City of Witchcraft

Later That Night

Lacey's legs ached. She'd been running at full speed for nearly twenty minutes, but she couldn't stop now. Sure, she'd used her wildshape to escape, and she was pretty sure that cop hadn't followed her, but you could never be too certain. The strap of her satchel dug into her shoulder- she'd slipped the gemstone into her bag, but since leaving her hand it felt as if it had grown nearly 10 times in weight.

Eventually, Lacey had to stop. She made her way into a narrow alleyway, where she stumbled her way over to several large piles of boxes and slipped between them, putting her out of sight to people looking in the alleyway. And, with the way the shadows were drawn to her with her power, she was nearly invisible to anyone she was within sight of anyway.

Lacey gasped for air while still trying to be quiet, hoping to be able to regain some energy. She was so close to home, she just needed to make it through the final stretch. As she caught her breath, Lacey fiddled with her bag before pulling the gemstone out. Its weight seemed to lessen the moment it entered her hand, feeling as light as a feather. The gemstone seemed to call out to her, begging her to hold it closer.

"Not a chance," Lacey whispered as she slipped the gemstone back into her bag. She could feel the gemstone cry out in desperation as it left her hand, but she didn't care. Lacey let out a deep sigh before getting back to her feet, deciding to walk the rest of the way to her apartment. At this point she'd likely lost the cop, and it was best not to raise any more suspicion than she had to.

It took her another fifteen minutes to get to her apartment building. Even though she had taken the break and stopped running entirely, Lacey's legs ached once more. Her movement felt slow and stiff as she entered through the front door and made her way to the old, run-down elevator. Lacey pressed the button for floor seven, its number faded and no longer visible. Much of the visible metal of the elevator had rusted over, and the wallpaper that had once existed had in some spots peeled off in large chunks.

When the doors to the elevator opened, she was greeted by an equally run-down hallway to match with the rundown elevator. There were significant amounts of missing wallpaper and weirdly painted spots on the walls, as well as several halls going through them. The dim light bulbs flickered, barely illuminating the hall enough so Lacey could make sure she didn't trip over the filth that had accumulated on the hallway floor over the years. The place was an absolute mess, but the rent was cheap.

Lacey made her way down the hall to her room -three doors down on the left- and started fumbling with the lock. Most of the doors here didn't have locks (or, at least, functional ones), and she'd had to replace the lock herself. There were even apartments that didn't have front doors, although nobody lived in those (not for a lack of trying from her landlord). After several long moments of fiddling with her keys, she eventually managed to get the door to her apartment unlocked, and she pushed it open.

The old, rusted hinges creaked as the door swung open, and Lacey was greeted by the sight of her apartment. Compared to the rest of the building, it actually looked quite nice; Most of the wallpaper was still up, and she'd kept the filth from accumulating too much. But there was only so much she could do, especially with all the rats in the area. But she did her best to keep it clean- not that she spent much time here to make it worthwhile.

Lacey flicked the lights on, and in a single, smooth motion closed the door behind her and locked it. Then, exhausted, Lacey shuffled her way over to the old, filthy couch that furnished her living room and flopped onto it. Lacey felt a sigh of relief escape her lips, and she rested there on the couch for several minutes, finally getting a chance to get some rest. She had nearly fallen asleep there when she heard a quiet TAP! TAP! TAP! on the window. Lacey groaned as she pulled herself off the couch and walked over to the window, her movement zombie-like. Aggressively, Lacey pulled the blinds to her window up, and there sat a silvery cat, its fur glittering as it reflected the moonlight, its eyes mismatched, each a solid black and white.

Lacey felt a wave of anger wash over her.

"No. Nuh-uh. Not happening."

Lacey could hear the cat meow on the other side of the window.

"I told you, I'm done with you. You had your chance."

The cat meowed again. Lacey shook her head, before pointing past the window and saying, "No. Go. Now."

An aggressive look came over the cat and it hissed at Lacey through the window. Lacey hit the windowsill, and her whole window rattled. "Get the hell away from me!"

The cat stared at her a moment before hopping off the outer windowsill and onto the fire escape. Lacey shook her head, muttering curses to herself as she walked away from the window. She had almost reached the couch again when she heard a loud THUD! behind her. Lacey whipped around to see her window frame loosely hanging onto the wall, and the cat walking over to her. The cat slowly turned into a black, gooey substance before beginning to change shape, and within seconds had taken on the form of a human woman. The gooey substance then began to change forms, and standing before Lacey was Gale Winters.

"Get the fuck out of my apartment," Lacey said, her voice filled with a cool, chilling anger. Gale seemed unresponsive to her tone.

"Lacey, I really need to talk with you."

"Sucks for you, I don't need to talk to you."

When Gale spoke again, her tone was much sterner and more commanding. She said, "Lacey, you need to listen and you need to listen well-"

"No, Gale, you need to listen. You need to leave me alone. Stop using me as your second chance at redemption, or whatever the hell you're trying to get from me."

Gale sighed before saying, "Lacey, I know we've had our issues in the past. But you really need to listen to me-"

"But here's the thing: I don't! Because, believe it or not, you aren't my mom! My mom is dead! So stop acting like you are! You had your chance to be a mom with Karter, and you screwed it up. So stop trying to be mine!" With that, Lacey whirled around, turning her back to Gale and storming off toward her bedroom.

"Oh for crying out loud Lacey, this is about Karter!" Gale exclaimed. Lacey froze.

"What?" Her voice had a cool edge to it. If it had to do with Karter, it was serious.

"My powers... they activated once more. The fate of the worlds is in his hands."

Lacey slowly turned to face Gale. "Okay, and what does this have to do with me?"

"You were there, by his side." Gale paused, before adding, "And you need to be the one to find him."

"But how do I do that?" Lacey asked, her voice now soft. "He's been missing for years. For all we know, he could be dead."

"I know a way," Gale admitted. "But it won't be easy."