The crack grew until the light was nearly blinding. This time, the child advanced with me and the light reached out wrapped around us. “Janus.” The little girl’s voice was laced with power. What started as a wisp of smoke slowly grew thicker and darker until it formed a blinding fog around us. The girl let go of my hand and the darkness became black. I stood in the dark, but not alone. I could feel the demon, like a thick, cold, wet pressure. Gently it wrapped around me, threatening, but more curious than anything else. The demon tried to press in on my mind. As weakened as I had become in days without magic, I could still prevent the creature from getting inside me. I knew what I would see if he did get inside my mind. “Janus,” I whispered. There was something dangerous about shouting in the dark. The presence ceased his intended possession. The area around me grew lighter until I found myself in a forest. It was not a cheery forest, of course; with snow on the ground and a cold bite in the air, the bareness of the trees was to be expected, but not the twisted mangled limbs.
