Chapter Text
"Hey, new kid."
The girl looked up from her book, glancing at the three people in front of her: a guy with horns and red skin, beast keeping track; a dark-skinned girl, bard track, Skara if she remembered correctly; and...
Pink hair, three eyes, potions track. Ugh.
Forcing a smile on her face, she closed the book, "Yes, Boscha?"
The gang leader squared her for a second, "Well, you just enrolled, right? I wanted to fill you in on how things work around here. You seem like a decent gal, I'd hate to see you say or do anything wrong. You understand me, right...uh, what's your name again?"
"Lucia."
"That's it, Lucia. As I was saying, I want to give you a quick rundown of how things work in Hexside, for your safety"
The tone in which she said it was condescending beyond belief, but Lucia kept her smile, "Of course! Thank you very much," Boscha gave a smirk before counting on her fingers.
"OK, rule number one: if I tell you to do something, you do it. No arguments, no 'ifs,' 'buts' or 'maybes': what I say in school is law. Clear?"
Lucia tilted her head, "What if the principal says something else?"
The witch gave a snort, "Don't worry about this nonsense, okay?"
The girl said nothing, but Boscha was not finished: "Oh, of course it also applies outside school. In general, if I say something that's it. Anything at all, you understand?" She added, lowering her voice several octaves. Lucia felt a shiver down her spine, whether of unease or disgust she could not tell.
The witch continued, "Rule number 2: associate with the right people. If you want to survive, you have to show up together with people of worth. I mean, who would listen to someone like Willow Park?"
She snickered, followed by the boy next to her. Lucia did not fail to notice that Skara did not laugh. "Anyway, look for the right people. I'm an obvious choice, but these two are okay too or...though I doubt you'll get more than a few words out of her...Amity Blight"
The girl nodded slightly, "Ook...the one with the green hair, right?"
"That's the one. But trust me, you'd sooner try to make friends with one of the plants from botany."
"Rule number 3: If you partner with me, a highly recommended choice, make sure you don't screw up. And I'm not just saying the obvious, like don't snitch, no no. Even academically, don't get caught, don't get in trouble, and keep your grades up. I don't want one of my group to drag everyone's reputation, and therefore mine, through the mud."
Lucia kept a smile on her face, "Um, if I decide not to associate with you?"
The witch huffed, "You would be stupid. If you want to become important in school, I'm your ticket. But in any case, the gist is: just make sure you don't fuck around me."
The girl nodded, "Got it."
Boscha nodded, "Very good. Well, see you around. Welcome to Hexside, Lucia"
The three kids walked away, some more and some less satisfied with the chat; the girl kept her jovial expression before dropping it in favor of a grim scowl, muttering venomously, "Stupid, self-centered, dirty prick. I hope you break your arm while playing freebooter Quidditch" The will to read was gone, and a quick glance at the clock told her it was almost time to leave, so she put the book in her backpack and headed out of the classroom.
On her way out she ran her fingers through her long red hair, arranging the strands behind her pointed ears and brushing her bangs out from in front of her eyes. Along the corridors she passed the short, muscular Willow Park, whom she greeted with a nod of her head, while she merely exchanged a glance with Blight, busy training(?) her abominations.
The girl walked out of the school and immediately headed toward the center of Bonesborough, dodging the demons and witches that crowded the streets and lowering her head slightly when she passed a few patrolling guards. Soon she found herself in the town market, full of people and stalls selling all sorts of goods. The girl began wandering through the narrow streets, stopping to buy some groceries and noting down some products she would need in the future.
After a few minutes, and with her arms loaded with bags, Lucia decided she had taken enough and took the road home; as she passed a stall, however, she was stopped by a rough voice: "Hey, squirt!"
The girl threw out a sigh, turning around to look: an apparently middle-aged woman with white hair and golden eyes was signaling her to approach from behind a stall full of all sorts of junk. Lucia approached, though without enthusiasm, and addressed the woman, "What do you want, Owl Lady?"
The woman gave a deep laugh, "Hey, did we get up on the wrong side of the bed? You're my favorite customer, of course I want to have a chat with you!"
Lucia raised an eyebrow, "Your only customer, you mean."
"Eh, you're lucky I like you. Seriously though, bad day?"
The girl threw out a sigh: "A troll head at school gave me a talk about """""""rules"""""""". Ugh, I want to throw her head into the abomination cauldron."
The woman let out a whistle, "She sounds like a real pain in the ass."
"Worse, a bully of the slimy kind. You know, the ones who speak in a honeyed voice, hiding insults and innuendos in every sentence, going around with a legion of lackeys..."
The Owl Lady made a sound of disgust, "Good Titan, those are the worst. I had a couple of them in school in my day, you can't even imagine what it was."
Lucia snorted a laugh, "I think I have a good idea. Anyway, what do we have today?"
The woman opened her arms, "What you see. Plus a couple more things in the back, I know your taste."
The girl glanced around the stall: junk, junk, more junk, pretty but useless trinkets, some more junk...after a couple of minutes she sighed, "Let me see the back."
The woman went around the stall and laid a dirty, crumpled black bag in front of her, "Go ahead and look in here. If there is anything you want, take it, I was going to get rid of them anyway"
Lucia put down the bags and began to rummage with a judgmental eye. After a good minute a particular object, a small and slim case, caught her attention: taking it in her hand, she looked on the surface, on the back, checked its contents, that is, a disk of simil metal, closed it again. Finally, she put the box in her backpack, "I'll take this."
The woman raised an eyebrow at her, "Why that one? If you ask me, it's nothing special"
Lucia shrugged, "I could use the disk to keep the trisalisks away from my garden"
The woman huffed, "Have it your way, kiddo"
The girl nodded and waved at her, "Well, I have to go now. See you around, Owl Lady."
Eda watched the girl walk away with her backpack on her shoulders and her arms loaded with bags. With a sigh she glanced around the market, seeing how customers were starting to go home and the stalls were beginning to empty; as she was about to do the same, her palisman owl perched on her shoulder, cooing softly in her ear. The woman stroked its head, "Yes, yes, now let's go home."
The owl cooed merrily, before transforming into a staff on which the woman straddled; the next minute it was in the air, flying over town and forest, until it came to a crooked house lost in the trees. As Eda descended back to the ground, the owl head on the door stretched out like a snake: "Hoot hoot, hey Eda! There's mail for you!" The woman huffed, "All right Hooty, put it on the table."
She entered the house, leaving the wooden owl free to flutter around and sitting on the sofa with a grunt. A sound of light footsteps alerted her to her housemate, who soon climbed in beside her, "Eda! Another day spent deceiving the gullible?"
The woman glanced at the little furry demon, reaching out a hand to stroke the skull on his head, "Yes King. Few gullible people, but very good. Their backs will thank me, they had bags of coins way too heavy!"
The two exchanged a giggle, before King took one look at the woman's face and commented, "You saw the girl today, didn't you?"
Eda raised an eyebrow at him, "What do you know?"
"Every time you see her you always make the same face."
The woman sighed, lowering her gaze and running a hand through her hair; King pointed a finger at her, "There, that face!"
Eda snorted a laugh, "You're getting way too good at reading me. At this rate, my usual excuses won't work anymore"
The demon crossed his arms, "It's not like they work in the first place"
The woman sneered, "Keep believing that" Then she returned to her thoughtful expression, "But yes, I did see her again."
Hooty peeped out from behind the sofa, "Uuuh, did she take something strange again?" "A small, colorful case, useless if you ask me..."
King squinted at the woman's expression for a few moments, "What's wrong with you? You've been making that face every time you see her for the last year."
Eda huffed, "Uugh...I hate to admit it, but I'm a little worried. Every time I see her, she looks either scared or tired. I was hoping that going to school would be good for her, but today she's telling me about bullies and stuff..."
The woman ran a hand through her hair, "Gee, I'm really getting soft. I don't even know her name and I'm still worrying about her life. Ugh, I need apple blood"
Getting up to get her liquor, Eda thought back to the girl and her bearing, her expression, her gestures...she heaved a sigh
'Eh. She's a damn good liar. What I wouldn't give to know what she's hiding...'
The girl entered the hut carved out of logs and moss, closing the door behind her. With a sigh she laid her bags on the stump that served as her table and began to rearrange all the groceries: ingredients for potions, something to put under her teeth, pens and ink of better quality than her own. And finally...
Lucia pulled the game out of her backpack. How the Owl Lady managed to find such items each time was a mystery.
The girl began to make herself comfortable for the evening: first, she walked over to the jar full of lightningflies and unplugged her phone, looking to see if by any chance there was a signal (Not that she really expected to get one, but by now it was tradition). After noting the obvious, she headed to the bathroom, or what she had managed to create in its place, and glanced at the shiny crystal that served as her mirror: long red hair, mismatched eyes, a fang sticking out of her mouth. Lucia, the witch.
With a sigh, she took off the ring she wore on her finger, and immediately her eyes both turned dark brown; she lifted her sleeve and removed a bracelet with a blue gem set in it, immediately making her hair short, brown and unmanageable; finally, she took off her school uniform shirt, remaining only in a sports bra and a pendant with a red gem: when she took it off, her pointed ears became small and round. The girl put on a loose sweatshirt, pajama pants and dirty slippers. Bringing a hand to her mouth, she removed the fake fang and put it in a glass of water, snapping her tongue a couple of times to get the taste of wax out of her mouth.
Luz the human came out of the bathroom, putting on her insulating gloves and taking out the crate full of lightningflies, a flat screen (courtesy of the Owl Lady) and a used but still in good condition PS4 (again, courtesy of the Owl Lady. Luz had no idea how she got these things, but she certainly wasn't going to complain). After plugging everything in, she sat down on the feather and fur bag that served as her beanbag and picked up the controller, slipping the disc into the console and starting the game.
That's how girl spent her seven hundred and ninety-second evening in the Boiling Isles: bloody mandrake salad, grape guts, and Bloodborne.
'Well' She thought 'It could be worse. I could get caught'