Mack

Pt. 1

Pt. 2

Pt. 3

Pt. 4

After grabbing some fast food, we got on the highway. I hardly ever use my car cause parking in New York is a shit show. 

“Um, ma’am?” I heard Andrew from the back seat. 

“Yeah?” 

“We never got your name…”

“Oh, shot you never did, did you? My name's Charlie.” I told him. 

He went quiet after that. The car was getting to an awkward silence, so I turned on the radio. One of my favorite songs was playing so I quietly hummed along.

After the song ended, I could hear the boys in the back whispering to each other. I turned the radio down a bit so I could eavesdrop.

“I’m sorry that I found you embarrassing.”

“I’m embarrassed by me all the time.” Jesus, this kid was a ball of weird.

“And Andrew, those city kids, they’re not cooler than you.”

“Oh, Nick, thank you. But they are.” This got me giggling.

“Sorry for listening but while city kids may seem cooler, they are more likely to have drug problems, grow up too fast, and get taken into human trafficking. They are also complete bitches.” I tell them, “Just because they grew up in the city doesn’t make them cooler. They just grow up too fast.” 

After they got back to talking I zoned out.

The boys start to doze off when we get into Bridgeton.

“Hey, kiddos,” I wake them up, “We’re almost there.” 

I see four people outside the Birch house waiting for us. I pull up next to them on the road.

“You guys order some runaways?” I joke. None of them laugh. “Ok, tough crowd.” I mutter turning off the car. 

The kids get out of the car and start to get scolded by the parents. I text Judd to come outside cause I didn’t know his parents so I didn’t want to just storm into their house. If they put up with Judd then I have to respect them.

“Thank you for driving them.” One of the moms walks up to me.

“No problem. I know I would be panicking if my kid was wandering New York and I didn’t know.”

“I’m Diane, Nick’s mom.”

“Charlie.” I shake Mrs. Birches hand

“This is my husband, Elliot.” Mrs. Birch grabs away from a crying Nick.

“It’s nice to meet you two.”

“I can’t thank you enough for taking care of our little Nicky.” Mr. Birch hugs me.

“You're a hugger then.” I pat his back until he lets me go.

The other set of parents comes over to talk to me.

“Hi, I’m Barbara Glouberman,” The woman grabs my hand shaking it, “This is my husband Marty.”

“That little putz better have not caused you any trouble.”

“No sir, both of the children were behaving. Manners and everything.”

Before they can continue, the front door opens and I see Judd. Thank god he took long enough.

“The fuck are you doing here?” He walks down the steps.

“Do you know this lovely lady, Judd?” His dad asked.

“Two of those are wrong. They are not lovely, they're a raging bitch and they're not a lady.”

“Get in the car, this is a kidnapping.” I tell Judd.

“You don’t tell me what to do.” He points his finger at me while getting in the front seat.

“Yeah ok.” I turn to Mr. and Mrs. Birch, “Don’t worry, I won’t let him get arrested.” 

“As long as you two are safe, but how do you know Judd?” Mrs. Birch asks me.

“We have some mutual friends that introduced us,” I was going to continue but someone got impatient.

“Are you comi-don’t answer that, get your ass in the car.” He quickly changed what he was going to say when I turned to face him.

“I don’t want him to ruin my car so I’m going to get in the car.” I say goodbye to the still very confused parents. I turn and jog to the driver’s side and get in the car. 

“Took you long enough.” Judd grumbles from the passenger seat.

I don’t dignify his comment with a reaction. 

I pull away from the curb and pass my phone to Judd to put on some music. He unlocks it and turns on a playlist that we made called “The Vibes *chef’s kiss*” The first song is Pretty Fly (For A White Guy).

“Open the glove box.” I point for Judd, “I have a spare dispo in there.”

“Nice.” He digs through the mess and pulls out a mL dispo. 

“I started keeping one in there just in case.”

“So you got stuck in traffic and drained yours?”

“Yeah basically.”

We sit and listen to the music as I turn onto the highway. It turned into a warm night so we had the windows open.

“There’s a party going on tonight at NYU that Nadia is hosting. Wanna crash?” I glance at Judd sitting with his arm out the window and vapor pouring from his lips. The image made the photographer in me want to capture it. I’ve been meaning to do an urban decay collection. Maybe I could get Judd to model in it. 

“Isn’t that your old roommate?” I turn my head again to see Judd stuffing his face with the leftovers of my dinner.

“Hey!” I try to  grab the burger away from him, “I was gonna eat that later.” 

“Too bad,” He stuffs the whole thing in his face.

“Asshole.” I slap his thigh. “And yes she’s my old roommate. She hangs out with some cool people now so it shouldn’t be too boring.” 

The warm mist enveloped my soul. It felt like a warm hug. This always calmed me down. 

“Hello.” A voice spoke. I opened my third eye to see a creature. This creature had a skull head attached to what seemed to be a bigger skull and was suspended by chains. 

“Who are you?” I asked.

“That doesn’t matter at this moment. I’m here to warn you.” The chains rattled as it shifted. “Stay close to the budding shinigami.” The edges of it started to fade.

“Wait! Why are you telling me this?” I try to get closer but I’m unable to move.

“Others have bigger plans for you and if that pest tries to kill you, it will enrage them. Keeping you alive will help stop the gods from waging war against the humans.”

“Yagami? Why would he try to kill me?” I ask it.

“He cannot control you so he will try to destroy you.” After that the creature fades into the mist.

Yagami would try to kill me? He does know my full name and my face. I hadn’t realized how much danger I was in until now. I wonder who that creature was. 

I imagine Yagami and Ryuk. The mist starts to form into solid shapes that resemble the front of my house. So he still hasn’t left.

“What was that Ryuk?” Yagami asks the shinigami.

“That was sage. It helps banish ill intentioned spirits, such as shinigamis.” He pokes around the apple tree in our front yard. He plucks an unripe apple off of the branches and bites it. “Yuck! That's not an apple!”

“It isn’t ripe.” I say without thinking.

He turns his head towards my spirit.

“So you can’t stay away, huh?”

“Who are you talking to?” Yagami asks him.

“Hehe, no one.” Ryuk throws the apple over his shoulder.

“Why did the sage affect me then?” Yagami tries asking Ryuk but he floats up to me, studying. 

“So you can only be visible on the other plane now?” He asks me, floating around me.

“My spirit has separated from my body so only those who can see this plane can see me, such as you.” I told him.

“Will you pay attention to me! I asked you something!” Yagami yells at Ryuk.

“I don’t know why the sage affected you. You’re human.” Ryuk flys back down to Yagami. 

The creature did call Yagami a ‘budding shinigami’. Maybe his soul is turning into one.

“What happens after use of the death note?” I ask Ryuk. He turns his head up to me.

“You can’t go to heaven or hell when you die. Not really sure what happens after that.” Ryuk says, still looking up. So he is turning into a shinigami.

“Who are you talking to?” Yagami asks again. Ryuk ignored him. I go back to my body.

A/N- I have a computer now so hopefully I will be posting more :)

With how interested Yagami seemed in me being a witch, I expected him to be around me more. It’s been a relatively quiet week. Though Ryuk has been appearing randomly and scaring the absolute shit out of me. It’s almost like a game, seeing how badly he can scare me. 

“Hey, (Y/N),” My mom says walking down the stairs, “Your father and I are going out with some work friends. We won’t be back until really late tonight. There's some money on the counter for you for dinner.” 

“Thanks!” I yell after her and my dad as they walk out the door. 

We hardly ever eat together anymore. As soon as my mom realized that I could order takeout for myself, her and Dad have been out almost every night. I don’t mind being left alone. I get to do whatever I want without Mom telling me I should try harder in school.

“They leave you every night?” A voice says behind me.

“What the hell?!” I yell at Yagami, after I jump a foot off the couch, “How did you get in here?” 

“Your parents let me in. We’re supposed to do homework together.” He walks around the couch and sits down next to me.

“Dude, you can’t just sneak up on me like that!” I yelled at him.

“I do it all the time.” Ryuk floated out of the floor. I screeched and pulled my legs up to my chest. 

“What is with you two trying to give me a heart attack?!” I was losing what little of my patience I had left. 

“I want to learn more about your magic.” Yagami says.

“I'm still learning so I’m not going to be teaching others.” I get off of the couch and go up to my room.

“Well then I can just watch you practice then.” Yagami followed me up the stairs.

“I told you that it’s a very private thing.” I slammed the door in his face and locked it. Won’t that guy take no for an answer? I ignore the noise of him and Ryuk talking outside the door and take some deep breaths. I need to meditate and I don’t want his energy in the house. I grab some incense and a lighter. I lit the incense and spread the smoke around my room. When the room is sufficiently cleansed, I open the door and let it drift towards Yagami and Ryuk.

“What is that?” Yagami asks.

“Incense.” Ryuk answers, flying back a bit.

“Oh, you don’t like it then?” I walk towards Ryuk. He keeps backing up. I get closer to him and he runs, technically flies, away.

“That stuff reeks.” Yagami says, waving his hand in front of his face.

“It banishes bad spirits and negative energy.” I get closer to him and he starts coughing.

“It won’t stop until you leave this house.” I blew some smoke right in his face.

“Ok, ok, I’ll leave.” He coughs more and leaves.

I lock the door once he walks out.

"May your throat be cleansed, that you might speak rightly when words are needed. May your eyes be cleansed, that you might see the signs and wonders of the world. May this person and space be washed clean by the smoke of these fragrant plants" I say a cleansing prayer getting rid of the bad energies. The house feels much cleaner now. “Much better.”

When I’m back up in my room, I put the incense on a stand to let it finish burning. I set up my pillows, crystals and other candles for meditation. I always have a comfortable place to sit. I tried laying down for meditation but I kept falling asleep. I lit a lavender and vanilla candle. I have an amethyst worry stone that I hold when meditating. As I settle into my spot, I can feel the energies around me fading away. My consciousness faded in the scents of lavender and vanilla and I went onto a different plane.

should i do a taglist?

Chapter 1: Savior

Well, it started out as a nice day. I woke up early, cleaned my apartment, and finished a project that’s been annoying since I started; the footage just wouldn’t flow together correctly, and it pissed me off. I even decided to go for a walk. But it started to rain as I was walking back. 

“Stupid rain. Always coming at the worst possible time.” I continued to curse the rain as I walked along the sidewalk.

I finally arrived at my apartment building. It wasn’t in the best neighbourhood but it was home. When I unlocked my door, I could hear my rats, Nicodemus and Jareth, chattering from their cage. 

“You guys want to run around? Yeah, I bet you do.” I unlocked their cage and they crawled up my arms. They usually like curling up in my hair but since it's wet they stay on my arms. 

“I know, I’m all wet.” Nicodemus crawls down my body and Jareth follows. They start to chase each other around on the floor.

I laugh and go get a towel and dry my hair. Now that my hair isn’t as wet, Nicodemus comes back and sits on my shoulder. 

I owned his mother before him, so I've been in his life the whole time. I have always kept one of the rat pups when my rats had pups. The first rat I ever owned was Nicodemus’s great-great-great-great-great grandmother. I usually kept one of the girls but I bonded with Nicodemus. He has a salt and pepper coat. Jareth has a light golden blonde coat. The Rats of NIMH and Labyrinth are two of my favourite movies, and when I get two boys they both look like characters from those movies is just a happy coincidence.

 I like having rats because of how intelligent and caring they are; they remember who someone is just like crows. That is if they are properly socialised. Before I got Jareth, I would take Nicodemus with me everywhere. He loved to sit on my shoulder when I skateboard. Jareth isn’t as active and adventurous as Niccy. He just likes to curl up in my bra when I’m doing work or watching TV. When I bought him home from the store he crawled into my bra as soon as I let him out of the box he came in. God, that makes him sound like a toy you get from Walmart. 

Jareth decided that he wasn’t getting enough attention, so he crawled up into my shirt and into my bra, like always. 

“You boys hungry? Let's have a snack.” I go towards the cupboards and look for something to eat. “Peanut butter toast sounds good? Yeah, it does.” I get out the peanut butter and bread. As the bread toasts, I put some peanut butter on my finger and hold it up to Nicodemus, “gentle, no biting,” I tell him. He licks all the peanut butter off and Jareth pops his head out of my shirt for some. 

“Yes, you too.” He tries to pull my finger into my shirt so he doesn't have to stretch. “You are a little goofball, you know that right?”

After I finished my toast, I decided to have an after snack, snack. Weed. Such a lovely plant. I love that I can legally buy it now, instead of going through someone else who rises the price for underaged people. 

“You two need to go back into your cage,” I walk over to the boys’ cage, “You know I don’t like you out when I’m not in the apartment.” I pull Jareth out of my shirt and place him in a hammock. Nicodemus crawls down my arm, following his brother. They curl up and start to fall asleep. 

“You two are so cute,” I close the cage door and lock it. I don’t like the idea of them out when I can’t watch them because my dad once let his hamster out of its cage when he was younger and they never found him again until the house started to smell and the hamster was cooking over the boiler. Talk about the rodent owner's worst nightmare. 

This time I put on a sweatshirt to go outside. It's still raining. I don’t like smoking inside because rats can get respiratory infections easily and I don’t want to cause my rats to get sick and suffer. 

I’m about halfway through my blunt when I see two kids walking down the street with no jackets. One of them looks familiar. I think it's Judd's little brother. I’ve seen pictures of him from time to time. Judd may not tell anyone but he has pictures of his family on his phone.

“This is bad. We have no idea where we are.” The other one said.

“It’s getting so late,” Possibly-Nick said. It was getting late, “Our parents are probably freaking out right now.”

Did they sneak into the city? Damn, from the stories I've heard, he’s kinda a wimp.

“I would’ve done so many things differently. I would’ve wiped better.” Ok, now I’m stepping in.

“Hey, Kids!” I yell at them. I put up my hood so I don’t get any more wet. They look so freaked out.

“We didn’t do anything! I swear!” They back away.

“I’m not going to hurt you. You’re Judd Birch’s little brother aren’t you?” I ask Possibly-Nick.

“Yeah, I am. You know my brother?” Nick perks up.

“Unfortunately, I do. You guys want to come inside my place to dry off?” I ask them.

“I’m, you aren’t like a murderer, are you?” Nick asks.

“No, I’m not,” I laugh, “your brother is a good friend of mine. Look,” I pull out my phone, “ I Have a picture of him.” I show them a picture of Judd mauling a sandwich. 

“Yeah, that’s my brother. Ok, we would really like someplace to dry off.”

They follow me up to my apartment.

“You boys want some hot chocolate or something to warm up?” I ask them as I hand the towels to dry off with.

“Yes, please.” They both answer. After I make them some hot chocolate and add some coffee to mine, I sit them down on my couch.

“What are you guys doing in the city without an adult? You guys are like, what, 10?”

“We’re not 10-“

“Nick dragged me into the city to make out with a girl, she went to the Rocks house, and we said we would meet her there because I this inner ear thing,  so I obviously can’t fly, we lost my cool jazz hat, followed the ghost of Duke Ellington around the city, saw someone crapping on a sidewalk, saw my hat on a woman’s head and the women kissed our friend's mom who’s married, got mugged, and then we got lost and I want to go home!” Nick’s friend said in one breath. I thought I could talk fast but damn, that kids something else.

“Andrew!” Nick yelled angrily at him. 

Nick’s scolding Andrew was caught off by me laughing at them. “This is too good, I mean from the stories I've heard from Judd you're a little wimp, but you going all the way to the city to make out with a girl,” I almost fell over, “I mean, how did you even get here? There’s no way you could have walked along the highway here.”

“We took the train here,” Nick told me.

“And now you have no money to get back, right?” I leaned back in my chair.

“Yeah,” Andrew answered.

“And how do you expect to get back to Bridgeton?” 

Nick and Andrew looked at each other, plotting.

“We were hoping, now that we’ve met you, you could drive us back, or,” Nick spoke up, “at least give us the money to get a train back.” He tried to give me a ‘charming’ smile, but it wasn’t working on me, or, in my opinion, anyone.

I thought about it for a moment. Either drive these boys back to Bridgeton, which was a three-hour drive away, see them get in trouble with their parents, possibly convince Judd to spend the night with me, which I know he will say yes to because I’m awesome, or give them the money and have no fun what so ever tonight. Yeah, there was an obvious winner.

“Ok, I will drive you back,” The boys were excited, “On one condition.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Nick says, finishing his hot chocolate.

“Tell me something that Judd would never tell anyone else,” I smirked. This was going to be good.

“Um…He doesn’t really tell me anything. He likes his secrets.” Nick squirmed around on the couch.

“Oh, come on. You have to have something, don’t you? You’re his brother for fuck’s sake!” 

“Well, when he was like four he make mom Valentine's card asking her to be his Valentine.”

Well, at least that's something. “I guess that’ll do,” I stand up and stretch. I handed Nick my phone, “Call your mother and tell her where you are. It’s getting late and I don’t want to be charged with kidnapping.” 

As Nick dialed his mother, I walked into my room where I had the rat's cage.

“Hey, babies.” I unlock the cage, take out their food dish, and refill it, “I’m gonna be gone for a little while. Be nice to each other and don’t get hurt.” I relock the cage and change my pants from jeans to sweatpants. If I was going to be in a car for a little while I was going to be comfy.

If you ever pay attention to wendigo encounters, you notice that many of them have been seen with deer antlers. They also mimic voices but when they say something it typically sounds like it went through static. And wendigos are created when people cannibalize others. I mean those who become wendigos have native blood and since Al is from New Orleans then he might be part creole, therefore having native blood.