by Bob Dattolo
“Parece? She’s the only one in there with you. Unless you mean Paige or Riley? Did they sneak in from the bathroom?”
“I don’t know. I can’t tell. My laptop was torn up, and I don’t know that anyone other than maybe Parece could have done that. I’m not even sure she could do that in her human form. This is just…I don’t know!”
She frowned, “Tore apart a laptop? I’m not even sure what spell you’d use for that. Maybe some sort of tearing force or something?”
“I’m not sure! It’s like it’s bent in half on top of it. I don’t know if anyone here could do it physically. But with magic? I’m not even sure I can narrow down who did it!”
“Did she say anything before you left?”
“No, she was still asleep. I hid everything, I just…I don’t know if I should confront her? Them?”
She touched my hand, “I wouldn’t. If you confront them, they may escalate. If it’s a bunch of them against you, that may not be good.”
“What do I do, then?”
“I say wait and watch. Maybe get another laptop and see if you can catch someone messing with it? See if you can narrow down who it is. If you confront the wrong person, maybe they get pissed. That turns into a fight where one wasn’t needed.”
“Dammit, Kaylee! I don’t like this garbage!”
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what else to recommend right now. This is messed up. Your laptop was destroyed?”
“Yeah. I’ve never owned one before that I know of. I can’t…” God, that hurts more than I can say. More than I would have believed.
She leaned into my side, “I’m so sorry. I can help you pick out another one if you want?”
“Maybe. I don’t know what I’d do if it gets wrecked again. Literally everything I own is in that dorm room. I’m more upset about my shoes than I was someone challenging me, and I could have died from that.”
“It’s okay. I understand. I’ll help you. We can get something ordered today. If we get it in to the shops before classes start, they may even have it by tomorrow.”
“Just in time for Alison to show up and challenge me?”
“She hasn’t come around again. Maybe she forgot about you?”
“I’ll believe that when I see it.”
She stayed leaning into me and we finished eating. That turned into her helping me pick out a new laptop. She stayed with me until we could get the order in. They may actually have it by the end of the day tomorrow, so that’s a plus. If not, or I die, then Kaylee gets it, so there’s that.
I seriously shouldn’t be crying because of torn up stuff, yet here I am in the shower, trying to get over it. I’m way more upset from that than I was at nearly dying and having to kill people.
What the hell is my life coming to?
From there, everything became suspect to me. Someone else being complimented on their shoes was a direct attack on me. Comments about clothes to others. To me. Mentioning web sites.
Angelica asked if we wanted to get together and stream some shows.
It all stood out to me as a dig. As a potential sign that the person was involved in it. Everything set me on edge, and it got worse as Friday came and classes started. To the point that even not mentioning things meant that people were involved in things.
I was still stewing over comments and non-comments when a hush filled the caf. It’s dinner time, and my upset and anger has me starving. The silence catches my attention and gets me to look up, only to catch a fist to the face that sends me over backwards. The shock doesn’t stop me from standing, only to find Alison there. Somehow, I completely forgot that she was coming. She has my tray of food in her hands.
“Put my fucking food down, Alison.”
She laughs at me, holding it out, “What, this? Your trough, you degenerate animal? Is that what you want? How about you eat it off the floor like a good little stricken.” The tray tumbles from her hands, sending my food to the floor.
And my rage through the roof. My stomach growls, but it’s lower than my own growling as my hunger and the pressure inside of me skyrockets.
“Aww, look at you. So upset over a little food.” Her foot goes into it and she smears it around. “Time for you to die. Remember, I get to wear your skin. Then, when you’re gone? I’m gonna come back and find your little ally. What’s her name? Kaylee? She’s mine too. I heard about her. I’m gonna make her beg me to let her die. I’m gonna masturbate while she does, too.”
I went beyond angry. To a place where I’m not sure I’ve ever been before. It hurt. More than I can even say.
She didn’t move as I walked back up to her. She had a smirk on her face right up until I took her off her feet in a bitch slap that literally rotated her where she stood and sent her crashing to the ground head-first. “Touch my food again, and I’ll eat your fucking fingers.”
I managed to get more and sit again before she stood up, staggering and touching the blood on her face from my hit and from hitting the floor, “You bitch! You fucking bitch! You hit me!”
“You hit me first. And stole my food.”
“I challenge you!”
“You don’t have grounds to challenge me.”
“You hit me!”
“You hit me first.”
Her first swipe at my food missed, but she caught it on the second attempt and sent it spinning away.
My stomach recoiled at the sight, and I swear my skin began to feel too small for my body. “I told you what I would do if you touched my food again.”
“I challenge you!”
“I hope you enjoyed your time with fingers, because they’re gonna be in my stomach here in a minute.”
“I challenge you!” Her voice rose.
“Fuck you, unpopped kernel. You don’t challenge shit!”
She pushed into me, trying to shove me backwards, “Either you, or I find Kaylee. She dies before you. Or she dies after you. I don’t give a shit which.”
More rage as my growling became nonstop.
I wasn’t expecting her to attack physically, so didn’t catch or stop the knee to the crotch that bent me forward, followed by the knee to the face that sent blood everywhere as my nose crunched. She hoisted me back up by my hair, fist raised, “You fight me, or I devour her first. Then we go for it.”
Her mouth went wide as I grabbed her arm, forcing her to release my hair, “Fine. You want to die? Then let’s go. I accept. Right the fuck now.”
She jerked her hand free, “Yes! You fucking useless cunt, I’m gonna enjoy killing you! You dragged this out too fucking far. Too close to the trials. Now I get to suck you down. Then go for Kaylee. Then no one will be able to touch me in the trial! I’ll be the most powerful in my class and it’ll be a piece of fucking cake!”
“You’re dead and don’t even know it. I hope you said good-bye to all of your friends.”
She just laughed as I walked out of the caf, heading for the circle. I’m fucking starving, and I can’t figure out why. The worry that has been plaguing me has messed with me something fierce, and all I want to do is eat.
And tear this bitch to shreds.
I hit the circle and continued to walk into it as year one and three students surrounded it. Teachers are there again too, and Mr. Bailey laughs at me, “Now you’ve done it, stricken!”
The rage cleared a tiny bit, allowing me to stare at him until he swallowed, “When I’m done in here, you’d better have an apology to me for how you’ve treated me, or I might get angry.”
“You’ll be dead in a minute. I’ll apologize to your corpse.”
“Or I’ll do the same to yours.”
His eyes went wide at my comment, and I tuned him out.
Something’s wrong inside of me. I can’t tell what, but there’s definitely something wrong. Something feels…overloaded. Like I’m full of something. Yet I also feel thin. Like something is cracking. That’s a lot of somethings, but I don’t know how else to describe it. I feel like I’m on the edge. Like something
has slowly been pushing for this, but it’s the crucible of the worry about what happened in my room and this fuck-up that’s pushing things more and more.
She stepped into the circle as the headmaster began talking. I can’t follow what he’s saying at all. The rage is too much. It’s all encompassing.
Finally, he’s gone, leaving me staring at her. As she laughs.
Just one more thing to push me.
“Jesus Christ, is she a dragon?” Samantha’s voice cuts through the noise in my head, making me realize I really do have roiling under my skin. Does this mean that I’m a dragon?
Alison stretches her arms wide, “This is how I deal with ignorant little bitches that think they’re worth even a tenth of me!” Her magic goes off with barely any buildup, and it’s fucking brutal. I have a bare inkling what’s gonna hit me just before it does, and that’s the only reason I can figure out what just happened as I spin through the air. She’s an ice mage, and she hit me with ice spears that literally rammed into me, with a spell that basically kicked me, like a massive boot, then six other ones. One tore at me like knives. Another squeezed my chest, cracking my ribs. Another attempted to pull my eyes out. The last three worked in concert to make it nearly impossible for me to hear or see as I hit the ground.
Only to have more spells hit me.
It takes forever for my magic to fire, and I quick healed as I shoved my noodle arms at the ground to stand. It took seemingly a lifetime to do it, but I managed it. Only to be taken down again as she waded into me physically while also hitting me with magic.
More and more rage funneled into me, making me scream from the combination of the pressure inside and her beating. The spells she was ravaging me with kept tearing into me and sending blood across the ground, but my constant healing kept pushing it off.
Until I got a spell off that sent her tumbling away from me.
Fuck, it hurt to get to my knees, but I did. My healing is still going, and that’s the only thing that lets me stand at all before she comes to a stop. Not that she’s down long. She’s up like a demented jack-in-the-box, which has her coming for me again. “Get on the ground and die, you bitch!”
“You first!” I couldn’t help it as I moved on her, meeting her halfway. Instead of pretending to slap fight, I went at her, landing hit after hit as she did the same with me. It became a vicious fight that ended with me bleeding from nearly a dozen places and her doing the same.
More magic went off that I wasn’t prepared for, and I was crushed into the ground again and again as ice formed around me in thick plates. Bones snapped from the impact and the pressure of the ice, with the thickness crushing in and stopping my healing. My power ramped out and ice began to melt at the same time I began peeling it away from me. I expected to stand. I really did. I thought I’d be standing and crushing her as I got my stride going.
Until she shocked the shit out of me one more time. I saw her coming in. I expected a punch. I really did.
I was not expecting a jet of pain into my left eye as I felt a familiar pain. Nor was I expecting a hit that drove the mortmagi in farther until the screws bit in and began pulling it in.
My magic went haywire as the blade in my eye began killing off access to power. My screams filled the circle as she laughed and people around the edge called out. We didn’t say no outside weapons…so I’m not even sure she’s in trouble for this.
I lucked into blocking the second one as I felt my magic moan beneath the pressure of the thing in my face.
“Gonna wear your skin!”
Horror filled me. Is this really how I’m gonna die? Some stupid fight with another student that just wants more power? This is so fucking wrong.
Yet I can feel my magic fading. Being locked away in the background by the thing tearing my face apart.
Except…I had this happen before. I lived like this for four years and managed to do magic and save myself. Somehow. I have to be able to do it again! I know more about magic now than I ever did before. I have to be able to get out of this.
More magic came in from her that elicited more screams from me. Every time I reached for my magic, she was there with more pain to push it away from me.
No, you fucking bitch. That’s not how this works. I didn’t make it out of living with Reggie for four years to be killed here like this.
She came in again with the other mortmagi, and I latched onto my magic and used it to crush it along with her hand, getting my first good scream from her. Then more magic flowed from me as I worked hard to hide the glow in my hair. I felt the power build and build, adding to the roiling that I see taking place in my skin. I want this fucking thing out. I want it out now.
I think that means I do this.
Something changed in me. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but something definitely changed.
Magic coalesced in my head and I felt the same pressure I remember from not that long ago. That same soul-searing pain as something built in my head. At the same time, I felt it all over my body.
She managed to get back up, holding her ravaged hand, as my magic built more. Whatever was inside of me that allowed me to break Riley’s spell kicked off and I was able to shatter the ice and heal in a burst of contorting bones. I made it to my feet just as I felt the horrific squealing of the screws being forced from my face.
And still the power built.
The pressure in my body met, then exceeded, the pressure in my face. It wasn’t until the mortmagi pushed away for the second time in my life and my eye healed that I realized something else was truly happening.
The roiling got worse. And worse.
And then blood sprayed from me as my body exploded. That’s what it seemed like. I went from 5’2” me, barely standing in a challenge circle, to something I’ve never pictured before. I saw the white first. I thought it might have been part of my hair, but it wasn’t. It was scales.
All over me.
My arms. My hands. My stomach. My legs.
My wings.
That realization has me standing as I flare my wigs out wide, realizing I’m seriously not something I’ve ever pictured before.
I’m a dragon. But I’m not.
I’m maybe seven feet tall, but I’m still mostly human. I’m standing upright and don’t have a dragon’s body. My muscles are larger. My hands are larger. My feet look more dragon-like. I have a tail. That I can move.
I have wings.
“What…what the fuck are you?!?” Alison comes at me again, sending magic at me that hits before I knew it. Only to mostly bounce from the scales.
Oh my, I think I like this.
My voice is much deeper than normal as I lean towards her, “Unpopped kernel? I told you what I was gonna do. I think it’s time I follow through. I’m hungry, and you threw my food away. Feel free to scream.”
She did. As did the people outside the circle.
Yes, I ate her fingers.
Sorry, not sorry.
I nearly ate all of her. That’s how hungry I feel right now.
Yes, I drained her power, too. It felt amazing beyond belief. Plus, I did it in such a way that people didn’t catch me doing it. Yet again. You’d think they’d learn. Although Parece probably knows.
When I was done, I kicked her ravaged corpse away and flapped my wings, lifting myself a good four feet off the ground without really trying. I have to watch that because I’ve heard that flying isn’t all that easy.
Thankfully, I simply landed on my feet again and continued circling to stare at everyone. “Mr. Bailey? I’ll take that apology any time you’re ready. As for the rest of you? Challenge me if you want. I’ll accept any and all challenges. I won’t hide behind the protections. You want me? Come get me. Get in line with the others. Then we’ll see who walks out of here. You want to drain me of power. I want to graduate and get the fuck out of here. I don’t even know what I am. So, you want to do this? I’m here.”
No one reacted as I headed for the edge of the circle before th
e line parted like I was a nuclear-powered threshing machine. No one stopped me as I stalked through them towards the caf. I made it another ten feet before I shifted back to my human form without meaning to. I did it between steps, which I don’t think should be possible.
No matter. I smell food. I’m hungry. Her fingers just weren’t enough.
Chapter 27
My full belly felt wonderful as I soaked in the shower. I ate way, way more than I’ve ever eaten before. That must be why dragons eat more than mages. Shifting has to be an energy hog. Probably worse if they’re shifting into such large forms.
Stop it, Maddie. Stop ignoring this.
You gotta be kidding me.
I’m actually a dragon of some sort? How or when did that happen? My eyes looked normal to me in the mirror. Or at least as normal as they look now. Still white. No other changes that I can tell. Except I changed forms to one that I’ve never heard of before. A human-based dragon?
Is that why my parents did this to me? I came up white and they freaked that I wasn’t whatever they were? I don’t get it if that’s the case, but…is that really it?
I can’t imagine having a kid of mine standing there in front of me and have something happen to them outside of their control that makes me want to do what they did. So, I’m a freak. Let’s say I get married. Have a kid. Maybe they’re like me. Maybe they’re like him. Maybe they’re a norm because I married a norm. They’re my child. Why the fuck would they…
Deep breath, Maddie. Big deep fucking breath.
I’ve heard it from others about how their parents plan on killing them if they’re too weak after all of this. There has to be something in their makeup to make that allowable. And others just sort of accept it. How or why, I seriously don’t know. Had I had an inkling that an attack was coming, I would have run my ass off when I was nine.
Now? Now I’d fight.
Speaking of? I just threw down the gauntlet to everyone. Any and all challengers that want to chance it. Will they? A week before trials, will they want to risk it? Or will they take it as a last-ditch opportunity to gain more power before walking into something that seriously seems like a killing field?