Noticing the substance on his foot immediately ruined his mood. It was an uncomfortable reminder of the day he had. Norman didn’t want to dwell on the painful rejection he received from Charise. To get those thoughts out of his mind, he needed to get rid of this unknown substance. Not wanting to get up, he reached over and tried picking at it with his fingernails but the substance was harder than the flaking black fingernail polish he still wore.

After struggling to remove the crusty substance, he cursed under his breath and looked around for something to scrape the gunk from his foot. His eyes landed on a dirty butter knife sitting on one of the plates cluttering the table. He picked it up, finding it still had some peanut butter on it from the sandwich he made the night before. Norman shrugged and licked it clean. The peanut butter was a bit stale but he had eaten far worse during the bad days before he met Toby.

Now with a clean tool, he got to scraping the blue substance off on the very same plate the knife had come from. He didn’t want this blue shit getting into the rug, even though the rug was stained from years of burns, dropped food, and spilled alcohol already. It was the principle of the matter.

It took Norman twenty minutes to completely scrape the gunk off of his foot, it was that hard. The concrete-like consistency of the gunk had left a large red spot on his foot from where it had sat as well as from his attempts to remove it. It made it look like he was some weirdo with a foot hickey fetish. Hopefully, it would be gone after a day.

With that onerous deed complete, Norman slouched back into the couch, ready to let the worries from today drift away. But his attempt at relaxation was interrupted yet again by a bang at his front door.

The bang was followed by an indignant squeak. “Ouch.”

“A little help?” the indignant voice called from outside.

He sighed. While he didn’t mind Anna’s company, she had begun to get a little clingy as of late. It made him uncomfortable for a few reasons. One she was only like fifteen, and he didn’t want her brother Toby to think Norman was being improper with her. Norman didn’t want to risk alienating his friend and mentor. But he knew he couldn’t stop Anna from coming in.

“I don’t recall asking for guests. Besides, you’re a strong independent woman, you got this,” Norman called back.

There was no point trying to stop the headstrong girl. He was only one man and his house had two doors. Either she would come in through the front or the back. It wasn’t like any of his locks worked.

“Fine, be that way,” the young female voice yelled back as the door squeaked open another inch before she bounced off it again.

Norman chuckled at his friend's sister's attempt to get in. While he didn’t really feel like having company, it had been a while since he had seen her or her brother. It was likely Toby wouldn’t be far behind if Anna was let out of the house. It took her three more tries before she got the door open enough to squeeze her skinny frame through the opening. It was good she was flat as a frying pan or that small gap would have never been enough for her to squeeze through.

Anna was a rather tomboyish-looking girl, with thick glasses and freckles. She was the complete opposite of what Norman looked for in a woman. That was even before the fact that she was too young for him and also his friend's sister. Three strikes and you are out.

Norman's preferred woman was slightly older with a bit of experience and plenty of curves. Even Charise had been a bit younger than his normal tastes but she had a magnetic personality that had sucked him in. Her amazing body wasn’t bad either.

He stifled a sigh as Anna made her way over to the couch and sat uncomfortably close to him. He just felt so awkward being alone with the girl.

“I heard you come home, I thought you’d be at Charise’s tonight?”

Norman didn’t miss the hint of joy in Anna’s voice at the fact that he was home instead of spending it at Charise’s place. And how did she even know Charise had called him? It was likely her brother Toby had filled her in. Norman knew Anna had a crush on him since shortly after they met. But it was just weird to think about so Norman tried to ignore it.

“You didn’t come over just to tease me, did you? And where’s your brother?”

Anna gave an annoyed huff. “No…I was bored, and I saw you were home so figured you could use some company. Toby said he will be by shortly, he needed to grab something.”

“Uh, huh. More like you wanted to party?”

Anna ignored his question. “Ooh, what’s that,” she asked, pointing at the small pile of blue powder on the plate.

“Wait, stop!” Norman yelled, grabbing her arm before she dipped her finger into the dried blood he had scrapped from his foot. He swore his heart leaped into his chest when she reached for that blue powder.

“I was just gonna sample a bit,” she said indignantly.

“It’s not some new drug, that’s elf blood I scrapped off my foot.”

“Ew, gross,” she pulled her arm back from the plate. “Why would you have that on a plate in your living room?”

“Why would you think it’s a good idea to sample random drugs before asking?” Norman fired back, a bit annoyed with the girl but not willing to admonish her further.

She huffed and crossed her arms. “I didn’t think you would have anything too dangerous, you’re always just smoking weed.”

Before Anna could become any more upset, the door was shoved open and a tattooed man with spikey blonde hair waltzed in and tossed something at Norman.

The bundle hit Norman on the chest before his drug-addled reflexes could react.

“Ow, what the hell, Toby.”

“Oh my bad, I can take it back if you don’t want it,” Toby replied with a cocky smile, holding out his hand.

Norman quickly grabbed the roll of cash from his lap and stuffed it in his pocket. He was sure his relationship with Toby would appear strange to outsiders, but this was just how they interacted.

“Hey, Toby! Thanks for this, I needed it. By the way, how’d we do?”

Toby shrugged, “coulda been better, coulda been worse. Move over beanpole,” Toby roughly pushed his sister aside and sat next to Norman on the couch. He quirked an eyebrow at the plate.

Norman shook his head and Toby just shrugged. “I got a bag from Charise though,” he offered. “Help yourself.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he replied grabbing the bong and packing some more into the bowl.

Toby ignored Norman as he took a hit “You know you could just count it to see how much is there,” Toby replied after exhaling a large puff of smoke.

“That’s not necessary, I trust ya, plus it’s rude to count money in front of people.”

Toby snorted. “I guess. I woulda waited until the end of the week to drop off your share but I heard about what happened at your work. That sucks man.”

That confirmed how Anna knew about his and Charise’s falling out. Toby was good at finding out what was going on around town. Norman wasn’t even surprised anymore that his friend knew what happened at his work already. It would have been strange if he didn’t know.

“Thanks. You hear about my run-in with the elves?”

“Yeah, heard big boss Harry is trying to woo them for some of their magic knowledge. What a joke. Stay away from those guys if you can manage it, they are nothing but trouble.”

“Wait, you met some elves?” Anna asked. “Are they as hot as they are in the books?”

Toby snorted, “not those elves, beanpole, the jorik.”

“I don’t get it, why would you call jorik elves?”

“Everyone does… just not where they can hear you though. Apparently, it pisses them off something fierce after they learned about what it meant from human books.”

Norman leaned back into the couch. “Can we not talk about this? I just wanna relax after the shitty day I had.”

Toby shrugged and handed Norman the bong.

“Hey,” Anna complained, “why didn’t you pass it to me?”

“You’re too young, this shit will rot your brain,” Toby slapped his sister's grabby hands away.

“Jerk, if it’s fine for you, it's fine for me.”

Norman ignored the two’s antics as he took another hit. It was nice they were here, it got his mind off of losing his job and Charise giving him the cold shoulder.

At least he still had the side business of making the anti-necrotizing potions. Something he had randomly stumbled upon one day. It was also why he hadn’t given up on his goal.

The potions weren’t exactly healing potions but they kept wounds from becoming infected and slightly increased the speed of healing. They were also important for the people that went out exploring this new world. Many of those got wounded by the hostile wildlife, dangerous plants, or more likely when they ran across the jorik that bordered the eastern side of Colorado.

Norman doubted people would be happy to learn what exactly was in the concoctions and he certainly wasn’t going to tell anyone, especially Toby. He was pretty sure the man would cut ties with him if he knew. Then again maybe not, Toby didn’t seem to have any qualms about making money any way he could. But Norman figured it was better if nobody ever knew about the recipe, for his own sake. It was bad enough Norman was known around town as a troublemaker, he didn’t need to be labeled as a pervert or sicko as well.

It wasn’t his fault that the ingredient had made the concoction work. He had only done it to get back at some douchebag physical classer that had made fun of him one time. But it became such a good seller that he couldn’t stop making it. Other than the churches, there really were no other alternatives to magical healing at the moment. And you couldn’t exactly get the clergy to come with you into the dangerous wilderness.

Eventually, the two siblings stopped arguing and Anna got up and left. She seemed to be upset that she wasn’t getting Norman’s undivided attention. Toby left an hour after that, having helped Norman smoke the remaining bag. He also grabbed the last of the potions Norman had ready and shoved them into the back of his electric van.

Silence filled the house again, leaving Norman to ponder his life choices. Most people would look at Norman and think he was at rock bottom. But Norman was doing rather well, all things considered. He had good friends, a house, and an income that would get him by and he was healthy. Sure he lost his job and that was a bummer, but Norman had lost dozens of jobs over the years he would bounce back. The way Charise treated him was upsetting, but he would let her be for a bit and then try rekindling their connection at a later date.

Those were minor bumps in the road, certainly not rock bottom, Norman knew what rock bottom was. It was not eating for days on end, hiding from the law, and not having anyone to turn to or rely on for help. Thankfully those days were behind him. Honestly, the apocalypse had been the best thing to happen to him in a long time. He still had his mentor and friend Toby and to a lesser extent Anna but it also gave him magic. Sure he wasn’t very good at the magic yet, but he was working on that.

Speaking of magic, a thought struck him while he was sitting there on the couch and he wanted to test out the theory before it fled his mind. But he needed something before he could. He was hoping the garage had what he needed.

Norman was forced to crawl under the partially open garage door as the side door was jammed shut due to something falling in front of it. Norman removed the obstruction which turned out to be a rake and shovel that had fallen over and wedged themselves between the door and a table covered with junk.

It wasn’t often that Norman came out here. He didn’t own a car and he hadn’t bothered keeping up with the yard work since the world went to shit. Thankfully the city ordinance people either changed careers or had better things to do as they hadn’t hassled him about the unkempt yard. He quite liked the wild look of his backyard. It made him feel like he was one with nature.

Norman walked over to the light and pulled the string. The bulb came on for a moment before there was a popping sound and it went dim again.

“Dammit, what else can go wrong today?”

Norman found a replacement bulb and quickly replaced the burned-out one. The light blinded him as it came on and he nearly fell off the overturned bucket he was using as a step ladder.

Now that he could see, he blinked away the afterimage from the lightbulb and looked around the cluttered garage. The tables along the side were filled with empty bottles that he used for his potions.

He certainly wasn’t in the mood to mix up a new batch today. He was after something else. And soon he found what he was looking for.

Norman had been forced to use traps to catch or kill rodents and the occasional raccoon as they seemed to really like his garage. The live cages for the raccoons were empty but one of the traps had caught a rat.

Norman winced when he saw the state the rat was in. The mouse traps weren’t strong enough to kill rats but this unlucky specimen had found itself caught by the back leg. Norman could see it had tried to gnaw itself free by the amount of dried blood near where it died.

Norman gagged and nearly vomited as the smell of the rotting animal reached his nose. Gagging and coughing, Norman picked up the dead rat and placed it on the table before he backed away. He scanned the room and found a dirty rag. With a sigh, he shook the dust off the rag and tried to tie it around his face but it was so rotten it fell apart.

He stared at the torn cloth and groaned. Norman decided to just hold his breath as best he could since he didn’t want to go back into the house to get something to cover his nose.

He set the small bag of blue power on the counter. Norman had a bit of an epiphany while he was back in the house smoking with Toby. The jorik were beings that were good at magic. What made them so good? Certainly, humans could work magic and some had been present when the blue jerks had cast spells, yet humans weren’t able to reproduce those same jorik spells.

What made the jorik special? When Norman saw the blue dust sparkle, he thought he might know why. But he needed to test it out.

The problem was that Norman could only work with corpses. He had tried to switch to a different magical class or even a physical one but even if he knew exactly what the other person was doing, he couldn’t recreate the results and he even suffered debilitating pains when he had tried in the past. Whatever controlled magic in this world didn’t seem to like people changing after they decided on a course.

If it hadn’t been for Norman’s random discovery of the potion, he probably would have given up on his magic a long time ago. After Norman’s parents had abandoned him, he couldn’t afford to waste time on frivolous hobbies that he had no talent for. That didn’t mean Norman hadn’t tried to find an easy way to make money before meeting Toby. It was just that Norman wasn’t very talented. All that straight-A work from his early school years amounted to nothing physical that he could actively turn into a profit to survive.

That all changed when magic entered the picture. Something about magic made Norman want to push through no matter how long it took and no matter how many setbacks he suffered. With Toby supporting him by selling the potions, it was finally possible.

The potion was Norman’s win, his first peek at what the future could hold if he kept pushing forward. Norman didn’t know much about chemistry but he was pretty certain the ingredients he used to make the potion didn’t assist with healing normally, which left magic as the only explanation. That was proof that he could do magic and it was just enough motivation to keep him going.

Norman dipped his fingernail into the powder and pulled it out. Then he paused. He didn’t exactly know what to do, this whole test had kind of been a spur-of-the-moment thing. Thinking quickly, he used his other hand to pull out his notebook and set it on the table. Norman quickly flipped through the book until he found a page he thought might work.

Most of Norman’s knowledge about raising the dead had come from books, TV, the internet, or manga. The page he had opened showed a printed screenshot of strange symbols drawn in a circle of blood across the torso of a body outline. He had tried this ritual out before with normal human blood but it hadn’t worked. Holding back his disgust, Norman flicked out his tiny pocket knife and began carving the design into the rat's belly.

He tried his best to hold his breath but he still gagged at the smell as he cut the rat open. Out of reflex, Norman covered his mouth with his free hand. That… that, was a mistake.

He had forgotten he still had the tiny bit of blue powder on the underside of his fingernail. Said blue powder landed in his mouth as he covered it.

Even though Norman realized this mistake quickly, it wasn’t quick enough. A wave of disorientation hit him a moment before his vision pinched to a tiny point like he was standing at the bottom of a deep well. Then his muscles seized up and he toppled over sideways like a falling tree. Before Norman lost consciousness he realized he probably should have waited to do this when he was sober.