Author's Note: Kudos to djkauf for betaing this for me. Thanks for all the comments and interaction with you all. I'm humbled by your response.

Chapter 5

The outside commons area seemed to be the place to hang out before school started. There was a coffee cart where I bought a passable latte before going to sit down at one of the many concrete picnic tables. I set my camera aside, which was one of the helpful hints on the contest sheet. You couldn’t capture the picture without easy access to your camera.

Anyway, I perused my schedule again to make sure I had it and the classrooms memorized.

“You’re new.”

I cocked my head slightly and followed some fairly attractive legs up to their owner’s face; a brunette that was really trying too hard to look older via makeup. You didn’t have to be a girl or a boy to figure that one out.

“Yes I am,” I said matter-of-factly and then folding my schedule I tucked it into one of the side pockets of my backpack.

She shuffled her feet for a moment until I looked back up. “Was there anything else?”

Her face flushed red and she turned to stalk away. A group of boys seated at the table across from me broke up laughing. It was then that I noticed all of them were strategically seated for maximum view of my body.

No, I’m not being cocky. I know this because I used to do it all the time during puberty and maybe a couple of years after, until I actually had built up the nerve to speak to a girl without engaging in massive amounts of sweating. Luckily, I remembered to cross my legs properly.

Seeing a moment, I held up a finger. “Stop. Don’t move a muscle.”

They all froze in place and a couple of them looked at me strangely while I grabbed my camera and hit a couple of settings. “Okay, resume.”

Clickclickclickclick.

“Thanks.”

Setting the camera back down, I heard some hushed and rapid whispering while I sipped at my latte. Then before I knew it one of the boys was sitting across from me.

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you the winner or the loser?”

He wasn’t a jock, that was obvious, but he wasn’t completely nerd-bound either. He kind of reminded me of how I use to look not too long ago.

“That’s yet to be decided. It all depends on if I crash and burn.”

My lips moved to the side as I tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile. Recovering, grit my teeth and tilted my head slightly sucking in a little breath so I could sound doubtful.

“Brave move admitting that. Leaves me in a difficult position of holding your ego in my hands,” I said playfully.

He nodded ruefully. “It’s tough to be smart and stunning all at the same time. So many responsibilities.”

Seeing the girl I snubbed at the door looking at me like she’d like to see my hair on fire, I lifted my camera again and took a hard zoom of her face.

Clickclickclick.

Her eyes flashed and then she turned to go inside the school.

“Is there any reason you just pissed off Abigail Alstine?” he asked.

“Call it instinct, and sorry to cause the burn portion of our discussion, but I’m a lesbian.”

He instantly deflated and sighed. “Does this mean when we hang out, we’ll both be scoping out the same girls?”

I grinned and shouldered my pack. “It depends on your rating system.”

“We normally just use the tried and true one through ten.”

Giving him a weak shake of my head I stood and grabbed my camera with one hand and the coffee with the other. “That’s kind of weak, don’t you think?”

He shrugged. “We’re always open for new ideas.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. See ya.”

That was the extent of my excitement for the first day at school. Yes, I did meet more people, and did the class thing, but seriously if you’ve been to one school you’ve been to them all. Seeing as I was working on my third one in the same year, I knew what I was talking about.

That was why I was actively trying my best not to make friends, hence my snubbing of makeup girl earlier. I just couldn’t take being ripped away again from someone that I cared about. Call me gun-shy, but I’ve lost my mother, father, and first serious girlfriend in too short of a time. It tended to make me less than sociable.

~O~

“Jennifer, I’m home!”

She was floating above her star on the fifty-sixth story of the Bank of America building in meditation so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to startle the crap out of her. She jerked, but didn’t fall. Her glare told me she wasn’t exactly pleased.

It’s the little jabs of revenge that helped me through the days.

“What are you wearing?” she said with annoyed displeasure.

I looked down at the gold sports bra and yoga pants. “It’s the yoga uniform the school issues. I’m not all that thrilled about it either.”

Her lips pursed. “What was wrong with any of the ones I bought you?”

I looked to the side and knew what I was saying wasn’t penetrating her brain. “It’s--a–uni–form. Everyone wears the same style and color. The boys have to wear purple and a tank top. They’re not all that thrilled about theirs either.”

“There are boys in your yoga glass?”

I nodded. “Yeah, where else can sixteen year old guys get to stare at sixteen year old girls in odd sexual positions and not get slapped?”

Jennifer had that faraway look like she was trying to picture that scene and then shook her head like she was trying to get the thought out.

“A Kale doesn’t become one of many; it is the many that attempt to emulate a Kale. Wear one of the others tomorrow.”

A laughed actually popped out of my mouth at her snobby attitude. “I’ll get graded down and probably sent to the office.”

She extended her legs and floated downward until she touched the floor. “I’ll deal with that when the time comes. Just do as I say, please.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, Jennifer. I’ll wear their outfit.”

Picking up a towel off of a nearby table she dabbed at her forehead. It looked like she wanted to argue with me, but held herself back. “Well, change into something else for now. All that gold is about to make my eyes bleed. Hurry back. We have serious issues to discuss this afternoon.”

With a shrug I went downstairs to my room and pulled out one of the Unique Magnifique outfits, which was a cami and yoga pants that pretty much looked like a lot of the ones you see everywhere else, except the material was a little different — softer I guess — and it had a Henna embroidery between the breasts and on the leg. That was it. The big difference was that I could buy a very similar outfit for about twenty to thirty dollars at Target and this one was bought at a Galleria specialty store for ninety-two dollars. You tell me if it’s worth it.

By the time I’d made it back upstairs the windows were darkened, which I thought was pretty cool considering that I could see out of them before. Jennifer had a table set up with a couple of chairs and two mugs of what smelled like herbal tea sitting on top.

She waved me on. “Much better. Come have a seat, Ariel.”

I briefly looked around as I was making myself comfortable. “What’s with the windows?”

“Considering the topic of conversation I thought it prudent to add a few layers of security. Members of our government would love to get ahold of the details of my more sensitive ventures.”

I raised my eyebrows at her paranoia. “Are you serious?”

“There are a number of surveillance devices from the adjacent buildings pointed at this very floor and you can bet that there are a number of federal agents scrambling around trying their best to break my enchantments that prevent their eavesdropping.”

That made me a little shifty-eyed thinking that people were watching me, and what did that mean when I was in my room in only a pair of panties and a pink robe as a boy the other day. I felt my face heat up in embarrassment. Was my picture making its rounds through government emails with the Re: blank filled with Look at the sissy boy.

“Can you darken my windows in my room?”

Jennifer shifted and the smiled. “Don’t worry; they’ve never been able to see in here. It’s the audio that I’m concerned about. If I thought for a second that they’d penetrated my veil with visual equipment then there wouldn’t be an FBI anymore. I would have obliterated them off the face of the Earth.

Somehow I believe her.

With that said, I relaxed and sipped at the tea she provided. Yuck, rosehips. “So, what’s the big hubbub?”

She set her mug down. “Tell me what your doppelganger has said about its origins and the dragon’s origins.”

“I thought you knew all this stuff?”

She nodded once. “I do. What we’re doing here this afternoon is finding out if you do.”

I blew out a breath as I thought about what DC had told me. “She told me that she was me, a different part of me.”

“What’s her name?”

“I call her DC, but she told me her name is Darkchylde.”

“Darkchylde?”

I waved her off. “It was a screenname she used for a videogame. I wouldn’t read anything into it. Lots of us use over-the-top names like that.”

Jennifer looked at me pityingly. “Go on.”

“She said she was the go-between with the dragon and that she’d teach me magic from the book.”

“That’s it?”

I nodded.

“What about the dragon?” she asked.

“Uh… she said that the uh, demon-guy…”

“Dormammu?”

I cringed a little. “She said not to say his name, that it calls his eye on us.”

“Pfft. He’s next to powerless in this dimension. He can watch all he wants, but he still can’t do anything without a willing gateway. Call him by his true name.”

“Okay… anyway, she said Dormammu trapped the dragon and I’d freed it from its captivity. In return it was supposed to keep me healthy and powerful for hosting it.”

Jennifer sipped at her mug again. “That’s mostly true. In addition to your little pick-me-up from Dormammu, the dragon has added to your potential.”

“Is that a good thing?” Please let it be a good thing.

“It depends on your way of looking at the situation. I didn’t bring you here to annoy me endlessly, Ariel. I brought you here to train you in the use of magic so that you can keep a tight rein on what you have inside you.”

My eyebrows rose. “What’s inside me?”

Her face turned a little grim. “Have you ever heard of the Obsidian Stone?”

I shook my head.

“How about the Coin of Solomon?”

That sparked a little memory. “Are you talking about the Bible guy that chopped a baby in half?”

Jennifer rolled her eyes. “He didn’t chop a baby in half, but yes, that Solomon from the Bible; the son of David.”

“He had a coin?”

“I can see a history lesson is in order. It’s amazing what children these days actually learn in school. What’s the point in spending hours on end learning things you will never use in real life?”

Somehow I think she might have a hard time convincing pretty much any school board that Bible history was necessary in any form. Most of the kids I knew thought of the Bible as mythology akin to Greek and Roman gods. In other words, nobody really took it seriously anymore.

“Solomon lived about 3000 years ago. He was the person to build the first temple that housed the Arc of the Covenant between God and Man.”

I sat up. “Oh cool, I saw that movie. You mean the whole Indiana Jones thing is true?”

Her mouth hung open and I received the are you stupid? look again. I thought it best to just sit back and listen.

“To continue… in order to build this temple...” She paused and looked at me, probably to see if I was going to say anything else she didn’t like. “He called forth the supposed power of God. What he really called forth was the power contained in the Book of Zhered-Na.”

So the big guy back then had Mom’s book. That thing was seriously old.

“So he built a temple with the power of the book?”

Jennifer tilted her head. “Somewhat. What he did was use the power of the book to call forth seventy-two demons to perform his bidding. They’re the ones that built the temple.”

Something didn’t seem right to me. “Hold on. One of God’s supposedly main guys, at the time, worked with demons? Isn’t that kind of hypocritical?”

She snorted. “Ariel, if you are looking for consistency of thought and belief, the last place you should look is in organized religion.”

I snickered after her. “Says the witch.”

She sniffed haughtily. “I’m a Sorceress, not a common witch.”

“Pardon me,” I said with just a touch of sarcasm. “So what does Solomon have to do with the book and me?”

“The book has many mutable properties.”

I looked at her with cluelessness.

“It can change shape to suit the owner’s needs.”

“Ah.”

“You must understand, Ariel. The Book of Zhered-Na is a very powerful artifact that has been on Earth for many thousands of years. Its presence must be kept secret for its power is immeasurable.”

Considering what she was saying, I thought about where the book was exactly… namely inside of me.

“Solomon held it in two different shapes, the first being a bronze coin, but that was an oddity at the time. Coins weren’t generally minted until the fifth or sixth century, so he transferred it into a ring with an obsidian stone.”

“Gotcha. Coin, stone.” I could tell she was doubtful about my concern.

“Knowing all of this, you should also know that it is one of the Thirteen Artifacts.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “There’s thirteen books?”

“No, just one book. All of the artifacts are different; they represent different forms of nature, creation, the cosmos, and reality. Some mask themselves as jewelry, or innocuous items and some are what they seem.”

I leaned forward since it looked like this info dump was starting to produce some information. “Such as?”

Jennifer shrugged. “The Angelus and the Darkness were the first. You think of them as representations of the light and the dark.”

“Good and evil?”

“Not necessarily. The powers of the dark can be used in service of good and vice versa. It all depends on the user.”

“What else?”

She looked off fondly. “The Witchblade. If I could capture that Artifact I would be nigh invincible. Rasputin would be a joke.”

“You said that name before; who’s he?”

Jennifer’s face turned hateful. “She… a tiny pre-pubescent girl that holds the Eye of Agamotto, the focal source of the Sorceress Supreme. It should have been mine.”

Her fist slammed down on the table almost overturning my mug with the force. I grabbed it, only spilling a few drops in the process.

“Angry much?”

I had to push my chair back from her fiery eyes when they were trained on me. “I have held the Amulet of Agamotto for two decades. I was the one who battled the hordes of Mindless Ones when they invaded this dimension. Not that anyone noticed. It was me that pushed back Dormammu’s minions, alone with no help from dabblers of magic… and the Vishanti gift her with the Eye!”

I was sensing a bit of sour grapes, just a touch — I could be wrong. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I just nodded along and agreed with bits of encouragement so she wouldn’t take out her grudge on me.

“Yeah… assholes. What were they thinking?”

She raised an eyebrow at me and abruptly cooled down. “You’re an acceptable faux-daughter, Ariel.”

“Thanks… I think.”

“Bah, it’s ancient history. What was I talking about?”

“Artifacts.”

She nodded and her eyes narrowed. “Right. The rest is not important. Just know this: the Right Hand of Doom has been claimed. Luckily by an ally.”

I nodded knowingly. “What’s that mean?”

“It is the Thirteenth Artifact, the one with the power to end all existence if holding the rest.”

Pressing my lips together, I leaned back in. “This would be bad, I’m guessing.”

“You don’t have to worry about that just as long as you stay away from her, being a lesbian and all.”

“Uh-huh. Does she have a name or am I just supposed to not have sex with any girl in the near and distant future.”

She blinked and chuckled after. “Saunderson... I think. Shit, what was her new name? Geri or Gertrude, something like that. Anyway, you can’t miss her. She’s got red skin, two horns on her forehead that look like they’ve been sanded down, and a prehensile tail.”

I think Jennifer had truly lost it in her paranoid delusions. “So, female Satan. Okay, important safety tip — no messing around with a female Satan.”

~O~

That was the end of my briefing and my lesson for the day — thank God.

It was then that I started my plans to get the hell out of there at the soonest possible opportunity. All I needed was to master magic, grab some cash and take the earliest train out of Dodge. So, ten, maybe fifteen years tops. I was screwed.

I went downstairs, showered and changed. A casual reference that I was going to the library for research and I was on the streets of downtown Houston looking for somewhere where I could score a beer or maybe something a bit stronger.

Thirty minutes later I was so incredibly lost it was pathetic. All the buildings started looking the same and I couldn’t see much of the skyline in order to work my way back to somewhere that looked familiar.

“Dammit, where the hell am I?”

“Probably not the best thing to say since you’re just a couple of feet from a dark alleyway.”

I spun around and stepped back, raising my hands in defense. A blonde girl stood there, short in the mid-five foot range, wearing a camel-colored mantled coat in the middle of August. My guess was that she was dangerous. But it was a hot kind of dangerous.

She was flinging her right hand out, which was dripping with a blue goo of some kind. Then the smell hit me.

“Eww. What is that?”

She shook her head and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe off the worst. “You probably don’t want to know.”

Something seemed to be off about this girl, something otherworldly. “Demon? Zombie?”

Her eyes widened and a grin rose on her face. “Nearcek demon. Should I know you?”

Shrugging, I tried to look nonchalant, but this girl was getting me hot just by standing around smiling. There was something truly compelling about her that I couldn’t figure out. “Depends.”

“On?”

“What’s your first name?”

“Gemma. What’s yours?”

“I’m Ariel, Ariel Chylde.”

~O~

She was stronger than she looked, which was evidenced by her urging me up against the wall and lifting my legs around her hips. We met in a searing kiss.

Shit, she probably thinks that I’m some sort of slut out to get laid. Fuck it, if I am then so is she.

“You taste really good,” Gemma said as she lifted off my neck. “Sorry, but I can’t keep my hands or my mouth off you.”

“And the problem with that is what?”

Her hands went to my butt and lifted me higher until I ground into her… hold on. “Ow… what’s that?”

“Oh, sorry, the Samaritan got into the way.”

I stopped and push back. “Is that some sort of new name for something?”

She tried to find her place back at my neck. “Can we not talk? For some reason I’m really horny right now.”

I knew what she was talking about, but something just felt off about the whole thing. Yeah, I liked sex and ever since I’d met Susan I liked it a whole heck of a lot more, but I didn’t know this girl from Eve.

“Hold stop… just stop.” I dropped my legs down and tried to back away, but Gemma was hard pressed to give up that easily. It was like she was a heroin addict and I was her next dose.

A flash of light came the next second and Gemma was flung off of me and across the alleyway.

“Red Broom, you horny bastard. She’s sixteen!”

Oh shit. “Hi… Jennifer.”

She pointed her finger at me and I winced. “I’ll deal with you in a minute.”

Looking back at Gemma I saw something that nearly made me piss myself. Horns, tail, red skin; it was the Satan girl with a humongous hand right hand.

“What the hell? Oh, it’s you,” she said as she got her bearings.

“In the middle of the alley, Red? What were you thinking?”

Gemma hitched her leather pants up with her normal left hand. “As I recall, you liked it up against the wall, Jen Jen.”

Jennifer crossed her arms. “That was when you had a dick. I can see you’re already making up for your inadequacies with giant guns between your legs.”

“Hold on… you used to be a guy?” I said, accusingly. “Oh eww. Phft phft.” I spat, trying to get her taste out of my mouth. The problem was I was still seriously turned on.

Jennifer spun on me. “And what did I tell you? No boning the girl with the Right Hand of Doom!”

“You told me her name was Geri or Gertrude! This girl’s — and I say that in the loosest term — name is Gemma!”

“Gertrude?” Gemma laughed.

I didn’t let the interruption stop me. “Additionally I’d like to point out that she was a perfectly normal blonde girl a few minutes ago.”

“Wait a sec,” Gemma said, poking her horned head into my argument. “Why can’t we bone?”

Jennifer pushed her back. “Because she’s the holder of the Obsidian Stone you idiot!”

Gemma’s eyes went wide and she backpedaled a lot faster than I’d ever thought possible. “What the hell is she doing in Houston? You didn’t think that might be something that I should — I don’t know — maybe know?”

A portal opened up against the side of the wall and I recognized my room beyond. Jennifer pointed. “You, you’re grounded.”

“But…”

“No but’s. Get to your room, now.”

“This isn’t fair,” I complained.

“Go, or you can be grounded for two weeks.”

The millisecond I stepped through in a huff, the portal closed.

I scowled at the clock which told me it was just past eight in the evening. Flipping on the light I went ahead and changed into some pajama pants and a cami before going to sulk on my bed.

It wasn’t too much longer before Jennifer came striding in with her version of righteous fury.

“You lied to me? Did you even get within a block of the library?”

I shrugged. “I feel like a prisoner here.”

She huffed. “Well pardon me for making your security a relatively high priority. Do you know what would have happened if you and Gertrude would have completed your public copulation in that urine scented alley?”

I just sighed and looked to the side.

“I’ll tell you what. It would have been all nice and shiny right up until the point where your insides decided they wanted to be on the outside.” She stood there tapping her foot against the carpet. “Well? Do I at least get a thank you for saving your life or would you like to get right to the punishment phase of the evening?”

My lips firmed and my hands clinched in my lap but I still didn’t say anything.

“You’re grounded. Here and school, during the appropriate times, are your only destinations for the next two weeks. If I find out that you’re lying to me about anything before this punishment is up then you’ll be grounded for an additional month. The only thing that will be coming out of your mouth from here on in is the truth. Are we clear?”

I wish I had something to throw at her, but the only thing nearby was a pillow. I didn’t yell or scream. I didn’t even raise my voice to a loud level like she was doing. Instead I just filled it with as much venom as was humanly possible.

“You want the truth, Jennifer. Here it is. I hate you.”

She stared at me in silence.

“If you think that I’m going to be the least bit grateful that you took me away from my home and the people that I love for this, then you’re stupid. You’re no better than that Dormammu guy. He wanted to use me and now you’re using me. I don’t care about your money or you or this stupid city and magic. I just want my life back. So go ahead and ground me. I really just don’t care.”

With that I turned around and dropped to the pillow.

~O~

The next morning I dressed in the pair of distressed jeans Susan picked out for me and an A&F long-sleeved vee-neck tee-shirt. Red running shoes gave me color coordination, but I wasn’t really aiming for that. Stuffing my assigned yoga outfit in my pack my camera followed. Then I went upstairs and sat down to stare out the window until it was time to leave.

About twenty minutes later the door to the stairway opened and Jennifer entered the massive open room.

“You’re not eating anything? And what are you wearing? That isn’t one of the outfits I bought you.”

I ignored her only as far as not saying anything. Instead I shouldered my pack and stood to look at the wall where she opens her portals.

“Hmpf. I can do the silent thing too, you know.”

Good, then use it for God’s sake.

“And just so you’ll know…”

That didn’t last long.

“… I’m not too fond of you either. I give you everything you ask for and still you treat me like dirt. I save your life and you throw it in my face like I did something wrong. Well, let me tell you something little missy. I’m Jennifer Kale. If it wasn’t for me, that whole backward town I saved you from would be sucked down into hell and you’d be the butt monkey for its ruler.”

I let my eyes drift to her. “Are you through monologuing? Can I be your butt monkey in this hell now? I believe you sentenced me to school at the appropriate time.”

She growled in frustration and flung her hand at the wall. “Go to school and then straight to your room after. I don’t even want to look at you today.”

I gave her a short chuckle. “Believe me, the feeling’s mutual.”

The portal closed as I stepped through it. No, I really wasn’t angry; I think apathetic would be the proper term. Nothing really mattered to me anymore. Well, nothing except for a decent cup of coffee and maybe a cinnamon roll or two.

After my purchase from the coffee cart I went to find the table I sat at the day previous. It was being occupied by the guy I talked to. His friends weren’t around like the day before. I frowned, but went over and sat down anyway.

“Back for more abuse?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I’m kind of a masochist that way.”

“I’m still a lesbian.”

“Don’t they have a pill for that?”

“Not for my kind. Besides that pill makes girls grow hair on their chest so what’s the point?”

He grinned and I felt a little better for the light banter. “I’m Dick.”

“How nice for you.”

Dick leaned back then rocked forward. “You’re not going to tell me your name are you?”

I shrugged. “I find it better not to get to know anyone too closely that way it doesn’t hurt when it all comes crumbling down in the end.”

He blinked and looked at me somewhat hard. “That awfully fatalistic.”

“That’s an awfully big word for a sophomore.”

“I’m a senior.”

I unzipped my pack and took out my trigonometry homework to double check the solutions. “Well, senior, I don’t really need a sidekick and I have work to do….”

“Who said I had to be the sidekick? We can’t be partners?”

It was tough to figure out where he was going with his side of the banter, but I played along. “I’m kind of doing a Lone Ranger thing and he had a sidekick.”

“I’m not an Indian, just a plain ole American guy. I think my great-great grandfather was Scottish if that helps.”

Taking a sip of my latte I faked thinking about his Highlander heritage and then sighed. “I’ll let you be my sidekick, but only if you wear spandex.”

“Damn there goes all that leather and PVC I bought yesterday. I had a cape and everything.”

I shook my head. “Nope, I insist on green tights and maybe a red tunic. Yellow cape is optional… oh, and you have to have a domino mask.”

Dick cringed. “Holy colorblind sidekicks, Lesbian-Girl.”

My best dubious glare went back at him. “Lesbian-Girl?”

“That’s the best I can do since you won’t tell me your name.”

I looked around and then whispered. “Ariel Chylde. Don’t let it get around.”

Dick’s eyes widened and then a great smile lit up his face. “Wild Chylde; excellent name.”

A grimace from me let him know what I thought of that. “It makes me sound like some sort of jungle girl, like half animal or something. I prefer Darkchylde.”

He looked like he was judging it for a few moments. “Kind of like an anti-hero? Torn from the quiet world she once knew by an evil magician and thrown into the chaos of a new school and new life, Darkchylde, a statuesque lesbian school-girl by day and action-packed hero by… what?”

My face must have shown the shock at hearing my life played out as a comicbook tagline must have showed. I grabbed my pack and haphazardly stuck my trig homework back in before bolting.

“Ariel? What’d I say?” Dick called out from behind me. “I’m sorry!”

The last part I heard as I was going through the door. Even though he was playing around, Dick was way too close to the reality of the situation. The last thing I wanted to happen was for him to figure it all out and have Jennifer screw up his life as well. The thing was, I knew she would, at the drop of a hat.

She was mental. One second she can sound very confident and sane then the next she goes off the deep end, paranoid and egocentric. I needed to escape, and find some way to mask myself so she couldn’t find me. Not knowing how she accomplished that task in the first place made my leaving problematic. If only I could get a hold of DC, she could give me some magical hoodoo that could maybe mask my trail or give Jennifer a migraine if she tries.

My alter-ego’s disappearance worried me, and since it happened at the exact same time as Jennifer’s interference in my life, that led me to only one conclusion: she was the cause.

Throughout the day, whenever I had a free moment, I concentrated on breaking whatever barrier Jennifer had erected between DC and me. During lunch I even had a teacher stop at my table, during her normal rounds, to ask if I needed to see the nurse. She thought I was cramping or something.

It was all for nothing. By day’s end I had accomplished squat. Not knowing what I was up against made it an impossible problem to solve; though I was now the proud owner of four Midol and a stool softener.

~O~

“I thought I told you not to wear that horrendous outfit anymore.” Jennifer didn’t waste any time starting in on me when I stepped through the portal for my return trip to prison.

Making a mild smacking noise with my mouth I said, “I thought you didn’t want to look at me today? I knew it was too good to be true.”

“Go to your room. There will be no dinner for you tonight. We’ll see if your attitude changes on an empty stomach.”

I chuckled. “You’re going to starve bad behavior out of me? Yeah, I’m sure Child Protective Services is going to love that one.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Go ahead and call, Ariel. By the time they get here they’ll have completely forgotten why they came.”

Turning, I made my way to the stairwell. “You’re such a bitch.”

“You better believe it. The sooner you become compliant the better off you’ll be.”

Storming downstairs did nothing but make my feet hurt. By the time I’d made it to my room I was on a full boil. I wanted nothing more than to throw myself on the bed and cry again, but I was through with that. It didn’t do anything for me except make my eyes swollen and my nose red. Instead, I pulled out my phone and called information. When I hit Send, all I got was dead air.

Jennifer whammied my phone with her mojo, so I dropped it. The computer she’d set up in my room only allowed me to access to Wikipedia and various programs to do homework with.

By the time I’d discounted throwing a chair at one of the many windows, in order to grab somebody’s attention, I realized that she’d covered all her bases. This was so unfair. Even real prisoners got to eat.

I’d had enough. When I reached the door to go have it out with her I found it was locked, and considering the lock was on my side that was quite a feat.

So I did what any teenager would have done: I threw a fit.

Banging on the door and screaming didn’t help, that was until my hand was so raw that it started to bleed. Then I started kicking it until my foot began to hurt. Nothing worked.

As a last ditch effort I sat down about five feet from the door and let my rage seethe as I stared at it.

“Aná¡il nathrach, ortha bhas betha, do cheol déanta.”

With all my might I willed the door to explode outward into the hall, but nothing happened. I tried again and again, altering the pronunciation slightly. The problem was that considering the number of syllables in the phrase and the ways they all could be said, the odds of coming up with the exact one I needed wasn’t so good. But that didn’t cause me to give up.

Two hours later, I stopped to take a break, get some water out of the bathroom tap to drink and to change clothes. If by chance I stumbled across the right pronunciation I wanted to be ready to run.

My school supplies were set aside and I’d filled my pack with a couple changes of clothes and the camera. I might be able to pawn it for some cash if need be.

Again I sat in front of the door and began the Incantation of Making. Eleven o’clock rolled around and I was on the verge of falling asleep while incanting.

“Fucking useless. I should have insisted that DC teach me one offensive spell.”

My hand ached and the knuckles were swollen. I took a shower and planned to just take off from school the next morning. She couldn’t do anything about that. There were too many witnesses.

~O~

By morning my hand was throbbing painfully. I took all four Midol and left the stool softener on the desk for Jennifer. Her ass was so tight she had to have needed one.

As expected, the door opened easily enough. The smell of cooked eggs made my stomach growl, but I forced myself upstairs and waited for her to show up and let me go to school. When she did, it was with a smug look on her face like she’d won.

“Feeling more agreeable are we?”

“You’re a sadistic twat, Jennifer Kale. How’s that for agreeable? How’s it feel to torture a sixteen year old? Does it make you feel all warm and gooey inside? Does it get you off?”

There was a flash, however brief it might have been, of regret on her face. So naturally I pressed on, raising my swollen hand.

“When my teacher asks why I can’t write today, I’ll be sure to point her in the right direction. Not that it will do any good, because you’ll make her forget and just torture me again tonight. What’s it going to be this time?”

She sighed. “If you’ll only admit I’m right and treat me with the respect that’s due…”

“Respect? HA! Jennifer Kale can’t get any respect so she has to use her magic to get some. I’ve got one word for you: Karma. I’d be willing to bet everything that you don’t have any friends, true friends. The only people that will associate with you are the ones you can buy or magic into liking you.”

Her lips bunched up and it looked like she was going to explode, which would probably make my life a lot easier.

“You don’t know anything, Ariel.”

I nodded sardonically. “Yeah, you’ve made that abundantly clear. I’m nobody, just a little puppet that needs you to pull my strings. Big Jennifer Kale, she’s in charge and will never let you forget it. Go on; show me how big you are. Show me how pathetic you have to be to starve a kid. I bet that Rasputin girl is a hundred times the Sorceress you are.”

In retrospect that was probably pushing things a little too far. I don’t really remember the magical blast that threw me half the length of the floor.

When I stopped seeing stars, I wiped the blood off my face that was trailing down from my nose and started chuckling.

“I knew you could do it.” When I looked up at her she was emitting an aura of red all around. “Go ahead, big witch. You know I’m right. Why else would you be so mad?”

“Shut up!” she screamed.

A swift wind scooped me up and I twirled in the air before being tossed the remaining length of the building. Something snapped when I landed wrong and I screamed.

My flesh felt on fire and I heard loud pops. Something tore at my back until I was curled up in a ball. I was sure this was it, my final moments on Earth. She was going to kill me. I’d almost welcome it, if it wasn’t so damn painful.

Ariel! DC yelled in my head.

I spat something out. It was red and black, most likely blood. “Now you decide to show up?”

Let me take over, quickly before she regains her senses.

“Fine.”

“Aná¡il nathrach, ortha bhas betha, do cheol déanta!” were the first words out of my/her mouth.

Every window on the floor exploded outward simultaneously raining glass at least a hundred yards or more over the city. Wind blasted through the exposed level, which might not have been such a good idea considering how close I was to the edge of the building. Before I knew it, I was airborne and plummeting quite rapidly to the concrete street below.

Quickly Ariel, call forth the demon Count Ipos.

I was still in panic mode at the idea of going splat in a few more seconds.

Do it now or we’re dead!

I closed my eyes for the last part and put my trust in the one person that hasn’t let me down. “Count Ipos, come forth!”

It felt like my back exploded over my shoulder blades. Something gave a loud WOOMPH! and I stopped falling only to arc deeply back up into the air barely missing a large truck that was slamming on its brakes to avoid hitting me.

Something flowed though me that felt like a cleansing energy. My injured hand and my left arm gave a quick painful lurch and then I felt almost normal again, except for the huge black feathered wings that were flapping at my sides.

Now, for retribution! Turn back Ariel and we will make the witch pay dearly for what she has done.

“No, I just want to be away from her.”

She has to pay!

“I said no. Let it be, DC.”

Rage tore through me from Darkchylde, but I kept on moving away from my prison, weaving between buildings as effortlessly as a bird. Wind batted at my hair, tossing it about, but I didn’t care. For the first time since all of this started, I felt free. The air was warm as I whipped around a building over black glass and flapped my new wings to gain altitude.

Somewhere in my head I knew this had to be aerodynamically impossible. I mean it wasn’t like I was a bird or anything, no tail feathers, no streamline shape, nothing. Everything was the same about my body except for the addition of two black feathered wings that stood out a good six to seven feet on either side. I was like a dark angel in the sky.

Higher I climbed until I’d reach a point where I could land atop one of the taller buildings. The air was fine, even though it was obviously much stronger and choppier because of the interference of the many buildings, but I navigated it like I was born to do so.

My shoes scraped across the rooftop until I came to halt with the wings stabilizing the abrupt stop, then they folded behind me at rest.

“Oh gheeze. I got wings.”

The implications of that settled on me. I wouldn’t be able to look like anything normal. There was no camouflaging something as big as they were. The tips of the wings were just touching the rooftop and the arches were at least a foot above my head.

They will recede, Ariel. When you have no more need for them just concentrate on bringing them back into your body.

“How’d this happen? Who is Count whatever?”

Count Ipos is a Prince of Hell, one of many that you can call forth certain aspects from through the power of the Book of Zhered-Na. His wings and certain avian aspects is what you needed at the moment so those were summoned.

I nearly lost the strength in my knees. “Prince of Hell? Like a demon Prince of Hell?”

Like a Fallen Angel, Ariel. You may call upon any of the seventy-two so-called demons, as Solomon once did, to do your bidding. In this case you only take on their aspects. They cannot fully emerge in this dimension without assistance from Him.

Even if the wings came from some fallen angel, it was difficult to argue with the results. They saved my ass from going splat on the sidewalk. Speaking of which, I realized I probably shouldn’t hang out there for much longer. That’s when I realized that I didn’t have my pack.

“Dammit! I must have dropped it.”

If you can get us in visual range I can summon all that is yours.

“You can? Cool!”

Without a thought I took two leaping bounds and jumped up to the edge of the building. I was amazed that being sixty-some-odd stories in the air and the thought of jumping off the top of a building didn’t bother me.

We must be swift, Ariel, in case she is erecting additional protections that would make retrieving your possessions more difficult.

I didn’t delay any longer. Tilting over the edge I felt the wind against my face and smiled. Falling ten stories was a rush and when I opened my wings I arced back up and headed to a building I was quite familiar with after staring at it for so long from my room.

In less than a minute I was literally perched on the edge of the rooftop overhang. I felt my feet trying to bend in an under-curled position so it could grasp the edge better, but my shoes prevented them from anchoring myself. The windows were already repaired where it looked like nothing ever happened.

Magic.

A simple spell that she is more than qualified to do, Ariel.

“How are we supposed to get my stuff out?”

DC giggled in my head. Blow them out again, of course. Do you remember the pronunciation?

That moment was seared into my brain. “Yes.”

After the windows explode then give control to me. I will summon all your belongings.

“Just the stuff that I brought with me, and my pack, DC. I don’t want any of the crap she forced on me. Besides, I don’t have anywhere to put it.”

Trust in me. I won’t let you down.

I concentrated on the two floors in question and spoke the Incantation of Making. It was quite the experience to witness the explosion from the inside of the building; from the outside it was equally as awesome. I had to hold my arm against my face so I wouldn’t get pelted by any stray shards, but I came away clean.

Giving DC the reins she held my hand up and I saw my pack zip around the building and various clothes from the floor below. In midair my pack opened and all the extra clothes I’d left behind folded themselves and were stuffed inside.

Reaching out I caught it and didn’t know what to do other than flip it on my shoulder. I couldn’t wear it properly because of the wings. When I stood to leap off the building, I spotted Jennifer on the top floor looking at me. Rage filled her face.

“I think we better leave.”

Diving off the building I waited until I was at least halfway down before opening my wings and curving around the building. There was no telling if Jennifer would wind up taking a pot shot at me.

“Where to?”

I think it would be wise to leave this city, but I like the idea of being lost amidst a large number of others.

Bringing up my knowledge of the states in the surrounding area I didn’t see much of a choice. “Well we have Dallas, San Antonio; I think there’s a college in Austin, so a lot of people would be there…”

Austin. We can enroll you in college and hide amongst the students.

Banking northwest — don’t ask how I knew, I just knew — I exited downtown.

“I don’t know if you noticed, DC, but I’m kind of only a junior in high school.”

No matter. Seeing as we are now in constant communication I can help you with your studies.

There were so many things wrong with this idea that I didn’t know where to start. “Then there’s ID, money, transcripts, birth certificate…”

Ariel, ask yourself this question. How did Jennifer acquire so much wealth?

“Uh…”

Magic. Put your trust in me again and I will not let you down.

It took me all of about five seconds to reach a decision. “Fine. But for our next lesson, you’re teaching me some offensive magic. I’m not going to be trapped like a rat again.”

Agreed.

End

Story arc to be continued in: "Dick Grayson: I'm Not a Sidekick."