#college flashback

“What?? But it’s a sequel to a movie from when we were kids! You suggested it!” Zara laughs, playfully hitting him.

Jackie snorts and grumbles, “t’was more fun when we were kids… now it has college pressure on it! it’s too real!”

“In the fictional animated movie about monsters-“

“In college like us, yeah!” Jackie says, thrusting his hand at the screen. “I love animated movies but don’t make me live my current pressure! I watch these for fun, Damnit!”

Zara laughs more before crawling up to press up on Jackie’s chest. She rests her chin on his collarbone and tiptoes her fingers up towards his cheek then boops his nose. “Well… I have other ideas on how to have some fun~!”

Jackie blinks owlishly but then grins, setting their snacks on the floor and then gripping Zara tight around the waist. He presses his forehead to hers and practically purrs, “Thank god Marvin is out for the night, huh?”

The raven haired girl giggles then pulls Jackie in for a kiss. Feels weird to be snogging during a children’s movie but hey- they weren’t really watching it anymore anyways.

Then, there’s a bang against the door that has the couple springing apart.

“What was that?” Zara asks.

“Dunno… Marvin said he’d be gone all night I thought-“ Jackie mumbles.

“…think it’s some of the boys asking for a late night rugby game?”

“Nah- pretty sure most are spending the nights with their girls too.” Jackie responds, untangling his legs from Zara’s and setting his feet down to go answer the door.

The doorknob starts to jangle and Jackie feels dread pool in his gut as he holds out a hand to protect Zara. He locked the door right?

The door unlocks and then slams open.

Marvin is leaning against it, pale in the dimly lit night behind him. He’s heaving like he’s having trouble breathing and his legs are shaking wildly. He looks up at the frightened couple, narrows his eyes at Zara and then pitches forward- collapsing to the floor with a dull thud.

“M-Marv!” Jackie cries as he hurries to his friend’s side and helps to lean him up against him. “The fuck did you do this time??”

Marvin coughs, looking sickly with how pale he is. Green and blue and hints of purple glowed in his veins and faintly in his eyes. He laughs weakly, grinning at Jackie. “New spells… w-was a good night for casting but I… I overdid it…”

Zara looked confused, “spells? I-Is he like… Wiccan?”

Jackie looks down and glares slightly at Marvin, raising a slight eyebrow. Marvin waves a lazy hand at him. “Half of campus thinks I’m a witch- I’m leaning into it now…”

He suddenly winces and grabs at his shoulder and when Marvin pulls away his hand, it’s covered in blood.

Jackie startles, “J-Jesus Christ Marvin! What did you do?”

“I miscalculated,” The magician grumbled, holding his shoulder. “I was too eager on my first try… g-got it eventually though!”

“H-Here! I’ll go get the first aid kit!” Zara calls out, rushing down the hall to the bathroom.

“Thanks, love!” Jackie calls back. Then he looks down at Marvin and huffs out. “Marv… you said you were gonna join like… a coven or magic circle for these advanced spells! There’s a reason magicians tend to work in teams… you can’t do everything by yourself.”

“Don’t lecture me on magic, Jackie.” Marvin snaps, trying to push himself up. “I’m the one who’s magic- not you.”

“And yet I research and learn! Because you’re too stubborn to actually get outside your own head! There’s all this stuff set in place for a purpose Marvin! I may not be magic but I-it makes sense! You have support if there’s a backfire- resources and spell ingredients and people who actually know what they’re doing who can-!”

“I know what I’m doing!” Marvin bites back, pushing into Jackie’s face. “I don’t need old crones stuck in their ways teaching me about my birthright! I don’t need condescending assholes like my fucking father critiquing me on my form or pronouncation-! All I need is me! I have all the knowledge I need- all the power I need!”

He grabs Jackie’s hand and grips it tight, green building back up in his eyes as he grins. “See I’ll- I’ll show you! What I learned tonight… teleportation! Solo! No fucking giant circles of judging eyes needed!”

Jackie’s eyes widen, “wait that’s how you got hurt? M-Marvin please wait, you need to rest-!”

Marvin rolls his eyes, “c’mon Jackie! Where’s your sense of adventure? Don’t tell me you’re getting soft on me! It’ll be a quick zip and back then you can go back to snogging your girlfriend.”

Jackie’s face turns bright red, “w-we were not!”

Marvin laughs and then smiles warmly at his friend, “just focus on me. You know I wouldn’t hurt you, right?”

“…not on purpose-“

“Accidents don’t count, shush.”

Marvin builds up sparks of green and purple around their interlocked hands and he breathes slowly, closing his eyes. He still needed a bit of help so he chants the spell's words under his breath, flashes of runes vibrating around his hands. Jackie watches nervously-

Until Zara runs back in, holding the first aid kit. “G-Got it! And a couple other things I didn’t know what we were dealing with-“ She blinks at the magic vibrating around their closed hands and she screams and drops the supplies.

“H-Holy fucking shit!”

Jackie and Marvin both startle and Jackie tries to explain, “Zara it’s okay he’s just-!”

Then, Marvin spits out the last word, sending spears of hate towards Zara with his glowing eyes. He expected to take him and Jackie away in a flash of light- but instead…

Marvin disappears into light- and Jackie cries out, his back stiffening as his eyes fill up with purple light. Then, he collapses to the ground.

Zara feels frozen for a second- trying to understand what just happened. Then, she frantically runs towards Jackie and tries to lift up his face from the ground. “Oh my god! Jackie? J-Jackie wake up! Please love- what is going on?!”

Jackie is still for a second before he slowly blinks open his eyes. But… they’re wrong. They’re glowing green.

His eyes spring open and then he slaps Zara away and scrambles back, eyes wide and magic zipping around him. “D-Don’t touch me!” He spits. It still sounds like Jackie but… Jackie wouldn’t say that- not to Zara.

Zara’s face falls and she holds her hands to her chest. “What…? Jackie I… I don’t understand- what happened? Are you okay? Where’s Marvin?”

Jackie is massaging his head and then snaps out at Zara, “What are you talking about? Are you blind? I’m right here-“

Jackie’s eyes slowly widen as he goes to look down at himself and then he seems to pale.

“….oh my god- I- I’m in Jackie’s body-“

“You’re what?!” Zara shouts out.

Jackie scrambles to his feet and snaps, bursts of magic zipping out and Marvin sighs in slight relief. “Okay still have magic- okay… okay-“ He tries to reason with himself. He seems to be looking at his hands, twisting and turning them over like he’s studying them. Stretching his fingers like he’s getting used to them.

Zara climbs to her feet too, “hello?? Marvin? Do you mind explaining what the hell is happening? Or am I just supposed to be okay with you possessing my boyfriend like some kind of evil ghost-!”

“Would you be quiet?!” Marvin suddenly booms, eyes turning pure purple. Zara backs away- slight fear in her eyes.

Marvin’s face drops and the power dies down before he shakes out his head and looks away. “Sorry I… I just can’t concentrate- I’m trying to fix this! I didn’t do this on purpose I- I was trying to show him a teleportation spell! And I need to figure out why this happened so I don’t accidentally do it again! Cuz believe it or not- I don’t want to randomly possess people!”

Zara is quiet for a second before nodding. “…okay… just… is he okay? Jackie…? I’m sorry I… I don’t understand what’s going on… I didn’t know magic was even real until… 5 minutes ago-“

Marvin sighs and pushes back his hair. It’s weird to see. Jackie doesn’t usually do that gesture to fix his hair. It was like running a PlayStation game on a wii. Similar but… not compatible.

“…Jackie’s fine. Just… startled. Confused too. He… he trusts me though. I just… need you to trust me too. Just for a second.” Marvin meets Zara’s eyes and the girl slowly nods.

She always found Marvin a bit creepy and off-putting. But only cuz he was such a social recluse… and was hard to talk to. She didn’t hate him… but maybe she was judging him too harshly through all of this.

“Be on standby though to… catch him. I have no idea how this is gonna play out…” The magician mumbles.

He closes his eyes and flares out his fingers at the side, reciting more magic words under his breath. Magic zips around him as the power builds. Zara inches away, watching in awe.

Finally, the magic seems to spilt the image of Jackie in two- and then a blast of green shoots out across the living room and crashes into the wall. Jackie’s body starts to crumble back towards the ground and Zara is quick to catch him. She then looks back towards the wall.

With Legs in the air and back on the floor lays Marvin, dazedly looking up at the ceiling as the world dips and spins around him.

“A-Are you okay??” Zara calls out. Marvin shakily gives her a thumbs up.

She sighs in relief and then rolls over Jackie and lightly taps his cheek. It takes a second but slowly Jackie’s eyes flutter back open, his light blue eyes back to normal. He dazedly looks up at Zara. She smiles at him.

“Welcome back, love.”

“…did I go somewhere? Marvin’s spell worked…?” Jackie mumbles in confusion. Zara sighs and then rubs Jackie’s cheek.

“…I think we have a lot to talk about… why don’t we go patch up Marvin and then settle in for the night?”