A foul wind howled relentlessly, as if the planet itself screamed in defiance of its fate. The insane babbling of survivors could only barely be made out over the din, hooting and hollering and laughing and crying as they embraced or killed each other in equal measure.

I stood there helplessly as the world came to an end. Within moments I was surrounded by grasping, longing, murderous hands. 

And from beyond the crimson sky, some inscrutable being watched on without a shred of remorse. 

---

Well, there was good news and bad news.

The good news was, that was just a dream. Over the nights I'd seen a thousand apocalypses, but none of them had happened on Earth before. I was a little more shaken up than usual, but I repeated those comforting words to myself. It was only a dream.

A little more intense and close to home than usual by a few degrees, sure. But a dream nonetheless.

The bad news was, my eyes were killing me, not to mention the wicked headache. As I feared, the wombo combo of staying up late and focusing on pixel perfect movement on my tiny computer screen last night had clearly taken its toll on me. 

Worth it.

Or so I had to tell myself to justify the difficulty I had getting out of bed and taking a hot shower to wake myself up. I was replaying the raid last night in my head and caught myself with a dopey grin on my face as I rubbed shampoo into my hair... until it got in my eyes.

"AHH! AHHHHHH!"

It really had been a lot of fun playing with Aether and the others though.

Oh, there was more bad news. After returning to my room, I noticed I had missed a surprising number of notifications last night, all of which were from Mae.

That's not good. This is definitely going to fuel the fire...

I didn't have time to check them, and there wasn't much point since I'd probably be seeing her at school soon anyways.

I slipped into one of my uniforms and headed downstairs. It looked like dad had already left, but that adorable goofball left a note.

Sorry kiddo, we have a big meeting first thing this morning. You’ll have to have some cereal for breakfast, but I’ve left you a bit of money for lunch. Learn up a storm!

Chuckling to myself, a noticed a crisp fifty dollar bill tucked under the note... Isn't this overdoing it a bit!?

After inhaling a bowl of Loot Fruits, I put the bill in my backpack and began my small commute to Excelsior. It seemed like that nightmare had affected me more than I thought... it felt as though everyone I passed was looking me up and down as I walked by. Increasingly uncomfortable, I held myself by crossing my arms and picked up the pace.

I felt great relief as I entered my classroom, even despite the entire class staring at me.

Ah, it must be obvious how anxious I am. That's embarrassing...

By some miracle, Mae had beaten me to class twice in a row. Never mind that she left before the first bell even rang yesterday...

When I got closer, my breath hitched in my throat. For the first time since we were kids, her face was bare, free of any makeup or piercings. I really liked her usual style, but even underneath it all, she was actually really pretty...

As I slipped into my seat beside her, she looked conflicted. She must still be upset, but I just had no idea how to approach the subject. Like, I still didn't really get what she was mad about!

A soft warmth suddenly enveloped me; Mae had gotten out of her seat and was hugging me from the side.

She seemed to realize where we were and broke it off within seconds, but it was so out of character for her that I was stunned. She could be touchy-feely when we were hanging out at her place, but never in public. A few of our classmates made "Oooo" noises and other teasing quips. Embarrassed, she cleared her throat.

"It looked like you needed that," she said with uncharacteristic shyness, unable to look at me.

Still too shocked to speak, I just nodded.

"I'm... I'm sorry Norma. I finally realized last night what a bitch I've been to you. You... you definitely deserve better than me."

"What? N-no, I know that's just your personality! I mean! No, that came out wrong, uh-"

"It's okay. You don't have to justify my actions. I'm going to try to be better for you, okay? Just... give me time. I don't know if I can change overnight."

"Y-you don't have to do something so drastic! Sure, I get a little annoyed sometimes when you're not listening to me, but I love you the way you are!"

Mae's cheeks flared crimson. With great difficulty, she forced herself to look into my eyes.

"Oh, well if that's the case... why don't we continue where we left off? I think you were describing the girl of your dreams, right? What exactly did her dress accentuate again...?"

"Hey! That's cruel!"

"Haha! I told you I wasn't going to change overnight!"

We laughed together, ignoring the stares of our classmates. The scene from yesterday replayed itself; the teacher slipped in as the bell went off and he began mercilessly filling out the blackboard with gleeful abandon. I somehow enjoyed the ensuing two hours that had been so torturous yesterday and realized with a smile that the only difference was that today, Mae was here beside me.

A few hours later, Mae and I had parted ways to head to our respective classes. No sooner had she turned the corner, than Luna suddenly appeared behind me.

"Hello, Norma."

"HOLY!"

That scared me! Why did I never hear her coming?

"Sorry Luna, you surprised me! Um, so... how's it going?"

"You'll never guess what! Or, maybe you will. I went out and got myself the first issue of Object of Obsession! Isn't that wonderful?"

Despite her apparent excitement, her face showed no expression whatsoever. Had she already read it? Ohhh, this was bad...

"It was pretty hard to find, actually. They say it's a 'cult classic', and the first volume is the hardest one to track down. But I managed!"

"Yeah, that's... that's really awesome."

"Yes it is. And in celebration of this occasion, I have a proposal for you. How would you like to join a club?"

"...huh?"

"The book club, to be precise. I already got permission from the principal, and I want you to be my first member. We can recruit as many students as possible and share this series you love so much with everyone! Oh, how exciting!"

I couldn't help but notice her hand had risen in front of her face again. She was getting better at making it seem like a casual gesture, but I had already seen what she was trying to hide. A feeling I couldn't describe caused my mouth to dry up.

Two things were obvious. She was teasing me. And she was enjoying it. The question was, what exactly was her game?

"So, Norma. Tell me. Will you join?"

Every fiber of my being begged me to say no, to run.

"I'll do it," I answered instantly.

"Oh, that's-" she began.

"On one condition," I interrupted.

She slapped her other hand over her mouth, covering the entire lower half of her face to contain her excitement at my unexpected boldness. Doing so had no effect, however, as her smile had already reached her eyes.

They were crazed, beautiful and terrible, and they woke something inside of me that had always wanted to be free. Some of the students gave Luna strange looks as they passed by on the way to class, but a moment later the hallway was left empty. The bell rang, but neither of us flinched.  I leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

"I don't want anyone else in the club. I only want you."

Luna's wild eyes widened even further. They darted around to ensure no one else was watching us before she hesitantly let her hands drop, revealing her twisted smile to me in full. It was wrong. It was all wrong.

I wanted to see more of it.

She was incredibly embarrassed at first, but after a few tense seconds, she seemed to understand that I wasn't going to run away. The intimacy proved to be too much for her.

"Hah, haaaaah," she panted. A few moments later she managed to regain control, closing her eyes and giving me a little nod.

"Thank you," she whispered.

She hesitated, but seemed to think better of it and hurried off.

I needed a few seconds, myself. I needed to remember how to breathe.

---

After a difficult math class I proceeded to the cafeteria to have lunch with Mae. I was completely zoned out, forgetting to even buy any food, and anything Mae had been saying to me had gone in one ear and out the other. She took my phone, deleting all of the embarrassing messages she'd sent me, and when that wasn't enough to get my attention, she switched tactics.

"Damn, he seriously gave you a fiddy for lunch? Wish he was my sugar daddy..."

"Eww, Mae! Seriously?"

"Nah hun, I just needed to snap you out of it. You've been a space cadet all lunch. What's going on?"

"Uhh..."

As much as I wanted to confide in Mae as I always had in the past, laying more on her about Luna right after we'd made up seemed decidedly stupid, and doing so wouldn't even make sense unless I divulged that I was a freak for yanderes. I decided to tell her a Luna-free version of events.

"Well, I guess I've just been stressed lately. There was forgetting my wallet on Sunday which made me feel like an idiot, then that thing with you - which is totally cool now! - but the rest of school really sucked after that. I had fun playing Raid Fantasy with Aether, but I was definitely up way too late. I had a nightmare about the apocalypse where everyone died in a murder orgy... Oh yeah, and dad might be getting a girlfriend."

Hmm... Maybe I was a little more hung up on that last detail than I thought.

"Woah, I didn't even realize you had so much on your plate... Look, I've been a bad friend but maybe I can make it up to you. Come over to my place after school and we can have a girl's night. You can read me 'Norma's Life Story' and I promise that I won't fall asleep halfway through."

"That does sound pretty ni-."

That was when I saw it. A flash of white that made my heart stop.

As if she had been waiting for this moment, Luna entered the cafeteria and walked right up to our table, sitting beside me without so much as a glance at Mae. For her part, Mae had put two and two together and looked from her to me with narrowed eyes.

"Hey, Norma. The principal needs to see us after school to work out the details of our book club."

Luna watched my growing panic with an expression of pure delight. Even the other students seemed to have stopped what they were doing to look over at our table.

"You will be able to make it... right?"

Once again, all eyes were on me. This time, though, it was decidedly not all in my head.

---

Meanwhile...

Quin Tessence hunched over her computer monitor, maneuvering her character Aether between a seemingly endless barrage of attacks as she resurrected her shitty tank for the ninth time.

"Seriously, why do we still run with this guy!?" she cursed.

Her mind went to Norma. Dear, sweet, actually-good-at-this-game Norma. They were in the habit of calling each other by their character names to avoid revealing private info to the other guildies, but she could never forget her best friend's name no matter how long they'd been apart. Quin was really excited to send her homework helper file to Norma and kept checking her online status mid-raid. She knew it was school hours and that Norma never skipped, but it was habit at this point.

All at once though, Quin shivered, leaving her with the strangest feeling that Norma wouldn't be coming on tonight.

"Um, Aether? El TankoSpanko is dead again."

With a resigned sigh, Quin returned her attention to the game. She had unconsciously left her friends list open at the corner of her screen.