Rain continued to pour outside as Leslie sat at the table, drumming her fingers against its oak surface.

     The brewing storm outside seemed to echo loudly around the academy.

     Leslie sighed to herself as she leaned back in her chair, resting her head. She groaned.

     Once again, her whole day was full of nonstop studying.

     Leslie rubbed her red eyes, tiredly. She did everything in her power to not yawn.

     Her work and studies weren't the only things that were leaving her absolutely exhausted—-Leslie wasn't sleeping very well lately.

      The eighteen-year-old was nervous. She spent day and night worrying about what was coming up.

      Every eighteen-year-old in the Haynes Academy had to go through a ceremony—-one of which bound them to a demon.

     The general idea was that the demons would be person servants to the witches.

      Servants, Leslie began to think to herself. Servants… Really? Demon servants?

      To Leslie, the idea seemed horrible.

      Firstly, demons were their own living beings who deserved to be treated with respect.

       Leslie also had a general dislike of demon-kind ever since her experience with giving in to the demon.

      I'm gonna be bound to a demon my whole life… Great, Leslie thought to herself, exhaling heavily.

      Leslie tapped her boot against the stone ground. Dammit, she thought to herself.

     "Knock, knock," Sage's elegant British accent echoed from the otherside of the door.

      Leslie's head jerked up from the chair, blinking a few times. She rubbed her tired eyes before standing, promptly fixing her dark hair afterward. Slowly, she made her way toward the door.

     Leslie inhaled deeply before opening the door. "Sage. Mycah," she greeted her friends.

      "Is this a bad time?" Sage asked, noting Leslie's tired eyes.

      Leslie yawned. "No, no. I'm fine," she tried to reassure her friend. She leaned against the wall for a moment. "Come in," she told her two friends.

     Mycah and Sage exchanged a glance before heading into Leslie's dorm room—-Leslie closed the door behind her two friends.

     "You look like hell," Mycah told his friend as she approached them once again.

      Leslie laughed a little at her friend's comment. She exhaled slowly. "Yeah, yeah… I know."

     "Have you been sleeping at all?" Sage began to ask the dark haired woman standing in front of them. Then they ran a dark hand through their black, curly hair. "You look like you haven't slept in centuries," Sage began to note. "Eons even."

      Leslie sucked in a breath, clearly the slightest bit amused. "Yeah…" She exhaled again, looking to the ground before looking up again, this time to the side and away from Mycah and Sage. "It sure has felt like that." She nervously rubbed the back of her neck.

     "And why is that, Les?" Sage began to question their friend. "...if you don't mind me asking, that is."

      Leslie inhaled very deeply before letting go and exhaling, slowly. "I've just been having to do a lot of studying recently, okay?"

    Mycah raised an eyebrow at Leslie's response. "Really? Studying? That's all? That's why you look like a corpse back from the dead?"

     Leslie exhaled again. "Ha. Very funny, Mycah."

     Mycah then insisted, "I'm serious, Leslie. You don't look that great. You really do need to sleep, you know."

      Leslie closed scarlet eyes for a moment, nodding. "I know."

     "Tomi needs you to rest," Mycah then said. "Tomi wouldn't want his mama to suffer… He wouldn't want to see it."

      "I know," Leslie repeated, still not opening her eyes yet. She drummed her fingers on the table once more, steadying her breathing.

       I couldn't bare for something to happen to Tomi, she thought to herself, trying to push every possiblity and scenario of her toddler son getting hurt out of her mind.

     Even though Leslie never intended to have Tsvetomir in the first place, she couldn't live with herself if he even got the slightest bit hurt.

      Leslie opened her eyes once more looking over to Sage and Mycah. "Fine… You're right." She sighed. "That's not the only reason I'm not sleeping well."

     Sage and Mycah once again exchanged glances with each other before looking over at their friend once more.

      Leslie looked down to the table as she danced her fingers nervously over the wooden surface. She wetted her lips. "I…" She blinked her eyes closed again. "Look, I'm nervous about the bindings, okay?"

     "Well, we all are," Sage replied.

     Leslie's eyes opened once more. She looked at Sage. "Really? You're…?"

      "A little bit nervous?" Sage began to respond. They nodded. "Of course. Anyone would be." They shifted their weight from one leg to the other. "You never know when something could go wrong with the binding."

     "You've a got good a point there," Mycah replied.

     "I'm not just worried about the binding process," Leslie injected.

      Sage acknowledged the look in their friend's ruby red eyes. "You're… you're nervous about who will be binded to you, aren't you?"

     Leslie nodded, once again looking toward the cold, stone floor. "Yeah. I am." She exhaled. "I…" She fell silent for a moment, shifting back and forth a little. She pressed her tongue against her top lip for the briefest moment.

     "Are you nervous the demon will hate you or something?" Sage proposed. "Like… you think that by binding them to you, they'll resent you? That'll you'll ruin their life by doing that?"

     Leslie huffed. "Yeah."

    "Well," Mycah began to say. "I know what I'm gonna do."

      Both Leslie and Sage looked over at Mycah and unison.

     Sage raised a dark eyebrow. "And what's that?"

     Mycah shrugged. "I'll rig it… So I get a pretty boy demon… then you know…" He made a kissing gesture with his hands.

      "You're gonna marry your demon?" Sage asked Mycah, amused.

      "Mhm," Mycah replied. "I might as well if we're gonna be stuck together for all eternity."

      Sage laughed a little at Mycah's comment before addressing Leslie. "You know… Mycah's got a point. Maybe you'll luck out… Maybe this demon won't hate you… Maybe she'll like you… More than just a friend… Maybe you'll be like Mycah and his demon."

     Leslie laughed at that thought. "Maybe." Her gaze drifted over to the room that Tomi was sleeping soundly in. Leslie's tone softened as she repeated, "Maybe."