1523

The world around him was getting darker and it was spinning. He was finding it harder and harder to stay awake, he knew that once lost consciousness he would die but he didn't care. He didn't care because his heart was breaking. The woman he loved had left him to marry another man and now he would die of a broken heart.

"What happened to you?" A gentle voice asked him.

"I'm dying." He spoke weakly.

"Why?"

"Because I gave up everything for the woman I loved."

"Who was she?"

"She told me her name was Cristina and that one day she would marry me so I made a contract to become human so we could be together but she married another man now I must die."

"I see well I don't think now would be a good time for you to die."

The kind man leaned over and offered him his hand.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to help you, just trust me."

...

2012

High school student Frida Suarez, a lively beauty with a strong spirit but unfortunately darling Frida lost her family to a car accident when she was very young forcing her to stay in foster care and her foster parents didn't really like her that much nor did they take good care of her. However she managed to find a way to stay optimistic and happy that is until her eighteenth birthday came to pass and since legally she was no longer a child her foster parents kicked her out, and didn't give her any money or any means of living. Oh sad the poor girl has to live on the streets with nothing. How will she survive? Now don't worry this isn't going to be a depressing story, it's a proper romantic comedy. Prepare to enjoy the thrills and chills til the very end.

"How can those jerks do this to me?!" Frida groaned as she sat alone in the park with her suit case. "This sucks! Not only do those jerks treat me like garbage for thirteen years but now they just dump me with nothing! Ugh! I am so teepeeing their house for this!"

"Someone help!" She heard a voice call. She followed the call to find a man sitting up in a tree and at the bottom of the tree was a dog barking at him. The poor man looked scared out of his mind. "Excuse me young lady but could you please get that dog away from me?!"

The dog wasn't big, in fact it was a harmless, over excited, chihuahua. She didn't understand what was it about the dog that frightened him so much. But she didn't want that poor man to spend the whole night stuck in a tree.

"Shoo! Shoo! Go on now!" She told the dog shooing it away. She then went to help the man out of tree.

"You okay?"

"Yes. Thank you young lady." He said. "I apologize for making such a fuss but where I come from I'm not used to seeing dogs."

"Where are you from?"

"Oh here, there, everywhere."

"Oh so you're homeless too huh?"

"Oh no I'm no I have a home it's just that right now I prefer to do a little traveling. I haven't introduced myself yet have I? Call me Mr. Tonio.

"Frida, Frida Suarez. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise so you mentioned something about being homeless?"

She ended up telling him the whole story of her situation.

"Oh that's terrible."

"Yeah what really sucks is that I still have to attend school so I can't really get a job yet. I mean I could try but right now I need to find a place to crash. I guess I could try the shelter but I hear those places are way unsanitary."

"You can live at my place if you'd like. I'm still traveling so I won't be living there for quite a while but if you need a place to stay be my guest."

"For real?"

"Yes, you'll be the new lady and mistress." He then planted a kiss on her forehead and handed her a small slip of paper. "Follow these instructions and you'll be able to find it in no time."

"Okay."

But the house wasn't exactly what she expected. In truth it looked run down and abandoned.

"I got played." She groaned. "Unbelievable! This is just- Ugh! Why me? Why God? What was my crime? What did I do to deserve this?"

She started to head home when lights flashed on.

"Lord Tonio?"

She heard a voice say.

"Welcome home Lord Tonio." Another voice said.

She then felt herself being pulled into the house and landed at someone's feet. Looking up she saw that the feet belonged to a young man who looked very unusual. At first glance he seemed like a normal human, in fact he looked to be about the same age as she was and he seemed very handsome too. In fact Frida thought that he was the most handsome man she had ever seen but he had several appendages that were definitely not on the average human boy. He had tiger ears, a tiger's tail, fingernails that were long enough to be claws, and teeth sharp enough to be fangs. He wore only black pants and a brown jacket that looked like something a warrior would wear.

"Welcome back though I can't say it will be warm." He said giving her face that was a mixture of smug and rage. "I mean you left me alone for twenty years so naturally I'm very pissed!"

He bared his fangs and cracked his knuckles.

"Die you fiend!"

He lunged for her, Frida screamed and waited for the blow but much to her relief he stopped. His brown eyes scanned her body and face, studying her carefully. This wasn't Tonio it was a young woman. Or was it? He knew spirits could change their forms so maybe this was a disgusie. He took some of her hair into his hand and brought it up to sniff. Nope this woman's scent was totally different from Tonio's.

"Excuse me but could you stop smelling my hair? It's a little creepy." She said pulling her hair out of his hand.

"Pablo, Tia, you made a mistake this is not Tonio." The young man growled disappointed.

Poof! Two figures appeared. One was a short, floating little man and the other was a short, floating little woman.

"Oh it's no mistake the mark of the South Spirit is on her forehead." The woman said pointing to Frida's forehead.

"That doesn't make him her!"

"Um...Could someone please explain to me what the heck is going on here?" Frida asked.

"Oh how rude of us. Please allow us to introduce ourselves." The little man said. "I am Pablo and this is Tia we are Aluxes, spirites who protect the South Spirit's domain. This young man is Manny Rivera a tiger nagual."

"A what? Hang on what exactly is happening here?"

"Well young lady you have now become the new spirit of the south, it happened right after Tonio kissed you meaning Tia and I serve you and Manny is your familiar." Pablo said.

"My what?"

"Like hell I'm her familiar!" Manny said. "This thing cannot possibly be the new south spirit!"

"Now just calm down dude. Wait a minute thing?"

He grabbed her by the chin and once again began studying her face. He thought for a moment that maybe looking at this situation the wrong way. Maybe this woman had some sort of spiritual power but he could sense that aside from what Tonio gave her she had none. Not to mention she looked very poor and had a few scratches and bruises here and there. She looked like that she had been roughed up a bit somewhere.

"What could a pathetic looking thing like her even do? By the looks of it I'd say this thing is clumsy, stupid, and quite chubby. Throw her out!"

"Chubby?! Hey! You're being awfully high and mighty and rude to me for no reason!"

"And look at the size of this thing's mouth."

"Hey what's with this referring to me as a thing? I'm not a thing I'm a person! And I have a name it's Frida Suarez."

"Don't care. Anyway whatever you are I refuse to serve the likes of you. I am Tonio's familiar not yours so if you'll excuse me I'm leaving." And just like that he was gone.

"What a jerk! I wouldn't want him as my familiar anyway. Whatever that is. So shorties what exactly did he mean by south spirit."

"Well Miss Suarez are you aware of the legends and myths of spirits, demons, monsters, and other creatures?" Pablo asked.

"Yeah I learned about them in history class."

"The man you spoke with was none other than Lord Tonio the great spirit of the south and it would seem that he has bestowed his great power onto you."

"Me?"

"Yep so as of now you are the new south spirit."

"Okay that's a little bizarre so what do I do?"

"Well as the new south spirit your first job is to clean up the area." Tia said.

"Wait a minute you mean I have to clean all this?!"

Frida gawked at the huge mess surrounding her, cluttered junk, cobwebs, dust, dirt, broken didhes, dirty dishes, dirty laundry lying on the floor, weeds growing outside, holes in the roof, this entire place was a pigsty.

"You have got to be kidding me. Can't you guys do this?"

"Alas we cannot for he cannot grasp cleaning tools." Tia said.

Frida huffed then with great reluctance she rolled up her sleeves and started to clean up. She dusted, scrubbed the floor, pulled weeds, swept up the broken glass, wiped the tables, washed the dishes, did the laundry, and she tried to mend the roof but she ended up falling off.

"Are you alright Frida?" Pablo asked.

"No! This is ridiculous! There's no way I can do this on my own!"

"What you need is a familiar. You need to find Manny."

"No way! He's a jerk! And besides what is a familiar anyway?"

"A familiar is someone who serves and protects their chosen spirit obeying their every command."

"Obey my every command? Serve me? So what you're saying is he's basically my personal manservant?"

"Yes once you seal the contract that is."

"Ooooh that does sound nice." She said grinning mischievously. "So what do I have to do to seal the contract?"

"Take him and kiss him on the mouth."

"What?!"

"Yep. The very moment your lips touch his he will become your loyal servant forever." Tia said.

"But I...I can't kiss him." She said blushing.

"Why not?"

"Well I...I...You see I haven't had my first kiss yet and I've been saving it for someone special. You sure there's no other way to seal the contract?"

"There's always the blood signing." Pablo pulled a blank scroll off the shelf then pricked Frida's finger the needle and made her bleed on to the paper.

"Ouch! Hey what did you do that for?!"

When her blood fell on to the paper several paragraphs appeared.

"This is a document of eternal servitude." Pablo said. "If Manny picks his finger and puts his blood on this paper he will have signed it, sealing a familiar contract with you. That's how he became Tonio's familiar but I don't think this will work in your case since he willingly signed."

"Well I don't have to get him to sign right? I just need to get him to bleed on to this right?" Frida said taking the document.

"Correct!" Pablo and Tia said.

"Okay then I'll just find him, pick his finger, and get him to bleed on this. The only problem is I don't know where he is."

"We do."

"Can you take me to him?"

Manny was in the spirit world. A mysterious separate dimension where spirits, naguals, aluxes, quinametzins, niads, monsters, and other creatures of Mayan and Aztec legends reside. Most of them prefer to reside here but there are those who live in the human world. However humans are forbidden to enter the spirit world due to the fact that half the population of these creatures have diets that consist of human flesh. But that didn't stop Pablo and Tia from taking Frida there. She noticed that the spirit world was a lot different from the human world. For one thing it was night time right now even though it was twelve pm.

"It is always night here." Pablo said. "It is because the sun does not reach this world."

She also noticed that despite it being night time the city in this world was glowing. Every thing, the houses, the buildings, the sea, the ground, the road, it was all surrounded by some glowing aura. It was like some glow in the dark city. But she figured that they had to have a glowing city if there wasn't any sunlight in this world. They walked for quite sometime until they came to a brothel that was run by tzitmitles. Now from what Frida remembered in class tzitmitiles were hideous, skeleton like women who devoured anything they saw. But she was proven wrong when she entered the building to find extremely pale but attractive women with black markings on their bodies and barely wore any clothing.

"Manny!" Tia called.

"Where are you Manny?" Pablo asked.

"Quiet you two! You're making a scene!" They heard his voice call back. They followed it to a room where they found him drinking with two tzitmitl prostitutes. "What do you want?"

"How deplorable! You are a familiar in service to a spirit!" Tia scolded.

"Of all the nerve! To blow off your responsibilities to drink and fornicate!" Pablo scolded. "Lord Tonio would be ashamed!"

"Leave me alone." Manny groaned.

"You must stop this at once!" Tia cried. "Your behavior is most disgraceful!"

"And you harlets remove yourselves now!"

"What?! How dare you!" The two tzitmitl women cried as they began to pound on the two aluxes. "Such rude and annoying creatures! You two should leave!"

"Hey! Ow! Ladies please where's your compassion?!" Pablo cried.

"Get them!"

They then started to beat them with a broom while Manny just casually drank tequila.

"Why are you two here anyway?" He asked.

"Frida wants to see you. Ow! Oof!" Tia cried.

"Well I don't want to see her and she'll just have to deal with it."

"Yeah about that she's kind of already here." Pablo said.

At those words Manny spat out his drank and then looked that Frida was standing right at the door way clutching a needle in one hand and a scroll in the next looking angry and disgusted.

"Why the hell would you two bring a human here?!" Manny snapped at the two Aluxes.

"To make you my familiar you slob!" She said holding up the needle. "Now hold still!"

"Oh no you don't!"

She lunged toward him with the needle only for him to jump out of the way and out the window, landing on his feet and running off.

"Come back here you!"

Frida ran downstairs and out of the brothel, chasing Manny through the city. Unfortunately for her he was a fast one, he ran so fast that it looked like he was flying. But she was determined to catch him because there was no way she could fix up that house and make it a proper place to live without his help and there was no way she was going to live at a shelter. She chased him for hours, trying to keep up with him the best she could but he only kept getting farther and farther away until he was gone.

"Oh man." She panted out of breath. "I hate running heh...Heh...Heh...There's gotta be a way to catch up with that guy."

As she stood there trying to catch her breath she felt something stroke her hair. Startled she jumped back to see a cloaked figure standing behind her. By the looks of it she figured that it was an old woman.

"What pretty hair you've got." The figure said in a crony voice. "And such a young body. I can sense the spiritual energy inside of you."

"Hey back off creepy lady! I've got somebody to find."

"Such a rude and impertinent mouth! I believe that I'll being doing the world a favor by eating you!"

"Hey! My mouth is not- Wait a minute eat me?"

Just then the little, cloaked, figure began to grow taller and it tossed away it's cloak reaveling itself to be a hideaous, skeleton like hag. Now this thing was just like the tzitmitl women she had seen in the illustrations of her text books in history class.

"If I eat your flesh I'll be young and beautiful again! Now prepare to die!"

Frida quickly grabbed a nearby stone and flung it out her face before taking off running. She heard the hag screech in anger and the sound of her speeding footsteps as it got closer to her. She tripped over a root and fell down, the hag then grabbed her by her boot and proceeded to pull her toward her mouth which was opening to the size of a port hole. In response Frida kicked her in the face and ran full speed ahead terrified of what might become of her if she was caught a second time. She climbed up a tree hoping that the had was too old to climb but she wasn't. She soon found herself clinging to a tree branch while kicking the hag in the face every time it came near her but she couldn't keep it up forever.

"Oh God! Someone help me!" She screamed.

"Need some help?" She looked up to see Manny perched on another branch looking smug and amused which annoyed her greatly.

"What do you want you jerk? I thought you were running away from me?" She snapped.

"I was but you have dropped both the needle and the document so there's nothing you can do to make me your familiar."

"That doesn't explain why you're here?"

"Mine!" The hag shrieked grabbing Frida's leg.

"Ahh! Get off me!" She screamed kicking her down.

"Well if you must know I'm here because I want to enjoy the show." He smirked. "I've never seen a human woman be eaten alive. Seems like a fascinating act to watch don't you think?"

"Are you psycho?! You're not really just gonna sit there and let her eat me are you?!"

"Hmmm...I might save you if you beg."

"Beg?! You're kidding right?!"

"Nope. Beg me to save you and I might do it."

"Like hell I'd beg you for anything!"

"Fine then say hi to God for me when you die."

She heard the sound of the branch she was holding on to breaking. Once it broke she was done for. There was only one way and frankly she didn't like it but if she wanted to live then she would have to deal with it. The branch she held on to snapped but she grabbed Manny's ankle and using all her strength she pulled him down with her as she fell.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He demanded as they fell.

But she only looked him in the eyes and grabbed his face.

"Kiss me you fool!"

She then closed her eyes and before he could stop her she pulled his face closer to hers until there lips met in forced kiss. Manny was so shocked by what was going on tgat he didn't know how to react. Why was this woman kissing him? Then he remembered there was another way to seal a familiar contract and she had just done it. Her lips broke away from his and she glared at him.

"Now help me you jerk!" She ordered as she continued to fall further down.

Manny heard the sound of shackles being clamped on and felt himself being dragged down toward the falling girl.

"Curse you!" He shouted.

He then reached out to Frida, caught her body in his arms, and landed safely on his feet. He was now Frida's familiar and had to obey any command she gave him. At the realization of this she gave him the same amused smirk he had given her just few moments ago.

"Give me the girl! She's my prey!" The hag demanded.

Manny glared at her then made a green fire in his hand which he threw at her knocking her to the ground and burning her face.

"You putrid hag! Thanks to you I am stuck being a familiar again! And to a human! Of all the beings I could've served this is the worst! You'll pay for this you dirty harpy!"

Frida watched as he angrily began to beat up the hag while feeling very pleased with herself. She wasn't sure of what exactly was going on but she had successfully snagged herself a home and manservant in one day. So maybe for once things were actually going to get better for her.

Creatures in this story.

Nagual - A demon who can spiritually or physically take on the form of an animal

Alux - Short nature spirites

Tzitmitl - Skeleton like demon women

Niads - Nymphs

Quinametzin - Giant

This is based off of an anime I watch. Let me know if this is a good story and if you want me to update it.