Lainey and the Magicians (First Draft)

Chapter 1

   Far out on a moonlit road, the girl had her mind on the incident. Months ago, her boyfriend had broken up with her and her family had thrown her out into the city of Salt, Arizona, leaving her to walk the streets alone. In a way, the name of the city was funny. Many of the people Lainey knew in her life were full of salt and spice. Times had changed for her. Some of these times had been rough after leaving something she had once held dear. She remembered all those faces that had wept and screeched at her leaving the "toxic pool." This metaphorical green pool was full of people with fire who seemed nice with their sparkling faces, but they were all, in reality, a bunch of monsters. They cared nothing about her.

  However, they cared about the cause. Once, she had been part of that cause. Now, she was running away from the people who wanted her back. They would do anything to bring her back 'home,' but she didn't consider it her home any longer. She sped up on the desolate road. Every now and then a few signs would come into her line of vision. A Loves was straight up ahead with a travel center. Even with a hoodie covering her face, one of the members of this toxic group could recognize her.

 These people could mask themselves through magic. They were magicians. Lainey used to be one of these magicians. If she used magic, there was a risk that they could track her down through DNA samples they had previously taken from her for precautionary reasons. One of these reasons was just in case someone pretended to be her and another reason was if she ever went rogue against the magician's wishes.

 "I keep going back over things we both said and I remember the slamming door and all the things that I misread," Lainey was singing along with the radio. Tonight was throwback Taylor Swift night and Taylor Swift's music was usually a guilty pleasure of hers. "Ugh. I hate the radio." She despised the radio with a passion because it was where a lot of stupid songs were played. Sure, it was a freedom land, but she hated how a lot of the songs were sung by women trying to be appealing to their target audience. There was nothing wrong with trying to sell records, but these women were appealing to the same toxic masculine base by using their natural charms as women. It seemed hypocritical to Lainey. She had even created a few records and sold a few of them. They were not your typical pop music. They were sophisticated indie records that were under a new label created by Lantis of the famous rock band known as Haz.

 She was even wearing a Haz hoodie right now. It was black and purple with golden stars on it with the caption 'Haz' on it. Nobody could mess with Haz' unending abilities as a band. She had been invited to sing with Haz one time after Lantis found her at an underground club singing their latest hit known as 'Poison water' and so he proceeded to ask her if she wanted to come on tour with them. Lainey said no because she didn't want to gain the whole world and lose her soul as a musician. She grabbed a Dr. Pepper out of the cooler, uncorked the top, and took a nice sip of the glory.

 A car was speeding in the left lane beside her at eighty miles per hour. The driver winked at Lainey. His blue hair was long and it shone in the moonlight. Beside him, his cat was laid on the right seat without a seatbelt on and was playing with a nice little ball. Lainey smiled at the cat. She froze with fear. Who was the driver? Did he know her? Was he one of the magicians? She didn't want to deal with the magicians. She just wanted to leave the planet. Her heart was beating rapidly and thumping crazily. What if the police would catch up to her? She had stolen a car from a car dealership back in Arizona. She had covered up the license plate very well with a different one and she had painted the car to make sure nobody would recognize it. Some of the paint cracked in some places on the vehicle, but she painted it as quick as she could manage in the woods where she had stopped into the cover of the trees.

 She was glad that the blue-haired driver was gone. This was for a number of reasons. One reason was that he looked like her ex, Christopher Tom. She had met him at a mini-mart and they gathered a sort of strange good feeling about each other the first time they had seen each other. Sooner rather than later, they had clicked and gathered a sparkling real connection since the time they had first seen each other inside the mini-mart. His fancy touch on her shoulders was a big part in what made Laniey fall for him. Other factors included his gentle voice and the games he played led her to calling him her own for at least 2 years. The two years had been seemingly fabulous. However, he took Lainey's heart and smashed it to pieces just like he smashed precious diamonds of hers. She just wanted to forget it all. Therefore, the second driver also reminded her of how Chris had pretended to be hers and it was just like all of the magicians she used to know.