This is my new fanfiction. The title is temporary, I really don’t like it much. Open to suggestions.
Also, this story will not be happy, nor fluffy. In fact, it will get dark in a few chatpers. Just sayin'.
Consequences
Summary: Jessica wakes up in a place, full of wizards and magic. It’s enchanting, wondrous, a utopia built for people like her. The only problem? Jessica wants more than anything to escape its clutches.
Chapter 1
It killed her to see her very best friend lying in the stark hospital room, thin body shivering under the blankets. Angela had helped her through so much, but what could Jessica do for her now? She wept. “I’ll get you out of this, I promise,” whispered Jessica, stroking Angela’s face, which was laced with tubes. Then, the image shattered into a million pieces.
“Ouch!” Jessica sat up, and promptly smacked her forehead against a—what was it?
And what had she been dreaming of? Jessica thought hard. There was Angela, oh yes. Angela was there, desperately ill. Jessica was in her hospital room. Angela! I have to get back to her!
She straightened herself, rubbing her skin, and stared; her head had slammed into a statue of some sort. Upon it, in a fanciful font, were the words,
“Celebrating the 2 million citizens of the Spiral”
And on top of those words was a pair of what looked like wizards. Both had their wands pointed at the sky, expressions of merriment on their faces.
I’ve died and gone to Disneyworld, she thought.
Standing up, still a bit shocked, Jessica looked around her. She was standing in the middle of a pond, but her shoes weren’t wet. All around her, people were dashing about. And all of them looked like the two wizards on the statue, except some donned foreign fashions. With some reluctance, she noted that each was carrying a weapon of some sort, be it a wand, staff, or sword.
Okay. This is weird. It’s like I’ve woken up in the middle of Halloween, or maybe a Harry Potter convention? But why do some of their clothes look different?
Feeling confused, Jessica went up to the nearest person she saw, a flamboyantly-dressed boy wearing a set of…armor? It had scales and the helmet resembled a dragon’s head. And sprouting from his shoulder blades were a pair of white wings.
“Uh, excuse me? Can you please tell me where I am?” Jessica asked, facing the strange boy.
He looked at her clothes, then replied, “Huh, another noob, aren’t you?” He flew away without another word.
Wow, rude much…?
Jessica frowned. These Harry Potter fanatics sure were a rude bunch, if that guy was anything to judge by.
She approached another person, this time a boy who was wearing a tamer outfit. They looked like a cloth robe and a simple classic wizard hat. “Excuse me, where am I?”
He turned around and smiled knowingly. “Ah, you must be a new wizard, right?”
She stared at him. What was he talking about? It’s probably part of the act. “Uh, yeah, sure. But where am I and how did I get here?”
“This is Wizard City
“Ravenwood? What’s that?” Jessica asked, confusion growing by the second. This was a bit too far for an act…unless this was some big role-playing thing?
“The school you’ll be going to. Sorry, I’ve got to go. Good luck!” And he disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind only a faint scent of smoke.
Cool trick. Jessica walked towards the indicated building and pushed open the heavy wooden door. Inside was an old, wizened man. He wore an ensemble of red, white, and blue wizard robes. A strange owl was perched on his shoulder. It wore spectacles and looked at her with unusual intelligence.
Oh no, another one of those ‘wizards’?
As soon as Jessica set foot inside the room, he jumped up with the energy of a younger man. “Jessica!” he exclaimed, “Hello, I’m Merle Ambrose, your headmaster at Ravenwood School, and here,” he gestured at the owl, “is my trusty companion, Gamma. So, I trust your transition went smoothly?”
“Transition?”
“Yes, from Earth to the Spiral,” he said. Oh no, he must be one of the crazies here, too. Jessica groaned mentally. Couldn’t they just give her some maps back to the US
“Uh, Mister…Ambrose, sir, I think you’ve mixed something up. I’m not part of whatever event that’s going on here. Actually, I’m just really lost,” stated Jessica.
To her surprise, he chuckled heartily, as if she had told a joke. “Jessica, dear, this is no event. You’re a wizard, and this is your home.”
Silence reigned for a few minutes. Then, Jessica broke into uncontrollable laughter. “O-oh, that’s a good one. For a second, I thought you were serious!”
He smiled kindly at her, like one would regard a naïve child.
She stopped laughing. “You were joking, weren’t you?”
“Why, of course I wasn’t!”
Jessica’s heart sank. “So…How will I get home?”
Ambrose chuckled. “Why in the world would you want to go back? Here you have everything you’ve ever wanted: magic of your own, and fellow wizards!” As if to prove something, Ambrose waved his hand and a purple snake appeared from thin air.
That stopped Jessica cold. The small display convinced her. “How could you do something so horrible? Steal away people from their lives, their homes, and force them to come here?” demanded Jessica.
Merle Ambrose’s smile slid off his face. “None of them had a problem with it. All were more than glad to join me in the Spiral.” His tone turned patronizing. “And I’m sure you will too, with time. Now, in the meantime, why not take a tour of your school?”
She glowered at the old man, and then turned on her heel. “I’ll be out front waiting,” she yelled as she closed the door.
---
Ambrose frowned as Jessica left the room. He turned to Gamma. “Did we make some sort of mistake? Does she have it?”
Gamma shook his head. “No mistake, sir. Magic indeed flows through her veins.”
Merle was not mollified. “Well, what if she wants to leave? You think we could do the UnTransitional, make an exception just this once?”
Immediately, Gamma responded, “Too dangerous, sir. Remember what happened to poor Suri? We can’t risk it with Jessica.”
Ambrose sighed. “I supposed you’re right. Call in Brian, he’ll be her tour guide.”
Great story!
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