Anna Hyde

The man hummed softly, showing no issues with the stranger in his home. If he felt she was a threat, he would have taken precautions. “A pleasure to meet you Anna.” He mused with a kind smile, quickly having a text exchange with his contact for a cab. “Your ride will come in about a half an hour..they will call me when they are here, so please take your time.”

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“great, thanks.” she says as she continues to eat the breakfast food that he’d made her. after a few minutes of eating the witch pauses. “i must admit i’ve passed out in a lot of places but none of them have ever ended up with someone giving me a breakfast the next day.” she says in a playful tone with a soft laugh. “i’ll have to repay you for this some how.” she adds.

disgruntled as always and moreso because of her choice in dress, beck followed the witch into the building. up the stairs and into the first empty room they could find. at her words he chuckled, “ i’m sure you’ll think of something …”then , with a playfully annoyed look beck takes the candles and does what he’s told, moving about the room with slight speed and indifference.

“there, what next?”

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She hands him a couple of candles and then finishes placing a few around the room herself. As the last few are placed down she clicks her fingers and they all instantaneously light. It was a simple trick, but one of her favorites. Anna moves back over to the dressing table and waves a hand over the grimoire. The pages turn as if a gust of air causing them to turn over until they stop on the desired page. “No you can stand there and look pretty and watch the magic happen.” With her eyes on the spell in the grimoire she begins to quietly chant, the latin words flowing fluently out of her mouth as she focuses her energy on the spell. Her magic hums through her body and her heart beats steadily she tunes in its rhythm. 

“ah … america does indeed run on dunkin’.” a small chuckle escapes his lips. personally he was more of starbucks man. but most of the time he made his own cold-brew at home and brought it into the office. “uh .. manhattan. upper west side.” he sits up and places his cup on the end table next to him. “this time? this has happened more than once?” 

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“so does anna.” she says referring to herself in the third person. “ah, not a bad part of town to end up in i suppose. but why? i mean, i was out in staten island, how the hell did i end up all the way up here?” she asks feeling completely confused about her the night had played out. she takes another sip of the tea that was now cool enough to drink, but her nose still scrunched up at the smell.

location : an abandoned hotel outside the city.

“Whilst i do love banking all these favours i’ve lost count of how many you owe me now. What is it, two, three?” the witch taunts as she pushes the door open to one of the dusty old rooms in the abandoned hotel. She knew she should have worn black as he mentioned last time, but she still wore the brightest fusia shirt she could find. What she wore had no impact on her abilities as a witch. She moved over to a dressing table where she bent down so she was eye level with the surface and the blew out a big breath of air to clear the dust off the surface. Anna then took her bag off her shoulder and started to take items out of it. A grimoire which she’d ‘borrowed’ from one of the coven members and a bunch of candles that she started to place around the room. “You can stand there and keep looking pretty or you could help me put these around the room.” she gestures with a candle in her hand as she gives Beck a pointed look.

“Well then you suck.” Zayn grumbled bluntly. What kind of fun witch didn’t know the cure to a hangover? Though admittedly, he didn’t speak to many witches. “Now that depends on her mood.” He warned her, and turned off the bed to grab his vape. Taking a few hits off of it, as if it would satisfy his hangover. It wouldn’t. “Wow, that’s tempting how about no.” He turned the vape around in his hand, and offered it up towards her. “Want a hit?”

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“eh,” she shrugs off the insult, she knows her own abilities as a witch and she focused on what was important for survival, but now she was questioning how she’d survive a hangover like this. “i’ll climb out the window just to be safe.” she adds, not wanting to get on the bad side of an alpha wolf or his betrothed. “oh, come on, be my gun pig. let me practice it on you first and then if it works, i can cure us both.” she says excitedly, but shakes her head to the vape, knowing it wouldn’t help her head.

Ash nodded, moving to go get his phone from where it was charging. “No worries, it is the least I can do.” He replied as he sat down in a chair in the corner of the room as he looked  up a taxi contact he used for the Flame. “Ash Doe.” He replied, offering her a kind smile. “I apologize for not introducing myself earlier.”

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Anna could make herself comfortable anywhere, and the fact that she was in a strangers home eating a breakfast they’d made her after she must have gotten black out drunk seemed perfectly normal to her. “Nice to meet you, Ash Doe.” she says their full name so it sticks in her head. “I’m Anna. But don’t worry, even if you introduced yourself last night I promise i wouldn’t even remember it now.” she says with a shrug before popping a piece of bacon in her mouth.

Percy takes a seat in an over-stuffed arm chair adjacent from the couch, her head still throbbing from the previous night’s activities. “Shit, uh…” She can recall flashing lights, the thump of a bass, and… mermaids?  “Siren, I think. I mean, I remember a drag queen dressed as the Little Mermaid,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders. “It’s a place to start looking, at least.”

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“oh dear.” she says as she shakes her head. “there’s a movie that starts like this. where they have to retrace their steps of the night before and learn every horrible drunk embarrassing mistake they made” she says as she realises finding her bag might be more difficult than she had hoped. “at least you remember... mermaids? i’ll start looking there once i feel like i can function like a normal human.” she says as she takes another sip of the hot coffee.

“it is. ginger … chamomile as well.” he explains as he nods his head, brows slightly narrowing as he watches her facial expressions. “you can cut the act. i’m a dad and a counselor, i know when someone is putting up a front.” tone was casual with a hint of sarcasm. “want just um, water? some food? advil perhaps?” 

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anna shakes her head, not wanting to cause too much trouble for the man who’d seemingly made sure she was safe.  she shakes her free hand “no, no, this is fine. thanks.” she says before taking another cautious sip. the flavour wasn’t desirable however it seemed to help calm any nausea she felt in her stomach. “i reckon i’ll just pop into dunkin’ on my way home.” she says as she looks around the place. “so, which fine borough did i end up in this time?”

Justin had been reading a book in the corner waiting for her to wake up. Hangovers was something he did not miss and did not envy watching her wince when she woke up. “What works for me is a cold can of coke and a super cheesy jacket potato. I can order it for you?” He offered, there was no point pretending it was in the fridge.

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anna props her self up slightly and looks at him, one eyebrow quirked up questioningly. “isn’t it a little early for cheesy jacket potatos?” she asks, though she has no idea what time of day it is... or where she is for that matter. she looks around the room, not remembering a single thing about how she had gotten there. “christ, how much did i drink last night?” she mumbles.

Ash hummed softly with a gentle smile to the woman, moving to get her some water. “And maybe a day of rest will do you good.” The man called back, coming back with some ice water for her and a coffee for himself. “I can call you a taxi if needed?”

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“a day of rest sounds like heaven.” anna agrees. she planned to get home and have a day in her pjs in front of the tv watching netflix shows until she fell asleep. but the first thing on her mind was demolishing the breakfast he’d made for her. “hm, please if you don’t mind? i must have left my phone at the bar.” she says just before tucking into the food. “so what’s your name?” she asks, curious to know who had let her crash in their home.

“Well, it wasn’t pretty.” Percy states as she pours coffee into the mugs. She walks over to the couch, holding out one of the steaming cups for Anna to take with a grim smile. “For starters, we did shots. A lot of them,” she says, trying – and failing – to remember everything they did. “I’m gonna be honest, everything after that was kind of a blur.”

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anna takes the hot cup of coffee from percy with a grateful smile as she listens to her explain what happened the night before. “ah.” she says nodding slowly in understanding. “well if shots were involved we’ve no hope of remembering.” she says before taking a sip of the coffee, letting the warm drink heat her hands as she wraps them both around the mug. “i think i lost my bag. do you remember what the last bar was called?”

“lavani .. nattar.” ending the sentence with a nod of her head and then long sip of her coffee. noting she should have began with her name, instead she sounded like a complete and total creep. “sorry. you were just too wasted last night, you could barely walk.” shaking her head and taking another drink. “i can call you a cab if you’d like?” 

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anna eventually sits up, arms reaching far above her head to stretch as she lets out a loud yawn. “well, thanks lavani nattar. it’s good to know i wasn’t left wondering home aimlessly.” she says with a grin as she stands.  “nah, it’s fine. i can walk. the fresh air might do me some good.  i hope i didn’t do anything too bad last night.” she says as she rubs her temples as if trying to conjure a memory of the night before.

“i’m going to ignore you calling me ancient but, yes, thirty is ridiculously young - even for you humans. now, lets see…” their eyes shines a deep blue as a light mist fills their apartment, transforming everything they could see until they were standing in a bamboo forest from his homeland. the area was silent, except for the occasional bird chirping. not too far away was a shrine dedicated to one of their cousins, thought he had some similar to it in other areas throughout the land.

his kitchen island remains unchanged, where he slides a plate of french toast to his guest. “surely this is better than the new york traffic noise, morning rush has just started.”

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anna leans against the back of one of the chairs, watching as their eyes change colour, fascinated by his abilities. this was something new to her, something which she had never witnessed before but she was mesmerized by how everything changed. the chair she was leaning against is suddenly transformed into a tree, the air seemed thicker with the humidity and the sound of birds caught her attention. “this feels so real.” she gasps. and although she is a little jealous that her magic couldn’t create an illusion as perfect as this

“this is perfect.” she said, even if it wouldn’t automatically cure her hangover she could easily get used to escaping the the bustling city for a bit of peace like this. “hmm, thank you, looks delicious.” she says as she picks up a fork to dig in an take a bite of the french toast.