Story
just waiting to be told
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2020
It starts off like a song stuck in your head, a kind of mental memory reflex of trying to remember the words to something you’ve heard a few times on the radio; it’s catchy, it has your attention, but you’re not yet to the point of being able to sing along to the tune. So instead, it’s a cluster of lyrics, of song beats dancing around in your head, overcrowding any other train of thought. That was what it was like to do magic. Remembering something you could grasp ahold of in the first place, until all you have is an echo in your mind as to what it was supposed to be.
And the rest of the world still insisted that magic didn’t exist. Probably because they were all tone deaf, with the exception of that low percent of the population that was either in - like some sort of fucking exclusive club - or they were out, living out their lives in ignorance and watching Twilight while curled up on their couch stroking their dog or cat, fantasizing about the reality of glitter-tastic vampires coming to whisk them off their feet and spend happily ever after with something that is, seriously, technically dead.
Vampires are monsters, people. They really aren’t natural. They’re like a disease. Why would you want to have sex with something that is dead? And please don’t use the excuse that it’s not technically dead, just undead, through magical means. I mean, they write romance novels about this stuff and think it’s sexy to have a monster rip into your throat.
For someone like Mia Omicidio, who had lived her entire life on the fringes of the supernatural and the mundane, with the catch of magic’s tune forever beating a drum in her head, the monsters just weren’t quite as appealing as pop culture made them out to be. It was why she did what she did now, in a way, working with the monsters that went bump in that night -- because, kids, the bogeyman is real, there are several of them, you cannot see them unless they want you to -- only she had always been able to see everything that scurried across her floor or peeked around from the dark crevices of her closet.
You were born by unnatural means.
The words were from both of her parents, spoken behind a mask of trepidation as they scoured her for any further flaws other than the genetic anomaly of a violet-lit stare. Did that mean she was considered an Indigo child? I mean, who has purple eyes unless you were some Khaleesi out of a fantasy novel. But Mia was not Targaryen dragon rider, probably, but the Sight had been with her since she could form memories and the witchfire that made up her iris burned brightly until she was older still, old enough to know what it meant, and older still until she could shut it off. Nowadays she only took peeks at the world underneath what was right in front of her if she had to.
You know the saying: beauty is in the eye of the beholder; beauty is only skin deep; you are a beautiful monster. ...Something like that. Well, it’s true. Hideous tends to hide its real skin under something that you want to fuck out of a porno. Or at least made of something found written in the pages of a steamy supernatural romance. At least -- some of them did.
It was why Mia found herself inside some strange man’s hotel room, sixth floor, room 623, with a window view of the city’s glittering lights and Shy Town’s shores of Lake Michigan. He had gone modest, but they still didn’t know exactly what he was in town for, except maybe to accrue points with Hilton Enterprise and pick off the agents that worked closely with the Syndicate. Or just a part of it. Pace, who had put her up to it, was one of the head honchos of the entire gig and had taken a special amount of attention toward this mysterious someone who had been hunting them down in the city -- and only those who had worked closely on one particular case from when she had still been a child. It was why it was her in that hotel room instead of anyone else.
See, Mia’s father had been a part of the travesty that had occurred back then, ripping the Syndicate itself asunder and making himself hunted by not only their agents, but by outside baddies. It was no longer that the man was allegedly dead, forgotten in the dust of his mischief making. Though knowing her father -- without a body as proof, she wondered if the man had truly died or if he had stranded himself on a desert island of his own making, grew out his beard, and was now living like a hobo in a beach shack somewhere. Not that he had been much of a father figure to her. After all, her earliest memories of the man involved a monthly visit from a near stranger who poked her arm with a needle while wearing a look of consternation and worry as he did it.
Mommy and daddy hadn’t gotten along very well back then. They never had -- not as far as she knew. But she gave James, Gideon -- her dad -- credit where it was due: he pushed her into the direction she was going now and established the groundwork of the tenacious control she now had over herself and her own abilities. Though now all Mia was left with was burnt rubber on asphalt, a rumor that he was dead, and a mother who was batshit crazy and locked away with her mutterings.
Are you in?
Her phone buzzed in the clutch purse that dangled over her shoulder. Reaching in with a pair of manicured fingers, she plucked the device free and stared down at the screen that lit up with the message. Glancing up at the empty room, still dark except for the light from the city, she moved over to where the overnight bag had been situated at the foot of the bed before she unlocked the device with the swipe of her finger and messaged Pace back.
Yeah, in as I can get. You sure this is the right room? It’s pretty business standard. Just a couple pairs of boxer briefs, toiletries, some socks -- there’s a couple shirts hanging in the closet. Just seems like I’m an actual whore waiting for some bored business guy to come back from a client dinner, Pace.
She had to wait a few minutes for her next reply. Impatiently, Mia shifted her feet inside the pair of dark heels. Not quite stilettos; she wasn’t quite going there in case she had to make a quick get away, but high enough that that everything below the hem of her dress was accentuated. Plus she could always use them as a weapon in a beat. Ever been hit with blunt force trauma via a heel? It’s not pretty, especially if you get them in a soft spot. Finally, the phone vibrated again, lighting up.
It’s the right room, baby girl.
That's it? She rolled her eyes in the dark even though there was no one there to see.
Can’t I just ward this place and ditch? Do I actually have to make physical contact with this fucker?
He was quicker to respond this time around, but it still made her scowl as a smiling emoji popped up on her phone’s screen. Exasperated, she plopped down on the edge of the bed so that the springs were jostled underneath her weight. Letting the heels dangle from her bare toes, she stretched out her legs and stared at the bare stretch of skin, blew the fine lock of tawny-and-gold from where it caressed against her cheek. She smelled like too much perfume and one glance up at the mirror revealed a smokey-eyed minx with painted cherry lips. And, no doubt, too much makeup just to give her that overdone look. She had even penciled in her brows so that the striking look really popped.
How else are you going to get his blood?
He’ll notice if you leave a ward. Use those acting skills, kid.
Non-existent acting skills. It was Pace’s idea that she show up like this: the unannounced escort that had shown up in the wrong room. If he didn’t suspect anything was afoul just from her presence, Mia was expected to fumble through some sort of flirtation. Enough to prick him, gather a few drops of blood, and get out of there with her DNA sample. Somehow, she didn’t think that this plotline was going to go over too well at all. Though she did glance down at her phone one more time to see the latest of his texts.
Are you wearing the contacts?
Yes.
No. She wasn’t. She hadn’t been able to stick her eye enough times for the blue tinted contacts, so she was relying on the dark to hide the violet iris of her stare. Speaking of, she met her own gaze in the mirror across from her. Twisting up her face, she scowled at the image reflected back at her, then scrunched it up, wrinkled her nose, furrowed her brow, until at last she stuck her tongue out.
Only to hustle off the edge of the bed as the lock clicked on the door. Suddenly, her heart was beating frantically. Without responding to the newest message from her mentor, and, she supposed -- ally of sorts -- she shoved the phone back in her clutch and hastened over to the lamp, flicking it on so that it filled the room with its soft ambience. Without knowing what to do with herself after that, she shuffled over to the window and popped her hip as she struck a dramatic post -- as if she were both bored and anticipating. She even tried to push out her lower lip in an expectant pout as she shifted her attention from where she had allegedly been gazing out the window in wait for her client to organically watch him enter the room.
No doubt she looked just as foolish as she felt doing it.
Just a drop of blood. Right. She might as well just stab him with her heel and run after all.
@Dark Prince
And the rest of the world still insisted that magic didn’t exist. Probably because they were all tone deaf, with the exception of that low percent of the population that was either in - like some sort of fucking exclusive club - or they were out, living out their lives in ignorance and watching Twilight while curled up on their couch stroking their dog or cat, fantasizing about the reality of glitter-tastic vampires coming to whisk them off their feet and spend happily ever after with something that is, seriously, technically dead.
Vampires are monsters, people. They really aren’t natural. They’re like a disease. Why would you want to have sex with something that is dead? And please don’t use the excuse that it’s not technically dead, just undead, through magical means. I mean, they write romance novels about this stuff and think it’s sexy to have a monster rip into your throat.
For someone like Mia Omicidio, who had lived her entire life on the fringes of the supernatural and the mundane, with the catch of magic’s tune forever beating a drum in her head, the monsters just weren’t quite as appealing as pop culture made them out to be. It was why she did what she did now, in a way, working with the monsters that went bump in that night -- because, kids, the bogeyman is real, there are several of them, you cannot see them unless they want you to -- only she had always been able to see everything that scurried across her floor or peeked around from the dark crevices of her closet.
You were born by unnatural means.
The words were from both of her parents, spoken behind a mask of trepidation as they scoured her for any further flaws other than the genetic anomaly of a violet-lit stare. Did that mean she was considered an Indigo child? I mean, who has purple eyes unless you were some Khaleesi out of a fantasy novel. But Mia was not Targaryen dragon rider, probably, but the Sight had been with her since she could form memories and the witchfire that made up her iris burned brightly until she was older still, old enough to know what it meant, and older still until she could shut it off. Nowadays she only took peeks at the world underneath what was right in front of her if she had to.
You know the saying: beauty is in the eye of the beholder; beauty is only skin deep; you are a beautiful monster. ...Something like that. Well, it’s true. Hideous tends to hide its real skin under something that you want to fuck out of a porno. Or at least made of something found written in the pages of a steamy supernatural romance. At least -- some of them did.
It was why Mia found herself inside some strange man’s hotel room, sixth floor, room 623, with a window view of the city’s glittering lights and Shy Town’s shores of Lake Michigan. He had gone modest, but they still didn’t know exactly what he was in town for, except maybe to accrue points with Hilton Enterprise and pick off the agents that worked closely with the Syndicate. Or just a part of it. Pace, who had put her up to it, was one of the head honchos of the entire gig and had taken a special amount of attention toward this mysterious someone who had been hunting them down in the city -- and only those who had worked closely on one particular case from when she had still been a child. It was why it was her in that hotel room instead of anyone else.
See, Mia’s father had been a part of the travesty that had occurred back then, ripping the Syndicate itself asunder and making himself hunted by not only their agents, but by outside baddies. It was no longer that the man was allegedly dead, forgotten in the dust of his mischief making. Though knowing her father -- without a body as proof, she wondered if the man had truly died or if he had stranded himself on a desert island of his own making, grew out his beard, and was now living like a hobo in a beach shack somewhere. Not that he had been much of a father figure to her. After all, her earliest memories of the man involved a monthly visit from a near stranger who poked her arm with a needle while wearing a look of consternation and worry as he did it.
Mommy and daddy hadn’t gotten along very well back then. They never had -- not as far as she knew. But she gave James, Gideon -- her dad -- credit where it was due: he pushed her into the direction she was going now and established the groundwork of the tenacious control she now had over herself and her own abilities. Though now all Mia was left with was burnt rubber on asphalt, a rumor that he was dead, and a mother who was batshit crazy and locked away with her mutterings.
Are you in?
Her phone buzzed in the clutch purse that dangled over her shoulder. Reaching in with a pair of manicured fingers, she plucked the device free and stared down at the screen that lit up with the message. Glancing up at the empty room, still dark except for the light from the city, she moved over to where the overnight bag had been situated at the foot of the bed before she unlocked the device with the swipe of her finger and messaged Pace back.
Yeah, in as I can get. You sure this is the right room? It’s pretty business standard. Just a couple pairs of boxer briefs, toiletries, some socks -- there’s a couple shirts hanging in the closet. Just seems like I’m an actual whore waiting for some bored business guy to come back from a client dinner, Pace.
She had to wait a few minutes for her next reply. Impatiently, Mia shifted her feet inside the pair of dark heels. Not quite stilettos; she wasn’t quite going there in case she had to make a quick get away, but high enough that that everything below the hem of her dress was accentuated. Plus she could always use them as a weapon in a beat. Ever been hit with blunt force trauma via a heel? It’s not pretty, especially if you get them in a soft spot. Finally, the phone vibrated again, lighting up.
It’s the right room, baby girl.
That's it? She rolled her eyes in the dark even though there was no one there to see.
Can’t I just ward this place and ditch? Do I actually have to make physical contact with this fucker?
He was quicker to respond this time around, but it still made her scowl as a smiling emoji popped up on her phone’s screen. Exasperated, she plopped down on the edge of the bed so that the springs were jostled underneath her weight. Letting the heels dangle from her bare toes, she stretched out her legs and stared at the bare stretch of skin, blew the fine lock of tawny-and-gold from where it caressed against her cheek. She smelled like too much perfume and one glance up at the mirror revealed a smokey-eyed minx with painted cherry lips. And, no doubt, too much makeup just to give her that overdone look. She had even penciled in her brows so that the striking look really popped.
How else are you going to get his blood?
He’ll notice if you leave a ward. Use those acting skills, kid.
Non-existent acting skills. It was Pace’s idea that she show up like this: the unannounced escort that had shown up in the wrong room. If he didn’t suspect anything was afoul just from her presence, Mia was expected to fumble through some sort of flirtation. Enough to prick him, gather a few drops of blood, and get out of there with her DNA sample. Somehow, she didn’t think that this plotline was going to go over too well at all. Though she did glance down at her phone one more time to see the latest of his texts.
Are you wearing the contacts?
Yes.
No. She wasn’t. She hadn’t been able to stick her eye enough times for the blue tinted contacts, so she was relying on the dark to hide the violet iris of her stare. Speaking of, she met her own gaze in the mirror across from her. Twisting up her face, she scowled at the image reflected back at her, then scrunched it up, wrinkled her nose, furrowed her brow, until at last she stuck her tongue out.
Only to hustle off the edge of the bed as the lock clicked on the door. Suddenly, her heart was beating frantically. Without responding to the newest message from her mentor, and, she supposed -- ally of sorts -- she shoved the phone back in her clutch and hastened over to the lamp, flicking it on so that it filled the room with its soft ambience. Without knowing what to do with herself after that, she shuffled over to the window and popped her hip as she struck a dramatic post -- as if she were both bored and anticipating. She even tried to push out her lower lip in an expectant pout as she shifted her attention from where she had allegedly been gazing out the window in wait for her client to organically watch him enter the room.
No doubt she looked just as foolish as she felt doing it.
Just a drop of blood. Right. She might as well just stab him with her heel and run after all.
@Dark Prince