“Isn’t it time we start thinking about Jane’s future?! She’s going off to college now, and I know you and Jane never really got along, but she’s still our daughter. At least when it comes to college…”
Jane Fleming was reclining in her chair in front of her computer, wearing her customary old khakis and t-shirt. Even though she wore no make-up, her delicate, pale face, offset by her light grey eyes and curly blonde hair, put one in mind of a Southern belle. The only jewelry she bore was a small stud earring, in the shape of a water droplet, in her right ear. She put her earphones in her ears and ramped up the volume on her green ipod. “It’s a little too late to start caring now, isn’t it, Val.” She muttered under her breath.
George and Valerie Fleming were an odd pair. A stocky, grizzly man, George’s dark features and bad temper were in direct contrast with Val’s slender frame, wavy brown hair, and grey eyes. Jane figured that the only thing she shared with Val was the color of her eyes, and nothing at all with George. It was probably a good thing, considering that Val was weak and George was a violent drunk.
George hated it when she closed the door to her room, but that didn’t stop her from trying to block out the conversation between her parents. Val had been trying to get George to talk to her about Jane going to college, but George had been repeatedly brushing her off. Jane didn’t see any point in Val trying to talk to George about it. They both knew that if she went too far he’d just beat her to shut her up. Jane didn’t care, anyways. She had been in several good part-time jobs for years now and since George and Val had the decency to feed her and give her a place to stay that had a shower and electricity, there hadn’t been much she had been spending the money on. She even had a bank account to store the fairly substantial amount she was in possession of. If she got a good scholarship and a more solid job, she’d probably be able to financially make it through the first year. She was also signing up for financial aid and school loans. Most of her essays were done, and she’d already had Aaron’s family look over them. She wasn’t applying to many schools, anyways. Of course she’d applied to Medimnum University, but also to two Ivy League schools and three small, obscure colleges in the East and West Coast. She hadn’t told her parents any of this, but that didn’t matter either. Neither of them would care enough to even see her off.
Jane yawned. A piercing pain shot through her right ear. She made a small yelp in the middle of her yawn and ripped her earphones out of her ear. She reached up and touched the earring. She stood up. Val was still futilely arguing with George, but Jane had bigger issues to deal with. “Val, George, I’m going out now. I think I left something at Aaron’s house the other day.”
George didn’t bother acknowledging Jane’s existence, but Val looked up and gave a tentative smile, “Alright dear, come back soon.”
Jane walked out. Unlike most of the houses in Medimnum, the Flemings’ house was not close to the small cluster of shops next to the college nor was it on the edge of the reservoir. Their house was actually situated a ten minute walk into the reservoir itself. Jane didn’t even know how they got a steady supply of water and electricity. It made things easier for her though, not being a part of the town. This way, her work was easier to get to.
Jane headed towards Aaron’s house, which was not far from hers, on the edge of the reservoir. But as soon as she was out of sight of the house, she stopped. She turned slowly in a small, controlled circle, waiting for it… There! A beam of blue light shot from the crystal in her earring, lighting a path before her. She moved forward quickly. The light would disappear as soon as she was close enough to the creature for it to be dangerous. Then, she’d be on her own.
Jane plunged deeper into the forest. Moving silently, for all her speed. The light disappeared and Jane stopped. She looked around carefully, making sure to move in a slow, unthreatening fashion. She closed her eyes and listened carefully. Birds, rustling leaves, a squirrel scampering up a tree. A step forward. Stop, listen, look, listen again. No obvious signs of unusual activity, but Jane knew that this wasn’t it. The creature she was looking for was close. Problem was, she didn’t know why she thought that.
She decided to test the waters a little. A little whistling flow of random notes flowed from Jane’s mouth. That was meant to be a drowsing sound, that would slow any threats down and draw the animals cozily to her. To her utter shock, the sound was repeated back at her. She opened her eyes abruptly.
A bird was hovering in front of her face, flapping its wings hard to keep its small, pudgy body level with Jane’s eyes. It echoed her shriek perfectly, seeming strangely excited.
She realized it then, the reason she hadn’t been able to detect the bird was because it could perfectly mimic the sounds other things made. Why had she been sent to exterminate it, though? The shadow creatures usually considered worthy enough for shadow attention were dangerous, threateningly sick, or close to being discovered. This little creature showed no signs of any such thing.
That is, until it opened its beak and started singing a fast, angry-sounding song that made everything around Jane go crazy. Birds shrieked, bugs came crawling from the ground in their masses, a buck came galloping into the vicinity and crashed into a nearby tree. She didn’t know if the bird was crazy, or what it was doing here, but she sure did know that it was dangerous and flashy. It was only because she herself used song magic that she was immune to this, after all.
This is what was posing the problem though. Just as she was immune to its magic, so it would be immune to hers. It also appeared to enjoy mimicking her, including her songs. Which meant she’d have to deal with the bugger without being able to utilize most of her arsenal of songs. She hummed a harmless tune to herself, and heard it mirrored back by the bird, stopping its Dionysus melody.
She was struck with an idea. The rest of the forest calmed as Jane continued humming. She took out her only weapon, which was a simple brooch in the shape of a golden butterfly.
The bird didn’t move from in front of her face, continuing to mimic the harmless tune tirelessly. Then Jane stabbed the little creature in the breast with her brooch, and it let out a shrieking cry that almost made Jane herself go mad. It fell to the ground, bleeding, and Jane watched it as it died, singing a small dirge for it. Knowing that her song would still not be able to affect the corpse, she decided to use the conventional method. She took out a cigarette lighter she had stolen from her father many years ago and torched the dry leaves underneath the creature’s body. Waiting to ensure that the bird’s body was crisped beyond recognition, she scattered the leaves around it, then turned away.
If this had happened 8 years ago, when Jane had first started being a shadow, she might have stayed in that spot crying for hours, but now she just turned away, barely shaking at the knees. Even though she knew it was dangerous, Jane put her earphones in her ears, ramping up the volume a little more, and began humming. There was no sense in crying about a hopeless cause, after all.