Hurrying back inside the almost deserted school hallway, Sehun, Sulli and Sungjong went to find their other 2 companions.

            “you really shouldn’t have lost your temper, Sungjong-ah.” Sehun said as he sniffed the air for Suho and Jieun’s scent.

            “tch! I’m actually starting to feel like those bullies deserve what they got.” He spat harshly earning a gasp from Sulli.

            “I know they aren’t very nice, Sungjong, but that’s definitely not the right thing to say.” She said aghast.

            “you’re right. sorry.” Sungjong sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose trying to get his head back on straight.

            “this way.” Sehun gestured to their right.

as they turned they saw Suho, Jieun and another lady come out from the infirmary, all three wore friendly smiles on their faces. The other 3 hurried towards them.

            “hey you three, ready to leave?” Jieun asked glancing at her watch.

Suho noticed Sungjong’s guilty face and glanced toward Sehun who sighed.

            “what happened?” Suho said his eyes narrowed. He eyed the other three much more seriously now as he usually would.

Sungjong opened his mouth but Jieun cut him off.

            “you lost your temper, didn’t you?” she guessed.

Sungjong nodded and looked away guiltily.

            “nothing serious happened right?” Suho asked. All three shook their heads. “then let’s all head back to the apartment, the sun is going to set soon.”

The three looked up and smiled at the leader, then they all took notice of the blonde woman that was standing beside Jieun and she took the honors of introducing them to Gina.

            “ah yes, guys this is Gina, Suho’s friend.” Jieun gestured to her newfound friend. “Gina, these are the rest of the group, Sulli, Sehun and Sungjong.”

They all shook hands and exchanged greetings.

            “I hope you kids try to go easy on those bullies. They may be badly behaved but they are innocent to these attacks and definitely no match for you guys.” She said eyeing Sungjong with a smile.

Sungjong blinked at her not knowing whether to smile or not. The other 3 knew that if this woman was Suho’s friend and she was definitely the banshee they also came to see.

            “don’t worry we will try to be more…patient.” Sehun looked at the others before breaking into a grin.

After a quick farewell, the group hastened to get home. It was already getting late and the sun had already started to set making the 3 mage suddenly very lethargic almost already dragging themselves to the apartment building elevator.

Sulli and Jieun then half supported the 3 as soon they opened the door to their unit and hurriedly shuffled them to their rooms.

With a moan and a groan they fell on their beds, Sehun having to share with Sungjong dropped on top of the skinnier guy. Sulli managed to push Sehun off Sungjong before the sun had completely disappeared from the skies and the mage drifted off to sleep.

            “I hate having to do that.” Sulli said massaging her arms and dropped onto one of the couches in the living room and laid her back on it.

Jieun laughed and sat on the lazy boy.

            “can you tell me what you’ve noticed around the school today?” Jieun asked a bit seriously.

Sulli sighed and sat up putting a throw pillow on her lap.

            “well, there is a big bully named Mike that could be the next target. Everyone is just scared of him.”

            “could this bully walk around with 3 others?” Jieun asked remembering the common description of the bully or bullies from the counseling.

Sulli looked at her in mild surprise and nodded.

            “yeah, he does. He’s already targeted Sungjong.”

Jieun blinked as something dawned on her.

            “so that’s why Sungjong lost his temper.” Jieun said.

            “yeah, that Mike is really one nasty being.” Sulli said scrunching her nose. Jieun smiled at her.

            “Sulli-ah, you’ve seen the injuries most mage and majae get from missions. Those bullies are nothing.”

            “I know that, I meant those that we fight with are already monsters to begin with but these people…” she trailed off.

Jieun sighed understanding what she meant.

            “yeah, I get you.”

Sulli then looked at Jieun wanting to ask her something but unsure how to proceed.

            “Jieun-ah…” she called.

            “hm?”

            “you know how those…I mean you’ve been bullied before…I’m sorry…” she stuttered not knowing how to really articulate what she was wanted to ask.

Jieun laughed lightly.

            “have I ever wanted to get back at my bullies?” she guessed and Sulli looked at her with a sheepish expression.

Jieun leaned back on her chair and nodded playing with the hem of her shirt.

            “of course I wanted to, every bullied person out there must’ve also thought the same.  But then when I became a maja and learned about my responsibilities I told myself to just help people who needs my help the most and not concentrate on my own petty problems.” She looked up and smiled. “of course, helping bullied people is one of it and I’ve also learned even bullies have a story behind their every action.”

            “Unfortunately there’s still some that became bullies coz they are a bunch of spoiled brats.” Jieun laughed out loud now.

            “true. But then again who are we to really judge?”

Sulli leaned back and humphed but then she bolted straight up remembering something.

            “ah! Sungjong mentioned something earlier about the pattern of the attacks.” Sulli said running to Sungjong and Sehun’s room to grab the map.

She ran back out with the folded paper and spread it on the living room table.

            “you see, he connected these places and at the last place, here, it’ll be a complete hexagon.”

Jieun stared thoughtfully at the map her face scrunched up in concentration. She tapped her chin with her finger as she studied the map carefully.

            “Suho actually did bring this up with Gina earlier.” Jieun said straightening up.

            “yeah, Sungjong did say he talked to Suho about this. what did she say?”

            “that is has no significance to banshees whatsoever.” Jieun puffed her cheeks and shoved the map away.

Sulli sat in thought again. This doesn’t make sense to them at all. it could be just mere coincidence but still it was too close of a coincidence.

            “this definitely is hard. It might or might not be a banshee but if it isn’t one then what else could it be?”

            “I don’t know but we will know after further investigation. I think we should rest for now.” Jieun said stretching and standing up from her seat. Sulli sighed and followed suit.

---

As the night ticked on, hidden beneath the darkness comes the hunter stalking her prey. Anger seeped through her skin as her target came into view, feeling the intense desire to kill boiling at the pit of her stomach, rising through her whole body and pooling in waiting for its deadly release. She would’ve done so early in the day but the presence of mage and majae deterred her from doing so.

After another drinking session with his clique, the prey walks about whistling on unknowing of his upcoming fate. The night breeze rustled the trees and dried leaves from the change of season whirled about adding to the ominous fate that awaits the young man.

The young banshee continued to stalk her prey until he turned around a corner street with very few houses. The boy took out is house keys as he neared his house at the end of the block.

The banshee walked out from the shadows and straightened up and now openly followed her quarry. She could still remember the pain of the loss she felt when her bestfriend committed suicide because of severe bullying. At that point she swore to get her revenge and rid all schools of bullies. She will carry that promise to her grave.

The boy in front of her started to feel like someone was following him and the prickling sensation from the back of his neck increased significantly. Believing he could take on whoever was following him the boy slowly turned around. A look of surprise came on his face but after recognizing the girl he let out a sigh of relief.

            “did I scare you, Sam?” the girl asked ever so innocently blinking.

The boy named Sam scoffed.

            “scare me? you’ll have to do more than that to scare me.” he said slightly puffing himself up. “you came here to see me?” he grinned.

            “uhmmm…I actually visited a friend of mine from the other street but I got lost, then I saw you and since you’re the only one familiar to me I followed you hoping you could help me.” she said shoving her trembling hands into her jacket to control herself a bit.

If possible Sam’s grin got even wider. This girl in front of him was new to his school and definitely had already become one of Mike’s new target. Knowing this could only be his only chance to get ahead of his friend he walked towards the lost girl.

            “why don’t you warm up in my house first? You look like you’re freezing.” He said putting a hand over her shoulder.

            “oh…ok, if you say so.” She looked up at him ever so innocently but as he looked away her face bore the expression of triumph.

As they walked on, the wind suddenly howled blowing leaves in their direction and both of them raised their arms to shield their faces. The girl looked up and saw streetlamps overhead and started to blow freezing air. The night suddenly turned even chillier and the targeted bulb turned into ice and broke. She took the chance of the slight explosion to cling onto Sam’s arm and acted as if she was scared.

The grin on the boy’s face grew if possibly even wider as he tapped on the girl’s hand.

Reaching Sam’s house, they walked into the front porch and before Sam could unlock the door, the girl held his hand.

Sam looked at her confusedly and a bit irritated.

            “I wanted to thank you for helping me, Sam.” She said smiling. The darkness of the street and the porch masked her dark expression.

            “anything for a gorgeous, girl.” He flirted.

            “Will you let me thank you properly?” she sound her voice lowered a little to make her sound alluring. She looked up and started to tip herself up towards the boy.

            “I wouldn’t say no to that.” He grinned and started leaning towards her, his confidence unwavering.

But before their lips could even touch, the girl opened in an inaudible scream. Sam’s eyes shot wide open, blood vessels ruptured around his eyes and he fell on the wooden flood writhing in pain, hands over his ears and legs crumpling in obvious agony. Veins around his face started swell as blood rushed to his face. His ears started to bleed and as the pain filled his entire body his breathing became labored and difficult. He started to gasp torn between covering his ears and clawing his throat and chest. He looked up to see the girl but all he could see was red, he couldn’t hear anything either the sounds had started to fade.

Feeling like his head would explode he tried to scream but no sound came out. He let out a choked yelp, as the red slowly became black then…nothing.

The only thing he would remember and the last thing he’ll ever hear would be a disembodied voice saying, ‘bullies be cursed and I will get your friends’.

---

Jieun sat bolt upright from her bed her breathing a bit labored. She touched her forehead and felt cold sweat trickling from it. Then she remembered the images of blood and screaming, a boy writhing on the floor almost clawing his head.

That could only be 2 things, a nightmare or a vision. Jieun hated getting visions coz of the splitting headaches you get after having one. But majae are cursed with it, may it be happening at present, hours from now, months from now or even years into the future. But for young majae like her it’s only up until a few hours into the future.

Goosebumps now started to spread through her skin and she knew she just couldn’t ignore this. Glancing at the clock on her bedside table that showed it was just half past 5 in the morning then at the window where a tiny streak of orange glow from the sunrise started to appear.

Jieun flipped her blanket off and quickly walked to Suho’s room and knocked.

            “come in.” Suho’s sleepy voice answered.

Jieun opened the door and rushed in before closing it with a silent click.

Suho looked up at her cousin from his bed with a look of concern when he saw Jieun’s face.

            “Jieun-ah, is there something wrong?”

            “I had a vision… I think.” Jieun huffed looking down her eyes darted to the sides.

Suho stood up and rushed to Jieun. The sleep vanished from his eyes and adrenalin started pumping.

            “what vision?”

            “I am not sure if it really is a vision but if it is…” she looked up and met Suho’s gaze. “then we are in big trouble.”

            “what do you mean?” he said in nearly a growl.

Jieun put a hand to her head trying to stop the throbbing pain she’s feeling.

            “it’s really a banshee and she knows we’re here.”

Suho froze staring at Jieun in disbelief. She looked up and stared at her cousin straight on.

            “did you manage to see what she looked like?” he asked.

            “no, I was seeing everything through her eyes.” Jieun inhaled deeply. “she’s doing this for revenge.”

This didn’t surprise Suho after what Gina had told him yesterday, but then they needed proof first.

            “has she attacked again?”

Jieun nodded.

            “yes, and she’s going to attack again. I can clearly hear her say she’s going to get his friends too.”

Suho turned his around and grabbed a map of Portland.

            “do you know where she attacked?” he asked not looking up from the map.

            “if I could start with a trace spell then yes I could.”

            “get on it now.” he commanded curtly.

Jieun didn’t mind the snap in his voice. this was a matter they needed to face right now.

Jieun moved to a corner and sat with her knees to her chest and hands to the side of her head. As soon as Jieun casted the spell, her head snapped back and her eyes opened but her irises had suddenly turned silvery blue making it look misty. Taking short sharp breaths she started from where her vision started and felt through it. Tracing every corner connecting it to her current location. Invisible to the eyes of every one but the tracing maja, a gold-like thread shot out from Jieun’s open palms interlocking with each other forming an intricate golden braid and it shot right out of Suho’s bedroom window.

Suho still had not turned around to look at the maja behind but concentrated on the facts and the files in front of him.

            “Sehun! Sungjong!” he called and the 2 already dressed mage stumbled into the room.

They weren’t surprised at Jieun’s figure on the floor with her head bent back, her knees to her chest and hands sagging on the floor. They’ve already smelled the burst of magic, which meant a maja was casting a spell.

            “you called?” Sehun said tearing his gaze away from Jieun. He wore a casual cream, turtleneck shirt and jeans while Sungjong had a donned on a black vest over lighter inner shirt.

            “I need you guys to pay closer attention to those bullies today.” he said facing them his face marked the signs of extreme caution and seriousness.

            “Jieun had a vision, hadn’t she?” Sungjong said glancing at Jieun who had started to pant.

            “we’re not sure but most likely yes, and it’s a banshee.”

Sungjong and Sehun looked at each other.

            “so we were right.” Sungjong said thinking hard.

            “she knows about our weakness and started attacking at night. We will contact Mt. Shia for back up.”

The two younger mage gave a small bow and walked out of the room to wake up Sulli and fill her in.

Suho took a glance at Jieun before he took out a normal looking cellphone. Pressing the lock code the screen popped up and Suho clicked on Sora’s number. As it was magically modified it was able to reach Mt.Shia without the magic of the place to interfere with its signal.

Jieun started to feel her energy seep out of her body as the golden braid continued to stretch out of her body. She didn’t stop and continued to chant her spell. A faint click in her head and a slight tug from the braid told her the spell was complete and the location spell was a success.

She closed her eyes again and when she opened it, it was back to its original color of hazel brown. Jieun panted and leaned back to the wall with her leg stretched in front of her. She looked up only to see Suho tucking his phone back in his pocket.

            “I got the location, Suho.” She said in a slightly weak voice.

Her cousin turned towards her and smiled. Suho stretched out a hand and helped her up.

            “that took long enough.”

            “the weather isn’t helping, the wind keeps changing the direction of my thread.” She hissed irritably and Suho patted her head kindly. He knew she was tired but there are still more important things to do.

            “sorry but you wont be able rest just yet. We need to go now. I called home for some extra assistance with our slight hitch and they’ll be sending in a mage to help you and Sulli out during the night.”

Jieun gave out a sigh and tried to move her weak legs.

            “I figured as much. When can we expect him?”

            “I am not sure but I guess earlier since there’s going to be a full solar eclipse today.” Suho said looking at one of the papers on his bed.

            “the earlier the better I reckon.” Jieun shrugged and walked towards the door. “shall we go now?” she glanced at the clock and realized it took her a full hour just to trace the location from her vision. She hissed angrily.

She stomped out of the room followed by Suho and she summoned her magic again and soft swirl she had changed into her usual jeans top and a brown leather jacket and flat boots.

---

as soon as they stepped out of the portal, both of the newcomers knew something did happen. Police sirens were everywhere and an ambulance was parked outside an almost-decrepit looking house at the end of the road.

Suho and Jieun started to walk closer. Neighbors in their morning robes and jackets started to gather around outside the police line. Suho noticed the figure of a boy being laid on a stretcher with an oxygen mask on his face.

Suho took an involuntary hiss as the wind wafted in his direction. Jieun looked up and stared at him.

            “he’s lost a lot of blood, looking at his wounds probably started bleeding a few hours ago.” He said from under his breath. “and they just found him now.” he added.

Jieun looked at the boy from the stretcher again and tried to penetrate his mind but with the distance and his unconscious state she failed.

            “this doesn’t look good, Suho. She’s attacked 6 already and there’s 3 more at school.”

Suho had his lips pressed in a thin line.

            “can you get a feel of the banshee?”

            “already tried, she’s smart and clean, I got nothing.”

Suho let out a curse.

            “I think we have to do this in a much slower pace and get a closer look on all student profiles.” Suho said and motioned for Jieun to go.

            “it’s already not as long a list as you’d think. Remember we’re only going to look at the profiles of girls’ that just turned 18.” Jieun gave him an encouraging smile.

            “Jieun-ah, it’s a public highschool and there’s over 200 students in the senior class alone.”

            “tch! We have all day.” She said hitting her cousin’s arm a bit strongly undeterred by Suho’s pessimism.

He chuckled.

            “I really don’t know how Kris deals with you sometimes.”

---

Portland High

Sulli glanced out the window of her classroom, the skies darkened as the moon completely hid the sun. It reminded her that at these times the mage wake earlier, but tearing her eyes from the window she took a worried glance at her comrades who were visibly weakened.

            “remind me never to try this ever again.” Sungjong muttered spitefully. He was trying to keep his head up in class, he was feeling lethargic and it wasn’t only him but also Sehun who had his head resting on his arm.

They were weakened significantly as their potion within their bodies was not used to the change the eclipse had brought. It was torn between waking up and sleeping and as much as they wanted to sleep the potion wasn’t allowing them to do so.

Under normal circumstances, mage can walk about during a full solar eclipse quite normally but they can choose to go back to sleep and if they do decide to do other activities they could still do so. Although, slightly weaker they were still stronger than humans.

            “just a few more minutes and school is out.” Sulli whispered.

It only took the teachers a day to assess the intelligence of the new students and thus usually leaving them to their own devices. Sighing, Sulli took out her notebook and opened it before scribbling the new information they’ve gathered. The school was notified of what happened to one of their students and the 3 have been observing the movements of his other friends. Disgustingly enough, they didn’t care and just went on their bullying business.

When Sehun and Sungjong started to feel incredibly weakened after the lunch period, Sulli had done most of the observing especially among the girls. So far, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Students started rushing out of their classrooms hurrying to their lockers before going home when the bell rang. As Jieun had informed her earlier that the 3 of them could go home before them and asked Sulli to go back to the latest crime scene to gather more evidences she might’ve missed. Sulli didn’t complain when she caught sight of her friends walking like zombies beside her.

Suddenly, she felt Sehun and Sungjong stiffened and before she could turn Sungjong got flung onto a locker.

Murmurs echoed in the crowded hallway as Mike and his 2 friends gathered around the 3 newcomers.

            “going home so early?” he said throwing Sungjong’s backpack to the floor.

One of his other pals then shoved Sehun to the locker beside the other mage.

            “ off.” Sungjong spat and the crowd gasped as no one ever spoke to Mike like that.

            “stop it, Mike!” a voice rose from the thick crowd and the boy turned and saw the pretty brunette that had given Sungjong a tissue the other day.

            “is he your new boyfriend now, Christina?” he put a hand around Sungjong’s thin neck gripping it tight. “or should I say girlfriend?”

Onlookers started to worry that he might snap Sungjong’s neck but no one noticed the unimpressed expression on the latter’s face. Sehun didn’t even bother to help and Sulli had already been pushed so far back that she was teetering on whether to use her magic or not. She could do what she had done the other day but there were too many people and she wasn’t strong enough yet. She did what she thought was the next best thing and ran for Jieun and Suho.

            “let go of me, .” Sungjong spat venomously. Even at his weakened state he still had his tenacity.

            “you better stop calling me names or I’ll make sure you wont be able to arrange you face back again.” He said tightening his grip on Sungjong’s neck.

            “you really think you’re better than everyone else do you?” Sehun chuckled and pushed Mike off Sungjong and the bully stumbled backwards.

Another scared gasp broke through the crowd. As he lunged for Sehun, Sungjong stuck out his leg out to Mike for the second time causing the latter to lose his footing slightly and the crowd started laughing but stopped as Mike glared at them.

            “you two will pay for that.” He growled angrily and motioned for his two friends to beat them up.”

Sehun and Sungjong smirked at each other, as they both doubt that they strongest could even do them so much as a scratch. But then again if they got hit, they had to act as if it hurt as to not gather suspicion.

Both guys raised their fist and Mike grinned sadistically. Girls squealed from fright but before their fist could land on the mage’s faces a smacking sound was heard as the boy that was about to hit Sehun hit the palm of another and the one who was about to attack Sungjong got thrown to the lockers opposite them.

Loud whispering now echoed and students pointed at the newcomers whom they were definitely unfamiliar with.

Mike glared at them angrily for interfering. But as he stared at them he felt himself getting smaller and smaller, not that he showed it. He knew, however, that these two was not to be messed with.

At first glance they may look quite the ordinary students. The tall one with wine-red hair wore a black shirt under a camouflage hoodie which had the sleeves pulled up to his elbow, casual jeans and a pair of denim blue chucks. The shorter one with jet-black hair had a white shirt and a long sleeved light cardigan over and slightly loose jeans and chucks. However, as soon as Mike caught sight of their eyes he almost shrank in fear. Both eyes turned to slits and with their sharp features made them even look more menacing. He may be bulkier but there’s something about the aura those 2 emitted that means danger.

The taller one had caught one of his friend’s fist but his eyes was only on Mike and his other hand was shoved into his hoodie’s pocket.

            “dammit! Let go of me, freak!” Mike’s friend, James started to yank his hand away but it wouldn’t budge instead it tightened even more that he yelled out in pain and started to bend his knees.

            “so this is how you treat your fellow students.” The shorter on stalked towards Mike. He only reached Mike’s cheek but from his confidence it seemed like he was taller.

            “none of your business, whoever the hell you are!” Mike growled glancing over at his fallen friend over at the other lockers. He was groaning and massaging his shoulders.

            “they’re our business.” The tall one took out his other hand to jerk at the other two who chuckled darkly as they straightened up.

            “MYUNGSOO! TAO!”

The two newcomers turned around and saw Jieun stalking towards them with Sulli panting behind her.

Their expression changed from menacing to cute little puppies in half a second.

            “Jieunnie!” Tao threw James’ hand away and engulfed the maja in a bear hug. Myungsoo’s eyes smiled and waved both of his hands to Jieun.

            “nice to see you, Jieun-ah!” he smiled before he glared at the crowd which dispersed immediately.

            “I couldn’t say the same.” She said as soon as Tao let her go. She looked behind them and saw Mike and his friend with shock and disbelief written on their faces. “all of you, follow me.” Jieun snapped.

The rest of the mage followed behind her leaving the still- shocked Mike and his friends standing there staring at their retreating backs.