Told from Alexa's point of view

I stand impatiently by the barn portal entrance, waiting for Chris. Dammit, it's been twenty minutes since I called. He should be here by now. Oh, who am I kidding. It's Chris, for gods sake. And Chris is always late. I hear screaming from the tube system, the sound growing louder until Chris thuds out. He's is an average height with unruly black hair, brown eyes, and dark skin. He brought his all purpose satchel, which contains an array of equipment, most of which can be used for breaking and entering.

"I still haven't gotten used to that thing." Chris remarks, brushing himself off.

"You're late." I reply. "This is serious."

Chris stands straight and salutes me. "Sir yes sir!"

I roll my eyes. "Well, I'm glad you're having fun. I need you to spike the party drinks."

"That's serious? You want me to prank a party." Chris raises an eyebrow.

"You take offense to that?" I inquire.

Chris merely laughs. "Alex, ol buddy ol pal, nothing would please me more." He agrees. "Why can't you just do it?"

"Because if I were to do it, Eli would notice. But the only way they'll spill any information is if they're drunk. To me, that is. Julia probably has them wrapped around her little finger." I explain. "You'll have to spike the whole supply in the back."

"Ok, I'm following, but with what? Unless you've got some whiskey stashed up your dress." Chris asks. "Side note, what is with that dress? I've never seen you wear a dress before."

"That's because they're uncomfortable." I answer. "But we're getting off topic. Getting the stuff is going to be the tricky part."

"Why? I could've taken some from my mom, she's always too drunk to notice." Chris suggests.

"We won't be using liquor, that won't work on all demons. What we need is to brew an elixir. But the ingredients and instructions we need are in Eli and Chike's house."

Chris sighs. "I knew there'd be a catch. So we have to break in?"

"Well, they're both at the festival and I'm pretty sure they left the door unlocked. We just have to remain unseen." I explain. "Got a plan?"

"We sneak around the hill and walk right through the back door?" Chris suggests.

"I wish. The venue is beside the house, so if they so much as stepped outside they'd see us. That's why I called you." I grin desperately and do finger guns, hoping he'll help me.

"Sure thing, ring-a-ding." He pulls out a grappling hook out of his satchel. "Seems like we'll have to climb through a window on the opposite side. We'll have to stay out of view on the way."

"Well, duh." I remark.

"Don't you worry, hun-a-bun." He assured. "I've got this in the bag."

"Never call me that again." I forewarn.

"Okey doke, artichoke." Chris affirms. "But seriously, can we talk about that dress?"

"We're leaving." I state before trekking up the side of the hill opposite to the venue. Chris follows, chuckling.

Once we reach the house, Chris shoots his grappling hook and it latches onto a second story window.

"Hold onto me." He wraps his arm around my waist. I put one hand on the grappling hook and the other in his.

"Don't make this weird." I command.

He nods, but he's smirking like an idiot. He pulls some lever and we shoot up to the window. "How exactly are you planning on getting in while we're holding onto a grappling hook for dear life?"

"Step onto the ledge, moron." He replies. "You're smart as hell, but not a lick of common sense."

We let go of the grappling hook and stepped onto the ledge, as he said. Chris reaches into his bag and grabs crowbar.

"Just in case." He remarks.

"Yeah, they'd never notice if someone did that." I sarcastically reply, opening the window with ease. "No breaking and entering required."

"Pretty sure this is still breaking and entering." Chris observes.

"Well, we haven't broken anything, so technically we're just entering. Unless your clumsy ass breaks something inside." I reply. "Just out of curiosity, why couldn't we just open one of the downstairs windows?"

He smacks his forehead. "Because, genius, what if they were still down there?"

I roll my eyes. "Whatever, let's just make the potion and get it over with."

I walk down the hall into Chike's potion room. It's magnificent, my second favorite room in their house, after the library. It's small and circular. The carpet is a royal purple with golden embroidery, and curtains of the same color. There's a circular cherry wood table in the middle of the room with a wide and shallow dish taking up most of the space, with the edges vacant for ingredients. Shelves filled with potions books, ingredients, and magical trinkets Chike has collected line the walls.

"Let's get cracking." A wide grin spreads across my face.

"You can be scary sometimes. Like right now, for instance." Chris remarks.

I immediately begin brewing. "Base of vinegar...belladonna petals...harpy's blood...griffin feathers..." I list off certain ingredients as I work. "Done! A perfectly blended mixture of truth potion and demon alcohol."

"Hold on, is the vinegar the alcohol? Do demons drink vinegar and get tipsy?" Chris asks, clearly amused by the prospect.

Suddenly, we hear the door downstairs. Someone's here, and we're not planning to stick around to see who. I quickly bottle the potion and we dash back to the open window.

"How're we going to get down?" I ask.

"You're not going to like it." Chris warns.

"Stop wasting time with cliches!" I exclaim.

"But I'm not done! I was gonna do the whole 'we're gonna need a bigger boat thing' but with the house of the power line or-"

"Chris!" I shriek. 

Hurriedly, Chris shoots his grappling hook to the power line. "Grab on."

"I don't mean to criticize, but the power line is higher." I point out.

"I've got a plan. Maybe. Just hold onto me." Chris instructs. Reluctantly, I wrap one arm around his neck and hold onto the gun with my free hand. He puts his free arm around my waist. I look at him, smirking. He's doing that smile. That 'I know you're impressed right now' smile. I figured being this close would be super uncomfortable. I mean, our noses are nearly touching, and touching for me is just weird. He pulls a trigger and we shoot up to the power line.

"This was a bad plan." Chris observes as we hang from the power line, which is threatening to fall.

"What is the plan?" I ask, masking my fear.

"We were supposed to land on that roof." He explains, pointing to a house we passed.

"That is a bad plan." I remark.

"I'm shooting at the house again." Chris decides, shifting our weight from the grappling hook to the power line.

"What?!" I yell.

"We'll just jump off onto the roof." He explains.

"Bad plan!" I shout as he pulls the trigger.

"We'll have to let go as soon as I say now!" Chris recounts his plan.

"Now!" He screams, letting go of his grappling hook. I prepare to land, trying to push my dress down as I fall so I can see.

"If we're mortally injured, I'm going to kill you!" I threaten, still trying to manage my stupid dress.

Thud! We crash onto the roof of some demon's house. I land on my hands and knees, but he does a full body smack.

"That was a dumb plan." Chris remarks.

"You think?" I say grimly. "Thank god my dress isn't ruined. Just scruffier in the knees."

Chris pulls himself up and sits next to me. "You're worried about your dress right now?"

I roll my eyes. "Well, if it were torn to shreds, Eli would certainly notice."

Chris nods. I stand up, slightly aching, and offer him my hand. He takes it and pulls himself up.

"Now what do we do?" I inquire.

"Jump off of this roof." Chris states.

"Seriously? How much jumping do we have to do today?" I ask, annoyed.

Apparently, Chris' form of answering my question is jumping off of the roof. "Why can't we have stunt doubles?" I grumble before leaping down myself. Chris pulls out his phone and takes a video of my fall.

"What was that for?" I ask once I'm on the ground.

"You look like a princess." He replies. I roll my eyes and laugh, trying to hide the fact that I'm blushing.

"Now go spike the punch, you hooligan." I command playfully, handing him the bottle. He salutes me and runs off.