Calamitous Intervention

I Was a Teenage Abomination

Anne woke up in bed, yawning. Another day in this creepy world. She'd been here for... was it two weeks? She checked her phone to see several texts from her mom. All of them were asking where she was and saying that she was in big trouble and that her mom called the cops, but they couldn't find her, Sasha, or Marcy.

She sighed, finally giving in and texting her back several pictures of herself with King and Eda to prove she wasn't lying. And then there was silence, so Anne guessed she might've fainted. She also checked if Sasha or Marcy had responded to her texts, but there was nothing.

After a delicious breakfast made by Anne, she, Eda, and King stood on the beach close to their home. They stared at something in front of them with very mixed expressions.

"Well, Anne!" Eda said, elbowing her. "Did you ever in your life think you'd see something as breathtaking as this?!"

In front of them was a massive, disgusting corpse of a trash slug—a huge wormlike creature with a jawless orifice of a mouth. It had pointy teeth and large red eyes all over its back. Hundreds of flies buzzed around it, feeding off its dead remains.

Anne shuddered, the smell making her nauseous. "I think I'm gonna be sick..." she said, audibly gagging and covering her mouth. "What the heck is that thing?"

"It doesn't get much more inspiring than the trash slug," Eda delightfully explained, walking up to the dead monster. "It makes a home, a life from what others have thrown by the wayside." She explained as she reached in and pulled a rubber chicken from its mouth. "Until blam!" She tossed it to the side. "It gets blasted by a wave one day and croaks from all the salt. And then we get to sell the stuff it ate."

The witch pulled out a pickaxe, offering it to Anne. The human stepped back, waving her hands frantically. She was not a fan of getting her hands dirty with disgusting things. "I'm good! I'm good! You can, uh, have all the loot!"

"Aw, come on, Anne," King sarcastically remarked, walking away and laying a towel on the sand. "It's not every day you get to go to the dump and pick apart a garbage carcass."

"Eh, nuts to you both," Eda muttered, before swinging her pickaxe into its mouth and starting to take the creature apart.

"Can't we do something less... nasty?" Anne pleaded, trying not to look at the mess the witch was making. "Besides, weren't you gonna tell me how to do spells? I'd much rather be doing that than this. Will I get a chance to make some of those potions you made me sell yesterday?"

Eda groaned, hating to be reminded of her childhood. "That sounds like a bunch of magic school stuff..." she grumbled.

"You still haven't told me about them," Anne reminded her, getting more and more impatient every day. "I bet you Marcy is in one of them!"

"Kid, as I said before, just cut your losses, for your sake," Eda replied, almost begging the human. "You'll thank me later. They force you to learn magic the 'proper' way." She looked exasperated. "But magic isn't proper! It's wild and unpredictable. And that's why it's so beautiful. I didn't finish school, and look at me! Who wouldn't envy where I am right now?" Surrounded by garbage, Eda wasn't exactly in the best living situation at this point.

"Yeah, who wouldn't envy a dropout witch who is surrounded by dead worm corpses, flies, and garbage all day?" Anne said sarcastically, her frustration showing. "Fine, if you aren't willing to tell me where it is, I'll find it myself," she finished, tired of waiting for answers.

Eda's smile faded, and she tried to change the topic. "Uh... Hey, here's a lesson." She threw her pickaxe to the side, approaching the human. "A great witch is resourceful, like this." She grabbed Anne's arm and plunged it into the bile of the trash slug.