Moth Wings #BattleTheBeast

1st time - Drinks

"You know, maybe we should invite him for a drink? Slip a little something that'll make him go..." Margo sliced a hand across her neck, making a face.

Kady scoffed, curling her lip at Margo from where she sat on her lawn chair, next to Penny, nursing her tequila. "Right, you think he's just gonna come strolling in?"

"Not a bad idea," Eliot mused, ignoring Kady. "He seems like a whiskey type of guy, don't you think?"

"Hmm," Margo pursed her lips, the two of them in their little conversational world, not noticing the glances the rest of the group was giving each other. "I'm thinking more gin and tonic."

Eliot threw back his head laughing. "What's the choice of poison, sweetheart?"

Rude as usual, Penny interrupted. "Motherf--s got too many moths flying around. He'd probably choke on the damn bugs." A gleeful smile spreading across his face at the thought.

"Insects," Alice corrected him in all seriousness.

Kady was the first to burst out laughing at Penny's response, not hearing Alice's quiet voice, before one by one, Margo, Penny, Eliot, and Quentin joined in. Even Alice cracked a smile hearing their boisterous laughter.

"Hypothetically speaking, he stepped out of a mirror last time. We'd need some type of reflective surface if you wanted to invite him for drinks." Quentin said.

Penny sneered. "You talk like a dweeb."

"Oh my god, we have to try!" Margo urged, giggling, head thrown back.

Eliot jumped to his feet, tugging on his vest. "I know just what we can use!"

A couple minutes later, the group sat staring at a tall mirror propped up against the back of an empty lawn chair.

"Come out, you ugly bastard," Penny laughed. "That's probably why the moth's hide his face."

They joked around in drunken joy until Alice piped up. "Maybe we have to try and formally invite him." She cleared her throat, leaning closer to the mirror. "I summon you, Beast. Heed my call and join us for drinks." She giggled, encouraged by the liquid in her veins.

"Before we kill you," Kady added, causing a round of laughter. They stared as if expectant of an answer, for a moment.

"What loser turns down free drinks," Eliot said, looking stricken.

As the rest of the group resumed their chatter, Alice grabbed Quentin's arm. "D-Do you see that?" Just barely visible, from the corner of the mirror, it seemed as if a moth had appeared, flying away into the dark.

"I think we're all a bit drunk, Alice," he answered, not having seen anything.

"Quentin," she tightened her grip, looking into his eyes with a terrified face. "I saw something."

"I think we've been talking too much about Beasty and it's getting pretty late. Maybe it's time we go to bed," he said slowly as he stood, pulling Alice to her feet.

"Where do you think you're going? We're still waiting for Moth man to join the party, can't leave yet." Margo sat up in her seat, prepared to stop their departure.

Turns out she didn't have to.

Noticing a ripple in the mirror, followed by a moth and then two, Penny's voice gained everyone's attention before following the focus of his to the mirror. "What the fuck."

"Jesus," Quentin breathed, watching along with everyone else as a shiny black shoe emerged from the mirror. Followed by a trouser clad leg, the horrifying moths, and then the Beast himself.

"Someone called?" A gravelly voice spoke from the face obscured by the cloud of fluttering moth wings.

Eliot, the closest to the mirror, and the Beast himself offered his glass, stunned expression across his face. "Drink?"

Then Margo screamed. It's head tilted towards her, moths flocking to her body. Any shock wore off at the sound of her high-pitched cries. Penny pulled Kady to her feet and away from the Beast. Quentin and Alice having already begun hand movements to cast a spell. But every magician knows, magic and alcohol don't go so well together. Maybe on another day their reflexes wouldn't be so slow, dampened by their alcoholic stupor.

The Beast's hands flew up, freezing everyone mid movement. A strangled noise came from Alice as he walked up to her. "Alice Quinn. Nice of you to call me. " He paused, gaze returning to the man beside her.

"Quentin Coldwater, here we meet again." He circled around him and Alice, clicking his tongue.

Making a motion resembling squeezing a fist, the two could only watch in mute horror, as he suffocated their friends with his magic, lifting them off the ground until their lifeless bodies fell with a thud, softened by the grass of the lawn.

Quentin listened as Alice's choking noises ended with that sickening thud, becoming more and more agitated at his paralysis. He closed his eyes in blind terror at the realization of his fate as the Beast turned towards him.

"Better luck next time." The Beast's voice whispered in his ear. Moths fluttered around his body, flying into his mouth, suffocating him. The Beast watched as Quentin too fell, smiling in smug satisfaction to himself.

He was just playing around, though. Passing time, as he called it. So he stepped back through the mirror laughing, taking the moths with him. But not before picking up Eliot's drink and giving a snap of his fingers.

The bodies of the dead students disappeared.

The next morning, Quentin woke with a gasp, sitting straight up in bed. Glancing over at his clock, he flopped back down to try and get more shut eye, mindful not to wake Alice who lay asleep in his bed.

5 AM and he had the weirdest dream. Well, more like a nightmare. His throat feeling oddly parched.

Good thing it wasn't real, he thought. Side effects of the alcohol he drank too much of. Had to blame that on Eliot though, who made sure he had a steady supply of it throughout the night. He was such a bad influence sometimes.

"Have a bad dream?" Alice asked. Quentin startled at the sound.

"Yeah, a nightmare. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's okay, I was already awake. I had a nightmare too."

Quentin angled his body towards her. "What was it about?"

"The Beast." She whispered.

"No way, mine too."

She looked at him, brows pulled together as she frowned. "I died."

Quentin blinked. "Me too."

They stared at each other, sharing a mutual glance not to talk any more about the matter and to resume sleeping, which neither of them did.

It didn't help Quentin's suspicion when he picked up the odd comment through the course of the day of from the other's who also happened to have nightmares of the Beast as well. All ending the same way; death.

Alice seemed to be the only other one to notice.

"I think it was real, Quentin."

He nodded. "I do, too." They sat in silence, letting the understanding and realization sink in. "We died, yet we're alive again. What do you think that means?"

Alice pushed up her glasses, looking him right in the eye. "He came and we failed. So we try again."