Despite the adrenaline coursing through me, I hesitated. This place is probably full of dangerous people, and all I have is a spell I have never used before. What was I thinking?! There’s no way I can do this! It was now that I finally realised what I was wearing. A brown jacket, navy blue jeans and a silver-grey singlet, finished with black combat boots.

“What the hell?” These are not clothes from the laundry. I don’t even own these! Did… did I transform or something? Now that I think about it, I think I remember a breeze, maybe.

“我听到了什么！”[1] Oh shit. I can hear running, from the direction of the door. It bursts open. Fortunately, the lights have been turned on, so I see who it is. Unfortunately, they can see me too. “他妈的是谁？”[2]

The man is young, perhaps in his twenties, wearing black clothes with buzzed black hair. He immediately grabs the gun at his side and points it at me. I flinch, covering my face with my arms. I hear a bang of the gun being shot, as I feel a sharp pain in my gut. I slowly uncover my face. His face is contorted in horror. How bad is it? I brace myself and look down.

There is no bullet wound.

What the actual hell? If I look closer, I can actually spy the bullet casing on the ground. Neither the singlet nor jacket is damaged or ripped in any way. Don’t tell me these ‘transformation’ costumes are bulletproof. Next thing you’ll tell me is they’re fire retardant as well.

I look back up to see the young man blink away his astonished expression and begin to shout into a handheld radio. A part of me recognises that he is speaking in Chinese. But the rest of me is focusing on “我需要备份。 我吓坏了，这只小鸡是防弹或一些狗屎。”[3] Ah. Forgot about the others.

I seriously hope this spell works, or I’m going to have to run through here covering my head. Here goes nothing (if it actually works). I take a deep breath and focus on the feeling in my hands and imagine some sort of shield in front of me.

“Ascendit fumus scutum!”

A silver wisp poured out from my fingers, and formed a circle in front of me. Wow, this is so cool. The man’s attention turned ask to me, stopping mid-sentence. Ok, I should be able to manipulate this. Somehow. Please be like a force push, please be like a force push…

I thrust my arms out in front of me, stretching them to their full length. The mist in front of me shoots forward towards the man, and it bowls him straight over. He makes no move to get up. Oh my god, I killed HIM… wait, no, he’s breathing. It’s all good. Kind of.

I gaze at my hands in amazement, as if I expected them to be suddenly covered in mist as well. Nope, still normal. The adrenalin rush comes back. I feel powerful, mentally and physically. The successful magic, on top of the outfit and my ability to remain calm thus far gives me confidence like never before. Makes me want to kick the door and announce ‘I’m here bitches’.

Now that’s an idea. I walk up to the door (stepping over the man’s body in the process). I lift my foot up, aim for the middle of the door and slam my foot against it. It created a satisfying cracking sound.

Wanting to act while still on this high, I continued down a series of steps and kicking open another door to a room full of Asian men. Every head in the room turned to me. I could feel a grin growing on my face as I said the (literal) magic words. “Ascendit fumus scutum”.

I was flinging the misty silver shield left and right as I continued through the maze of rooms throughout the building. It was like a slow-mo scene in an action movie. As men kept falling, I continued through more forgettable, plain rooms, encountering more goons I simply bowled over, not paying them any attention as they didn’t have what I sought. I feel like such a badass right now. If only my sister and friends could see me now. Though they would pepper me with a million questions.

I pause in an empty room to catch my breath. Man, using magic really takes a lot out of you. That or I’m just tired and starving. I’ll have to look this up later. The adrenalin has officially left my system (adrenalin has left the building!). It’s all catching up to me. My limbs feel sore and heavy.

I hear voices approaching from a room ahead of me and I duck into a nearby niche in the wall to recover before I encounter the new strangers.

“It is her, it has to be. No one else has been in and out of the building.”

But how did she leave in the first place? The window was only cracked, not broken, you broke the other one.”

“Yes I know! She will not cost me business. A buyer is willing to pay millions for her.”

“Well I’m flattered, but I’ll have to decline.” I didn’t even realise I had jumped out in front of them until I had spoken.

The people who were speaking were a man and a woman. The man I didn’t recognise; his appearance surprised me. I didn’t expect to see a boy my age, and blonde-Caucasian too. All the men I had encountered were at least over twenty. The woman, however, I recognised all too well. The woman I talked to in the alley. And she planned to sell me off!

Both had looked to me in surprise. Though the woman’s face quickly turned to anger.

“’You!” She screeched, pointing her finger. She turned to the boy next to her. “Well, get her!” He looked from her to me, uncertainty painted across his face. He let out a sigh and charged at me. By now, I had ample time to mutter the spell. I paid him no attention except to knock him out of the way with my shield. He went flying.

This seemed to alarm the woman, as she pressed herself against the wall, almost cowering. I spied my clothes in her hands.

“Who-what are you?”

I simply ignored her question, walking towards her until I was completely in her face. I grabbed my clothes with perhaps more force than necessary. I leaned closer to her face, just to unnerve her more.

“Bye bye.” I teleported back home, prize in hand.