Chapter Text
“Hello, viewers! My name is Laura Hollis!” The small blonde widens the shot so her entire bedroom can be seen. “Swish new digs compared to—“
“Laura? Who are you talking to?” a voice calls from outside the open doorway. Three redheads march into the room and stare at the camera, confused.
“My viewers!” Laura replies proudly.
The tallest of the redheads clears her throat. “Uhm, Hollis… You do know you can't be broadcasting magical stuff on the Internet, right? The Cleaners would be on you in an instant.”
Laura nods. “I know, Danny. It's not going on, like, YouTube, or anything like that. Magic School has its own network.”
“I'm confused. Who are your viewers gonna be?” Danny asks.
“Magic school students!” Laura beams. “When I was there, a bunch of students and I found ourselves wishing that we could've heard about what the real world of magic is like—not the watered down, kids’ version we got there. Stuff like the dangers and beauty of the magical world, y'know?”
The three redheads exchange glances before shrugging.
“Alright, Hollis,” the one who called in from the hallway earlier relents. “As long as you're not running around with a GoPro camera and risking your life out there.”
Laura shakes her head. “Just post-mission vlogs, promise.” She slides her chair back and gestures at them. “This is Danny, LaFontaine, and Perry,” she says to the camera. “They were my friends from before magic school. Some of you may not know them because they're all older than me and graduated a few years ago.”
The three witches awkwardly wave.
“Anyway, I'm in their coven,” Laura continues, showing the Book of Shadows cover to the camera. “Like my mom was before me.”
Danny clears her throat. “Uhm, not to interrupt, but… We sorta gotta get goin’.”
Laura nods eagerly and stops recording.
They all take seats around Laura's bedroom. “You sure you're up for this?” LaF asks. “Absolutely nothing wrong with needing more of a learning curve. You're already pretty awesome at picking stuff up this fast.”
Laura shakes her head. “No, no! I'm ready.”
“Have you figured out if you have a power, yet?” Perry asks gently.
Laura lets out a sigh and shakes her head again.
“Well, you can cast spells, and that's good enough for me,” Danny says with a wink.
“So odd.” LaF frowns at Laura, observing her carefully. “Most witches exhibit some sort of power when they hit puberty.”
“Well, she's not most witches,” Perry points out. “She's half human.”
Danny shrugs. “I'm sure she'll develop them when we need them. Everything happens for a reason.”
Laura wrings her hands together, unsure. It had been a large source of insecurity for years, but Danny had always done her best to get rid of as much of it as she could. Besides, Laura was the best at coming up with spells on the spot.
“So… What's the mission?” Laura asks when a few seconds of silence has passed.
Perry perks up excitedly. “Well, there have been reports of some demonic activity in a warehouse downtown. Some warlocks trafficking humans.”
“We're thinking this would be a great first mission for you. Some simple recon with all of us by your side. Since it won't always be like that,” Danny explains.
LaF pulls out a small sack and hands it to Laura with a devious grin. “And, until your powers manifest, here's a bunch of potions to keep you armed.
Laura stares in and her eyes widen. “Holy hufflepuff.”
“Yeah, LaFontaine went a bit overboard this time,” Perry sighs.
LaF clicks their tongue. “Look, I just found a way to increase the efficiency of making potions. It actually has to do with increasing the reaction rate by—”
Perry stares at them and they stop talking. She quickly smiles and shakes her head. “By making more of a mess in the kitchen than usual, apparently,” Perry finishes.
Laura giggles and rummages through the bag carefully. “Is it the same color code you used in Magic School?”
LaF nods. “Red square for explosive. Orange circle for stun. Yellow triangle for sleepy-times. Green star for some quick healing properties. Blue for freeze.” They wink. “And the clear ones are for some old-fashioned courage.”
Perry rolls her eyes. “Oh, LaFontaine.”
Danny snickers and stands from her chair. “So, whattya say, Hollis? Ready for your first mission?”
The group gets out of the car and wait as Danny easily uses her telekinesis to open the locked front door of the warehouse. They all squint into the darkness.
“Yikes. Guess someone didn't pay their electricity bill,” Laura whispers.
LaF chuckles and raises their hand, a fireball appearing in it to illuminate the area. “We're not splitting up for this one, right?”
Danny shakes her head. “Gotta keep little Laura safe.”
Laura frowns but doesn't say anything.
The four of them walk forward together, making sure the first area is clear before moving into the next room. Perry immediately drops back.
“Where's she going?” Laura asks.
“She's gonna stay by the entrance. Just in case any of them get by us,” LaF replies.
They continue forward, with Danny in front and LaF behind Laura.
Like they're protecting some precious cargo, Laura thinks with a sigh.
She had hoped that once she graduated from magic school, the others would stop being so overprotective of her—especially Danny. But clearly that wasn't going to be the case. I should probably say something soon. Or this will be a habit I'll have to put up with.
“Don't worry, L,” LaF says, noticing Laura’s drop in mood and slower pace. “Once your whitelighter shows up, you can do whatever you want. Assuming they pass Danny’s scrutiny and standards, of course.”
Laura sighs. “I guess.”
“Hell, if Danny's okay with it, you can probably borrow her whitelighter, Kirsch. Or mine and Perry’s, J.P.”
Laura nods and gives a grateful smile, but it still doesn't do much for her morale.
Laura’s still pouting by the time they've cleared the entire warehouse and Danny turns around, frowning. “Huh. That's wei—”
A scream rips through the air and the three of them jump.
“Perry!” LaF yells immediately, running back to the front of the large warehouse.
Danny's eyes widen as she darts off after them. “Wait!”
Laura takes off, too, but she's a considerably slower runner, and no longer has the light from LaF’s fireball to guide her. She makes a wrong turn somewhere and stops, trying to regain her bearings.
“What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?” a man’s voice asks from behind her.
Laura jumps and turns around. She has to squint in the darkness and look up to find his face, swallowing hard when she realizes he has at least a foot on her. And probably powers. “Uhm…”
While trying to figure out her next move, he blinks and suddenly vanishes from sight.
Blinking. Right. Warlocks can blink and teleport, Laura thinks nervously, reaching into her bag for a potion.
Suddenly, she feels strong arms wrap around her and squeeze tight. Laura gasps for air, kicking her legs to try to knock the warlock off balance.
Another warlock blinks in front of her, sneering. “My, my, they're getting smaller and smaller, aren't they?” He pulls out an athame and twirls the weapon in his hand.
Laura’s eyes dart around, looking for her bag of potions, which she apparently dropped when her attacker grabbed her.
“If that’s the case,” a female voice drawls from the shadows, “shouldn't you pick on someone your own size?”
The warlocks look towards the speaker, who steps towards them. She's a slender girl, about Laura's height, dressed entirely in black. Laura feels warlock’s grasp on her slacken a bit as he scoffs at the new girl.
“Are you volunteering, witch?”
The girl chuckles. “Don't insult me.”
“Get outta here!” Laura yells at the girl.
The other warlock lets out a snarl and swipes at the newcomer, but she disappears in a stream of light blue orbs.
Laura's eyes widen, but she quickly seizes the opportunity to give her legs one strong pump. The attacker stumbles and lets Laura go and she scrambles for her bag and grabs at a potion, feeling for the square sticker.
The mysterious girl is gone, and the two warlocks approach Laura with wicked smirks. At the same time, they both blink away.
Plan B, Laura muses, reaching into her pants pocket with her free hand.
One warlock appears right in front of her, grabbing her by the shoulder and lifting her up, dragging her away from the bag.
Laura whips her phone out from her jeans and turns on the flashlight app, holding it right in front of his face. He lets out a growl and drops her.
“Can't blink if you can't see!” she shouts, flinging the bottle of potion at him. He grabs at the splatter, trying to wipe it off, but quickly explodes in a fiery cloud.
The other warlock has reappeared and his mouth drops open at the sight of his comrade being vanquished. He swipes at her with the dagger and nicks her on the arm, planting himself in front of the potion sack.
The warlock comes at her again, but this time Laura is ready. She grabs his arm and uses his own momentum to swing him around, giving the wrist a quick turn until a crack is heard. Laura snatches the athame and, in one fluid motion, jams the dagger into his chest. She steps away and watches as he bursts into flames, screaming in agony.
She'd done it.
She'd vanquished her first two demons.
She'd survived her first mission.
Slow clapping is heard from behind her. For a moment, she thinks it's Danny, so Laura turns to face it with a beaming grin.
The grin quickly disappears when she realizes it's the girl who orbed out earlier.
The enigmatic girl stops clapping and smirks. “Wow, cupcake. Colored me impressed.”
Laura huffs and crosses her arms. “Who are you?”
“I'm Carmilla. I'm your whitelighter, sweetheart.”