Mandy was taking a walk in one of the city parks, in an effort to clear her head and think. Upon finding a bench, she sat, and mulled over the events of the past couple of days. Primarily on her mind, was something Michael had mentioned the evening before. Secondary, was the possibility of her father becoming a vampire. She was already trying to treat it as thought it were a sealed deal, in an effort to prepare herself. In the end, she had decided, what mattered most was that her father could still be a part of her life. She had, in fact, only ghouled him to protect him anyway.
With an internal sigh, she switched her internal thinking to Michael’s statement yesterday, inquiring as to whether or not she shouldn’t be self-sufficient. Gifted money, in her opinion, was still hers. She may not have earned it, but she had made the decision to donate some and invest most of the rest, and due to her father’s ingenuity, and investments were paying off nicely. Apparently though, this didn’t constitute self-sufficiency. As far as earning her keep, she wasn’t sure what she could do. She didn’t have many job worthy skills, if any, and although she technically had documentation proving otherwise, she was still not quite eighteen, though that birthday was coming up within the next month.
And didn’t Brandon or Endrik or both state at one point that if she needed or wanted anything, all she had to do was ask? She bristled a bit against the self-sufficiency thing running through her head. If they wanted to spend their money that way, why should she refuse it? It’s not like I’m rejecting trying to be self-sufficient eventually she mused. Ultimately, she ended up amusing herself by absentmindedly humming, and scrolling through her phone while daydreaming of things she could do with her current skill set. Some, she felt, were an amusing thought, but would likely be met with animosity depending on who knew about it.
She could sing, of course – but getting gigs that way could prove fairly difficult with her nighttime limitation. There was the cam girl statement jokingly stated the night before, which went alongside the idle thought of an escort. Singing she excelled at, with certainty. She’d been told that plenty enough times before. Sex was something she enjoyed, but she wasn’t all that sure she was good enough to be profitable at it – or if it was something she really wanted to do. She switched her pattern of thinking over to things she had learned since she was turned, wondering if she could do anything with those skills.
It was during deep contemplation over whether using her skill at Vicissitude on the large disposable income market of teens and the newly adult to cover blemishes or enhance some physical attributes would be highly immoral, when she became aware of other encroaching on her spot.
“If it isn’t Little Miss Perfect.” came a voice. Looking up, she noted it belonged to a female with girl-next-door looks. When she spoke again, Mandy further noted that her tone was low, throaty…the kind of voice some found sexy. “So what’s Little Miss Perfect up to?” this other woman spoke, batting Mandy’s phone out of her hand. Mandy sighed and reached for her phone in order to pocket it. This other woman grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look at her face. “Cat got your tongue?” she practically purred, and the few others behind her laughed.
“Looks like you might’ve been right, Maggie.” a man said, walking up to slide an arm around her. He was definitely influenced by the punk scene, Mandy decided. There were three others besides those two. The one called Maggie patted Mandy’s face before slapping it, then turning to kiss the guy next to her, a man she spoke to, but Mandy only picked up on the name – Lance.
Mandy rubbed her cheek – more out of shock than anything, and much to the amusement of the others.
“Awww…” one said, inflecting baby talk. “Does the poor wittle baby need her pack?”
Laughter ensued again, one of them engaging a near hyena pitch. Hyena Boy and Mr. Baby Talk high fived. In the back, there was one – only one – who hadn’t laughed, and seemed like he didn’t want to be there. In her head, she decided to name him Silent Bob.
“I don’t even know who the hell you guys are.” she said, sitting up, but taking the time to study each of them.
“We’re The Lamia’s Brood, bitch.” laughed Lance.
“And?”
“What do you mean, ‘and’?” Maggie snapped. “Sit up and take notice, you little bitch. I don’t know what Endrik was thinking making you, because from what I’ve seen, you sure aren’t all that.”
“Maybe she’s just a good lay.” Hyena Boy snickered. She frowned, re-evaluating his name. He reminded her of a character in a movie, in both looks and attitude, so now he was just Fun Boy.
“You wanna know why he made me, ask him and leave me out if it.” Mandy grumbled, attempting to get up. She was shoved back down roughly.
“Oh, we ain’t done with you yet, Little Miss Perfect.” Maggie grinned. “We don’t believe in the stories circulating about The Great Mandy, or whatever other vamps want to call you. The way we see it, you’re just a pretty face – nothing more than a piece of propaganda trash.”
“You act like I had something to do with it.”
“Didn’t you?” Baby Talk sneered.
Mandy tried to get up ad leave, but she was pushed back down again. “Can I please just leave?”
“Not a chance, your prissy whore.” Mandy raised an eyebrow at that last insult, but didn’t say anything.
“Reaching the limits of your vocabulary, are we?” she snarked back, earning another slap in the process.
“I’m challenging you, you little cunt.” Maggie said. Mandy just looked at her, waving her hand impatiently for Maggie to continue. “To monomacy, you little idiot!”
“What the hell good will that do you? And anyway, isn’t monomacy supposed to be settled in a court style system now?”
“Please.” she said, scoffing. “Like that would ever favor you. I challenge you right here, and right now. So stand up Miss Priss. Let’s see if you’re even half of what you’ve been promoted to be.”
She backed off, finally letting Mandy stand. Lance, Fun Boy, and Baby Talk backed off, spreading out in such a way that they could conceivably prevent Mandy from running. Silent Bob hadn’t moved, just continued to look like he didn’t want to be there.
“If it’ll let me go home sooner, by all means, have it your way.” Mandy said.
“Oh, if I have it my way, you’ll be dust, and I’ll be the favorite – just like I was supposed to be.”
“Delusional much?”
With a catty screech, she let a fist fly. She had to have had a little Potence, because the force of the punch was enough to knock Mandy’s jaw off kilter. She took a minute to knock it back in place and narrowed her eyes slightly.
“I am so not in the mood for this petty ass bullshit.” Mandy said, taking a moment to think of what to do. Unfortunately, she took too long, and Maggie started laying in a flurry of blows. Mandy took to trying to shield herself as best as she could, while wildly trying to think of what she could possibly do to defend herself.
Maggie stopped, and everyone but Silent Bob was laughing. “See boys? She ain’t nothin’. This is too easy.” She moved to start in again, and nearly fell over. “What the?” she said, looking down to see a wave of soil and dirt crawling up her legs. She looked from her legs to Mandy and her eyes widened slightly. She hadn’t expected any kind of Thaumaturgy.
For Mandy’s part, her eyes were no longer the sweet, beautiful blue they normally were. Every bit of the eye, from the iris to the whites, was completely walnut brown, and her skin rippled with bits of stone as she concentrated. The soil continued to rise, all the way up to Maggie’s knees, holding her in place. Maggie struggled, but couldn’t escape.
Mandy scanned the ground for a branch or something she could try and use as a stake – after all, she didn’t want to kill Maggie if she didn’t have to. While she was scanning though, Lance noted what she was doing and, taking an accurate guess, ran forward and speared her to the ground, in an effort to protect his Ductus. Mandy struggled under his weight and he just gave a sickening grin.
“Nice trick, Princess.” he said, and then leaned in to lick her. “But I’m gonna end it here and now…power to The Lamia’s Brood.” He bared fangs, and started leaning in. For her part, Mandy couldn’t guess what he was after, just knew she didn’t want any part of it. She struggled, but still couldn’t get anywhere. His fangs were just grazing her neck when she breathed an inward sigh of relief that he was a skinny, anorexic type. Grabbing onto his slightly protruding hip bone, she spent blood and yanked down – hard – and he screamed. Quickly, she did the same on the other side, which got him to scramble off of her.
She moved away. “For Deity’s sake you guys sure have a complex.” she said. Looking over, she noticed that Fun Boy and Baby Talk were trying to help Maggie out of the wall of dirt, with some success. She couldn’t have this – then they’d all be on her.
The color of Mandy’s eyes shifted again – this time to a feverish orange. She focused her will and intent on Maggie and the two helping her. After a minute, Baby Talk spoke.
“Is it getting hot?”
Before anyone could give a response, Maggie screamed and just…combusted. Flames burst forth from her body, and ignited Baby Talk and Fun Boy, who hadn’t noticed right away. The immediately freaked, trying to put out the flames, as Maggie continued to scream. Since she was dead, there was no liquid in her body, save for the vitae, and she went up quickly. Soon, she was nothing more than ash. Baby Talk and Fun Boy had taken off, tho who knew where, terrified of the fire.
But there was still Lance, and Silent Bob. Mandy closed her eyes, and they were normal upon reopening. Lance was seething. “You killed her! You killed my Maggie!”
He ran at her again, but this time, Mandy was getting repaire. She reached into a back pocket, and pulled out a folded hunter’s knife she had been keeping there as of late. When he got close, she stabbed it deep into his side, making a gash. Using her blood to add to her strength, she pun him around so he was facing away from her, still dragging the knife around until it bounced off his spine.
Ignoring the sounds of pain and other assorted anger and anguish, she reached in, activating more blood to use Vicissitude, and grab his spine. She pulled it outward, ripping it through the skin on his back, then curved it, so that he would be a hunchback. She wasn’t done yet, however. Yanking the knife out, she bent over, gashing open his leg before once again reaching inside, and tearing what she hoped was his Achilles tendon.Wrenching her knife free, she wiped any viscera off on his clothes, then kicked him into the ground.
“Yield? Or do you want more?”
He looked over his shoulder and yelled.
“Derrik, help me!” he said, looking over to whom she had dubbed Silent Bob.
“No.” he responded. “I told you I didn’t want any part of this.” he said, and then walked away.
Lance looked around for his other two pack mates, but they were also gone.
“I’ll get you back for this.” he spat at her, limping away.
“And my little dog too, right?” she said, rolling her eyes and folding her knife up and put it away. “Just…go. You’re pathetic. Go lick your wounds and whine to whoever will listen. I don’t want to look at you anymore.” she said. It took him time, but eventually he walked away. Mandy quickly got out of the park and headed for her car so she could head home. She was hoping no one would be home – she didn’t feel like talking. She did wonder, however, how quickly new would spread and wondered if she’d hear any of the rumors.