Claudia

The sorcerer hunters were on a short break from hunting sorcerers. Big Mama had not summoned them in awhile, so Carrot suggested they all go out together. There was a club in the town of Rainsville, and Carrot wanted to go there to meet girls.

Chocolate followed Carrot to the club so he wouldn't meet any new girls. She also made sure to drag Tira along also, for moral support more than anything else. Tira still helped Chocolate keep Carrot from the girls, but her heart just wasn't in it. Chocolate knew it had something to do with what happened in the hotel with Marron a week ago, but did not mention anything.

Marron and Gateau went to the club too just b-cuz they felt they had to keep an eye on everyone. It wasn't safe for innocent bystanders to witness Chocolate and Tira's rage aimed at Carrot.

Chocolate was dressed in a wickedly tight, short black skirt and a red halter-top. "When Darling sees me in this he won't be able to look at any other girl." She said. She called for Tira to come out, but Tira hid around the corner. She felt self conscious in this dress that Chocolate picked out for her. It was blue, sleeveless, and also very short. Chocolate pulled Tira out of the corner. "Stop it, Tira. You look beautiful. See all these guys staring at us. I bet we are the hottest babes here."

"Or maybe we just have something in our teeth." Tira said.

"Don't be silly. Come on let's dance." Chocolate dragged Tira out onto the dance floor.

Carrot pulled up a stool next to a very pretty young lady. "Hello, my lovely. I couldn't help but notice you sitting there all alone. May I buy you a drink?"

The lady giggled and nodded yes. Carrot ordered a margarita for both of them then asked, "What's your sign?" Gateau pulled Carrot off the stool. "What are you doing?" Asked Carrot.

"Saving you some embarrassment. That girl is a man." Carrot looked at the girl again. He didn't see it.

"Nah uh."

"Yeah."

"No way. She's beautiful."

Gateau called for Marron to come over and when he did Gateau asked, "Marron, is that a guy?"

"Yes. " Marron answered.

"No way." Carrot disagreed.

"That's a man, Carrot." Marron insisted.

"No way." Carrot was still in disbelief. Marron shook his head. Suddenly he heard a voice call out his name.

"Marron? Marron Glace? Oh my god!" Out of nowhere a short, purple-haired girl jumped on him and hugged him. "I don't believe it. It is you. You've changed a lot!"

"Claudia?" Marron now recognized the girl clinging to him.

"I remember." Marron said. He remembered Claudia. They had been children, playing together in the village. She had been short and fat then. She was also a little whiny. Still, she had been Marron's friend.

Years ago, it was at that sandbox in the park. "Wah!" Claudia screamed at the sky. Bullies destroyed the sandcastle she made. The same bullies who liked to pick on Marron when they had the chance. She had her purple hair in pigtails. She wiped tears from her red, chubby cheeks. Marron walked up to her then.

"Don't cry. I'll help you build another one." He said. The little girl looked at him.

"Thank you. Those guys are mean. My mommy says to ignore him, but sometimes I just can't." She wailed again.

"What did they say to you?" Marron asked.

"They called me fat and ugly. They said I was an elephant and would never get a boyfriend cuz I would sit on them and they would die." She started to whimper again. "They pick on you too, don't they?"

"Yes. They try to make me mad and stand up to them. They tell me I look like a girl. They try to make me fight them, but I can't. I'm too little and weak."

"So what do you do?"

"Run away. Sometimes my big brother saves me. He's big and strong. I will be big and strong too someday."

They began on a new sandcastle. It was bigger and better than the sandcastle Claudia had built before. "I don't think you are fat or ugly." Marron told Claudia.

She smiled. "And I don't think you look like a girl. Well, very much anyway." Marron threw sand at her and she giggled. "Marron, will you be my boyfriend?"

"Huh?"

"You don't have to act like you are, like hold hands or anything. Those jerks said I would never get a boyfriend and I want to prove them wrong."

"Okay."

"Yippee!"

But Claudia was no longer a short, chubby girl. She was still short, but now she was thin. She let go of Marron and chattered away. "Omigosh. It's been so long. Wow, you are really tall. I used to be taller than you. Where you been? Remember the sandcastle?" She rambled on fast, and Gateau chuckled.

"Wow. Does she ever breathe?"

Chocolate was on the floor dancing. Several good-looking guys had attempted to dance with her, but she politely turned them down, claiming that she must save herself for her darling. Tira looked at where the guys were and noticed them talking to a pretty girl. "Hey, who's that with Marron?" Tira asked. She had an edge in her voice that Chocolate noticed.

"I don't know. Maybe Marron has an interest in girls after all." Tira sighed at Chocolate's statement.

Claudia talked awhile longer then when she finally stopped she said she was going to get a drink. As she left, Carrot checked her out. "She's pretty. I wonder if she has a boyfriend."

"She does, remember? It's Marron." Gateau slapped Marron on the back and laughed.

"That was a long time ago." Marron said. Carrot watched Claudia as she stepped up to the bar. He moved his head back and forth to the rhythm of her swaying hips. Marron and Gateau raised their eyebrows at him.

"Hello, pretty lady. What will you have?" the bartender asked.

"A margarita please." She opened her purse and dropped all of its contents on the bar. She didn't have enough. "Oh dear."

"Well, you'll have to pay me another way." The bartender made a kissy face and slid his hotel room number across the bar to her.

"I am not your whore!" She picked up a black pouch that had fallen from her purse. She opened it and out come a black stream of gooey-something. It wrapped itself around the bartender who screamed loudly.

The people on the dance floor paid no attention to the scream. They were too busy dancing and having a good time. Tira and Chocolate, however, heard it. "It's that girl." Chocolate declared.

"She's a sorceress." Tira confirmed.

"Really, what do our boys have with sorceresses? First Darling, then Gateau, now Marron." Chocolate and Tira weaved thru the people to get off the dance floor.

"Claudia just killed that guy." Gateau announced.

"Oh damn." Marron said.

"Jeez, Marron. You sure have some strange girlfriends." Carrot replied. The guys met Tira and Chocolate at the bar where Claudia was. Claudia saw them running for her and knew she was in trouble. She jumped up on the bar and chanted some magic words. The black ooze from the pouch surrounded her changing her into a cape and black leather.

The people in the club paid no attention to Claudia's show. The music was too loud and the moving lights drowned out Claudia's effects. This was a good thing-to a point. It meant that they wouldn't have an audience. Unfortunately, Claudia didn't like that she didn't have the attention of the room. She used the magic in her black pouch to blast the deejay's equipment.

"Bitch. I liked that song." Someone in the crowd said.

"Why are you doing this, Claudia?" Marron asked.

"Don't you remember, Marron. Those bullies-the way they treated me. The way they treated us. I had enough of it, so I visited a man who gave me this." She held out her pouch for all to see. "With this magic I can be whatever I want. I can do what ever I want. Even punish those who treated me like crap."

"But you don't have to," Carrot said. "You are gorgeous. No one will pick on you now."

"Fool!" She pointed at Carrot. "Do you think this is how I really look. This is a hallucination created by the magic. I couldn't diet. I eat like a pig. I'm fatter than I ever was, and just as ugly." She clutched her pouch to her chest. "But with this magic I can look like anyone I want to be."

"Claudia, this is not the way to solve your problems." Marron said.

"Yeah. I know. It's what is inside that counts. People will like me for who I am. Don't judge a book by its cover. Blah blah blah. I've heard it all. I attended counseling. I killed the counselor when he told me I have a complex."

Her voice grew softer as she said, "But you know what it's like to go your whole life feeling worthless. For people to call you names and throw things at you. You know. You are just like me."

"I have never felt worthless." Marron corrected. "I am also not like you. I would never take the path you have chosen. Give up your magic, Claudia."

"No! I can't go back to being what I was before."

"That is regrettable. If you refuse to give up your powers then I have no choice."

Claudia saw Marron retrieve a ward from his sleeve and she jumped out of the way before it hit the bar. "Get her!" Chocolate cheered. Claudia grabbed some ooze and threw it at the sorcerer hunters. It hit Gateau in the face.

"Ah! It burns!"

"Gateau!" Tira rushed to Gateau's side. Chocolate changed to her S&M outfit and tried to strike Claudia with her garrote. Claudia dodged it and tossed more black ooze at Chocolate. Chocolate barely missed it.

Marron grabbed a ward and looked at the pouch. It would do no good to aim at Claudia. It was the pouch that was the source of her power. He flung the ward at the pouch while Claudia was busy tangling with Chocolate. The ward hit the pouch dead on and Claudia's scream filled the room.

The magic ooze in the bag surrounded Claudia again. She let out a scream as the ooze overcame her and slowly began to eat away at her. Claudia's skin began to melt away from her bones as the ooze melted away. Her skeleton broke at each of its joints and crumbled to the ground. Carrot picked up the pouch. It was empty.

The Sorcerer Hunters walked away from the club after explaining to the people that what had just happened was just an act and they were actors. The people believed it and continued dancing. "Why can't we go anywhere without there being a sorcerer?" Carrot grumbled.

"That just shows you how many there really are." Gateau said.

"And they could be anybody. Even your friends." Chocolate looked at Marron, who remained expressionless.

"She wasn't the one who…" Tira began. She was referring to their conversation in the basement of the orphanage. The conversation the rest of the hunters didn't know about.

"No, Tira. She wasn't" Marron answered. Tira sighed. She was afraid that Claudia had been the girl Marron was in love with. She seemed relieved that she wasn't. Not that it mattered to her, of course. She was in love with Carrot. But then why was she so jealous when she saw Marron with Claudia? Tira put that thought out of her mind.

"Let's go home and do something completely unsorcererlike." Carrot said. "Let's order a pizza and stay in. Sound good?"

The others agreed and went home.