Tapping the notepad with my pen, I glared at the book in front of me. It was one of the many Dad had bought from John. Leatherbound and handwritten in a neat script that was fairly easy to read, it was an introduction on healing magic.
Healing, it seemed, wasn't going to be a matter of just throwing a spell at a problem and calling it a day. Closing cuts and scrapes was easy; you were just speeding up the body's natural process, same with minor illnesses. Removing curses was more like undoing a puzzle. However, major injuries or more complex illnesses required actual knowledge of the human body, as I would need to visualise what I was doing.
What's more, all spells required energy, with healing needing more than average. Normally, that came from the caster, but there were ways to pull from other sources. Some were harmless, nothing more than pulling magic from the air around me if it was available. Others, however, were more destructive, like pulling the life from a person and using that instead. Thankfully, the author refused to detail how to do that.
There were 'cheats' of course, ways to subvert the knowledge and power requirements, but they weren't really applicable to me. Sure, I could ask a 'light' god to grant me the power to heal a person, or I could throw myself into a running jet engine. Since I was a demon, the result would be about the same.
The less said about 'dark gods' the better.
Double-checking my notes, I copied a set of runes onto a sheet of paper and placed my 'wand' in the middle of it.
Dad had found my attempt at enchanting a toy wand funny and, once he'd stopped laughing, dug a wooden dowel out of the basement and cut it to length.
So now I had three 'wands', each one roughly a foot in length and about as thick as my finger. Dad had also sprayed two of them black and dipped the tips in white paint. I knew he was trying to tease me, but I honestly liked the way they looked. That's why I'd painted the third one white and carefully drawn red crosses on the tips.
Besides, it wasn't like I couldn't change the design later. These were just for practice, after all.
Pushing magic into the spell, there was a flash, and a line of dark marks appeared on the white paint. When Dad had first shown me enchantment, I had assumed the black lines were just a miniaturised copy of the spell, that if you magnified them you would still see the runes. As it turned out, I was wrong.
While the lines were, in fact, the spell, they were kinda encrypted and almost impossible to read. With the right spells, you could decode parts of it, but completely reading the spell was impossible. The appearance was also different for everyone. Dad's looked like circuits, Mom's were a series of jagged lines and mine looked like a vine with thorns.
Very carefully, I picked up the knife that was next to me and, taking a deep breath, traced my finger along the blade. The cut wasn't deep, just enough to draw some blood.
Picking up the wand, I pointed the tip at the cut and pushed my magic into the wand. This was the tricky part; if the targeting runes didn't work, then the magic would just build up inside the wand until the spell, or the wand, failed.
The lines lit up as my magic filled them, flowing up the wand until the tip itself started to glow with a golden light. My finger tingled for a moment as the glow spread from my wand to the cut, then the injury closed up, vanishing without so much as a mark.
Grinning, I cut off the flow of magic, bouncing in my seat with excitement. It had worked!
Dad coughed suddenly and brought his coffee cup up to hide his face.
"What?!"
"Nothing," he said, failing to look innocent. "I'm just glad to see you enjoying yourself."
Putting my wand down, I stuck my tongue out at him, but any further comments were cut off when the phone rang. With a sigh, he went to answer it.
He'd been in a funny mood for a couple of days now, ever since he came back from work smelling like seawater. He'd told me, of course, about the ship appearing, about the Gremlins and even Triumph — poor guy.
He'd been light on some of the details, but it seemed 'adventure' had agreed with him. The cloud of depression that followed Dad around had lessened somewhat, and he'd spent the last few days pulling his old stuff out of the basement and showing me every spell he could remember.
He'd even found some of Mom's enchanted stuff for me to try on, like one of her coats that was currently hanging up in my room.
Picking up my wand, I twirled it between my fingers as I turned back to my book. At least, I tried to. What actually happened was, as I spun the wand, I brought it too close to my face, clipping one of my horns and knocking the wand out of my hand and sending it rolling under the table.
Huffing at myself, I crawled under the table to get it back. As I was climbing to my feet, Dad walked back into the room, a scowl on his face.
"That," he said, "was the clinic. Apparently, Winslow is holding on to some documents we need to get you enrolled in the scholarship program. "
"Can they do that?"
"They're claiming some bureaucratic rule or another is stopping them. They want someone to go 'in person' to collect them." He scoffed. "They're just being difficult out of spite. I don't have time this morning, I've got to get to work, but I'll make time at lunch to stop by and grab it."
"I could do it," I said with a shrug. I wasn't doing much else, after all.
"Are you sure? I don't mind going."
"No, it's fine. I could do with getting out of the house anyway. Besides, I can take them straight to the clinic and save everyone some time." And the sooner the paperwork was done, the better.
Smiling, Dad ruffled my hair. "Alright, but take your wand and coat."
"Dad!" I whined, pushing his hand away and jogging upstairs.
"I've gotta go," he called out after me. "And don't forget your phone!"
"Kay!" I called back, hesitating slightly at my door. My 'cell phone' sat on my bedside table. That was the other thing that changed after his adventure on the Queen Anne. Dad had come home that night with a pair of cheap phones and insisted I keep it with me if I was serious about learning magic and getting into trouble.
Neither of us had really liked cell phones, not after Mom died.
Putting that aside, I grabbed the coat that was hanging on the back of my door. It had been Mom's, though I'd never seen her wear it. The long black coat was almost Victorian in style, matching the 'school teacher' look she apparently favoured. I wasn't sure the look suited me personally, but the coat was warm and fit well enough that I didn't mind wearing it.
Plus it was reinforced with a ton of magical protections that I wasn't able to copy yet.
It wasn't bulletproof, but it would probably stop a knife or maybe a fireball or two.
Pulling the coat on, I stuffed my cellphone in one pocket and one of my wands in the other. Dad and I had enchanted this one together, and it had half a dozen spells on it, including my flashbang.
As I left the house, I grabbed my keys and the small can of pepper spray dad had given me a while ago. Sure, I had my wand — and yes, that still made me smile — but a bit of non-magical protection never hurt.
##
I got halfway down the drive before remembering to hide my horns and tail. I'd actually reached the street when I remembered to shrink myself back into my 'old' appearance.
Irritation at covering myself up aside, the walk to school was slow. The bus would have been quicker, but I wanted to burn off some energy, and it gave me time to think about things.
Leaving Winslow felt like a dream, but at the same time, it still felt like I'd given up. Like Emma had won and driven me off. Yet... did it matter? Was it worth putting up with Emma and the others, forcing myself to face them day after day just for the sake of pride?
Then again, was I really giving up? The deal with Panacea was simply too good to pass up.
I'd taken the time to look things up online and found that the deal was beyond generous. They would be supplying me with a new laptop and any other supplies I needed for my schoolwork, with a small stipend from the clinic as 'personal money'. I wouldn't be earning a fortune, but I'd at least be able to afford new clothes or trips to the cinema.
Still, that gnawing in my gut persisted, and not even stopping to grab a tea from a cafe helped. In the end, I had no choice but to ignore it.
As the school came into sight, my resolve faltered. Dread filled my gut, and I wanted nothing more than to turn around, to walk away and let dad handle this. He'd understand.
Except that really would be giving up.
I was being silly. It would take five minutes, at most, to go in and get the paperwork. I could do that, then I could walk away with my head held high.
Pulling Mom's coat around me, I stepped forwa—
A weight hit me so hard that I fell to my knees. The very air pressed down on my shoulders and pulled the strength from my body. Pain, anger, hatred, frustration, depression and more filled the air like a toxic soup, the foul taste making me want to vomit.
The smog! It was thicker than ever, wrapping around me so thickly that I was almost blinded. It pressed against my skin, like needles stabbing me relentlessly.
As panic filled my chest, I realised I couldn't move. I couldn't even breathe as my vision started to fade.
As I fell to the floor, I noticed a faint glow coming from my coat. Fine lines traced themselves across the fabric in a pattern of jagged shapes. Panicking and half-delirious from lack of oxygen, I struggled to think. Those lines were important, but why? What was— The enchantments!
I seized the thought like a lifeline and poured my magic into the coat. The lines flared, and the smog closest to me evaporated, any tendrils that got close evaporating like mist.
Gulping for air, I tried to calm herself down. I had to get out of here!
Climbing to my feet I turned, only to run into a wall, knocking my glasses off. I didn't bother to pick them up. I didn't need them anymore anyway; I just wore them to keep people from noticing any changes.
Shaking my head, I reached out to the empty air in front of me, and my hand pressed against whatever it was I'd run into. If I pressed harder, a faint red glow could be seen around my hand.
This was the ward around the school, wasn't it? My heart was pounding in my chest. I was trapped inside the school!
Pulling my phone free of my pocket, I glanced at the screen. The words 'no signal' blinked back at me, because of course they did.
Turning around, I glared at the school. I'm pretty sure it was glaring back.
It looked like my only option was to go into the school and, hopefully, find whatever was doing this.
With a sigh, I walked forward.
The smog hung in the air above like storm clouds, blocking out the sun. Tendrils reached down, wrapping around people's limbs, making them look like ghastly puppets. Glassy eyes stared at me as I walked past, and conversations continued, yet they lacked life or warmth.
"Taylor!" someone called, the lively voice making me jump. Before I could do anything, a tall blonde girl was beside me. Wrapping her arm around mine, she pulled me forwards.
"Thank god you're here," she said in Madison's voice, her eyes glowing faintly and faint wisps of smoke rising from her body. "We need to get out of here, now!"
"What's going on?!" I hissed.
"You can see this, right?"
"Of course I can!"
"Then trust me, I'll explain later, we need to get out of here!"
"I've tried," I hissed. "The ward won't let me through!"
Madison paused. "You can't get out either?"
"No!" Twisting, I pushed Madison up against the wall. She shrank slightly, making herself smaller than me. "Now tell me, what's going on?"
"Tl;dr? Someone's doing really bad magic and we need to leave before—"
"What the fuck did you say!?" The shout came from behind me. I turned as two boys started to square off, smog rolling off their bodies. One of them was short, with cropped hair and a tattoo just visible on his collar, while the other was dark skinned with his hair in cornrows.
"You heard me! Or are you deaf as well as stupid, nigger?!"
The two boys started to shove each other back and forth, then one of them swung hard. His fist hit the other with a crack, and the fight was on.
I'd seen fights at school before, but this was different. Before, they'd all been brief scuffles that stopped as quickly as they'd started. This time, they were clearly out for blood as they crashed back and forth, slamming each other into walls, kicking and punching anything they could reach. Blood splattered on the walls as one of them got a lucky hit, splitting his opponent's lip and knocking a tooth free.
Around them, the other students pulled back, shouting encouragement and whooping with every blow.
Madison and I pushed ourselves against the wall, trying to go unnoticed as the mob screamed for blood.
One of the boys stumbled, a lucky blow sending him to the floor, much to the crowd's delight. That should have been it; he was down, so the fight should've been over.
Rather than stop, the victor followed him down, jumping on the larger boy, punching and bellowing like a wild animal. He slammed the boy's head into the ground again and again.
One or two seemed to come to their senses, stepping forward they tried to pull the boys apart. Slipping free, the skinhead sank his teeth deep into the other boy's neck, ripping chunks of flesh off him and eating them as blood ran down his face.
One student, a big guy in a leather jacket, forced his way through the crowd, a fire extinguisher in his hands. Swinging hard, he brought it down on the skinhead's skull with the crunch of breaking bone.
Silence filled the hallway as blood pooled under the fighters. Above them, the smog roiled, flashes of light visible in the murky clouds.
The world held its breath, then a bolt of lightning burst from the smog, striking the boy. A high pitched wail filled the air, and the lights from the windows turned red.
The boy convulsed, his limbs twisting as his flesh started to swell, tearing through his clothes as he grew.
"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! We are so fucked!" Grabbing me, Madison pulled us away from the wall and further down the corridor. Lightning appeared around us, and everyone it hit started to transform.
"What, what's going on?"
A girl crashed into the wall in front of us, forcing us to stop as she changed. Her limbs stretched out, and spines burst from her skin. Another had her clothes torn apart as lumps of flesh started to form, each one growing bigger and bigger, dark nipples forming on each one until she was nothing more than a pile of breasts.
The boy in the leather jacket was behind us, his head scraping the ceiling as he lumbered forward. His body was a misshapen mass of muscle, nearly as wide as the corridor. Others were growing armour plating or distorted limbs. One boy's pants tore apart as his balls swelled to the size of soccer balls, his spiked dick dragging along the floor like a fucking club.
He grabbed a nearby girl, her body a twisted parody of a spider, and she eagerly leapt at him, trying to pull him inside her.
"Run!" Madison screamed, as a tongue speared the wall by her head.
Ducking under it, she ran forward, throwing herself at a nearby door without hesitation and smashing her way through. I followed her without a thought as around us, the students continued to transform.
We emerged on the roof, thankfully free of students. Throwing myself flat to the ground, I crawled forward so I was lying next to Madison. Above us, the ward around the school was visible now, an angry red dome that glared down at us and tinted everything the same colour.
I could see students in the courtyard below. Many of them were fighting amongst themselves, while others were tangled together in an orgy with little regard to gender or biology.
"What's going on?!" I demanded, forcing myself to look away from the chaos.
"It's a dimensional breach. Someone pulled too much… crap into one place. This smog, it's manifested anger, hate, frustration and blood. The ward has kept it all trapped here like a pressure cooker."
'Or a bomb,' I thought to myself.
"It's all gotten too much, the walls between realities are coming apart and magic is pouring in!"
The building shook, and a creature burst through the walls. It was three torsos twisted together, dragging itself forward on dozens of tentacles. Some of them grabbed onto students who got too close, and I realised with a shudder that those weren't tentacles.
"W-why aren't we affected?"
"You can't fall twice," she said flatly, the 'adult' voice growing stronger as she looked down at the orgy below. "We are immune to such magic… we must do something. If the breach is not closed soon, I fear these changes will become permanent."
I looked up at the sky. The ward had us all trapped here, and I had no idea if the people outside knew there was a problem. "You said it's a pressure cooker... what would happen if we took the ward down?"
Madison shook her head. "The magic would spread outwards. It would ease the pressure on the rift, but this chaos would spread."
In my mind, I saw the students descending on the nearby houses. It would be a slaughter.
"Okay, so how do we—"
The door the school opened, the squeak of old hinges warning us. I rolled over to see a woman in a hooded robe standing at the door. Enchantments glowed across her clothes, protecting her from the magic, and she was clutching a staff tightly in her hands.
"You need to come with me!" she barked, her tone making it clear that it wasn't a request. Her hood was casting an unnatural shadow that hid her face, but there was something familiar about her voice.
"Why should we?" Madison snapped, both of us scrambling to our feet.
The woman stepped forward, and a creature emerged from the shadows behind her. It looked like a big cat, maybe a panther, with six legs and a pair of tentacles growing from its shoulders. Its head turned to look at me with a growl, its yellow eyes shining with hate and smog wrapped around its throat like a collar.
I couldn't help but notice the torn remains of a shirt clinging to its body.
With a sigh, the woman pointed her staff at us, and a glowing bolt shot forward.
Madison and I dived apart to avoid it, hitting the ground hard.
Before we could recover, the cat-creature leapt forward, its claws scraping the roof as I scrambled backwards, trying to put some distance between myself and it. Without thinking, I lashed out, punching the creature in the head.
It's head snapped to the side, then slowly turned back to me with a deep growl. Oh god, now I'd really pissed it off.
"Don't kill them! I need th—" The woman's order was cut off as Madison tackled her to the ground with a scream, shedding her disguise as they rolled across the roof.
Her scream broke my stupor, and I shoved my into my coat pocket and pulled my wand free. The lines on it glowed as I fed magic into the spell.
A fireball exploded from my wand and streaked through the air. I gasped as it passed harmlessly through the creature, its body turning to smoke as it dived at me.
It turned solid as it slammed into my chest, pinning me down, one of its legs trapping my wand arm.
"Get! Off!" The panic and anger finally became too much, and my body shifted, my wings appearing and forming black spikes that drove themselves into the creature's body. The first one punctured its skin, making it yowl in pain, but it turned to smoke and jumped away before I could do any more. It circled me warily as I climbed to my feet, the rest of my disguise fading away.
"A little help?!" Madison screamed. She was sitting on the robed woman, the pair of them fighting over her staff.
"Eyes!" Trying not to look away from the creature, I pointed my wand at Madison and fired off a flashbang, the sudden noise and light making the woman and the monster scream.
The cat thrashed its head, either in pain or confusion, its tentacles whipping wildly to keep me away.
Blood was pounding in my ears. I wanted nothing more than to blast the monster with another fireball while it was distracted, but my eyes kept falling on the tattered remains of the shirt. The cat had been human once, just like the students below.
The hesitation almost cost me as the creature finally recovered and threw itself at me with a roar.
Jumping sideways, I barely managed to avoid it, only for one of its tentacles to slap me across the face. The blow was stronger than I would have expected, snapping my head to the side and making the world spin briefly.
I let the momentum of the blow spin me around, returning the hit with my tail. Too close, or too angry, to risk jumping again, the cat reared up on its hind legs, dropping its weight on me in an effort to push me down.
Against a normal human, it might have worked, but I was stronger than I looked and managed to support its weight, Mom's coat protecting me against its claws. Glaring into those angry yellow eyes, I pressed my wand into the cat's side and channeled a new spell.
Lightning danced across the creature's skin, and the cat screamed. Shocked, I cut the spell off and jumped back. The cat fell bonelessly to the floor, smoke rising from its body.
For a moment, I was worried I'd killed it, then I noticed the rise and fall of it's chest as it breathed.
"Wow, what the hell was that?"
Looking over at Madison, she was standing over the robed woman, the staff resting against her shoulder.
"It… it was just a weak lightning spell. No worse than a taser." Dad had shaken off the effects after a couple of hours.
"Huh… I guess—" Madison was cut off as the woman moved suddenly, rolling sideways and knocking Madison's legs out under her.
I ran forward to help, but I wasn't fast enough. The woman grabbed the staff and with a scream, directed the fog at us.
It wrapped around me like a blanket, small bolts of electricity sparking off my coat as the wild magic tried to ground itself. I pushed magic into the coat, driving it back.
My vision cleared just in time to see the staff coming at me and the world went dark.
AN: chapter written under commission for Koalakiller.
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