Sophia steeled herself. Then she took up a quick pace. She entered the encampment of Black Friday shoppers, most of whom, at first, paid her no mind.
People in tents crowded around propane-powered ovens. Others just simply stood there, their eyes glazed over. Some looked tired. Others stared back at Sophia, with empty eyes.
She sped up her pace a bit. This many people, in this place, well, it certainly wasn't her ideal environment. The white witch found this many people noxious.
Ugh. Thanksgiving is just five minutes over and you people have been waiting here for how long? Sophia thought, disgusted at the sight of most of them. And for what? Cheap Chinese plastic?
As she moved toward the front of the GenMart, more and more eyes shifted to her. Sophia closed her eyes. She tried to keep focus, to keep her hidden senses closed. She didn't want to see all of the things that a Black Friday crowd at GenMart had stuck to them.
"Hey!?" One person called.
"What makes you think you can cut in line?" A old woman screamed at her.
Sophia tried to ignore them. Then the pair of voices turned into a chorus yelling at her. Sophia blinked, now standing five feet from the front doors of GenMart.
The chorus then turned into a tirade. People got out of their chairs. Others stood up and pointed. Screaming. Sophia watched an older man get thrown down, knocked over by the mob. Everyone was getting up and moving forward, screaming at her.
Her heartbeat started to thrum very hard in her chest. She pulled one of her knives out of her coat, unsure of what was going on.
She looked at the GenMart front glass doors. There stood a GenMart employee, wearing the ugly green and red GenMart vest. They looked confused at her, and Sophia tried to call out to the employee. He didn't hear her.
Sophia tried to ask about Lucy, yelling as loud as she could. But she couldn't even hear her own voice anymore.
The mob got louder and louder, barreling down at her. Sophia looked around, realizing she stood before a stampede. White hungry eyes and the mad shuffle of feet rushed headlong at her.
Sophia moved to the fallen old man, pulling out her knife. Mark with icons of her own power, consecrated by her magic beforehand, she covered the old man and held the knife high in the air. She muttered a word that only she could hear, just as the mob started to flood over her.
"Aurora."
The front glass doors of the GenMart shattered. The mob dove into the GenMart. As they started to trample over Sophia, there was a brilliant flash, leaving a pile of blinded bodies around her and the old man.
Sophia's eyes stung as she tried to stand up. She couldn't quite see, all her magical senses suddenly opened. The stench of opulent greed and rage overwhelmed her.
"I... can't... see." Sophia couldn't get a single foot to stay straight, so she crawled forward, her gloved hands now covered in glass shards. Her eyes could only see the clean, too-straight, too unnatural tiles of the GenMart floor, covered in people's shoes and boots and bare feet.
And coins. In between each watery eye blink, Sophia saw golden coins clutter to the GenMart floor, each the size of her palm. Each had a demonic grin, filled with sharp teeth and a pair of sunken eyes. Etched on each coin read the words: "In Mammon We Trust."
Next Part (3/?)
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