Stumbling out an of a very suspicious and dark alley way, and knocking over an old lady wasn’t the best way to hide the fact you just materialized a few feet away from people. Eyes were instantly drawn onto him, “Grand-mama!” a French teen exclaimed, apparently too shocked to hep her own grand-mother up, and Coal felt his cheeks burn as he awkwardly helped the old woman up.
”Fiche moi le paix”, she spat as she tried pushing Coal away, and so he let go. His lips tightened in disgust, ”How dare she?”, his inner voice screamed, yet Coal remained quite. He thought best to quickly escape the situation.
Turning right round, he speed-walked off, hoping the now slur-spewing old woman would cause enough of a distraction for him to just vanish. Again. Invisible to all.
Putting the whole situation behind him, Coal tried to remain positive. Humming old tunes to himself as he took long gliding steps towards his destination. Weaving in and out of crowds of kids, was it a holiday, or were they just bunking? His own “normal” life seemed so far away, he almost forgot about school. ”I should really go back to school”, he thought in tune with Lady Gaga’s “Judas”. All this time, Coal just summoned a Golem to go to school for him. A Wizard’s of the Waverly Place scenario as he liked to put it. The golem was great at impersonating him. Take notes, be quite, come back home. All the actions the Golem knew, and that’s what Coal did anyway before his whole life was turned upside down. There was no time for school in between trying to summon in demons and brewing magic potions.
Ignoring his own thoughts for a second, Coal expertly dodged workers with their heads glued to their phones, muttering something in their heads as Coal listened to their thoughts. One was complaining about how annoying his wife was this morning, another smiling at a picture of his son, all of their private thoughts were being read by Coal like an open book. He couldn’t stop even if he wanted to.
It shocked Coal how many humans think so loud. Their minds were so open as they thought of their darkest secrets. Pin numbers, secret lovers, seeing the truth as they lied to their spouse with confidence. Coal just couldn’t help but to listen. “Witch Magic” is usually defined as wild, and with so many people thinking around him, it was hard to keep control of his powers, and know what thoughts were really his. But as immoral as it may seem, it did help Coal from going bored, or lonely. It was like a one-way conversation, and people had so many fantastical stories to tell, so why miss out? Problem was, people who knew mind-reading witches were about could hide their thoughts without any need of magic, Coal felt cheated at times, and at others it helped to detect hiding supernaturals just like him. Though he never really did anything with that information anyway.
As he walked on, the crowds started to grow smaller, and smaller. Soon, the only souls accompanying him were mewling cats hiding near dark corners. He finally found the strength to lift his eyes up from the worn, cobble sidewalk and look around for once. Gazing over at tightly stacked Victorian buildings, rusted drains that held secrets of the past, it was like Coal stepped into another world. Red bricked buildings, large, swollen clouds, and plenty of cats. Why bother teleporting if it meant not being able to see such a pretty sight? It also gave him a good idea of good escape routes, and hiding spots if the need for them ever rose. Always better to be safe than sorry he told himself.
The silence pounded on his ears, no noise other than his light footsteps were heard. Moving his gaze away from a worn-down abandoned home, he saw the R&W building slowly approaching him. Though the building may have seemed as normal as possible, and practically impossible to distinguish it from the buildings surrounding it. However, to a magic-sensitive witch, it was glowing. It was hard to ignore the numerous wards placed around the building, that just radiated magic. Powerful spells must’ve been done here, and Coal felt a rising feeling of child-like excitement, and cat-like curiosity.
He started walking faster, a bounce in his step, he was finally going to be part of something! No more forging for lavander, a place like this probably had everything from Agar Agar to Dragon’s Blood. Probably libraries full of tomes, and scrolls. With so much hidden power. The image of old, powerful mages crouched over a cauldron flashed in Coal’s mind. To be surrounded with people like him seemed too good to be true. He glee seemed to have no limit.
Nearing the rusty, old building bit by bit, he felt all of that confidence slowly be chipped away from him.
”What if they don’t like me?”, he started to fret,
”Maybe I’m not powerful enough,” self-doubt washed over him,
”Maybe they’re dangerous,” worry seeped through him like poison.
As he finally reached the large heavy door, the image of him bursting in with incredible power was wiped from his mind. Instead of banging the door open like some sort of hero fresh from the battle, he creaked it open, sticking his head in.
“Hello?”
