Veronica, or Ronnie, Adler knew witches weren’t real. She’d never believed in fairy tales or myths or anything like that, as they never fit in her mother’s perfect picture of life. And her father died before she could even form memories of him. When she was eleven, her significantly older brother up and left the family for no apparent reason. Yet oddly enough, losing her father and brother had one common thread: Magic.
All her life, she was told her father died fighting in the war. Nobody really asked, so she never wondered exactly which war it had been. Her mother never told her anything that could destroy the perfect family ideal she’d created for herself.
She never knew why her brother left them after his girlfriend had a baby. Especially since she and her mother had been so involved -- after her mother got over him having a child out of wedlock -- and she was sort of growing up with her little nephew. She’d asked her mother why they hadn’t been around for a while, and her mother said the girlfriend claimed her brother was never allowed to see them again. There was no further explanation after that.
Ronnie knew better than to question her mother, as it had never really been an option in her life, even though it didn’t really make sense to her and she questioned just about everything else. But she trusted her mother would give her all the information she needed to go on.
This existential confusion continued until Ronnie reached 18, and her mother decided it was time for her to know the truth. That her father didn’t fight in a traditional, well-known war, but a magical one. A war against the stuff of legends, the stuff that wasn’t supposed to be real because it went against nature. Abnormal, unnatural witches killed her father at a magical school where her mother said they trained for these battles. They were programmed to kill normal people like her family. Like her father. And her brother had fallen in love with one of them.
Her brother’s girlfriend -- maybe even wife at that point -- was a witch, and she’d brainwashed her brother and stolen him from her life. Ronnie couldn’t process the thought of losing the most important men in her life because of these evil, deadly creatures that were trained to kill. They were the tangible thread between these losses, and Ronnie wanted to destroy that thread. For her family. She wanted to help stop them before they could take anything else from her.
Her mother was almost too enthusiastic at her daughter’s ambition to stop these creatures, and encouraged her to join the same band of soldiers -- hunters, because witches were beasts, animals -- that her father had been part of. And so Ronnie did, and they welcomed her with open arms not only because of her father, but because she was damn good. She promised to avenge her family, to protect them, and to make sure the evil ways of magic would be stopped.
She trained with the hunters all throughout college, where she studied English, and quickly moved through the ranks. She told everyone else she was training to be an EMT, when in reality she was ending lives instead of saving them. Other people couldn’t know about magic, and she didn’t want any trace of it in her real life anyway. So she managed being a full-time student, training and then fighting as a hunter, and being part of her school’s newspaper all at once. Her life was full enough to distract her from the pain of loss that fueled her fight.
Then she met Tessa. And Ronnie’s world flipped upside down.
Ronnie was a bit of a late-bloomer when it came to love and romance, but Tessa managed to change Ronnie’s life in a matter of moments. Ronnie couldn’t sleep, eat, think, or breathe without everything coming back to Tessa. And, thank god for her, Tessa seemed to feel the same.
Falling in love with a girl would ruin her mother’s image of the perfect family -- Ronnie was the last one left, so she had to be the perfect daughter, didn’t she? Regardless, she kept Tessa a secret from her mother and planned to keep it that way for as long as possible.
It was difficult for Ronnie to keep so much of her life a secret from Tessa, but she couldn’t tell her about being a hunter. She couldn’t expose her to the battles, the death and destruction of magic that she’d now seen firsthand. These thoughts kept running through Ronnie’s mind on one house patrol, where she and a handful of other hunters scoped out homes to target suspected witches. She was getting massively distracted, and maybe she was going soft, because wow was she sad about that family looking like her brother and her nephew if they were just a few years older, and...
Ronnie froze on the spot. She took a step away from the telescope and blinked, before placing her eye back on the target home. Her nephew -- now nearly eleven years old -- was there in that house moving fire with his bare hands for her aged brother and his graying wife. Ronnie watched the joyful little boy who she’d loved so much, this beautiful family she hated and missed so desperately, and it felt like all the moisture left her throat and went straight to her eyes.
She stared at them as long as she could, with a storming debate raging inside her mind. Witches weren’t people -- they were monsters. Yet when her superior officer asked if there was any suspicious activity in that home, she said no, and turned away from the home of her family. She let them go. She had promised to protect her family, and she’d keep it. Even if it meant an earth-shattering existential crisis.
And maybe it was this sentimentality and concern that led her to want a deeper connection to her mother, to want answers from her, but it felt like all her childhood confusion came back to suffocate and haunt her. The only thing that made sense was Tessa. And suddenly she was telling her mother about Tessa, and how she didn’t know love could feel like that or how something so good could happen to her. She needed these two women -- these two constants -- to know and love each other and love her and for things to make sense.
Her mother didn’t agree. Her reaction sent Ronnie spiraling -- how could she deny the only child she had left? All because of love? Was that why her brother left -- because their mother didn’t approve of his love? Ronnie couldn’t take it anymore. She’d graduated college and wanted to be a reporter. She wanted to follow her dreams and get rid of the nightmares of herself shooting her nephew mid-battle. He was just a kid, living his life and loving his parents, and Ronnie needed him to have that. She needed a fresh start with Tessa away from the hunters, so she promised herself the next battle would be her last.
When the battle came, she turned her brain off of Ronnie-mode and went straight into hunter-mode. Anything that wasn’t them was fair game. And while they were well-protected -- masked and fully armed -- the witches never seemed to be, which was how she noticed that familiar dark hair on a familiarly beautiful woman running through the field, wielding the air in a way Ronnie had never seen. Ronnie stopped short, and so did Tessa and her wind. Because she’d just been shot.
Suddenly, Ronnie didn’t care about the hunters. She didn’t care about the battle. She threw off her helmet as she ran towards her girlfriend, who looked nearly as shocked at seeing Ronnie as she did at the blood pooling from her side. Ronnie didn’t know she was crying -- she was in too much shock at her girlfriend being a witch and being there and dying there -- and all she could do was apologize. She didn’t know, she told her. She didn’t know Tessa was a witch. And she was so, so sorry. Tessa just had to hold on. Ronnie lifted Tessa’s head and rested it on her lap, running her fingers through the girl’s hair. Tessa reached her hand up to Ronnie’s face, but never quite made it to her skin before the light faded from her eyes and her hand fell back to her side.
Ronnie stayed curled over her for a while. This was all her fault. She’d joined the hunters, supported them, and led them to this town. The town where she realized her dream wasn’t revenge, but to write and write and never stop, and to love this sweet and incredible girl who helped her find a missing piece of herself. And it was all falling apart around her as she hunched over, clutching her girlfriend’s body. The battle had dissipated around them, so Ronnie carried Tessa’s body to outskirts of the woods. She’d never have enough time to bury her or do anything but rest her body gently down on the ground and press a final kiss to Tessa’s forehead before she had to flee.
Ronnie took one last look at Tessa’s face, and promised a promise she’d never hear but that Ronnie would take with her for the rest of her life -- she would stop the hunters, or she’d die trying. She’d stop them, so the Tessas of the world would get to live and thrive. So the kids like her nephew didn’t have to fear death at every corner, and could grow up happy and fulfilled. Because they were just people. Ronnie could see that now.
She fled the scene, and somehow, unconsciously, made it to Tessa’s apartment. She went inside stiffly, washed the blood off her hands, took off all of her hunter gear, and changed into clothes she’d left there. And she just sat for a while, as everything she’d known and trained for years to achieve crumbled down around her. She lost her father, her brother, her mother, and now her girlfriend -- there was nothing left. But that nothingness lit a fire in her, and she had promises to keep to her brother, her nephew, and Tessa. She’d do whatever she could to keep them.
She put all of her hunter gear into an old backpack. She searched around, breathing in Tessa’s scent and hoping something there could help her. Tessa kept her secret as much as Ronnie had, so maybe, just maybe, she’d also have information lying around somewhere. At least a name, a place, anything that could help Ronnie find the witches that she could help.
She felt crazy, as all of these thoughts and feelings seemed to come at once. But maybe it’d been underlying for so long, and maybe she was just a scared, lonely girl that wanted her family back and for people to love her. Who could, though? She killed witches -- people. She killed people. She nearly vomited at the thought, but knew she couldn’t help anyone if she just sat in the nothingness. The other hunters would come looking for her soon, so she had to act fast.
After searching through drawers and cabinets for what felt like hours, Ronnie finally found enough scraps of paper and odd-looking gadgets that she knew couldn’t be developed by people without magic, and figured that would have to be enough for now. At the very least, she’d found a town name. So that’d be her start.
When the hunters found her, she was back at her own apartment and apologized for fleeing, blamed it on being burnt out and apologized. The best way to take the hunters down would be from the inside out, so she had to keep up the act. She offered to scope out the town she’d learned about from Tessa’s apartment -- there were apparently already hunters there, and even witches that had turned against their own kind to help the hunters. And if hunters could take witches in, then maybe there would be witches willing to accept her help.
When she moved, Ronnie became a crime reporter at the town’s local newspaper, got a small apartment now covered in lots and lots of strange tech, weaponry, and paperwork in the room she’d deemed her office, as she tried to learn more about the witches.
She’s made a significant dent in her witch investigations, but she’s nowhere near to where she needs to be to keep her promises. She’s trying to get close to Andrew, who used his magic to help the hunters now instead of his own people. She wanted to learn everything he knew, and maybe she could find and help the witches he was betraying.
She just had to keep hoping something good would come from all this waiting. That someone would trust her, and she could make sure her nephew was protected along with all the others like him, and like Tessa, out there. Maybe then she’d forgive herself. But for now, she just had to write and wait.
Lucas’ eyebrows shot up in surprise at her retort back, watching as she slipped into something well practiced and clearly easily used to dissuade anyone from attempting any form of bond. “Special snowflake speech and an opportunity to call me a name of an acclaimed romance author. Gee, I’m flattered.” He brushed off her cynicism and mild-hostility with a chuckle, shrugging his shoulders. “You know, I think I will try and be your friend, now. Before I was a little wary.” He widened his eyes and winced before grinning at her. “But now? Now I’ve actually met you and can put the rumors to rest. It’s great to finally meet you, Miss Novak.”
“Would you have preferred John Green? I think the kids are still reading his books these days.” Ronnie had tried to be polite and not a jerk like apparently the other teachers had been, but then he was saying he’d be her friend and she blinked at him. This town only got weirder and weirder. “I’m sorry, isn’t friendship supposed to be a mutual thing? I haven’t officially agreed to anything.” He was still calling her Miss Novak, for Pete’s sake. She hadn’t even allowed them to be on a first name basis. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
As soon as Ronnie breathed out her name, Jules had to look away, eyes clouding with tears. She couldn’t handle her sister being soft and gentle with her, that was her favorite side of Ronnie and it made this so much worse considering since she felt so awful. “You’re just saying that because you’re my sister. I’m not strong like you and Lucien. I don’t even remember dad and what little I remember of mom is just… Lasagna and.. Her singing me to sleep. You guys had to grow up so quick and you had to maintain my innocence as much as you could. You guys are the strong ones.”
Jules let out a deep breath when Ronnie intertwined their fingers, letting her breath puff steam onto the glass of the passenger’s side window. “I don’t know how to tell Lucien. I don’t know how to not be scared each time I walk around town. I hear his car and it feels like I’m going to have a panic attack. And I’m… I want to be happy, I am happy. I have a great job, a wonderful family, an adorkable boyfriend and a best friend who came back to me. I have a good life. But then there’s this. And it’s like… It’s like I can’t breathe.”
“I’m not,” Ronnie told her as she shook her head. “You don’t have to be like us to be strong, and you definitely don’t need to remember them to be strong either. You’re the best of us, Jules. I think Lucien and I would both agree on that.” She was glad Juliana didn’t remember their parents. Ronnie herself barely remembered their father, but the lack of memory of their mother probably made it easier to deal with her loss. And she never wanted her sister to feel the way she had all those years ago. “There’s strength in kindness and in staying positive even when it feels impossible, and that’s what you’ve got.”
She wasn’t sure she wanted to know how their older brother would react to this. “We can figure it out together,” she offered. “Or I can tell him if you don’t feel like you can. Whatever you want and whatever you need, I’ll do.” Her thumb traced the skin of her sister’s hand as she spoke. She would honestly destroy every car in town to help Jules. “The good doesn’t always cancel out the bad. You can breathe, you are breathing, and you’re going to keep doing so. This won’t destroy you, okay? And I’m so proud of you for telling me.”
She shrugged slightly knowing that the reason was probably not going to translate well. “I’ve always had a sensitivity to how other people feel. I also wanted to help others, so I figured that would be a way to do it. What made you want to be a teacher - if I can ask of course.”
Ronnie’s brow furrowed. “A sensitivity? What do you mean by that?” She nodded her head. “You can definitely ask. Kind of like what you said, I wanted to help people. Make a difference. I always felt best in school in my English classes, so I just wanted to keep doing that. And teach kids what to do with what they read.”
Gerry took the photos from her and studied them briefly. He was surprised he hadn’t noticed them fall to the floor. His face flushed ever so slightly with embarrassment at the thought of being so unaware of his surroundings. “Thanks,” he said, smiling at her. “I was uh… experimenting with different lighting.” he shuffled his photos back into a neat stack on the table in front of him. “How are you Ronnie? Kind of late to be out getting coffee. Isn’t it a school night?” he asked, a little half smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“No problem,” Ronnie replied, nodding her head once when he thanked her. She quirked an eyebrow at him when he said he was experimenting with lighting. “A word of advice? I think you need to actually have lighting for your subjects to show up in the pictures. But were you shooting anything special?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m fine. How are you?” She grinned slightly. “It is, but I’ve got papers to grade so I need to fuel up. I’ll probably be back in…” She checked her watch. “A little under ten hours for more. I live in an endless caffeine cycle.”
“No word yet, but I’ll keep you posted.” She wished she had known, that she had answers other than soon or we’ll see, or I’m working on it. She thought back to Andrew, how he said he just wanted to help as much as he could. Calli felt the same way when talking to the residents of Elkridge, she just dealt with it differently. “I do a lap or two around town, to the forest’s edge and then back home usually. Sometimes I’ll do other errands, kill two birds with one stone.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” A half grin crawled over her face, thinking about what the hell her brother and sister might be up too at this moment. Lorelai was probably doing paperwork between sessions, perhaps prescribing something for yet another person seeing hallucinations of goblins and ghouls. Dominic would be down here, running around with stacks of charts in his hands. “They’re good, busy but if you see a flash of white coats that’s probably them.”
“Thanks. And if you see or hear anything about Slenderman hanging around, ask him why he hasn’t been returning my calls,” Ronnie remarked sarcastically, as she knew the two of them felt the same about the ridiculous ideas people were getting about the deaths and disappearances. “Ah, that’s efficient. And it’s a good thing it’s actually impossible to get lost around here.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “As you should. I’m very much a caffeine expert at this point,” she told her. She nodded along as she listened, knowing for a fact that her own siblings had been much busier than usual lately. She could only imagine that the entire Winters family were constantly buzzing around. “I’ll be sure to wave if I see them rush past. Though I can only imagine how busy you’re keeping, as well.”
“Do you have an album for all his photos? If not, you should definitely make one. Like people do for babies.”, she rolled her eyes. “He knows my love for dogs, believe me, it’s one of the few things he knows about me. I can’t hide that. I can’t walk past a dog without wanting to pet it, they deserve all the cuddles in the world. If Novak’s phone disappears, I’m counting on you not to tell him I’m a possible suspect.”, she nodded a couple of times. “When they lay down and their thighs do the Thing where they look like little furry frogs.”
“Natalia, of course we do,” Ronnie told her, because how could the Novak family have Mr. Raincoat as a pet and not keep a detailed record of his life through photos? She shook her head, trying not to laugh as Natalia continued. “No promises. He’s my brother, so I’ve got to have family loyalty. I’ll frame a photo of Mr. Raincoat and have him give it to you.” She shook her head again. “I can’t stand it. It’s adorable. I don’t think corgis are real.”
Hayden laughed. “C’mon Ron, you don’t want to be maid of honor? Watch your little sister have her first dance to A Thousand Years?” she continued to tease. Quietly though the thought of it all also made her want to vomit. “You’ll never understand. It’s okay. You were cursed with heterosexual privilege. I understand completely.” She had the urge to go listen to Landslide now. “Y’know, maybe screenwriting isn’t the career path that was meant for me. I think I should be a journalist for Buzzfeed. Deep millennial writing accompanied by gifs and everything. I think you’ve changed my life.”
Ronnie held up her hand to tell Hayden that she needed to stop speaking immediately. “She will not be dancing to a song from that awful vampire movie. And she’s not even allowed to think about it for at least ten more years.” She rolled her eyes again at her. “I’m sorry I don’t have your emotional capacity for people that aren’t real. Their cover of I Wanna Dance With Somebody was better, anyway.” Those were most likely fighting words, but Ronnie still wasn’t sure how Glee had ended up in this conversation. “It’s a gift,” she said with a shrug. “You could even make a quiz to find out the gayest Glee cover to match people’s personalities.”
The writing down the password part might not go as close to plan as she could hope, but Merrick did like some of the other ideas that she heard. She liked them so much that she started to bounce in place a little. “My parents are good at buying and flipping things. Oh my gosh, they probably wouldn’t even charge me a service fee, would they?” Parents were great sometimes, and they even gave great hugs. She really needed to let her mom and dad know how appreciated that they were. “Yes, but the point of avoiding winning is not having to pay extra money. Have you talked to tax auditors before? Expensive.” She nodded a little sadly. Google was at least faithful, even if the image search had gone all wrong lately.
Oh no. She was bouncing. Ronnie almost wished she hadn’t said anything, why was this woman bouncing? Did people do this in normal reactions to things? “Uh, probably not,” she affirmed cautiously. “Unless they’re assholes, which you haven’t made them seem to be. Can never be too sure, though.” She wasn’t sure she could remember how this conversation started at this rate. “I guess that’s true. I do my taxes online, which is free and the only person I have to rely on for it is myself.”
Lee gazed up at Ronnie, ever so slight amused. Sarcasm as a shield, it was a trope that feature in a few of his short stories, he wonder if he had been inspired by Ronnie without being aware of it. “I didn’t realise that my not being involved in the town meant that I was an enigma. Perhaps I’ll write that on my business cards.” He returned the shrug. “It’s going normally, Ronnie. How about yourself?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of enigma around here,” Ronnie replied with a short nod. “Please do, I’m sure people will enjoy knowing you’re self-aware.” She sat herself down beside him as he spoke and she raised an eyebrow at him. “Normal as in people have stopped checking out weird books about supernatural entities and urban legends, or as in people have been doing that consistently for the past few months? Things are normal with me as well. Shocking, I know.”
“It’s not that simple.”, his tone was firm and assertive this time. “Otherwise we would’ve figured it out by now, don’t you think?”, maybe he was letting his frustration out on her and that wasn’t fair. But Ronnie also never seemed to let her guard down, regardless of his attitude, nice or not, so he didn’t apologize this time. He was trying to apologize less and stand his ground more. “Either way, to consider alternative options is not silly.”
Ronnie sighed at the attitude Andrew was now giving her and she rested her chin in her hand as she turned to look at him. “You realize that you started asking me about this, right? You wanted my opinion? If you didn’t want to know what I had to say, you shouldn’t have asked.” She shook her head at him. “I’m not calling you silly. I was trying to see what your next move is supposed to be. I don’t actually have a clue about this, which is why I was asking.”
“I think you’re wrong.” He countered quickly, looking up at Ronnie with a curious expression on his face. “Not like–I didn’t mean–” He adjusted his glasses, sighing deeply before continuing. “I didn’t mean in general. I just… I don’t believe that a person can’t be interesting. I’ve met so many people in my life, living and dead, and each one came with a story. And I think that, even if it’s a page from a chapter, or the whole damn book, I’d like to make my own judgement on whether or not Ronnie Novak is interesting or not. Because from what I’ve seen so far, I’m definitely getting the vibe that you’re not nobody. But it’s your choice, obviously.” He shrugged with a smile, leaning back in his chair.
Ronnie raised her eyebrows when Lucas said she was wrong, which was something he certainly wouldn’t have done if he knew what was good for him. She fought hard not to roll her eyes throughout his speech, and she let out a sigh instead. “Thanks, Nicholas Sparks,” she remarked. “I meant in the general scheme of things. People here already know me, so I’m not interesting to them. I’m not nobody—I know that. I’m sorry you wasted that special snowflake speech on me instead of one of the kids who might need it. But I’m concerned that you’ve apparently met dead people, though.”
“Well, I didn’t particularly intend to tell anyone, but it seems that’s the boat I’m in now. I’ve got the memory of a goldfish so I probably won’t even remember that I told you. Maybe.” He didn’t want to seem too forward, but he was sure he’d remember everything she said in this conversation. When he cared about what he was talking about, he tended to remember it more. When he didn’t, it was in one ear and out the other. “Are you like a lawyer or something? Because I’m convinced you’d be able to get any common criminal to spill his secrets to you in a matter of seconds. You’re very intimidating.” It was meant jokingly, but it was very true. She was awfully intimidating to talk to and she was sure the colleagues she had were probably thinking the same thing. Not that it was a bad thing in his opinion. It was a good thing to Romeo. He was never interested in people who held back their opinions. “You really haven’t talked to the television before? Dora must be so mad at you. You must be the reason she took so long to respond,” he joked. “Noah Cross?” He had no idea who the man was, but he assumed the guy was fresh out of prison as well. Or had been in one at some point to get that kind of reputation. “I’m gonna be honest, I read this book five times because it’s my favorite book. Even before the prison stuff. I think second would be like Catcher in the Rye if we’re looking for non-prison related books.”
“That’s understandable. You’re lucky it was me, though. But for the record, it’ll probably be hard for me to forget a complete stranger telling me he’s recently gotten out of prison before telling me literally anything else.” Ronnie couldn’t say she’d ever met anyone who’d immediately told her one of their biggest secrets, but these days it seemed like there was certainly a first time for everything. Even the weirdest shit. She grinned and shook her head. She was rarely fazed by anyone calling her intimidating anymore. “No, but maybe I missed my calling with that. I’m actually a teacher at the high school—needless to say kids in my classes aren’t likely to cheat. I told them I have eyes in the back of my head and I think they believed me.” Her brow furrowed and rested her chin in her hand. “I really haven’t. You…talked to Dora? The woman on the TV you were talking about was Dora the Explorer? I can’t even make fun of you for that. You’ve done it for yourself.” She nodded her head. “Yeah, he was also in prison, except he actually killed someone. I think he just got out at a very inconvenient time.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “Ah, so the truth finally comes out. You didn’t tell me if you talk to the characters, though. Catcher in the Rye? That doesn’t surprise me at all. I could’ve guessed that would be your favorite.”
When they pulled over to the side of the road, Jules squeezed Ronnie’s fingers tightly. Reaching over quickly, she locked the doors, hitting the button twice, just to be safe. At Ronnie’s attempt of trying to get her to trust her, she couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her lips. Her chin wobbled the second hair was brushed back behind her ear and Jules felt her head drop to her chest, eyes going shut as she tried to keep herself calm.
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Ronnie was grateful for the years spent bottling up and repressing her feelings as well as her innate ability to keep a straight face, because those were the only things holding her back from her rage. But in her mind she knew that if Jules wasn’t crying and opening up to her right now, this mystery prick would be dead in seconds. She was sure her burning hatred could probably kill him telepathically. Instead, she sat, listened, and slightly slipped into teacher-voice as she tried to stay as calm as possible in this situation.
“Juliana,” she began, feeling at a loss of what she could say that could fix this, but she had to try. She let out a soft sigh as she continued. “You are strong. You may not feel like it, and you may feel like he stripped that away from you, but he didn’t. No one ever will. You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever known. What he did to you was wrong, it was evil, and, most importantly, it will never happen again. I swear to you.” She shook her head. “And…whether or not you were a virgin does not mean it—it wasn’t rape if he forced you to have sex.” She intertwined her fingers with her sister’s. “You are strong and you are safe, okay? I love you, I will always love you, and I am so, so, so sorry. I’m here for you and I will help you through this. Anything you want or you need, I will be here.”
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