Chapter 15 Melodia

"Me and my big mouth," I groaned as I scanned the wall in front of me and my words from last week played again in my head. I managed to spot this week's doll for a second before it moved again. And now I had to find it all over again.

When Pickati first led me to the doll, I had been expecting a straightforward fight. It was a big lizard thing with an axe for a tail. No tricks, no gimmicks, just my magic versus its tail.

And now here I was, playing a game of cat and mouse against a doll that could go invisible, walk on walls, and refused to fight me anywhere but dark places which made it even harder to find. So far the fight had consisted of me looking for the doll, it breaking camouflage to hit me, then going invisible again. It hadn't managed to hit me hard enough to draw blood, but it was getting there.

I heard the air next to me whoosh. I ducked down just in time to feel something fly over my head. I looked up and saw the invisible outline of the doll as it ran away again. There had to be a way to keep track of this thing.

And just as the thought struck my mind, I saw a nearby flowerpot tip over and break, dirt flying into the air around me. An idea flashed in my mind and I groaned. It would probably work, but I sure wasn't going to like it.

[Gravity.

Spot in the middle of the dirt.

Fifteen foot sphere.

Invert.]

I closed my eyes as all the dirt fell away from the central point, filling the rest of the alley. I batted away the dirt before it could hit my eyes and looked for the doll. I spotted its dirt-covered legs scrambling up the side of the wall and climbing onto the roof.

"Oh no you don't," I readied some more magic before balancing myself on one foot.

[Gravity.

Self.

Negate.]

I kicked the ground hard and launched into the air after the doll. I grabbed onto the ledge of the building and pulled myself onto it, dropping the spell as I landed. I scanned the roof and saw… a small pile of dirt and not a single doll in sight.

"Ugh," I sat down on the roof once I was sure the doll was gone.

"Did you get it this time?" Pickati came flying over after a minute. I turned to him and gave him a simple frown. He grit his teeth and looked out over the city. "This makes the third time."

"Invisibility is a cheap power, and I hate it," I complained as I got to my feet, "I bet this thing would go down so fast if it was a straight fight."

"You might be right about that," he conceded as I walked to the edge of the building, "there does seem to be some sort of logic to it. The more strange abilities a doll has, the less raw power they have."

[Gravity.

Self.

Reduce by half.]

"Yeah, but at the same time, I think the amount of raw power they have to work with is going up over time. Break wasn't kidding when he said the dolls would only get stronger," I told him as I jumped off the building and gently floated down, touching down with a soft click. I undid my transformation as Pickati flew down to meet me.

"To change the subject, are you sure you don't want my help trying to speak to the other girls?" He asked as I pouted. The last thing I wanted was to have this argument again.

"I already told you, that won't work anymore," I opened my bag and he flew into it. "I honestly think we've reached the point where we can't work with the rest of the girls."

"Don't you think it's a bit much to assume they'll attack you on sight?" I started walking back home, the bag proving to be not enough to keep him quiet.

"Not after what happened last week," I shuddered as the memory of the incident played in my mind. After what happened with the snake doll, I thought I could start doing little things to start making up for it. My first little thing was to try to warn Claire that the janitor was still moping the stairs.

Somehow the whole thing had ended with them thinking I had tried to push her down the stairs. I wasn't even sure how it happened. And the worst part was, from an outsider's perspective, that was kind of what it looked like.

"Well, you'll have to talk to them at some point," Pickati pointed out, "are you sure you don't want me to do it?"

"Yes!" I barked with a little more force than I had been expecting. I took a second to blink as he poked his head out my bag and gave me a pointed look. "Sorry, it's just… you know I want to do this on my own."

"Well in that case, please be a little quicker about it," he slowly went back into the bag. "The sooner I have a chance to talk to the other holders, the sooner I can figure out what's going on."

I frowned to myself as I felt Pickati's stress leaking out of the bag. He'd been this way ever since I told him about last week's fight. He'd explained that the other girls should have been learning magic too and that they weren't was concerning.

"So changing the subject," my mind drifted towards the other big worry on my shoulders. "What are we going to do about the doll? If we don't get rid of it soon, we'll have two dolls to deal with at once."

I silently prayed he'd suddenly remember some sort of spell or power or something which would solve the problem.

"Well I don't have any new spells I can teach that'll solve the issue if that's what you're thinking," I stumbled midstep. How did he know?

"My creator told me about this. It's a stage all young magi reach soon after they start learning spells. They start thinking a new spell will always be the solution to their problem," I looked down into my bag to see Pickati smirking at me from inside. "I remember my creator's apprentice having similar issues and having the same ideas."

At least I wasn't alone then. At least one person out there knew what I was going through, even if it was some guy who lived a long time ago…

I decided to forget that line of thinking and kept walking home. I had better things to think about. Like how I was going to explain getting covered in dirt on the way home from school. I was sure I could think of a good excuse in the time it took me to get home.

"Melodia, what happened to you?" Arturo grabbed onto my shoulders as I walked into the house. He quickly looked me over for any injuries. Jokes on him, all of my wounds from the fight had already healed by now.

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"I'm fine," I squirmed out of his grasp as I glanced around the house. Looked like I would only have to deal with questions from one family member if I acted fast enough. "And if you mind, I'd like to get into the shower before Mom and Dad get back home."

"Not until you tell me what happened to you," he stepped to block my path up the stairs, "did someone do this to you?"

Oh… so that was what he was worried about? I guess I could tell him something so he would stop bothering me about this.

"Don't worry, I can promise you all of this was my fault," And that part was true. If I hadn't tried hitting the doll with dirt, I'd be fine. And now that the little truth was in place, time to lie my face off. "If you have to know, I tripped on the way home and fell in some dirt, that's it."

"Alright," he finally stepped aside for me to go up the stairs. "But… just clean yourself up fast. Mom and Dad wanted to do a little movie night tonight…"

Oh a movie night. That sounded fun… or at least it would have if I wasn't still tired from fighting this doll three times in five days.

"Actually, I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight," I told him from the top of the stairs, "I'm kind of tired."

"Oh, okay then," he gave me a little frown, but left it alone. He must have told our parents about it, because neither of them bothered me for the rest of the night either. Which left me all alone to think of a good way to fight this stupid doll.

After ten minutes of tossing and turning while trying to think of a plan, I finally got one. All of my problems so far were because the doll went invisible and I lost my ability to keep track of it. So the obvious counter was to run up and hit it before it could turn invisible. Was it a good plan? No, not really, but it was the best plan I could come up with by the time I finally went to sleep.

I woke up the next day, oh so happy it was Saturday. And not only was it a Saturday, it was a Saturday I had the house to myself… at least for the morning. Mom and Dad needed to talk to some guy about something official and important. Arturo was off somewhere buying something for dinner since no one else would have time today.

Which left me free to start my day with a big plate of pancakes everyone had left me. Once those were done, I headed into the shower in an attempt to fight the sudden heat. I had gotten my powers back in the tail end of winter and we were now in the middle of spring. Normally that meant things were cold enough in the morning for a jacket, but got hot enough to cook you alive by the time we got to the afternoon. But we'd been having this weird heat wave all week now. I had actually asked Pickati if he thought it was connected to the dolls but apparently it wasn't.

After that, I decided to get working on the little bit of weekend homework I hadn't done the night before as Pickati watched the outside world from the window.

"Any luck sensing the doll yet?" I asked once I finished the last of the work and pushed it away into a little pile in the corner of the desk.

"No, how about your plan to take it down?" I let out a groan as I finished putting everything away before getting up to go to the living room.

"Right now my best plan is still 'hit it before it goes invisible'. Other than that, I guess I'll have to work with wherever this thing shows up," I pouted before sitting down in front of the TV and putting on a cartoon. It would be a nice distraction from this whole doll situation.

"You said the second fight ended when you increased the gravity around you right?" I nodded my head before remembering he couldn't see me with his eyes glued to the window.

"Yeah, and I was so sure my plan would work too," I told him as I heard the front door open. I glanced open at the clock. This was about the time Arturo said he'd be coming back when I called him over the phone earlier.

"Maybe you could use a modified version of the plan…" I rushed out of my chair and grabbed Pickati, making sure to put my hands over his mouth. I placed him on the sofa and sat in front of him as my brother rushed into the room carrying a whole bunch of bags.

"Melodia!" He burst into the room and looked around clearly looking for something. He must not have found it, because he relaxed a moment later and sat down in the sofa chair across from me. He laid the bags of groceries he bought down on the floor in front of him before leaning back. "Sorry, I thought I heard someone else in here with you."

"No, just me and the TV," I laughed nervously as I felt Pickati turn himself into a plushie behind me.

"Oh okay, I… I thought I heard a guy in here. Thought someone had broken in or something," we both looked over at the TV showing a cartoon about a trio of girls with no male characters in it. At least none with as deep a voice as Pickati.

"Don't worry, it was just a commercial," I reassured him before scowling, "and you plan if someone broke in here was to run into the room while yelling my name? Are you trying to get yourself hurt?"

"Yeah, sorry," he mumbled before getting to his feet and grabbed the bags in front of him, "I'm going to go take these to the kitchen." I watched him leave before feeling something wriggling around behind my back. I leaned forward so Pickati could get out.

"We have trouble, the doll's gone active," he whispered before turning back into a plushie just in time for my brother to walk back into the room.

"Man, you have no idea how happy I am to be back home," he sank down into the couch next to me. I poked him in the forehead and raised an eyebrow at how hot his skin was. This was bad. There was no way I could leave the house by myself without making him even more suspicious, and there was no way I was convincing him to leave the house again.

Unless…

"Hey Arturo, want to go and buy some ice cream?"