“This is bullshit!” Gabi punched a hole in the concrete wall “those goddamn… bitches are free to roam while we have to hide away”
“Why do we have to listen to her?” Ryuu questioned Gabi about the Hyena
“Because she’s the Alpha” Jack answered in the leopard stead “stronger than all of us and can kill us very easily if she chooses to do so”
“Besides it’s not like we’re under house arrest, we can still go out and hunt, just gotta avoid them when we can” Tessa pointed out lazily from her perch; she didn’t care about the Alpha’s orders either way, but all the whining and breaking of things was getting on her nerves.
“By the way” Gabi looked up, momentarily distracted from her ire “are you sure about that guy being a zombie?”
Even Jack and Ryuu looked up towards the blonde girl in question. The Komodo Dragon may be but a cub but Jack had lived for well over fifty years and had yet to ever see a zombie in real life
“Pretty sure” Tessa’s laconic expression changed into a somber one “I had only seen one, once hundreds of years ago, but she too could control the shadows just like that guy was doing last week”
“Is that why boss is being weird about them?” Jack turned to Gabi for advice “there’s more to that witch than meets the eye?”
“maybe” Gabi sighed in resignation “I’ll try to bring it up with her” the whole time Ryuu didn’t say a word; engrossed in thoughts of his own.
XXXXXXX
“Dude! you’re never going to believe what happened” Jerry excitingly declared to Luke and Obie
“Tell us” Obie for some reason was sitting on a desk that was facing Luke and not Mrs. Singh
“it’s something stupid, isn’t it?” Jules, was sitting opposite Jerry
“Pay attention to the board” the Indian woman standing in front of the class called out as she wrote out a math equation. Luke tried to ask Jerry to speak up, but realized that he couldn’t speak. In fact, he couldn’t breathe.
Suddenly everyone was looking at Luke “No, not at me” Luke realized “at my body” he then looked down to see a bloody claw jutting out of his chest “oh”
“GAAHH!” Luke jumped of his bed in a start, looking around for the hyena, before realizing where he was.
“haaa…” the shaken boy sat down on the bed and realized he had sweated through his night shirt “it was just a dream” Luke told himself “Just a dream…”
XXXXXXX
Luke woke up to his alarm clock, having managed to drift off to sleep again at some point of the night. The rest of the morning went as per routine, hydrating up for the day, dreading going to school, getting ready for school; and then he realized his mom was actually awake in the morning.
“Good morning baby!” Andrea Wyatt gave her son a tired smile from behind the stove
“… morning” Luke recovered quickly enough
“How about some breakfast?” Andrea gestured towards the scrambled eggs in the pan in front of her.
“I-I gotta rush to school actually” Luke took a big gulp of the orange juice from its tetra pack “gotta meet with a couple of people about Spanish class”
“Oh…” Andrea’s smile faltered before recovering again “I was thinking about making chicken for dinner tonight after my shift at the restaurant” she looked hopeful “you’ll come home?”
“Yeah… sure” Luke gulped audibly “see ya” he turned around and walked away before his mother could add anything else.
XXXXXXX
“A penny for your thoughts?” Phoebe asked Diana upon seeing the distracted look in the other girl’s face
“I ain’t taking anything less than a full dollar” Diana retorted without missing a beat, the two girls were heading towards Chang’s office for their morning meeting
“Just… wondering” the brunette admitted “If we can really trust Luke” the two girls were witch and familiar in name, but their bond had always been that of equals.
“Why the paranoia?” Phoebe chuckled lightly as they rounded a corner
“Good non humans aren’t exactly a dime a dozen” Diana pointed out
“Yet they’re not unheard of” Phoebe reparteed “I get that you’re worried but Chang is sure that he’s not a threat”
Daphne simply hummed noncommittally
“Let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt for now” Phoebe suggested as they entered Chang’s office, But Daphne didn’t say anything
XXXXXXX
Luke skateboarded all the way to the school without stopping completely engrossed in his thoughts “wow! You, okay?” Obie’s voice made Luke jump “easy their bro”
“Yeah...” Luke grinned at Obie “just… can’t deal with the heat” it was early morning and there weren’t many students around the school entrance for now.
“you’re still feeling hot?” Obie scrunched up his face in confusion
“Chang thinks it might be a zombie thing” the two entered the school building
“ahh” Obie accepted with a nod “speaking of whom we should hurry up, they said be there at eight and it’s already eight” the two quickened their pace and reached the office.
“Good morning boys” Chang greeted the two as did the girls who were already seated.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“morning” the boys mumbled back but chose to remain standing; or in Obie’s case lean against the wall
“Have we got any update on the whereabouts of the chimeras?” Chang asked Phoebe who shook her head in negative.
“They must be using magicks of their own to hide their location” the blonde girl hypothesized “something that’s hiding them from my tracking spells”
“So, what do we do now?” Luke asked Phoebe rather than Chang; since she was the witch and the one with the ability to cast spells
“We wait and watch” Daphne was the one who answered
“that’s it?”
“that’s it” Chang affirmed “They’ll rear their head out sooner rather than later”
“And if they don’t?” Obie was the one to voice this question
“Then it means they’ve run out of town” Chang explained “and hence out of our reach and immediate concern” Luke wasn’t sure if that sat right with him but didn’t voice an objection.
“Anything else before we start our day?” Chang asked the group in general
“Yeah; can we keep these meeting in the evening?” Luke asked the Chang and the girls “morning… make me dry”
Daphne snorted
“same” Obie intoned to Daphne and then chuckled when Luke glared at him.
“I have track meet after classes” the brunette girl continued
“I have drama” Phoebe added
“And don’t you have Wrestling?” Obie pointed out as well
“We can meet up after that as well, since these chimeras seem to only come out at night”
“They are chimeras not vampires” Chang pinched the bridge of his nose “anyways this is something we can shelve for now and discuss later as it’s not important”
“it’s important to me” Luke grumbled internally but didn’t say anything as the four kids exited the Spanish teacher’s office.
“Say Daphne” Obie called out as they continued to walk down the hallway “I heard that you’re like the third fastest sprinter in our school”
“I am” Daphne shrugged indifferently, though Phoebe could tell that her friend was feeling pride
“But you’re like… faster than an Olympic sprinter” Luke pointed out as they entered the student lounge.
“because of magic” Daphne raised an eyebrow as she stated the obvious
“Yeah; so why are you running slower in track?” Obie asked as they all sat down on the sofas
“Well firstly it would be cheating” Daphne listed off on her fingers “secondly it might cause a stir in the sports community that a little girl is faster than the fastest man on earth”
“it’ll get us the wrong kind of attention that might hamper our duty as guardians against the supernatural” Phoebe propped her legs beside Obie
“And also create a riot in the supernatural community” Daphne continued “and attract-” she stopped as three students walked past them simply gesturing with her eyes
“Threat to secrecy, got it” Luke nodded “but you’re honestly never tempted to like… use it just a little bit?”
“no” Daphne shrugged nonchalantly as the warning bell rung
“Well, that’s our cue to stop relaxing” Obie sighed despondently “see you guys after class” the four parted ways, Phoebe and Obie ready to tackle a new day of academia, Luke and Daphne ready to slog as demanded by their academic overlords.
XXXXXXX
“Hey!” Jules fell into step with Luke as they headed towards Physics “you ready for the test?”
“there’s a test?!” Luke’s eyes widened, school had been the last thing in his mind these past few days, and he hadn’t really been tracking any of his coursework properly
“Nope!” Jules stuck out her tongue “but you’d know that if your head wasn’t in the clouds all the time”
“That’s not funny” Luke lightly bumped shoulders with her.
“It was hilarious” Jules staggered a bit but didn’t seem to mind “seriously you’ve been like in a different world these last few days”
“If only you knew!” the boy thought to himself but just shrugged noncommittally
“But is... like… everything alright?” Jules gave Luke a sideways look. “y’know you can always talk to me, right?”
Luke considered her words for a few minutes as he stopped and turned towards her “You know about my mom” he started without preamble, only her, Obie, and Jerry knew his mom was a functional alcoholic “she’s on her ‘I’m gonna turn my life around’ phase”
Jules stayed silent, giving Luke space to continue
“Her eleventh one in the past two years” Luke was grateful for the lack of words “I know she’s gonna climb back into the battle and I’m prepared for it, but… it’s shitty having to see her slowly fail over and over again”
Luke could never admit this to Obie, he would see it in Obie’s face every time they interacted for the next few days, and he wasn’t too close to Phoebe or Diana to open up to them; so, when Jules offered, he hadn’t been able to still bottle it in.
“I’m sorry” Jules hugged him; and right then, that was all the he needed.
XXXXXXX
“Hey!” Obie called out to Phoebe when he saw her walking ahead of him
“hi” Phoebe bumped fists with him “what’s up?”
“Just headed to study hall” Obie shrugged “needed to write my book report on To Kill a Mockingbird”
“Oh! I was headed to the library” Phoebe jutted her thumb down the hallway “quieter”
“Mind if I join you? I should probably get that book to do the report”
“Be my guest” Phoebe sniggered and the two headed towards the library
“Hey, do you mind if I ask you something?” Obie turned to the petite girl who simply nodded in response.
“How does magic work? And is it possible that I can do it? Even a little bit like Daph?” the question had been in Obie’s mind ever since he had learnt about magic, but he hadn’t mustered the will to bring it up until now.
Phoebe let out a breath as if she had been expecting this question; she grabbed Obie’s hand and dragged him with her into a stairwell.
“Let all sound be contained” she formed multiple gestures with her hand as the air around them shimmered in the shape of a dome before going back to normal “can’t let someone overhear our talks on magic”
“they’d just think we’re talking about a card game or a rpg or a video game” Obie shook his head but accepted her caution
Phoebe froze for a moment to consider his words before shaking her head and getting back on track.
“Magic is the usage of the natural ethereal force that exists around us and channeling it through our body” Phoebe explained “the hand gestures, symbols, and chanting all serve as ways to channel the magic through us and into whatever form we desire”
“sooo… want an eclipse just…” Obie fumbled with his hands “…do that?”
“Firstly no” Phoebe pushed his hands down “that was nothing like spellcasting at all; secondly we don’t have time to get into the rules of magic; thirdly my point is that everybody has a little of that ethereal force that we call magic in them, but not everyone can wield it” she the quietened to let him absorb the words.
Obie too stayed quiet as he considered what he had just learnt “is there…like a…a test that you can do to see if I can do magic”
“yes” Phoebe conceded “and I will do that test for you-”
“Cool!” Obie smiled brightly as he patted her shoulder “thanks Pheebs, you a real one” turning around he happily exited the stairwell, leaving behind an open mouthed, petite, flabbergasted, blonde girl.
“…should’ve just led with that”
XXXXXXX
Jules couldn’t help but glance over at Daphne Tyler-Stone for the third time in five minutes.
She knew the girl by association but hadn’t really interacted with her much or given much thoughts to her until she had seen her Luke, Obie, and Phoebe Vesper together the other day.
“Should I go over and just talk to her?” Jules absentmindedly popped a fry into her mouth staring at Daphne and Phoebe having lunch “just bump into her, say hi… get a feel of the girl”
“Jules!” Amber Bailey’s loud voice finally shook Jules out of her thoughts “Wassup with you?” Jules was currently sharing a table with her and two other boys.
“nothing” said girl shrugged “just thinking…”
“And… what would you think about a concert in LA?” James Kaminski, the schools star running back asked Jules. Everyone knew that he liked her, even Jules but she had always managed to keep him at an arm’s length.
“I have two- *cough coughs*” he coughed hard “two-” his coughs got louder and nasally “two ticke-” he continued to violently cough, now without even stopping for breath
“Dude, you, okay?” Amber asked him but James wouldn’t stop coughing, even as he started to cough blood.
“OH SHIT!” Jules and Amber jumped back as James collapsed onto the ground.
“Somebody call an ambulance!” James’ teammate shouted as he held James’ head. Some kids did run out to call teachers but all Jules could do was stare at the blood sprouting, prone form of James in shock.
So much so, that she completely missed Phoebe’s eyes glowing as she formed a hand gesture; and then sharing a look with Daphne that only said one word.
Magic