Tick threw her backpack on the concrete step. Groaning, she flipped back her hair and pulled out her MP3 player and earbuds, sitting down. This concrete stairwell was the only place Tick could come to be alone. It was a short walk from the back of her school and most likely had once been used to get down to a garden. However, the land at the bottom of the steps was long from luscious now. All sorts of weeds and vines desperately tried to choke each other out as snails and crickets and rats ate away at them and their fruit. New plants sucked out the remaining lifeblood of old plants, until slowly becoming old and eaten away themselves. Most girls wouldn't think that this place was so beautiful. However, Tick wasn't like other girls. She called it her Annular Graveyard, and to her, it was beautiful.

However, this visit was different than all the others. Tick wiped her teary eyes. Last night.

"STOP BEIN' A BITCH, MOM!"

Tick regretted everything that happened last night.

"JUST 'CAUSE YOU'RE UPSET DON'T MEAN YOU CAN COME HOME AT THIS HOUR!"

"FUCK, IT'S ONLY NINE, MA!"

Tick shivered remembering it.

"YOU WERE WITH YOUR DUMBASS FRIENDS AGAIN IN SOME FUCKING ORGY, WEREN'T YOU, TRISHA? WHAT'S THAT THEY CALL YOU? TICK?"

No, no... Tick just tried to push it outta her head, but the voices echoed in her head.

"WELL, FUCK THAT, TRISHA! LITTLE TICK, HA! MORE LIKE LITTLE SHIT! OR DICK! DICK-SUCKIN TICK!"

SMACK.

A smack right in Tick's face.

And that was how last night ended.

Tick's eyes overflowed and steady brooks of tears streamed down her face. "I-it's not fair..." she stammered. "It's not..."

"What're you doing here?" a sassy voice sneered from behind Tick. Oh god. Don't turn around, Tick. Don't face them. Ignore them, Tick... "Hey, I'm talking to you!" A girl came up from behind and pulled Tick's earbuds out of her ears. Tick just balled up and hid her face.

"Go away, Cassie." she mumbled.

"Ooh! Don't give me none of your shit, Trisha!" Cassie grabbed Tick's hair. "Look me in the eyes, ya little cunt!" Cassie pulled back Tick's hair, bringing her head back with it. Thunder rumbled softy a ways away.

"What's up this bitch's asshole?" a girl following Cassie jumped down the steps and stepped in front of Tick. "Aww, she's crying like a wee li'l baby." A soft, cooling drizzle slowly began to fall.

"F-fucking hoes..." Tick just sat resignedly as Cassie pulled harder on her head. "I ain't in no mood for your shit..."

SMACK.

Cassie's friend slapped Tick across the face.

A crack of thunder split the silence of the quiet suburb.

Tick leaped up, forfeiting some of her hair to Cassie, who had a strong grip on it. She picked up her backpack and knocked down Cassie's friend, tears dancing off her face as the drizzle transitioned to a pour. Tick then turned to face Cassie with a maniacal glare in her eye. "Give me my fucking earphones."

"H-here! Take them!" Cassie threw them at Tick and pulled up her friend, tearing up the stairs. "C'mon, Kiera! This bitch's crazy!"

And Tick laughed. Thunder roared the two girls goodbye. She stood there, looking at the sky, the rain washing her face. She felt something. A strange power flowing through her blood. She saw through the eyes of raindrops washing down the hideously fake and twisted faces of the two terrified girls that had just run off. Tick wasn't near the girls, no. But she saw them. She whispered, "strike".

Even Tick could see the flash of the lightning hitting the ground a few blocks away. And a faint scream... She saw through raindrops again... Cassie, on the ground, unconscious... That girl with her, Kiera, shouting for help beside her.

And Tick whispered to the storm, "Blow." The winds blew and spiraled until they become fierce and mighty, screeching and whistling like a train. A giant funnel-shaped demon tore across the neighborhood, destroying everything, picking up Carrie and Kiera and throwing them on the blacktop... the redtop, after that.

Tick whispered, "Freeze." The temperature dropped to forty degrees below zero. Everything struggled to warm. Tick, however, was not affected. She herself was ice.

"Destroy." Hail rained down the size of a small cat. Everywhere but Tick's annular garden. Power lines collapsed and houses were destroyed.

"Kill." All air ascended, and anything living by some weird coincidence suffocated. Well, except for Tick's annular garden. All the life that once blossomed in the families, animals, and plants flowed to her and her garden. It sprung with green and bore many fruits, and Tick's complexion became rich, her body lean, and her hair long and beautiful. She tore off her clothes and tossed them into nothingness. She didn't need them any more. Her garden expanded and was infinite, and Tick created her own Eden from the ashes of the previous hellish land she knew. She grabbed the nearest fruit and shoved it into her. She'd like it here.