Ding ding...

The little golden bell that hung above the door to the small store rang as the door swung open. Outside was an endless expanse of black, broken only by the single lonely street light that stood by the road in front of the store. From that darkness stepped a young girl. She pulled her well-worn cargo jacket tighter around herself in an attempt to overcome the biting cold that had followed her in through the open door. The cashier, who seemed to be the only other person in the store, half heartedly looked up from the comic he was reading and grunted an annoyed greeting. The girl did her best to smile and nervously nodded at him before starting towards the back of the store.

On the way there, the girl caught her reflection in one of the curved mirrors that were used to prevent thievery. Even in the curved and distorted surface of the mirror, it was easy to tell how skinny she was. Anna Nommins was also slightly shorter than most fourteen year old girls. Her shoulder length brown hair was unkempt, mostly due to the fact that she didn’t own a hair brush. She couldn’t quite make out her own eyes in the small mirror, but if she could have, she would’ve seen two bright green circles staring back at her. Her skin was pale, but so was everyone else’s in the area. It was always cloudy in this part of Indiana around this time of year, so unless you drove forty five minutes to the closest tanning salon, you weren’t getting much of a tan.

The distorted reflection also didn’t hide the fact that her clothes were far too thin for the current climate. She really should have been wearing a coat, and not the small green cargo jacket she currently had on. It had snowed once already in the last week, and it was only going to get colder in the coming weeks and months. The jeans she wore were adorned with holes, and not the stylish kind of holes that people paid to have in their jeans either. The pant legs were starting to show her ankles, and a slight draft told her that her left shoe was coming unattached at the toe.

But at the moment, Anna had more important things to worry about than her appearance. Tonight, she was on a mission. She made her way to the part of the store where the cake rack stood. In front of her were all the sweets a girl could ever dream of: cupcakes and swiss rolls, doughnuts and eclairs and all other sorts and assortments of sweets. Anna grabbed the snacks wantonly, not really caring what she snatched, and started stuffing them in her pockets. The jacket might be old and thin, but at least it had a lot of carrying compartments.

Once she had stuffed a snack or two into each of the jacket’s pockets, she grabbed one more package of miniature doughnuts and headed towards the cashier’s station. She sat the package on the counter but had to wait another thirty seconds before the large boy actually sat his book down and acknowledged her. He looked a few years older than Anna, sixteen or seventeen maybe, and the red work shirt he wore matched the curly mop of hair he sported.

“Aren’t you cold?” he said in a weezy, condescending voice.

“Not too much,” Anna replied, unable to make eye contact with the cashier.

Instead, she settled on the spot of light gleaming off of his pock-marked forehead. He grunted in an unsympathetic response and rang up the pack of doughnuts.

“A dollar, seven,” he said, giving Anna a dirty look.

She began to rummage in the small pockets of her jeans. She made a bit of a show of it, pulling the pocket lining out and trying her best to look exasperated.

“Jeez, I must have left my money at home. And I walked all the way here too,” Anna looked at the guy and gave him her best sad face.

He didn’t look very compassionate.

“In those shoes?” he questioned, leaning his large gut over the counter to look down at her dirt colored Skechers.

Anna was pretty sure they had been white at some point, but not since they had been handed down to her.

“Get outta here, if you ain’t buying anything, you got no business being in here,” he barked before shoving the doughnuts under the counter and picking his comic back up.

Anna sighed, gave an obligatory, “Sorry” and turned to head for the door, now trying her best to suppress a small grin threatening to form on her lips.

She made it all the way to the door, so far she even heard the ding ding of the bell again as she pushed it open, before she heard that weezy voice behind her say, “Hey, wait a minute.”

She turned to see the cashier marching towards her, his comic book rolled up in his hand and his belly jiggling with each step. It seemed as if the cold from outside had frozen her solid, for Anna was unable to move. Maybe it was the breeze, maybe it was the blood quickly leaving her face, but Anna felt a shiver run down her spine. Run, she thought to herself, move, turn around and get out! But she stayed rooted to the spot.

The cashier stuck his rolled up book in his back pocket before crossing his arms and saying, “Empty your pockets kid. All of your pockets.”

Anna stammered for a minute before finally finding her voice and saying, “Wh-why should I?”

“If you ain’t got nothing to hide, you won’t mind showing me what’s in your jacket pockets. You were making an awful lot of crinkling noise when you walked away and that jacket might be thin, but it ain’t made of cellophane.”

“No,” Anna said weakly.

“Empty your pockets or I’m calling the police,” he demanded, puffing his chest out almost as far as his belly.

“No!” Anna repeated, this time much more forcefully.

“Alright, you’re coming with me,” he said in an annoyed voice before reaching to grab Anna’s arm.

Adrenaline caused the mental ice holding her in place to thaw, and she did the first thing that came to mind. She planted her right foot, drew her left foot back, and kicked the boy right between the legs as hard as she possibly could. He let out a loud “oof,” before buckling to his knees clutching his stomach. Anna didn’t make the same mistake twice; she turned and ran as fast as she could into the pitch black night.

She ran for a few minutes, jumping fences and cutting through alleys, before finally coming to an exhausted stop next to a dumpster in one of the alleyways. She bent over, hands on knees, and gasped loudly. The cold air seemed to soothe her burning lungs and she inhaled deeply for a few moments, eyes closed and back against the brick wall. Her exertion had kept her from feeling the effects of the biting wind, but now that she was stationary, the chill was slowly starting to creep back into her bones. She needed to get back to the orphanage before she froze to death.

Anna straightened up, and crept cautiously to where the alley met the street. She peeked out from behind the corner, back towards the general direction of the store she had just fled. From what she could see no one was following her. Just as she decided it was safe to make a break for it, however, something happened that caused her to turn back towards the darkness of the alley. Except it was no longer dark. A blinding flash of light behind her had caused Anna to turn, and even though she had been facing away from it, the light had been so intense it made her eyes hurt in the contrasting darkness. At first, she wasn’t quite able to comprehend what she was seeing.

Where the alley had stood still and silent only seconds before, there were now two figures, shrouded in dark cloaks. They seemed to be arguing, though Anna was too dumbfounded to really make out what they were saying. It wasn’t the flash of light that was causing her brain so much dysfunction, nor was it the fact that these two people seemed to have poofed and appeared out of thin air. These things were odd, but what Anna now saw was simply unexplainable.

The figures seemed to be circling each other, each pointing something at the other and firing bolts of what looked like pure light back and forth from whatever it was that they were holding. Both of the figures looked to be surrounded in some kind of strange, translucent bubble. Each bolt fired seemed to smash against the other's bubble, which sparked and fizzled and seemed to ripple with waves of rainbow as it was struck before turning opaque again. Anna ducked down low and snuck quickly back over to the dumpster she had been hiding behind in an attempt to get a closer look at this bizarre scene.

As she got closer, she was able to see what each of the people was brandishing, though that didn’t do much to help her confusion. The smaller of the two seemed to be holding some sort of stick, while the larger one seemed to be clasping a cane or walking stick of some sort. The flashes and sparks of light seemed to glint off the larger one’s hip, and Anna suddenly noticed that he had a large knife strapped to his waist. She felt the air around her grow just a little colder at the sight.

From what she could tell, they were having some sort of battle, and the larger one with the knife seemed to be getting the upper hand. The smaller figure’s bubble thing seemed to be growing weaker with each blast it withstood, and small cracks of glowing blue were beginning to show each time it was struck. Anna crept a little closer, staying crouched behind the dumpster to stay out of sight, and she was finally able to make out some of what they were saying.

“The council will find you and you will pay for your crimes!” the smaller figure shouted, and Anna could tell from her voice that she was an older woman.

The larger one let out a humorless laugh and said in a deep, male voice, “Your council will fall. Those fools will eat themselves from the inside out with their squabbling and bickering, and I will be there to take every last ounce of power they hold.”

The woman let out an angry yell, before waving her stick-thingy around in a fanciful way and shouting something Anna didn’t understand. The dark night air that filled the alley began to wriggle and squirm and shift before, suddenly, what seemed like thousands of bats burst from the blackness, seemingly appearing out of thin air. They came from everywhere, rushing past Anna and towards the man, brushing against her as they passed and causing her to bite her thumb in an attempt not to scream. The bats surrounded the man in a cloud of black and seemed to melt together into a tornado of shadow and wind. It was so strong, Anna could feel it pulling her forward and she had to hold on to the dumpster to keep from being sucked into the spinning shadows.

It was the man’s turn to scream, and his was a scream that sent Anna’s hair on end. It was loud and feral and inhuman in a way Anna couldn’t quite describe. Suddenly the shadow bats were blasted away and disintegrated almost instantly as a cloak of fire erupted around the man. The flames were unnaturally red, a deep crimson color instead of the normal red-orange that fire usually was. The force of the eruption and heat seemed to penetrate the woman’s bubble-shield, and she was knocked down to one knee. The man began to walk slowly towards the fallen woman when suddenly…

POP!

Anna felt as if she were going to throw up. In her fear and amazement, she had leaned too hard on one of her pockets and the cellophane wrapped snack cake had ruptured with a loud pop of air that reverberated through the alley. Even through the noise of his raging flaming cloak, the man had heard it. The flames dispersed immediately, and the alley fell completely silent. Even the autumn wind seemed to have been scared to a standstill by the imposing figure.

Without her knowledge or consent, Anna’s feet lifted off the ground and began to carry her forward. The man had reached his arm out towards her and it seemed to be acting like a magnet, pulling her step by step closer to him. Anna tried to stop, she tried to turn and run, but her legs no longer seemed to belong to her. It was as if the nerves that controlled them were now connected to a different brain. This was wholly different from the store, where fear had kept her legs rooted to the spot. The man was exerting some sort of unnatural power over her to force her to come to him.

“Is this the little bird you were seeking, Gwendolyn?” The man seemed to be asking the older woman. Anna had no idea what this was supposed to mean.

“You will not touch her!” the woman, who’s name was apparently Gwendolyn, yelled.

A blinding beam of white light erupted from her weapon towards the man. Suddenly, Anna was being thrown through the air as the man turned the hand that had been pulling her closer towards the beam that was being jettisoned at him. The last thing Anna saw was a disk of red light appearing in front of the man’s outstretched hand which seemed to swallow the beam of light whole. Her viewing was cut short as she collided with a stack of pallets that had been stacked behind one of the stores connected to the alley.

For a moment, Anna couldn’t move. Her ankle was throbbing in a way she had never before experienced and the word broken flashed through her mind. If it weren’t for the scene she knew was unfolding mere feet away, Anna might have just laid there and allowed herself to slip into the blackness that was seeping into the edges of her vision. Another loud explosion, followed by a shrill scream jolted her back to reality, however, and she began desperately trying to clear the debris on top of her. As she emerged from the pile of broken wood and splinters she witnessed a horrible sight.

Gwendolyn was now sitting up against the wall with the man towering over her. There was an unnatural glow surrounding them and Anna could see that the man had discarded his staff in favor of the knife that had previously hung on his hip. The knife was no longer a shining silver, but was instead soaked in a dark red liquid that Anna knew was blood. Gwendolyn had dropped her little piece of wood and her hand was clutched over her stomach. Some sort of blue light seemed to be seeping from between her fingers, almost like glowing smoke.

“How pathetic,” the man spat on the ground next to Gwendolyn before continuing, “the great and powerful Gwen of the Winds, reduced to this. Now that you are out of the way, taking the rest of the council's power will be easy.”

This man was about to murder this woman; Anna had to do something, but she had no idea what. She looked around frantically before noticing a large, dirty plank of wood that had broken off one of the pallets she had collided with. She might not be able to shoot fireballs or whatever out of it, but it looked pretty heavy. Anna limped over to it and hefted it off the ground. It was definitely heavy, but she was able to lift it without too much trouble. She hoped and prayed that the man stayed distracted long enough for her to execute her plan. She began to limp as quietly as she could towards the man who’s back was turned to her as he towered over Gwendolyn.

To Anna’s surprise, she saw him sheathe the knife and extend his open hand forward. The luminous smoke that was slowly seeping from between Gwendolyn’s fingers now began to pour out in heaps and seemed to surround the man’s hand. Her back arched and she let out another shrill scream of agony. He appeared to be absorbing the swirling light, first through his fingertips, then his whole hand, and suddenly his arm as well. As Anna crept closer, the man’s whole body began to glow and pull in the light pouring from Gwendolyn’s wound. His head fell backwards as his deep, maniacal laugh began to fill the alley.

“Hey creep, aren’t you bored yet?” Anna said loudly.

“Huh?” the man said, his head turning towards her direction.

WHACK! The entire width of the plank connected with the mans face, and he fell backwards from the force of the hit. The light surrounding him faded and began to recede back towards Gwendolyn’s now limp body. Anna hobbled towards her as quickly as she could and collapsed next to the woman. There was a large gash in the center of her cloak, and blood had begun to soak the hand covering the wound.

“Sit still,” Anna said as soothingly as she could, “don’t worry, I’m gonna find you help.”

She needed to do something about the man before he regained consciousness first and began looking around in a panic for something to tie his hands up with. As she went to stand up, however, Gwendolyn grabbed her wrist. Anna was surprised at how tight Gwendolyn’s grip was, even in this mortally wounded state.

“My wand,” she croaked.

“I’m sorry?” Anna said, confused.

“My wand, my wand, give it to me quick you daft child,” Gwendolyn said in a much more annoyed voice.

Anna ignored the tone, deciding to cut the woman some slack since she had just been stabbed, and began looking around on the ground. Anna assumed the woman was referring to the stick she had been using to produce that surreal light show moments before. She quickly spotted it lying on the ground a few feet away and hobbled over to it. She picked it up, doing her best not to put too much weight on her ankle as she bent down, and brought it back over to where Gwendolyn lay. Anna noticed the man was beginning to stir and felt a stab of fear in her chest.

“I really should tie him up or something,” Anna started, but before she could say anything else, Gwendolyn sat up and quickly snatched the wand from her.

She pointed it at the prone man, and lines of illuminated gold burst from its tip and began to entangle and snake around the man’s form. The threads continued to ensnare him when all of a sudden, the golden glow seemed to collapse inwards and the man vanished. Anna blinked, stared, then blinked rapidly a few more times.

“What the he-” she began but was cut off.

“I haven’t much time to explain Anna,” Gwendolyn interrupted.

“How do you know my-”

“There’s no time for that now. I’m not long for this world, and there’s something I have to give you before it’s too late.”

Part of Anna was terrified and was screaming at her to run, to leave this whole bizarre scene behind her and try to forget any of it had happened, but a much larger part was fascinated and curious, and though she couldn’t explain how she knew it, Anna knew this slightly bitter old woman meant her no harm. She moved a little closer to Gwendolyn who reached up and gripped her wrist again, but this time the grip was noticeably weaker.

“You are going to be amazing, Anna,” Gwendolyn breathed and before Anna could respond or question this remark, the glowing smoke that the man had been attempting to absorb from Gwendolyn’s wound began to flow out again rapidly.

Except it didn’t seem to pain her this time. If anything, she seemed to want it to come out. The swirls of brilliant, fluorescent blue began to curl around Gwendolyn’s arm, then wrist, then fingertips before slowly beginning to swirl around Anna’s arm. Anna briefly thought it was strange how she didn’t want to run, thought that surely she should be feeling fear, but she couldn’t feel anything at all besides the warmth from the blue glow that was slowly surrounding her whole body.

At first, Anna could only feel the warmth on her skin, but before long it was seeping inside of her. She could feel it in her heart and her stomach and even buzzing in her brain. The blue seemed to fill her vision as the alley around her disappeared, completely erased by the light now seemingly filling every ounce of her being. And then everything went black. Anna collapsed on the ground, eyes closed, and Gwendolyn did her best in her injured state to catch her as she fell.

As Anna fell into darkness, she heard Gwendolyn speak, “Sleep well, my dear. I fear it may be one of the last peaceful sleeps you get for a long while. But I know… You will be amazing, Anna,” Gwendolyn repeated into Anna’s nearly unconscious ear.

And though Anna did not see it, Gwendolyn picked up her wand and readied herself to cast what she knew would be her last spell. Threads of gold shot from her wand a second time, this time surrounding the figure of the small girl slumped against her. After a moment the girl was gone in a flash of light and so was Gwendolyn. The alley stood completely still, and apart from the broken pallets, there wasn’t a single sign that anything out of the ordinary had happened here at all.