The High Priest paced back and forth in his office at the Academy, waiting anxiously for Nicholas to return with the girl. On his desk lay files and books, research resources the man used to track down the girl.

For years, the Henson family have been in hiding, cowering away from witch covens all over the world.

Father Faustus glanced at the clock on his wall. 05:13 it read. Nicholas was late.

The warlock could feel the nerves kicking in; Nicholas was never late; that's exactly why he picked him for the job. Just then, the office door swung open, and in walked Nicholas Scratch. And he was alone.

"Where is she, Scratch?" Faustus demanded. Nicholas looked down, not giving his superior an answer. "Where. Is. She." Faustus asked again, slamming his hands down on his desk.

At that Nicholas looked up and spoke the six words that changed everything: "She doesn't know who she is."

•

Abigail Henson made it home utterly and completely confused. She didn't know what the hell was going on, how the hell she was on the sidewalk one second then in the woods the next, and she certainly didn't know how the hell the man she somehow ended up standing in front of seemed eerily familiar.

So Abigail did the only thing that seemed plausible in a time like this: she seeked help. In the form of sleep. Completely ignoring her mother when she questioned where her daughter has been the past half hour, Abby climbed the - what felt like millions - of stairs to her bedroom. She opened her front door, ready to fall face-flat on her bed and sleep the day away, but noticed a dark grey cat sitting on her bed instead.

Abby screamed.

Shhhhh a voice said. Abby opened her mouth to scream again, but was distracted by the cat on her bed jumping off and walking towards her. Abby started walking backwards slowly but was stopped when she came into contact with the wall. Stop moving, dammit, the voice spoke again.

"Who's there?" Abby demanded, momentarily halting her staring. contest with the cat to glance around her bedroom.

Down here, dumbass, the voice spoke again. Dread filled Abby's stomach as she slowly looked down, towards the cat. There we go, the voice spoke again. Took you long enough.

"A-Are you talking," Abby somehow managed out. The cat nodded. "Okay, then, alright." Abby nodded her head, mostly to herself. "I'm going insane." she squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed then a few times with the back of her hands. When she opened her eyes again, she could hear chuckling in her head.

That's not how it works, darling, the voice spoke again. Now that Abby doesn't feel like fainting (all that much) she realized that the voice was female.

"U-uhm" the girl stuttered. She cleared her throat a few times and mentally scolded herself fo showing weakness in front of such a strange creature. Abby gulped before speaking again, "Do you have a name?"

Cleo, the cat (apparently) said.

Abby nodded to herself. If it has a name then there's no point in being scare of it, right?

"So, uhm, what are you?" Abby tried, trying to make the atmosphere less awkward.

The cat - or Cleo - rolled her eyes, You already know that, dear, it's already tense and awkward you can't fix that.

Abby stared at Cleo, slightly taken aback by her bluntness.

"Okay, then," she whispered to herself, staring everywhere but at the cat.

Yep, it's awkward

(note!)

some character development yayyyy

my updating schedule is soooo out of whack I have about 3 other books that I haven't updated in god knows how long and I have 2 that I really want to publish but I just caNT you know????

lets hope i update this soon cuz even idk what I'm doing lol