Chapter 1: A Day In The Life

'October 31, 1419

Thalia drew her blade, her husband Odric at her side. They had been preparing for months, and now they would finally trap him. The fae queen Oona fluttered up beside her. "The prison is ready, my liege," the noble sprite said. Thalia nodded, turning to her husband.

"Today we finally trap the Profane Prince," she said, a hint of giddiness in her voice. Odric only grunted as he looked to the sky, thick with clouds. Oona began chanting, the faeries in the trees around Thraben joining their queen, and the clouds cleared, letting them see the Profane Prince approach. But the clear sky revealed something far worse. The sky was a deep crimson, the moon blood red. No stars shone tonight, only the dim light of the Blood Moon. Cathars began marching out of the city to join the warrior lovers, each one anticipating a fight for the ages as they heard the demon roar in the distance. His silhouette could be seen against the moon, growing larger as he approached the small settlement. Each soldier readied their weapons as the demon landed, standing only a few yards from Thalia and Odric and towering over them, thirty feet tall. Even the faeries in the trees could feel his hot breath and smell his foul odor as they readied the imprisonment spell. The demon only chuckled.

"Your attempts to rid this world of evil are all in vain, Thalia," he boomed. "You may imprison me, but the Blood Moon will rise again, and I will break free. And in the meantime, there are plenty of other creatures that could possibly bring harm to your precious town. Just know that, even when I have lost, the Profane Prince has won. You just may not see it yet."

"Then we will rise and battle you again!" Thalia declared.

"As long as you are here, we will know no rest," Odric began. "We will ensure that this prison becomes your tomb, even if we must wait a thousand years."

"Then let it be so," the Profane Prince snarled, snapping his finger as a demonic pact etched itself onto Thalia and Odric. "I look forward to seeing you the next time the Blood Moon rises." And with that, he allowed himself to be pulled into the faerie prison…'

"Never to be heard from again. Some say that he still exists here, the Profane Prince, lying dormant under the town of Thraben, waiting for the right time to rise and take back this world." Narset looked over the class, sighing as she saw the numerous sleeping students. Grabbing a textbook, she slammed it on the desk, startling several of them awake. "I would suggest paying closer attention, everyone. You never know if there's going to be a quiz on this tomorrow." The entire class groaned. One of the students in the front piped up.

"I thought it was a very interesting story, ma'am," Nissa Revane said. The chipper elf smiled at the teacher, easing Narset's frustration with the high schoolers a little.

"Yeah, great if you were in Creative Writing," someone called from the back. "But a little outlandish for a History class if you ask me." Everyone turned to look at Jace Beleren. The junior sat slouching in his seat, his face hidden inside the hood of his blue hoodie, hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. "It's just a bunch of myths and faerie tales. This one was likely created to explain away geological activity, claiming that it was a demon trapped underground."

"Well, mr. 'I'm a junior and know more than you pathetic sophomores', did you know that most of those myths and faerie tales were also used to teach life lessons and became integral parts of several cultures?" Nissa retorted. Jace shrugged.

"I just think we should avoid talking about fictional beings like demons and dragons in a class where we're supposed to be learning about real, actual events. Less Profane Prince, more World War II."

"Even if the legends aren't true, we can still learn from, like how older civilizations thought, what they believed that we know now, and what led to their downfall. After all, those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it." Jace groaned and facepalmed at the cliche comment.

"Aw," someone cried from the other side of the room. "He's just upset that he scored the lowest on the Legend Of Nicol Bolas quiz during the Asian dynasties unit." The entire class snickered, to which Jace flipped everyone off, which only brought about more snickering and an appalled look from Narset.

"Mr. Beleren! Thirty minute detention after school." Jace only groaned. Narset glanced at the empty desk behind Rowan. "And where on Earth is Ms. Nalaar?!"


A cherry red Ford pickup raced down the winding mountain road, the beautiful Virginia country rushing past, surrounding the truck in crisp morning air and fall colors. The driver of the truck paid no attention to these, though. She was too busy focusing on the song she was listening to. Sixteen year old Chandra Nalaar drummed on her steering wheel as she blasted CCRs Bad Moon Rising, paying only enough attention to not drive off the edge of the road. She wasn't taking in the scenery, nor did she notice the motorcycle of a state trooper come up behind her, until the siren sounded, that is. Chandra groaned, turning the music down as she slowed and pulled over. The trooper walked over to the driver's side door, rapping her knuckles on the window. Chandra rolled it down, looking at the woman, her tan uniform, dark sunglasses, and serious posture made it clear that she wasn't going to go easy on her today. "Out of the vehicle Ms. Nalaar."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Chandra sighed as she turned her truck off and stepped out. "Can you make this quick Lavinia? I'm on my way to school."

"Your school day started half an hour ago."

"Wait, it did? Shit. No wonder Rowan wasn't there this morning."

"Ms. Nalaar, I could care less about your morning routine at the moment. I pulled you over on account of your speed. There is a twenty-five mile an hour speed limit on this road. Do you know how fast you were going?"

"Uh, twenty-six?" Chandra shrugged.

"Try forty-seven."

"Oh." Chandra looked taken aback. "I-I had no clue. Though, you have to admit, that's pretty damn impressive given the switchbacks on this road." The redhead winked, clearly trying and failing to lighten the mood Lavinia had set, as was clear on the older woman's face. The trooper sighed.

"Chandra, I know you like to have fun, but please keep that attitude reserved for extracurricular activities and sporting events instead of on the road. The vast majority of people in Innistrad County either drive work vehicles or are thirty year olds that drive like they don't want to live, making driving that speed very dangerous, even if very common. Plus, I know your mother would be very disappointed. For today, I'm just going to let you off with a warning, but you better hope this doesn't happen again." Chandra nodded.

"Alrighty then. Soooo, I really need to get to school."

"Go." And with that, the two women returned to their respective vehicles, but Chandra turned to Lavinia before they took off.

"By the way, Mom wanted to let you know that unless something comes up with you, the two of you are still on for that spa night."

"You can tell her I'll be there."

"Sweet. Also, can you maybe just, uh, maybe nooooot bring this little incident up with Mom?"

Lavinia laughed. "I'll consider it. Now get to school before you're even later."

"Yeah, going." Both of them took off, nearing the town limits of Thraben.


Chandra stepped into the school building and was immediately greeted by another student. "Hey hey hey! Look who finally decided to show up," he said. The boy had on business casual attire with a lapel pin for the school engineering team, the Izzet League, haphazardly hanging from his collar.

"Oh, shut it Ral," Chandra playfully warned. "Though, pretty good way to learn that you can't rely on Rowan to wake you up."

"I would have thought you would have been up before her based on how you're dressed." Looking down at her outfit, Chandra realised that he wasn't wrong. It looked like she had gotten dressed blind, from the dirty hiking boots, to the ripped and faded jeans, the wrinkled green flannel that had a funk that never went away, and of course, her favorite red t-shirt that was inside out today to hide the mustard stains. Her rats nest of bedhead didn't help her appearance either, especially when standing next to her best friend and his slicked back salt and pepper hair, making him look more like a well respected CEO than a highschool sophmore.

"Anyway. I had some good news for you, but I'm considering making you wait to hear it."

"Oh?" Ral waggled an eyebrow. "You know you want to tell me."

"Ha, cute. You know that move only works on your boyfriend, right Sparky?"

"I'll make it work."

"It hasn't since third grade. Trust me, it's not going to work. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get to class."

"Since when have you cared about being punctual?"

"Since I got put in Earth Science with Mr. Wildspeaker."

"Ooh, rough. Also, you get to lead the freshmen tour this afternoon. Apparently, that's the worst punishment Ms. Narset could think of for missing her class." Chandra groaned.

"I guess it could be worse?" She shrugged as she walked backwards towards the greenhouse.

"Whatever you say, Red." He didn't bother to warn her about the trash can behind her as she collided with it, instead laughing at his friend's misfortune and running off to the library, narrowly dodging a half-eaten apple to the head.


After a rather uneventful day, Chandra got ready for the tour, which consisted of cleaning her face a bit and getting her reading glasses handy to be able to see the notes that had been provided on the building's history. Once that was done, she pulled out her phone to check the time, only to discover that she was late and that the incoming freshmen would be showing up to the lobby at any second. She raced through the halls, hoping that she wouldn't leave them waiting too long, mostly for her own sake, as she would never hear the end of it from Ral, Ms. Narset, or Principal Markov. Okay, I might only get a stern talk from the last two, she thought to herself. She was so lost in thought about the consequences that she didn't notice the person in front of her until they collided. "Shit, I'm so sorry," Chandra said quickly.

"No worries," the girl she had run into replied cheerily. The redhead took a second, but was able to recall who the girl was. She was Nissa Revane, the elf in her first period class.

"What are you doing here?" Chandra asked.

"I volunteered to help with the freshmen tour. Unfortunately, I'm running a little behind due to having to talk with Coach Jura about my Phys Ed class, or rather, my asthma that could hinder me in it."

"Oh, well, don't feel too bad. I'm stuck doing the same tour. You're doing this willingly?"

"Yeah! It's fun, getting to talk about the history of the place we come to every day. Wait, you must be. . . Chandra! Yeah. Ms. Narset seemed pretty upset that you missed her class today. And you missed a super fun story."

"Can we just get the tour done?" Chandra groaned as they entered the lobby, which was packed with new students. She fumbled around in her bag for a second as searched for the papers with the building notes, putting her reading glasses on so that she would be ready when she needed to read them off.

"Good afternoon everyone," Nissa bursted out, sounding like a cheerful kindergarten teacher. "I'm so glad you all could make it, and I'm sure we're all going to have fun together on this tour." There were several groans from the crowd of students.

"Yeah, that's more like a high school attitude," Chandra remarked with a small chuckle. "Right, let's go. We don't got all day, freshies. First stop, trophy hall." She began walking backwards, wary of stray trash cans, but impressing some of the new students that she knew the school layout that well. "It's pretty empty, if that's any surprise. We literally only get recognized for our track team thanks to a couple of seniors, Samut and Elspeth. Anyway, this building used to be a church a few centuries ago, and trophy hall is the corridor that led down to the cathars armory, which is now the present day faculty room. Hope and pray that you never have to go in there, because a student never needs to go in there unless they're talking with Principle Markov, and that's never good. But if you take a right here instead of continuing down the foreboding stone tunnel, you'll find a few more rooms, the most important being the apothecary. Someone thought that it would be a good idea to keep the gothic feel of the place, so apothecary is what we call the school medical room and biology classroom. It gets a little awkward in there at times because of that, but we're a little short on space." Chandra continued through the tour, walking backwards the entire time. Nissa would occasionally interject something, but the focus was on the redhead almost the entire time, be it her knowing the school layout well enough that she didn't even need to look at it to travel it, or various other reasons for some of the boys in the crowd. They finished the tour in a little under an hour, with even Nissa being shocked at how much historical significance the building had. "I'm beginning to think that this place should have been a museum instead of a school," Chandra joked.

"I actually kind of wish it was," Nissa said. "It probably wouldn't be as cold then." The elf wrapped her arms around herself, her green sweatshirt clearly not working as well as she'd hoped.

"Well, I'm gonna be headed home. I'll give you a ride if you want. I usually keep my truck a bit cooler, but I can probably bear the heat for a little bit."

"That would be nice. Thank you."

"No problem. I'm parked in front of the post office across the street." Nissa nodded, and the two girls got in the truck. Chandra noted how uncomfortable Nissa seemed now that it was just them. "Is something wrong?"

"N-no. I'm just not used to one on one. I can handle large groups no problem. Heck, I called out Mr. Beleren earlier today on some of his remarks in class, but I'd have been a nervous wreck if the two of us had been alone."

"Well, Jace is an asshole, so the more people to see him get humiliated, the better. What did you say your address was again?"

"79 Hanwier Drive."

"Hang on." Chandra pulled over and turned to look at Nissa. "You walk to school from there?!" The elf nodded. "Well, I hope you can put up a good fight. All kinds of druggies and gangs in that part of town."

"The rent is cheap," she quietly mumbled. The elf seemed to shrink a bit, as if she was trying to hide.

"So, do you live with anyone? Parents, siblings, awkward third cousins that are probably only related through some undocumented redneck marriage?" The last one got a laugh out of Nissa.

"I live with my roommate Kaya, but she's going off to college in Texas later this year."

"Tell you what. I'll talk with one of my friends. You seem nice, and she might be able to set you up somewhere a bit safer."

"You'd do that?"

"Sure. I've got nothing better to do this evening since Ral is likely occupied with Mortal Kombat or Tomik until the wee hours of the morning, and I'm also hoping that this helps me seem like someone worth being friends with, even if I did forget deodorant this morning."

"I wasn't going to mention it. Thank you."

"Eh, no problem. And would you look at that, we're here." Nissa climbed out and began heading for her small home when she heard Chandra call for her. "If you ever need a ride, just let me know. In the evening, that is. I'm not really a morning person." The dark haired girl smiled.

"Okay, I will. Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow." Chandra waved back at her before pulling out, heading home.


Chandra knew she was screwed when she pulled into her driveway and saw her mother's gunmetal grey GTO sitting there. She was late. As she stepped inside, she moved for the stairs. Her foot had just hit the first stair when she heard her mother yell: "CHANRA ALIX NALAAR!"

"Shit," she whispered as she froze and winced. Slowly, she made her way into the kitchen, where her mother stood with a very dissapointed scowl on her face. Chandra was amazed that someone two inches shorter than her could be far more intimidating than she could ever be.

"Would you care to explain why you're home so late?"

"Actually," Chandra began guiltily, "my explanation is perfectly reasonable. You see, I had to lead the freshmen tour, which took a little while. Then I had a quick detour to give a ride to one of my classmates, who happened to live in the opposite direction. Then, on the way back, traffic was hell-"

"Language."

"Ugh, fine. Traffic was awful around city hall. Apparently, while this Red Moon thing isn't going to be until the end of the month and only lasts one night, they need to begin setting things up now, clogging the streets for several blocks."

"Well, I suppose that is reasonable, for you, not the city. Just," Pia rubbed her temples, "next time, please let us know when you're going to be late because of something like that so that I don't have to waste time thinking of possible punishments."

"Will do. Now, I'm going to go talk to some of my friends about something. Let me know when dinner's ready please."

"Actually, your father and I are heading to a dinner meeting with Dovin."

"Mr. Baan, the civics teacher?!"

"Yes. He's actually looking for a job in automotive maintenance for his son, and Kiran thinks he might have a suitable opening. Your brother and sister are running some errands, and if you ask them nicely, they might pick up something for you."

"Well, surrogate siblings, but sure. Let's see if Rowan is more reliable at getting Bojangles than she is at waking someone up in the morning."

"I'm not even going to comment on that."

"Love you too, mom!" Chandra said quickly as she raced to her room. Kicking off her shoes and pulling off her flannel, she flopped down on the bottom bunk of the bed that she was forced to share with Rowan. Luckily, they had similar interests, so she was able to leave some of her posters up, including the ones for Supernatural and the Blue Ridge Parkway, though Rowan had insisted that she also let her put up her Twilight poster, which Chandra had been wanting to burn from day one. Instead of focusing on that, though, she pulled out her phone and began texting.


CN: Hey Row, I got home a little late. You mind grabbing me some Bojangles or something?

RK: I'm actually waiting on an order from the butcher. I'll ask Will. The usual?

CN: Would I be me if I got anything else?

WK: So, they have a new dessert biscuit out. Knowing you, should I get it?

CN: Hell. Yes. Get 10.

CN: Hey Jhoira! I know we haven't talked in a little while, but I have a friend stuck in the Hanweir neighborhood and I was wondering if you could possibly find a way to help them. I don't like them living in that area of town. Please? :)

J: *Read 6:42pm*

"Okay, harsh," Chandra said.

CN: Just letting you know off the bat that the eyebrow still didn't work. I'm just letting you know this because I need help with installation.

RZ: Okay? Spit it out.

CN: IT CAME IN!

RZ: The new brush guard for your truck?

CN: No Sparky. A new sports bra came in.

RZ: Then why do I need to know about it?

CN: RAAAAAGH!

RZ: ;)

RZ: Love ya Red

CN: Save it for your boyfriend

RZ: Speaking of, Tomik wants to watch a movie. TTYL

CN: Bye

Chandra sprawled out on her bed, giggling at her friend's antics as she put on her headphones, starting up her Guns & Roses playlist and drifting off to sleep.