“Who is she? She’s so beautiful. Is she new?”
“No, surely not. College is huge, probably just haven’t seen her before.”
“No, wait, she is familiar. Isn’t she one of those girls going around killing demons? The witch one?”
“I wonder if that means that there’s a demon here?”
“Nah. The other two would be here as well. And they’d be getting us all to leave.”
Betsy was also surprised. Standing there was Charlene, but not. To be precise, standing there was Charlene in her magically enhanced form. Which, considering she hadn’t seen her roommate since last semester, shocked Betsy to the core. The only reason she hadn’t been worried this morning was because of a text she’d gotten last night saying Charlene was fine and would be in class today. Instead, Violet the Witch was sitting at the front of the lecture hall, looking ready for Math 2. Betsy just shook her head and took a seat in the middle, trying to pay attention to the class and failing thanks to the spectacle happening down near the front. The spectacle being everyone gawking at the girl sitting perfectly normally for the class, though Betsy distinctly remembered Charlene hating math last semester. When the professor, who either was living under a rock or incredibly professional about having a magic slinging demon fighting celebrity sitting in his class, finally dismissed class Betsy made sure to look Charlene dead in the eye as she walked out trying to convey how much they needed to have a talk later.
So she was fuming when, later that night as she was headed back to her dorm, she hadn’t yet seen Charlene again. She wasn’t stomping, she’d been raised to always walk around lightly. And that thought, those memories, was almost enough to redirect her anger. But no, they’d worked past all that. She’d moved one. That’s what was going through her head when flung open the door to her room to see a naked woman. She screamed in surprise, then quickly closed the door upon realizing it was just Charlene, or more accurately Violet.
“Charlene. What are you doing?”
“Admiring myself. Look.”
“No. I mean why are you going around as, you know, as Violet?” she covered her face and looked away, lowering her voice to a whisper.
“I told you, look.”
She was about to say no when she felt Charlene’s hand’s on her own, trying to peel them away from her face. And slowly succeeding, seeing as in her transformed state Charlene was stronger than a normal human, which Betsy certainly was at the moment. Finally she couldn’t put up a fight any longer, and Charlene peeled her hands away and then backed up, arms thrown wide, and posing triumphantly.
“Tada.”
“Charlene!”
“What’s going on? We heard a scream!” they heard the RA’s voice calling out from outside the door, accompanied by her pounding on the door. “Samantha, are you okay in there?”
“Ah, yes. When I walked in my roommate was naked. She just got out the shower, I guess, and it surprised me is all. We’re fine in here.”
“I said sorry, Betsy. You don’t have to tell her.”
“If I don’t she’ll knock down the door.”
It was as Betsy was turning away from the door and back towards Charlene that she noticed. Betsy quickly gestured at her, showing she noticed what was being shown, and then gestured for her to hurry and get dressed.
“Okay. Are you sure you’re both fine? Do I need to come in?”
“Yeah, its fine. I was in a mood and so I was startled easily. Nothing is wrong Vicky.”
Vicky finally decided that no one was in danger and left, letting the two roommates know that they could come to her if they needed help with anything. Betsy turned around and looked straight at Charlene. She was standing there, radiating pride and, more than that, happiness. Betsy noticed Charlene always seemed happier in this form. She’d always thought it was just the rush that came with the power. Now, however, Betsy knew why.
“Has it always been like that? I’m surprised you weren’t always transformed!”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t think I’d need it before.”
“Oh no. What happened?” Betsy focused, reading between the lines.
“Er, nothing. I just, realized it felt better. I was being silly.”
“If you don’t want to talk about it, thats fine. I told you when we first met I wouldn’t assume or pressure you, that is still true.”
Betsy backed down. She was curious, and more over she was worried. But she also knew that Charlene wouldn’t respond to being pressured well. So Betsy just walked up and gave Charlene a gentle squeeze. She’d immediately realized a problem, however, and wasn’t sure whether or not she should bring it up. In the end, however, she decided to do it. She’d always advocated for honesty.“What about the anti-recognition effect?”
“You told Johanna about your identity. I can just do that.”
Charlene missed the wince Betsy gave, as her eyes were closed and she just luxuriated in the the feeling of hugging a friend in her body. Betsy quickly put a comforting smile back on and continued the hug. That wasn’t the problem at hand, currently. Besides, Beck was on it, right?
“That actually physically hurt her. Its why I haven’t told anyone else. She was bleeding from her eyes. The Lady told me she was this close to having an aneurysm and dying. And she still only barely was able to connect the dots.”
“Shit. I just… I just wanted to be me… This is me, why can’t they understand.”
Betsy just patted the now sobbing Charlene on the back. She was confused, she’d met Charlene’s parents and they were fully supportive of their daughter. So who did she mean? She usually didn’t seem to mind about strangers’s opinions, and she’d removed those who didn’t agree from her lives. So who, she wondered, was she talking about. Betsy didn’t have to wonder for long.
“I got gatekept again. Had an appointment on the 4th. I don’t know what else I was expecting, they always move the damn goalposts. I thought that, maybe this time, I don’t know. Dr. Tannen felt like she got it. And, I don’t know, I just… Damnit…” they just sat there, Betsy comforting Charlene, in silence for a while, until finally. “I’m, I’m just, I’m going to sleep. One more night in my body, at least. I’ll go back to, all that tomorrow?”
Betsy nodded and helped Charlene lay down
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Do you feel that, Kim?”
Yes.
Betsy looked at the girl sitting across from her in lab. They had been doing chemistry, a general requirement, while Charlene did biology instead. She should be off right now. They’d have to meet her there. It was downtown, where the ping was coming from. Kim was already slipping off of the stool, and towards the exit. Betsy felt worse about leaving in the middle of the lab, but pulled herself away anyway. The beakers and test tubes were all empty, anyway. No one would be in danger from them leaving. Who knows how many would be in danger from them staying. They needed to get there to help Charlene.
Speaking of, Betsy was worried about her roommate. She didn’t like to come out of the transformed state, and was already marked as absent from several classes. One or two, the memory effect would cover, but Charlene had attended most classes this semester as Violet, who the students had sort of just come to accept as attending it seemed. That just meant that she’d be noticed leaving, even though teleportation was even more her specialty than it was theirs, and both Kim and herself were good at it. Betsy at this point just hoped Charlene wouldn’t go ahead alone and get into trouble.
Kim was waiting for her in a closet. As Betsy passed, Kim reached out, grabbed her arm, and pulled her in. They exchanged nods and began their seemingly hour long transformation sequence that actually lasted seconds.
I feel Charlene engaging the demon.
“Yeah. Let’s hope we’ll get there as she finishes it off, huh.”
They both knew that wasn’t likely. The demons had only been getting stronger. Starting from when they had to rescue Hana, though the difficulty there had been small compared to what they faced subsequently. New Year’s Eve had been particularly brutal, facing four demons of what they were now calling B-Grade. They were each about a match for one B-Grade demon alone. It was a good thing, then, that as a team they were greater than the sum of their parts. When the lights dimmed on the teleportation they both rushed in, Kim going up above where they sensed the threat while Betsy charged straight at it. Charlene was there running damage control. What she was running damage control on didn’t look in anyway appropriate for January, though apparently demons didn’t coordinate to human timelines. Still, the giant shadowy black, shadow, for lack of a better term, looked like something from a Halloween special of a fantasy tv show.
“Th-there you guys, are,” Charlene was panting, fighting the creature must have taken a lot out of her. “It mainly appears to be sense blocking and cold. But if you’re in it too long, it almost feels like it is just sucking the life out of you.”
“Got it. From how tired you look, lets call it A-Grade. We’ll give you the energy, then you need you to take it to the mirror plane. We can’t let it hurt anyone else.”
Charlene nodded and Betsy laid her hand on her friend’s shoulder, channeling her energy into the tired witch. Betsy flared up, emitting light brighter than she normally did, hearing the voice of the goddess murmuring soothing sounds as she did. Kim leapt down to also add her energy to the surge. The shadowy mass seemed to turn a head it didn’t have and zero in on Betsy.
“Shit.”
Charlene cursed and then Betsy was tackled. The shadow was fast, surprisingly so, but even more surprising was the mass it seemed to have behind it. Betsy was thrown to the ground by it. Vaguely she heard her phone chirp and Charlene scream. And then all sensation seemed to cut out. She couldn’t see, hear, not even smell, which she never really realized she was smelling anything until all smell disappeared. The only thing she could feel was cold, as she was presumably swallowed by that mass of shadows. So she tried to slash it, first, but her blade seemed to pass through like a knife through air, so she dropped the weapon and tried to find whatever was in the center of this mass, controlling it, with her hands. She had no idea how well this was working, as all she felt was the cold leeching life and heat from her body, but she couldn’t give up. Her friends were waiting for her. Johanna was missing. She couldn’t lose here. She couldn’t. So, with a roar, Betsy erupted. Shining like a supernova, powered by the images and memories of those she couldn’t fail, she grabbed forward and, finally, felt something. Like clutching a shadow, but something. And she squeezed, trying her best to wrestle it like she remembered the team do in high school. And the light grew until it almost blinded even her, and she heard what sounded like pained hissing. And then she felt something like a caress on her cheek. She could only differentiate by the fact that it was colder than aught else in the void. Then, with a final hiss of pain, the shadow streamed away. Running, or so it seemed. Fleeing away faster than any of them could move. She still was about to try, when she saw Kim kneeling over Charlene. Not Violet, Charlene. She rushed over, the demonic darkness forgotten for the moment.
“What’s wrong with her?” She asked, speaking even before she could look Kim in the face.
As we were launching attacks at the mass of darkness, she just got weaker and weaker faster than usual. Its like she ran out of energy, like a car running out of fuel. She transformed back.
Betsy was glad that she had been putting so much time into ASL last semester, or that would have been completely lost to her with the speed Kim signed at just now. It was obvious she was frantic. Betsy was also glad for those first aid courses she took back in high school, even if she remembered little of them now. She at least remembered how to find a pulse, and Charlene’s was stable. She breathed a slight sigh of relief at that.
“Goddess, what is wrong with her? Why did she turn back?”
“You do know, do you not, that I have little power to influence this world? What I have has gone to the three of you. I cannot appear and hold these private, time stopped conversations much or for long.”
“Then please, answer the question and leave.”
“Oh, how I remember fondly the times when we first met. Though it was not much, you were still more fond of me then than you are now,” the goddess sighed, and Betsy glared at her. “She ran out of power. Kim’s simile was quite accurate. Do not worry, she is in no danger. It will regenerate on its own with rest. Still, it is quite strange that she did. I know she burns through power faster than any of you, however, she should still have had enough power to fight for three days straight.”
“What,” Betsy paled, “what about if she stayed in that form without spending any power to fight?”
“I would say a week, perhaps half again as much. 10 to 12 days, would be my most accurate estimate of the time.”
“Thank you.”
It was Wednesday. The last time she’d seen Charlene and not Violet had been, what? Sunday night, she thought with dread. Last Sunday night. As in over a week ago. This wasn’t a solution. She knew it wasn’t but she’d been happy to let Charlene do it since it kept her happy. But now? What if she ran out of power in the middle of a fight again? She wouldn’t be able to stay safe. Betsy almost cursed. She only stopped when she felt her phone vibrate. Time was back on again, then, and the goddess was gone.
What did she mean you knew she couldn’t appear?
“She would show herself to me fairly frequently, though without the time stop trick. To talk, really. Just inane chatter, trying to get to know me I think. Didn’t she do that with you, Kim?
No. And that didn’t help explain, Charlene didn’t use any attacks she hadn’t before. She shouldn’t have run out of power like that. Where did that goddess go?
“It did explain, actually. It explained too much. I feel like borrowing one of Charlene’s favorite words,” Kim just cocked her head, waiting for the explanation. “She’d been in the Violet form for over a week. Dysphoria was striking back with a vengeance, though I think anything more you’ll have to get from Charlene herself.”
Kim nodded at that. Then she pointed to Betsy’s hip, where her phone was, and picked Charlene up. It wasn’t ASL, but the meaning was clear. “Deal with that. I’m sneakier, I can bring her back” she was saying. Betsy nodded, and ran off around a corner to hide before turning back into her normal human form. The messages were from Beck. Johanna’s signal had blipped briefly, though he was still expressing confusion as to why she cared. She had to double check the area. She’d appeared here, where the fight had been. She must have been one of the bystanders, or maybe her kidnappers were. Was she kidnapped? Betsy didn’t know. Beck didn’t know, when she’d called him to check on Johanna after the woman hadn’t picked up her calls, he hadn’t even remembered having to check on her at first, and seemed to forget again every so often. When he tried he saw that she seemed to disappear off of the grid around the turn of the year. And here was the first place she’d appeared since then. She told him to look up any connections that Johanna had to this place. Goddess knows that the police seemed to forget every time she asked them, though maybe if she hounded them as hard as she’d been hounding Beck they’d put in some effort at least.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Of course you can’t help.”
“As I have said before, dear guardians. My powers are limited, and vested in each of you. My impact on your world is much too limited for me to permanently change anyone.”
“And I can’t just cast the spell on myself because?”
“You would need to be in your witch form and cast it on your base form. I do not see why your doctors do not just give you this medicine that could help. Is it a matter of cost, again, like you have assured me many things are?”
No. This time its a matter of years of ingrained bigotry.
“Ah, yes. The other perennial ill of this world. Perhaps I should not have sought out to help you so, if so few of you are deserving of help. Alas, it is ever my fate to help the helpless, whether they be deserving or not.”
Betsy was groaning and sitting on one of the ivory benches. The safe house, which was enchanted from the remains of the mansion where they’d been empowered, was about the only place where the goddess could freely manifest for long periods of time. A fact that everyone had been taking advantage of to argue this same topic back and forth for the past two hours. She decided to cut this off before another round started.
“Is there some way we could, I don’t know, convince the therapist to sign off on the papers that say that Charlene should get the treatment?”
“With words, I would imagine,” the goddess responded.
“Apparently, that doesn’t fucking work.”
“Are you asking for some magical aid for that purpose? I am afraid that I can not provide you with such aid. Manipulation and mental trickery is the domain of my sister.”
“Sister?” “Sister?” Sister?
All three of the magical girls asked in unison, this being the first time they’d heard of this. Apparently divine beings could have siblings, perhaps those old cultures had been onto something. Betsy briefly thought of the Greek gods and what she remembered and shivered at all the terrible things they’d done. She hoped that they didn’t exist.
“Do not worry, my dear. If they did exist in the past, they are dead now. Their is little divine spark on this planet, as of one deity slowly shriveling away and dying,” and the goddess read Betsy’s mind, which to be fair she did appear to try not to, but was still always uncomfortable when it happened. “But yes, to answer all of your question. I have a sister. A nasty, cruel, cold, brute. Manipulation is her bread and butter, to use one of your idioms, and she lives for twisting others to her whim. And when she finds a knot she can not untangle, she simply slices it apart. She is likely the culprit behind these demon attacks, though there are enough evil powers vying for a foothold in your realm that I can not say for sure.”
The rest groaned as well, collapsing to the the perpetually polished marble floors. So now they had to deal with Charlene’s sudden uptick in dysphoria, which they’d already sat down to deal with, an evil god, because you can’t have god without satan she supposed, and Betsy herself was also busy looking for her missing friend. And they all still had college. She felt a calming hand on her forehead, and heard a soothing hum. When she opened her eyes she was looking up at the goddess smiling down at her. She was radiant, in so many ways. Truly worthy of the classical image of a goddess, beautiful and powerful and caring and kind. It felt like she could make everything better, even when she’d just gotten done telling them she couldn’t.
“You are worn. Stress is not something good to leave eating you. Rest. And if you need to, we may speak as long as you wish here.”
Betsy closed her eyes again, and did just that.
