The smell of dust is overpowering. The shop has the distinctive smell of storage like winter clothes when brought out for the first time. It's lit by the little bit of sunlight that comes through the street front window and the small lamp that is connected to the long table that is covered with open books spread out from one end to the other. Books that are supposed to be bought before they are read, but after a lot of begging and pleading and an explanation of why they were there, he finally agrees to let them do their research with a promise they will buy something before they leave.

People come in and out of the shop, usually to buy something like a scented candle or incense. A few buy a book or some kind of magical item. The visits are a quick in and out. They all new the basics of why they were there and where it would be.

The group, minus Olivia, has come to see if the small unique shop has any information on their friend. Justin and Alyssa both have several books in front of them as they scan them all, looking for anything that looks helpful. Rachel has taken it upon herself to explore the shop, looking over the book titles got boring for her so she quickly moved onto things that smell funny and things that are in a jar. Trace and Cara are still in a pouting mode on top of the bored mode, so they have been on a break for the past hour of the two they have been there. Utilizing the time with sighs of boredom, tapping obnoxious beats out with their pencils until they received mean glares from the other two at the table and now they are just sitting there staring out into space.

"Ok, I'm bored of all of this wonderful research." Trace speaks out with sarcasm. "I believe I'm going to go for some food. Anyone want to join me?" Neither Justin nor Alyssa respond as they continue to flip through their books. "Alrighty then. Cara, you up for some food?" He asks his partner in boredom.

She glances over at the other end of the table and sees that there's pretty much no chance of getting much attention and even less chance of something fun happening anytime soon. She turns back to Trace and nods. "I'm in." She jumps up and the couple leave.

Justin finally looks up. "Finding anything?"

Alyssa groans as she slams the book shut that she was looking through. "No. I have found nothing pertaining to the way Olivia is acting. All my books are just going into great details of sacrifices that are made and rituals that are performed. Maybe its just so simple that its not going to be in any of these books."

"Yeah, maybe its just--"

"Oh crap!" Rachel yells out, cutting Justin off. The two at the table whip around to see what caused their friend to yell out. "Check this out!" She holds up a jar that has something floating around in it. "They really do have rat eyes." She is so enthralled with the jar in her hands she misses the eyes rolling. She just looks at them for a few seconds longer and then goes onto the next jar.

"Well how about we put these back up and find some things I could use for some spells and potions, not the rat eyes, and get back home." Alyssa suggests, standing up as she closes the books in front of her, and starts stacking them up. 

Justin agrees by following her actions. They get the books back on the shelves and try to get Rachel away from the 'fun things' so they can get out. They grab some herbs and spices and a couple of chicken feet for Rachel. Just as they head out the door, the shopkeeper yells out to them, bringing the four to an abrupt halt. They turn to see the man walking over to them, holding a book out to them. 

"This is from my private collection. It could help you."

"Why didn't you feel the need to give this to us before the wasted hours of research that ended with nothing?" Justin asks, his frustration apparent in his voice.

"Justin." Alyssa reaches up to grab his arm, trying to calm him.

"I wasn't sure how much you really wanted to help her out, but this book will help." The man hands the book over to Alyssa. "The problem is inside, the solution is not as easy." 

Justin looks at the man with confusion. "Could you be a little more cryptic with that answer?" He asks with sarcasm.

The man just shrugs and turns away from them and walks back to the back of the store leaving the three with the mysterious book.

"Well I guess we can go back to your place and have a look at it, and see what we find. Apparently this is the book we need and we'll find what we are looking for 'inside'."Alyssa says rolling her eyes and turning back around to leave the store,actually getting out this time.

"Let's get the other two and go home then." Rachel says as she leads the way to the car.

***

"This is riduclous!" Olivia groans to herself as she stands up from the couch and starts pacing around the apartment. "I'm so fucking bored. Where is Alyssa? Better yet, where is Justin? 

She had tried taking a nap but it didn't work, her head was pounding too hard. She then decided to work on her breathing exercises like Justin had suggested. Her head had eased up a little, so she tried to find something to do around the apartment. She tried entertaining herself with the TV and video games. but there was nothing interesting on TV and she didn't understand most of the games. Her boredom grew even more with being cooped up in the apartment. With her head feeling better and being able to control it a little with her breathing, she attempted to take on the outside world.

At first the voices were overwhelming, but she continued to do as Justin suggested and breathe deeply when it felt like her head would explode. She finally got to the point where the voices were still there but it was like a whisper in the background. She would need a bit more time, but she was sure it would be back in control soon.

This news excited her, so when she made it back to the apartment she had been hoping Alyssa was back or Justin had come back to check on her. She considered calling them but realized that she must have left her cell phone at Justin's or something because it was nowhere to be found.

She stops pacing and lets out a yell of frustration. "I'm so over this!" She growls. "I'm Olivia Haywood for fuck sake. There has to be something I can do to entertain myself without drawing too much attention to myself."

She stands up and decides to go back out. She is determined to find something to do to pass the time. One never knows who or what she will run into, what kind of fun adventures are to be had.

***

Trace and Cara turned down the offer to go back to Justin's. They both went back to their own places to sulk over the day's events. Rachel goes back to the guesthouse to sleep off more of her hangover after receiving a promise from Justin that if they find anything important, they come get her.

Justin and Alyssa sit on the couch with the book on the coffee table in front of them. "What do you think he meant by 'the problem is inside'?" Alyssa asks with a worried look.

"I don't know but I do know that we will figure it out and we will do something even if I have to knock the girl out myself to get it done." He teases, bringing a smile to Alyssa's face.

"Well lets see what we got here." She says leaning forwards with Justin following suit. 

They both lean over the book as she opens it. As they turn from page to page, they start to get frustrated because most of it is in some crazy language they did not understand.

"What the hell is this shit?!" Justin slams his fist down on table, making Alyssa almost jump out of her skin.

She continues to flip through, and the eventually starts to look familiar. There were pictures of spiny demons, slimey demons, and even spiny slimy demons. There were passages about demons that ate babies, demons that love to burn their victims alive, and demons that use their tentacle things to choke and kill their prey.

"I don't see what this has to do with Olivia. How will we ever find what we need to know?" Justin huffs as they flip page  after page.. His frustration and worry are clear in his face as if someone had tattooed it across his forehead.

"I'm going to say this has something to do with her," Alyssa stops her movement as she comes across a page that has a drawing that looks a lot like Olivia. "It says here that her real name was actually Athanasia. She changed her name to Olivia in the late 1800's. The name did not draw much attention. She earned her reputation by killing ruthlessly. Her parents are pretty much at the top of the food chain where demons are concerned. She and her brother were definitely children they were proud of. They tortured and killed just for the sake of it, and a lot of the time just because they wanted something they didn't have." She summarizes as she reads.

Justin listens but doesn't want to read the details. He already knows most of this through many conversations with Olivia. 

"It talks about their powers to manipulate and some of their powers they gained by taking them from others. It hasn't been updated in a while, definitely not since she decided not to kill anymore." Alyssa flips through more pages to see if she can find some more information that they don't already know.

Its quiet for awhile before Justin stops Alyssa's hand. "What's this?" He points to a unique looking arrow.

"Well, it says that this is a special arrow designed to kill demons like Olivia. She told me that they were blessed or sprinkled with magic dust or something that gives them makes them like poison to them." She explains. "For humans, its just a mere arrow that can kill by piercing the heart, but for Olivia its like a syringe full of poison. Once it pierces her skin, it reacts with her blood. The closer it is to the heart, the faster it works. "

Justin doesn't reply to this as he lets it all sink in. He flips the pages and the next several of them are just potion recipes and spells. "This isn't helping!" Justin yells out. "I already know this stuff about her. She was evil. I get it, now where are the pages that say she's good and how to help her? Where is the spell that restores her? How do I help her if this book won't tell me. I thought the old man said the answer was in here! Then where is it?!" He is now up off the couch and pacing the living room floor.

"Justin, please just calm down. The girl is not dead nor is she dying. We will figure this out." Alyssa says in a soothing voice, which helps at least slow Justin's pace down. "Let's go talk to your mom. Maybe she'll be able to help us know just what it is we are looking for and then we'll see it in here."

Justin makes a couple more paths across the floor before stopping in front of her. "Fine, let's go." He makes his way straight to the front door, opening it with an expecting look on his face as he waits for Alyssa to join him.

"Shouldn't we go get Rachel? We did promise her."

"No, we promised we'd get her if we found anything. We haven't so therefore I'm not waking her up. I prefer to do this without the crazy fanatic in there." He says as he holds his truck door open for her and then goes around to get in himself.

The ride is a quiet one. Justin is thinking about what he is going to ask her and how he'll be able to keep his mom from refusing to help out, since it is for Olivia. He can't help but wish that Alyssa may be right that there's a chance that over time, she'll learn to accept Olivia. Alyssa is trying to figure out how this whole conversation will go with Justin's mom. She clearly despises Olivia and here they were coming to her for help with the same girl. 

They pull into the driveway and find his mom sitting on her front porch where she is drinking what looks like lemonade and enjoying the nice weather outside. She stands up when she sees the truck pull in, and Alyssa can see the hopeful look in her eyes. Will that disappear when she hears why they have come? She hops out of the truck and meets Justin in the front so they could walk together.

Alyssa could tell that his mom is happy to see Justin and even more happy to see him there without someone other than Olivia. Justin has moved on and has come back to tell him mother so and tao apologize for before. This may turn out to be harder than she thought.

Lynn runs over and grabs her son to pull him into a tight hug and tells him how much she missed him coming around.

"Where's dad?" is all Justin says after pulling away.

The heartbreak is clear; she had been wishing for him to come back in a more forgiving mood. "He had to go out of town for business. Who's your friend?"

Justin grabs Alyssa by the arm to coax her forward. "Alyssa this is my mom, Lynn. Mom this is my friend, Alyssa. She is Olivia's half-sister." Lynn had been reaching out to shake her hand but stops when she hears Olivia's name.

"Half-sister?" Lynn is shocked to hear there are more of that family hanging around her son.

Before Justin replies, Alyssa reaches her own hand out and shakes hers. "Its nice to meet you, Lynn."

Lynn returns the gesture with a simple nod. She offers them both lemonade as she sits back down in the chair that she had recently vacated to meet her son. They both take some as a sign of peace. They really need to her to be willing to open up to them and share what she may know about the demon world. Lynn watches Alyssa closely, weary of her because of her ties the family that she has hated for so long. 

"Mom, I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't want to come here, but Alyssa has convinced me that you may be the only one that can help us understand some things," Justin starts out, trying to get to the point and make sure that things will stay on point, "neither one of us has lived in some demon world where they roam so freely, and neither one of us is aware of how demons vary from the rest of us. Olivia is...well something appears to be off with her and we were hoping you could help us figure it out."

Lynn rolls her eyes as she laughs humorlessly at her son. "Her lack of a moral code comes to mind. That's where I would start. " She answers simply but Justin's pointed glare makes her sit up straighter.

"Mom, I'm serious. Please don't make this person right now and don't make me regret coming to you about this." Justin tells her. "I did not come here today to convince you that she is a good person or that you should forgive her. You have to come to those terms on your own, but I did come seeking your help in keeping her good."

The last statement catches her attention. "What do you mean by 'keeping her good'? What has she done?"

"She hasn't really done anything that we can prove." Justin starts but realizes it may not be the best way to go. "She's just acting differently, not herself." Justin doesn't want to go into too much detail in fear that he may hear an I-told-you-so chant.

"Please, ma'am. She's the only family I have here and she's the only one that can help me with my own newfound abilities." Alyssa pleads on her own behalf.

Lynn looks over at her and squints her eyes for a seconds. "You must come from her dad."

Alyssa is confused as to the point of this statement, or how she would even assume that. "um...I don't...if you mean the demon in me comes from Olivia's...our father, then yes, you are correct."

"I knew it! He was always so much more compassionate than her mother. That woman had no use for anyone that did not giver her exactly what she wanted and humans always fell in that category. Olivia is...was a lot like her," She adds the last statement for her own person jab, correcting it a bit for their sake. "Humans are powerless in their eyes and therefore pointless. Olivia's father was different. Don't get me wrong, he enjoys killing just like the others and enjoys the power just as much, but he usually left the 'powerless' ones alone. No use to him so no use in wasting time killing them. He usually didn't kill others just for the hell of it though. He always had a reason; granted it may not have been a good one, but a reason nonetheless." Lynn tells her. "You would never have come from the mother. She would never have fathom the thought of breeding with a human, and if she had somehow done so, you definitely would not have lived to be proof. I just can't believe he had the guts to do so himself. She must not know about you are you would be dead and he would have found death something he wished for many times over. She must being losing her control, over him at least. "The look in Lynn's eyes portrayed so many feelings: pain, interest, honesty, sympathy, and almost a little pleasure at the end.

"Mom!" Justin interrupts, seeing the uneasiness in Alyssa's face, but also to get back on the point of their visit. "We are not here for that. Is there something that can make a demon weak? Its almost like she's got the flu or something. She's weak, her reflexes are slower, and she seems to be having a hard time controlling her own powers." 

Lynn chuckles a little. "No. We don't get common ailments like humans do. If we were to somehow contract something like their flu virus, our bodies would quickly burn it out before it had the chance to even think about attacking our body. Our body temperature, at its normal state, is much higher than that of a normal human. Its like sweating out a fever. Its just much easier for us and happens without us realizing it. Immune system's real real good for us. "Lynn explains with a smile.

"There are any sicknesses for demons then? Nothing that would explain the way she's been acting and feeling?" Alyssa asks.

"Not that are contracted through normal circumstances like through a cough or something like not washing your hands. Ours most commonly develop through spells and potions." Justin nods at this, thinking about the arrow that Alyssa had told him about. "What makes you think she's not feeling well? You don't think that she's faking anything?"

"She's just not acting like herself, and I believe she's not faking this. She claims that she's just a little tired, but its just weird. We've been training and she seems weaker in the physical contacts training and when we are using our actually powers, she's slower to react. I've been able to get a few good bolts in here recently."

"You're able to fight and overpower her?" Lynn's face lights up with great pride.

"Not the time." Justin fires back.

Her face is still lit up a bit, but she does move on. "I can't honestly tell you for sure what it could be. Has she been cut recently? Maybe someone could have used a little mojo with a knife and poisoned her that way."

Alyssa looks over at Justin, knowing that as of recently he's the one that has seen the most skin on Olivia.  He clears his throat as his face reddens with embarrassment before answering. "um, no. She has no marks on her that would result in a cut of any kind."

Lynn's eyes widen with this. "Are you sleeping with her?!" Her pride has now been replaced with complete disgust and disappointment.

"Not that its any of your business, but no I am not sleeping with her and I wish everyone would not jump to that conclusion."

"The only thing I can think of that would cause her to be weak is that she may be overworking herself. Though it is true that demons can go without sleep for a good long while, if she's missing sleep and overworking at the same time, she could be draining herself of energy and therefore making herself weak and vulnerable to anything." Lynn tells them as Justin and Alyssa share of similar look of guilt, knowing it was mostly theirs and the others in the group fault that she was doing so much. 

"What happens if she loses all of her energy?" Alyssa fears the answer but knows she needs to hear it.

"I'm not exactly sure. I've never seen a demon push itself beyond the limit, but I've heard rumors when I was little. I used to hide in the hallway while my parents would talk about some of the demons that were on the run from Olivia and her brother." Lynn starts and knows that she needs to get to the point quickly before Justin yells at her again. "There was one man that refused to sleep in fear of capture and would run and hide as much as he could. He became so weak that I'd say a simple 5-year-old human child would have been able to take him down. It was very easy for them to track him after a little time and even easier to kill him, especially since he had no control over his powers anymore. I believe he had a similar power to ours, some offensive fire power type. He couldn't control it at all when he needed to. He would fire without meaning to and even when he did, he couldn't control where it would go. It was practically suicide for him." Lynn tells them.

"What about Olivia though?" Justin asks. "I know that she has some fire power locked away somewhere, but her main powers deal with her mind. What will happen if she loses control of these?"

"I assume she'll go insane." The answer sounds so simple, and it bothered them the most. "I've heard how these powers turn on a demon and its not pretty. She won't be able to control her emotions or others. It'll get to the point to where she won't be able to tell the difference between her own emotions and the emotions of those around her. She may even start projecting emotions onto others that she's feeling, her own or someone else's that are going through her. Thoughts will become so overwhelming that she won't know what to do. She won't be able to block them out. Anyone that comes anywhere near her will enter into her thoughts, screaming out in her head. She'll start to go crazy. She won't die from it but she'll wish she would because people's thoughts are not always positive ones. You won't even be able to handle being around her. It'll get to the point where she'll want to kill herself just to make the voices stop, and with her powers she will probably try."

Alyssa's eyes close tightly as she tries to get rid of the images in her head. She does not want to even consider Olivia being in that state of mind. She's too strong for that.

"What can we do?" Justin is sick to his stomach at the images playing in his own head.

"There's a potion mix that you'll have to get her to take, and when she does you'll also have to say a spell. I don't know the recipe or the spell, but I do know that if you wait too long, it'll be too late. Once she gets too far into the insanity, she can't be pulled back."

Justin nods and stands up to leave. If they have a limited time, then he wishes to get started on it right away. He helps Alyssa stand when he sees her still struggling over what his mom just told them. He puts his arm around her and helps her walk back to the truck. He helps her in, but he doesn't get in himself yet.

He goes back to his mom who is still standing on her porch. He walks over to her and without a word he pulls her into a hug. After a short but tight embrace, he whispers a thanks in her ear which causes her eyes to tear up.

"Justin," she grabs his arm when he turns to walk away, "when she starts to break down, she may appear as if she's getting better. The thoughts aren't as loud as they were before, and she'll feel like she's back in control. That's just the calm before the storm. I hope if this is really the problem, that you are able to help in time."

"Thanks, mom. You've done a lot. I'll be back." He promises. He moves away but stops again. "What if this isn't the problem? Will this make it worse?" The fear hurt. What if they only made her problems worse than what they are, and in result make it to where they can't help her.

"If this isn't the problem, then the spell won't hurt her. It may help keep her around long enough for you to figure out what the problem is though." She reassures him with a smile.

He nods, a little more confident with the whole situation. He joins Alyssa in the truck and drives them back to the house. He'll get Rachel and they will find this spell and this potion that they need and they will help their friend. It's the least he can do since all of this is their fault. They asked too much of her and she was so willing to help out that she put her own health and sanity last.