Page 1 of To Hell and Back
Chapter one
Seneca Lee wasdying.
She could feel it.
Could sense her life slipping away with every drop of blood that left her body. Since there wasn’t anything she could do to stop it, she simply lay there and welcomed the sweet oblivion that awaited her. She had no strength left to fight anyway. And even if she did, there was no way to release herself from the restraints that kept her strapped down on the medical bed she was lying on.
Waking up to find herself in a freaking dungeon with no windows was pretty damn scary. The flames from the red candles set up around the room made the setting even more eerie. Shadows danced on the stone walls, and the wax slid down the side of the candles to pool at the base like blood. She felt like a sacrifice laid out on an altar, and it was made worse by witnessing her own demise as her life was slowly drained from her.
As a witch born with exceptional luck, one would think she had lived a blessed life.
Sadly, it was just the opposite.
In truth, she was fucking cursed.
Things hadn’t always been that way, though. Born to wonderful parents and raised in a home filled with laughter and love, Seneca had been carefree and happy for most of her childhood. Her mother, Claudia, had been a witch with basic magical skills but a lot of artistic talent. She had been a special effects makeup artist who could make any injury seem real. She also created awesome monsters and other creatures using prosthetics and paint.
Originally from New York, she moved across the country to work in Hollywood. While working on her first feature film, she met Ethan Lee. Ethan was a famous director known for making horror movies. He was also a talented mage who specialized in visual illusions and effects. Most of his films were low budget, but audiences loved them and couldn’t wait for the next one to drop.
Ethan and Claudia had instantly fallen in love, which made sense once they realized they were true mates. While they were both dedicated to making movies, they wanted a quieter life than living in Los Angeles full-time. They ended up establishing their permanent home close to a film studio run by some of their good friends up north near Seattle.
In addition to working in the studio, they also did quite a bit of traveling when it came to making movies. Seneca had been blessed to be able to travel the world with them. Sometimes it felt like punishment when she couldn’t join them on location, but they made every effort to be home with her during the school year.
Their home had always been a favorite hangout for all of her friends since it was like living in a funhouse. New props were constantly being stored there, and hermotherwas always experimenting with new creature designs. Halloween in their house was next level, and people even traveled from miles around to visit the epic haunted maze her parents set up on their property every year.
While her friends thought their house was amazing, Seneca had grown immune to most of the craziness.It had gotten to the point where she no longer flinched when she passed by a monster in the hallway or saw an alien in the kitchen.
As expected, she had inherited her mother and father’s love of a good horror story but had wanted to forge her own path. Instead of working on films, she spent most of her free time creating graphic novels with her best friend, Shadow Warcloud.
Shadow was a demon-witch hybrid with an acerbic tongue and a heart of gold. They had met back in kindergarten and had been besties ever since.Their nickname in school had been Shadow and Light since Seneca’s pale gray eyes and platinum blonde hair contrasted with her friend’s black hair and eyes.
While she loved graphic design and drawing, her friend was a talented author who also liked to write romance novels. Even so, she committed herself to their shared projects with the same passion and dedication as Seneca.
Because the two of them were always together, their families had also grown close over the years. Their parents often had double-date nights, and Shadow’s older brother, Thane, always treated Seneca like another sister.
Thane was a famous snowboarder who won the gold in the last Olympics after a spectacular run. When he wasn’t busy practicing and traveling around the world, he could usually be found in his parents’ garage tinkering on one of his cars or doing some other extreme sport. He was the inspiration for one of Seneca and Shadow’s earlier graphic novels, and he got a kick out of telling his fans about it whenever he had the chance to brag.
Although their parents wanted to set them up with an agent to help them get a publishing deal, Seneca and Shadow had decided to self-publish in order to retain creative control of their work. It had taken some effort to build a following, but the supporters of their work had steadily grown into a flourishing fanbase.
Their popularity exploded after they published a new novel about a kickass female demon hybrid who hunted other demons that preyed on humans. While they tried to stay away from the true lore of the supernatural community, there was some overlap that couldn’t be avoided. They hadn’t worried too much about that since they embellished the hell out of the fictional setting and characters they had created to make sure no one would mistake their stories as being true.
They hadn’t expected the story to do so well but were thrilled when fans begged for more. Because of that, they ended up making it into a series instead of a single title.As their sales grew with each new release, they realized they had the start of a lucrative, full-time career.
Seneca wanted to spend all her time working on their graphic novels, but she agreed to finish college first since that was her parent’s greatest wish. Neither of them had gotten a college degree, so they wanted her to be the first in their family to do so.
Even though she earned decent grades, she hated school. She had a hard time focusing and usually ended up drawing or writing bits of storyline on scraps of paper or her tablet instead of paying attention in class.Luckily, she did well enough on the exams to pass her classes, and that was all she needed.
She ended up attending Trifecta University since that was where Shadow and some of their friends had decided to go. Trifecta University was a top-tier school for both supernatural and human students, and lucky for her, they had an excellent art program. Although she couldn’t attend the magical academy hidden within the university since she didn’t have the magical abilities to qualify, she was able to hang out with her friends during their regular classes and free time.
While both of her parents had magic, Seneca had never experienced so much as a magical blip since she was born. It was disappointing, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. Since she had always considered herself essentially human, she didn’t miss what she’d never had.
Magic was more of an abstract wish than an actual reality for her.
Most of the people she hung out with were supernaturals, but they never made her feel like she didn’t fit in. At least her core group of friends didn’t. Of course, there were a few assholes who made fun of her.
Not having magic made her a target.
She also got mocked for her eclectic taste in fashion, which was a combination of goth and old Hollywood. People accused her of trying to act like a witch, even though she didn’t have any magic. The irony of that was all the powerful witches she knew looked like totally normal humans most of the time.
