The red clock hung over the back of the seat. Long stringy oily black hair covered the woman's face. The flies swarmed around Rita's still living body as they placed her in the officer's car. Based on the smell of rotten seaweed and dead fish, she hadn't bathed in weeks. Her nose was intentionally cut off, clearly the result of some kind of sharp blade. The dress she wore was covered in mud. What was once a soft pastel blue showed signs of something more sinister and grim. Her lips, dry and crumbled. Despite her fragile and wounded appearance, she moved fluidly, like waves softly rocking a boat on the water. She scratched at scars embedded in her crackled skin.
Thomas watched from the safety of his dorm-room window as the car drove away from the gates of the school with ease. "That's weird" he muttered to himself as he dusted off an old textbook and placed it under the leg of his wobbly writing desk. He looked back at the car driving deeper into the forest. Normally it would take at least several minutes to navigate the intricately woven ward lines protecting the school, but the car moved effortlessly through.
He swung his backpack onto his shoulders and headed out.
The Living Lobby marked the center of the dorm rooms. Thomas was used to seeing the Living Lobby every day, but it still never ceased to amaze him. Of all the places in the academy, the Living Lobby was the most uplifting to be in. The enormous, three story high, open horseshoe-shaped room was enchanted to be a pocket dimension of sorts, a place to accommodate the living spaces for the increased number of enrolled students. It wasn't physically a part of the academy's campus—-It was much too big to even fit on the property—- but it was still connected to the instructional classrooms and offices by a long bricked hallway (that served as the only way in and the only way out), nonetheless.
Encased in a bright yellow glow and covered by a glass ceiling, the lobby was the center of all kinds of student interaction. Almost every student sat and chatted at one of the fifty tables or thirty benches in the center hall at some point throughout the day. The room was truly alive with various conversations and activities going on every minute. The three hundred dorm room doorways lined the sides of the central area, one hundred dorms on each level. On each of the three sides of the room, a wooden staircase connected the second and third levels of dorms with the main floor. Each higher level, enclosed by a golden rail that kept those on the upper levels from falling, could look down and out upon the center of the lobby hall and watch everything happening below.
Eyeing the left, more quiet side, of the lobby hall, Thomas looked around for an open spot to work at. He waved to a friend leaving a dorm on the second floor. Distracted, he tripped. A small open book laid in the skew of his path. Someone must have left it there by accident. He picked up the book and closed it shut, admiring the pristine glossy cover and perfectly crisp pages. "Pelican Yodels and Donut Gnocchi?" he joked reading the title aloud. "Did anyone drop this?" He waved the book up high which got the attention of the many other students who worked around the area. Most of them shook their heads.
Intrigued by its contents, Thomas found an open table, sat down, and opened the book.
Mystic walked through the long brick hallway that marked the entrance to the dorms. She whimpered and sniffled as she made her way to her room. The head nurse advised her to take the rest of the day as a mental day so she could reflect on her emotions about what just happened. Mystic did. She walked into the Living Lobby and toward the stairway closest to her dorm room.
"You okay?" asked Thomas. He was sitting in the lobby hall. "Aren't you supposed to be in potions now?" He didn't look up when he spoke and instead flipped through the book, perplexed at the gibberish printed on the pages.
"What's it to you?" Mystic used her hand to subtly wipe her tears. She didn't need him to pity her
Thomas looked up at her. "I'm just trying to be a good older brother," he said defensively. "If Lily's friend's sad, I should try to at least help, right?" He tussled his rusted brown hair. Surely he wasn't up to anything good. Thomas Reed was never one to help out his sister, and definitely not one to help out his sister's friends. Whenever Lily was around Thomas acted as if his sister never existed. The fact that he even acknowledged Mystic must have meant that he wanted something out of the girl.
"It's none of your business, Thomas,"
"Hey, you're good at baking right? I found this, but can't read it. I think it's a recipe of some kind." He handed her the book. The words gibbered on the page. "You know, maybe it might help get your mind off of whatever it is you're upset about?" He pulled out the chair next to him offering it to her.
Mystic wasn't usually the type to hang out with Thomas. He was a year older than her and they were nothing more than just acquaintances. She never failed to listen to Lily's stories of unrequited admiration for her brother. And Mystic knew how Thomas never stopped to give Lily the time of day. The fact that he knew who she was, let alone her name, baffled her. But, she took the seat anyways. Maybe deciphering a recipe was just what she needed to get her mind off of the events from the morning.
She looked at the book with Thomas. The scrambled gibberish-ordered letters started to shift and rearrange themselves into literate words. The words danced on the page before taking their final form. They stopped. On the page, the instructions to bake "Easygoing Caramel Fudge."
"I thought you said this wasn't readable?" Mystic asked. "Seems perfectly readable to me"
"It isn't! Or at least, it wasn't" Thomas rubbed his eyes and grabbed the book. "How'd you—? Some sort of pixie-wixie magic stuff?"
"I didn't do anything"
Thomas looked at her and then down at the recipe. He didn't know how long whatever Mystic did to the book would last so he rummaged in his bag for a spare pencil and paper.
Mystic got up from the table, pushed in her chair, and walked out of the lobby hall heading back towards the open staircase. Despite the lack of effort on her part, the distraction did help her get her mind off the morning. She took one more glance at Thomas, who furiously copied every detail down onto a separate sheet of paper, and waved goodbye.
Mystic walked up the staircase and entered her dorm room on the second floor. Her back back thumped onto the floor as she flopped onto her bed.
The faint patter of tiny legs skittered across her dresser. The lizard creature stood at twenty centimeters long and screeched at Mystic. Something was wrong. Mystic wasn't her usual self walking into the room. She didn't run up to give the lizard a pet like she did every time she entered the room. There was no smiled and her face didn't sport it's typical optimistic glow.
"Not now, Poori," She said. Her head buried in her pillow.
The thing whimpered. It scattered back to get a running start and ran off the dresser leaping into the air. The lizard reached out its arms and revealed its elongated orange and red-spotted wings as it glided over to Mystic's bed. Once landed, it skittered over to Mystic's side, leaving tiny foot imprints on her bedsheet. It grunted.
"Poori, not now. I don't want to talk about it."
Following Mystic, it walked over to face her. It grunted again. With one quick exhale, the lizard breathed out a small ember. It scorched a small section of Mystic's bedsheet.
"POORI!" Mystic shouted at the thing. Her fingers patted the newborn flame out. "You can't do that here!" She exclaimed. She stuck her hands for to the thing to climb.
The lizard happily pranced its way into Mystic's open hand. It folded its wings back up into its rough scales and circled in the palm before settling in a comfortable position.
Her hands pulled back to eye level and looked at the thing. Its yellowish-brown scaly head nudged itself against her nose.
"Thanks," she giggled. She looked into Poori's eyes. This was her lizard, her flying dragon-lizard to be exact. She named it after the fact that it had landed on the poori bread her mom made for her snack in fifth grade. Five years later, Poori still stood by her. The lizard's prance made Mystic smile even on the gloomiest of days. It was her unofficial emotional support animal and official companion.
Poori nodded. It circled around and found a position to lay down and buried its face in its tail, ready to take a nap with Mystic.
-------- Author's Note-------
Thank you so much for reading Venefica: Stories From Your Memories up to this point! Venefica means a lot to me on a personal level. In this chapter we are introduced to Thomas, Lily's older brother. The Reed siblings hold a different kind of siblingship than that of the Quires and that will be explained later on in future chapters. This chapter also introduces us to Mystic's personal problem; the fear of getting hurt (both herself and others) brought upon by Rita's psychic attack. Mystic is a character wich such a rich amount of hidden emotions tied to her actions, I hope you keep reading to get to know more about the story of this brave pixie. (and of course, Poori is there to help her along the way)
This chapter's question: If you could have any emotional support magical creature, what kind of creature would that be?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
And as always, thank you for reading Venefica!