Unlike most of her schoolmates, Lexi didn’t have to deal with stupid things like overbearing parents or being grounded in the aftermath of the warehouse party. She didn’t even have that much trauma, only really caring about her best friend slash drummer who was torn apart in front of her. [i]That[/i] had been pretty rough to deal with after the drugs had worn off and she realised what happened was real. 

But she wasn’t the kind of person to lie around feeling sad. There was shit to do. For a start, she didn’t have a drummer anymore… And just as importantly, she had fucking magic. In the couple of days since the party shit had just kept getting weirder, so concentrating on figuring that out had become a priority.

Which was why she was in a small clearing, well off the beaten path, in the woods. At first she’d planned to go to the abandoned steel mill, but it was a common hangout for her group of rule breaking friends- the ones that were still alive, at least. She couldn’t be bothered to go through the motions of explaining shit to them right now. It was just too bothersome. How would she explain all the dead animals she’d collected without looking like a psycho anyway? 

There were five small bodies in front of her, in varying states of decay. They were all small- three rats and two birds. She hadn’t killed them herself, obviously, but she seemed to have a knack for just finding corpses now. Maybe it was the magic. What a bullshit power that’d be if that was all there was to it. At least the Purple side, from what she could tell, had given her violent telekinesis. 

[color=#535264][i]Death isn’t the end. For some it is the beginning.[/i][/color] Based on the cryptic words her ancestors had left her, she clearly had access to some kind of Necromancy. The only question was how the fuck did she use it?

[i]Whoosh.[/i]

Somewhere overhead, between the branches of the trees, a bird soared. It was fast, too. Faster than most birds around Cornell, and that was probably because it looked like something straight from a storybook. It was bright gold, with red streaks at the end of its feathers.

Lexi tilted her head back, squinting at the brightly coloured bird. Did they get birds that bright here? Probably not, but she wasn’t some fucking bird expert. Maybe it had escaped from the nearest, and ended up here after hours of flying. It wasn’t exactly the strangest thing she’d seen. At least it wasn’t an ugly budget werewolf.

After staring at it for a moment, she went back to the dead animals in front of her. She poked one, trying to drag up a little spark of magic. Nothing. Fuck her stupid ancestors for leaving with with no proper instructions. Assholes. She scowled, pulling out a cigarette, playing with her lighter as she took a long drag. Her gaze went back to the tree line to see if the disgustingly gold bird was still there. Not her style, but if it dropped dead she may as well use its corpse.

[color=a79500]”What the hell are you looking for over here?”[/color]

From the brush behind Lexi, Tommy stepped out. He had been walking through the woods with his golden creatures, looking for things. As he appeared, another golden animal followed him. And then another.

One looked like a giant, fat marten with a body big enough for someone to hide inside of. The other was a coyote made of glassy twine, plodding along behind him.

He saw Lexi and squinted.

[color=a79500]”Is it Summon Satan hour already?”[/color] He remarked, looking at the dead animals on the ground in front of her.

[color=b13a3a]”Oh no, you caught me, Timmy.”[/color] Lexi intoned, tone dripping with sarcasm. As turned around to face him her smile dropped, replaced by a lazy smile. She quickly glanced over the new golden animals, though she didn’t acknowledge them as her narrowed gaze went back to Tommy. [color=b13a3a]”A demon’s the only way to deal with Tyler. Maybe he’ll stop being such an ass when he takes one up there.”[/color]

The flicked cigarette ass onto the ground, taking another drag. [color=b13a3a]”I’m pleasantly surprised you haven’t offed yourself yet. Did you find your calling traipsing through the woods with some new, lame pets?”[/color]

[color=a79500]”Something like that.”[/color] The big chunky one trotted over to him, and the side of his body opened up like a window. It was hollow inside. Tommy reached in and pulled out a water bottle. [color=a79500]”Magic’s weird as shit. You ever seen someone make a bird out of blood?”[/color]

As if to illustrate his point, the golden bird flew down and landed on the carrier monster’s head.

Lexi raised an eyebrow, though her expression didn’t change much at either the display of magic or mention of it. She just mentally added him to the list of ‘losers with magic’. Lucky him, he was second on it, right after Tyler. 

[color=b13a3a]”Not a party trick I’ve bothered seeing before, no,”[/color] she sneered. Though it did give her an idea. Thankfully getting an idea from Tommy wasn’t the end of the world- while he was an outcast in the lamest way possible, he wasn’t one of the people she’d go out of her way to target. He wasn’t some up his own ass rule follower. This didn’t earn him any respect from Lexi, but it at least lessened her disdain from him. 

[color=b13a3a]”You got a knife?”[/color]

[color=a79500]”Uh-”[/color] He patted his pockets to look for it, then checked the creature. He pulled a switchblade out of its internal storage and tossed it at her. 

Lexi caught it smoothly, not bothering to thank him as she turned back to her dead animals. She flicked out the blade and calmly cut her right pinkie with it. It wasn’t exactly the best finger to get blood from, but she wasn’t going to ruin her bass playing for some unlikely to work magical experiment. With the switchblade having served its purpose, she unceremoniously tossed it back to Tommy.

She pressed her hand onto one of the dead rats, playing with her lighter in the other. Even with her warm blood pressed into its cold body, there were no signs of life. [color=b13a3a][i]Blood’s useless, then.[/i][/color] But as she gripped her lighter a little tighter, the body started to change subtly underneath her hand. The skin that had begun to peel off regrew, its little legs getting a little less floppy. It was still a corpse, just a fresher looking one. 

[color=b13a3a]”Shame, I’d hoped that’d be enough to summon Satan.”[/color]

[color=a79500]”Seems that everyone who does magic needs something to do it [i]with.”[/i][/color] Tommy pulled out his deck of cards from his jacket. They started to glitter with golden smoke. [color=a79500]”I always have to pull monsters out of these, or make one with them. Tyler’s got that cheap football ring, Vicky uses her bat.”[/color]

[color=b13a3a]”[i]She[/i] has magic?”[/color] Lexi sneered, seeming to focus on Vicky’s magic rather than the whole object to do magic thing. She wasn’t exactly going to admit she hadn’t realised and thank him now, was she? It explained why nothing had been happening before, if her lighter was that object for her. Made sense. She’d been holding it the whole attack. [color=b13a3a]”Like she needed something to inflate her ego further.”[/color]

She looked at Tommy’s magically smoking deck of cards. Her lighter didn’t have any flashy effects, beyond its actually practical use of letting her smoke. And freshen up corpses, it seemed. 

[color=b13a3a]”Did your ancestors tell you that, or were they just as useless as mine?”[/color]

[color=a79500]”They did not tell me [i]shit.[/i] They told me magic’s real, which… You fucking think? Then they hurried off like something was gonna kill ‘em. No, I had to figure it out myself.”[/color]

The coyote scratched at the dirt.

[color=ffcb00]”So, you’re a necromancer or something? You can’t just conjure up a ghost to go haunt someone?”[/color]

[color=b13a3a]”Then I’d have to deal with some dead asshole chatting about how sad they are to be dead.”[/color] Lexi rolled her eyes. She turned her attention back to the fresh corpse, finding it more natural to channel her magic now that she’d figured out the secret- having her lighter in one hand. Now turned back to its state on the day it died, its legs started to twitch, and it suddenly flipped onto its front. It stood perfectly still and stared at Lexi, waiting for orders. 

She didn’t actually know if she could conjure up a ghost, but it wasn’t all that appealing of an idea. Ghosts always talked in movies. Plus, it wasn’t like there were any dead people she wanted to see.

[color=b13a3a]”Yeah, I’m a necromancer. I’m not just gathering corpses for fun.”[/color] She held out her hand and the undead rat crawled up it, before resting on her shoulder. [color=b13a3a]”What’re you, a flashy summoner?”[/color]

[color=a79500]”Guess so. I made these things, been figuring out how that works. Came out here to grab tree limbs or rocks, whatever I can use to make more of them.”[/color] Tommy watched the rat move around. It probably stank.

[color=a79500]”I bet if I get a piece of some monster like the one that tore up the party, I can make something [i]weird.[/i] Like a werewolf or something, I dunno.”[/color]

[color=b13a3a]”Oh right, I’m sure a monster like that’ll happily give you a limb to play with.”[/color] Lexi rolled her eyes. She’d forgotten quite how boring and unreactive Tommy was. Sure, he sometimes gave out good jabs in return to the shit she threw at him, but he was acting like she [i]cared[/i] about what he was doing. She didn’t give a fuck about how he made his summons or what he was going to do. Didn’t affect her. She’d only be tolerating him cause it had been entertaining for a while, and useful. 

[color=b13a3a]”I bet you’d enjoy a freaky werewolf summon- if you don’t get ripped apart tryna harvest some monsters organs for it.”[/color]

[color=a79500]”Yeah, maybe I’ll send it to rip Tyler’s face off. Or Vicky’s, after she almost fucking got me arrested because she thought the cops would do something.”[/color]

Tommy walked over to a tree and wrenched a branch off it. He needed things that were sturdy, like bits of metal or wood. Stuff he could work with. [color=a79500]”I mean, who expects cops to know anything about wizard shit?”[/color]

Lexi let out a short huff of air that was almost a laugh. She’d had plenty of run-ins with the town’s cops. They were absolutely itching to catch her doing something properly illegal, but she ran circles around them. They were [i]horrendously[/i] incompetent. 

[color=b13a3a]”Like they know shit about [i]anything[/i]. They only care about acting intimidating, but none of ‘em have the brains to back shit up.”[/color] At least he was talking about something interesting now. [color=b13a3a]”Vicky fits right in… But she’d snitch to a ghost if she thought she’d get something outta it. That bitch was probably tryna preserve her own skin. Not a surprise when she used her ex-boyfriend as a meat shield.”[/color]

Tommy stopped what he was doing and turned to give Lexi the most [i]What the fuck?[/i] stare he could manage. [color=a79500]”She just let that werewolf thing kill him? What the fuck is wrong with people who play sports? I’m seeing a pattern, there… Jesus fuck. It’s the concussions, isn’t it? Swelling their damn brains so much there’s not enough air going in or some shit. Explains a few things.”[/color]

Lexi actually laughed this time. She didn’t know for a fact that Vicky had pushed her boyfriend in front of the monster, but she’d heard the rumours. It didn’t matter if it was true or not to her. [color=b13a3a]”Oh yeah, it’s the same for all those jocks. It’s easy to damage something already so fucking small.”[/color] 

With a grin she crouched back down in front of her animal corpses, placing her hand on one of the birds this time. It was a bit bigger, so it took more work as her magic started to channel through it. [color=b13a3a]”Vicky’s always been a selfish bitch, but the brain damage is definitely why Tyler’s got grand delusionals of being some kind of fucking hero. He’ll probably be the next guy used as a meatshield by her… And he’ll deserve it.”[/color] 

[color=a79500]”Guess so.”[/color] He wrenched a relatively straight limb off of a tree and had his bird saw it in two with its feathers. They went into the carrier. [color=a79500]”Son of a bitch thought that thing was my fault. Appeared out of thin air, blaming me for what happened. You try doing that on a person when it happened?”[/color]

[color=b13a3a]”What, the raising the dead shit? What fucking corpse would I have done it on? Everyone was torn apart.”[/color] Lexi rolled her eyes. She definitely hadn’t thought about it, because she was barely thinking at the time- what with being drunk and high. The telekinesis had come more naturally in the moment. [color=b13a3a]”I don’t have any use for a flesh puddle, much as it would’ve been fun to see people’s reactions to it.”[/color] 

[color=a79500]”Hm. Maybe it’d get bigger when you kill something. Stick a corpse in the puddle and move it around. Kill a bunch of birds, make it even bigger.”[/color] Tommy made some half-assed jazz hand gestures. [color=a79500]”Flesh tsunami.”[/color]

[color=b13a3a]”Wow, psycho over here wants me to kill animals for a flesh monstrosity,”[/color] Lexi intoned. For once her sarcastic taunting didn’t seem to be jabbing [i]at[/i] Tommy, but rather friendly ribbing going along with the conversation. Probably. [color=b13a3a]”Find me another fucked up corpse and I’ll make it.”[/color]

[color=a79500]”How many fucked up corpses do you have? You got some way of keeping them from rotting too much?”[/color]

[color=b13a3a]”Oh, a whole fridge full. I have preserving them down to an art.”[/color] Lexi intoned sarcastically. [color=b13a3a]”Fucking none, obviously. I didn’t go dragging dead bodies away after the party, I’m not a complete psycho.”[/color]

For a brief moment, Tommy considered calling her out on that. He didn’t. [color=a79500]”Yeah, well… Cornell’s covered in woods, maybe we go bag a few more birds and stitch ‘em together. Actually, you can probably find some weird animals now. Who the fuck knows what’s different after Cornell got fucking split open.”[/color]

He grabbed two more relatively straight branches off of trees, chopped them down with his golden summon, and stashed them. [color=a79500]”There are pieces of the town that are different, after that night. Like whole blocks got replaced with fakes. It’s worse when you drive out towards the highway, and I’m pretty sure some people are just pretending no one died.”[/color]

[I]’Did I ask,’[/I] was on the tip of Lexi's tongue, but for once she let it die there rather than voicing the snide thought. There was an eye roll, however. He was acting like she was some idiot who had been cowering inside instead of going through her normal routine of playing truant on the streets till well past the curfew she should have. She'd seen some of the strange shit. It just didn't really bother her. 

[color=b13a3a]”People are great at ignoring the shit they don't understand… Town's always been a bit fucking weird at night, though. It's just noticeably worse,”[/color] she shrugged nonchalantly. [color=b13a3a]”And don't go thinking that just cause I'm not ripping you a new one we're friends or some shit. There's no [I]we[/I] traipsing around the forest looking for dead birds like a pair of psycho losers. Once you've collected all your wood, you can go on your merry loner way.”[/color]

[color=a79500]”Yeah, yeah… Fuck you very much and so on and so forth,”[/color] Tommy remarked, throwing a middle finger over his shoulder at her without sounding offended, which he wasn’t. He grabbed a rock and shoved it into the summon.

[color=a79500]”You.”[/color] He pointed at the bird. [color=a79500]”Get gone, do your thing. You-”[/color] Then the dog. [color=a79500]”Back to work, monsters and whatnot. Big guy, go small, we’re done here.”[/color]

The bird took to the air, the dog trotted off, and the mustelid thing just vanished.

Lexi rolled her eyes, giving him a snide smile. It was a shame he wasn’t easy to piss off like so many other teenagers… One of the reasons she didn’t bother targeting him. It was also a shame for every thing he said that Lexi agreed with, he went on to say some lame shit she didn’t care about. 

[color=b13a3a]”Try not to die,”[/color] she said, sounding more like a curse than a genuine wish. [color=b13a3a]”It’d be a shame, since you’re not completely lame. Oh- You don’t happen to play the drums, do you? I need a new expendable drummer.”[/color] 

[color=a79500]”Nope.”[/color]