Hey guys, sorry I've updated this same chapter like 70 times LMFAO. The format is really messed up and everything was squished together in HUMONGOUS paragraphs. Hopefully it works this time! If it doesn't look right, I'll probably be going in and fixing it, so just remove the story from your library and re-add to get the latest, best version, please!! <333

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"What?" I shouted.

"You've been removed from the­­–"

"I know what you said!" My thoughts were scattered and racing all over the place, and the headache behind my eyes was worse than ever before. The right thing to do would have been to run to the phone and call the police. But I couldn't. Because no matter how crazy this guy sounded, a part of me...wanted to believe what he was saying. "I just don't understand. Who are you?!"

"My name is Ace."

"Ace?"

"Oui."

"What are you, a stripper?"

His violet eyes glowed at me. Glowed. "If you were any other mortal at this moment..." Frustrated, he took off his hat a moment and fixed his hair. "Ace is the name you know me as and that's the only name you're getting–"

"And why's that?"

"Because that's the name I prefer, ma chère. Anyway, I thought that might jog your memory and it clearly didn't. And clearly your sass is in place of your recollections." He shifted his weight onto his cane. "I suppose I will just cut to the chase. This might be hard for you to understand, but your memories have been taken from you."

I almost laughed. "You're serious."

"Moments before, I looked into your conscious and saw that a huge piece of your memories have been stripped from you."

I stared at him like he'd just ripped off his shirt, turned green, and yelled "HULK SMASH!"

"And you know this, how?" I demanded.

"Because I'm a Warlock, Faith. A very old, very skilled warlock."

I stared at him for a long blink-less moment.

"You don't look like a Warlock."

He frowned. "What do I look like, then?"

I skimmed his outfit. "A fruity chap who still lives in his mom's basement."

"Ma chère!" Ace's eyes went wide. "I am not fruity. What has gotten into you?" He looked down at his outfit, and then daggered me with his eyes. "And why did you say chap?"

I put my hands up. "Listen, I'm not the one wearing a purple suit."

His face went a little red. "I'm European!"

"Whatever."

"I don't have to be here, Faith," Ace said, with fury that I wouldn't dare play with. "I'd rather not, considering the possible consequences of interfering with...this. But here I stand and maybe it would be wise to watch your manners."

"Sorry," I grudgingly said.

He pursed his lips a moment and then nodded. "Forgiven."

"So I'm supposed to believe," I began, "that you're a really warlock? And what, that poker card summoned you here?"

"Oui, I gave you that card," he answered, still a tad pissy. "It did summon me and I am a warlock. Acceptance of the whole warlock thing would be the easiest course here. There are a lot more complicated things to explain."

There was a strange man, in my room, confessing he was Harry Potter.

And after a recap of my boring, average teenage life I....didn't really mind...

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Prove it."

A smile tipped the corner of his mouth. "With pleasure."

He lifted his staff and spun it around in his hand. At first, nothing happened, and I raised an eyebrow at him. Suddenly the room began to distort, expanding in a blur of colors that made me feel like I was on a carousel on crack. The room shrank back and I was thrown, face planting onto something furry. It gave way like my mattress, but the surface was furry. The room went still. Disoriented, I lifted myself up and grabbed my throbbing temples. My gaze locked on the bright pink fur comforter beneath and I gasped. I grabbed two fistfuls of it to see if it was real. It was.

"No...way."

I lifted myself up, looked around the room, and looked back at Ace. The look I gave him was a mix between astonishment, anger, and horror.

My bedroom looked like something straight out of Malibu Barbie's dream house.

"What did you do?" I cried. "My bedroom...it's...it's cheerful!"

"Nauseating, isn't it?" Ace asked with a pleased grin. "I am certainly entertained. Did you expect a spoken spell? Just wondering. It's such a stereotype." He made a gesture with his hand in my general direction. "Presto pinko."

I felt something shift on my body and looked down. I was wearing knee-high pink pumps, a pink miniskirt, and a pink tube top that made my boobs look ginormous. I realized I was giving Ace a nice peep show and leapt off the bed, covering my cleavage.

"Change me back!" I shrieked.

He snapped. My pajamas were back on. Not the most stylish outfit to change back into.

"Stay back!" I signaled with my hands that I'd had enough and backed up. "Go back to whatever Hobbit land you came from."

"Alright, ma chère, no more magic." His violet eyes lost their glow and he leaned forward on his staff in a calm, elegant way. "But I wouldn't keep backing up if I were you."

A low growl came from behind me.

I spun around. Sure enough, there was a massive lion posed behind my easel. Its mane and coat were a hot pink color and glittery, which tricked my jumbled brain into thinking the lion wasn't real. But then its tail whipped to the left and its hunches rose as it stood to its four massive paws. I was frozen in fear.

"Oh, shit."

The lion lunged towards me with open jaws. I stumbled back and braced for the attack. Ace appeared in front of me and stabbed the animal with the end of his staff, piercing the middle of its head. It exploded into a big pile of glitter.

I looked up at Ace, who was grinning wickedly. Looked at the pile of glitter on the floor. Looked back up at Ace.

"Was that really necessary?" I seethed.

"Not really," Ace decided, smirking. "I didn't like your fruity comment."

I lay back on my carpet, covering my face with my hands. He'd turned my room into Barbie's bedroom, transformed my clothes, and added a giant, hungry glitter lion into the mix. Nothing too out of the ordinary!

"What would be the sensible reaction to this?" I asked calmly.

Ace shrugged. "From your angle, nothing about me and what I am is rational. But for me, it just is. But you, Faith, were destined to see another world where others, including I, live in secret. Find it in yourself to accept that. Because no spell can take away that feeling in your gut you're getting right now. The one that says I am telling the truth."

And it was stronger than ever. I sat up and bit back my unease. "So...you're really a...warlock."

"An old one. I'm two-thousand and twenty-six to be exact." He swiped a patch of glitter off his suit. "When I arrived at your home, I put a protection spell in place of the old one that was there. To prevent any tripped wires, so to speak. So if you would like my assistance getting your memories back, we should leave before the conjurer of the initial ward senses the difference."

"You could help me get my memories back?" I just looked at him. "But why? I mean, I can't believe I'm even saying this, but there must be a serious reason they were taken away from me in the first place? What if its something terrible?"

"I can tell you with certainty it will be terrible," the beautiful warlock said. "But you are in the dark without me. This hex on you is monstrous and cruel. What has been taken from your memories has not vanished. It will linger with you, just beyond your reach, leaving you incomplete and frustrated. Don't you want to rectify such an injustice? Won't it trouble you the rest of your life, if you say no to me right now?" He reached out his ringed hand. "Trust me, ma chère."

I studied him. There was no gut feeling inside of me, it was silent. I lifted my hand as our fingers touched; I felt a twinge of recognition spark within me. And then I heard it. It spoke as soft as a whisper.

"Assssk him hisss pricccce," it said, and my eyes widened marginally. It felt like the voice was coming from over my shoulder, but when I slowly turned my head to either side and darted my eyes to their corners, there was nothing behind me. "There issss alwaysss a pricccce. You know you cannot trussst him."

I didn't even question the voice's presence or guidance. I strangely accepted it, as if having it in my head as if it were was totally normal.

My pendant scorched my chest. I yelped and pulled my hand sharply away from Ace.

"What's your price?" I demanded.

Ace paled significantly. "Price?"

"Surely you have a price for this. Name it."

His laugh was almost believable, but I could see he was caught off guard. "There is no price. We are friends, ma chère."

"He is lying to you," the voice continued. "You think he ssssees you only as a young girl, so easssy to manipulate? But he doesss not sssssee you as that. He is afraid of you. You could have power over him. Compulsssion. Assssk him hisss pricccccce, and he will tell you it. Demand it."

"Name your price!" I demanded and felt a force behind my words that hadn't been there before.

Ace's purple eyes struck to mine. He maintained his silence a few moments longer and clenched his jaw, turning a little away as if he were fighting something. He lifted his chin a little, grinning in a wicked, but strained way that reddened his face. "Your pendant is my price," he grated out between tight teeth.

My hand immediately went to my neck. There, I found a leather string that I hadn't been aware of before. It was as if it were present the entire time, but my mind had refused to acknowledge it. I pulled out the necklace from beneath my shirt and clutched it so hard that burned. And as it burned, I felt a sting of nostalgia that left my mind feeling more mixed-up than ever before.

"What do you want with this pendant?"

"That is not how this works, ma chère," Ace replied as the redness in his face dispersed and he noticeably relaxed.

"You tried to trick me into thinking there was no cost of you helping me! What friend would do that? You've been lying to me, and I want to know your intentions!"

"Please, ma chère, I don't owe you anything. I'm only a businessman. I'm more of a friend than others you've linked with, and right now, I'm your only option here. Unless, of course, since your hex, you've kept in touch with some other ancient warlock?"

I just glared at him, wondering what had sparked such a fury in me that my nails were digging crescents in my hands.

"My cost of retrieving your memories," Ace continued, noticing my tight fists as well, "and defying the powerful hex on your mind, is only a simple piece of jewelry. The choice is yours. Your memories lost, for that pendant. Or say no to it all, and I will leave you be."

I contemplated my options, as crazy as they were. I could let Ace, who claimed to have the ability to return my memories, do his thing, and help me remember what was taken from me. With that option, I risked discovering something I'd want to forget again, or something I wasn't supposed to see. I also risked being scammed by the warlock. What was so great about my pendant, anyway?

I could have told him no. With that option, I knew I would have felt incomplete for the rest of my life, not knowing if he was truly the only being capable of helping me.

"Faith," Ace said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "We must go now to my séance if you request my help."

"Do not be afraid." The voice had returned, just as soft as before. "Take hisss offer."

Slowly, almost unconsciously, I offered Ace my hand. He looked down at it a moment, as if unsure of something, before taking it in his own.

"Your skin is so warm, ma chère," Ace said gently, his eyebrows. "Are you feeling ill?"

" I've never felt better," I answered, although I did feel like I had a fever. "Now how did you get here, exactly?"

Everything swirled.

* **

I bent down and looked through the massive, clear crystal ball, which was on a palm-reading table at the center of the room. It was like a fish eye lens, and narrowed in on Ace's back as he flipped through what he'd said was a spell book back of the room. He had abandoned his dress coat once we'd arrived in his bizarre séance room, leaving a dark mauve vest and undershirt beneath, which matched his top hat. His top hat had also been abandoned somewhere, exposing his colorful strands of hair that I found myself glancing at often.

"So you really see stuff in this?" I asked and hovered my fingers over the glass. The small hairs on my arm rose, as if the crystal ball was creating static electricity.

"Oui, but the ways in which I see differs. Sometimes I see pictures,sometimes I see words, sometimes it's as if I'm watching a movie," he replied,flipped a page of the book. It was ripped, stained, and certainly had deep roots, and by the gentle way Ace turned the page, I imagined it was valuable.

"I wouldn't touch that crystal ball if I were you," he suddenly said. Too late, I'd accidentally did, and I'd gotten zapped. I yelped and shook my fingers. 

"Should have a 'beware,crystal ball' sign for that stupid thing," I muttered under my breath. Ace must have heard me, because he chuckled.

"I'll be right back," Ace said distractedly, and then parted two curtains against the wall and melted into another darker room.

 I switched my attention elsewhere and journeyed around the room, eying all the weird looking plants and artifacts. There were quite a few skulls scattered around, which only assisted my unease of being alone with a freaking warlock .And there were thousands of marked clear jars on his shelves, tagged with old paper and string that labeled the herb, pickled material, or liquid in as strange language. Some of the jars in the back, I noticed, as I peaked through the front row, were made of something stronger than glass, and seemed to be chained back to the wall. I moved passed the shelves of jars, to glass display boxes on velvet tables, locked away behind an even larger glass display. On show were stunning stones, crystals, and gems that were colors and shapes that I didn't know existed. There were also random items, like unusual watches, pens, and pins.

Some of the items, usually necklaces or bracelets, were separated by the others in smaller displays. I came across the first and only empty display box and frowned. As I looked at it, a headache grew behind my eyes, and my pendent burned against my skin again, and I found myself glancing back at Ace. He was still busy at the back of the room.

When I looked back at the display case, something felt different. I was no longer just observing the items. I was looking for something in particular, but I didn't know what it was. I pinched my throbbing temples and moved on to even older looking items,my fingers hovering just beyond the glass. I came across what appeared to be a silver armband and stopped. It was elegant and simple, with two malicious looking lion heads at the end of each end of the clasp. There was something about it that drew me in.

"It can be yourssss." The voice was back, an invisible whisper over my shoulder. Once again, I found myself slowly looking over my shoulder. 

"Bonjour!" Ace's voice announced at the other side of my head,startling me to the point that I might have actually peed a little.

"Jesus!" I shouted,clutching my chest, where my heart was now thrashing. "Don't do that again!" 

Ace stared down at me with those amused, violet eyes, before nodding back at the glass. "Lovely,isn't it?" 

"Lovely, but a little intense..."I leaned towards the display glass again, analyzing the strange jewelry. It looked like each of the Lions heads had swords as their mane. "Is it anything special?"

"It is more than special," Ace stated, leaning away from the display case. "It's a barracuda."

"Like the fish?"

"No, not the fish. Barracuda's are items that often contain the essence of someone from the past. This one contains the essence of Mu Guiying, an ancient Chinese female warrior. She was courageous, resourceful, an outstanding rider and archer, and a superior martial artist."

"You're telling me, her spirit is trapped in that little arm band?"

"Her chi, yes. Those who wear that band could become one her essence." I could feel Ace staring oddly at my profile. "But it is black magic. Wearing it could come at a great price. Especially if the barracuda does not accept its holder." He paused. "Ma chère, are you sure you're feeling well? You are still flushed."

My eyes hit Aces, blue on violet. "I guess I'm just a little overwhelmed, is all," I said without pause.

I didn't trust this guy as far as I could throw him. Which wasn't really that far. And honestly, I was still questioning whether or not I made the right decision to accept his help.

"Once your memories are back," Ace said, appearing to believe my lie, "I imagine your mind will be at more of a balance." He motioned for me to follow him. "Come, I want you to see what I've been making."

* * *

"Is that ginger?" I asked, pointing to a light brown root-looking thing with a leafy green stem coming out of the top. The bottom of the root had been shaved down a little.

"That would be galangal root," Ace answered, as he started crushing some ingredients in a bowl. "It's in the ginger family. Cleanses the body from common cold and works great against hexes." He paused his crushing to tilt the bowl towards me. "Bamboo and hydrangea is in this too, to work against a hex. Fennell, to work against a curse, if it is one. Rosemary, for your memory loss. Some kava kava."

"Kava kava?"

"Oh, yes." His violet eyes flicked to me, mischievous. "Kava kava is abused as an aphrodisiac for most magic users. I will only use it to induce visions in you. With it, you should see fragments of what you have lost play out right in front of you." He reached for a plant under a pink grow light and plucked out some leaves, sprinkling them into the bowl. "And of course, a lot of Mentha spicata."

"What the heck is that?"

"Spearmint," Ace replied. "You'll thank me later after you get a taste of this." 

My mouth fell open. "I'm eating that? Some of those things you said definitely aren't supposed to be eaten."

"Don't be silly, Faith.You'll drink it. I'll put it in a tea bag and place the bag in boiling water,just like a normal tea. Then I'll cool it down, and you'll drink all of it."

"That's it? Then my memories will be back? No offense, but the ingredients you mentioned don't seem... I mean, are you sure this will fix me?"

"No, but that never stops me from trying." He side-eyed me, then faced me and frowned. "How peculiar."

I wiped at my face."What?"

"Your aura. It's just...much larger than I remember." He studied me a moment longer and then plucked a strand of my hair, throwing it into the bowl.