Episode 2: A Bite, a Death, and New Friends: Part 3

"Damnit," Gwen hissed at the open book sitting on her lap. Drops of sweat rained down on the book's pages from the act of casting the spell to save Scott. The ghoul venom was still in his bones and blood, but the rot would kill him anyway. All she did at best was slow his death down.

He grunted in bed, rolling to the other side. She had never had to heal someone from ghoul venom before, but had seen people die of it. The ghoul was a vampire who didn't change well, went mad, and became a monster. She had heard vampires could also become ghouls from drinking truly dead blood, but she had never seen it happen.

She hoped it happened. She hated vampires. She hated most things that went bump in the night.

Scott had tears rolling down his face from the pain of the rot. It felt like, or so she had been told by her grandfather, one of the only Duvals who actively went after vampires. Her mother didn't like the man, but he said it felt like someone was hammering nails into your bones while slowly chipping parts of it away.

She had to knock Scott out before she could start casting the spell to save him.

It wasn't an easy spell, and it had been so long since Gwen had used magic. All magic in the form of spells used the mana of the creation channel into the caster's will. Each caster, from a witch to a wizard, had to have something to pour the manna into, like a tattoo, a wizard's staff, or a book. For someone like Gwen, a Necromancer, it was her womb, her body, which was odd and rare, but her family and, most of all, her sex had been blessed with the power. Only females could be the Master of the Dead, like the Master of Life.

Her father called it Dead Magic.

Her mother called the Blessing of Persephone.

She called it a curse, and it had been something in which she had no use for a long time. A skill that required her to practice like shooting a bow, but she didn't ever want to pick up the bow again.

Scott's body lifted from the pain with another nail from the rot being driven into his bone. He tried to roar from the agony, but nothing came from his scream. She had cast another spell.

Gwen watched him for a moment, seeing his teeth starting to blacken from the venom. Soon the rot would start breaking all his bones, and the merciful thing to do would be to put him down. She wondered how mad people would be if she brought him back to school as the undead. She didn't know his family, but they wouldn't have been happy about their son longing to eat brains.

Tears started to fall on the old paper stained with time. It looked like someone had soaked all the paper in the book with black tea. Dark and old, and the one thing Gwen was sure could save his life. She had failed again. She failed her twin sister, McKenna. She couldn't save her, and she watched her die.

It was all her fault, and her father ensured she knew it.

Another failure on my hands, another death. She tossed the spell book across the room, balling into her eyes. All she wanted was a normal life. She wanted to go to school, stress out about tests, and become a doctor. Then afterward, she would help people, but she couldn't even save this boy. Who only tried to be sweet to her. He foolishly jumped in front of her when the ghoul attacked them. He wanted to walk with her to the car to ensure she was safe. And now she would have to kill him in the end.

Well, he got himself killed, but if I were a doctor, I would still have to save him. Maybe my dream is dumb. I can't save him.

"Spell didn't work?" Rupert asked, standing beside her, drinking his honey tea.

"No, he is going to die," Gwen cried.

"That's a shame," Rupert said calmly, uncaring.

"I can't kill him," Gwen wept, shaking her head.

Rupert gave her a flat stare, "You are going to make me do it, huh?"

"I'm glad you agreed to it."

"You made me clean up the kitchen," Rupert hissed, pointing at Scott. "Where he urinated and vomited all over the floor, you want me to kill him. And let me guess, get rid of the body too?"

"Please," Gwen said, looking over at him with tears still dashing down her long, angular face. He sighed, looking at the boy drinking some more of his tea.

"How long do you think he has?" Rupert asked.

"I removed the venom from his blood, but couldn't get it from his bones. The spell wouldn't take, so I'm guessing a few hours," Gwen said, frowning deeply and standing up. She walked over to Scott, touching his forehead like her mother did when she was sick. She often got sick from messing around with the Dead Magic; all the Necromancers did, as their health was part of the price of learning to use the magic. She dropped her shoulders, followed by her head. "God, I'm so sorry I failed you."

Rupert huffed, making Gwen look back at him. "I don't want to clean this mess up because it is your mess."

"Rupert," Gwen started to protest, but he set his cup down, taking a sticky note from her nightstand. Gwen liked making lists, to-do lists, and hanging quotes around her apartment. He started writing a list.

"I put a call in at the witch shop, Harley's Manticore Magics Shop, near the school on Tory Lane," Rupert said, giving her the list. Gwen read over it, seeing that it was a list of elements for a spell. She narrowed her eyes, unsure of the list and its why. "And told the lovely Harley Odd, the sister to Lenore Odd, what was going on. We need her to open the shop up for a few hours."

The woman, my dad, was going to marry before my mother. He didn't still love Lenore, but he did hate her husband, Abraham, quite a bit, even plotting the man's death a few times.

"She is gathering the stuff now," Rupert said, smiling at Gwen. Her mouth hung up for a second, not sure what to say. "Look, I'm not getting rid of a body, digging holes sucks, and I'm sure the neighbors would start asking questions. Now get going."