Chapter Text
Sasha James worked at a book shop. It was a small one, quaint and unassuming, once belonging to her father who had died some years back. Since then, she had spent her days working dutifully behind the bookshelves and smudged windows. Every book was treated with the utmost care and when they were damaged, she would painstakingly rebind them and mend their mangled spines and pages.
It was far from the most interesting job, but she didn’t mind it much. She wasn’t brave and she would sooner bury her nose in her work than go on any sort of adventure that might take her away from her corner on the street.
The day outside was beautiful, the sky bluer than usual, spotted with soft clouds. Sasha, of course, had never even thought to look up from her work, more focused on the poor book in front of her that had been so thoroughly dog-eared, she wasn’t sure the pages would ever lay flat again. It pained her to think about what would have happened to it if she hadn’t gotten to it when she had. Her stomach idly grumbled, signaling it was probably lunchtime, but she ignored it.
“Sasha? We’re going down to the docks to watch the boats, do you want to come?” Her coworker called from the front.
“No, thank you. Have fun though.” She managed a small smile, waving as her coworkers hurried off.
Maybe I should go out. The sunlight wouldn’t hurt. She thought to herself as she neatly folded the long strip of red leather on the table. Slowly, she rose from her seat, smoothing down her skirt. A few moments were spent, if only to space out her departure from her coworkers so they wouldn’t assume she was avoiding them intentionally.
Once the sign was moved from open to close and her hat was placed delicately on the top of her head, she stepped outside onto the cobblestone and took a long breath of the fresh air. The occasional automobile chugged on by, but even they would soon be stopped by the crowds of people eager to get to the docks to see what kind of ships would be sailing in and for some, the handsome soldiers who would be getting off of them. Sasha could already see a few of the familiar green uniforms in the crowds as she weaved her way through.
“Did you hear about the missing prince?” One man said to his friend.
“The King is gathering all the Witches and Wizards in the land. Things must be getting bad.” Another woman murmured, hand over her mouth.
I’m never going to get through this way. She thought as she just barely avoided getting stepped on, half a dusty footprint left on her dress. Her eyes darted to the alley in between two buildings. That could work. She tiptoed through the crowd, quietly relieved once she could get away from the noise and the vague feeling of claustrophobia.
Her boots made quiet tip taps on the cobblestone as she moved between the buildings. The distant sounds of foghorns and cheering echoed against the walls. The only time she had thought to even look up from the path she was following was when she heard a squish under her shoe.
Hesitantly, she lifted her shoe. Underneath was a silvery worm or maggot that had likely been wriggling freely only moments ago. Sasha made a disgusted noise, trying to scrape the remnants off her shoe, but the silver stain remained. Odd, but she didn’t think much of it until she took a few more steps and another had ended up squished underneath her step.
“Curious and curiouser.” She murmured to herself. Perhaps someone needed to call an exterminator.
The worms seemed to speckle the cobblestones as though a slightly more disgusting trail of breadcrumbs. She was a little more careful about stepping around them, but she hadn’t noticed the two large men moving an even larger wooden crate, running straight into it.
“Oh! Sorry.” Sasha stumbled back, glancing down at the DO NOT OPEN stamped on the front of the crate before looking up at the two glaring at her. The sense of claustrophobia she’d had in the crowds returned, subtler, but unmistakable.
“Watch where you’re going, Miss.” One of them, though she wasn’t sure which one, said in a gruff cockney accent.
“I-I will.”
There was a moment of silence after she’d taken a few steps away, where they went back to moving but her eyes remained locked on the box. A muffled sound could be heard, just barely audible enough for her to hear, like scratching. Was there an animal inside or… a person? She couldn’t help but stare even though she knew it wasn’t very polite to do.
“It’s rude to stare.” The other one, at least she thought it was the other one, spoke harshly.
“Sorry.” Sasha could feel a lump growing in her throat as her feet remained rooted at the spot. “I suppose I’m just curious about what could be so dangerous that it must be contained like that.”
“Who said anything about dangerous?” She’d all but given up trying to distinguish the two now, only noting the dark affect in the voice.
“It does say not to open. That does sound like it could be dangerous.”
The dull scratching noise became louder but neither of the two men moving it seemed all too concerned, sharing a look with each other that she couldn’t quite read. “Maybe it’s a Christmas gift.”
Sasha scoffed, despite her better judgement. “I don’t believe that’s the case.”
“Would you like to open it and see for yourself?”
The young woman shrunk back, but they seemed even bigger than her than before, looming over. She bit her tongue, silently cursing herself for not walking away when she had the chance.
“Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.”
The voice came from behind, strange and lilting, but that didn’t startle her nearly as much the hand that came to rest on her shoulder. The touch was oddly heavy and even a little pointy. Sasha had frozen in her spot, too afraid to look and see who had come to her rescue. But she didn’t have to turn, because the owner of the voice moved in front of her and all she could see was a coat of swirling colors and blonde curly hair. Lots of it.
The man was much taller than her and with a willowy frame that looked like he could blow away or snap on a particularly windy day. While his coat was bright and full of colors, Sasha couldn’t help but get a headache if she stared at it longer than a few seconds at a time. The two men seemed not to be surprised, even though she had to wonder if they’d seen him coming when she hadn’t.
“Fantastic. Now we get a bloody Wizard to bother us now too.” One of them grumbled.
Sasha’s eyes widened in surprise. Him? A Wizard? What was he doing bothering with her? From what she knew of them, they were usually too busy literally stealing people’s hearts or apparently joining the war efforts to be showing up like this. And if he was there for one of the two, it had to be the first. She swallowed the lump in her throat and moved her hand over her heart, as though that would somehow protect it.
“Now, now, I mean no harm. I was simply making sure you weren’t bothering my dear friend here.” He smiled, a little too widely and showing a little too much teeth to be comforting. “Did they bother you?”
It took Sasha a few moments before she realized he was talking to her, blinking up at the man with an owlish look. “N-No. They didn’t.”
His smile grew wider, only unnerving her more. “Good. We should be going then.”
She expected him to let go and let her return to her lunch that was slipping away with every second she spent dawdling in the alley, but instead his hand was around her waist, leading her along instead. However, waiting for an explanation seemed pointless as he seemed intent on charging ahead with his long-legged gait that even she, tall as she was, had a hard time keeping up with.
“Mr. Wizard , can I ask where we’re going?” She managed, trying her best to look back and see the path left behind but only catching an eyeful of the headache-inducing cape.
“Call me Michael. I’m a friend.” His voice had the same strange cadence as before, but it seemed like he wasn’t attempting to intimidate her like he had done with the two moving men.
Michael hadn’t answered her question, even though his determined pace made her think that he definitely knew the answer. Sasha forced herself to relax, even though his strange, oddly pointy fingers were still digging into her side. Looking down, his fingers seemed longer than any human person she’d ever seen. But when she blinked, they looked normal again.
There was a strange sound behind them, like thousands of squishing and writhing sounds, getting louder and louder. It sounded something terrible and she couldn’t help but try and see what it could be.
“I wouldn’t look back. We’re being followed.” Michael responded, as though reading her mind, unless that was one of the many powers a Wizard had.
“Followed? By those two?” If that was what their footsteps sounded like, maybe she was right to question them.
“No, no, something else. You won’t want them getting too close.”
Some thing? Her eyebrows furrowed as her imagination came up with countless amounts of creatures that could be making that awful sloshing noise that had begun to sound more like a rushing wave or thunder. Michael didn’t seem too bothered by it though, his smile turning into more of a smirk. That didn’t comfort her very much.
Sasha’s eyes fell on the windows they rushed past and she felt her jaw almost drop.
A silvery mass of the same worms she had innocently stepped on not too long ago was in hot pursuit of them, only what seemed like a few feet away from consuming Michael’s coat. Where they all came from was a mystery to her, but they seemed to be multiplying faster than she could comprehend, growing larger and larger.
And Michael. The Wizard’s reflection had grown much taller than he appeared next to her, looking like it belonged in a funhouse. She told herself it had to be a trick of the light or a case of the glass being warped, but that couldn’t explain the wave of worms that seemed to have a particular hatred for the both of them. When she blinked, it was gone and he appeared normal again. Or at least as normal as he could look.
“Uh oh.”
Oh no.
“ Uh oh? What’s uh oh?” Sasha managed, doing her best to seem calm while looking around frantically and trying to find what could possibly be worse than where they currently were.
“Seems we’re headed towards a dead end.” He didn’t seem even the slightest bit bothered by her panicked expression. “Don’t fret. I have an idea.”
She blanched at that, feeling most of the color drain from her face. Though she’d only known the strange Wizard for a few minutes at most, but her intuition told her that he would be just as cryptic about his plan as everything else.
“Hold tight.”
His grip tightened on her waist irregardless, taking one of her hands in his long fingers. He only moved faster, taking wider strides that were harder for her to keep up, especially in her heeled boots. But her wobbling wouldn’t slow them down for long because before she knew it, she was floating. Not figuratively, though she thought that was the case, but she quickly found that her feet were no longer touching the ground.
She thought she would be scared. Heights had always frightened her before, but she felt oddly light. It didn’t last however, when she saw that they were rapidly approaching the dead end he warned of.
“Michael, the wall--” Sasha cried out before they both were swept up towards the sky in a powerful updraft.
The wind had knocked the air from her lungs, and even he seemed to struggle a little to catch his own breath before regaining his gentle stride once more. Her grip had grown tight on his blouse without her realizing, but she didn’t let go. Couldn’t let go. This was something that she most certainly was afraid of, seeing the various rooftops below and having no steady ground to stand on. While the mass of worms below seemed to have dissipated away, the new danger was the fact that that at any point he could simply let go and she would fall to her doom or impale her on one of the various pointy and unpleasant objects below.
“You need to relax, friend. I won’t let go of you.” His grip was reassuring, as much as it could be. “Stretch your legs out and take one step at a time.”
Sasha squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to breathe, slowly taking one step at a time. Every time, she expected her foot to fall through the open air, but it didn’t. She almost felt the tiniest proud smile grow on her lips as she took one after the other.
“That’s not so bad, is it? You’re a natural.” He laughed, just as strange and melodic as before, but she found herself laughing along.
“I should tell you that I don’t do this very often!” She gasped out above the sound of the wind rushing by as she watched the crowds of people below still eagerly watching the boats. The water had never seemed to reach out so far when she simply watched from the docks, but now it seemed to stretch on forever.
“I can tell. You’re doing just fine.”
Sasha smiled, forcing her stomach to stop turning. The town was really quite beautiful, especially being able to see it from so high up with all the colors on full display. She almost missed when they grew closer to the lovely book shop below. It looked even smaller and hidden away, but she couldn’t help but smile at the familiar sight.
“You can set me down there, Michael!” She called out, pointing to the doorstep.
The Wizard nodded and they made their slow, gentle descent to the streets below. No one seemed all too concerned about the strange pair floating down as if being let down only by a slowly deflating balloon. Despite the fact that flying hadn’t been quite as bad as she’d once thought it was, Sasha couldn’t deny that she was relieved when her feet were finally firmly on the ground.
A wave of vertigo washed over her as soon as she let go of him, but she was quick to grab his arm once more for balance until she could stand on her own two feet.
“Thank you.” She managed, moving towards the door to turn around the closed sign to open.
“You’re much braver than you think you are. That was quite a leap of faith you took.” Michael smiled the same overly wide smile, giggling.
Sasha almost laughed. Her? Brave? She could barely imagine it. “I’m sure anyone would do the same.”
He quirked his head to the side, like he doubted her statement, but he chose not to say anything about it. His eyes-- were they swirling? She couldn’t make out the exact color of them-- flickered from her face to her shoulder, reaching out to pinch the fabric. A silver worm that had been trying its hardest to burrow through the fabric lay on the palm of his hand.
“I’d be careful, friend. Maybe it would be wise to stay inside for the rest of the day.” Michael pinched the worm in two with one long finger and it disappeared into ashes. “You may find monsters like that will have a much harder time resisting you now.”
She nodded and gave a curt wave to him. It seemed awkward, to have such an unexpected thing happen and just return to her bookshelves. Maybe it did good for all bookkeepers to have at least one tiny adventure in their lives before they returned to their books for good. By the time she had walked inside and closed the door, he had already disappeared.
The day passed on as most normal ones did, with her doing her work in the back while people filtered in and out. Nighttime came and the store closed and she was still focused on carefully mending the binding of a book, before Sasha remembered it was time to go home for the evening.
She stood up, gently stretching her back that had gone sore from hunching over for too long. Only a few candles were still left lit in the store and she made sure to put them out with her fingers one by one.
A rustle in the shadows pulled her out of her thoughts as she reached for the last candle, fingers hovering over the tiny flame. It’s probably your imagination, she told herself, you’ve had a very strange day, after all.
Sasha stared out into the shadows before reaching out again to the candle, this time startled by the sound of a low chuckling.
“H-Hello?” She called out, picking up the candle.
The shadows moved, a tall figure not unlike the reflection of Michael she had seen. That didn’t comfort her though as she backed away against the counter. “I see you! Show yourself!”
A short man with curly blonde hair stepped out from behind the bookshelves, hardly the frightening specter she’d thought to be lurking in the shadows. She let go of the breath she’d been holding and allowed herself to relax.
“Sir, we’re closed. I’m afraid you’ll have to go home.” Sasha gave an apologetic smile.
The man’s lips upturned in a cruel smile before it warped and grew twisted and stretched out. He had only been a little shorter than her when she first saw him, but now he was big enough that his head brushed against the ceiling and rocked the entire building. It opened its mouth, revealing row upon row of sharp teeth.
“Hello? I see you.” It repeated in a frightening recreation of her voice.
She stared up at the creature with wide eyes, finding herself frozen in her spot. The door wasn’t too far away; she could likely reach it if she ran. But she was far from a fast runner.
In her indecision, it stepped closer to her, knocking over an entire bookshelf to the ground with a harsh thud. It loomed over her, one clawed hand reaching past her shoulder for the candle.
Move! You need to move! Sasha told herself in her head, but her feet refused to move.
The creature pinched the flame out, casting her into darkness. She felt herself lose consciousness, though she didn’t know when or how it happened, but when she woke up, she would find herself with a different face while the creature walked out with hers.