I visited the spot where she died today, in the student form that I adopted three years ago when the invasion happened. I don’t know how long I stood there, replaying the gruesome scene over and over again in my mind, further solidifying my hate for the aliens.
I SPENT YEARS ON THAT PLAN. All my watching, and waiting, and plotting, and pulling strings, ALL FOR NOTHING with one swipe of a death ray.
Does it count as mourning if I’m angry that I’M not the one who killed her? I’m not sure…
[excerpt from Rita's journal]
---
By the time I got outside, the lot was mostly empty, with
a few exceptions. I could see the
football team wandering out to practice on their field, and I could hear the
marching band warming up on the other side of the school. The car with the dragon drawing was still
parked next to mine. I put my bag and my
books in the back seat, and a voice spoke.
“Ah. I figured it was you, new girl.”
I
turned. Rita was standing behind me,
leaning against the nose of the dragon car.
Her arms were folded, and she was smirking.
“I
have a name you know,” I scowled at her, clenching my fist to make sure I was
holding my keys before slamming the door shut.
“And what, is there a law against me parking in an open spot?”
She
rested her chin on her fist. “No. It just means you haven’t learned yet.”
“Learned
what? What’s your deal anyways?”
She
just kept smiling. “What? Didn’t dear, gossiping Amy tell you
everything about me?”
“Just
some silly rumors.”
“Rumors
have a seed of truth to them.”
“Yeah,
sure, whatever. I’ll believe that when I actually see you fly.” I tried to walk away, but the lanyard on my
key ring was stuck in the door. I swore
under my breath and opened the door to free it.
Rita
heaved a dramatic sigh. “Why are you so
angry and hateful? Is it because
you’ve left your dear Tommy behind?”
I
dropped my keys and whirled around to face her.
“How do you know his name?”
Her
smile had a chilling edge to it. “It’s
not that hard to know when he’s always at the forefront of your mind.”
I
stared at her as she pushed off the front of the car and got in the driver’s
seat. I stared at her as she started the
car, then winked at me through the window.
I stared at the car as she drove away, and finally noticed the pentagram
painted in red on the trunk hood.
(excerpt from High School Witch [tentative title])
---
Her original idea was meant for a roleplaying campaign (I have a lot of characters like that...). In this world, it's modern-day Earth--if modern-day Earth had had superheroes and super villains and had been taken over by an alien force. :) Rita's a witch--a magic user in the world of supers. She started life in the 1300s, and was hunted as a witch then. She developed a hatred for humans, discovered that she was ageless, and eventually turned into a super villain, and called herself Sorceress.
In the process, she managed to get a nemesis: Emerald Flame. The two fought until it appeared that Emerald Flame was killed in the alien invasion, and Rita swore her vengeance on the aliens for taking away her super. Though recently, Emerald Flame came out of hiding, and the two have been forced to work together, much to Rita's horror.
Her current desire, other than to kill the aliens and kill her nemesis, is to become a dragon. She's become rather good friends with the world's Last Dragon (he was the one who taught her about magic, several hundred years ago), and they are working together to improve their magical abilities and to rid the world of the aliens so that she can be transformed and become a proper dragon. And I get the feeling she won't leave me alone until that happens. ^^; Though, we're not yet done with the campaign, and I'm excited to see where it will go from here. :D
The other excerpt is something that I wrote just the other day. Currently, I'm in two creative writing classes, and I have to write a novel in each of them. I was trying to think of a second idea, when Rita stepped in and suggested something. Rather nicely too, I must say.
The tentatively titled High School Witch is about Cat. She's moved with her family to Suburbia (read: an as-of-yet unnamed suburban town) during her senior year of high school, and left behind her boyfriend and all her other friends. There, she meet Rita, who has a reputation for unnatural things happening around her, and for being cruel and for having amazing strength (she can "lay out flat any boy in the school"). While Cat is trying to survive through school, a mysterious arsonist moves closer to her town. When the arsonist strikes in their town, Cat finds herself more suspicious of Rita than ever.
Rita's one of my newest characters, and still a lot in development, but she has 700 years of history for me to play with, so it's safe to say she'll show up over and over again. It's a good thing I like her. :)
Yes, you do seem to like her a bit. :D
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