Chapter 2: Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Lia jolted awake, frantically casting her gaze around the room. It was unfamiliar, and everything was huge. She seemed to be on some sort of incredibly soft and comfortable bed that certainly wasn’t the rickety one she had at home.

Where had she been last…it had been raining, she was running home from school, there was a boom, and then…she woke up here. Had she been struck by lightning? That couldn’t be, she felt perfectly fine. No, not perfectly fine, she felt amazing, better than she had in a long time.

“Ah, you’re awake, perfect.” The voice was coming from behind her, and she could hear the sound of its owner clapping her hands. Lia turned around hesitantly, and found that it was…Amelia, one of her best friends.

But two things were wrong. First, she was enormous, many, many times the size of Lia. Second, it didn’t feel like Amelia. No, she felt like…Lia’s creator, which was definitely not right.

“I see you’re confused, that’s perfectly understandable. Would you like me to explain?” Amelia asked, smiling gently.

Lia tried to nod, but her neck just felt…stiff, like it was being restrained somehow, meaning she was unable to actually nod. So, instead she just sort of…waved an arm in agreement.

“Oh, right, right, I forgot. You’re not really equipped to communicate right now.” Amelia leaned forward, tapping an enormous glass wall that was between them. “Step on the green tile for yes, the red for no.”

Now that she was looking, Lia could see that there were indeed two colored tiles on the floor. She had been rather distracted by the giant woman in front of her, so those had failed to really grab her attention. So, with a bit of effort, she heaved herself off of the bed and scuttled over to the green tile.

“Perfect. Well, the long and the short of it is that you died. Game over. Kaput. You were on your way home from school and were hit by lightning. Seems like the targeting for a wizard’s spell went awry and imbued a thunderstorm with life-seeking lightning bolts.”

Amelia’s lips pulled up into a mirthless grin, a sadistic spark entering her eyes as she continued. “Don’t worry, I made sure he won’t be making any of those mistakes again. You’ll get to meet him and exact your revenge eventually, but not yet.”

Lia panicked at this, trying to yell out something, anything, but all that came out was a low hiss.

“I know, you would rather get at him sooner. Unfortunately, you’re not strong enough for that just yet.”

Lia dashed over to the red square, planting herself firmly in it.

Amelia raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want to get revenge?”

And Lia was back to the green square. Fortunately, the two were pretty close together, so the walk wasn’t too bad.

“Are you sure?”

That gave Lia pause. The wizard had killed her. Obviously, she wasn’t dead at the moment, but Amelia had said so, so it had to be true. And, the more she thought, the more she realized she did want to give this wizard a piece of her mind. Not kill him, of course, but…

What did she want to do to him? There was something, but she was unable to tell what it was. It was like a word that was on the tip of her tongue – vague enough she couldn’t tell what it was, but solid enough that she knew that she knew.

“I see you’re thinking, so let’s return to the original question. Do you want revenge?”

Lia hesitated, then tapped her leg on the green square she was in. Yes, she supposed she did want some form of revenge…whatever that meant.

Amelia’s smile widened. “Perfect. Before I explain, I need to ask you a few more questions, so bear with me. First, I’m going to list off names, tap your leg when you hear yours, alright?”

Lia waited as Amelia listed them, tapping when she heard “Lia”.

Amelia was smiling genuinely now, a proud, excited smile that Lia had learned meant that some crazy plan was working. “Perfect. Same thing, just tap when you hear my name.” And, after another quick test, Amelia was looking incredibly excited.

“Alright, going to get into some harder questions now. Tap as many times as the number of family members you have, including yourself.”

That was…six. Her parents, herself, her two little sisters, and her little brother.

“Perfect. Now, here’s an important one. Are you romantically interested in guys?”

What kind of a question was that? Of course she was, she had a boyfriend and everything! She was about to tap the green tile in affirmation, but hesitated before she actually did. Now that she was thinking about it again…she felt nothing. Honestly, she just…didn’t feel the same thinking about him. The same things that she used to find so attractive were…unimportant. And, other guys were the same. She didn’t find a single one even remotely attractive anymore.

So, she scurried on over to the red square, prompting an unusual spark to enter Amelia’s eyes. “What about girls?”

And when she thought about it, she realized nearly immediately that she was. It was an odd sensation – she realized on an intellectual level that something fundamental had changed within her, that she should be panicking, but…no. She felt excited. A whole new world had just been opened to her, and she wanted to explore it.

She immediately went back to the green square, prompting a squeal and a fist-pump from Amelia. “Perfect! Alright, explanation time. You died a couple of years ago. And, in that time, I never forgot you, I never moved on. Everyone else, your parents, Liam, your other friends…they stopped caring. They were sad at first, but they got over it. I loved you more than everyone else, so I didn’t.”

Lia stared at Amelia in shock. Amelia had always been rather…touchy-feely, but love? She wasn’t sure how to react to that. Sure, Amelia was quite attractive, but…

She shook herself out of her musings. Amelia was talking, and she needed to listen.

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“So, these past two years, I’ve been tirelessly working on a way to bring you back, and to bring you back better. I’m not going to sit and let you die on me again, and I’m not going to let the world ignore how great you are again. No, I’ve given you the power to make this world into a utopia, a perfect society where we don’t have to worry about all these petty issues we deal with in today’s society and can focus on what’s really important. What do you say? Will you work with me?”

On some level Lia knew that Amelia was acting crazy. Her eyes were completely focused on Lia, and she was smiling a huge, unhinged smile. But, at the same time the things she said were so…alluring. It made sense in a way that she was honestly kind of scared about. She knew they were the ravings of a lunatic, but on an emotional level they just…connected with her.

Well, Amelia had never steered her wrong before, and Lia was dead as far as the world was concerned, so…it wasn’t like she really had anything to lose. She tapped the green square, prompting another excited squeal from Amelia.

“Yes!” She cheered, turning around and bending down. She straightened up, turning around and placing a small cloth-covered object on the area in front of the glass between them, something Lia was beginning to realize was a table. “So, um, you…might have noticed that you’re, um…small.” She said, suddenly nervous. “I might have reincarnated you into a monster. And, uh, you’re kind of not the biggest looker at the moment, if you know what I mean.”

She waved her hands frantically. “It’s not permanent or anything, though. If you keep working on raising your level and evolving, I promise you you’ll be able to get to something that looks like your old body eventually, if not better-looking.”

Lia paused, taking that in. So, she was a monster now. That wasn’t supposed to be anywhere close to possible, but bringing someone back from the dead wasn’t either, so she just had to accept that Amelia had, apparently, been quite busy. She tapped the green square once again, and Amelia tore off the object’s cloth, revealing a mirror.

“Not the biggest looker” was a…rather large understatement. She was, in a word, horrifying – she was something akin to a dull brown spider with a scorpion’s tail and a set of cockroach’s wings.

Oddly enough, she really didn’t feel that out of place in her body. A quick test showed that she had full control over everything and was even capable of rather limited flight if she really strained her wings.

“Ah, good. You seem to, um, be taking it well? I know you were never really afraid of bugs, but I was worried. So, uh, let’s talk about what you are and some of the help I’ve given you. Over these past years I’ve put my entire being into researching how to resurrect you and how I can make sure you’re able to make the world a fitting place for you to live in. As a result, I’ve become one of the world’s most powerful witches, and I’ve used my entire arsenal of abilities making you the best you can be.”

Oddly enough, that weird sense that Amelia was her creator had vanished during the time she had been looking at herself. She had caught Amelia doing something in the corner of her vision, so perhaps that had something to do with it?

Ignorant of Lia’s inner musings, Amelia continued. “I’ve set you down the path to become something I’m calling a Swarm Matriarch, an entirely new breed of monsters I’ve made. Once you evolve a couple of times, you’ll be able to start converting living things into part of your swarm. They’ll retain their old memories, feelings, everything, they’ll just have undying loyalty to you in addition to all that.”

Ah, that was what she had wanted to do to the wizard. She wanted to make him part of her swarm. It was another impulse she probably should have been concerned about, but that really didn’t matter, there was no point worrying about things like that all the time. She wanted to, so she would, it was as simple as that. She had a second chance at life, so she wasn’t going to let silly things like that get in the way of what she wanted.

That was also an attitude she should have been concerned with, but she wasn’t, and that was that. She was different now, but she wasn’t about to throw away everything just because her mind was not what it once had been.

“I’ll be joining your swarm, of course, but that’ll have to wait until you’re established more and I’m sure you can handle things without me for a bit. But, before that, I have to help you get acclimatized. Go ahead and open your status, I want to introduce your new toys to you.”

Lia tapped her green square in acknowledgement, mentally calling for her status. And, as it always had, a grey window popped up in front of her, though it looked…different to how it had when she was a foxkin.

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