of the bed, her bare feet hitting the marble floor. She really was in a hospital - she was even wearing a gown.
When she tried to stand up, she realized her legs were like jelly. They must've been vaporized by that thing in her body using them to run around. She caught herself on the edge of a drawer to stop herself from faceplanting.
"I probably wouldn't do that if I were you." Cecilia's eyes followed the sound of the voice. There was a man standing in the doorway. He looked like a priest, or at least, he was dressed like one. He also had a cane and dark glasses that covered his eyes, but somehow, she could tell he wasn't blind. "Last time I ended my nurse visit early, Mariatu almost killed me."
"Um…" Cecilia clenched her teeth. She was still supporting herself with the drawer. "Who are you?"
"My name is Geoff Harrison. You can call me Geoff." He sat down on the edge of the bed beside Cecilia's, crossing one leg over another. "Doubt it matters, though. Who I am is probably the question you care about the least."
"It's… polite." She muttered.
A snort escaped Geoff's nostrils. "Sit down. Lets talk."
For a couple seconds, she just stared at him. "Um… I'll stand."
He just shrugged, leaning forward and putting his hands together. "What do you remember?"
For a second, she wondered if it had all been a dream. If she'd tripped on the way to see her mom, and gotten a concussion. If everything else had been made up, in her head.
Her jaw.
It was real. "Something… took my body."
"Bingo! Sounded pretty gruesome, the way Anthony described it." She stared at him. He seemed incredibly unprofessional, especially for a hospital worker, but she appreciated that he wasn't babying her. "So, just to clear things up, you are currently inhabiting the former S-rank summon, Basochi, who has been reduced to C-rank. Summons are basically demons, and it likely intends to gain its power back, so we would all appreciate if you could refrain from letting it take control. Thanks a lot!"
It was a lot to take in at once. She didn't really know how to process it. "So… I'm guessing this isn't a normal hospital."
"Correct!" He applauded her. "Welcome to the Brampton branch of Warlock High, where you will become a student assuming you don't die during your initiation mission, which will be in 2 days!"
Basochi. That was the name of the thing inside her. Warlock High, Summons, Initiation, Ranks, she didn't care about any of that. She only wanted to know one thing. "How long will it be… inside of me?"
"Well, it's part of you now. If you die of natural causes, it'll move on and find a new host or die out. If you die of pretty much anything else, it'll die with you, hopefully forever!"
"Is it possible to get rid of it without dying?"
"Not a single host has ever gotten rid of a parasite without dying."
"I didn't ask if it'd been done before. I asked if it was possible."
Geoff didn't answer at first, He just grinned, and stood. "It's possible."
"That's what I'm going to do then."
Geoff glanced back as he stepped towards the door, his glasses sinking down his nose just enough that his purple eyes were barely visible. "Maybe I'm better at recruiting than I thought."
***
Dax glanced up as Geoff stepped out of the nursing office. He'd woken up a few hours ago, and the nice lady, Mariuta, had sent him to sit in one of the hallway chairs, and let the girl sleep. Anthony was already sitting by the door when Dax stepped out, but neither of them had said anything to the other.
"Alright, boys." Geoff sighed. "You two should give her about ten minutes, then you can go in and figure out this whole initiation thing. Get to know each other, whatever."
"Hey, wait!" Dax called after him. "I have a basic idea of my, uh… magic now, but how will I know when I fully understand it?"
Geoff didn't look back, or stop walking. "Anthony! Tell him about awakenings!" He yelled, just barely audible as he turned the corner.
Dax turned just in time to catch Anthony rolling his eyes.
"Awakenings," he sighed, staring at the wall. "Are something that every Warlock goes through. Simply put, an awakening is simply when you gain new knowledge about your Magic. They can be huge, or very tiny. Nobody fully understands it, but it's why no matter what your Magic is, you have to keep training. You never know how powerful a weak Magic can get with just a few awakenings. If you come to fully understand your Magic, that's a full awakening, but there's not much known about them. It's incredibly rare. There's only one currently living warlock who's experienced a full awakening."
"Who?"
"Geoff Harrison."
Dax nodded. To be honest, he wasn't surprised.
"Awakenings are one of the money things he didn't tell you about, but should've." Anthony crossed his arms. "All the teachers say there's a reason he doesn't do recruiting, and you're a prime example of that."
"How do you know he didn't tell me lots of things?"
"Well, for one, you don't know about awakenings. And for two, I know what it's like to be recruited by Geoff."
Dax's face lit up. "You were recruited by Geoff too? We were destined to be pals!"
"No!" Anthony cut him off. He was about to continue, when he noticed the girl - Cecilia - stepping out of her room. It seemed like she was having trouble standing. He hesitated… no, this was something they both had to hear anyways "We are not friends. We are never going to be friends. I put my life here on the line for you two, and that's it. After the initiation mission is complete, I am putting in a request to never work or have a class with either of you. If I wasn't so loyal to Brampton I'd probably just transfer, to be honest." He stood up without looking at either of them. "We'll discuss the initiation mission tomorrow. Goodbye." With that, he turned and headed down the hallway, in the same direction Geoff had gone.
"Well he's a jerk." Cecilia muttered.
"Yeah," Cecilia turned around. She hadn't expected a response. The boy who'd spoken looked about her age, his hair medium in length and a dark brown in colour. "But we're gonna be friends someday. I'm sure of it!"
She giggled. "I'm Cecilia."
"Dax!" He reached out, and they shook hands.
"Um… thanks."
"For what?"
"Well, a lot of it's hard to remember, but… you're the one who saved me, right? From the blonde guy."
Oh, yeah…" Dax paused, staring at where Anthony had been moments ago. "He could've killed me and then you easily, if he wanted to. He saved you just as much as I did."
She smiled, sitting in the chair next to him. Immense relief spread through her calves. It felt like she'd just done an hour-long workout. As for what Dax had said… she didn't really believe that, but the way he'd said it almost made her want to.
"Oh!" He jumped, reaching into his pocket. When he pulled his hand out, he was holding a pair of red dice - the same one's Cecilia had bought for her mom. "I found these in the courthouse, next to a card. I didn't read it, but I saw Rios on it. That's your last name, yeah?"
Cecilia reached out her hand, and Dax dropped them into her palm. She blinked back a few tears, wondering if she'd ever be able to see her mom again. Would they let her….? No. It didn't matter. With this thing inside her… it was too dangerous. Even if they would let her, she couldn't.
She'd just have to keep these dice to remember her.
"Thanks, Dax. I appreciate it."
Summon Report
Date: March 23, 2026
Involved Warlocks: Anthony Shinsaku, Dax Harrison (pending), Cecilia Rios (pending)
Summon type: Parasite
Danger Level: C-Rank
Summon Name: Basochi The Great
The S-Rank summon, Basochi The Great, who was first killed ~1500 years ago, resurrected recently and chose a host. In its current form, Basochi is only C-rank, however, it lowered its Majik output to F-Rank. This is why it was chosen as Dax Harrison's initiation mission. The two dispatched warlocks defeated it, however, the host was kept alive (pending initiation). It is unknown if Basochi can gain more power while inside a host, and unknown how it would do so.
Host: Cecilia Rios
Report by: Mac Rogers
Based on descriptions from Anthony Shinsaku