FicWad

Alvin sidled into the main room of Jin’s apartment. A pentagram was drawn on the floor, a mix of chalk and runes and God knew what else marring the floorboards. A cluster of ashes sat in the middle, smoldering silently.
Alvin stepped forwards into the room.
The ashes burst up, spreading out and reforming into a skeletal figure with bat-like wings. Grey teeth clustered forwards from lipless gums, and empty eye sockets bored down at him. The snagged wall of incisors parted and the creature shrieked horribly, a red tongue pocked with yellow pustules of infection snaking outwards with the sound. The demon stopped short, pressing clawed hands against the empty air, scream dying down to a hiss like cooling metal.
Alvin rubbed at the corner of one eye.

“Stay there, if it please you.”

Jin was sitting cross-legged on the other side of the room inside a summoner’s circle, a thick tome open in front of her. Black hair spilled over her shoulders, bone-straight and smooth. Her skin was the typical tan of the Abaiyan’i, and she had the dark almond-shaped eyes to match. Jin was dressed in the blue robe befitting a Maegi, an off-the shoulder garment so different than what his sister or what other girls wore.
Jin had three tattoos under her left eye, black pillars that stood for different teachings. Thus far, she had Strength, Honor, and Family. She was completely unlike any girl Alvin had ever met.

“Hello, Jin.”
Jin hummed, looking down at the book in front of her. “I bind demon in to bottle.”
“How’s that going?”
Jin looked up, eyes flicking from snarling ash-skinned demon to the boy in the red sweater. “It goes well.”
Alvin tried to wipe his palms on his pants, praying that Jin wouldn’t notice. Why was he here again? He ran a tongue over his lower lip nervously. Oh, God, he was such an idiot. Why was he here? The room felt very hot and he could practically feel Gideon smirking at him from out in the hallway. “Come closer, my friend. I have not seen you soon,” Jin said, waving him over. “Just don’t step in summoning circle.”
Alvin edged closer, ignoring the hissing of the Ash Demon. His throat felt very dry and his palms felt very sweaty. The photographs under his sweater rustled. Of course! The photos! That’s why he was here!

“Um, Jin? I...I think I might, I might need, your...advice? And expertise on a very important subject?” Alvin asked, cursing himself silently as his voice cracked on the last syllable of that poorly worded sentence. Jin, however, seemed to not be paying much attention to what he was saying, and was merely staring at his tongue. “Your tongue is blue.”
Alvin cleared his throat. “It’s from medication.”
Jin nodded. “I have seen such medication. The blue is powerful. Can stop most poisons from my land. Like the Tears of Lys or the Powder of Iocaine.”
Alvin blinked. “I did not know that.”
Jin looked down at the book in front of her. The demon wheeled on her and screaming, pushing up as far as it could against the walls of the pentagram. “Can’t get out, huh?” asked Alvin quietly. Jin shook her head. “It is trapped until I let it free. But you say something about importance...?”
“I did?” Alvin asked distantly.
“Yes. It is known.”

He tried to think. He had to do something important. What was it? Jin had glanced up at him, finally watching him, and Alvin felt like unzipping his skin and crawling out. It felt like there were ants under his skin. Why couldn’t he just be normal? Constantine didn’t have these problems, but Con had never been stuck on some girl before.
Right, the photographs!

Alvin fumbled for the black and white pictures. “See, there’s been a murder, and-”
Jin stood up, holding her hands behind her back. “You need me to look for demons.”
Alvin nodded, holding the pictures outside the summoning circle so Jin wouldn’t be forced to go outside it or he go inside. Her eyebrows furrowed, biting the corner of her lip as she looked for any telltale signs.
“Next one.”
Obediently flipping to the next picture, Alvin noticed exactly how the light caught her eyes, and he tried to study the details of the tattoos beneath her eyes without staring. The one for Strength was first, hard vertical lines slicing downwards, simple and solid. Honor was a different story entirely, something made of tightly-bound curled lines that billowed like smoke. They were like little waves, all these lines that made a lesson, and it was incredible that anybody could sit still long enough for anybody to get that inked in.

“Next.”
Hastily flipping over to the next photograph, Alvin turned his attention to the final tattoo, the one meant to represent Family. Family was lines of varying length and thickness bound together to make a somewhat less-than-solid black line.
“My friend?”
Alvin flipped back to the first photograph.
“Alvin!”
Startling, he focussed on Jin. “Yes?”
“You were staring at my face.”
Alvin felt his heart sink. “I was?”
Jin nodded, and although he was quick with one-liners, and always had a witty comeback, he had nothing. Alvin was rendered witless. “I did not see anything that would mean demon. Monster, maybe. Right up your alley, neh?” asked Jin, tipping a rare smile.

Alvin felt like he was floating. “Yes...?”
“You go now. Come back later. Good luck on healing nose,” Jin told him, sitting back down and turning her attention to her book.

“Um. Right. Yes. Nose. See you soon?” Alvin said, wandering out the door. On the way to Jin’s front door, he passed Gideon, who was glowering in the shadows. Gideon made sure he had Alvin’s attention before he pretended to swoon.
“Oh, screw off, you big ape,” spat the Freck twin, slamming the door behind him for good measure.