She was magical, a star-bound princess with hair as dark as night and green eyes that a boy could-and would-get lost in. But she wasn't the tinkerbell, everything ends well, magic. She was the darker magic, the magic that she was made of was the type that would let her get away with things, the type that let her be evil but so damn inconspicious. Erin Chamres was the perfect example behind the expression, "Don't judge a book by its cover."
Erin came from a long line of magical humans. Her family even had a particular name for what they were and what they practiced, and they named themselves, "Elicitors." According to the Chamres, "Elicitors" originated from a greek term and stood to mean "Draining." And, as there always seems to be, there was another magical family, with another magical heir.

He was a sky-touched prince, his hair fluffy and white like the clouds above him, and blue eyes that would make girls swoon before him. He was the type of magical that would save the world, the type that would feel guilty for using powers for anything other that the good of the majority, the type that was made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Rasson Blearson was the light behind every darkness.
Rasson also came from a long line of magical humans, but they were not called Elicitors. The Blearsons named themselves "Keepers", because they kept the evil from ruling and they kept the peace of the universes.

Rasson and Erin were meant to be kept apart from each other, though both born the same year in the same town, their families came to a mutual agreement not to let magic run their childrens' lives. But, should one child learn of the other's abilities, the truce was off and they would let Rasson and Erin fight it out-if thats what they so chose. And that was the way it remained for seventeen years, Erin was warned again and again to hide her abilities, as was Rasson. They were told of the other child-without revealing their name or in any way giving away their identity. Until..................

"Hey Erin, why did your mom call you that word the other day?" Alisha, Erin's closest friend, asked.
The hallway was deserted except for the two of them. Alisha had her long, red-jeans clad legs stretched out, her ivory knees showing through the patches and holes. Erin had her head resting against a chipped blue locker, her eyes half-closed, trying to focus on the energy around her. Lately, for some reason, her magic had been weak, her spells barely working, her devil-may-care charm wearing thin on those around her. Footsteps pounded down the hallway and Erin started fidgeting with her skirt, fear wracking her nerves for no apparant reasons. "Erin? Did you hear me? Why did your mom call you that?"Alisha asked again,staring at her friend with open and amiable curiosity.
"What word?" Erin mumbled, her shoulders tensing as the footsteps got closer. An image flashed before her mind's eye; A monster, dressed in human skin, with teeth pointy and dripping with blood, but with eyes enticingly blue.
"You know, uhm, 'Elicitor'?" Alisha asked.
Erin jumped a little when Alisha mentioned the forbidden word, and the second it came out of her mouth, the air changed, it grew colder. Erin looked to her left and saw, not the monster she had envisioned, but Rasson Blearson. His eyes became locked and hers and she felt all of the spit leave her mouth. He must be the one that her parents warned her about, the keeper, the one who could destroy her with one single thought. Erin tried to swallow and felt only painful panic rise up in her throat. "Hi, Rasson. You can go in the class-me and her are out here because we didn't take the test last week." She managed to choke out.
Rasson stepped closer to them, look scrutinizing and Erin felt a probing invasion in her head. She blocked it out the way her parents had taught her, by blasting a song inside her head. "And I'm stronger than I was!" She thought, feeling(or imagining)sweat breaking out on her forehead.
"Thanks. Alisha. Erin." He nodded at them, putting emphasis on Erin's name.
"So what does the word mean? Is it like a russian swear word? Your mom said she would teach me more of them but she never did." Alisha said, her voice teetering on the edge of annoyance.
"Oh, uh, Elicitor is my middle name. It's a Russian word for blessed." The lie slipped easily through her rosebud mouth, considering that she had that lie burned into her brain from the age of three.
Alisha nodded. "Makes sense. Pretty cool name. So if your family has been in America for over three generations, how come they still gave you a Russian middle name?" She asked, cocking her head.
Erin shrugged, her vision shrouding over with gray. He couldnt kill her right now, could he? No way was a keeper-a young keeper-this powerful, especially considering that Alisha was a knoll, and knolls were notorious for taking away magical abilities. "I don't know, I think it has to do with tradition. Something like that."
They sat in a comfortable silence as the forty minutes of class slipped away. As they waited, Erin closed her eyes and focused her energy on calming her body down, and building up a Rapshukin (protection orb) around her. When she opened her eyes again she could see it, faint and purple, surrounding her whole body. Now that she was safe, Erin could breathe again. "Rasson's kinda cute, ya know that?" Alisha mentioned, making Erin snort.
"Yeah okay. You know who else is cute? His girlfriend. But yeah, he is. Of course, I'm a sucker for blue eyes." She said, gazing thoughtfully out the glass door which led to the lunch plaza.
It was funny, based off the stories she had been told as a kid, Erin thought that the keeper would be more fearsome, more loathing, at least to her. She knew that Elicitors were considered bad, and that Keepers were considered good but that still didn't change her image. The shock of finding out that Rasson Blearson-tiny, ecentrically wound, Rasson-be the primary source of her destruction, was like a slap in the face. Of course, the Rapshukin should keep her safe for the next hour or so, enough time for her to call her mom and get home.
The bell rang, the two of them sat there for a minute longer, waiting for more people to walk out of class. Erin was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't hear Alisha at first. "Earth to Erin! Are you high or something?" Alisha asked, seriously beginning to grow angry with Erin.

Erin gave her a lopsided smiled and (hopefully)gave her a convincing yawn. "I didn't get much sleep last night. I was busy(training)studying." She said, "What did you say?"
Alisha pointed to the auditorum, where a large crowd of students fidgeted and shuffled their way in. For some reason, when everybody gathered like that, Erin thought of the zombie outbreak from "World War Z", the part where they started climbing over the broken wall. "I don't know, should we keep going to class or....?" Erin trailed off as Alisha dragged her hand and led her to the crowd. The large, zombie-like crowd.
"Today is the stupid Abstinence Assembly, I completely forgot about it. "Alisha grumbled, shoving their way through to the front, "Lets get a seat in the very back, so we can sleep."
Apparantly they weren't the only ones who thought of that plan; Rasson and his beautifully innocent(and half-knoll) girlfriend, Desmond, were sitting in the back. Rasson looked up sharply(reminding Erin of a bird-maybe a rooster?)when Erin and Alisha walked in, and the foggy pain in her temple turned into an agonizing tattoo of pain, it was so sharp and sudden that her knees buckled and she almost fell on top of Desmond. "Oh jesus! Are you okay?" Desmond shrieked, real curiousity in her usually bubbly voice.
Erin got up, albiet a bit shaky, and nodded, light-headedness sweeping down through her whole body. She sat down next to Rasson, the closest seat to her, and sighed. Alisha sat next to her, worry and exasperation in her brown eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She whispered.
Erin glared at her, debated telling her about the secret behind her 'middle name' and then tossed that idea out the window. As long as she followed the rules (No telling humans about the magical world and no turning any humans into Elicitors unless you need to save their life or are getting married to a human), she was pretty sure that Rasson was not allowed to kill her, at least not in a public place. "I think it's just a combination of the stress and lack of sleep. I'll just sleep through this and be fine, probably." She reassured Alisha.
The lights dimmed and a figure walked onstage. Erin tried to keep up with the words that he was saying but a thin, nagging pain kept throbbing in her stomach. It started right below her bellybutton and blossomed to right below her breastbone. She slid down her seat, propped her chin up on her knuckles and closed her eyes, it was the easiest way to communicate with Rasson without using magic, and without sounding batshit crazy. "Stop it, now." She whispered, making herself sound drunk.
She felt more than heard Rasson tilt his head down at her. "Oh, don't worry, she sleep talks, alot." Alisha explained, her breathe hot against Erin's cheek. Well damn, you didnt have to move in that close, Erin thinks.
The pain goes away a little bit but remains strong enough for tears to spring around the corners of her eyes. "Seriously, I swear I'm not evil, just stop." She whispered, making her words sound more forced this time.
Surprisingly the pain went away, but on the heels of that was a thought alien to her mind, "Prove it, and I can tell you're not sleeping."
Erin peeked up through her lashes and saw Rasson staring down at her. She stuck out her tongue petulantly, then regretted it and closed her eyes, expecting pain again. When none came, she sat up straighter and pretended to wake up. "Hey sleeping beauty. What were you dreaming of?" Alisha joked.
"About an old Russian tale my nana used to tell me," Erin answered, making sure that Rasson was listening, "It was about this monster that she called A Keeper, and she always told me that if I ever looked a Keeper in the eyes my soul would be sucked out and I would wither up and die."
Alisha frowned at her, "Your grandparents weren't messed up or anything." She finally said, her voice sounding incredulous.
Erin nodded, "Aren't we all."



The walk home was anything but refreshing. Usually after seven hours of boring classwork, and of sitting in hard desks all day, Erin was grateful for the half-mile walk to her countryside farm house. Even when it was a blistering four degrees, like today, she felt warm from the walk, and of course from the energies around her. But today was different, today every shadow seemed to jump out at her, every leaf and branch seemed out to get her, every car was purposely slowing down to look at her with disgusted wonder and think, "It's a life sucking Elicitor, get it!" But that was crazy, only the Blearsons knew about what she was, to the majority of the world she was just another teenage girl.... "Not for long," She whispered under her breath, deciding to take a shortcut through the woods.
Halfway down the worn and beaten, but still beloved path, Erin realized how big of a mistake she had made walking in total isolation-especially after that little escapade during the assembly. Her Rapshukin had left her before the assembly had even begun, thats how weak she was right now. Maybe she was close to menstrating, that always seemed to mess up her magic...."Hey leech-baby." Erin jumped at the voice, so harsh and unforgiving.
She whipped around, some of her long black hair getting in her eyes. Standing in front of her was Rasson-dressed to the nines in Warrior outfit. "Do NOT call me leech-baby. I am not a leech, I don't drain, I don't use my magic. Go away." Her voice fumbled and cracked on the last word, making Rasson chuckle.
He advanced forward and Erin tried to move but felt glued to the spot, she had locked eyes with the Keeper and unadulterated horror dawned over her as she realized what a mistake that was.....("Blessed One, you must never look into the eyes of a keeper. They are a calming blue and they will draw you in until you are nothing but an empty husk." The voice of her nana rang through her head, and she thought sarcastically, "Thanks for reminding me now, nana.") "Please don't hurt me. I swear, I'll give you my powers, I won't drain people anymore." Erin heard herself begging and hated herself for it, what happened to the tough training Warrior that she was at home?
Rasson stopped, paused, continued. He cocked his head at her and before she knew it, Erin found herself flying through the air. Her back smacked into the bark of a dead tree and she cried out in pain. She stood up, anger replacing her fear, and her fists bunched, if he wanted to fight, then they were going to fight. "Come on then, if you don't want to play nice, we can do it this way." The words were raspy and ill-fitting in her mouth. She never imagined this day would come.
Rasson smiled, Erin stared down at the ground, determined to stay away from those damning hypnotic blue eyes. "As you wish, Drainege-brat." He rushed at her with dizzying force.
Erin tried to duck out of the way but Rasson's 158 lbs knocked her back into the tree easily. He pinned her against it, his breath was dank and heavy against her neck, "We could fight like humans, but what fun would that be? Oh and your little Rapshukin failed because of me." He admitted.
Erin looked at him through half-lidded eyes, confusion and fear dwelling in them. "I put a spell on you the second your teenybopper friend uttered what you were in the hallway. You have no more power, doesn't that suck?" Rasson laughed, clearly enjoying the vunerable state such a despicable creature as Erin was in.
Erin moaned in fear and anger and the realization that she was completely ------. "I swear, Rasson, Keeper, whatever. I swear that I will never, ever use my powers. Just don't kill me, and don't take my soul, I only have one." She half-heartedly joked, hoping it would be enough for Rasson to let her go.
The sick grin on his face proved otherwise. Rasson traced a symbol on her grease-sweat forehead, it was half of a cross, half of the infinity sign and slashed through with two dashes. The symbol of death. Erin felt her blood drain, going to all her major orifices. She felt her blood-warm and oozing and somehow traitor-like, slide down her face through her nose, she blinked it through her eyes-no longer a beautiful green but instead a mossy gross gray, it poured through her ears, she was dying. She did not expect to die at seventeen.... Suddenly the bleeding stop. She wiped it off her face as best as she could, "Why....?" She asked Rasson, her whole body feeling light and without weight but yet filled with agony-white pain.
Rasson shrugged, "Maybe I should keep you around, you can be my plaything." He said, his voice interwoven with sinister promise.
"I wish you would kill me instead!" Erin lashed out, she could barely imagine being tortured like this over a period of months, until Rasson grew bored..... "Wish granted." She heard Rasson whisper.

All memories of Erin Chamres were erased from her family, from her friends, from everyone who knew her. When, or if, they saw her face in their dreams, they grew vaguely uncomfortable and passed it off as someone they passed in the street, or maybe an old imaginary friend.....that is the power of the Keeper.