The Wordless Mage
Chapter 42: Softlocked

Chapter 42: Softlocked

Slam!

The blue lockers behind her almost caved from the force of the shove, her eyes closing from the sudden impulse.

Hovering over Liora was a man with crossed arms, looking down at her with menacing vanity, the two at his side just recovering from their stretched arms.

"What’s it gonna be, Rowan? You gonna cough over the lunch money, or do we need to punch it out of you?" He turned to his two buddies while sneering from his own joke, egging them on to raise their hands forward in balled fists. "I think these two here would much prefer that second option."

Liora turned down to her pockets, her eyes squelched from the aching throbs squeezing her ribs tight. The two cronies had slammed her into her own locker, although the force behind it hadn’t been enough to seriously harm anything.

"I-I don’t have anything!" She stammered, pulling her pockets out to reveal their emptiness. With raised arms, she turned to her side, insinuating that she wished to return to class. "Hey, the bell just rung, how about we deal with this another time?"

Smack!

One crony had their fist impact against her cheek, her limbs running free of control from the searing pain.

The only thing holding her from her fall was the other kid’s hands on her shoulders, pressing her back even further up against the hard, cold metal.

"Yeah, that’s not gonna do. We’ve already been through this, but if you show up with nothing during third period, then our only option’s to put you to work. You already know the drill, don’t ya’?"

Her cheek swelling from the punch, she struggled to tilt her head up and down, but once the person holding her shook her even further, her nod grew frantic without pace.

"Then get going now, and finish up by the time lunch comes around. Same spot, got it?"

"Yes, Lazren. I’ll be right back."

She pouted, pulling free from the grip of the two holding her sides.

"27," she whispered to herself once she felt she’d gotten far enough from the three for them to hear.

"What was that?" Lazren asked her, turning.

"Nothing!"

She ran out, heading toward the end of a hallway that panned with tall windows revealing the outside.

Pushing the door blocking the entrance, her gait pulled her along to the exterior of the building, the bright sun glaring into her retinas for just a moment.

It was a tall building, the large block of letters stating its name blurred with a familiar blotch of black scribbling, but she hadn’t ever felt that knowing it was necessary.

Laden in brown brick in the very much stereotypical fashion that any other school was, the school did little to stand out as unique.

"Hey, where are you going?" A tall guard shouted, his skin dark and his posture tall.

He’d been resting in a golf cart just outside the door, but at the urgency of the man’s voice, Liora made a run for it, dashing for the street.

After a few minutes of running through the bustling streets of a dense city, the scenery started to repeat, cars of the exact same make passing by her, buildings with the exact same design towering over her, and the gridlock streets all somehow gaining ubiquity, bearing the same engravings on their hard tar and trashed sidewalks.

Yet, still, Liora had a fairly exact memory of its true layout.

She stood before a small, dingy corner of a store, its sign also obscured with scribbled black.

Turning its hinges, she entered its interior to reveal a nice, comfy dim of light that formed a gradient nicely with the blaring outside glare from the hot sun.

"It’s almost summer, and you’re still coming here to buy? Ya’ know, kids your age should be getting outside more." The man said behind the counter, a large gray shirt far too short to conceal the bulk of their stomach.

Ignoring the irony in their words, Liora grabbed the bag she’d been carrying on her back the entire time. "Not here to buy, I’m here to sell you some goods."

"Hm, we’ll need to test ’em out first, but sure."

Picking apart the scattered papers inside her backpack, her hand touched the flimsy cover for a videogame, removing it from its compartment to show the man.

"How much could this get me?" She asked, flipping it over to reveal both sides.

Swiping the game from her hands, the man looked it up and down, finally opening its cover to see the disk for himself.

Removing it from the cover, he spun it around in the air for a moment, checking for any scratches or impairments.

"Used?"

"Haven’t even touched it. If you don’t believe me, we can enter the disk in your console."

The man inspected her closely, his eyes lingering into hers for a second too long. Still, his face brightened a bit.

"Nah, it’s fine, I trust you. You rely on me too much to try to pull a quick one." He placed the disk back into its cover, moving it to his side. "Hm... twenty-four dollars for this one."

"Hey, that’s a scam! I got it from you for fifty!"

"Consider the decrease in value a result of your grubby hands touching its covers. Gonna cost me quite a bit to rid it of your stench." The man snickered, laughing to himself under his breath.

Liora’s face squeezed not from the man’s insult, but from the stench radiating from his armpits. She knew not to comment on it, having slipped up far too many times before this run.

"Yeah, yeah, Big Al, just give me my money." She relaxed her arm on the counter, looking up at him with as snug a demeanor as she could muster.

His eye twitched, but he didn’t linger for long, stepping back to reach for his register.

Being handed the money, she pretended to run through it, a false count resounding in her head.

"Hey, this is nineteen. Don’t try to stiff me like that."

Al snorted at her pestilence, handing her a five without mentioning anything.

"Yeah, my bad. Now, get moving."

Liora turned to the door, waving her hand in the air. What truly bothered her was what laid just outside the door, her face straightening in preparation.

"Help!" A voice screamed the moment she opened it, female in tone. "He’s running with my purse!"

It was just to her left, a short man snuggling a purple purse in his two elbows.

Lets try shaking things up here, she thought, curling her fists.

Slamming the man square in the jaw, he flew back with the purse, his run stopping right where Liora stood.

Bang!

As soon as the man impacted the ground, a hand-sized black figure lurched from him, his fingers accidentally pulling the trigger.

Liquid crimson trailed from Liora’s sternum, the red-hot pain burning away her balance.

"Someone call an ambulance!" The voice screamed again, the world around Liora beginning to fade out into a black.

The man clumsily jumped on his feet and ran from the scene, the walls pulling inward toward Liora as if space were becoming one thin line.

That didn’t work that well, she joked to herself, although the pain still clawed at her.

Closing her eyes, she subsided to the growing eeriness clinging to her heart.

And then it was black.

Then more black.

"What’s it gonna be, Rowan? You gonna cough over the lunch money, or do we need to punch it out of you?"

She opened her eyes once more, staring into the same figure that she’d encountered just an hour before.

"28." She sighed, closing her eyes to forget the sensation of cold metal clinging to her back.

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