"There!" cried the startled boy as his ear became accustomed to the beeping. "Do you hear it?"

The other children with him tried to sharpen their hearing, but still they could hear nothing.

"I don't hear anything!" protested the oldest of the group with a grim look on his face. "If you're pulling our leg, Carson, I'm going to beat you up."

"No, no, I swear, guys! There's something strange out there," the boy hastened to say. "There's... something... coming into being..."

The boy spoke almost as if in a trance as his green eyes transformed into a powerful flash of red.

"Maybe..."

But the boy couldn't finish what he wanted to say because of a hard punch that slammed into his face, broke his lip, and sent him crashing to the dirty street of the alley.

"Are you out of your mind?!" the older boy demanded, his face full of fear and anger. "Are you trying to get the attention of every demon in New York?"

"Marshal, I..." the boy tried to apologise, but a voice interrupted him.

An impish, violent laugh broke the night as New Year's fireworks lit up the city's night sky.

"With that little sparkle it wouldn't attract the attention of even a sloth," said a girl with hair as dark as night climbing one of the emergency staircases. "With such a faint glow, they're no good even as a snack."

Her dress was elegant and unbecoming of such a depressed area as that alley, but her red eyes and nocturnal aura gave her away as an avernal demon.

The frightened boys began to scream and tried to run in every possible direction to escape the girl, but she only smiled brightly, raised a hand, and her eyes glowed like hell again.

«Nervitorium...» she declaimed, and they all fell to the floor, prisoners of a deep and involuntary sleep; all except Carson, who watched in fright as the beautiful girl came down the stairs and walked in his direction.

"Still, I'm surprised that with so little talent you can hear the noise," she said, holding out a hand to help him up.

"You can hear it?" asked Carson in a daze as he grabbed her hand without realising what he was doing.

She laughed haughtily.

"It would be a pathetic embarrassment if I couldn't do it" she scoffed. "Of course I hear it, froggy. I've been listening to it all damn afternoon since they turned on that horrible, noisy device... Television" she became exasperated. "Ugh, what a horrible name."

"Television?" asked Carson in confusion.

"The thing that transmits black and white images" she explained rolling her eyes.

She didn't look a day over sixteen, but still, to Carson, who was only eleven, she was all grown up.

"Is that what's causing interference with the magic?" he asked nervously. "My mum hasn't been able to do magic all day..."

"Interference" mused Lila with a thoughtful air. "What an interesting word..."

"I've had a hard time using magic myself, but..."

"Not me," she interrupted him with a smile on her lips. "Goodbye forever, Carson... Nervitorium..."

From the demon's lips came again the melody of her spell. Carson fell sound asleep like the rest of his friends. Like them, his family would never find him again.