6. Now

Benji's POV

Excitement continued to thrill through my veins as October 23rd crawled closer to us, and I felt as if everything was coming back together. We may have been on closer surveillance, but the damage had already been done. There was nothing they could prevent by watching us, the materials had already gone out, and soon enough the world would become ours once again. My basement had become dedicated to working up my magic well enough for it to be usable in a fight, and I was happy to find that Mikey would join me occasionally. We both knew that we couldn't include Mason because of his big six year old mouth, and we could only hope that one of the family friends would take him to the safehouse for our district.

For some unknown reason Connor had started coming to my house instead of me going to his, but I didn't mind much. He and I would stay awake all night brainstorming ideas about fighting techniques, and sometimes we would try them out on each other to test the effectiveness. I wouldn't admit it out loud, but watching him fall over from an attack I laid out brought back the old confidence in my abilities I had. Using the pent up magic I had missed made me happier as I had predicted, and my old personality began to shine through once more.

The real way that it showed was through my artwork. While the old pieces were dark and often lost abstractly, they had grown more optimistic and extravagant since I learned there was a plan. I notice that they sell better this way, but that was never the purpose of them. I had been using them to spread the word as well; all of my canvases had the date 10/23/89 written in basically unnoticeable places, but they were in a way that would be very obvious with the advanced supernatural sight. I know that it wasn't much, but it made me feel like less of a limp noodle.

When the day finally arrived, all of the preparation I had done flew out of my mind, and the nerves had begun to overflow. I know that my aura was tense and frightened, but I still tried my best to hide it from the people I talked to. I don't want to get all of them worked up as well. As one of the people who helped orchestrate the effort, if I was stressed it would make it appear that the plan wasn't a good one.

"Benjamin you can stop trying to swallow your fear already," Mikey called me out, and I gave him a dirty look.

"What fear are you talking about?"

"The fear that you feel right now. Benji you're going to be fine, you have thought through everything, prepared for every single scenario, and I know exactly how prepared you are. Hint, it's an awful lot. If that isn't enough for you, just remember that I'm here for you. I have your back. Now, we have to go to the right place, the first uprisings start in 30 minutes."

"Mikey I don't know how you're so confident... I don't know if I can do it."

"Where's the Benji that beat down the demon king?"

"I almost died that time and you told me not to do it again."

"Well don't die, but keep that confidence. You're the best warlock I've ever met, so just do what you do."

"You really think I'm the best?"

"You really are. Now, we need to get Mason with the neighbors and head to the square."

I picked up my son with a bright smile, and his adorable giggles made me feel really awesome. He may not know what his parents were about to do, but I hope that once he does he's going to be proud of us. I want him to know just how important it is to stand up for everything he believes in when he grows up. I carried him next door, and our friends too him with the promise to go to the safe house.

The husband was going to be fighting with us, but the wife was going to take our son and their daughter together to the only place that would be spared of the fighting; deep underground on the outskirts of hell. Oliver was kind enough to offer sanctuary down there where it was far enough they wouldn't be harmed, yet close enough if there was an invasion into the pockets they stayed in troops could be moved within a few minutes to help them. I was still worried about Mason, but I know that he will be safe even so far away from me. I just pray that my confidence and the protectants of Hell are enough.

"Thank you Maddie," I breathed before walking back down the road to meet Mikey, and we resumed pretending we were going into town for a date night. The streets were dead silent since they kept a lot of the supernaturals confined to one side of the town, so everyone was either gone to hell already or slowly grouping together in the alleyways near the square to begin final preparations.

Similar groups to this should be forming all over the country ready for exactly 5:00pm when the demonstrations would begin. Everyone was supposed to congregate around the main area of their town's government and create a public disturbance large enough to get onto the news. Once we achieve that, then hopefully the people in other countries would get the message, and the world would be forced to fight on all fronts. Although we have sustained a lot of population decreases considering that relationships that want to produce children can only have one, but we are still numerous enough that we can overwhelm their forces with enough fighting cities.

I hid with Mikey and about 10 other people in one of the allies, and I could see the stars in some of their eyes at the sight of me. Now, by no means am I as famous as I would have been if the world was 100% stable for us, but I was still well known because I sometimes get on the news for doing absurd things that a lot of people look up to me for. I don't think that it really matters to anyone, but I enjoy the feeling of being seen as a role model. I know that I probably shouldn't be teaching kids how to fight against rules, but I hope their parents are able to follow up my actions with a conversation on what makes something worth fighting over. Then again that does hinge on the ability of everyone to be a good parent, which some people really aren't.

"Benji, it's only a few minutes now, do you have everything you need?"

"I'm totally ready to show them what we're made of."

"Well then you don't have to wait any more. It's officially 5:00 pm, October 23rd. The war begins now."