=:= Grace =:=
She stood silently, her eyes on Sergeant Hearns. He and Private Fuller both stood at ready, automatic weapons raised at alert. Their eyes were scanning the surroundings. Corporal MacDonald and the other three soldiers had already moved ahead out of sight after the first sign of an intruder.
Grace, or Doctor Bishop to her colleagues, was ostensibly in charge of this little expedition but when it came to matters of security the military was very much in control here.
She and her associate Doctor Hugh Reeves were working for Her Majesty's government. They and their military escort had ventured into the restricted zone to collect samples of flora and fauna. Grace was holding a secure case which contained several samples of vegetation, Hugh carried a similar, slightly large case containing the mice, rats, and squirrels they'd found in the traps that had been set out two days ago.
All had come from the dense woods that surrounded the large manor house at the heart of the estate. Nobody would dare go beyond those woods. Not after all the stories, the reports of what had happened to other people who'd ventured too close to the Anomaly.
The entire estate had been fenced off and secured ever since the Anomaly first appeared, towards the end of November last year. No-one knew what it was or where it came from. Those were among the questions Grace hoped someday to be able to answer.
After a few tense minutes, she heard Corporal MacDonald's voice over the sergeant's radio. "Two intruders apprehended on the drive, just inside the perimeter. One appears human, the other definitely nonhuman."
Hearns gave the signal, and Grace and her companions moved forward. The two soldiers led the way, Grace and Hugh followed a few paces behind.
A minute later the four of them emerged from the woods and she could see the intruders. They were standing with hands raised, though neither looked the least bit nervous, despite the four soldiers that had them covered with their automatic rifles.
As they approached, Grace kept her eyes on the pair. The 'probable human' looked like a teen girl. She was short, skinny, blue-eyed and blonde, and looked about fifteen or sixteen. The 'nonhuman' was nothing special, just a catgirl. Mostly human, she looked about nineteen or twenty. She had short lilac-coloured hair and purple eyes. She also had lilac-coloured cat-ears ontop of her head, and a matching cat tail.
Grace knew the catgirl was a change-ee of course. After the second and third waves, there were more and more hybrid people like this one turning up.
She handed her sample case to Private Fuller and approached the two intruders. "Where do you come from? Do you speak English?"
The catgirl suppressed a laugh. "We're from Canada. Yes we speak English. What, do you think we're aliens or something?"
The blonde added, "We're here to fix this mess. If there's any more of your soldiers or whatever in here, please tell them to get out. Get everyone outside the fence. I can't guarantee their safety if they're inside here."
Sergeant Hearns looked at Grace and shook his head. In a low voice he stated, "Ma'am we should just put them down and get out of here. Orders are not to let anything in or out."
Grace of course would have none of that. She was a scientist, and she had questions. She looked at the blonde and asked "What makes you think you can fix this? We don't even know what it is."
The teen sighed, and suddenly all six soldiers crumpled to the ground, along with Doctor Reeves. Grace let out a gasp of alarm, looking around in shock as the two intruders lowered their arms.
"I know what it is because I caused it," the blonde stated. "It was an accident, I didn't know this would happen. I didn't know this had happened, until I heard about it yesterday. I guess you people did a really good job of covering it up."
Grace glanced around at her fallen companions. She realized they were all still alive, they were breathing slowly and regularly as if asleep. She looked back at the two strangers and asked nervously "What did you do to them?"
"Don't worry," the catgirl replied. "They're just asleep." She glanced at her companion, "Should we get them clear?"
The blonde nodded, and one by one the six soldiers and Grace's assistant vanished from sight.
Grace took a few deep shuddering breaths, trying to steady her nerves as she stared at the two girls. "Who are you two? What are you? What happened here?"
The blonde shrugged, "I'm Cindy, she's Zoe. I'm a sorceress, she's a catgirl witch. I defeated a God here back in November. Some of his 'divine energy' or whatever leaked out, and I guess reality broke."
Grace frowned, shaking her head. Her brain didn't want to process that. God, reality, divine energy? It couldn't be.
Zoe, the catgirl, asked her "So you lot have had this all fenced up and guarded. What have you been doing here all this time?"
She gulped, "We've been trying to study it, to find out what's happening here. To figure out what it is, how it works."
"What kind of stuff has been happening?" Zoe asked. "There's barely any information getting out. We'd have come to fix it a lot quicker if we'd known."
Cindy asked her, "What's your name?"
Grace gulped again and replied, "I'm Grace. Doctor Grace Bishop. I can't say what's been happening here, it's classified."
Cindy rolled her eyes, "Ok Doctor Bishop. I'm gonna teleport you outside the fence. Stay out there. And don't let anyone else come in after us. We're gonna go and do our thing, then when it's done this won't be a problem any more."
She started to ask what 'their thing' was, but before she could get the words out things spun around her and suddenly she was standing on the road outside the gate.
Her assistant, the six soldiers assigned to protect them, and the two men who'd been on guard out here were all scattered around her, asleep on the road. She realized with dismay the two sample cases weren't here, they'd been left behind in the estate grounds.
Grace knelt by Hugh and tried to wake him, but after a few attempts she gave up. Whatever those girls had used to knock the men out, it was very effective.
She looked at the gate, tempted to just open it and head back in after the two strange young women. Her curiosity was killing her, but in this case her self-preservation instincts were just slightly stronger. She had no idea who those two were, but they obviously had access to power Grace hadn't thought possible. The way they'd knocked out the men around her, then transported them all to safety, was inconceivable.
Grace sighed, and wound up just pacing back and forth, casting furtive glances through the fence towards the interior of the estate. Minutes crawled past, and nothing seemed to be happening. Not that she'd be able to see if something was happening. The heart of the estate was obscured from view by the dense woods. They surrounded the manor house and the large front lawn and back gardens. The road in took a winding path through so there was simply no clear line of sight from any direction.
About half an hour passed as she continued pacing and staring at the treeline, hoping for some glimpse of what might be happening in there. She wished those blasted trees had been cleared so she could see what was going on in there.
A moment later it was as if the universe granted her wish, but in the most horrifying way possible. There was a shudder through the air that Grace felt all the way out here, like a sudden gust of wind blowing inwards towards the centre of the estate. Except it wasn't wind, it was something even less tangible.
As she watched, she could see the trees start to shift, their leaves rustling, then their limbs bending, leaning inwards towards the Anomaly. Then with the most horrific tearing sound, the entire small woodland seemed to shred itself as it all collapsed inwards towards the manor house.
Grace watched, her eyes wide in shock and fear. It was as if a million invisible blades had cut the woods to shreds, then the shreds were reduced to splinters, and finally the splinters to swirling dust. At the same time, everything was collapsing inwards towards the centre. The effect spread out across the grass and along the road, reaching nearly to the fence.
She took a few quick steps back as the ground rippled and blurred in a way that her eyes couldn't quite perceive.
Then suddenly it was all over, and the air was still and silent.
She stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed through the fence. The entire estate was gone. Nothing remained but empty field.
The ground was mostly dirt, a few rocks, and some tufts of grass here and there. Even the driveway was gone. A meter or two inside the gate it just ended, as though the builders had given up and abandoned it there. In fact it was as if the entire estate had never existed at all.
She couldn't see any trace of the manor house from here, though she was positive she should be able to see it with the trees no longer in the way. She could just make out the two young women, standing right around what should have been ground zero for the Anomaly. The two appeared to be just standing there talking to each other.
Grace frowned. She unlocked the gate and let herself in, and started marching across the field toward the two girls. She simply had to know what was going on, what they'd just done here. And who they really were.
She kept her eyes on them as she approached. It seemed like the two were having some sort of serious discussion, though she was still too far away to make out what was being said. Neither of them had noticed her yet, their focus on each other.
As she got closer, she started to make out bits and pieces of what was being said. The blonde, Cindy she'd called herself, sounded like she was starting to cry.
"...as usual. I didn't know what I was doing...didn't think things through...didn't think of the consequences..."
Grace could see the teen rubbing her eyes, as she continued "Zoe I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did that to you, I'm sorry I kept it hidden..."
She saw the catgirl, Zoe, step closer and wrap her arms around the smaller girl. Zoe's voice was quieter, but Grace was nearer now and could hear her response to the teen.
"It's ok Cindy. I know you didn't mean to upset me. And I'm happy you fixed me back to my proper shape and everything. It's just... It's a lot to take in, and you should have told me back in November. You shouldn't have kept this from me for so long."
"I know," Cindy was still crying softly as she hugged the catgirl. "I'm sorry..."
By now Grace was only eight or nine metres away. The catgirl's ears twitched and she suddenly looked up, her eyes on Grace.
"What did you do?!" Grace asked, unable to hide the awe in her voice. She wasn't even sure if she was referring to the estate, or the conversation she'd half heard.
The blonde girl looked up at her and sighed. She wiped her eyes again as she said, "I told you to stay behind the fence."
Grace shook her head "It's all over though, it's all gone. What did you do? Where did it go?"
The manor house should have been right here next to them. Now there wasn't even a foundation. The entire area was just empty untouched field.
She saw Zoe's ears twitch again, and then Grace heard it too. Helicopters in the distance. She turned and looked, but they were too far away. She looked at the teen and the catgirl again and said, "That'll be the army coming back in force. They'll want to know what just happened here."
The blonde sighed. "Ok... Let's go back to my place. We can talk privately there."
Grace was about to comment when there was a flare of pastel purple light in the girls eyes, then the world spun and faded away.
what did she do with Zoe I need to knoooowwww 🥺