“Tremble all and fear my wrath! None shall escape my revenge!” The witch bellowed with her magically enchanted voice. Her hair flowing behind her in lavish beauty as she hovered several tens of meters off the ground.
Pandemonium broke out the moment someone pointed at her and yelled, “It’s the witch!”
Eris let them all run, how far they went mattered not. She had every single human here magically marked. Even if they were to escape today, they’d never be able to escape forever. She’d hunt everyone down to the ends of the earth if she had to. All to sate her anger at those who would hurt her family.
She tired of watching a screaming panic and decided to end things quickly. Raising her hand, the air split with a crack that sounded like a hundred thunderclaps. The earth split and boiling water spewed into the air, severely scalding any who were unfortunate enough to be within range of the magically created geysers.
“Please, witch. Please don’t do this!” a voice hollered. If she hadn’t magically enhanced her senses, Eris might not have heard the young man’s voice. Her blood boiled and in a flash of actual lightning she disappeared when it struck her. Before the young man could register that she was missing, another thunderclap sounded right next to him, causing him to nearly jump out of his skin.
“Don’t do this? Did Emily say something similar when you all flogged her? Did she deserve what you did to her?”
“Please! There are innocents in town, those who spoke out against the treatment of your daughter.”
“And when she lay dying on the street, did any of those souls help her?”
The man looked down; guilt carved into his face.
“In my eyes, all of you are guilty. Every. Last. One.”
She rose her hand to the heavens once more and a ring of light, inlaid with intricate patterns, shot forth into the sky. For a moment nothing happened, with the lights hanging there as if suspended by some invisible tower. The moment spread out and thinned what little hope there was left in the hearts of the town. That hope was fully broken the moment the first meteors came crashing through the sky, as if they were made from the air itself. Superheated gas expanded and thousands of booms echoed throughout the land. The whole of the earth would hear the demise of the town as the raw power of the spell split the land completely and the nearby mountain of Krakatau caved to the unrelenting pressure of the meteors and erupted…
◊◊◊
“And that is why we call the eruption of Krakatoa the ‘Sound that was heard around the world.’” Ms. Knightly said as she finished her lecture.
Tyler wasn’t paying attention, her notebook filled with her daydream she just had. She replayed some of the scenes she liked the most in her head and filled in the margins of the paper with notes for later.
“In my eyes, all of you are guilty? Do I sound like that?” Eris asked. Her question finally pulling Tyler from the notebook, and she realized her friend had been reading over her shoulder.
Tyler felt the heat of a blush rush from her chest to her cheeks in embarrassment as she quickly closed her notebook. “No. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you. Not that you’re upset or anything! Just if I did, I’m sorry.”
Eris smiled at Tyler’s little rushed and hushed apology. “It’s okay, really. Honestly, some of that isn’t far from how I might have acted back then if something like that did happen to someone I cared about.” Tyler stared at her. She hadn’t realized it before, but her tiny friend did have magic, and who knows how many years of practice, and that made her a force a million times more terrifying than Sid ever could have been. She shoved those fears aside when Eris asked a surprising question. “How’d you know Krakatoa’s name?”
“What?”
“The name. It was originally called, Krakatau. Well, actually, it was originally called something else when I first stood near it, but ‘Krakatau’ was its name last I remember. Ms. Knightly only ever used ‘Krakatoa’ in her lecture. Where’d you hear that name?”
“I—I don’t know.” Tyler mumbled, her tone of voice conveying her confusion. “I know I heard Krakatoa before, but I don’t think I ever heard that other name.” Tyler opened her notebook again and looked at the last paragraph. Sure enough, she had written ‘Krakatau’. The handwriting was hers, but she had trouble remembering writing it. She was pretty sure that was due to her daydreaming while writing again and how tired she was, rather than anything magic related.
“You’re going to be late for your next class, Ms. Underwood.” Ms. Knightly called from her desk, not looking up from the papers she was writing on. “Break is almost over.”
Tyler looked around the room for the first time and realized it was just her, the teacher, and Eris left. The class had already ended, and everyone had left for their next class. She jumped up and started putting her notebook and pens away as she mumbled an apology towards her teacher.
“Oh, Tyler.”
Tyler jumped a little, worried that she was in trouble. Her hand came away from the door handle, and she took a breath to steady her voice, “Yes, ma’am?”
Ms. Knightly had a look on her face. The kind you got when you were deciding if you wanted to bring something up. “Is everything okay? You were more distracted during my lesson today than you were last I saw you.”
Tyler cringed a little at being so obvious. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m a little tired today, is all. I’ll do better next time.”
Ms. Knightly smiled, “See that you do. Be sure to get some rest. You have a weekend ahead of you, so I won’t take any excuses for not bringing me all the homework you missed out on.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Tyler felt a little better and gave a small smile to her teacher. “Thank you, ma’am. I will.” She finished her thanks and left the room with Eris in tow. The hallway a little quieter than she expected, probably due to it getting close to the next class period already.
“Are you okay, Tyler? You do look exhausted. Do you need to go to the nurse?”
“I’m okay, Eris. Honest. For some reason, I just feel a little drained, is all.”
“Tyler?” Came a familiar voice from behind her. Just as she was about to place the voice, she saw Durian Lambert just a few feet behind her staring. “I thought you were just visiting! Are you going to school here, too?” he asked, a little excited.
Tyler visibly cringed. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t have time to mentally prepare herself to face this situation yet. While she was in her inner turmoil, Eris facepalmed as she correctly sized up the situation. Eris facepalming made Tyler cringe all the harder.
“Hahaha.” Tyler laughed nervously. “Yeah. I um. I have a small… minor… severe confession to make.”
Durian tilted his head, trying to think of what it might be, and Tyler decided to come clean. But first she needed a few breaths. Okay, a few more.
“I—. Um. I’m that Tyler.”
“Huh?” Durian asked, not getting it.
She sighed again and looked at Eris, who now stood a few paces to her left with her arms crossed, and looked back at Durian, who was patiently waiting for an explanation.
“I mean, I’m not Tyler’s cousin. I am Tyler. I’m sorry, when I saw you at the Deli, I wasn’t expecting to run into anyone from school and I panicked! I really am sorry.” She rapid-fired her apology and explanation like she was the head of the debate club.
Durian looked at her, obviously a little confused, but his face did show a bit of hurt, too.
“I’m sorry.” Tyler repeated. “If—I— Um, can I make it up to you somehow?”
That seemed to snap Durian out of his thoughts, and he smiled. “Sure! Go on a date with me.”
Tyler wasn’t sure if she was blushing before, but she could the heat on her cheeks now. “Huh?” was all she managed.
“A date. You, me, this Saturday. You’ll get to explain yourself, and I’ll get to forgive you. Deal?”
Tyler looked at Eris for help, but the small girl just gave her a smug grin. Tyler looked back at Durian and several mixed feelings came to her. For so long she considered him to be just another bully but looking at him now, she realized she hadn’t thought of him like that since the incident with Sid. “Okay. Saturday.”
“Awesome! Oh, wait, here’s my number.” He said, as he propped his books against the wall and tore a corner of a page from his math book. He wrote his number on the margin and handed it to her. “Call me sometime tonight to set up our date?”
“S—sure.” Tyler said, then her brain caught up with her. “Wait, date?”
The bell rang, and everyone looked at each other and started down the hallway a little quicker than normal, but not quite running, towards their next classes.
◊◊◊
Tyler walked out of her last class of the day. She had completely forgotten to introduce herself to her teacher at the start of class, which caused a bit of confusion when she robotically responded to her name. She was still in a daze from the casual invite from Durian. A date? This weekend‽ She nervously fiddled with the end of her tunic as she walked down the hallway. She barely registered her surroundings and was quite embarrassed when she ran into a wall as she rounded the corner to the building as she left the school.
That’s odd. She thought. The school courtyard shouldn’t have a wall here…
She finally pulled herself out of her internal quandary when she realized it wasn’t a wall she ran into, it was a person. She jumped back and was about to give an apology when she realized who it was she walked into.
Sid.
“What even is my life right now?” she asked, not expecting an answer.
“Funny way of apologizing.”
“Shouldn’t you be apologizing to me? Isn’t that how it works?” Came her reply. She was a little surprised at her bravery.
“Even funnier that the moment you grew one pair, you lost another.”
“What do you want, Sid? I just want to get home.”
“What I want? I wanted to thank you!”
“Thank me?” she parroted.
“Yeah! Thanks to you, I got kicked off the wrestling team.”
She finally recognized his mood as one of barely restrained anger and crossed her arms. “You did that yourself, asshole.”
That might have been a mistake because she could swear she saw a vein pop right above his right eye. “You know, when that bitch told me you were a girl now, I didn’t believe it, but it’s you, alright.”
“What are you even doing here, Sid? I thought you were suspended until the end of the month?”
“Special favors.” Came his smug reply. “And I’m glad, too because now I don’t need to wait to finish what I started on Monday.”
Whatever had been holding up Tyler’s bravery finally cracked, and through the dam spilled a veritable tsunami of fear. She looked around and noticed for the first time that Eris wasn’t behind her like she thought. She was alone, the courtyard abandoned aside from her and Sidney.
Tyler looked back just in time to dodge a left hook. “Holy Sh—!” She cried out as she jumped back. She tripped on something and fell onto her backside. Tyler grit her teeth to ease the pain and noticed that Sid had taken advantage of her fall and started a downward punch right for her face. She held her head in her hands and prayed that it wouldn’t hurt too badly. She prayed and prayed and… then nothing. Slowly and cautiously, she looked out from behind her arms to see Sid suspended in midair. The bully seemed to be choking on something and grabbed uselessly at his shirt collar as he tried to gasp for breath.
Tyler looked around, but the courtyard was still empty. Was she doing this? She didn’t want this! Sure, Sid was the absolute worst kind of bully, but she didn’t want him dead! Try as she might, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from doing whatever it was she seemed to be doing. Her fear for her safety changed to fear for Sid’s life as she noticed his face turning a soft shade of lilac.
In a panic, she focused all her will on stopping whatever was happening to the bully. That seemed to do it, and Sid fell to the ground. He had just passed out and he lay heaped on the ground, unconscious. Tyler looked around to see that the courtyard was still empty and bolted.
She ran and ran until someone finally called out to her. “Tyler! There you are. Where were you?” Eris asked.
Tyler couldn’t respond. She just grabbed her friend and pulled her into a hug as she tried to quiet her sobs.
◊◊◊
“Yes, sir. I saw it myself.” Came Marisa’s strained reply. She was giving a new update to her boss, and the events she had just witnessed left her on edge.
Admittedly, she broke her standing orders of “observation only” but she had a hunch that the young girl claiming to be Tyler had more than just her sex changed by that artifact, and now she knew for certain that the teenager gained more than just a new body. If she didn’t already know about the existence of magic, she wouldn’t believe what she had seen, even though she was there to witness it firsthand.
“Sir. Whatever happened with the artifact, it gave Tyler Underwood telekinetic powers. I witnessed her lift the largest high schooler I’ve ever seen into the air without even concentrating. She wasn’t even looking at him. I was taking readings the whole time, and the amount of power she displayed is in line with the initial readings we got from the artifact.”
The line was quiet for a moment. “I see. This changes things. Normally, I’d reprimand you for breaking your orders like that. But in this case, I’m glad you went with your instincts. This changes things.” Static filled the line once more, punctuated with the sound of keystrokes. A moment later, her boss’s voice came through the phone again.
“I’m authorizing a full extraction the moment you feel it’s safe to do so. Get her here and do it quickly and quietly, but most importantly, do it safely.”
“Sir!” Came her reply, and the line went dead.