∆Sammie's POV∆

Alex led her to a clearing past the small church about a mile away from their apartment.

"Just...keep an open mind okay?"

Sammie didn't know what to make of this. An uneasy feeling crept up her spine. Last thing she needed was another Samuel in her life. She doubt that Alex could be that way, but she still felt uneasy.

"I'll try...?" She whispered, her face downwards. A few stray locks of hair was blocking her view, so she brushed them behind her ears.

Uncertainty crept up her spine in a weak shiver of stirring magic. She pushed it down. Now was absolutely not the time.

"Try really hard, okay?" Alex guided Sammie to a spot just behind him and slightly to his right. "Stand here; that seems like the safest place." He looked back over his shoulder. "I won't be able to see you, so, uh...please keep it together, okay?"

Sammie nodded. "I will."

Her palms itched. She could feel her magic shifting with her mounting anxiety, but it was weak enough still that she could manage it. She just wished she knew what to brace herself for. Surprises were never good.

Alex gave her a thumbs up, and a grin that wavered a little around the edges. "Cool. Just remember, you're totally safe. I got this."

That was a statement that really needed more clarification, but Sammie didn't have time to ask what, exactly, it was that Alex had. Magic flared in Alex's left hand, a neat sphere of not-quite-flame caged by his fingers. Sammie looked at it with a small pang of envy, since it wasn't until very recently that she could control hers that that well.

She flinched as she felt Alex's magic lifted outward, it was almost like a flame. Actually more like suspended water. Curiosity got her to reach for it.

Alex quickly glanced back at her, as if he knew.

"I wouldn't just yet....it can freeze you. Even if you're on fire."

It was a wave for one second, and the next...

Sammie took a step back, shaking with the effort of holding down her magic. Her magic felt like exploding out of her, ready to defend.

"What the fuck is that?"

"Don't freak out." The stern edge to Alex's voice was enough to catch Sammie off guard, jolting her out of her panic before it could get started. "It's not gonna do anything."

The...thing, the attack, floated sedately overhead, twitching it's wings. It really did look like a winged skeleton, though not from any animal she can remember at the moment. It was big, its mouth lined with cell phone sized teeth. Its eye sockets stared out at nothing. And something about it was...off. Too real. Almost as if it was alive? How could it be?

Is this what they can make? No wonder it had pulled so hard on her soul. What about others like them? Thoughts flooded her, she began to shake again.

"What is it?" She asked again, edging closer, gaze locked on the thing as it floated nearby. Nothing about it looked the least bit safe, but it was impossible to look away from. She let out a soft sigh, trusting Alex not to hurt her. That thing was damned creepy just the same.

"It's sort of a magical animal? Kinda of like a self made servant," Alex said. "It kinda...freezes everything it touches, I guess. At least, mine does anyway. I don't know the source of yours yet."

He shrugged one shoulder, glancing back at her to make sure she wasn't freaking out too badly.

"A magical animal," she repeated. That didn't sound like anything they should be able to do. It sounded like something this world shouldn't have. But there was different magical souls all able to do this.

Alex flexed his left hand. The thing tipped it's head to the side like a puzzled dog.

"It doesn't look like we're the only ones that have it, either. There are eight of us. It goes Red, Pink, Purple, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Orange. I found some notebook hidden in the library a while ago, and though I can't tell what they were saying. It was in Japanese, I think. Anyway," he said, "it's called a Mirroring Soul, if you can believe that. Pretty cool."

Sammie scowled. "Yeah." She couldn't place why, but the words snagged over something in her mind the wrong way. The feeling was gone just as quickly, and she was left wondering at the ridiculousness of the name itself. Why Japanese? Obviously someone else had it, and documented it. Now she wanted to read and translate the book cover to cover. She needed to know more!

"We don't have to call it that if you don't want." Alex tilted his head, thinking. "How about Dodger? It looks kinda like a Dodger to me."

It occurred to Sammie that they were both very drunk, and that this was not an ideal time to be messing around with high-power magic. Especially magic neither of them seemed to really understand. Questions flooded her mind.

"How long have you been able to do this?"

"For some time." Alex shrugged. "Don't really remember since when I first started. How about you?"

"Me? Oh, uh, not until a few weeks ago."

"Around the time you started jogging?" He glared in her direction, his eyes full of hurt.

"Yeah.." She looked away, but she could still feel his eyes on her.

Alex forced a laugh. "Hey, I guess you're a busy girl! I can't be expecting you to tell me every little detail of your life."

"Hey, you didn't tell me about it either," Sammie snapped, crossing her arms to hide the fact that her hands were still shaking. Why should she tell him anything anyway? Before all this she spilled her guts out about everything, even if she just sneezed funny. It must be confusing for him to suddenly be shut out. But she knew he wasn't the saint of the pair either.

"Well, no one likes a show-off." Alex looked over at it. "I'm not...super comfortable with ol' Dodge, to be honest," he said. "On the one hand, I'm glad we have all the same attacks."

He seemed to notice that he was rambling, and stopped. He must not want to spill everything he knows to someone who won't even tell him what she does nightly. Smart.

Sammie found herself extremely concerned about whatever Alex had been about to say. This was raising a lot more questions than it was answering, and she just couldn't get her jumbled thoughts in order to even begin to make sense of it.

She summoned a small flame on her palm, it danced gracefully. So is that what she could be doing when she hit her peak? And why did Samuel even want that? She felt herself shiver all over again.

"Notebook?" She said, her voice raspy. She made flame disappear. Why would Alex find such a thing in a library? Who could have written them, and why? She did her best to convey all these questions in that single word, because she'd be damn if she could manage complete sentences at the moment. Though her mind was racing a million thoughts a minute.

"Oh, yeah." Alex shifted. "I wouldn't worry about that right now. They're not very helpful anyway."

She could have swore he was lying, but she let it go. She could always ask about it later. Above them, the thing clicked its teeth. Sammie frowned.

"I mean," Alex said, "the important thing is, um..." He trailed off, scowling as though annoyed that his point hadn't shown up at the end of his sentence as he'd expected. "Well, we can both do this, right? So it must be normal. For our kind. So, neither of us have to feel like...like freaks over this, or anything." He nodded, satisfied. "Now to find the rest of us, right?"

"Rest of us?" She wasn't sure she wanted to, she wasn't ready to lead anymore people with her off the cliff that was Samuel. What if he already found the others?

"So what color are you? Uh, babe?"

She was not at her most articulate at the moment, so she shook her head. She had to answer though..

"Don't know." She lied.

"Maybe you could show me, it's okay, try it."

She said nothing. A strong breeze blew threw a nearby tree, making her shiver. A bat, she thought suddenly, it looked closer to a bat. Though a strange demonic like one. She remembered how much she didn't want her magic.

"So magic animals, or should say Magimals" Alex watched Sammie think. "What should we call yours, do you think? Mark? Felix?" He shook his head. "Philip? That's classy. Or Rosario!" he said, snapping his fingers. "You could call it Rosey, for short."

"I'm not calling it Rosey ," She said, not really paying attention. It was too much for her, this magic thing was a pain.

Alex sniffed. "Well, I think it's nice." The bat's jaws clicked as though in agreement. "Dodge and Rosey, just a couple of colorful magimals out on the town." He chuckled. "It'd be easier to come up with a good name if I could see it, I guess."

"No."

"Look, it's not gonna-"

Sammie crossed her arms. "I said no."

Seeing that massive thing, knowing what it did, the remembered feeling of panicked rage forming her magic into something that was so...so... No. She'd be happy to never form that attack ever again. That one second had been a second too long, as far as she was concerned.

Alex had been the one to stare down the barrel of it.

Never again.

"Fine," Alex said, sighing. "I get it; it's kinda unsettling." He glanced up at the skeleton bat thing. "I'm not real fond of it, myself, but it's not going to go away."

"It's okay." Sammie hadn't intended to make Alex feel bad. "I don't even know how I did it before," she added. She couldn't summon the attack even if she wanted to. She really didn't want to.

"What were you feeling," Alex asked, "when it happened? Do you remember?"

Rage.

Alex's shove hadn't hurt, but it had made her see red, a whip-crack of emotion that had bypassed all rational thought. Panic and loss of control and rage, rage, rage.

"It...I'm not sure." Sammie dropped her gaze, staring down at her shoes, almost the color of the dirt.

"I felt," she said, shame rising up to choke her. "I felt cornered, and upset."

Alex said nothing, waiting patiently.

Why was she lying when she didn't need to? That wasn't right, not when Alex was doing his best to be honest with her, to help her.

"And maybe angry," Sammie added, wrapping her arms around herself. "No. Definitely angry."

Just for an instant, but an instant was all it had needed.

"Yeah."

Sammie looked up. Alex wasn't looking at her, but rather up at the bat-like thing, still hovering overhead like a balloon. As though feeling Sammie's attention on him, he made eye contact, smiling just a little and without a trace of humor.

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

It would be pretty great, all things considered, if the ground would open up and swallow her. No such luck.

"It's okay," He said. "I was pissed off, too."

As if 'pissed off' was in the same universe as the rage that had made Sammie consider, even subconsciously, even for a moment, hurting Alex.

"Sorry I pushed you."

She didn't want to talk about this.

"I'm sorry I hit you," she said. It was the most minor of the litany of apologies she owed him.

She was sorry for being so cruel that night, and for putting Alex's life in danger, and for scaring him, and for all her other failures. She couldn't face it, couldn't put it into words. "It will never happen again."

Alex made a sound that wasn't a laugh. "Yeah, it will."

"No, it won't!" Sammie said, voice cracking. Don't cry now. "I promise."

Her own friend didn't trust her. Well, and why should he? If anything Sammie only had given him reasons not to do so. She didn't even believe herself just now, though she desperately wanted to.

"I...don't think it'll be up to you." Alex looked down. "I mean, if it were really possible to just push it down and never let it out again, wouldn't I have done it?"

Above them, the thing yawned, mouth gaping open, lower jaw spreading wide.

"I'm not good at this because I want to be."

It wasn't doing anything, but Sammie couldn't look away from it. The blank eyes was staring away from her, facing the trees that lined the end of the road. Those jaws were meant to bite. They were the kind to rip off skin, and crush bones.The mouth shut, on its own or by Alex's command, she had no clue.

"The next time you feel like that," Alex said, "it's going to come out, whether you mean to summon it or not."

Sammie caught herself on the edge of a protest, but she knew it was true. It had happened once. It was only a matter of time before it happened again, maybe in even worse circumstances. Just one more way she was putting everyone else at risk. All because she'd become too weak to control her own magic, and too cowardly to try.

Samuel was right. She had to come to terms with her magic as it was now, to regain control. But she couldn't do anything anywhere near Alex. It wasn't worth it.

"Here," Alex said, taking one wobbling step back to put some space between them. "You can get a better look at Dodge, then maybe it won't bother you so much." He whistled up at the bat. "Hey, Dodge! Come on down here, you big lug."

Sammie was sure there was no point in talking to it. Wait? Touch it? What if it hurt her? She was also sure she didn't want a closer look at it, thank you very much, but it was already moving, sinking towards them. From this close up, the realness of it was undeniable. Even though it had only existed for a few minutes, it was...real.

Like a freaky pet.

Sitting there on the ground, the bat somehow looked even larger than it had floating overhead. At its tallest point, it reached nearly to her hip, and the tips of the horns were a little higher. Alex leaned against it, working very hard at looking completely chilled out.

"See?" he said. "It's even easier to handle than normal attacks, once you're used to it." He rested his chin in his hand. "Practice makes perfect, huh?"

Alex was only acting this way to help her stay calm, but it was working, much to her mingled irritation and gratitude. She took a step closer.

"There you go," Alx said, encouraging her to come closer still. "Check it out. Everything's fine."

Sammie gestured her hand out to the thing. At Alex's nod, she reached out and tentatively brushed her fingertips over the bat, tracing one of the ridges above its eye socket. When nothing horrible happened, she laid her palm against it. It felt just like really cold, but not painfully so. Almost like it had physical matter of its own. Like snow. She loved snow.

"Is it tiring? Keeping it going like this, I mean," Sammie said, studying Alex out of the corner of her eye. He'd been maintaining this thing for several minutes now, and it wasn't exactly trivial magic.

"Nah, once it's formed it's not too bad. Moving it is hard though." Alex yawned. "Took a while to get the hang of it without having to take a long nap afterward. It's kinda overkill."

He blinked like it was taking real effort to stay alert. "Hmm. I was going somewhere with that," he said, scowling, "but I kinda lost my train of..."

She watched him struggle not to doze off. "Are you alright? Are you sure you don't need a break?"

The visual aid wasn't strictly necessary, after all. They could discuss this without the addition of a literal death ray hanging around being spooky and hazardous.

"I'm fine," Alex said, waving her off. "Just kinda...floaty, all of a sudden. Not in a bad way," he added. "Kinda sleepy, is all. Must have had more alcohol than I thought, heh."

Now he did seem relaxed, propped up on the bat like he was cool with touching it. He glanced at her.

"Oh, Sam?" he said. "Are you, uh, aware that you're doing that?"

Sammie followed Alex's gesture, looking down at her own hands. At some point, she'd started sort of absently petting the bat thing.

"Oh, uh. Sorry, Dodge!" She stopped, pulling her hands away. That was awkward. Petting an attack, she even start calling it by that stupid name.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

If they both nearly jumped out of their skin. Sammie stumbled back, tripping and landing rather gracelessly on her ass on the ground. Alex stared down at the bat, shock and total confusion written across his face. In capital letters.

"Excuse the fuck out of me...?" He said, his mouth gaping.

They watched the bat, which was still laying motionless on the ground. Sammie felt her magic wreathing her hands, dull colorless light sparkling over the ground. It had done nothing beyond that, and she took a moment to be thankful as she pushed the swelling anxiety back down. The light faded.

"W-what was that?" The less-than-cool tone of her voice wasn't as embarrassing as it normally would have been when Alex looked every inch as freaked out as she was.

"I dunno," Alex frowned and shook his head. "It's never done that before."

They both flinched back as the voiceless whine came again, the thing's jaws twitching.

"Ahhhhhhhhh..."

That was not okay. Nothing about any of that was okay. Why was it making sounds? It wasn't supposed to be alive, was it?

"Alex! W-why is it doing that? Make it stop."

She covered her ears. Why was it doing that? Alex shrugged, clearly at a loss and not happy about that fact.

"Beats me. It's never been chatty before." He scratched his head. "Hey, um...come back over here for a second."

That was asking a lot, but Sammie clambered to her feet, a task that would have been far easier if she weren't still hours away from sobriety. She hadn't been comfortable standing so close to the bat before it had started making that frankly demonic noise, but Alex seemed to have an idea, so she forced herself to return to her place opposite of Alex.

"This is gonna sound stupid, but could you maybe pet it again, or something?" He rolled his eyes at Sammie's 'are you serious?' look. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Just humor me, alright?"

She sighed. "Fine," She stroked the flattened top of the it's head. Nothing happened.

After a few seconds, Alex said, "Okay, now stop."

So she did.

"...Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

Even though she was ready for it, Sammie cringed at the low sound. Thoughtlessly, she started petting it again, and the bat quieted down.

"Huh!" Alex drummed his index finger on his chin. "Okay. That's a little weird."

It was more than a little weird. But...at least it made the enormous blue bat a bit less scary, somehow. It really was just a freaky pet. Something the Addam's family would have.

"Am I going to have to pet this thing all night?" The flicker of maybe-pride Sammie felt at the thought that Alex's attack seemed to like her was immediately drowned out by the fact that attacks couldn't like or feel any kind of way about anything because they were attacks.

"Hmm? I mean," Alex said, his eyes unfocusing slightly, "you can if you want, I guess."

"Alex, I really don't think you're reaction is freaked out enough," Sammie snapped. There he was nodding off again!

Shaking his head like he was trying to throw off the drowsiness, he chuckled. "Oh, don't worry," he said. "I'm flipping shit on the inside."

This time when she took her hand away they were both expecting the bats whining.

"I wonder what that's about," Alex said, coming out of his fog. "That's kinda..."

"Scary?" Sammie supplied.

He shrugged. "I was going to say trippy, but that works, too."

He dug a small notepad and a stubby pencil out of his jacket pocket, scribbling furiously. Sammie eyed the bat thing, ignoring Alex. She crossed her arms.

"That really shouldn't be happening. I mean isn't it just like making flames?"

"Well," Alex said, still writing. "The thing stays attached to my soul the whole time I'm using it," He trailed off, lost in thought for a moment. "I dunno, maybe there's some kinda feedback going on, or something."

That sounded like something that called for a stronger reaction than curiosity. Sammie glared down at the bat. She didn't like the idea of an attack that could talk back, much less influence the person it belonged to.
If Alex was bothered, he didn't show it.

"It's always been just me and, uh, targets whenever I've got this thing going," he said. "It's never interacted with anyone else. Maybe...maybe it just likes you. Maybe it recognizes you, or something. I mean, it's coming from me, right? Maybe it loves you, too." He mumbled the last part softly.

Sammie ignored the last part. Wait, if it goes based off the person who welds it then why...

A queasy lump formed in Sammie's throat.

"Mine didn't recognize you," She started, her breathing become uneven. "Why didn't it recognize you?"

Alex put his notepad away. His eyes going from her to the bat thing.

"Hey," he said. "Don't do that. You were having a panic attack, babe; you can't think into it so much. Besides, I could be totally wrong, like always."

Sammie said nothing at that. There was nothing she could say. She looked away quickly, she thought she heard a snap of a twig. But all she saw was empty forest. It must have been some random animal. She was too drunk and paranoid for this shit.

"Obviously, I don't have this all figured out yet, but we could tackle it together, if you want." He said, his voice pleading.

Sammie was torn. She needed to get a handle on this, at least to the point that she didn't summon it by accident. But so much could go wrong. Still, she wanted to be close to Alex again. She missed him.

She placed her left hand in the bat, thinking. It would be a nice excuse to be around Alex more.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, Samitch," Alex said, quietly.

She hated that nick name. Still, she forced a smiled, and nodded. She felt like agreeing that they team up was the best move.

A loud and sharp crack of a tree limb breaking filled the air, making them both jump.

The bat screeched lurched up off the ground, jaws gaping, aiming at them. Sammie let out a yell, and withdrew her hand. The cold seeped in her hand, leaving it numb. The glow of raw magic grew in the bat attack as it flew by.

Luckily, Alex had just enough time to force away from them.

Light, blinding, and a shock of cold that went through her were all Sammie could process as it flew right by them into a tree, causing it to freeze up and shatter. The bat collapsed into a scatter of spent magic, ripped apart by Alex command.

It wasn't until it was gone that she felt Alex's arms around her. She was clutching her left hand, it was cold but feeling was coming back.

The visible shards now on the floor, was a swath of bare ground where the tree was in frozen pieces. All around the ground were frozen bits of grass, too.

They stood in the aftermath that the bat had left behind, lit by the faint glow of flames at Sammie's fingertips that didn't remember summoning. They quickly disappeared, too. Not that Alex noticed. His eyes on the ground where is attack went.

"Welp!" He was shaking, and grin too wide. "We're drunk off our asses, and this was a stupid fucking idea. We should go before anyone shows up, huh?"

Sammie nodded, shivering. No argument there.