Chapter 1: Identified
The TV screen would not shut up.
…to win the gold with only a spit second to spare. Upsets at the Olympic park were not limited to marathoners: United States archer, Gwendolyn Goldwyn, was escorted from the competition following what appeared to be a hallucinogenic attack. Goldwyn has been dismissed from the games until further notice. Head coach for the US archers made no comment on Goldwyn's condition, but the gold-medal hopeful is expected to return to the Unite States for an extensive neurological examination...Mens swimming and diving starts tomorrow…
"Shut up. Shut the fu – "
Rap. Rap. Rap
"GO AWAY!" Uncontrollably, I groped for something to throw. The room flip-flopped. I felt loose and detached from the rest of my body, as if my brain was leaking out of every orifice. Glass bottles tumbled like dominos under my hands, chinking and draining alcohol onto my lap.
Rap. Rap. Rap.
"GO!" I screamed, hurling a bottle by the neck. It missed, splintering yards from the door. Growling, I lumbered after it, shouting at the rapping noise. Each rap stabbed my temples. I had to stop it. Seizing the doorknob I wrenched open the door, ready to kill whoever was on the other side.
It was the wizard.
The wizard that had been at the competition this afternoon.
The wizard that had put some sort of spell on my arrows.
The wizard that no one else could see.
"…you…" Knives scraped my insides as the wizard smiled. "You. What are you…No!"
The wizard raised a stick. A wand. He pointed it at my forehead.
"No!" Broken bottles crunched under my knees as I fell and scampered away like a mouse. Disgusting, bloody images seared through my numbed brain. I was going to die. The wizard was going to kill me.
"No!" I gasped. He was on top of me, fingers digging into my windpipe. My hands were useless as mittens as I clawed his wrists. He jerked his arm. My teeth sank into my tongue. The fleshy pain amped with panic was unbearable and I screamed as he pressed the tip of his wand into my cheek.
Helpless, I floundered ogling at the skull and snake tattooed on his forearm. Then the skull started to laugh.
"You have been identified." Hissed the black skull, the snake worming in an out of the gaping mouth. "You have been identified, Squib."
An icy light. Then pain.
Pain as the wizard sliced three letters into my cheek.
SQX.