A young man woke up in the middle of the night, his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe. His face was concocted into an expression of terror that one couldn't help but wonder what he had seen, only he would know. His pajamas, which were now completely drenched in sweat, clung to his body making him feel slightly restricted. The young man had black wavy hair, light brown skin, and a face that was a bit above average and on this particular face, a pair of eyes were glowing bright green slightly illuminating the dark room he was in.

He slowly glanced around the room as if searching for something out of the ordinary only to find nothing eye-catching. He heaved a sigh of relief as he took in deep breathes to calm down his nerves. It would seem that all he had seen was merely a nightmare albeit one horrifying enough to take away his need for sleep. This wasn't the first time he had had such a nightmare as he usually had them frequently but thankfully he had a remedy to ease his nightmares which had been gifted to him by his sister which was in the form of a red enchanted candle. Whenever he woke up in the middle of the night completely terrified, he would light the candle which allowed him to easily go back to sleep. Otherwise, he would have gone insane from the lack of sleep brought by the nightmares.

He stretched out his hand towards a candle on the opposite side of the room and uttered the word "Flare" causing a small flame to appear on the candle which in turn generated a light pink smoke that spread all over the room and when he inhaled the smoke, he lay gently on his pillow as he drifted back to sleep.

The young man's name was Cerberus, a 13-year-old mage who lived with his family in London, a large city in England.

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Cerberus could feel a crushing weight on his chest that prevented the full expansion of his lungs which caused him to wonder If he was having another nightmare but that would be impossible since he had lit the red candle before he went to sleep. He opened his light green eyes only to find another set of eyes staring at him just inches away from his face.

"Silia, I've told you multiple times not to wake me up like that," said Cerberus as he rubbed his eyes slowly still feeling sleepy. The small pair of eyes blinked as a large black and yellow Southern Philippine Cobra slithered off my chest, its tongue flicked as it slid out the open door of his bedroom. The snake's name was Silia, a pet of his sister Circe who for some reason liked to coil upon his chest despite how heavy she was. Even his family didn't know the reason why she did that as in their mind they assumed that she simply like him.

Cerberus slipped out of bed and headed to the bathroom in his room to take a shower. One of the luxuries of modern times is the existence of master bedrooms and thankfully Cerberus was able to enjoy such a luxury as he had a bathroom and a toilet in his bedroom meaning that if he had a tiny kitchen in his bedroom then it would be considered a house, a tiny house but still a self-sufficient house non the less

After a hot shower, Cerberus wore a black cotton shirt with a Rick and Morty print on the front and a pair of grey shorts. He then headed downstairs of his one-story house which was located on a street on Chiswick. On the ground floor of the house were the living room and the kitchen whereas on the first floor were the bedroom of his family members as well as a study room which was usually used by his mother.

Cerberus was currently heading towards the kitchen located on the ground floor. Inside the kitchen area, a beautiful tall woman,165 cm tall with long blonde hair and a fit figure, was currently cooking an omelet in a frying pan. The woman looked at most twenty-eight years old but was in fact thirty-six years old but you couldn't tell just by looking at her. The woman noticed that Cerberus had arrived and turned her attention towards him.

"Good morning Cerb"

"Morning"

The beautiful young-looking woman was his mother Phoebe Blackborn. A powerful mage who ran a business in the human world. Although he didn't know what particular business she ran, the fact that they could afford their house meant that it at least paid well as for the other facts, he wasn't really interested. As long as it didn't interfere with his lifestyle then he wouldn't care even if it was smuggling illegal animals. That's just the type of person Cerberus was.

"Is breakfast ready?"

"It will be ready in just a bit. Why don't you feed Silia while you wait? By the time you are done Circe should be ready to eat as well"

"Alright"

Cerberus headed to a separate room near the kitchen in which they kept a small farm of mice. In this room, plants grew all over the wall creating a beautiful scene of nature, and the sweet fragrant smell released by purple flowers that grew on vines all over the room created a sense of calm that went well with the scenery. In the middle of the room which was lit by the sunlight from a large open window were a bunch of cages in which a lot of mice were kept. The mice were used as food for Silia who liked to eat live prey and since Circe loved her familiar deeply, she eventually made her parents create a habitat to raise food for Silia which was currently the room Cerberus stood in.

The mice in the cages watched as a human silhouette entered the room and squeaked in fear because they knew that today was the day one of them would leave the room never to return. Mice were after all intelligent creatures capable of navigating mazes and performing circus tricks if trained well enough but no matter how intelligent they became, the mice in the room knew that what they faced every day was inevitable.