dig your grave

August 2083 - Fiona McCullough is 16, Robbie is 13, Liza Hathe is 15.

* soundtrack: "Gold Dust Woman," by Fleetwood Mac *

If you think they don't have powers, these regular kids in the regular world, you'd be wrong.

Everyone has powers. Like her brother, with that stupid dopey smile of his. It's a power, and it certainly gets the girls all smitten. Fiona has power too, lots of it. She has her breasts for example, which are quite powerful. Maybe not powerful enough to win over Charlie Roseland, but that's okay. That isn't all Fiona has in her arsenal. That isn't even that start of it, if you want to know the truth.

Fiona has her brain. And Fiona has the world of knowledge available to her, all the books in the library, all the words on every website ever written. Fiona has some very interesting information, a strange-looking, old and worn book she found in the back shelves of some little book store. You can learn a lot of things in books, and Fiona is onto something. She'll get back at Charlie Roseland. She doesn't know how yet, and she doesn't know when, but she's learning things, very interesting things.

Curse him all to hell, for choosing dorky, chubby Natty over her! She'd burn him, push him straight into that fire. But that would be too easy, too quick. Sure, he might squirm a little, but that's not enough. She doesn't just want to make him cry, she wants to make him pay. And it's only a matter of time - sooner or later, she's going to figure out how.

But first, she'd prefer that her own dopey brother didn't fall into the fire himself.

"Don't stand so close, dumb-ass," she says. "You're gonna burn your stupid head off."

"I wasn't going to burn my head," he says.

"And if he did," Liza adds, "I totally would have pushed him into the lake."

"I just don't get it," Fiona says. "We come from some of the most brilliant and devious minds in the country. Mom must have dropped you on your head as a baby. Did you know our grandparents were criminals?"

"Did mom tell you that?"

"No, I read it in a book, you should try it some time!"

"I read books," he says.

"Yeah, comics don't count. And neither does that lingerie magazine you keep under your pillow."

"Eeew," Liza says, walking away.

"You should be helping me! You're supposed to be my devious sidekick! You're barely fit to be a Deppiesse!"

He grows bored of her wild ideas, her passionate scheming. "Why can't you just be normal?" he says. "None of us are devious but you."

He goes to sit next to Liza and Fiona wanders away on her own.

It peeves her, her little brother and her only friend, practically in love or something. Because where does that leave her but pushed to the side?

She doesn't get very far when she's stopped. She isn't sure what she's seeing, but there's a strange white flash across the sky. It does more than just stun her, it fills her with awe.

When it's gone, she runs back to them.

"Whoa, guys, did you see that?"

They didn't see anything, all laughing and stealing goofy glances at each other. Curse them too! Curse everybody!

But the flashes begin again, and keep coming, streaming down in beams. They all see them this time. "What the hell," Fiona says. "Tell me you're seeing it this time!"

"Oh, hey, cool, a meteor shower," Liza says. "I didn't know that was happening tonight. Did you ever see one before?"

"I never saw one," Robbie says.

"Not that," Fiona says. "The woman!"

"She's weird," Liza says. "I dare you to go prank her."

Fiona isn't sure there will be any pranking tonight, though the idea does send shivers of joy down her spine. But regardless, she feels herself drawn to this woman. Not like she has a choice even, but like on some level she knows this woman is here to talk to her.

"It's not very nice, what you're about to do," the woman says.

"The prank? How did you know?"

"I don't mean the prank. And I know because your aura is ugly."

"Ugly?" Fiona takes a step back. "Nothing about me is ugly. Who are you?"

"My name is Ginger, but that doesn't matter."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm here to tell you something," Ginger says. "I know what you're doing, and I think you need some guidance."

"And let me guess, you want to give it to me?"

"There's something you need to keep in mind," Ginger says. "It's a sort of rule. It's the way things work. Whatever energy you put out into the world, you'll receive back three-fold."

"Huh," Fiona grunts. "Is that a threat?"

Fiona laughs, with as much condescension as she can physically muster. She turns back to Robbie and Liza. "Can you believe this woman?"

They've since resumed not paying attention to her, probably the second she walked away. Curse them, they miss everything. Curse them all!

She'd only turned away for a few seconds when she sees another flash of light before her eyes.

She feels stupid for jumping. This time it's only a damn firefly.

But that's not the freakiest thing.

The freakiest thing is that the woman is gone. She didn't say goodbye, and Fiona didn't even hear her footsteps as she left.

She puts her hand in her pocket, and as she begins to walk, she feels something. Somehow, in her pocket there is a card that wasn't there when she came out tonight. It doesn't say much, just a phone number, and a name, Ginger Vance, Wiccan Guide, Coven of the Light.

"Whatever," Fiona says, rolling her eyes hard. "Like I'm about to join somebody else's cult."

*******

(footnotes: Fiona's Masterplan, Charlie dissed Fiona)

notes: a random little bit of trivia - all of my Deppiesse cousins are abnormally brilliant (besides Robbie, lol!): Amelia, Dallas, Fiona, Natty, Delphie, and Dakota... and I suppose we have yet to find out if Connor will follow suit. They're all very highly skilled, and always wanting to read and learn things. Maybe it is genetic?

This was also (very loosely) inspired by the November theme at Valley Sun Sims: Bonfire Night. As you can see, I totally don't do challenges on time ;)