Sirius

The house stood like a wound in the landscape—its windows gaping black sockets in a skull of rotting wood and slumping beams. The neighbors had whispered of screams, of claw marks that ravaged the walls like the scars of a beast's nightmares. You had heard it all before, the kind of talk that churned through small communities when they couldn’t comprehend the horrors that lived just beyond the veil of their understanding.

But this house—it sank its teeth into you.

You killed monsters. You always had. If something had left the people here too afraid to sleep at night, it was your job to silence it. And yet, as your boots crunched through the brittle grass leading to the sagging porch, unease prickled your skin. The air here was… heavier. Metallic, electric, like the moment before lightning strikes. You flexed the grip of your weapon—a blade kissed with runes, charmed to cut through more than just flesh—feeling it weigh reassurances into your palm.

The stench hit you first, even before you stepped past the broken threshold. Death, thick and overwhelming, as though the house had been forced to swallow its own rot. You swallowed down your distaste, curling your lip as you ducked through the splintered doorway.

Inside, shadows pooled thickly despite the mid-afternoon light leaking through the broken window panes. And the blood… gods, the blood was everywhere. Long streaks bent out in mad spirals across the walls. Dripping patterns—slow, deliberate. Something about them made your stomach twist, though you weren’t exactly new to gore. Whatever had burst from the veins of this thing… it didn’t happen cleanly.

The bodies were gone. There were no bones here, no flesh—just stains and dismemberment marks carved into every surface.

You stepped further in, toeing past a broken table shattered in what looked like an explosion of fury. Eyes sharp, every muscle drawn taut like a bowstring, you scanned the carnage.

The creature, they’d said, had killed the tenants. But now there was no creature.

"Were they wrong about the timing? Maybe this one moved already," you muttered under your breath. Your voice sounded too loud, too fragile in the suffocating stillness.

The deeper you ventured into the house’s belly, the more your instincts itched. Something killed the creature, something more precise than your average beast. The heavy gouges in the walls weren’t random; they etched symbols—sickeningly familiar ones. No. No, this wasn’t the work of a rival guild. This was something else.

Someone else.

Your throat worked against the dry lump forming. You weren't alone here anymore, were you?

It started subtle. A faint creak, like a whisper of pressure taking shape on the floorboards behind you. You twisted, blade flashing with a low hum of latent energy, but there was nothing there. Just the shapes of the room folding into one another in geometric mockery, shadows spilling in grotesque mockeries of claws.

Another sound—this time from above. Something distinctly human-like in its pacing, slow and deliberate, each step an effortful descent as though the thing coming down from the attic wanted to be heard. Your heart kicked sharply, though you’d never say fear bit at you. Not directly. Tension, maybe. Calculation.

The stairs groaned beneath invisible weight.

"Who's there?" you barked sharply, brandishing your weapon toward the dim light spilling from the staircase. No answer. You took a step back, grounding your stance for battle, spreading your weight evenly. A trap? You’d survive it. You always did. But you had to admit, the strange rhythmic cadence of those descending steps set your teeth on edge.

The figure emerged into the dimness of the main room, a silhouette more shadow than solid form. At first, it looked hunched, unnatural, but as it stepped fully into view, you understood why.

It was him.

You blinked, half-pivoting into defense, before the realization struck. "Sirius?"

The sorcerer’s grin spread wide, radiant as a sharpened crescent moon. “Boo,” he murmured, his voice caressing the air too gently—too sickeningly void of the tension flooding your veins.

Your weapon stayed raised, poised to swing down. "You. You're the one who did this?"

"You're welcome, by the way," Sirius cooed, his pearlescent hair cascading as he tilted his head at you with delighted mischief. Stars sparked in his iridescent eyes, catching the dim light like fragments of a hunter’s ambush waiting to flicker out. "Though, I’ll admit, I didn’t think you’d come sniffing around this quickly. You are diligent." The way his tongue dripped with playful mockery made your teeth grind.

Your blade didn’t lower, but your hand faltered slightly. The creature. The blood. All of it. "You call this cleanup?"

Sirius gestured grandly at the destruction, his trenchcoat spreading with the motion like the unfurling cosmos. “Effective, isn’t it? Come now, dear Heart, a little gratitude wouldn’t kill you.”

Your jaw tightened, muscles twitching with restrained irritation. The nickname was Sirius’ little indulgence—one you didn’t have the patience for right now. “You didn’t have to flay the place.”

“Oh, but where’s the fun in restraint?” He stepped closer, moving with the languid grace of a predator secure in its dominance. “And besides…” His smile thinned into something darker, slyer. “You should know better. I always aim to surprise.”

The last vestige of your suspicion bubbled to the surface. “That's why you’re here? To ambush me?”

His eyes widened, a mockery of innocence. “Ambush?” And then—faster than you could track—he was there, so close to your face the scent of lilacs and petrichor clung thick between breaths. His fingers ghosted along the edge of your weapon, lowering it effortlessly. Warm. Smooth. Infuriating. “Darling, you wound me. And after I went to such lengths to make this Halloween memorable.”

Your heart gave a traitorous lurch—whether from the proximity of danger or the maddening heat of his gaze, you could hardly say. Sirius leaned in just enough for your noses to nearly brush. His voice dipped to a velvet whisper. “Were you scared?”

“You’re lucky I didn’t kill you on instinct,” you muttered, your voice tighter than you’d intended. His grin only deepened, and you hated how your body betrayed you, heat pooling in your cheeks, the tension splintering into something you couldn’t entirely name.

Sirius tilted his head, studying you with unfiltered amusement. “Lucky, indeed…”

And just as quickly, he gently pushed you back, his hand grazing your chest with an almost flippant shove. You stumbled against a broken beam, the sharp edges biting faintly into your shoulders as he loomed over you. His lips curved into that maddening smile, triangular earrings catching flickers of light as they swayed. “Don’t think I didn’t notice your heartbeat, dear. It skipped.”

“Because you’re insufferable,” you shot back, trying to summon your usual composure. The words fell flat under the weight of the moment.

His grin grew wolfish. “Say that again… and I might just believe you.”

And gods above help you—his proximity, the warmth of him, the quiet way his fingers brushed your wrist like he was testing the very boundaries of your resolve—it was dangerous in a way you couldn’t fight. Sirius leaned in one last time, his voice a low purr against your ear, barely a breath.

“Happy Halloween.”