Slide

With the summoning crystal clenched in its teeth, the gray-black wolf appeared to mock Angel as it glared at her with yellow eyes. 

“No, you damned creature!” Angel swore. But the powerful vortex swallowed the fiery sister. Sucking her off the planet Cionis before she could attempt to retrieve the crystal. "Damn it all!" 

Now helpless in the mouth of the maelstrom, Angel hurtled through a long black tunnel toward a white light. And after what seemed an eternity, Angel’s now naked body was then flung out of the vortex and dropped onto a hardwood floor. “Oof!” she grunted while landing on her knees. But before she could gather her senses, two voices yelled out to her.

“Angel!” 

“Huh?” When Angel looked up, there stood her sisters. “Mina? Cassia?” And without a second thought, she leaped up and embraced them so tight they all stopped breathing. “My dear sisters, I thought I’d lost you both!”

“We thought the same!” Cassia replied as tears streamed down all three faces. 

And although Angel needed to know the situation, she wouldn’t let go of Cassia and Mina for a full minute more. “My precious, precious sisters. You both are everything to me!” 

Time and Place

Stark naked and leaning on her sisters, Angel stood up and took stock of the setting. The Kriegers were in an open style room with a couch. To the right, a kitchen with a table. And both Mina and Cassia wore foreign garments. Angel looked down at her bare titties and feet. “Why am I naked?”

“That’s how we all arrived,” Mina answered. “But don’t worry. You have clothes in this realm. And other things. Come on.” 

Cassia and Mina then took Angel to a room with a giant bed and explained something odd. 

“This is our house in this world. And I’ve been here for four hours now,” Cassia said.

“And I arrived an hour after Cassia,” Mina said. 

“Huh?” Angel gaped at them both as Cassia provided her with clothes. “How can that be? We were only seconds apart when the vortex took us.”

“The travel vector must’ve caused a time lag in that portal. Like firing an arrow a few inches to your left can cause it to travel hundreds of feet away from where you pointed it originally,” Mina said. “A few seconds on Cionis are hours on this world. But more importantly. What happened to the summoning crystal?”

“Tch!” Angel scowled. “After Cassia tossed it that damned wolf snatched it up.”

“Oh no! Then how are we going to get back?” Cassia asked. 

“The better question is why are we here? The summoning crystal was meant to call the power to us, am I right?” Angel asked.

“How would we know? The first time we saw the crystal is when we took it from the priest,” Mina said. “Hell, we only knew about the thing from the rumors in the Skygod’s citadel. And how often were we there?”

“Right.” Angel looked away. From the time the Skygod was killed to when the demons invaded was all a blur. From that point on, the Krieger sisters relied on rumors of the crystal's ability to summon a great power from another realm. But it appeared the summoning was more of a transport. 

“Angel? Do you know where we are?” Cassia asked.

“What, why would I? Are we in hell?”

“No, not yet, sis,” Mina answered. But just think about the question.”

“Alright.” Angel stood straight and asked herself: Where are we? And as she asked, her mind answered. “Ah? We’re on a planet called Earth. In a country, USA. The state of Connecticut. The city of Fairfield. And we are students at a school for girls.” Angel then shook her head. “Why do I know all of this information? What the bloody hell is happening?”

“Easy, sis. We’ve tried to figure that out for the past few hours,” Mina said while handing Angel a cloth bag with items in it. “These are yours.”

“Hm?” When Angel dug in the bag, she was able to name things inside of it that she’d never seen in her life. “This is a mobile phone. And this is a passport from Norway.” She opened the booklet and jumped back startled at her own image inside. “How in the heavens?”

“It’s called a photograph. Your phone has a camera that can record your image,” Cassia said, displaying a selfie she took earlier. 

“Ah?” Angel touched the screen. “Yes, I seem to be aware of this device. And other powered machines of this world.” 

“Speaking of power. Is there any other that you feel, dear sister?” Cassia asked. 

“Yes!” Angel walked to the front door of the house and opened it. She then looked outside at the rows of homes on the block before pointing south. “There is a person. A human girl with immense power. She is there. I felt her the moment I entered the realm.”

Mina and Cassia both smiled. “You felt her just as we did. Thus confirming her existence,” Cassia said. “That means the summoning crystal did deliver us to a power. But it’s up to us to harness it.”

“I see,” Angel said. “However, we need to explore this area further before we take action. You said this house belongs to us?”

“It says we own it on this deed,” Mina said, showing a set of papers from a table. “And if you look in that bag, we also have currency on these flat devices.” 

“Oh?” Angel reached in the bag and pulled out a tiny rectangular object called a ‘Debit Card.’ It had her name on it. “How strange.”

“Not strange. It’s what we’ll use to buy food and supplies when we go into town to shop,” Cassia said. 

“Shop?” Angel nodded, recognizing the word in the unfamiliar new vocabulary she’d just acquired moments ago. To include the language. We are speaking English. “This is all too much to take in. We’ll need at least a day to situate ourselves before seeking the girl with the power.”

“Agreed,” Mina and Cassia replied. The three sisters then all stepped out to the front porch and gazed south, as the whole world suddenly turned white.

Back

“Ah?” Emilia awoke with a jump. Where am I? What’s happening? But she couldn’t move right away, because she was held down in the middle of two sleeping girls. "Mina? Angel? Heh." I must’ve passed out and they carried me in here. Hee, how silly of me. As she lifted their arms and sat up, she watched the sisters sleep and felt at ease. But the bedroom was dark. And outside she could hear Cassia and Toska talking in the kitchen. Emilia reached over the side table and found her glasses. And as she put them on and slid off the bed, the memory of her dream came rushing back. “Ah!”

Outside

Emilia exited the bedroom and wandered out to the kitchen. There, Cassia, Suyeon, and Toska all sat at the table, still discussing fashion.

“I know, I also like her nail color in this pic,” Cassia said before looking up. “Oh, hello sleepy head.”

“Hey, sorry I passed out,” Emilia replied with a smile. 

“Taste of wine got to you,” Toska teased. “But don’t worry, you’ve only been out an hour. But I doubt Mina and Angel are getting up anytime soon, heh heh!”

The three ladies chuckled at Toska’s statement. But Cassia then shook her head. “My dear sisters may have had one too many. Tsk tsk.”

“Oh, let them have fun. First week of school is always stressful,” Suyeon added. “What about you, Em? How’s your first week been?”

“Eventful!” Emilia smiled, still wearing a sleepy face. “And I had a great time tonight, but I should probably get home.”

“No worries. My sister is picking me up in a few, we’ll drop you off,” Suyeon said. 

“Oh, that’d be great, thanks,” Emilia said. She then walked over to Cassia. “Hey, can I tell you something quietly?”

“Of course, sweetie.” Cassia gently cleared Emilia’s hair from her face. “You can always talk to me.”

Emilia nodded. “I know. You’re always really kind to me. But I had this vivid dream that the thing that I saw in the hallway turned into a big monster and fought Mina on the softball field.”

“Oh my?” Cassia’s eyes widened. “Did the creature hurt my dear sister?”

“No! Mina killed it with a sword. And then she set it on fire.”

“Well then. Good for her. And it seems a little wine excites your imagination.”

Emilia looked down. “Yeah, my mind has been weird lately. But there was more to the dream.”

“Was there?” Cassia held Emilia’s hand. 

“Yeah, about you. Um, all I remember is you were outside and that creature tried to talk to you. And then there was water. And it ended.”

When Emilia looked up, Cassia stared at her for a moment before smiling. “Well, am I to take your dream as a warning?”

“I don’t know. I just had to tell you while I remembered.” Emilia rubbed her eyes. “These strange dreams I’ve been having lately. It seems you sisters are always in them. I mean, I can even see an image of Angel in the living room naked. And other weird things.”

“That’s certainly an active mind you have. It makes sense that you’re a writer,” Cassia replied. But as she spoke, a car horn honked outside.

“Oh, that’s my sister,” Suyeon said. “Toska, you riding with me too?”

“Yeah, just let me get my bag.” Toska then stood up and kissed Cassia. “Alright, girl. Text me tomorrow if you want to hit up the thrift shop.”

“Of course. And I'll walk you guys out.”

After an exchange of pleasantries, Emilia took a ride home with the girls. Leaving Cassia in the doorway. 

Admonition

Cassia waved goodbye as the girls left. But once she closed the door she immediately reflected on what Emilia told her. So it appears that the creature and Emilia are linked in some way. Emilia was even aware of Mina's battle on the field. How strange. She then considered Emilia’s words: ‘Cassia, you were outside and that creature tried to talk to you.’ 

“Well, I’d rather not be surprised if some demon tries to converse with me.” Cassia then placed her palm out. “Mist.” And in mere moments, Cassia enveloped the entire city of Fairfield in an un-seeable miasma that would detect anything with a celestial signature. “Now, my sisters and I can sleep in peace.” She then glanced down at Angel and Mina’s dresses, jeans, and other garments, scattered all over the living room. Cassia shook her head. “Ai, those two. I guess I’ll clean up first.”

…