No Good Witches | ONC √

Stolen Time

I'd only ever been to the void once in my life, and that had been on accident too. I'd fudged up some conversions on a teleportation spell and wound up stuck there for over six hours before finally gaining the courage to air message my mother to come and get me.

And although this section of the void seemed to be snuffing out my magic making any sort of air messaging impossible, at least there was a floor here. It may have been a dusty, very small patch of floor, but Mallory could pace here, and that seemed to keep her from complaining too much.

Of course, she was still complaining.

"Oh my god. Oh my fucking god. We are never getting out of here. We're going to die in here. Or, no, they're going to find Dr. Alvarado's body in the morning, the police are going to launch an investigation leading them directly to us, they're going to pull us out of this shit hole, and we're going to die in jail."

"Oh, would you calm down, Mallory?" I said, massaging the crick in the side of my neck. "We've got the Old Stone. Plus, Rebecca's keeping watch, remember? She'll pull us out of here any moment now."

She snorted.

"What?" I asked. I'd had just about enough of Mallory's snark. Rebecca was my friend now (I think) and what kind of friend would I be if I let Mallory diss her behind her back?

"Nothing. I just think it's cute that you actually think Miss Becky is going to be able to pull her head out of those cotton candy clouds it loves so much long enough for her to even realize that we're gone. Now would you like to help me look for a way out of here?"

I thought back to all the pointed shit Mallory'd been saying today, and the pieces started to slide into place. "You knew."

"What?" She asked, distracted, turning her back to me, pretending to poke through the void looking for an escape.

"You knew about Rebecca's learning disability this whole time, didn't you?"

She stiffened. "Come on. Focus Cass."

"Wow..." I shook my head, in the kind of awe that a villager has for the monster that lives in its woods. "Unbelievable."

"Whatever—"

"No. You can't just 'whatever' this and walk away from it! Not this time." I crossed my arms. "Explain it to me."

"Explain what, Cassandra?"

"Why you feel the need to be so mean to everyone and everything that crosses your path, Mallory." Since she wanted to say my name like that. "There has to be a reason, right? Tell me what it is cause I sure as hell don't understand."

"And why should I be easy for you to understand?" She asked, spinning around to face me. "Why should I be easy for anyone to understand?" She was stepping toward me, and unconsciously, I backed up.

What was it about this girl that I found so intimidating?

"That's all it is, politeness." She continued, her voiced filled with spite. "It's folding yourself in, rounding off your edges so that you're an easier pill to swallow. People...they look at me and that's what they expect. A meek, inoffensive Thai girl. And when that's not who I am? When I say something too loud or too quickly? When I'm not a model of curtesy and femininity because, god forbid, I ruin the fantasy they have in their head of asian women? I'm rude. A bitch. Mean."

"That doesn't excuse you from being a horrible person."

"I'm not asking to be excused! I never said I was a good person. What I said is that I'm tired. I'm so tired of that shit. I'm saying...fuck them. Fuck them, fuck her, and fuck you, Landry."