It looked like any other ordinary suburban house. Shutters, aluminum siding, and a neatly trimmed lawn. But if you entered through the tastefully decorated foyer and climbed the beige-carpeted stairs, you would find a room with a locked door -- and through the crack beneath that door, the bright magenta glow of a neophyte's flashy, undisciplined magic.
The sound of mournful wailing filled the air, and a chant arose.
Darkness of sin, heed my call,
Drain the souls from one and all,
Fire ants will eat their eyes,
And in the dark the shadows RIIISE!
Triana clicked the 'pause' button of her Shuffle. "I don't know, Raven -- I mean, I liked Screamchill's first album, but this one is so..."
"Corporate?" her boyfriend offered.
"Yeah. And practically half the songs on here are about zombies!" Triana gestured with the crook of her finger and another potato clip zoomed out of bag next to her bed, looped-the-loop over her prone form, and dropped into her mouth. "I mean -- mph -- that's just passe, you know?"
"You're getting pretty good at that," Raven observed. "Remember you used to have to be looking right at whatever you wanted to levitate, and those incantations? Now you hardly even have to move."
"They're just potato chips. They're about the lightest thing there is." She smiled. "But thanks. Now I need to focus on reducing the level of thaumic overspill -- uh, the light, I mean. It's still kind of sloppy."
"You'll get there. You've been practicing a lot."
Triana waggled her fingers again, but nothing happened; the tendrils of her mind couldn't seem to get a hold on the next chip. A moment later, she rolled over with a grunt and opened the bag the old fashioned way. No wonder; it was empty. She crumpled it up with her mind and tossed it over her shoulder into the trash, where it joined a Cheetos bag, a Thin Mints box, and a flattened tub of popcorn.
"I have, haven't I?" She wasn't going to have much of an appetite for dinner, that was for sure. "I'd better watch that, you know? I'm not getting as much exercise lately, since I can't go dancing--"
She clapped her mouth shut, too late, and felt a blush creeping into her cheeks as her gaze flicked over to his crutches. "Sorry, I -- I meant --"
"It's okay," Raven said. "You know, if you want to go out dancing with your friends sometimes, it's totally cool. I mean, we'll always have movie night, right?"
What friends?, Triana thought. Kim would just give Triana an earful about how dancing was sinful, and Dean -- well, she didn't even want to think about what his idea of "popular" dance might be. Probably something like a slow waltz, but without the touching.
"Nah, it's okay. Really." She shrugged. "All this telekinesis probably burns off just as many calories, in the long run, you know?"
She said it with such sincerity she even managed to convince herself.
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