Before And After

United States, Earth, Just Days Prior

Millie sat in the company office, wringing her hands. She’d been called in by her boss, no other context provided. She had been providing graphic design services for this company, even being responsible for three logo revamps, for the past twenty years.

Straight out of college, she had been lucky enough to land a fruitful career at Laramie LTD and stick with it. She loved this job, and wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world. But something in the way she was asked to arrive for the meeting told her that this wasn’t going to be a promotion.

“Ms. Miller,” the man behind the desk began, leaning over the desktop.

She winced, having never really liked her last name (but not wanting to marry anyone to change it). It always sounded so awkward with “Millicent” or “Millie”.

“You’ve been with us for a very long time, haven’t you?” he asked.

After her voice found her, she squeaked out a little: “Yes?”

He nodded. “The way technology has been advancing, it might be possible for you to take an early retirement, don’t you agree?”

Unfortunately for Millie, she still had a lot of student loan debt to repay. She couldn’t afford an early retirement. She would be lucky if she could afford to retire at all.

“I’m...I’m not sure I follow,” she stated.

“We’ve started to adopt some of the newer technology that’s out there. What used to take a full team of artists, we can now accomplish in the blink of an eye with one guy at a computer. Amazing, isn’t it?”

What was “amazing” to her was the fact that he had that disgustingly wide grin as he told her that her time there had meant nothing. That the efforts of every artist there were all for naught. She tried to keep her composure as he told her this, her fingers drumming anxiously on the desk.

“Are you with me, Miller?”

“Oh, yes. I’m just fine,” she spat.

“Would you like help cleaning out your desk, or are you fine on your own?”

Wow. Not even the offer of a severence package.

“Will I be getting severence pay?” she asked.

“Afraid not.”

“And is there anything else you’d like to tell me, like you also hired someone to break into my house and shoot my dog?!”

“Nope, that’s about it,” her boss said, still smiling at her. “I wish you luck on all your future endeavors, and thank you for your service.”

As Millie got up and left, he could have sworn he heard her mutter something to the effect of “Bite me”.

She stormed to her desk, grabbing an empty box from a corner and starting to load her stuff into it. The pencils at her desk were entirely hers. The graph paper pads, sketchbooks, protractor...it all came back with her. She very seriously considered grabbing the tablet PC...but it was company property and worth more than she apparently was to them and they’d probably have her arrested for that. And so, she left it alone.

Once she’d collected the pictures of her family and dog, she stormed off without bothering to even pick up her last check. Along the way, she passed others in her situation. A couple of them were fairly young, yet, having just started at the company a couple of years before, while at least one of them was older. He’d been there for several decades and even been her mentor for a bit. And all of them looked just as upset as she was.

The walk home felt longer than usual, as she blinked back angry tears. There was a point where she nearly got run over by a truck, and in her current state, she was almost tempted to let it. The only thing that kept her from throwing herself into that oncoming traffic was that Nibbles was waiting for her at home. That dog gave her a reason to bother heading home in the first place.

She got back to the small apartment, closing the door behind her, dropping the box to the floor, before dropping herself to the floor and finally breaking down. She was only vaguely aware of Nibbles coming to greet her, her cold wet nose touching her cheek.

Millie reached out and hugged the dog in question, rubbing her ears.

The way she figured it, they probably had enough to live on for a couple weeks before she needed to find work elsewhere. It couldn’t be that hard to find something, right?

Those next couple of days were spent trying to figure out some plans for the future. Well, okay, so she’d spent those next couple of days drowning her sorrows in tales of the supernatural and films about killer clowns. She could plan a bit later, but for the time being, it was all about self-soothing.

On one of those post-firing days, Nibbles was being particularly antsy about going for a walk. It wasn’t like a lot of time had passed since her last one (twenty minutes), but it wasn’t like Millie had much else going on at the time. And so, the two had gone for their third walk that day.

During the walk, Nibbles was doing her usual thing, sniffing everything that caught her interest, pouncing on random insects, growling at large enough trucks that dared to be louder than her… Millie watched the dog with a smile, almost a little envious of her. It wasn’t like she had bills. She seemed very secure with herself as a dog, whereas Millie had no idea where she belonged anymore.

As they approached the end of their block, something caused them to stop in their tracks. There was a swirling black portal ahead of them. Millie blinked, her head tilted. She was ready to turn around and head home, but Nibbles was sniffing at something and starting to pull at the leash. Nibbles wasn’t a huge dog, like a mastiff...but she was still strong enough to yank her human right off of her feet and rush through the portal with her, ready to play with whatever she’d found.

The dog ran right past a castle, her human unwilling to let go. Or perhaps lacking the presence of mind. Or both.

Somewhere in the woods, Millie’s head collided with a tree, and she was out.

Nightshade, Present

Millie, still covered with (now-clotted) blood, had essentially shut down, her knees drawn up to her chest as she kept muttering a refrain of “This doesn’t happen to people like me...this can’t be my life…”

Talia heaved a sigh, her arms crossed. “It’s true, you’re not the usual sort for this. I’ve generally recruited teenagers or overworked salary-workers in the past. Most were a bit more gung-ho for this kind of opportunity.”

Millie thought for a moment. She wasn’t the first. She wasn’t even sure if she was a last resort or even an accidental recruit. But she also had nothing really going for her back home. The biggest reason she had to go on was here with her, currently scratching an itch behind an ear. This could also be a new start in general.

“Would I have to go home when the task is done?” she asked after a moment.

The vampire rubbed her neck. “I’m not sure there is a way to get you back to your home. There’s a good chance you’ll be here for eternity.”

“I...I see,” Millie replied, feeling the tears begin to flow down her cheeks.

“I know, it’s a lot to take i—”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, these are tears of joy!” she said with a grin. “Doubt the student loans are gonna get me here!”

“So, does that mean you’re in?” Talia asked her.

“Hell yeah, it does!” Millie said. “But is there anywhere I can get cleaned up?”

The vampire smiled, her fangs on full display. “Of course. Now remember what I said about intent?”

Millie froze for a moment, grimacing. “I, um...I sort of missed parts of it,” she admitted.

“Existential crisis hit, did it?”

“Little bit, yeah.”

“You’re a witch, and as such, can conjure things you may need. All you need to do is want it badly enough.”

The newly-minted witch thought about this, as her hostess led her to one of the castle’s rooms. Inside of the room was a claw-foot tub and a basin. No mirror to be found. So that was where Millie focused her conjuring first.

It took a few moments before she managed to conjure a mirror into existence, large enough to take full stock of herself. Her gray eyes had huge bags underneath, her face and clothing absolutely coated with clotted blood. She brushed it off, before going to wash what she couldn’t just brush away off.

And while she was at this “exploring her ability to conjure” thing, she felt she could do with a wardrobe change. Shops back home didn’t have any of the stuff she liked in her size, so maybe here, she could remedy that...