Sophia never was the tallest girl. She still didn't flinch in the face of the cold rain- nor did she let it deter her. Her white coat outlined her in the darkness of the cold November night. It matched her prematurely white hair. That and her pale skin almost made her into a walking white shadow. She clutched to a pair of knives under her coat, but Sophia felt certain that she wouldn't use them to attack or defend her self.
They were meant for other things. Things most would-be muggers wouldn't expect from someone like her. Each knife was covered in paint and glyphs. Fetishes hung from their handles, each glass vials with enough venom that Sophia was certain either had magical power or would at least scare any would-be attackers. Afterall, who wants to attack a girl with venom-covered knives?
"Assholes." Sophia murmured aloud.
I shouldn't expect something so bad here, Sophia thought. But mainstreet looked like a bad place to be. At night the old brick buildings that squatted over the sidewalks leaned in too far. Cracks grew into frightening lears. Eyes came out of every corner. Light seemed to hide, shadows growing long claws.
It been years since any of the businesses on mainstreet had recovered. Almost all of them had closed. GenMart had done that, really. First it drove out all of the old business out, and then people started to move away.
Sophia sniffed. "Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, the things I do for Lucy..."
Only hours before, Sophia had looked down at her cellphone. She had been preparing materials, reading over some books and more or less waiting for Lucy to get home. Then her cellphone buzzed, causing the bells tied onto it to ring: A text from Lucy.
Help.
And that was all it said. Nothing else. Now Sophia found herself going to where Lucy was supposed to be, the last place Sophia thought to see her. At Lucy's job at GenMart. Lucy refused to accept Sophia's help, wanting her own money, not money that Sophia had made with her own work.
I can't blame her. Who doesn't want to make their own way? Who wants to be a leech?
Sophia shivered at the thought of going into that place, on this night of all nights. Late at night, right before Thanksgiving night was going to shift into friday morning. Black Friday.
Even here, in this town, people went insane on Black Friday. And Sophia disliked being around people already. It plagued her ever since she had been a little girl.
Sophia knew the words. She could repeat them, make herself see people. Smell and hear their auras, their emotions, their true selves. Sophia could unlock people, and she hated that. It was like putting your eyeball into a candle, except that candle was a person, and they got to look right back.
"Ugh."
Crossing the last street, Sophia walked past the small bank and Taco Bell that gave forewarning of the GenMart. She paused for a moment, in the parking lot of the closed Taco Bell- well, the lobby was closed, which was good enough for her, since she couldn't care for that stuff.
She stared at the crowded parking lot of the GenMart, filled with cars, tents, RVs and people. A crowd so vibrant with emotions that Sophia could feel it pressing onto her inner senses without opening them. Greed. Want. Hunger.
It smelled like rotten fish and gold. That obscene stench that both entices and makes one want to walk away. A guilty sin that some people know they couldn't refuse. But they still make the choice, to willingly wallow in that stench.
Sophia sighed.
"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. The things I do for Lucy." And with that, the white witch walked into a maw of hell.
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