The sounds of hell letting loose seemed to be growing distant. Tommy used the flashlight of his phone to keep going forward, while the golden creature circled him overhead. The adrenaline in his body was at a midway point between “On” and “Dump,” where he felt like stopping meant not getting back up. His thoughts were held together by sticks and glue, the sticks being the knowledge those ghosts had imparted onto him, and the glue being his survival. [color=a79500]”Magic is real. Magic… Is real.”[/color] He whispered the words out loud, between the light thunks of his improvised walking stick. [color=a79500]”What the hell else is r-“[/color] [i]Thud.[/i] Something crashed onto Tommy with the force of a braindead jock hitting a two hundred pound wall on legs. Before he had the chance to react, he was face-down in the dirt and feeling the complaint of his injuries. He felt blood soak into his jacket as he landed on his wounded hand. The adrenaline came back to full blast. [color=a79500]”What in the good goddamn fucking shit is-“[/color] He rolled and nearly ran for his life [i]again,[/i] expecting something dangerous. But it was just Tyler Fox, out of nowhere. [color=a79500]”Where the [i]fuck[/i] did you come from?”[/color] Tyler gritted his teeth as his hand quickly grabbed the collar of Tommy’s shirt. [color=C0C0C0]“Talk,”[/color] Tyler balked as his free hand balled into a fist, [color=C0C0C0]“did you somehow cause this?”[/color] [color=a79500]”Cause what? Get your damn hands off me, Fox,“[/color] He growled. [color=a79500]”I don’t know what the fuck’s going on. How did-“[/color] The golden bird screeched. Then Tommy saw it swooping down. [color=a79500]”Hey- Hey hey!”[/color] Tommy lunged forward around Tyler and grabbed the damn thing midair. His hand was barely big enough to grab it by the beak. [color=a79500]”Stop!”[/color] Tyler was stunned. Did this bitch try to deflect from his line of questions by grabbing a bird? The nerve. He was the nerd who probably played Dungeons and Dragons. He was the asshole who was most likely to be a believer in Satan. Answering a simple question with a question was low-key a soy boy beta male maneuver, and that pissed Tyler off. Tyler grabbed a rock and flicked it past Tommy while still facing the opposite direction. Tyler swapped, instantly appearing back in front of Tommy. He grinned for a second as he found this magic shit fun. He took a step forward and pushed his arm towards Tommy’s chest. [color=C0C0C0]“You show up, a fucking monster appears, and you’re fucking running away. That’s suss as, bro.”[/color] [color=a97500]”I’m not your [i]bro.[/i] You’re here too, and I know damn well no one’s inviting [i]you[/i] either,”[/color] He remarked, pushing himself up and letting the magic bird go. [color=a79500]”Leave him alone, he didn’t cause whatever happened in there.”[/color] It ruffled its scarlet feathers and perched on the ground. Tommy grabbed his stick and leaned against it. [color=a79500]”Did you follow me out here? Because whatever the hell’s going on, it wasn’t me. Why would that be me?”[/color] [color=C0C0C0]“Everyone invited me, bro. I am the star fucking quarterback in a rustbelt town,”[/color] Tyler grinned. He was so impressive. [color=C0C0C0]“You don’t know how much those fucking plebs wanted me there. But now,”[/color] a dead nerd flashed across his mind, the one he had condemned to death, and he had forgotten his name already, [color=C0C0C0]“you got that monster trying to attack me, and you expect me to think you did not summon that giant wolf thing? Admit it, freak.”[/color] [color=a79500]”That bird [i]thing[/i] just came out of me five minutes ago.”[/color] Tommy raised up a bloodied hand, and more of that golden smoke started to come off his fingers. [color=a79500]”I saw people that weren’t really there, they told me magic’s real, next thing I know, I made [i]that.”[/i][/color] The weird bird fixed an odd stare at Tyler. Its eyes were just two red orbs against half-real feathers. [color=a79500]”And now people are getting murdered, and you wanna [i]bitch[/i] at me about it?”[/color] This was going nowhere fast. Tyler knew he needed to pivot the questions to ensure that he could still blame Tommy without it going overboard. [color=C0C0C0]“Yeah, people are getting murdered up there,”[/color] Tyler paused as he pointed back to the warehouse, [color=C0C0C0]“and because you ran, because all of you ran, we couldn’t stop it. You fucking coward.”[/color] [color=a79500]”Stop it? [i]Stop it?![/i] Do you even know what [i]it[/i] is?!”[/color] He balked. [color=a79500]”I just watched people get cut in half, like they were paper, what is wrong with you?”[/color] He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Mister Star Athlete wanted to fight whatever that was instead of going home. [color=a79500]”One minute, I’m talking to you, and then it’s like someone drugged me. Everything stopped, now I’m throwing magic around because that’s a thing, apparently.”[/color] Good. Tyler’s lightning quick style of attack has finally caught Tommy off guard. Now, he just needs to lull him in up close with the rushing attack only to throw it deep to put him out of his misery. That’s what he’ll do. He’ll be the hero at last. All he has to do is… Tyler craned his head. There was something fantasy about that last sentence. One minute he was stuck in the crowd, and the next he was feeling drugged, and to escape the high he had to use magic, that was a thing apparently. Did everyone who had magic go through the same experience? Tyler knew he needed to learn and understand the rules of this game before he truly formulated a gameplan. You can’t expect to run an efficient offense if you’re drawing a penalty on every play after all. Thus, as he loosened his muscles, he decided to spare Tommy for this moment. [color=C0C0C0]“I met an old Prussian soldier. Said he was my ancestor, and he taught me as much as he could. Did you have the same thing happen?”[/color] Tyler paused as he reached down and grabbed several loose stones. [color=a79500]”…Kind of. Some old guy, and there was this woman with a snake around her neck. They-“[/color] Tommy inched down and grabbed his phone where it had been knocked over. He moved it and pointed the light straight up. [color=a79500]”They said magic was real, and something happened before they’d tell me.”[/color] He reached into his blood-soaked jacket. [color=a79500]”Their faces were blurred, then I heard something. Then they looked normal… They showed me where to go to get out of there, they didn’t give me much to go off.”[/color] He withdrew his deck of cards that the bird was made from, and then knelt down. [color=a79500]”I don’t get why, but they sounded like they were in a hurry.”[/color] Tommy sat the deck down with his phone and snapped the branch he’d been using to stay upright in half. Then into quarters. [color=a79500]”The old man said to reach for these, then- Then I’d just [i]know.[/i] I made that bird from- From fucking [i]magic,[/i] and blood,”[/color] He finished, pulling out another card; The Nine of Spades. [color=C0C0C0]“Have you tested your magic much, yet?”[/color] Tyler paused as he began to toss a stone in his left hand up into the air and catch it once more. [color=a79500]”Got it five minutes ago, so no.”[/color] He held the branches over the card, and it started to glow gold. And then the branches began to glow as well, held in place above the ground by some force. [color=a79500]”Okay… And I just- I don’t know. Fill in the gaps, I think.”[/color] What was he going to make this time? Tommy looked around, thinking. He didn’t understand how this was supposed to work, if blood was a necessity every time, or- He saw something in the distance that caught his eye. The moonlight caught on something metal between two trees. Tommy stood up and hobbled over, about thirty feet away. It was large and covered in rust, and it looked as if vines and roots were growing out of it. Red paint that was probably older then Tommy’s dad. An abandoned truck. The moonlight pointed out the mirror. Then, Tommy had an idea. He grabbed the old, cracked mirror by the metal frame around it and hauled. This truck must’ve been drove by someone half a century ago, back before the warehouses were here. Back when people could afford nice things. He wrenched it free, and the rusted-out arm it was attached to gave away. [color=a79500]”Yeah. I got it now.”[/color] He plodded back over and chucked the mirror at the arrangement of floating sticks, it was subsumed into the gold energy, glowing all the same. [color=a79500]”So…”[/color] The mirror and the sticks looked vaguely like something with four legs, so Tommy held out and hand and pictured an animal in his head. Something on all fours, that could see as well as a mirror could. The pieces he gathered moved and swirled around each other. Gold Lux weaved between the pieces and around them, filling out what would be flesh on anything else. He paid attention to the eyes the most, and then the body felt like an extension of that. Wavy patterns reminiscent of spades, made from interlocking strands of wood. The creature glowed, settled on the ground. The Nine of Spaces glinted gold against the light from Tommy’ phone. He had created a canine, something like a coyote that sat upright and craned its head at Tyler. Its eyes were the purest white, opalescent with a yellow sheen. It didn’t move a muscle. [color=a79500]”I made the bird to hurt things… This one, I think I want him to watch for things. A guard dog.”[/color] Fascinating. Tyler’s curiosity piqued at the display of magic before him. This fucking loser might prove to have some worth, creating a line for him to command the field behind. That would require him to be fucking worth the effort, and Tyler did not think that he had a single heroic or decent bone in his body. He would need to be tested, he would need to be taken through a baptism by fire, and if he emerged on the other side of two-a-days in one piece, he would earn the right to be a part of his team. Tyler leaned down and grabbed a twig, and tossed it above. [color=C0C0C0]“I can swap objects with each other.”[/color] Tyler paused as he swapped the twig in the air with the stone he had tossed above his hand, catching the twig as it swapped before waiting a second for the stone to drop down a second later and catching it as well. [color=a79500]”Sounds useful.”[/color] Tommy flexed the fingers of his busted hand. [color=a79500]”Is that how-”[/color] The dog thing opened its mouth and made some groaning noise. It turned its head to look at something past the trees. [color=a79500]”...What the fuck now?”[/color] He grabbed his phone and pointed the flashlight that way. For a moment the light shined on a still forest, a hard shift from the calamity that was occurring just beyond the trees. Then as the conversation stilled the boys would be able to hear it: a strange, arrhythmic wail interspliced with the distant sounds of all hell breaking loose from the warehouse. Perhaps it was the siren of an emergency vehicle on the way to the warehouse, only instead of getting further away it was coming closer, growing louder, sounding less mechanical and more guttural, feral. The illuminated leaves began to rustle and shake as the horrible noise began to fill the air around them, becoming oppressive, perhaps bloodcurdling, when suddenly erupting from the brush was a wide-eyed, bloodsoaked Vicky. Brambles stuck to her ruined outfit and a few twigs had nestled their way into her hair. A fresh scratch was on her cheek, hidden beneath the crimson mask, her face twisted in a look of horror that rapidly jumped to confusion as she threw up a hand to shield from the light before shifting to recognition and then finally settling on rage. [color=32cd32]“What! The! Fuck! Tyler! You! Ab—”[/color] Vicky jumped as a coyote growl cut her off. She didn’t even hesitate as she caught sight of the critter, balled up the heavy jacket in her hands, and chucked it at the animal as hard as she could. Her mind hadn’t fully registered what she had just done as she blitzed Tyler, seemingly unaware that Tommy was even present, throwing wild, windmill punches at the motherfucker who had the gall to completely ditch her in her time of need. Normally her strikes would have some oomph to them—her pre-football game ritual of trying to give Tyler a dead arm for “good luck” proof of that—but given her state of inebriation, her form was sloppy and flailing, like a toddler getting into a slapfight. Still, the image was terrifying. [color=32cd32]“You unbelievable piece of shit!”[/color] screeched Vicky through big, angry sobs. [color=32cd32]“[b][i]I’M GOING TO KILL YOU![/i][/b]”[/color] For a brief moment, Tommy was feeling secondhand embarrassment. [color=a79500]”...It’s just her.”[/color] He scoffed. Tyler sighed as the punches landed. Is that what that weakling, dead ex boyfriend, had to deal with any time the devils favorite princess didn’t get her way? It’s not like it was his fault, he didn’t know what his magic even really did. In the end, he learned he can only swap one item with another at a time thanks to Vicky. The desperate girl should be grateful. Tyler’s head craned again. On the other hand, he had just given her the notice that he would get her home, protect her even, and at least make the rest of this horror-filled night at least safe. He knew that he must look like a colossal asshole, especially because he did not come back for her. He needed to pivot the focus. Or he needed to own up to his mistake. He could take the easy road and blame Tommy for this. That would be easy, however, he was establishing a rapport with his eventual pawn and he couldn’t afford to throw them under the bus before an actual bus was coming to run him over. That left two more roads he could go down. Own up to his mistake, or pivot the focus? Tyler thought this over for two seconds, weathering the weak storm of punches, before turning his head back to Vicky with a somber look in his eyes. [color=C0C0C0]“I’m sorry Vicky,”[/color] he paused, still at the crossroads, [color=C0C0C0]“ever since I used my power to save you,”[/color] focus her attention on the good he did should make the relentless assault stop, [color=C0C0C0]“which inadvertently killed that nerd,”[/color] guilt trip her with the reminder that her life came at the cost of some weird dude, [color=C0C0C0]“I haven’t quite figured out the way it works. I wouldn’t have left you there on purpose.[/color] The middle road. The combination of the two less desirable options to put Vicky back on the back foot. Perfection. Tommy’s canine creature lowered its head and Vicky’s jacket hit the dirt. [color=a79500]”Did anything follow you out here?”[/color] Tommy asked. [color=a79500]”Giant werewolf, psychopath with an axe, another insufferable football player?”[/color] Tyler’s play had seemed to work, as Vicky’s furious wet noodle assault came to a standstill. Then again, perhaps it was the realization that there was a whole other person there witnessing her have a total meltdown as Tommy spoke that truly made her stop, feeling a sudden wave of embarrassment. It was a good thing that she was covered in her boyfriend’s, ahem, ex-boyfriend’s blood as it hid the self-conscious flush of red on her cheeks. She picked a dead leaf out of her hair as she tucked a strand behind her ear, shuffling her feet awkwardly, not quite able to make eye contact with Tommy. [color=32cd32]“Who would follow me?”[/color] said Vicky, still too upset to form a sentence with the words coming out all staccato. [color=32cd32]“There was this orange light, and then an explosion, only it wasn’t…I don’t know what it was. I saw the town, but it was wrong, stuck inside of this swirl and…the warehouse was collapsing and…”[/color] Vicky’s eyes grew so wide that they almost matched Tommy’s watchdog as she started to draw in sharp, panicked breaths of air. [color=32cd32]“I think everyone’s dead!”[/color] she shouted, covering her face as she erupted into tears. [color=a79500]”Not all of them, I think. A lot of them, though, yeah…”[/color] Tommy wasn’t really in a spot to process that in full. [color=a79500]”Some of them are fighting whatever’s in there. We can’t stay here, something might find us.”[/color] Something like Regina George. Tyler's eyes shifted back to Vicky. Those crocodile tears did not fool him, not one bit. [color=C0C0C0]“I told them to run, and they still stayed and died,”[/color] Tyler shook his head from side to side, [color=C0C0C0]“we do need to get out of here. Get all the way away from this hell.”[/color] A splash of blue peaked out from between frames of red as Vicky’s fingers parted and then closed once again as she shot a dirty look Tyler’s way. Was This Fucking Guy seriously jumping to victim blaming already? From behind her hands she let out a ragged, desperate choke that sounded something like an “uh huh”, the desire to get as far away from this nightmare being the only thing stopping Vicky from repeating “I told them to run” in a mocking voice. Wow, what a brilliant fucking idea that nobody had thought about doing. How many concussions did it take to come up with that one? Still sniffling, Vicky pulled her head out of her hands and shivered. Where was Chef’s jacket? Wiping a very real tear from her eye (and noting how her contacts were killing her), her hand froze midswipe as her brain fully processed the canine seemingly constructed out of glassy twine. At least she tried to fully process whatever it was that she was looking at. Did it have some kind of weird disease? Was it fake? She had seen a robot dog before, a construct like this one, but its movement had been stuttery and poor, capable only of walking a few steps before doing a flip and falling over. Her finger dropped from her cheek as she pointed at the…thingy…and let out a flat, monotone, [color=32cd32] “What.”[/color] The jacket was right there next to it, but there was no way in hell she was approaching that thing as Vicky sniffed and let out yet another, more flabbergasted, [color=32cd32]“What?”[/color] [color=a79500]”I made that. Don’t worry about it right now…”[/color] Tommy reached down and grabbed the card the beast had come from. Without thinking, he pointed at it, and it disappeared. To Tommy's senses, it was [i]inside[/i] the card, somehow. Vicky’s jaw dropped. [color=a79500]”We should go. If my car didn’t get blown up yet, you two can just ride with me.”[/color] And just as Tommy nearly finished saying that, Vicky screamed out over him, [color=32cd32]“[b]WHAT!?[/b]”[/color] [color=a79500]”Sorry, I’m a little deaf in one ear, you wanna scream a little [i]fucking louder[/i] in case that monster didn’t hear you?”[/color] Vicky looked simultaneously appalled that Tommy had the nerve to talk to her like that and terrified that the monster might still be out there, hunting her. [color=32cd32]“[i]I’ve been through a lot, okay?[/i]”[/color] whined Vicky. [color=32cd32]“You don’t have to be so mean. It’s not my fault that I got dumped and all my friends are dead! Sheesh!”[/color] Vicky wrapped her arms around herself with a shiver and turned her back on the boys. [color=32cd32]“And I’m freezing! Where’s my jacket?”[/color] If they thought she had simply overlooked the coat while freaking out at the disappearing dog, that illusion would soon be dispelled as Vicky held out a hand, making it all too clear that when she had asked, “Where’s my jacket?” what she really meant was, “Why haven’t one of you assholes picked up my jacket for me?” Tommy buried his face in his hand and muttered something incoherent. [color=a79500]”For the love of fuck, here-”[/color] He grabbed the jacket off the ground and tossed at her with his non-bloody hand. [color=a79500]”Come on, car’s that way. You.”[/color] He pointed at the golden bird thing he’d made, which had landed in a tree. It tilted its head at him. [color=a79500]”Don’t attack people. If there’s some fucking monster still around, kill it or something… Follow us.”[/color] He stuffed his deck away and started hobbling back through the woods towards the warehouse. The bird took flight. [color=C0C0C0]“You could have just left it on the ground,”[/color] Tyler narrowed his eyes as he looked from Vicky to Tommy, [color=C0C0C0]“she would have picked it up eventually.”[/color] Tyler looked to the direction Tommy was heading, and realized his own truck was nearby. His pawn would lead the way. If there was any danger he would be the first to face it. Vicky slipped her jacket on with a triumphant hmph, the victory short lived as she struggled to get her arm through the sleeve. With a nervous side eye to the weird bird thing and her left hand still trapped in the elbow of Chef’s oversized jacket she followed behind the two boys, sticking closer to Tyler. Perhaps it was because the mean kid who made animal friends in the woods made her nervous, or maybe it was a tactical decision, choosing the larger of two human shields just in case that monster had heard her scream. [color=32cd32]“Dibs on sitting up front,”[/color] said Vicky. Sobriety still one terrible hangover away from even being a possibility, the adrenaline that had been pumping through her veins had now cooled enough for her to realize how much her body ached. She grabbed the back of Tyler’s shirt and slumped against him. [color=32cd32]“[i]Tyler, my feet hurt.[/i] How much further is it?”[/color] [color=C0C0C0]“For the love of,”[/color] Tyler whispered to himself as he leaned his head back and stared up at the stars. Was this his punishment? Would he need to be around that bitch every day, hearing that grating voice every day, and having her ask those asinine questions every day? He shifted his head towards Vicky. [color=C0C0C0]“We’re almost there, Vicky, hold it together, please.”[/color] Tommy rolled his eyes. Was she doing that shit on purpose, or was she just coping? [color=a79500]”We go around, not through. Easier to hide in the bushes that way,”[/color] He decided. And whatever monster it was killing people could’ve been busy eating bodies, too distracted to- Okay, that was a little fucked up. The unlikely trio pressed on through the woods. Tommy led the way, his golden bird of prey circling overhead. Tyler and Vicky followed after him, the latter practically gluing herself to the former lest he try that teleporting away shit on her again. The going was thankfully not especially treacherous but painfully slow, partially due to their roundabout path but mostly thanks to Vicky. Twice she had tried to get Tyler to carry her. More accurately, she had asked him once to carry her, pouted when the answer was (ridiculously, she thought) no, and then a few minutes later had just tried to clamber up his back, assuming that once she was locked in with the piggyback Tyler would be forced to just go with it. That ended up not being the case, and once it was made clear that either it was Vicky would walk out of the woods on her own two feet or she would get left in them the attempts stopped. It wasn’t too long after that when the trio hit the treeline, the ruined warehouse looming across the field, the silence that hung in the air around it bonechilling and unwelcome. Before the warehouse were cars parked in the grass, less than before the party got crashed, but still far too many remained, either left behind in a panic or serving as temporary tombstones. A few bodies shuffled around outside of the warehouse. Perhaps people. Perhaps not. [color=32cd32]“I’m not going back out there. Go get your car, and then come pick us up,”[/color] whispered Vicky, although even her whisper wasn’t quiet. It sounded like she was right by Tommy’s ear, yet she was crouched behind Tyler. Tommy withdrew a switchblade, flicked it open and crossed the distance. A not so hushed [color=32cd32]“He has a knife! Why does he have a knife?”[/color] echoed behind Tommy as he stayed low, and the golden bird stayed high. It circled the warehouse looking for a piece of action, but there didn’t seem to be anything especially dangerous. He pulled his jacket off and used to wipe the blood from his arm, rolling it up and sticking it in the glovebox. A moment later, his [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019e7504-3880-767b-8ccc-59020b9d969e.webp]car, much nicer than Tyler’s coal-belching debt machine,[/url] pulled around the corner. He motioned for them to hurry their asses up, while he moved the passenger seat for someone to climb in the back. Vicky gave Tyler an uncertain look. She really didn’t know Tommy outside of seeing his face around school, but he was the kind of guy who brought a knife to a party. Like who the hell brought a knife to a party? Even for as drunk as she was she still had enough kinda functioning brain cells to be nervous about showing the knife guy where she lived. The sound of sirens closing in on the warehouse sent a wave of relief through her that crashed violently against a cape of fear. As weirded out as she was by Tommy being a fricking knife guy (seriously, what the hell, why did he have to be a knife guy?), the thought of getting busted for underage drinking AGAIN was a lot scarier. Last time Officer “Don’t call me Officer Bobby, it’s Officer Ferguson” Bobby said that if he caught Vicky drinking one more time he wouldn’t let her off with a warning, even if she was Winston’s kid sister. She rushed over to Tommy’s car and popped open the passenger door. However, instead of getting in, as she had not been joking about needing to ride shotgun, she turned and bellowed as emergency vehicles started to arrive at the warehouse, [color=32cd32]“[b]TYLER! IT’S THE FUCKING COPS! GET IN![/b]”[/color] [color=a79500][i]”Hurry!”[/i][/color] The golden bird disappeared mid-air as Tommy did the thing to make them vanish. He didn’t know how that worked. Not yet. Tyler looked at Vicky, then to Tommy, and then to the approaching vehicles. His head turned towards Vicky, a wicked grin spreading across his face. He grabbed a rather large rock and chucked it in the opposite direction of the lights and sirens. He tossed up a peace sign towards Vicky and, when the stone slowed down after bouncing across the grass, swapped positions with it and disappeared into the night. A second after he was out of view a squad car pulled up and shined their spotlight onto the car. A dumbfounded, horrified look was frozen on Vicky’s face, her mouth agape, unable to believe what she had just witnessed. Her bottom lip began quivering as the door of the cruiser opened up and outstepped a man in uniform. Stupidly she raised her hands up in a surrender, an admission to guilt before a question had even been asked. Half blinded by fear and with the other half seeing double, tears began running down Vicky’s bloody face as she started to panic. This was unfair. This was so unfair. She didn’t even want to be here. She hated parties. [color=32cd32]“Off–Office–Officer Bobby,”[/color] whimpered Vicky. She was dead, she was so dead, and the next time she saw Tyler he was dead too. Deader than dead. Dead like her relationship. Dead like her future. Her crying became broken, heaving sobs as she tried not to hyperventilate. In one last ditch effort to get out of trouble, one of her hands dropped so it could point a finger at Tommy. [color=32cd32]“He–He–He has a [i]kniiiiiife!!![/i]”[/color] [i]Screeeeeeech.[/i] Decades of dust, dirt, and flakes of glass from previous parties flew up into the air. The cop got his fancy uniform and face caked in so much dreck that Tommy severely doubted he’d even see Vicky standing there, let alone the color of his car or the plate on the back. At least he tried.