Excerpt: Ragnarok:Welcome

I go to take a step back and, before I can react, black polished nails reach for my throat and I brace myself for pain. Pain that doesn’t come, but I am jerked forward slightly by the necklace I normally have tucked into my shirt. He must’ve caught sight of the chain.

Pulling a little bit more, Jason lets go of my necklace chain and takes a step back, a few tones of mocking laughter that make bristle escaping him. “Know about magic? Give just give it up, Talak, I’m telling you that right now.” He’s pointing a finger at my chest and I glance down at the simple pentacle that I wear. A simple sign of my faith, that’s all, one that no one ever sees and now I’m being mocked for it. “He’s a neo-pagan bitch. He wants to be different and special, probably because Mommy never loved him or Daddy loved him a bit too much. It’s full of shit. He’s not going to be able to learn what you want him to. He doesn’t know how to do anything but light a candle and pretend his poetry is actually spells. That’s what he thinks magic is. Talking to gods that don’t pay any attention.” Contempt drips from his voice, a grin showing fangs set on his face and anger in his eyes. He just met me not even five minutes ago, and I could feel that he hated everything I was.

And I hate him right back for it. “Oh yeah? I’m an orphan, you self-absorbed jackass!” I can see Garreth the hippie over Jason’s shoulder perk up and smile, beginning to watch me more intently, but I barely even register it. I’m just so pissed that someone like this poster boy for fake rebellion would insult me like that. “At least I didn’t buy my ‘difference’ at a store in the mall! And I can learn what Talak has to teach me, probably better than someone like you could, even if you ever pulled your head out of your ass and tried!”

The grin on Jason’s face widens, and it’s the most threatening smile that I’ve ever seen, but by this point, I just don’t give a damn. Nobody talks to me like that. I don’t care who or what you are. “If you have a death wish, keep talking.” He says, not raising his voice to match mine, right hand going into his pocket and gesturing at me with his left. “You’re nothing but fodder to me, kid. Cattle. And I don’t give a shit if Talak brought you here. You’re fair game if you’re not branded.”

Kid. Coming from someone who looks no older than me, even if he might not be, It just makes me more angry with him. “Oh yeah? And I should be afraid of you?” I snap.

“Afraid? You should be pissing your pants. I’m better than you by blood. And I was better than garbage like you when I was a fucking human. Know your goddamn place! Food shouldn’t talk.” He hisses at me, the word 'human' coming out more like a swear than the obscenities did.

Hate rises in me and I know he can see it by the grin that won’t leave his face. Jason leans in close to me, as if challenging me to respond, before just scoffing at me, writing me off as the nothing the claimed I was. Oh, no you don’t, you son of a bitch.

You do not get away with treating me like that.

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