Chapter 3: Rats of Unusual Size

This area of the city wasn't unfamiliar to me. A block over was the home of an ex from high school, and the bodega three streets down used to make a killer egg salad sandwich. Despite this, the knowledge that a shadowy witch-gang might be hunting us gave everything a haunted and intimidating feel.

Imogen walked at brisk pace. I had to practically jog to keep up with her longer legs. Aurelia, having climbed up to her witch's shoulder, watched me with wide and curious eyes.

"These witch laws," I said, "they'll keep us safe, right?"

"Yeah. Absolutely. Definitely." Imogen poked her head around a corner then resumed her not-quite-running-but-very-close-to-running run. "That's what they are there for."

A couple streets over a car backfired. We both jumped.

"Why don't they like you?" I asked. "This group of witches. Aren't you all... I don't know, united against the non-magical world?"

We ducked down a side street lined with closed storefronts. This was a fair sight sketchier than my usual scene, but where Imogen led I followed close behind. For more reasons than one.

"My family made the rules," Imogen answered. "The Cedars haven't done as well in recent years. They probably think we're to blame."

"So your family is in charge?"

"Ehhh" --Imogen wobbled a hand in a show of uncertainty-- "the families have an agreement, but no one really enforces the rules directly."

"So then..." I trailed off. Two figures had stepped from an alleyway and blocked the street. First was a tough-looking girl with a wooden bat in one hand. Her partner, a boy several years younger, wore a jacket at least two sizes too big for him.

The girl tapped her bat on the sidewalk. I noticed it had the same sort of glow that surrounded Imogen.

"You were right, Tom." The girl had a bitter, cold voice. "Two witches. Wrong place, wrong time."

"We don't want trouble." Imogen held her hands up. "We just needed to pass through and the subway was down."

The boy let out a low whistle, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing, but as he did, I felt a strange wave of cold flow from him. A magic spell contained in a whistle? I knew, somehow, that he was calling something to him.

The girl laughed. "You think we're going to attack you? We might be angry, but we're not stupid. I recognize you, first-daughter Magnolia."

I glanced at Imogen to see how she reacted. Her face was unreadable stone. Aurelia hissed from her shoulder.

"Then you should leave us alone," Imogen said.

From the alley, a dozen rats scurried onto the street. I let out a faint yelp and took a step closer to Imogen. They ran around us, gathering at the feet of the boy.

"I'm serious," Imogen continued. Close as I was to her, I could see her hands shaking, though whether it was fear or anger, I didn't know. "If you attack us, there will be consequences."

"Hey, we never touched you." The girl put both her hands in the air. "But you're in our territory, so if our practice got a little out of hand and you got hurt, that's on you..."

The boy whistled again. The rats turned to face us. There were only a dozen or so, and gross as they were, I didn't think they would be much of a threat. Were these two planning on--

The girl tapped the ground with her bat again. To my horror, the rats doubled in size. Then tripled.

Matted fur bristled over swelling muscles, whiskers grew longer, teeth sharpened into knives. I let out a whimper I wasn't proud of.

"Don't do this." Imogen said, but the girl and her younger companion had already turned to leave.

The rats shrieked and lunged for us. Imogen pushed me back. I tripped on the sidewalk and fell backward onto my hands, watching helplessly as a swarm of Doberman-sized rodents scrabbled over one another to reach Imogen.

Then Imogen did something strange. She closed her eyes and brought up her hands into fists. I watched the glow around her intensify. Moments before the first rat reached her, her eyes snapped open and she punched it in the face.

Rats are generally not capable of expressing emotion--or at the very least, I suck at reading their faces--but even by those limiting rules, this rat was definitely quite surprised, and possibly a little scared. The force of Imogen's punch sent the rodent bouncing across the ground before it smashed into the side of a building hard enough to crack the cement.

My jaw dropped.

But Imogen wasn't done. She became a whirlwind of motion, punting and punching rats as soon as she could reach them. Each blow had the speed and force of a car. One rat crash-landed close to me. It scrabbled to its feet and lunged forward, jaws snapping.

But again, Imogen was there to protect me. She cracked the rodent across the face, then kicked it away across the street.

"Are you okay?" She leaned down and offered me a hand. Her knuckles were sticky with blood, and I suspected none of it was hers.

"You... that..." I didn't know what to process first: the giant rats, the crazy superstrength Imogen could apparently summon, or the fact that it somehow made her MORE attractive.

"Magic," she said, pulling me to my feet. "It's magic. Magic is real, don't forget that."

"Yeah," I mumbled. Everything felt distant and cold. Waves of numbness hit me.

Imogen wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "Hey." She shook me a little. "Hey, Ophelia. Can you hear me?"

Could I? It was too much. I wanted something stable, somewhere I could sit and wait for the world to stop spinning. Somewhere things would make sense again. But things hadn't made sense in my life for years, not since my mom had died and left me to sink into the dark alone.

Dark. It was dark. Distantly, I could hear Imogen saying something. I wondered if it was important. I wondered if she was confessing her undying love for me. If so, this was some impressively unfortunate timing.

Darkness took my vision, and I knew nothing more.