Origin - Four - Rending Nightmare

Alice wasn’t sure what she thought of Marcia. The girl was... not nice, exactly. She was extroverted and quick to make friends in a way that Alice wasn’t.

Not that Alice was introverted, necessarily. She could hold her own in a conversation and she wasn’t shy about putting her foot down. But Alice didn’t have the easy charisma that Marcia had. She was more... well, like her father. A bullheaded person who could put their mind on something and wouldn’t let go.

Still, Marcia made some things easier.

The first few days at the Escola Central were a challenge for all the new students. Some friend groups were carried over from middle and elementary school, but there were lots of students who had moved in closer to attend the prestigious school, and more who had had private tutoring until now.

That meant that plenty of the students were still feeling out the social situation at a school that was still reeling from the deaths that had occurred in the very corridors they wandered every day.

Alice was lucky, she found, to have met someone to socialise with without having to worry too much about... all the rest.

She had enough on her plate as it was. Adding homework to her magic practice was leaving her with little time for anything else. Not that she minded overly much. The school day gave her time to practise with her more subtle spells and to think up new ideas she could try later. It was also a nice distraction.

As was Marcia. The girl was a chatterbox at times, always asking questions, poking and prodding and listening to every bit of gossip circulating through the halls. She was friendly, open, quick to make connections with the other students and the staff, and always close by Alice’s side.

It was too bad that Alice suspected that Marcia was a demon.

“Alice!” Marcia called out, one arm waving above her head as if Alice could miss her. The shorter girl was standing on one of the edging stones around a flowerbank at the school’s front to give her a few extra centimetres of height. “I’m here!”

A few other girls were lingering nearby; it was obvious from their body language that they had been chatting a moment ago, before Marcia jumped up for Alice’s attention.

“Hey,” Alice said as she got closer. She had her thumbs hooked onto the straps of her backpack. It meant that her arms were in a position where she could easily summon Dream Charter and swing the sword down if she needed to. “How are you doing?”

“Better now that you’re here,” Marcia said with a big grin. Sometimes her smile stretched too much, but this wasn’t one of those times. “Did you do the math homework?”

“Yes,” Alice said. It was a good thing Marcia could carry most conversations because Alice felt tremendously awkward around the woman.

The other girls looked between each other, then back. Alice was aware that there were already strange rumours going on. “Alright, now that Alice is here,” Marcia said, “should we head in?”

“What about Rachel?” one of the girls asked.

Marcia looked at her, as if the girl had asked about the president of South Korea instead of a fellow classmate. “What about her?”

“She’s not here yet?”

“Then if you want, you can wait for her. Come on, Alice, they refilled the vending machines this morning. I want to know what your favourite drink is.”

“Right,” Alice said. She shrugged to the others, then followed after Marcia. The girl bounced ahead of her. Often she would turn, and it almost looked like she was reaching back for Alice, but she never touched. Ever.

Alice couldn’t recall Marcia coming in contact with her, despite how touchy she could be with others. When she was talking to other girls she often started with hugs, and she was even quick to hug any boy they happened to be talking to.

The lack for Alice was conspicuous.

“So, any preferences?” Marcia asked.

“Uh. Fanta?” Alice guessed. She had been thinking of other things for a moment, and might have missed out on what Marcia said for a moment. It wasn’t fair of her. She wasn’t certain that Marcia was a demon yet, so failing to pay attention was nothing but rude.

“Cool!” Marcia said. “I haven’t tried everything yet, so I’ll try that this time.” Marcia led Alice into the cafeteria on the ground floor and towards a trio of machines next to the entrance. A few people were gathered nearby, chatting and complaining as students did this early in the morning. A few had taken up tables and were finishing up homework or early semester projects.

The school was alive with chatter, and unfortunately, the smell of too many pubescent boys in one place.

Marcia poked away at the vending machine for a while, seeming happy just to watch the machine clunk out the drinks she ordered into the basket below. She scooped them out, then underhanded one of the cans to Alice who swiped it out of the air. “Did you hear?” Marcia asked as she pulled the tab with a hiss.

“Hear what?” Alice asked.

“There was another attack,” Marcia said. She smiled and took a sip from her can. “Oh, this is sweet.”

“An attack?” Alice asked. Her grip on her can tightened, the cold seeping into her hand. “Like the one that happened here?”

“Just like it! This time it was at a mall. Right in the food court! Well, you can imagine, I bet.”

“When did this happen?” Alice asked.

Marcia blinked and glanced off to the side. “Well, I suppose it’s happening... right now?”

Alice flicked her still-unopened can to the side where it flew into a garbage bin, then she reached out and grabbed Marcia by the wrist.

The girl hissed. Marcia’s Fanta clunked onto the ground.

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Alice pushed her back until she bumped into the nearest of the vending machines.

They locked eyes. The lights in the cafeteria flickered. The shadows danced. No one came to split them apart. “Tell me,” Alice said.

“It wasn’t me,” Marcia said. “I just know.”

“I don’t care,” Alice hissed. “Tell me what you know.”

The girl smiled over her arm which was still held at an awkward angle. Something snapped, and Alice loosened her grip just a little. “A bunch of little wanna be pop-stars are doing a signing at the food court. Someone thought it would be clever to hit the event. So many girls in attendance. All the rebellious sort who wouldn’t mind skipping out on school. Plus a number of schools have today off, you know? We’re just open to make up for the year starting a little late.”

“Where?” Alice asked.

“The big mall, in the centre of town.”

Alice pointed to Marcia with her free hand. “When I come back, you will be here.”

“And what do I get out of that deal?” Marcia asked sweetly.

“To live,” Alice said. She let go, backed off, then stomped out into the main hall. Marcia would have to be dealt with later. The girl was definitely strange, possibly in cahoots with Hell, and maybe a devil herself. Alice would discover that later.

She knew that there would be no escaping her. Her magic was tailor-made to delve into the shadows and uncover things. She’d find out, one way or another.

But for now, an emergency awaited.

Alice left the school grounds, then hesitated. First, how was she going to get to the centre of the city? That was technically only a dozen blocks over, but that was still far. Run? She could sprint all the way over, but that would still be fairly slow.

She glanced up to the nearest rooftop, then chewed on her lower lip. Maybe?

Ducking into a bus shelter set at the front of the school, Alice spun around so that there was room behind her, then she closed her eyes. She just had to trust in her magic, and in herself. She fell, and in falling summoned her powers to herself.

Shadows lengthened beneath her, and she crashed into a pool of darkness that swallowed her whole. When she opened her eyes, she was in her magical girl costume. She pressed her hands over her eyes, then let out a relieved sigh. Her costume now included a domino mask.

It wouldn’t do too much to protect her, but... well, part of the protection was having the mask in the first place, she figured. It was a sign to anyone who wanted to look that she was trying to protect her identity in the first place.

She was gambling on people not being fools about things.

Alice... no, Rending Nightmare, swept out of the bus shelter, her capelet fluttering behind her, her tight white pants almost glowing. She knelt, then jumped, the leap taking her far higher than any human should have been able to travel in a single leap.

Landing with a crunch atop the roof of a convenience store, Alice wobbled for a bit, arms splayed out for balance, then she took a deep breath and started running.

She realised immediately that she would need to add parkour to her training routine. Sure, travelling in what was almost a straight line across rooftops was faster on paper, but she hesitated too often and had to pause to find places to jump from one roof to another.

Still, when the rooftops aligned, she felt like she was making good speed across the city, jumping over the alleyway gaps and onto exposed fire escapes that clanged with every impact of her boots.

On arriving closer to the centre of the city, she spotted a familiar mall complex. She’d been there a few times, with family and friends, sometimes on the lookout for something specific, sometimes just to wander the stores and look at all the things she couldn’t afford.

There was a large space behind the mall, a parking garage that was just close enough to the buildings next to it that when she ran around she was able to leap over and land on one of its concrete walls.

“Okay,” she said as she vaulted down from the wall and onto the ground. The parking garage’s topmost floor was open to the sky, with a building at one end that had elevators leading into the mall. “Now we see if Marcia was telling the truth or not.”

Or Alice could be in the wrong place entirely. She reached her senses out as she walked towards the elevators. There were shadows aplenty heeding her call, but none of them hinted at the presence of devils. Though... she could feel some shadows moving on the floors below. People walking? It was hard to tell.

Another thing to practice.

She stepped into the elevator next to some tourists and a few locals. Alice resisted the urge to squirm. Her outfit was a little strange but... well, it wasn’t stranger than what some people wore for Carnival, even if that was a ways away. And besides, the mall was a place for people to show off strange fashions, so her strange outfit wouldn’t look too out of place. Or so she hoped.

She exited on the middle floor, then immediately paused outside of the elevator.

The mall was a huge, sprawling place, with an open atrium in the middle where she could see stores on the levels above and below.

How in the world was she going to find anything here?

Then she heard the panicked screaming and her attention was drawn down, to the bottommost floor where people were rushing away from something.

That was helpful, she decided.

Grabbing the edge of the railing, Alice vaulted over it, then she spread her arms wide and fell, a leap of faith trusting only in her own magic to keep her from splattering below.

It was time to see what was really going on.

***