The wind clawed at our house like some sort of horrifying monster, then shook it in frustration. The back door, which I had just shoved closed, rattled in its hinges as the beast tried to get in. Thankfully, it wasn’t an actual monster, and just a strange, windy storm.
“Dad?” I called, my voice rising higher than I meant it to.
The house creaked, and I heard my dad’s footfalls as he passed through the kitchen to get into the laundry and back door. When his head peeked through the open laundry door, the house shuddered again.
“We better have all of our tiles when this is over,” he said, scowling up at the ceiling.
It took me a second to realise that he was talking about the roof.
“It’s scary out there,” I said, hefting the basket so I could set it down on the washing machine. “There’s… things falling out of the sky. They’re screaming.”
Dad gave me a baffled look. “What?”
Holding a hand up, I pointed my hand down and made a muffled screaming noise as I dropped it. Then, I added a little explosion sound effect as it hit the imaginary ground.
“Like that.”
He shook his head as a smile tugged at his lips. “You’re a crazy little monkey, you know that?”
I frowned. Who the heck was he calling a monkey?
“You know, because you can never just walk anywhere — you have to run around on all fours like a monkey,” he explained, taking way too much delight in my growing consternation.
“I’m a fox now, dad,” I grumbled, walking over to try and get into the rest of the house. He was blocking the whole doorway, though. When I tried to squeeze past him, I was abruptly pulled into a hug with a squeak of surprise. “Dad!”
“Oh no, the injustice of a hug from your father. How will you survive, kiddo?” he said sarcastically, but he did release me so at least he wasn’t a total villain.
As soon as I was free, I began to slowly head up to my room, bipedally ascending the stairs as I did so. Fuck you, dad. I could be normal.
I just made it through the door into my room when a screech in the near-distance ended with a booming thud. The sky through the window of my room was a roiling mess of cloud — it looked like a pot of dark, deathly soup that was about to boil over. Except, like, it was upside down.
Dad’s footsteps drummed up the stairs, and he appeared behind me, also staring out into the day that was beginning to resemble a premature night. “More uncontrolled magic?”
“Yeah, looks like it,” I said, trying to be as chill as possible. This was all my fault. The whole world was being shaken up like a broken snowglobe and I was the one who punched the hole in the glass.
Dad made a grunting noise, which I knew was the kind that meant he was about to say something that I was going to get annoyed at.
“I really hope the President’s task force has a plan for this…” he murmured, and I looked back to find him scowling out at the storm.
I sighed. “Dad. They obviously don’t. They literally just made them today.”
“Governments have plans before they announce things, kiddo,” he said, using that tone that parents use where they are sure that their child is being naive and a little stupid. “I think that people underestimate this administration. The President might not be the brightest bulb, but he knows how to pick people who can get the job done.”
I turned fully and stared at him like he’d just claimed that he could barf gold bars. “Dad… are you serious right now? What about the last five months makes you think those smooth-brains can manage a crisis?”
Dad’s scowl shifted to me, and his eyes flashed with annoyance. “Their job is hard enough without that kind of attitude getting in their way, Tia.”
Standing my ground, I glared up at him. “Not giving them enough shit is exactly why we have so many problems now!”
“They didn’t cause all this magic stuff,” dad said, nodding towards the storm.
Yeah, I’m fucking aware of that dad.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” I groaned, stepping further into my room so I could just… not be standing practically underneath him where he could lord over me. I waved my hands around in the general direction of everything. “They get away with all sorts of really idiotic, nasty stuff. They’re just… shit, dad. They’re gonna do something shitty about all this magic stuff. I know it.”
“Itias, you’re being ridiculous again,” Dad said, and his scowl melted away as I watched him draw one of my least favourite parental-tactic cards in his deck. “You’ll see when you’re a little older, kiddo. I know that right now, everything seems very obvious to you, but trust me, you’ll figure out that it isn’t so black and white.”
I closed my eyes and tried to get control of the rapidly cascading emotions that were making it so damn hard to think. It didn’t work, and oh boy, but my breathing sounded very… un-calm. “I know that the colour grey exists, dad. I just… I mean…”
My train of thought derailed entirely as I failed to put my feelings and thoughts into a proper, ordered row of words. It was just so fucking frustrating when adults did this! When they got all up their own ass about the bajillion fucking extra years they’d lived through on this dum-ass mudball planet. Yeah, I don’t have the life experience of coasting through college, then into an easy office job as a straight white man — cool story. You know what I have done that you haven’t, dad? Fucking die. I died, and—
Dad’s hand landed on my head and he gave me a patient, affectionate smile. “I’m going to go downstairs and get started on dinner, okay kiddo? Maybe close the curtains so the monsters falling from the sky don’t see that little storm cloud hovering above your head.”
The door closed, and I sighed. Damn it. So much of my anger had just fizzled out when he gave me that single pat on the head. Which was annoying! Why was my dad like that? He said the stupidest shit, and then instead of also being an abusive fuckhead who I could hate, he actually cared. I stomped my foot in frustration, which I knew he’d hear from downstairs. Yeah, that’s right, you can be all nice and stuff, but I’m still pissed.
When I didn't get a response, I wandered idly over to my window and watched the storm. It'd only been going for… maybe a few minutes? Now that I wasn't distracted by dad, I really watched it. Was this… like really bad? Were things happening… what was happening?
Another of the odd shadows impacted close enough to feel the house quiver a little, and slowly, I began to back over to my closet. I had no way to disguise myself… but there might be things happening out there that I could help with.
Careful not to make too much suspicious noise, I pulled on the billowy purple pants I wore at the protest, then grabbed a leather jacket that was too big for my new frame, and another facemask. When I had the clothing fitting right, I unearthed my gauntlets from the pile of random debris at the bottom of my closet and set them down on my bed.
Their bronze plates and bands gleamed, shiny and polished as the day they were crafted. The metal of the armoured reinforcements was cold to the touch, but the woven bands were ever-so-slightly warm to the touch.
Was I going to go out again? How the heck did I hide my purple fur? Maybe I should see what has happening on social media?
My phone was sitting in a little home-made wooden cradle beside my bed — a momento from middle school workshop class. I wasn't sure if it was a working of God, or if maybe the mythical Fates of Ancient Greece were back and pulling their strings, but my charger cable hadn't lost connection since I left my phone to charge. It was at full battery!
Picking it up, I opened TikTok and searched for Concord, then sorted by newest-first. The video that came up was from inside a 10th floor apartment downtown, and at first it was just blurry scrabbling and whispering as the person filming pointed their phone out a window.
Then the automatic focus kicked in, I gasped. What even was that thing? It was like the front ends of four horses had fused together at the waists, been skinned, and then the head and abdomen of a spined ant had been attached.
The thing, which dripped blood from its exposed muscles as they moved, was climbing the side of the tower opposite the camera and screeching. A gunshot went off, and it writhed in sudden pain, then leapt down towards the street and out of sight. Shouting and screaming rose up, only to be sliced off by the end of the video.
I paused the video so it wouldn't replay, and scrubbed through until I could stare at the monster. What… what had I unleashed on the world? I had to go out there and help. It was the only morally… okay thing to do. It wasn't even good, because like, fixing your own mistakes was the bare fucking minimum.
Pulling on my gauntlets in a hurry, I shoved my phone into a little inside pocket on my pants and moved to the window. The moment the gauntlets were seated properly, I felt a little surge of confidence. With these things, I could do so much.
The very least of those was opening my window with a gesture and a flick of my left wrist. It slid open, shuddering as the wind fought a futile battle with my magic. Before the spell entirely wore off, I hopped through, then manually eased the window closed and locked it with the reverse motion of the spell I'd just used.
Okay… so now what, Tia — no… not Tia, Lette.
Standing as carefully as I could on the roof of the laundry and kitchen, my gaze skimmed the nearby neighbourhood, looking for signs of trouble. My house was on a more main road of an old suburban development, which had been created with the idea of building parks in the spaces behind the houses — places where kids could play and people could walk from house to house. Those parks never got made, so instead it was a wacky, overgrown jungle of trees, weeds, and old trash.
A flash of movement caught my eye, and I looked down towards the side of my house, where — the fuck?
A small black and red fox was busy tugging on the trash bag that I put out earlier this morning. As if feeling my bemused stare, it froze and slowly tilted its head to stare up at me, still with the plastic stretched out in its mouth.
Propelled by sheer curiosity, I pulled myself briefly up into the air, then landed down along the side of the house, careful to keep out of view of the windows. The fox yelped as I landed, then turned and rushed for the safety of the filthy jungle behind the house.
Oh no you don't!
I leapt after it, shielding my face with my gauntlets as I crashed into the shrubs. I hit the ground and rolled awkwardly, but bounced right back up to continue my chase.
The fox darted under falled logs, between decaying mattresses, and out into a little clearing overshadowed by two tall pine trees. Twisting my fingers through reality, I launched myself up and over, then hit the ground in a flailing whirl of limbs as I tried to stay standing. Momentum ploughed me through the rotting pine needles on the ground, but I turned and flicked my right hand into a series of two gestures. The fox lifted briefly into the air, then tumbled to a stop in front of me with a yelp.
“I have rights!”
The high, feminine voice caught me off guard. What? Did the fox just… speak?
“That's what you're meant to say, right? Wait, oh no! I'm meant to… plead the fifth? How do I do that? Who is the fifth anyway? Please don't hurt me?” She squeaked, her bright silver eyes looking up at me, all watery and full of fear.
This was… crazy. “Why were you stealing my trash?”
“I mean, you were throwing it away? Why do you care? There were some chicken bones and scrap meat in there! I wanted it,” she explained in a rush, before her voice trailed off into puppy-dog whines. “I was hungry…”
I relaxed into a sympathetic sigh. “Okay, that's fair. How about—”
The fox burst into motion, little paws scrabbling in the dirt as she flashed past. “Freedom!”
I twisted and whipped my right arm out, then flicked all four of my fingers like I was trying to shake water off them. The air rippled, and a minor blast of force sent a shockwave rippling through the air. The fox got caught and lifted, then thrown three feet into a tuft of grass.
Before she could recover, I leapt in and snatched her up, then stood and held her out at arm's length. “Stop trying to run!”