I claim no ownership over W.I.T.C.H.
It's my first attempt in a good ammount of years so if you got any comments, criticisms, noticed a mistake or just want to tell me to fall off a cliff feel free to comment, anything helps.
I will also try to update as often as possible
I took some liberties to fit my story but I also try to be as precise as possible so if you notice any glaring mistakes hit me up.
1.- A Tiger (World's Forgotten Girl)
For a second there Will ignored she no longer had it in her and her heart started racing. What if, she thought, the TV answered back or changed channels, or blinked, or just, for the first time in years, at least it acknowledged her existence somehow?
"Of course not," she said under her breath after a brief moment of staring at the news and finished buttoning up her shirt. What a silly thing, she thought, it had been years since she stopped being able to do that sort of thing and there was no indication today was going to be different. So she switched her thoughts into something more from where she was standing, into Mrs. Olafsson's fat cat which she was giving a check-up this afternoon.
"He's vomited again," she said imitating—and exaggerating—Mrs. Olafsson's white middle aged woman voice, "give it to me straight, doc, is my little Winston dying?!"
"No he's not"—she answered herself while spreading some peanut butter on the bread—"it's just stress, exactly like the last nine times, Mrs. Olafsson. But a check's a check, so bring him in, let's see those numbers and you will be on your way to pick your kids up at soccer practice."
She took a bite of her sandwich and looked mindlessly at the TV. If only it was like back then when she could find out quickly what was up with animals and—
Again with the same thing. She finished her sandwich and poured herself another cup of coffee while checking her schedule on her phone. Oh, yeah, the thing at the gallery today. With all these silly ideas she was having she almost forgot it. Out of the window a black bow was stuck in the branches of the tree that was outside her apartment and it struck her as something strange, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong with it.
But enough of that, she grabbed her coat and keys and left the apartment and Will was out in the world, ready to fight it again just like any good normal citizen of this world should.
The skeleton looked back at her. It was drawn in an almost empty room and next to it there was a boy with sunken eyes looking at her too.
"It doesn't make sense. The cat had cancer."
Next to that drawing there was another drawing, this time of a creepy little girl with a black dress holding a cat, both looking at the viewer.
"I mean, the cat was healthy as it can be two weeks ago, so I just ordered the usual tests and expected the usual numbers and the woman leaving happy as she always does but this time I had to tell her instead that I have to do more tests to know if the cat can make it or I should just put him to sleep."
"You know that's the way it goes, Will."
"I know, Irma, but somehow it still doesn't make sense, you know what I mean."
"Not really… Hey,"—she pointed at her drink—"what's in these?"
"Strawberry champagne, I think? I don't know."
"Garçon! Another of this thingie!"
Next to that drawing was another one of a black house burning down, lighting the black sky above it with a red and orange tint. Nightmare 7 by Freddie Montesinos, the other artist in the joint exhibition, together with Hay Lin. It was called Dreams and Nightmares and it was full of indie comic artists, art students, and art collectors. Just a few of them, like Will and Irma, were actually unfamiliar bystanders who just kept getting confused at Montesinos's weird installation in the corner, "is this what they call art nowadays?"
"You know, let's just go back to Hay Lin's exhibition, this guy is bumming me out more than I need to."
"I hear ya, this guy sucks."
Hay Lin was entertaining an older couple that looked like art collectors on the opposite side of the exhibition. Next to her one of her paintings with a pretty girl in a white dress, rosy cheeks, hugging her legs under a tree almost as if she was falling asleep. Almost made you feel at ease except that the colors were strange or perhaps the composition, which would put the viewer on the edge; it was already way more emotional depth than the other guy had, in Will's mind.
The couple walked away and Hay Lin approached them, almost with a skipping in her step.
"Girls, that was my first big sale ever, I can't believe it!"
"How much?" answered Irma.
"3 paintings for a thousand dollars each! Oh my God!" she said as she grabbed her own face with a big smile.
"Jesus, that's a lot! Will, our girl here is on the way to stardom now! Just don't forget us when you're putting diamonds on skulls and stuff like that…"
"Aw, shut up!" she laughed.
"We gotta celebrate this. What do you say Will?"
"I, uh—"
Will was looking at a man with a weird hat and a black bow clearly too big for his outfit was on the other corner looking at Hay Lin's paintings. Something was wrong with his eyes since it looked as if he wasn't directly looking at anything at all, kind of like a goldfish, or an old statue. "…she represents the fleeting nature of…" could be heard from him while talking to another slightly confused guest.
Irma poked her ribs with her elbow. "Oh, I get it, she's going to Matt's place, eh? Eh?"
"What? No, I—"she turned around and the man was walking to the other exhibition. "No, I told you Matt was working as a session musician in some weird experimental musician guy's album in Texas so he's not gonna be here for, like, two weeks. I don't really have anything to do, I guess."
"Then it's settled, after this thing is over we go party!"
"There's already an after-party for this, Irma."
"Cool! Anyway, if you excuse me those funny snacks are calling me. What were they called?"
"Paté, Irma."
"That thing. Hey, Garçon!"
"Don't you miss it?"
Will looked at the empty shot glass in front of her and felt just a little bit dizzy. After a really good night, the DJ was in that part of the set where he's already tired of it so he just puts some really old disco music and the couples are cheek to cheek on the dance floor, slowly. Her two friends were already drunk and talking about stupid things so Will's question took them aback.
"A couple of things like changing the color of my clothes and drying stuff instantly," said Irma.
"I miss flying at night when no one sees me, I guess? And, and changing the room temperature! I mean, wasn't this summer awful or what?"
"You know who doesn't miss it? Cornelia. I bet, I mean, I don't"—Irma blinked really hard as if trying to hold the room in place—"I don't really know honestly. Taranee does, I guess?"
"I miss them both a lot, why did they"—Hay Lin's eyes got glassy and started sniffling—"why did they leave?! They should be celebrating here with us!"
"Because they got lives and dreams to follow, and so do we!" Irma then stood up on their seat to Will's bafflement "And one day, Hay Lin, you're gonna leave this dumpster behind too because you're destined for great things!"
"Guys."
Hay Lin then stood on their seat too. "I'll never leave you Irma! We are best! Friends! Forever!"
"Oh, come on."
"I love you girls!"
They both started hugging Will and crying real loud. Will thought how weird that was, that she used to see this kind of thing on movies and TV, drunk people crying, but it was happening right here in front of her. They were all kids not long ago and had magic adventures but now they all were just sad women in their twenties in a club with slow music and shitty hipster beer. Made her wish she was that drunk too so she could join them in their crying, but nothing, just her usual sighing.
The other women immediately changed subjects to a tattoo Hay Lin was commissioned to design for a friend ("it was a tramp stamp, look!" she said as she showed Irma her phone) and Will's mind wandered off to Hay Lin's painting of the girl and the tree, so she took out her own phone, checked the photo she took of the painting and finally noticed (how couldn't she before?) a tiger hiding between the leaves on the tree, looking, almost sadly, at the girl. Wow, that's nice, Will thought.
Beyond the dance floor, a pair of goldfish eyes, or maybe a statue, looked at nothing.
"Aw man, do you think if I had my powers still I would be able to handle alcohol better?"
"I don't know, probably."
"When I started drinking my powers were already mostly gone so" Irma said as she threw her hands on the air. "Gotta stay hydrated!"
Both had left Hay Lin at her parents' place and decided to take a walk to Will's apartment which was somewhat close, as long as they cut through a park, and Irma would crash there too.
"Hey, Will, look, a dispenser! Let's sit down here a bit."
"Come on, let's just get home. It's almost 5."
"Aww, we'll be fine. And look, it's a pretty night!"
The moon was full. Will hadn't been out at night for a while.
"Alright."
The only sound that could be heard was the wind hitting the leaves and the quiet hum of the dispenser machine. Irma got herself one bottle of water and they both sat down nearby on a bench near the kids' playground.
"About what you asked earlier"—she took a sip of her bottle—"about missing it."
"You don't have to answer."
"I think it was messed up, you know, that we had such a big responsibility at that age," she laughed, "so big and so young I don't think we all fully realized how messed up that was. No kid that age should go through that."
She scratched the back of her neck and looked up to the moon.
"And yet I miss it every day. That feeling of peace every time it rained was way more important to me than any danger that we went through. Sometimes I'd go out when it was raining and get soaked up and lay on the grass and it was the best thing ever. I tried that recently and it wasn't the same."
Her eyes got glassy.
"And you guys, I really felt like I belonged like never before. It was never the same. Like, I can't complain, my life is so good right now, I got a nice job, I got more friends and a nice place to live but, if someone told me we got to save the world and have adventures again, I would leave it all behind for that. Oh man."
She dropped down her head and let it hang for a moment.
"I'm so drunk right now… Is it really ok for me to crash your place."
"Yeah, as long as you like for the day, I don't have anything else to do."
"Ok, but if Matt arrives, don't try any funny stuff while I'm around."
"Oh, shut up."
They picked up their stuff again and continued their way but after a short moment an extra pair of steps could be heard behind them. They turned around and that pair of eyes were staring at nothing from behind a tree. They were more like an old mask, now that she saw them again, but they could blink.
"That weird guy was at the party, let's just go."
"No, Will, hold on," she then raised her arms. "Hey, creep! Get outta here, asshole!"
The man slowly walked to the right of the tree and started walking at them.
"Hey man, for real, my dad's a cop, ok? Go away dude!" meanwhile Irma's hand started searching for that mace can her dad made her take out since she was 16.
But all her words fell in deaf ears (or maybe because of them), the man started speeding up. Both women started running but the man was quickly catching up to Irma since she was wearing high heels. He still looked at nothing and when he got close enough, he threw himself at Irma, who quickly dodged him but fell down. The man had slammed himself against a tree.
"Irma! Are you ok?!"
Irma couldn't answer as her entire focus was on the strange sight in front of her, as the man's hat was stuck on the tree's trunk like an ax, along with his head as if the head was one with the hat. His left eye now was focusing on her and then:
"YEEEEEARRRRGHHH I LIKE HOWWWww!"
Will helped Irma back up and both backed off the man but out of, maybe shock (but deep down they both knew it was something more horrible) both stood there and watched him after hearing his hellish, inhuman screech.
"SHE RE-PRE-SENTS IN HERRrr WORKS THE-FLEE-TING-NATURE OF? OF?"
Irma mouthed the words "what the fuck" and both slowly backed down. The man kept trying to remove his head from the trunk of the tree and his eyes were definitely looking at them now.
"OF! DREAMSBYUSINGFAMILI-HAR ImageryEE yet not FOOLY! REEL! AND HIDING A TIGER IN PLAINSIGHT?"
The fiber finally gave out and he could take out his hat from the tree, falling down like a dolland raised as if he was getting picked up by his back. He started shaking.
"IT IS AMAAAAAAZING!"
He quickly jumped at Irma but Will knocked her to the side closing her eyes feeling it was all over, and froze. Images of her friends, of her adventures and her family flashed in front of her but something like lightning shone through her eyelids. She slowly opened them to see Irma looking back at her and trying to form up words in her mouth.
"W-w-Will! W-Was that the?!"
Both looked at a the strange hat lying on the floor over black ooze.
"Garçon? BRING ME ANOTHER DRINK!"
"What the… WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"
At this point Will's body finally reacted, automatically grabbed Irma up and pulled her away onwards to home. Irma still had her eyes on the grass and then turned back her red-haired friend.
"It was the heart, Will! It saved us!"
Neither could wholly process what just happened so they went quiet for a while until a huge figure popped up from behind a car.
"Yes! I knew it! I—!"
Irma didn't give it a second thought and clocked the guy in the face just like her dad taught her ("To the temple, Irma! No, not there, a little up, yeah there, instant knockout, always punch through") and the guy fell like a chopped up tree instantly.
"Wait, was that like the other guy?!"
"Look, Will, I ain't staying to find out!"
They left the huge man lying in the pavement as they ran home. The night grew colder and inside Will's mind a scary yet familiar thought popped up and her heart felt full for the first time in years.