nova caligo

his head tilted to the side, brows furrowing. “wha–is that a threat? I’m tellin’ the truth, I swear.  do you want to see her time sheet as proof? ‘cause I can provide that.”

a laugh bubbled up in his throat, but casper forced it back down.  “um.  okay, that’s a start.  what kinda stuff d’you like?  maybe that’ll narrow it down.”  or maybe it wouldn’t, but at least casper would give it a try.

“and how do i know it’s not forged, hmmm? actually, i would because she’s my lliteral twin, but still. maybe you forced her to sign to take suspicion off of you.”

“uh... generally dark stuff, creepy undertones, not even remotely happily ever after?”

bet i could squash her momma like a bug. probably half my size at best. the girl made her way over to the payphone, still in skates, probably to call a parent to complain about nova. maybe her momma will come and ask to speak to my manager. i hope cal is in his usual mood because that’ll make it ten times better.

“ yeah, not a lot of buyers, but i’m sure i can find a stressed out mom or two when all the twerps get picked up… but in the meantime, why don’t we take a smoke break, huh ? “

“a smoke break?” she looked around. the place wasn’t packed, there were plenty of people working, and she hadn’t taken her break yet. “yeah, i could go for one of those right about now. especially with all these kids running around. aren’t children supposed to take naps?”

“ well, if they need me i might pull one, but might just head home. why, you wantin’ to hang out or somethin’ ? “

“a grudge is something that lasts over time. it’s been forty-five minutes, tops and i’ll forget about it by the time this shift is over.” she rolled her eyes, throwing the skates in the garbage. “hang out, that’s funny,” she snorted, though she would if he wanted to because what else was she going to do? watch nyx eat fish? “but i thought your girlfriend was in. or did she go back to her fancy school already?”

tw: sacrifice

nova hoped that it wasn’t too noticeable that the hole looked as though some genius cat had used one claw like a blade to strategically remove the picture. “that does sound like something my cat would go for. actually, any kind of fish would do. the shinier the better, though that doesn’t really come through in a newspaper.” she thought about it for a second. “the one should be fine, thanks.”

“ not recently, no. “ jesse rolled his eyes, plopping the torn skates on the counter as his co-worker continued on, unbothered. “ i don’t think satan’s messin’ around with some pre-teens. probably just went a bit rough on ‘em. didn’t give the skates time to break in. “ he grabbed for an answer, something to explain it, when all along the solution was right in front of him. 

jesse continued oblivious to the girl’s deceptive deeds, as well as the history to the incident, but he stayed in his beliefs that the kid was odd in the least. now, the probability of a pair of perfectly new skates just falling apart under the weight of a 90 pound kid ? he’d rather not ask.

her question was met with furrowed brows, “ scrapped up his arm a bit, hurt his knee. kid’s mom definitely isn’t going to be happy. “

“well he deserved it, nasty little shit. coming in here and demanding the freshest pair of skates. well karma’s a bitch little boy.” she smirked as she thought about how she was the karma. unfortunately jesse was always always oblivious to nova’s attempts to give bad people what they deserved. she’d tried to siphon the boy awhile back but was disappointed to find that he was in fact, lacking magic. 

“so what’re you doing tonight, or are you working a double?”

“there are plenty of ways to make money in this town that don’t include books that smell like mildew.” to be fair, roller skates didn’t smell that great either, but at least people went there to have fun. 

nova closed her eyes as if she were listening for her sister’s voice. and she was just not in the literal sense. “she’s definitely in this general vicinity.” she opened one accusatory eye at him. “are you holding her hostage? because i could definitely take you.” 

she shrugged. “she said there was a book here that she thought i might enjoy... wasn’t very specific though...”

“ ooh. ”  they lean in real close, inchin’ the fish closer ‘n closer to their companion. the witch whispers their next words like a song, soft ‘n sweet, paired with a devilish grin.  “ dare ya. ”

nova was not amused. she hated waking up from a nap in general, but she hated it even more when her entire room reeked of fish. she opened her eyes to see nyx dangling the fish over her face. she reached her hand out and touched the other’s arm. a glow that only she could see radiated from nyx’s skin, but she figured nyx knew well enough to know that they were being siphoned. “one.... two...”

the noise that burst escaped at her sister’s comment was a mix between a snort and a burst of laughter which only caused busted nose girl to look even angrier. but there was no way to explain that the reaction was because of a comment from someone the girl couldn’t see. ooooh, now i’m gonna get it, look at that scowl. i’m sure her daddy will be hearing about this and i’m sure she’s going to tell me so.

“all i heard you say was cleaning and fun, which answers my question,” nova hummed, completely ignoring the rest of his sentence. “well, i’m looking for someone actually. maybe you’ve seen her? she’s about-” she stood up straight and put her hand up to her own head. “yay tall, has red hair, is gorgeous, and is almost  as cool as me, except that for the fact that for some ungodly reason she’s decided to work here...” she smirked. “sound familiar?”

“ shhhhh, ”  they hush nova before swallowing a mouth full of fish and battin’ a tiny swimmer on over to her. the silver thing flies –– shiny. nyx can’t help but admire. “ tastes better stolen. you almost missed out. ”

nova squeezed her eyes tighter.“nyx, i swear to christ, if there’s a fish in my bed...” she opened one eye even though she already knew what the answer was. she saw the fish and squeezed her eye shut again. 

“i’m going to give you five seconds to remove it otherwise i’m going to turn you into a fish.” 

oh, without a doubt. i hope she falls right on that clearly fake nose her daddy probably bought her. within thirty seconds the girl lost her balance and fell straight on her face, smashing her nose into the floor. ahaha! and i didn’t even have to intervene!  she cheered. however, she’d also cheered out loud, earning a nasty glare from the girl which was reciprocated by nova with the addition of two middle fingers to the air. whatdya think, is she going to come over and try to find some way to insult me or ask to speak to my manager?

“so i was reading this article in the crier and-” nova opened the paper to reveal a huge missing piece. “apparently my cat decided to eat part of the page. i can only assume it had a picture of an animal on it. or maybe food. either way, do you have another copy?”