"Castor," Belladonna Ruine said with a look of mild concern. "Why does my daughter think I'm a monster.
Her twin rolled his eyes "Bella, all men are monsters. Only those who embrace that fact
will ever know true freedom... Adelaide will learn that soon enough"
The twins were truly a sight to see, standing alone in the empty warehouse wearing matching expensive grey pinstripe suits. Both had their shoulder length hair pulled tight behind their heads (Bella's black, Castor's a brilliant white). Their features sharp and their eyes bright, they each had the flawless complexion of those who had stolen the youth of many poor souls over nearly a century of life.
Their eerie appearance alone would have been enough to make most men's skin crawl, but what lay between their feet was enough to make some lose their minds. A young man, once full of life and boundless potential, lay on the ground inside a rune circle painted in his own blood and covered in mystic patterns that had been etched into his flesh. Two crystals sat in the sockets where his eyes had once been. Surprisingly the young man still drew breath and his heart still pumped, but he was held by no chain either physical or magical... There was no need. While the body still lived, the twins had torn the soul from it. They had feasted on it until no trace remained, leaving the body nothing but an empty vessel.
"I suppose you're right," Belladonna sighed. "She has to come around eventually... I had just hoped for her to meet Uncle Oliander. He is family after all..."
"She'll meet him if that is what he wishes, sister" Castor replied as he opened a wooden crate, puling an onyx staff from it. "After all, no one says no to Uncle Oliander."
"No one makes him wait, either." Belladonna nodded slightly, as she drew an alabaster staff from the box before moving to take her place across the circle from her twin. "Not if they know what is good for them."
Castor gave a knowing nod, and after a moment the two began to chant in unison, as they poured the energy from the young mans soul into the magic circle.
"Lord Oliander of House Ruin, Ruin of Houses, Master of Spirtits, Devourer of Souls. Wielder of the Curse of Lilith, we call you now. Claim this vessel as your own, fill it with your will... Quasi Vas Inane Accedo Anima."
With the final words there came the crack of the two staffs shattering, and a blinding light. When it faded, the body stood wreathed in an aura of half visible spirits, the echoes of their screams of protest at their enslavement beat against the unconscious minds of those with even the least amount of spiritual awareness.
The old man in the young man's body stretched, and grinned, the glowing crystals that had replaced his eyes casting a sickly light over the ritual scars that marked his face.
"Ah," Oliander sighed in perverse satisfaction "It's nice to get out of that decrepit old body every once and a while... Now," He said as he rubbed his hands together. "I'm told there's a party I wasn't invited to..."
Adelaide dumped yet another dustpan full of glass into the trashcan before standing up strait again and surveying her shop. She'd taped a sheet of plastic over the gaping hole that had been her front door, and added her newly acquired human skull to the collection of oddities that lined the shelves of her home/shop, hoping that nobody would realize it was the genuine article. Or at least that they wouldn't ask too many questions if they did.
She sighed as she stared at the wreck of a door... there was no way that she could pay for the repairs, even if she broke down and did infinity symbols, finger mustaches, and lower back butterflies for all the college kids she'd refused over the years.
She glanced at her answering machine as she remembered her mother's message... perhaps she could borrow some money from her family. After all she was a witch now, just like her mother had wanted...
No, Adelaide told herself with a shake of her head. "It doesn't count if I don't use it..." She whispered to herself, unconvincingly. "I'm not a witch... I'm not a monster... I'm not a Ruine..."