I was haunted by a dream of endless corridors. Silvery metal doors blocked my every way out. So, I ran through the halls searching for a way to escape, but the cold metal doors refused to open. There weren't any windows or exits, just endless white halls. The nurse from last night walked slowly behind me taking notes on her clipboard. She would give a “Hmmm” of disapproval as her pencil scratched across the paper and even though she was walking and I was running, she never fell behind.

Whenever I stopped to catch my breath, Ms. Mirth's cold voice would come out of nowhere but seemed to be everywhere. She always barked the same thing, "I don't accept slackers in my classroom. Do you think you'll succeed with such a lazy attitude?" She was just like at school and without delay I would start running again. I desperately turned corner after corner, sometimes walking, sometimes running, until I woke up. It was such a weird dream.

Since I had off from school, I grabbed a few hundred from my stash and went shopping. With the weather getting colder, most of my clothes were becoming unwearable, unless I wanted to freeze. They were too skimpy and left too much flesh exposed. Other than a few thin sweaters, I couldn’t find any winter related clothes. I also needed to get a new phone. The fact that I was out of communication was bothering me. I had emailed my friends last night to let them know I was back and that I wasn’t going to be there tomorrow, but it was far from convenient.

I ended up at the mall and my frustrating day began. People say shopping is relaxing and normally I would agree, now… not so much. First, women's clothing made no sense. It started with a pair of pants. After grabbing the same size, I had at home, I found they didn't fit. They were tight and I had to grab the next size. Normal, right? I already knew my body changed a little. After finding the right size, I noted the size and moved to the next sales rack. They were a different brand and when I found the size I wanted and tried it on, it was loose! This happened multiple times. It was like the labels were interchangeable and they didn't actually represent a fixed size. 

Sometimes the same brands would fit but were tight in weird locations. For example, they'd grip my ass tightly but were loose around my waist. It was frustrating, especially for a person that was used to walking in and just grabbing a set size. I finally found a little relief when looking at shirts. But that was only better because I wanted them to be oversized, to add a little more warmth to my upper legs.

Between looking at outfits, I picked up the cheapest phone I could. My day consisted of going store to store looking for bargains and thinking of what I should do to become stronger. The Huntingdon incident made me think of actively looking for men that might have useful spells. I now had twenty-two spells and was far from helpless, but having more options was never a bad thing. What if shadow step hadn't worked? If I had been in complete darkness or there weren't any shadows, I would have died there. What if I had an area attack? Could I have stopped the beasts before the comet? My attacks and defenses weren’t good and at level one they weren’t supposed to be. According to the books, my toughness was linked to my fitness and casting of physical spells, and would naturally become stronger over time, would danger wait? Being complacent in such a dangerous world seemed like a bad idea.

So, while I looked for outfits, I thought of where I could get more spells. It's just that my age worked against me. It wasn't like I could go to a bar and pick up a man for the night. In the end, I only came up with two bad ideas. The first was to get some from the only man around me, my mom's boyfriend. It wasn't that I planned on tempting him or even sleeping with him.  With them actively going at it whenever they were together there had to be some "leftovers" I could snatch away. And he was a doctor! My desire for a good healing spell being so close at hand and so easily to get, in theory, was enticing.

But being caught… I wasn’t sure how I could explain myself short of telling my mom everything. I was already pretty sure she knew and the thought of just asking her for some material had crossed my mind. But… I just couldn’t bring myself to ask her from her boyfriend’s cum. There was a strange don’t ask, don’t tell facade we both accepted and in doing so would destroy any delusion she might have. I hesitated and thought of the second option.

This idea came from an email. I didn't know how Tim, the man I babysat for, got my email address, but he had sent one on Tuesday asking me if I was interested in auditioning for a minor role in a costume drama. That's it. Nothing about pay, what drama, or even when or where. Still, I knew what he wanted from me to get that role, but I already got his highest to lowest level spells, one through four. I wasn't sure if my ability would reset over time. What if his sperm didn't absorb because it reached zero? I was afraid of the consequence... pregnancy. There was still too much I didn't know, so contacting him was held an unknown risk, for an unknown reward. Because of that, I hadn't replied. It wasn't like I wanted to be famous. But the idea of sleeping to get roles, while a horrible idea, was a way that could secretly get me spells. Many people believed they knew what was going on, but not many stars were ever exposed on how they got their roles. It seemed so easy that I kept thinking about its feasibility.

I was in the third store since I replaced my phone when my train of thought broke. A man followed me from the store I just left. It wasn’t that hard to spot him. The mall wasn't that busy because it was a weekday and people were at work and school. In the empty woman's section, a single man stood out like a sore thumb. At first, I thought I was being paranoid. That he was here with his girlfriend. But a girlfriend never showed up and when I moved to grab a pack of underwear, I caught him looking at me through the racking.

My mind raced and I began to speculate. Was he from the hospital? The nurse’s reaction the night before was so strange. Or was he part of the mall security? I was supposed to be in school. Maybe they thought I skipped school to shoplift. It seemed unlikely. He could just be a pervert that wanted to pounce on a girl that was alone. He didn't look like a pervert, though. With a good posture, firm muscles, and being around twenty, he probably didn't lack companionship. I looked away after memorizing what he was wearing. It was a safety trick I saw on the internet. There were a variety of magics that allowed people to mask their true appearance, but only a few that would also change the clothes a person had on.

I went back to picking out underwear as if I hadn't noticed him. Perhaps I had been too low key. I was stronger than I had been when I first arrived, with more spells and knowledge. Should I stop pretending to be a weakling? I had wanted to quietly amass power. To not be seen as a tall tree until I could weather the storms that came with it. But things kept happening! People messing with me, monsters molesting me, and everybody seemed to have secrets; it kept adding up and my patience was wearing thin.

I glanced out of the corner of my eye as I went to buy the underwear in my hand. There wasn’t a lot of sales in this store. They had mostly unsold summer clothes. But even the bikinis weren’t in colors girls would buy. Puke green? Really? Sighing, I walked over to the next store. Their bright yellow clearance signs gave me hope that they had a better selection. My funds were low, and I was unsure how good our finances were at home. Its why I took my money and hadn’t asked for any. It wasn’t that my mom wouldn’t give me money. In fact, she would without question. At first, I had loved the fact I could get money so easily and had asked for things I didn’t need. But every time I did, my mom would work overtime to cover my greed. How could I continue spending after knowing that? I had wanted to get a job, but my mom wanted me to focus on education. So now I counted every penny, looked for every deal, and skimped where I could.

I caught the guy walking into the store a few minutes after I did. I ignored him for now. I wasn’t going to freak out because some weirdo was following me. Besides, maybe it was all in my head. He could have a gift to buy, wanted to spice up his relationship with sexy underwear, or a kinky fetish. It didn’t necessarily have to be about me.

I quickly moved from store to store, trying to put together good outfits cheap. The man followed, but he wasn’t being obvious. He would sometimes vanish for long periods, and then show up near where I was shopping. He was now carrying a bag from the previous store, so I couldn’t rule out he was just shopping and just happened to like female clothing. And if he was following me, he was persistent. I had been shopping for hours. Still, I was debating on confronting him. Before I could he walked away and didn’t show back up even after several more stores.

Time passed and my packages accumulated so I decided to catch the next bus back. It was for convenience. I wanted to go home before school let out soon and my purchases would take up an extra seat. The man I had seen was long forgotten. Instead, I stood at the bus stop thinking of different ways I could gather spells and then dismissing them. My ideas kept getting worse the longer I thought. For example, acting like Ann and just not caring was a way, but one that would devastate my mother. If I started pouncing on every guy I saw, and she found out… I didn’t want to see her cry.

I was paying attention to my surroundings, so when I felt a stabbing pain in the back of my head, I was surprised and caught off guard. The world seemed to shimmer, and the paved roads and tall buildings were replaced by open fields with flower patches.

In the blink of an eye my world changed, and while my mind tried to understand what the hell just happened, my body reacted off instinct. The bags dropped as my hands grabbed the man that was now standing behind me. I caught his wrist and twisted as I spun. He didn't move to relieve the force, and I heard a satisfying pop as his wrist was dislocated. I let go and jumped to the side, but he didn't move. I glanced back only to see the man, that had been following me, calmly putting his wrist back in place. He didn't cast but that didn't mean I wasn't.

A misty knife was quickly forming in my hand as I looked around. He was too calm. But open meadows were all that greeted me. I made sure to keep him in front of me but kept my stand loose. I wanted to be able to dodge away if he made a move. He looked at me like I was performing a show and spoke. "Strength one and a half times, reaction speed two times, chant speed half the norm, durability... unobtainable."

Great, I was kidnapped, in the middle of nowhere, and being assessed. This wasn’t off-putting at all! I forced myself to remain calm and gripped the knife tighter. He looked me over, and continued, “Knife skills are absent, but stance is acceptable.” As he spoke, I did the only thing I could think of; I turned around and ran while casting ‘Grasping Doom’. The issue was even if I could get away, this place was completely open. There weren’t any big shadows I could step through, and his nonchalance was off-putting.

The man let me go, as if he was curious what I was planning. Maybe he was. It wasn’t like I could go anywhere. I cast the spell and centered it at the spot he had been standing. I wasn’t looking back to see if they got him. I have seen that horror movie. Nope! I ran like there were monsters chasing after me.