The call ended and Sabrina was left alone in her shop once again. A sigh escapes her as she pockets the rectangular device. Guilt welled up in her from lying to her sweet nephew. She hated to do it but knew that he wouldn't handle the truth very well.

  The attack was far worst then she made it out to seem. There was something wrong about the crazed homeless man. Sabrina knew this for a fact as her wards did very little to protect her.

  Looking around her shop she resisted the urge to cry. Her meticulously organized shelfs now lie in a chaotic mess that caused something in the back of Sabrina's mind to itch. She hated messes and her shop was exactly that. Her beautiful display of colorful crystal charms now lie scattered across her floor. She could even tell some of them had been broken in the attack.

  But right now she couldn't worry about that. No Sabrina had more pressing matters to attend to. Even though leaving the mess as it was physically hurt her. No she had to figure out why her wards did nothing to stop the crazed homeless man.

  The wards around her apartment and the shop were some of the best modern day witchcraft could produce. Sabrina and three other witches worked together for nearly a decade to develop these wards. To top that off Sabrina added her own modifications.

  Witchcraft being the completive field that it is, where secrets are horded more closely then the gold that dragons of fantasy favor, it was important to ensure her place of study could not be disturb. So Sabrina had added some extra protections that would prevent her collaborators from easily breaking the words.

  The wards were even able to prevent an agitated Spector from entering her shop. The Spector had possessed some unlucky homeless person and tried to enter the shop under the guise of being a mortal. The Spector wanted to get revenge on Sabrina for banishing it back to the realm of the dead seven years prior. Yet the moment it tried stepping foot into the shop the wards attacked the Spector, tearing it's spirits to shreds.

  Yet despite the power and capabilities her wards held it didn't stop the homeless man from following her in and attacking her. One of the first wards any witch learns is to protect against Mortals with ill intent directed at the witch. The wards should have prevent the homeless man entry and sent a warning to a jade ring on Sabrina's left hand. But none of this happened. No the homeless man stumbled in as if there were no wards to speak of.

  With the police already gone and a mess to clean up Sabrina decided to not open the shop up today. She called the handful of customers that were to pick up orders and explained to them that she is temporarily closed, but that she will open back up the following day. With that done she turned her attention back to the mess left after the attack. She knew she should clean it up but had more pressing things to check on.

  Her shop was split into four sections, yet the public only knew of three. The store front was where the customers could come in and place their orders or pursue her wares. Then she had a storage area that she kept larger merchandise or the overflow that wouldn't fit on her shelves. The final public part of her shop was the office. The office had a desk with a computer and a safe under the desk. Or at least that's what anyone other then Sabrina would see.

  A crafty deception ward covered a door leading to an underground section of the shop. This prevented anyone other then the witch who made the ward from recognizing the door was there. This hidden door led to Sabrina's workshop where she could safely research witchcraft and make the items she sold. It just so happened that this is where the ward matrixes were also held down here.

  Sabrina made her way down to her workshop and began studying the ward matrixes lining the wall. From her observations nothing appeared wrong with them. Closing her eyes she reached for the familiar tear of magic residing in all living beings.

  While in college she joined an Occult study club out of curiosity and met Kelly. Kelly introduced Sabrina to witchcraft and taught her how to utilize this small amount of power.

  Grasping ahold of the magic, Sabrina focused her intent on sending the flow of magic through the wards. The magic flowed through the wards, folding and twisting itself just like Sabrina designed them to do.

  From everything she could tell the wards were still working. They were all still charged enough to be fully functional. None of them had any noticeable impairments in their physical weaving.

  Stumped by the lack of answers she returned to her office and logged into her computer. She navigates to her security system software and found the footage from the attack. Watching the attack she was left stumped as to how the man was able to get into her shop without tripping her wards.

  With the cameras not providing any more information to her Sabrina turned back to her mystical means. Returning to her workshop she scanned the bookshelf filled with tomes and spell books. Finding the book she was looking for she pulls it off the shelf and rifles through the pages until she finds what she was looking for.

  A spell that let one pursue their recent memories as if they were reliving them. The spell started with a handful of pages warning the witch of the dangers associated with the spell. The list ranged from being stuck in a comma where they experienced the memory over and over again until the witch's body dies to causing permeant brain damage.

  Sabrina knew that with any spell she ran the risk of permeant bodily damage. Harnessing magic means harnessing the energy of the soul. So when magic goes awry it can cause backlash on the soul. This in turns causes physical damage. There are many theories on why this happens but Sabrina's personal belief is that a person's should and physical being are connected. Through this connect damage to one can transcend to damage to the other.

  This belief was corroborated by Witches of a bygone era discovering that they can marginally increase their magic by exercising regularly and eating healthy meals. This is why Sabrina cooks almost every meal for Jason. She wants to ensure the health of his soul by ensuring the health of his body. If only she could convince him to get back into exercising.

  Sabrina read through the spell and started mentally selecting which charms she'll need. As humans have very little magic to work with, even with a healthy body, Witches had to find creative work arounds to protect themselves while also casting spells.

  Sabrina was informed that during the 16th Century witches had discovered how to imbue material with their magic. Since the magic of the soul recovered with time they were able to create batteries of sorts for their spells. Then around the time of the revolutionary war it was discovered that these magic batteries could have spells woven into them. Thus charms were invented and became a prevalent tool in any witch's arsenal. They allowed Witches to activate multiple spells at one time.

  However, these charms were still pretty weak. It would take months for a single charm to be charged enough to be of any use to the Witch. Magic was lost in the process of charging the Charms. Yet this wasn't a problem for Sabrina.

  While studying under Kelly the two of them discovered a means of folding magic upon itself. This could only be done with spells that required a physical weave for the magic to travel along, such as wards and charms. This allowed them to create and charge charms more quickly. A process that would take the average witch four months was shortened down to weeks.

  Yet this wasn't a miracle fix for a Witch's low Magic supply. While weaving the spell the Witch had to be excoriatingly exact with the weave. So exact then even being off by a millimeter could cause the whole weave to explode as the magic ran through it.

  It took immense concentration while weaving for one to successfully fold the magic in upon itself. Sabrina herself was only successful one out of five attempts, even after twenty or so years of experience. She could almost always tell when a weave would be successful as she would enter a state that she refers to as being Inspired.

  While focusing on a weave she would sometimes become so enraptured by the process it felt like her body would move on it's own. As if it knew exactly what to do and acted accordingly.

  Collecting the charms she knew she would need Sabrina set to work on preparing the spell. On paper it's a simple enough spell. Speak a few words, focus on the memory you want to revisit and direct your magic to bring you there. But that's like saying programming is as simple as telling a computer what to do.

  Sabrina emptied her mind of any thought. A difficult task for nearly any human but with years of practice Sabrina entered this state as easily as if she was breathing. One here she could feel her Magic existing within her. Reading from the book a language long since forgotten to modern and historic man resonates through the room. A language so ancient it no longer has a name. A language believed to exist before humans did.

  As she spoke the Magic within her responded. It was directed to pluck the desired memories from Sabrina's mind. With the memory in hand, the spell continued, directing the magic to send Sabrina's conscious self back to the moment she saw the homeless man lying in an alley way.

  Sabrina found herself back on the sidewalk she always took to get to her shop. As she passed an Alley she caught motion out of the corner of her eye. Her instincts warned her that something wasn't right. Turning she found what she assume to be a homeless man in the midst of a seizure.

  "FUCK!" She raced over to the figure to try and help.

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  What are you suppose to do when you find someone having a seizure? Sabrina's first thought was to stuff something in the man's mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue off. Before she could retrieve her wallet she remember an article saying that you're not suppose to do. So what was she suppose to do?

  Her hand changed trajectory and instead fished her phone out of her pocket. Dialling the emergency services she rested her free hand on the guys temple. The smell alone would be enough to caution her from getting too close to him. It was rancid and if Sabrina didn't know any better he reeked of death. But all of those thoughts were quickly washes away as panic flooded her.

  The man's eyes snapped open revealing a set of dull lifeless orbs. In one motion he launched himself at her, his mouth opening to reveal yellow dirty teeth.

  "FUCK!" She kicked back trying to get away from the crazy man.

  She was just trying to help. So what the fuck is wrong with this shit bag?

  Back peddling as quickly as she could she rummaged through her purse until her hand grasped a cylindrical device. Triumph welling in her she yanks the device out of her purse and points it to the crazy shitty homeless man crawling after her.

  A jet of red tinted liquid sailed from the mace in her hand, directed right at the man's face. Sabrina didn't let off the trigger and continued dosing the homeless man with the burning fluid. Yet he didn't react.

  Instead the crazy homeless man pressed on, through the spray of burning, acidic bear spear. The man clasped onto Sabrina, sending a shiver down her spine. Heat flashed across her chest as a purple haze formed between the man's hands and her. The haze expanded with a pop throwing the man off of her.

  "What the fuck?" Sabrina asked.

  Her protection charm had a high threshold to activate. It would take enough force to deal damage to make it activate. So what the hell was the guy on to make his grip strength enough to trigger it?

  Back peddling out of the alleyway she split part of her focus to sense the power left in her defense charm. It was strong enough to catch any attack that would be non-lethal.

  Well fuck that drugged bastard. Reducing her charm to be nearly useless. At full power she's bullet proof for any civilian grade fire arm. Yet now here she is with some crazed, drugged homeless man chasing her and no longer having her full protection. Part of her felt naked without the full protection, luckily she kept a stash of these fully charged charms in her workshop.

  She had quickly come to the front door of her shop. Her shaking hands fumbled with the keys. Sparing a single glance she found the homeless man booking it down the street, only moments away from pouncing on her again.

  Sabrina instinctively reached for her pool of power. As she mentally held the power, ready for any spell she may try, it brought a sense of calm to her. Her hands stopped shaking and her focus sharpened beyond anything she could usually muster.

  The door unlocked and she rushed into her shop. A sense of relief flooded her as she knew her wards would now protect her from any danger. Mundane or mythical. Turning she watched for the man to run into the ward and be rebounded back to the street, unconscious.

  But that's not what happened. The wards stayed inactive as the Homeless man barrel into the shop. He attacked Sabrina, causing her Charm to expend more of it's energy to protect her from a bite.

  The man was sent reeling back from the Charm. He crashed into a display of crystals, sending the colorful rocks scattering across the floor. Sabrina was sent stumbling back as well but managed to recover herself quickly.

  Sabrina searched her shop, looking for anything that could assist her. She kept her dangerous charms in her workshop, out of the way of handsy customers. Yet she was unwilling to run deeper into her shop in fear of the homeless man chasing her and bringing what ever powerful magic into her workshop.

  Yet as she watched him recover she couldn't sense any magic. All magic has a presence to it. Even a possession where the only magic was the tether binding the foreign soul to the body could be sense by any Witch worth the title.

  So why was this thing able to blow past her wards without a peep from her wards. Not even her alerting ward that simply made a chime when someone walked into her shop activated. So why didn't they?

  Present Sabrina struggled with this question as she watched her past self reluctantly activated a devious charm wrapped around her wrist. The charm was initially designed by a European witch Sabrina had the pleasure of working with seven years prior. It appeared to be a simple threaded bracelet but it was actually the hair of the Witch charmed to bind a person.

  The bracelet was a one time use item and took several months to years to recreate. It took time to collect enough hair to remake it along with each strand needing to be charged and charmed. But with her protection charm on it's last legs she needed to do something quickly.

  The binding charm warmed as she prepared it's activation. Another reason she was hesitant to use this charm was that she needed to get close to the target of the charm.

  The homeless man rose from the ground. His dead lifeless eyes fixated on Sabrina. She couldn't sense any emotions from him, but could tell there was a hunger to his existence. Not an emotion but a drive. Sabrina barely understood the distinction but knew that this creature was incapable of emotions. So this hunger coming off of it in waves could not be an emotion, not in the way humans experience them.

  Present Sabrina latched onto this moment. If it's not capable of human emotions then what is it? Her wards focused on many things, but the trigger for most of them was the presence of a particular emotions. Mostly those that reflect an intent to do harm. So if this being is not capable of hosting such emotions then that could explain why it didn't trigger most of her protection wards. But it doesn't answer why it didn't trigger the rest.

  Placing a pin in that train of thought present Sabrina focused back on the memory playing out. She had waited for the thing to attack her again. It lunged and she dodged to the side. It crashed through another display, sending her inventory to litter her shop's floor.

  As the thing recovered she pounced on it. Her charm burned as it was activated. Like a serpent it came to life, slithering around her wrist, unbinding itself to form a long thin rope. It stretched to be roughly three feet long as it slithered off of Sabrina and onto the wrist of the creature.

  Sabrina struggled to grasp the thing's free hand. It was stronger then Sabrina thought it should be. It jerked and bucked like some wild animal but Sabrina was nothing if not persistent. She strong armed the things arm until the serpent like charm could wrap around the free arm as well.

  The dark dark lit up with an orange glow as it wound back on itself, binding the creatures two hands together. As the glow faded Sabrina slowly let go of the homeless man. She breathed heavily from the exertion of the scuffle but she was the victor.

  In the moment Sabrina was too caught up in the moment to realize, but present Sabrina was paying more attention. She creature wasn't human. It couldn't be. When a Witch holds their magic, as if readying it for a spell, they are granted heightened sense. This includes being able to feel the emotions of others and the flow of magic in general. It also granted a small boost to a Witches normal sense, light sight or smell. So it was with this sense that present Sabrina was able to tell that the creature had no heart beat, that it's skin was cold to the touch, that this thing harbored no magical energies.

  Sabrina had come across her fair share of puppeterred corpses. It was a favored use of magic by Necromancers. Yet even with those corpses their physical vessels were fueled by the magic of another. It was powerful spells that could be sensed a mile away to any Witch paying enough attention. Yet this thing possed no magic to be sensed, not even the simple energy of a soul, that all living things hold could be felt.

  So what does that mean? This creature was too complex of a construct to be a golem or familiar, even then there would be magic to sense. No Sabrina needed to accept the fact that this thing had no soul. That would explain why none of her wards had triggered, they aren't aware of this thing's existence.

  So how is it moving? How is it still struggling against her binding charm? Its teeth clack open and closed as it still tries to bite her.

  The memory faded as Sabrina contacted the police. She needed the police report if any of her merchandise was damaged and she had to contact insurance.

  Sabrina awoke in her workshop. Exhaustion plagued her body as the spark of energy in her dimmed to a near non-existent level. She calmed her breath and floped back on the couch left in here workshop.

  She wracked her brain for a better answer then what she had. Searched all the knowledge readily available to her for a solution that was less outlandish. Yet nothing came to mind. Sabrina could only reckon the confusion state of that creature to be Zombie. A human corpse without a soul being pupeterred by some mundane means beyond her understanding.

  "Fuck." She exclaimed.

  Jason

  No, now Jason is stuck at the damned High School packed to the brim with students and staff just like Sardines. She needed to get him out of there. If the zombie apocalypse is really happening then she can't leave him to his own devices. He'd probably do something dumb like decide that he needed to get to her to protect her.

  If only Jason believed her when she spoke of magic. He would know that out of everyone in the whole city she alone was probably the most prepared to deal with the zombies. But he didn't believe. She knew that his disbelief isn't his fault. He hasn't actually seen any of her charms in action. She could have proven magic to be real a hundred times over if he needed that much evidence.

  But he was still a boy. He may be on the cusp of manhood, but he was still her little boy. She wanted to bring him into this world of magic, to study it with him and experience its wonders together. But she wanted him to experience what little of his childhood he could.

  Sabrina loaded a satchel made out of genuine lamb leather, charmed to keep other charms in pristine condition, with different charms she'd made. Most of the charms were defensive but a handful were designed with offensive in mind. Any one of them is more than capable of killing a person. More than one was even designed to incapacitate a Grand Demon, long enough for Sabrina to start the exorcising ritual.

  Loaded up with the charms and a sense of urgency spring her on Sabrina left her workshop and closed her shop without cleaning the mess. She ran down the street back to her Apartment. She needed to pack enough supplies so that they can get out of the city.

  Sabrina knew one of her Witch acquaintances maintained a cabin up on Mt Rainer. That would probably be a good place to ride the apocalypse out. It should even be secluded enough that she can start training Jason in the ways of Witchcraft.

  Plans formed in her mind as she ran down the street. She keep hold of her Magic to keep better tabs of her surroundings. Every person she passed could be another one of those zombies. She was tired but knew this was no time to be resting. This was the time to act for if they don't act now they may not have the time to act later.

  Sabrina was nearing the apartment. She could see the highrise building jutting above those near it. She was mentally organizing her bag and pondering what items to pack for Jason. Then the world shook.

  She was thrown to the ground as a wave of magic ran over her. Her senses screamed as they were overloaded with information. Her skin felt burnt. Her eyes were blinded by a light. Her ears rang from a defining explosion.

  The pain fades and Sabrina is able to collect herself. As she rises and open her eyes a set of floating words greet her but they are quickly forgotten as something march larger steals her focus.

  A tree larger than any mountain stretches above the horizon. Its branches stretch across the sky, slightly disappearing in the atmosphere. It was larger than anything had any right to be. While gazing at it Sabrina came to a realization, that the world she knew was gone. It was taken and replaced by one brimming with magic and possibilities. With that magic and possibilities, Sabrina knew dangers would be around every corner.

  Fuck. She knew today was going to be a shitty day. If only she could have seen the future for what it really was. She needed to get to Jason.

  Then her world was turned off. Her soul was stripped from her body and placed into a world made just for her by powers beyond her understanding. A world where she can experience the tutorial for the System.