˚ ༘♡ ·˚ ₊˚ˑ༄ؘ
⁺˚⋆｡° prologue ⁺˚⋆｡°
┊͙✧˖*°࿐
❛ comic books are corny ❜
⋆.ೃ࿔*:･⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊
∘₊✧──✧₊∘
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
SAMANTHA DIAZ WAS ROYALLY FUCKED. SIMPLY PUT, the girl groaned as she slumped back into her swiveling desk chair, tearing her eyes away from her blank document for the first time that hour.
While many would argue that being a semi-successful published author at nineteen was 'living the life', Sammi was living proof that it was not all glamour. On top of college and her part-time job at the town bookstore, it seemed that there was hardly any time to write — and what only made it worse was that she didn't even know what to write.
Her deadline was closing in — last she checked, it was by the end of the week — and she had absolutely nothing. No plot, no characters, no fucking story.
She considered half-assing a second book to her debut story: Till Death, but she already had a difficult time selling her agent on that plot before it was even published and she refused to listen to another passive aggressive lecture from that woman again.
Sammi jolted upright when a loud buzz cut through her thoughtful silence, but before she could look at her glowing phone screen, her bedroom door was thrown open to reveal her older sister, Elizabeth.
Before her sister could get a word out, she cocked her head when she noticed Sammi's soulless expression. "Jeez, that computer's really whooping your ass, isn't it?" Liz teased, giggling as Sammi barely mustered the strength to roll her eyes.
"What do you want?" Sammi groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose to try to subdue the headache that started to creep up the sides of her head.
Liz scoffed under her breath. "Just letting you know that Mom took your car to go run some errands, so please don't make any plans because I'm not wasting my gas on you." She ended her borderline heartless announcement with a sweet smile.
Sammi started to fire back a sharp remark when her phone buzzed on the desk yet again, gaining the attention of both girls. Sammi curiously read the notification, eyebrows furrowing closer and closer together before she finally exploded backwards with a loud shout of 'fuck!'
"Phone's whooping your ass, too." Liz tried to get a look at her sister's phone while she wallowed in what looked like genuine agony. "Who was it?"
"Vanessa." Sammi sighed.
Vanessa Greene, Samantha's very own publishing agent. A twenty-something blonde woman who bitched about any and everything when it came to Sammi. Easily the most passive aggressive person anyone could ever come across, she was the queen of backhanded compliments.
And now she was requesting a face-to-face meeting with Sammi in half an hour.
Liz winced at the mention of the woman's name. "She wants to meet with me to talk about what I've got so far before the deadline." Her sister explained as she typed a quick reply to the woman, likely a little confirmation.
Elizabeth peered over at Sammi's laptop, eyebrows furrowing when she saw a whole lot of white on the screen. "At least it'll be a quick conversation." She chuckled at her own joke, which ascended into a giggle when she saw her sister glaring up at her. "Kidding. I mean, it's probably not that bad. When's the deadline?"
"In five days." replied Sammi, quickly checking her crowded calendar.
"And you don't even have, like, a title?" Liz's tone switched to one of genuine shock. "Shit, Vanessa's gonna whoop your ass too."
Sammi covered her face with her palms, hardly muffling her guttural cry into them when she realized her sister was right. "Can you at least drop me off? I don't really want to Uber to my own execution."
Liz finally seemed to gain some sympathy for her little sister and patted the top of her head soothingly. "Yeah, sure."
Before Sammi could give her sister a proper thanks, she started digging into her jacket pocket for something. Her AGDS medication. The older girl watched Sammi scramble like a madman for them, eyes fluttered shut against a sigh as her headache only intensified.
Her fingers brushed the plastic bottle and she yanked them out, popping open the white lid and shaking it into her cupped palm. She instinctively went to toss the first one that landed in her hand into her mouth, but she froze when nothing did.
"Oh, shit." She hissed under her breath, twisting the bottle's opening towards her face. The clear, strangely unlabeled tube was completely empty. Had she taken that many during the month already?
Now that she thought about it, she hadn't taken any the past couple of days. She hadn't felt the need to take any since then. "Did Mom mention anything about picking up my prescription or anything?"
Liz felt threatened to take a step back when her sister's crazed eyes met hers. "I don't think so. She didn't say if it came in or not?"
"No." Sammi's breathing noticeably picked up and her free hand clutched the side of her head. "They're supposed to be in by now, I've never had a fucking refill come in late before."
Liz couldn't deny how worrisome her sister's behavior was, but she still crouched down and pulled her hand away from her head. "Hey, I'm sure you'll be okay. You haven't had a single stutter since starting those things, there's no way it'll come back in, like, a day. Get ready to go, you look like an actual tweaker right now."
Sammi could only nod and gulp down the lump forming in her throat. Liz was right. Right?
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
SAMANTHA'S HEAD POUNDED AS SHE MADE HER WAY through the building to Vanessa's office. The ambient chatter that came from each open door didn't exactly ease the twisting in Sammi's stomach, either.
She knew quite well that Vanessa wouldn't write her off with a warning. Sammi understood why, of course, but she still couldn't help but curse the woman's bloodline at the thought of the snide comments she would make towards her in a few minutes.
Vanessa's office happened to be the last door at the end of the hallway, which gave her just enough time to build up some sort of faux confidence, as Liz had instructed her to do.
"Just go in there and give it to her straight. Don't let her think you're weak or she's gonna take advantage of that." Her sister's vengeful voice resonated in her mind and she took a deep breath before stepping into the open doorway.
Vanessa's eyes quickly caught her behind her horn rimmed glasses and her cherry painted lips pulled into a tight smile as she rose to her feet. "Ah, Samantha! Glad you could make it."
She could see Vanessa trying to crane her neck to see what Sammi had brought with her, clearly expecting some sort of draft. "I'm assuming you've brought something for us to go over, yes?"
Her subtle arrogance almost made Sammi roll her eyes. But she stepped into the office, ignoring Vanessa's question and sliding into the cushioned chair in front of her desk. The woman stood stunned and slightly annoyed for a moment before clearing her throat and giving Sammi some time to speak.
"Look, about the draft—"
"Oh, I see what's going on." Vanessa's fake chirpy voice interrupted her. Sammi froze, eyebrows creasing. "You forgot to bring the printed draft. I mean, I'll let it slide, because you should have saved it onto your laptop, right?"
Sammi huffed. "No, Vanessa. I don't have the fucking draft yet." The girl snapped unintentionally, softly apologizing for her language after a tense silence.
Vanessa stared at Sammi, wide-eyed. Never had she had a client talk back to her before, especially not with such harsh language before. She sputtered out a scoff, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms firmly over her chest. "And why not?"
"Because they gave me two months to come up with an entire book, which started a week before I started my sophomore year of college. Anybody would know that it's not possible, Vanessa. I'm not saying it's your fault, I'm here to ask if I could somehow get an extension." Sammi's voice softened significantly, now pleading with her agent.
There was another tense silence, Vanessa eyeing the young girl from behind her glasses. She chewed at her lip, deep in thought. Then, she sighed and reached for her keyboard. "How far along are you? A title? Even half a plot?"
Sammi searched for words, stumbling over herself when she realized Vanessa was actually listening to her. "I mean... I was thinking of continuing off of Till Death. I can have the whole draft by the end of next month." She negotiated.
Vanessa's hands pulled back from her keyboard and her eyes flashed with something that resembled exhaustion or incredulousness. "So you've got nothing?" She deadpanned, Sammi confirming it when she went quiet for a lengthy amount of time. "You know, it's never too late to change styles. I'm not saying Till Death was... bad or anything, but I think you'd be better at comic books."
The girl buried her head into her hands. "Comic books are corny, Vanessa. Trust me, I know you didn't like it. You kept saying it was 'too much action for a novel' but it did pretty well, wouldn't you say?"
Vanessa shrugged. It was true. The woman had shot Sammi's idea down many times after she came forward with the draft a couple of years ago, but Sammi persisted. Despite her claims about the book, Till Death ended up getting recognized in the New York Times, deemed an amazing debut novel.
"I wouldn't say comic books are 'corny' though. You know, my brother showed me this up-and-coming series — tell me if you've heard about it — called Sugar Skull. It kinda reminded me of your book. I heard the author lives in Seattle, too! Some Juan Ruiz—" Vanessa tried to keep her uppity tone despite Sammi's defeated expression.
"Can you get me the extension or not, Vanessa?" Sammi interrupted, her patience running thin as her headache seemed to reach its peak.
The woman sighed deeply into the silence that followed. "I can't ask them for an extension when you've just been procrastinating the whole time, Samantha. That's just not fair—"
"No, Vanessa, what's not fair is giving a nineteen-year-old college student two months to do something that takes other authors, like, six to do." Sammi's voice steadily rose the more she ranted on, rendering Vanessa dead silent where she sat. "I just found out today that my medication hasn't been called in this month, and I need to figure that out before my AGDS goes ballistic on me again."
Sammi inhaled sharply at the thought of regressing back to her old frail, mute self before her treatment. In that time, Vanessa still didn't speak. She didn't even move. "You're gonna tell them that I need at least a three month extension, or I'm leaving them. I can always find another editing company. And another agent." She spoke firmly and lowly, pointing a stern finger at the woman across from her.
"Yes, ma'am." Vanessa's voice came out unusually soft and agreeing.
"And before you give me any bull about it would just be easier for me to — wait, what?" Sammi stopped herself suddenly when she registered what her agent had said, watching her almost robotically type away on her keyboard. She peered over her desk, eyeing Vanessa in case she snapped out of whatever had a hold on her and she told her to get back.
But she didn't. She ceaselessly typed out an email to the editing company, politely requesting for an extension for Sammi. The girl's jaw went slack and she glanced at Vanessa out of the corner of her eye, slightly off-put by how intensely focused she was.
Sammi gulped and brought her hand in front of Vanessa's face, waving it in front of her glasses. Vanessa didn't flinch. It didn't even look like she was really seeing anything. Sammi pulled back, eyebrows creasing. She looked like a robot.
After waiting for what felt like years, Vanessa signed the email and sent it. Then, wordlessly, she turned back to Sammi. "It's been done." She said. Her voice, sounding completely different from anytime she'd ever heard Vanessa talk, scared Sammi.
"Th-Thank you." It came out as more of a question than a statement. "I've gotta go."
Sammi scrambled for her tote bag and raced out of the office door, pushing past few that lingered in the already tight hallway, and burst out of the front doors. She found Liz's car right away and darted straight for it, climbing inside and refusing to look back at the small office.
Liz sat in the driver's seat staring wide-eyed at her little sister, hands frozen where they had been on the volume dial on the radio. It looked like her sister had seen a ghost. "Well, how'd it go?" She asked after a long moment, Sammi keeping quiet.
"She gave me the extension." Sammi finally managed to get out after a while, fearful expression slowly melting into a victorious glow.
Liz squealed with excitement and gave her sister a high-five. "Damn, you really let her have it, huh?"
"Actually," Sammi hesitated, her mind stuck on what had happened in that small office. "It was the weirdest thing. I snapped at her and I told her to email the editors and she just... did it."
She recalled Vanessa's complacent state. Her eyes completely glazed over behind her thick glasses, face solemnly still and her body moving like there was some sort of code in her mind forcing her to do it.
Liz hummed. "Maybe you just scared the shit outta her. Did you tell her about your meds? People like her always fold when they see a potential lawsuit opportunity for you."
Sammi thought for a moment, but ended up timidly shrugging. "I may have threatened to find a new agent."
"Shit, Sam." Liz whispered as she started to back out of the parking space, shaking her head as an impressed smile pulled at her lips. "I knew you had it in you, y'know."
Sammi rolled her eyes. "Sure you did." She winced when her headache made itself known for the nth time that hour. Liz spared her a sympathetic glance. "Mom still hasn't said anything?"
"She said she never got the text for this month's refill."
"Can you drop me off at the clinic?"
Liz's brows knitted together. "The clinic's, like, almost an hour away, Sam. What's the name of it? Maybe we can find it over-the-counter at CVS."
Sammi hummed, shaking her head stubbornly. "These aren't made anywhere else. I can only get them from Dr. Sarkov. Maybe he'll have them on hand if I go."
"C'mon, Sam, I don't wanna drive all that way—"
"Take me to the clinic, Liz. Now." Sammi's voice rose over her sister's. Part of her expected Liz to reach over and smack her for yelling at her in her car, part of her wished the same thing that happened back in Vanessa's office would happen.
Her sister didn't argue, and her face went still like Vanessa's had done. "Okay." She replied flatly.
"What the fuck, man." Sammi whispered to herself. She curled into her seat and pulled her phone out of her purse, shooting a text to their mother that they were heading to the clinic.
She didn't mention the fact that she had somehow mind-controlled her sister into taking her.
Because what the fuck, right?
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
— pascalszt's wise words
little first glance at sammi's powers! i don't wanna spoil it or overcomplicate it, so ima just say it rn she is The Siren! she can essentially manipulate people using words and song! ik it's kinda like abbi's powers so i've minor-ly tweaked her abilities to differentiate them :]