Adra_Collins

The Following Chapter Should be understood to be happening in rough synch with Chapter 10 which is actually the twelth chapter. Numbers are fake.

Elsewhere 3

Lilith. 

Why must I be the bearer of bad news? It feels so frustratingly inconvenient and I hate the thought of ruining someone's whole day. It’s all so BAD.

And now I know things I’m pretty sure I’m not even supposed to know now and just…why why why?!?!

The day was going so well and I walked along and heard…that….

When I was a lot younger someone talked to my dad like he wasn’t alive…like he was just an object.

Walking the halls to my next class I heard the sounds of a racket around the corner ahead of me. I got this crawling feeling of dread along my spine, and immediately I just knew one of the sounds of pain I heard was my friend Rox. 

“You think I’m stupid?!” It was Briar… of course. I prepared to charge in, but froze when I heard…

“Oh, no need to be so clueless…boy.” 

I held my breath, bit my lip, and leaned around the corner. Briar had isolated Roxanne and shoved her against a wall… and…

That word. 

She had to do that…

Somewhere it sounded just like how the one man talked to my dad. 

My guts fizzed and bubbled before I turned as fast as I could, running past one of the teachers…to my next class?

The next class.  Couldn’t even think of the next class. I just went and went and went and 

… and Calamity needed to know.

She usually doesn't have a class around right now. Mom would certainly hear about me skipping classes but…friends first. 

“Lamity, Camity, Calamity” The words tumbled out of me as I raced to the bench outside the main hall building, breathing hard and unsure how far I’d been sprinting. 

“Woah, woah, what's up Lily?” 

My lungs burned as I doubled over hands on my knees through my suspenders. “Briar…she-I… I don’t think I’m supposed to know it-but she…”

I stomped my legs trying to push myself to feel stable, the muscles sore and noodly. “She… Called Roxanne a boy.”

Calamity had been doodling the fountain off in the distance. But when I said that word, that three letter word that I knew Calamity had a very negative association with… Her pencil stopped. She let out a frustrated sigh and stood up from her seat. Calamity’s righteous fury dragged her shoulders back and drove the fur on the back of her neck up in intense ripples.  

When she talked her words were… smooth. Not calm, but quiet, like the eye of the storm. “I need you to meet me back here after your last classI need help, because we’re nipping this in the bud today.” 

I nodded. We parted ways.

***

I’ve cleansed my face in the time since. 

In the emptiness of one of the school’s private bathrooms, I slather my face in a new coat of grey, eyes wreathed in red fire.

War Paint. My grandfather's father wore something similar. Though he’d kill people, cut their heads off and stick them on a stake. 

I’m not a clown right now. We will not be doing anything that we’ll be able to laugh at today. 

Violence is not funny. 

***

I wanted to make a joke, but I didn’t have one. The tone of the moment was not appropriate for it, anyway. It’s all about timing. 

Calamity was more familiar with the neighborhood, leading the way as my spellcraft relaxed gravity’s hold on the two of us. I squeezed the beads on my bracelet as we darted from rooftop to rooftop to catch up to Briar. 

We didn’t have a lot of time to get her before she’d be at her mansion. 

It’s all about timing. 

I could feel the fizzing in my gut again. Lunch had long since passed and I knew I could vomit. I wouldn’t. Warriors keep control. 

We moved quietly, beneath us Briar and her two hangers-on were giggling and laughing as if they hadn’t been so vile earlier. I couldn’t keep track of all the ways that made me feel. Angry? Sad? …Contemptuous. Contempt was a strong one, but accurate. Briar’s entire mission in life was to bring Calamity as much pain as possible. 

Never had I found someone so utterly disgusting. 

I stood alongside Calamity on the ledge of a building. I clenched my hands around the handle of a wooden club. One of my family’s.  Was I allowed to have it so close to school grounds? Probably not. 

Nothing about the club was special; made from the trunk of a carra-carra tree, carved with a flared knob at the end that tapered down into the handle with a Li-Ki bird carved along the shaft, the handle wrapped in a fiber from the same tree. 

Normal warriors knew how to make it lethal… my magic could make it stupendously violent. My skill with both would leave them bruised, but breathing.

My attention came back to Calamity as her fingers counted down slowly, each digit steadily curling upon itself before finally… she held a fist.

We jumped. 

Our foot falls were deadened as my magic brought us down like a feather.

Calamity darted past Carry, and Petal. A giant shield of magic shot up from behind Ccalamity along the entire height of the alleyway, separating the two from Briar. 

My shoes skidded as I spun around in front of them. I was raised to never strike while they didn’t know I was there. 

I was also told to never strike first. Depressingly, I can't stay true to that bit of what grandpa taught me. 

Holding the shaft of the club I smashed the knob directly into Carry’s side, sending her reeling, I ducked below Petal’s hasty swipe at me. Using the opening I smashed my elbow into her nose, the impact sending her stumbling backward into the wall of the building behind her.

I club the back of Carry’s head and she goes limp. I lower her to the ground as quickly as I could before darting over to Petal while she pushed herself off the wall. 

I held the club to her face. “Be smart, don’t move,” I growled, “I do not want to cause any lasting harm.” 

Off in the distance I could hear it. 

Briar and Calamity scuffled for all of a few seconds before Calamity had Briar forced against a wall.

Calamity was screaming . 

“Van Winkle! I don’t give a shit if you hate me but don’t you dare involve Roxanne in our bullshit! Do you fucking get it?!” 

I didn’t hear any of what Briar was saying from where I was. But I did hear Briar’s “oh my gods you do!” echo across the alley. 

Calamity struck Briar across the face with an open hand, said something I didn’t hear.

The shield dropped and Calamity sprinted past me. “We’re out.” 

I jumped up and darted after her, shoving my club into the pouch on my side. 

***

The both of us sat alone on my bed, the dresser cluttered with freshly used scrub-towels now covered in makeup. 

There was a long silence. 

“So how important is Roxanne in all this?” 

Calamity looked up at my ceiling and plopped backward onto her back. “You can probably guess.” 

“So…”  I leaned over to look at her face. “You really like her a lot, I’m guessing?” 

A sigh escaped her like the last bits of air out of a balloon. “Yeah. Badly.”

My fingers brushed a bit of hair away from her face as I leaned down. 

“Calamity, you’re too good for this world.” 

“Now if only you could convince the world of that.” Her hand reached up and held the side of my face. 

“I like her too,” I confessed. 

Calamity’s lips remind me of cake frosting. 

We both stayed in my room for most of the afternoon with stupid hearts and stupid minds thinking about our shared crush. 

Better than bad news.