Emery yawned and leaned up against one of the pillars of the lobby. Something about this town drove both architects and interior designers insane. Where had she heard that before? At least their city had an identity. Maybe Emery could become and architect and try her hand at it. She still needed to figure out what she was going to go to college for.
“Hey, babe.”
Grinning, Emery turned to face her boyfriend. Keaton stopped to give her a long, deep kiss, cupping her face in his hands. She never wanted this to end. Alas, they had school to get to.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
She nodded and followed him toward the door. Everyone thought it was really lucky that the two lived in the same building. Actually, it was how the two of them had met. And Keaton was just such a great guy that it hadn’t taken Emery long to start crushing on him.
They stepped into the bitter cold and made their way to the bus stop hand in hand.
“You’re coming over for Christmas, right?” she asked him.
“If your parents will have me,” he replied. “I know my parents would love for you to come over for a few days of Hanukkah.”
“I’d love that.”
Once they were off the bus and safely inside the school building, Emery and Keaton departed with another long kiss. Emery scanned the crowd, hunting for her best friends. She found them standing outside the library, noses practically touching as they talked. Coraline and Jada stared deeply into each other’s eyes. There was a running bet that they’d be the last two to realize how gay they were for each other.
“Hey, you two,” she said, sidling up to them.
“Emery!” Jada turned to her, wiggling her hips. “We’re still going after-Christmas shopping this year, right?”
Emery grinned and replied, “You know it. I’ve got a whole makeup set I’ve got my eye on and my parents would never let me pay full price for it, rich or not.”
“Your parents might not let you do anything if you don’t get a good grade on the math test.”
“Come on,” Emery replied, rolling her eyes. “Missus ————— won’t be too hard on me.”
The bell rang and they had to head to class. School was never Emery’s favorite place to be. It was just so boring. She did her best to focus on Mister —————, but it was hard. Math wasn’t her strong suit and he didn’t have a face there was no face nobody had a face—
When the teacher’s back was turned, Emery risked another yawn and stretched, her gaze drifting to the nearby window. It was a beautiful day outside even if it was frigid. Why did this city get so cold cold cold cold cold it was so cold the dark was so empty—
Emery shivered, then blinked in surprise. That was weird. What had she just been thinking about? She was in math, right? It would probably be best if she focused on the teacher, then. There was nothing for her outside. Nothing for her…
There was a pink pixie pressed up against the window—
The windows were covered with blackout paper. Of course they were. There was nothing out there for Emery to see.
Once class was over, Emery emerged into the halls where nobody had names or faces no names or faces no names or—
She was pushed from behind by Liv, one of the school bullies. As if on cue, Amira had also appeared to surround Emery. They circled for a bit, the facelessfacelessfaceless crowd parting to make way for them.
“Hey, Emery, what you up to?” Amira cooed. “Got anything interesting going on?”
Liv signed something that Emery couldn’t decipher, but it made Amira chuckle.
“She’s got a point,” Amira said. “How long do you think your boy toy is going to be interested in you, anyway?”
“Don’t call my boyfriend that,” Emery hissed.
Amira snarled, “Listen here. Just because we have similar names doesn’t mean that you’re anywhere on my level. You should have thought about that before trying out for the cheer team.”
“Hey, leave her alone!”
Coraline had showed up and Emery breathed a sigh of relief. She took Emery by the hand and pulled her free from her bullies’ orbit. Emery could breathe easier again once they were safely on their way to the cafeteria. Jada and Keaton were already sitting at a table in a sea of strangers. They waved the two over. It was easy for Emery to nestle right into the crook of Keaton’s arm.
“Hey, babe,” he cooed.
“Hey, yourself.”
“Gosh, get a room, you too.”
“You get a room!” Emery snapped back playfully.
School passed largely without incident. Emery said goodbye to her boyfriend in the elevator, leaving him with a quick peck on the lips. Her parents still weren’t home yet, so she grabbed herself a quick snack and headed back to her room to start on her homework.
Keaton was wonderful, wasn’t he? She was so lucky to have met him. Emery absolutely did not deserve a boyfriend as wonderful as he was. They were going to have to spend as much time as possible together over winter break. Her parents would be fine with it. Keaton’s parents seemed to love her, too. And then there would be winter shopping with Jada, and maybe some video games with Coraline. All in all, bullies or not, life seemed to be going really well for Emery.
She got an alert in the corner of her screen that there was a magical girl fight going on. Emery pulled it up to see the video feed. The magical girl was fighting a planar invader, something the news was calling a ————— ——————. And Emery recognized where it was happening! It was practically right down the street!
Emery grabbed her shoes and ran for the elevator. She had to see this. It was so cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold outside, but she just pulled her scarf tighter around her neck and took off down the sidewalk.
Up ahead, something small and bright and pink darted into an alleyway. Emery cocked her head to the side. Did she just see that?
NO SHE DID NOT NO SHE DID NOT NO SHE DID NOT NO SHE
Emery walked up to the corner of the building and peaked around. It was a normal dead-end alley. There was no sign of anything small or pink or bright. It must have been in her imagination, that was all.
She had a fight to get to. Emery picked up her pace, hearing the sounds of battle in the distance. People walked by withoutfaces as if nothing was going on. People had become so used to magical fights as part of life, but it would never not be amazing to Emery.
In the plaza, a magical girl with no face and no name whose power was nothing was fighting the ————— ——————. Emery stood at the edge of the police line police line why didn’t she ever get a police line? on the tips of her toes and devoured the scene in front of her. It was a spectacular display of nothing but emptiness emptyness emptineingyness and it was something she was going to be talking about all night with her friends.
There were stars in her eyes. Emery wished more than anything that she could be a magical girl. It was more than a little disheartening that there was nothing special about her, nothing that would earn her a spot as a magical girl. She knew that if she had the chance, she could prove herself. Why did other girls get to experience this but not her? It wasn’t fair! It’s not like she didn’t have problems! Maybe if she petitioned the bureau they’d make an exception for her.
The fight came to a stunning end where nothing happened nothing happened nothing ever happened. Emery watched in awe as the magical girl and her pixie companion disappeared into the night. With a deep, wistful sigh, Emery turned and started making her way back home through the chilly winter night.
Emery was going to be famous herself one day. At least as big as the magical girls. Maybe bigger. Maybe she’d find her own source of magic one day and eclipse all of them. She’d be known for more than just following in her parents’ footsteps. She’d be the best dang magical architect ever, whatever that looked like.
She’d been walking for about fifteen minutes before Emery stopped and frowned. That was odd. Her home wasn’t that far away from the plaza. Why wasn’t she home yet? All of these buildings looked familiar, but she should be further along by now. Emery picked up her pace a little bit.
After a few more minutes, Emery started to run. People looked looked? looked? looked? they had no faces! at her like she had lost her head. Her breathing was heavy, her lungs brimming with cold, but Emery didn’t slow down. She wasn’t getting any closer. What was going on? Why wasn’t she home yet!?
She wasn’t going anywhere, something was whispering in her ear. Emery was right where she needed to be, didn’t she see? The truth was all around her. All she had to do was open her heart up to accept it. Emery shook her head, but the whisper didn’t go away. If anything, it got stronger.
Ahead of her, something small, pink, and bright disappeared down the same alley as before. She stopped running, her breathing still heavy and ragged. Carina? That looked like a pixie. What was a pixie doing here? Emery’s home was close, but she took off down the alleyway, which seemed to stretch on forever forever forever fore—
The pixie must be right up ahead Carina must be right up ahead. Emery closed her eyes and picked up the pace until she was running at a full sprint. When she opened them again, the walls around her were gone and Emery was standing—
No, not here! She couldn’t be here! She couldn’t be back here! Anywhere but here!
It was a desolate wasteland all around her. The sky was gray, the plains were gray. There were cracks in the desert beneath her. Every step kicked up gray dust. Emery turned around so she could fly back down the alley and back to her safe life, but it was gone. She was surrounded by her nightmare once again.
Her head started to pound as she felt it. Night Terror was here. It was all around her. It was pressing down on her mind. It wanted to take everything from her. Emery had to stop it. Stop it and stop Cynthia. She had to get out of this fantasy.
Her skin started to turn gray, the top layer peeling off and exposing what she actually looked like beneath.
“No!” Emery cried hoarsely, her voice dropping in pitch. “I can’t go back. Please don’t make me go back!”
It was all just a fantasy, though, Night Terror insisted. It was never real. She was never going to be that happy in her life. Not unless she gave in. Night Terror could give her what she wanted.
She tried to spit out a curse, but her mouth was dry from the desert air. “Why are you doing this? Why did you do this to me?”
It wanted her to know what she was really missing out on.
“What? I don’t understand! Please! Just… send me back. Just one more day like that. I can’t give it up now!”
Absolutely not. Emery was going to have to live in the real world regardless of what she preferred. There was no way getting around that.
But it could take all the pain away, if she wanted. If Emery just went to the bureau and gave up her magical girl powers, Night Terror could give her the life that she deserved. There’d be no more suffering. She’d finally be content.
“No!”
There was no other easy solution, though. If she fought Night Terror, there was no way that a world of true equality could come to pass. It was the only thing that could really offer that to her. What right did Emery have to stand in its way? Did she really want to die fighting the inevitability of progress?
Emery was surrounded by half-people. Gray featureless beings with no faces or mouths who could only moan impotently. Something clicked in Emery’s mind.
“This is what you want,” she said. “You want to make our world into more of this. That’s right, isn’t it!?”
That was right. This was the future. This was inevitability. This was a world where everything was equalized, neutralized, compatible, conflict-free.
“Miserable.” Emery planted her feet wide and curled her hands into fists. “I’m going to stop you. No matter what, I’m not going to let your demented nightmare of a world come to pass.”
Then the ground beneath her was gone. Emery was falling. Her gut churned and she started flailing her limbs desperately. She had to catch herself on something! She couldn’t just be falling forev—!
Emery woke up screaming and covered in sweat.
is that author note supposed to be the last paragraph?