Between work, the fall term classes starting back up, and the magic training still going full force, life had been keeping me busy. Unfortunately, it was all mindless business. The only event of note that happened was Dallas moving in. A couple days after we first talked about it, he'd gotten a job at the coffee shop around the corner from our apartment, and I'd helped him shlep all of his belongings over.
He'd lived in a shack that was basically one small room with a poor excuse for a bathroom on the side. Unlike my apartment, his was clean and devoid of clutter, which would undoubtedly become a source of tension for Dallas and I in the future, as messy as I tended to be. But, we hadn't had any major bumps over the last few days, which meant we were off to a pleasant start of being roommates.
Then again, with our schedules, we barely saw one another. I was in class of the mornings and work in the evenings, while Dallas worked third-shift at the coffee shop every day but training days. Still, when he came home, he'd always bring coffee and something sweet for my breakfast and his dinner. There were perks to the shitty scheduling.
We arrived at the warehouse for training and met up during the brief break between sessions. Taking the usual spot by the coffee cart, we chatted about the articles I'd read, while he noted which ones he wanted sent to him. Little by little, it was glaringly obvious that Dallas and I were cut from the same rebellious cloth.
"Yeah, that one might be useful if we run into any banshees--" Dallas's eyes went as wide as saucers for a second before they flicked back to me. "Aliens."
"Shit," I muttered, rolling my eyes as I turned to see a girl approaching us.
She wore a ruffled black skirt with matching suspenders that paired nicely with a plum button-up shirt. Her sneakers hit the floor soundlessly, though her black ponytailed hair swung obnoxiously behind her. Holding a hand out to Dallas, she introduced herself. "Hi, I think I'm in your travel class. I'm Kassidy Saito."
Dallas shook her hand and smiled. "Yeah, you sit a few rows down from me. I'm Dallas Sturgill."
She grinned and looked over at me. "Who's your friend?"
"Oh, this is--"
"Daisy," I said, cutting in. "Daisy Madison." I took another sip of my coffee and looked at my phone. "Well, see you after." I nodded to them, darted around the corner, and went down the stairs.
After a long night at work, the last thing I wanted to do was come to training and have to stand there and deal with fucking small talk. Good luck to Dallas.
I headed back into the room for the next session and pulled out my laptop, saving articles for the week, while queuing up the next set to get me through the next couple of hours. By the time the session ended, I'd made it through twelve of them. From the amount of things I'd read and the amount of supernatural inactivity I'd experienced, I was dying to try out some of the new moves I'd retained.
Hopefully something interesting would happen soon, or I'd start having to sniff out trouble on my own while Dallas was working. I might not be able to open a portal back to a creature's home realm the same way, but I'd read how other telekinetics were able to do it. No reason I couldn't emulate it.
I'd been practicing after all. My powers, though limited and prone to bouts of excess, were coming along nicely. A bit more discipline and I'd probably be able to handle a creature on my own soon.
Few things would keep me from testing that hypothesis in the next week if nothing happened soon.
The lights flickered as I left the classroom. A storm was rolling in. It'd probably already knocked the power out at the apartment too. I headed out into the main room and froze. Aside from Dallas, no one else was in there. I'd literally stood and watched every other student leave the door leading to the lobby. There was no way in hell they were all gone that soon--
Pop!
The room was plunged in darkness as the lights went out. I cursed and fished my phone from my pocket, flicking on the flashlight.
"Dallas?"
"Yeah, right here." He elbowed my arm, making his presence known. "Where is everyone?"
"Not a clue." I edged the flashlight around the room, looking for someone to appear from a classroom. No one did.
"Maybe they all left. The storm probably knocked the lights out."
"Or we've got another ghost on our hands."
"I don't feel anything weird, Daisy. Don't get your hopes up."
I sighed. "Come on, there's something off here… Maybe we got sucked into a parallel universe?"
"I knew I shouldn't have given you the articles on other realms and dimensions yet."
Help me!
"Shut up."
"What--?"
I flicked off the flashlight and crept a few steps forward, listening into the silence again. A harsh whisper, terrified and hollow, scraped at the edge of my hearing.
Help me!
"Hello?" I called, squinting into the darkness. My vision wouldn't adjust, and I still couldn't see a goddamn thing. I turned the flashlight on again and shone it into the opposite hallway. A grotesque, silhouetted figure bolted between the rooms. Louder than the whisper, a harsh snarl made the hairs on my arms stand up straight.
"Shit. Daisy, that's a wendigo." Dallas breathed audibly, though it never trembled. "This is bad. We need to call Channing."
"No time. We don't know if anyone else is in the building."
"I agree, but I'm still texting her. She's got to know. We might get eaten."
I shrugged and took a deep breath to recenter myself. "I've had worse Mondays." I started to walk slowly down the hallway, never putting my phone down and never taking my eyes away from the room the beast had entered. At my side was Dallas, creeping down the hall behind me, ready to cover me.
"Got a plan?"
"Yeah, be ready to make a portal on my signal."
We came to the edge of the entryway and stopped. I kept the light shining forward and waited, listening in as I held my breath. Snarls and loud crunching echoed through the corridor. The wendigo had already killed. Their appetite was insatiable, so it wouldn't be dissuaded from attacking Dallas and I. The stench of death burned my nostrils as I leaned closer, my cheek pressed against the doorframe.
I took a deep breath, calming myself down so I didn't overflood my powers and fuck up the plan. Once I felt steady, I ducked into the room and raised a hand, prepared to strike. The gnarly-haired beast looked up from the corpse and bared its teeth as it growled. I tucked my phone into the collar of my sweatshirt, leaving nothing more than the flashlight poking out.
Holding up both hands, I imagined the wendigo breaking into pieces, as if it'd imploded and little pieces rained across the floor. I brought my hands outward, as if to rip it apart. The beast screamed in pain and sure as shit, the wendigo shattered. Pieces scattered everywhere.
"Portal!" I darted over to it, using my magic and my feet to shove the pieces into a pile large enough for Dallas to create a portal for. At my side in an instant, he was on his knees, sending magic through the beast.
Instead of it illuminating ethereally and vanishing, the beast reformed. As quickly as it'd broken apart, it sprang back together. The beast snarled and lashed out, clipping me across the face and knocking me back.
"Fuck." I scrambled out of the floor, searching frantically to find Dallas and the wendigo, but it was pitch black. Where the fuck was my phone?
I ran my fingers down my chest, hoping it'd fallen into my sweatshirt. I didn't feel a thing. Dropping back down to the floor, I felt around for it again. Nothing. Oh my god, it had to have fallen out. Maybe it bounced across the floor or--
Hot, hard pants hit my face. Biting back a scream, I quickly darted backwards, trying my damnedest to get across the floor without making any noise. Of course, things didn't go as intended. The second I moved, a loud clang resounded through the room. I'd smacked into a table.
I pushed myself up to my feet and bolted. Fuck the phone. Fuck the flashlight. I'd take my chances running through the warehouse blind as long as it put some distance between the wendigo and I, at least until I got a chance to regroup. Using my hands to feel around, I reached the wall. Feeling around it desperately, trying to find door, I couldn't ignore the persistent growling just inches behind my back.
My hand slipped forward. I almost crashed into the floor, but instead, I slipped out of the room and crept down the corridor silently. I'd taken a left, which would lead me back to the lobby. Dallas had texted Channing, which meant she was on her way, so I just had to run out the clock. Maybe I could lure the beast outside, where it wasn't pitch black, and I would have a chance at stopping it.
At some point in time, I needed to find Dallas too. The last I saw, he'd gotten out of the way of the wendigo, but I didn't have a clue what'd happened to him afterward.
I hoped he wasn't still stuck inside with it. But, since I hadn't seen him escape, I had to assume he was still there, which meant I needed to go back, stop the wendigo, and help him. I swore to cover him, and I wasn't about to leave him there. It didn't matter how terrifying the wendigo was.
I could be just as scary.
Slipping further down the hall, into the lobby, I rested against the wall. I closed my eyes and listened. Faint crunching sounds still trickled past my ears, but the same ragged breathing and growling wasn't present. It was still distracted by the corpse, but that wouldn't last. I rubbed my hands over my face and hissed when a sharp pain went through my cheek. I peeled my fingers back from my skin and felt where the pain was.
Wet, sticky, pain… It had to be blood. The wendigo had cut me!
Oh shit.