Little Lost Souls- Chapter 1

Hey guys! Here's the first chapter of my new, Patreon-exclusive ABDL story! I hope you like it so far!  I'm hoping to upload a new chapter at least once every two months!

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Chapter One

“Dear Meredith,

Your request to join the National College of Spellcasters as an Illusions professor has been denied by th–”

Meredith threw the letter onto the floor and held her face in her hands, desperately trying to hold back tears. Her current job, an accountant in the outskirts of the city, was just as soul-crushing as it was low-paying. She was counting on the professor job to be her ticket out of being an accountant, but her skills at magic had never been particularly high. She could perform spells well enough to take care of herself, but never stood out from her peers.

'And now you're stuck in a job you hate,' Meredith thought, digging her nails into her forehead, 'in a city you hate, and with no real friends or famil...' Meredith's inner monologue trailed off as her eyes met a photograph of herself holding a baby, and she picked it up. It was taken at a park on a bright, sunny day. The baby's shaggy, sandy-blonde hair perfectly juxtaposed Meredith's straight, silky black. Both of them were smiling wide, the baby at the camera and Meredith at the baby. The baby seemed to have ice cream on his shirt, but Meredith couldn't quite remember what it was.

A tear hit the glass of the frame. Meredith's heart ached for Jason, desperately wishing she could hold him again. She began to think of her other babies, too, wondering where they were today, and whether they'd still be together if they had chosen to stay with her. But all that did was hurt her even further. She couldn't run from the reality that she was alone, in a demeaning, dead-end job, and she was getting close to her 40th birthday. Wasn't her life supposed to be together by now? Wasn't she supposed to have important people in her life by now? Wasn't she supposed to be happy right now?

The witch curled up on the couch and tried to calm down and clear her mind, but to no avail. Her mind was too cluttered and frantic for meditation. She decided to take a walk, fresh air and exercise seemed to work well for her in the past, and this spring afternoon had perfect weather. Grabbing her keys, phone, and pocket spellbook, she stepped outside and began walking past houses that look identical to her own. Conformity was crucial in neighborhoods governed by an HOA.

'Shit, the HOA fee is due tomorrow,' Meredith groaned to herself. 'Damn people... as if my mortgage isn't a big enough chunk of my paycheck...' The witch kicked a small rock in frustration.

The rest of her walk was uneventful. Upon entering the park, she took a path on the left and found to her small delight that her favorite spot in the park was vacant: a small bench facing a grand fountain topped with a phoenix. There were four benches facing the fountain, but this was the only one that allowed a view of the rest of the park. Meredith sat down and closed her eyes, meditating.

*    *    *    *    *

About 15 minutes prior, Zoey stood impatiently at the bus stop outside the department store in which she worked. The bus was running late, and she didn't want to see any of her managers. She had made a large mistake earlier that day involving a cash register, and she was terrified to look her managers in the eye.

'Calm down, Zoey,' she tried to soothe herself, 'no one took any of the money. Nothing happened! Calm down!'

'I can't!' another part of her brain interjected. 'What if someone had taken some? I'd be out of a job! I can't calm down, my managers probably hate my guts right now!'

'You don't know that. As far as you know, they didn't even see it. Trevor caught it, remember? He's not telling anyone, he does all kinds of stupid shit.'

'Y-yeah, but– '

HONK!

Zoey must have jumped two feet off the ground from the honk of the impatient bus driver that suddenly appeared right in front of her, yelling at her to get on already. Apparently she had been so lost in her self-deprecating thoughts that she didn't see nor hear the bus pull up in front of her. Now incredibly flustered and embarrassed, Zoey clumsily walked her way onto the bus, apologizing to the driver no less than three times. She found a seat in the very back of the bus, hiding her face from the grumpy man.

Zoey always hated riding the bus. It was loud, smelly, and was incredibly inefficient. From the noise of the engine to the insensitive people talking loudly on their phones ('Honestly, don't you guys know how to text?'), Zoey had strongly considered wearing ear plugs on the bus on numerous occasions, but always forgot to actually buy some. She also considered shoving more ear plugs into her nose to avoid the gut-retching smell emanating from some of the other bus riders. Though, she could have tolerated the smell if her 20-minute-by-car commute had not taken just over 2 hours by bus.

In order to distract herself, like always, she pulled out her phone and searched for any new information on the upcoming Animal Forest game. Animal Forest was the perfect game to play when you were depressed and dissatisfied with how your real life was going. You could make a new life in the game, free of stress and anxieties, where you got along with everyone, and pretend to be happy for a while.

'I guess they're done showing off new stuff until the game launches,' Zoey thought. She closed the search window and opened Facelog, a social media platform that kept Zoey in at least casual contact with her old high school friends. The only problem being, however, that she had begun seeing more and more of her old schoolmates posting major life accomplishments, such as marriage, kids, and expensive world travel.

Today seemed to bring so many more of these than normal that Zoey began to feel bitter about her lot in life. All her old friends were off living their best lives, and here she was, riding the bus home from her part-time job because she couldn't afford to own a car.

She kept her head down, not only from disappointment in herself, but also to conceal her Adam's apple. She also kept her bag in her lap to conceal a possible bulge in the front of her pants. Zoey was transgender, and was incredibly anxious that someone would find out someday and assault her. She did everything in her power to avoid looking up when she was around other people, as they were sure to see the lump in her throat and immediately peg her as being trans. Zoey worked so hard at hiding any possible indicators of her biological sex at all times of the day that it often mentally exhausted her.

But she wasn't always sure it was enough. She was almost certain that she had been denied past job opportunities because the interviewers somehow knew she was trans. And she had received quite a handful of double takes from customers when she was at work, further increasing her paranoia. This had to be the reason she was stuck with this part-time retail job. This job that had nothing to do with her bachelor's degree. Her money-burning bachelor's degree.

'Wait, loan payment's due Friday, FUCK,' Zoey fought to hold in her tears as she remembered her second-largest bill of the month. 'The fuck am I gonna eat next week...?' To hide her show of emotion from other people on the bus, she looked out the window and saw the park. Something clicked in her brain, and she decided to visit the park before going home. She'd leave before the bus schedules end.

She hauled herself off the bus and walked through the park gates, opting to go straight, toward the playground. As she approached, she saw an empty swing and felt a pit deep in her stomach. What was this longing she felt? To swing? To smile? To recapture a brief moment of childhood innocence?

Whatever the case may have been, she desperately wanted to swing, but she looked around and saw kids and parents everywhere and panicked.

'What would the parents think, seeing a grown woman play on a child's swing?' the nagging voice in her mind started back up. 'They'd probably drag their child away from the deranged woman...'

Zoey turned around and quickly walked away, the pit in her stomach replaced by a burning on the back of her head caused by her being scared that those parents were glaring angrily at her. She let her feet carry her off somewhere without consciously thinking about it, and found herself in front of a giant fountain adorned with a phoenix, water shooting out of its beak. Zoey sat down on a bench facing the fountain, listening to the soothing sound of the water gushing and splashing beneath the phoenix.

Then, despite her better judgment, Zoey began crying. The weight of everything on her mind became too much to bear and she broke down on the bench, completely oblivious to the other park visitors. However, perhaps out of courtesy or simply discomfort, no one seemed to pay any attention to her, except for one black-haired woman sitting on the bench to the left of her.

Meredith heard the sobs and looked up from her meditation. She focused on Zoey until she could see the crying girl's aura, wanting to know how bad things were. Zoey's aura was positively negative, it gave off an eerie purplish-black glow, and the more Meredith stared at it, the more dread she began to feel. The witch broke off her stare and paused for a moment to collect her thoughts.

'This girl's aura is downright dangerous,' Meredith pondered. 'What happened to her? Why does she hate herself so much?'

Meredith sat, motionless, as she contemplated going down “that” road again. Would it be worth it? What if this one leaves, too? What if she leaves worse off than when she started, like the last one? Meredith shook her head and looked back at Zoey. The girl had stopped sobbing, but she was still hunched over as far as her plump body would allow, her hair blocking anyone from seeing her face. As Meredith refocused, she saw that Zoey's aura was less intense, but slightly darker now.

The witch knew what kinds of things could happen when a person's aura goes completely black, when a person completely loses their will to live. She knew how vulnerable they are, and how easily they could be swayed to do things they normally would never think of doing if healthy.

Meredith, finally finding her answer, stood up and walked to Zoey. Conjuring a tissue, the witch sat down next to Zoey and held it out to her. Zoey looked up and stared at the tissue for a couple seconds, then looked at Meredith and her face went even redder than it already was. She immediately broke eye contact and looked at her feet, trying to gather the courage to say something. Meredith kept the tissue held in front of her.

“Don’t worry, I’m not judging you,” Meredith said softly. “We’ve all been there, I figured since I’m here I’ll at least offer to help you.”

Zoey looked back up at Meredith and cautiously took the tissue. “Th-thank you,” she stammered quietly, dabbing her eyes. There was silence for a few seconds, then Zoey spoke back up, “Why?”

“Because I’ve been in plenty of situations where I wished someone offered me a tissue,” Meredith answered, almost off-handedly. “I thought you might want one.”

Zoey froze, unable to comprehend the situation she had found herself in. This total stranger came out of nowhere to give a crying girl a tissue? Out of the kindness of her heart? What did she want out of this? Meanwhile, Meredith focused on Zoey’s aura again and found that it had lightened a bit. There were also massive distortions near her stomach. ‘She must be starving...’

“Look,” Meredith continued, trying to hide the concern in her voice, “I know you might not be in a good enough place right now to be making decisions like this, but would you maybe want to talk about things over dinner?” Meredith saw Zoey’s eyes grow in shock and immediately said, “No no, not like that! I just h-heard your stomach rumbling, a-and figured you were hungry. It’d be my treat.”

Honestly, Zoey hadn’t felt her hunger until that very moment. She often lost her appetite during episodes of depression, so she was used to ignoring her body’s pleas for sustenance. But hearing the stranger bring up dinner brought a sharp pain to her stomach as she realized the only thing she had eaten that day was a strawberry-flavored granola bar after waking up.

“Y-yeah,” Zoey conceded, “I am pretty hungry… ‘Your treat,’ though? Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t sure,” Meredith teased, extending her hand to help Zoey up. Zoey paused for a moment, then took Meredith’s hand. “I’m Meredith, by the way.”

“Oh, uh, I’m Zoey.”

*    *    *    *    *

Meredith and Zoey sat at a table in a breakfast diner, looking over their menus. Meredith had searched Zoey’s mind for her favorite foods, and many breakfast foods ranked high in her mind. It proved to be accurate, because Zoey seemed to have trouble deciding what to order.

‘French toast, or the eggs and sausage? ...Or maybe pancakes...’ Zoey pondered.

As Zoey weighed the pros and cons of different meals, their waitress appeared. “How’s it lookin’, ladies? D’ya know what you’ll have?” she asked.

“I’m ready,” Meredith answered. “What about you, Zoey?”

Zoey looked over the menu and became flustered. She hadn’t decided yet, but Meredith knew what she wanted already. Would Meredith get annoyed if she took more time to decide? Wait, the waitress was staring at her. Now she was wasting her time, too!

Meredith noticed Zoey’s aura display anxiety, so she stepped in. Searching the girl’s mind again she told the waitress, “She’ll have the French toast with sausage links. Oh, and could she get a refill on her chocolate milk, please?”

The waitress looked at Zoey for confirmation, and she merely nodded and blushed. The waitress wrote it down and walked away with Zoey’s empty glass. Zoey looked at Meredith and opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t find the words for a moment.

“Why… how did you know that’s what I wanted?” Zoey asked, clearly in awe.

“It was, uh, just a lucky guess, I suppose,” Meredith waved the question aside.

“Okay. But, why?” Zoey followed up, narrowing her eyes slightly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, it’s a force of habit,” lied the witch. “I’m just so used to doing that with my babies that it kinda slipped out…”

Zoey paused for a moment, then shook it off. She looked back at Meredith and asked, “So, babies? How old are they?”

“O-oh, uh,” Meredith struggled to come up with a number that would make it seem like she would have the habit of ordering for them, but not so old that Zoey would ask more questions. “They’re 2 and 4. But, they’re at their f-father’s, and I don’t want to open that can of worms right now.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to –” Zoey began, but Meredith promptly interrupted.

“No no, you shouldn’t feel bad for asking!” Meredith tried to soothe Zoey.

Zoey, out of mild discomfort, scratched her jaw and came to a terrifying realization: she had missed a spot while shaving that morning. Immediately, her mind went into panic mode. How noticeable was it? Did anyone at work see? How many customers avoided her because they saw some stubble and knew she was trans? Could Meredith see it?

She tried her best to make everything seem normal, but she could feel her cheeks flushing and couldn’t find a natural way to rest her hand over the spot. Meredith noticed her massive change of body language and focused on her aura again. It was bright orange, pulsated quickly, and moved aggressively. The witch knew she was watching an anxiety attack unfold, and she quickly scoured her brain for any ideas on how to calm Zoey down.

“H-hey, Zoey?” the witch did her best to hide her stammer. “What do you l-like to do for fun? Do you have any hobbies?”

Hearing her name instantly brought Zoey back down and she began to regain her composure. She cleared her throat and said, “O-oh, I like to sew. I-I actually made this shirt myself, too.” Her aura calmed down and the orange became muted, though the pulses were still uncomfortably fast.

“Oh wow, that’s really cute!” praised Meredith. “You’re really good, I had no idea it was handmade!”

Zoey blushed again and avoided eye contact. “Th-thank you, Meredith,” stammered Zoey, caught off guard by the compliment. “I also like making bracelets,” she added, extending her arm toward Meredith. “I know it seems childish. No one really does this past middle school, but, I dunno, it’s relaxing.”

Meredith smiled. “Don’t feel bad for having a hobby that’s relaxing for you, hun. If it’s therapeutic for you and you’re not hurting anyone, you shouldn’t feel bad for liking something.”

Blushing, Zoey pulled her arm back and smiled a bit. They sat in silence for a few minutes, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. Zoey felt more comfortable and let her shoulders relax, happy to be in the presence of such a kind person.

By the time their food arrived, they were laughing, Zoey was showing Meredith memes on her phone, and Meredith was using real magic to pretend she had sleight of hand, much to Zoey’s amusement and bewilderment. It was the first time Zoey had enjoyed a meal with a friend in well over a year, and the first time she had genuinely laughed in weeks. Before she knew it, their food was gone and Meredith had called for the check.

“Wow, this went by pretty fast, huh?” Zoey said. “Th-thank you for tonight, Meredith, honestly.”

“It was my pleasure, sweetheart,” smiled Meredith. “I try to make a point of helping people if it’s within my power.” Her eye twinkled.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pay?” Zoey asked meekly.”

“Absolutely,” the witch replied in a kind but stern tone, as if to remind Zoey not to ask again.

“W-well, thank you.” Zoey froze for a moment while she worked up the courage to ask, “Will I see you again?”

Meredith’s heart fluttered and she felt herself getting excited. ‘Control yourself,’ she thought. But maybe… just maybe, the witch could play mother again…

“If you’d really like to see me again, I’d love to hang out again,” she said in an almost sing-song tone. She conjured a pen and scrap of paper under the table so Zoey wouldn’t see it, and wrote down her phone number and street address. “Here you go, hun.”

Zoey thanked Meredith, the witch paid for their meal, and they walked out of the diner. Zoey began to walk to the nearby bus stop, but looked at the time and gasped.

“Shit! The last bus to my house left half an hour ago!” Zoey shrieked. She couldn’t afford a taxi or rideshare, and it was way too far to walk. She almost panicked, but she felt Meredith’s hand on her shoulder.

“Shh, relax,” Meredith cooed. “I have a car, I can take you home. I mean, it’s kinda my fault that you missed it, after all. Well, if you don’t mind, that is.”

Zoey nearly broke out in tears, unable to comprehend why this stranger was being so nice to her for seemingly no reason. She had never experienced such random kindness before that night. But she caught herself before the floodgates opened, and cleared her throat.

“You… you’d actually do that for me?” Zoey asked, genuinely dumbfounded.

“Of course! Like I said, it’s my fault you’re in the situation anyway. Come on, I parked a couple blocks over.”

As Zoey followed Meredith to her car, a small, paranoid voice in the back of her mind wondered if the tall, dark-haired woman had anything to gain from this. Of course she knew that getting into a stranger’s car was incredibly reckless, even if they seemed kind and thoughtful. ‘That’s how they lure you,’ she thought.

Before she could stop herself, she blurted, “How do I know this isn’t some trick to kill me or kidnap me?”

Meredith paused, turned around, and held out her hand. “Here, take this.” She placed a tube of pepper spray in Zoey’s palm. “If you suspect that I’m about to make any hostile moves, then don’t hesitate to spray me. But I promise you, I’ll follow your directions to a T and get you home safe.” She smiled at the girl and began walking down the street again.

Zoey stared at the tube, made sure it worked, and kept her thumb on the release. Though, a small, strangely optimistic part of her brain told her that she wouldn’t need it. And it was correct, since Meredith followed Zoey’s directions as promised and dropped her off at her apartment building. They said their goodbyes, Meredith drove away, and Zoey walked to her apartment with a smile on her face for what felt like the first time since she moved in.