I made it home before curfew, but my mom wasn’t home. Instead, I saw a note saying,

‘Stephanie,

Roy took me on a date. I might not make it back tonight. Please text me to let me know you’re okay. I left dinner in the refrigerator in case you’re hungry. Roy is having another get-together at his house tomorrow and got you a dress. We’ll pick you up in the morning if I don’t make it back.

Love you sweetie

P.S. no boys allowed over.’

I smiled as I read the note. While she might not be here, I was still in her thoughts. Plus, I was glad I didn’t have to explain why I smelled of smoke and alcohol, even though I didn’t do either. The smell of smoke came from a small fire that broke out. A boy showing off had one of his spells go awry. Jeff had put it out in seconds, but the water did nothing to reduce the smoke it produced. I also have a man’s cum on me... Probably, I wasn't sure if it transitioned back. The fact that my clothing did come over but was on me when I went back showed that that were things that couldn’t. Even so, I felt a little dirty and couldn’t wait to get into the water.

Forty minutes later, I walked out feeling better. I used Roy’s healing spell to fix my tender boobs. While they were in a bra, the pain had faded until I barely noticed. But under the spraying water and washing them, I found that they were sore and very painful to the touch. So, spending an extra ten minutes healing them was a must.

Afterwards, I didn't feel like putting a bra back on. I found them annoying so after looking at the time and figuring my mom wasn't coming back with Roy, I just tossed on a t-shirt. Feeling lazy, I didn't even bother with underwear but grabbed my phone to let my mom know I was home. I wasn't that hungry because of all the snack food I had eaten during the night, so grabbing a book I snuggled up on the couch and began to read.

I woke up to my mom yelling through my door, "Steph, are you ready? We need to go."

I stretched, enjoying how my muscles tightened as I yawned. I had spent most of the night researching my spells. I didn't have the unease I got with the ones I received from in-school. I wasn't sure why but figured it was because it was my choice and not forced on me. Either way, I didn't obsess over them but continued to focus on the shadow spells. Since I had started, I could tell those spells had gotten stronger. I had exchanged the library books several times during the week and now I could shadow walk further, the shadow chains were more solid, and the puppeteer strings didn't feel like they'd break at every turn. But unless I was going to purchase more in-depth books on that type of magic, I'd have to switch my focus soon.

"Sweetie, you up?"

"I'm up. I just need to get dressed." I was suddenly glad I hadn't been too lazy last night. After hours of reading, I had debated on sleeping on the couch but finally decided against it. I just tossed on a random outfit since I had to get changed once I got there. It's just that according to my notes, the last one was close to thirty days prior, on the seventeenth of September. Now he was having another one on the sixteenth of October and I had a nagging feeling that this was a monthly event. If true, I'd have to talk to my mom about not going to these business meetings. I had better things to do than hang out with a group of old people. I would have tried to get out of this one, but she sprung it on me at the last minute.

A beautiful dress was waiting for me when we got there. And like last time, makeup artists were there to help my mom and me even more alluring. Curious how they managed such a transformation, I chatted with them trying to pry out their secrets. So, for the next hour, the one assigned to me explained what she was doing and why. She was very forthcoming and talked about types of makeup, skin tones, brushes and so on. But I knew that even if she talked for a week, I wouldn't have her skills. Maybe she did too and wasn't worried about losing this job. Either way, time flew by and soon we were ushered downstairs to greet the guests.

Like last time, we walked down the stairs, shoulder-to-shoulder and saw two couples talking to Roy. As we stepped off the stairs, my mom walked over and greeted one of the couples, “Mayor Markly, Nicole, how are you doing?” I watched, shocked and a little happy, as she greeted them like old friends. The fact that she knew such powerful people had to be because of Roy. I guess their relationship was going well.

I was watching her talk when my vision went black. Soft hands had covered my eyes as a well-known male voice spoke into my ear, "Guess who."

Shocked, I spun around as I called out, "Jeff? Why are you here?" He was wearing a gray suit, white shirt, and a soft blue tie. The formal outfit was obviously tailored to hide the imperfections of his body. It made him look slimmer and a lot more dashing. If I hadn’t seen him for the last month, I would never have known that he was a little pudgy.

"My grandfather kidnapped me. He said he met a lovely little girl last month and made my parents send me to meet her. If I knew it was you, I wouldn't have given them such a hard time."

"Ha, ha, it's such a small world. I didn't even know about it until last night."

"Let me tell my grandfather we're leaving, and we can go play while we wait for the others." Putting action to his words, he went to a couple that looked to be around forty. The woman was a bit plain with slight curves. While the man was only a few inches taller than me and a few inches shorter than the woman next to him. They were at the last party, but I didn't remember their names.

After talking for a few minutes, he came back and took me to the game room. I didn't picture Roy as a game fanatic, so I didn't expect an arcade. I stopped to take in the games and Jeff, who was standing beside me, asked, "Do you not want to play here? He has a laser tag course but it's a bit of a walk to get to it. We could also watch a movie, but we wouldn't have time to finish it."

"No, this is fine." I pointed at a bike racing video game, with motorcycles that you could sit on. "Want to race?"

"Absolutely." His voice was excited as he replied so I knew I picked the right game. I had played it before and enjoyed how the bikes could tilt as I shifted my weight. We played for the next half-hour before several more teenagers came to join us. I met them last night. I left Jeff to talk and went to shoot some zombies.

There was a dozen of us, so the room soon became livelier. The ten young men, spread out and were competing while the only other woman had come over to play against me. She was aloof and like last night, she didn't talk to me. Instead, she just grabbed the other gun, hit start, and then began to snipe my kills. The monsters began to spawn more often with the two of us, and I had focused on my half of the screen. By the time I realized she wasn't on the same page, and aiming at my side of the screen, the zombies on her side broke through and killed us both.

I glanced over and saw her thin lips curled up in enjoyment. Her slim face and slightly crooked nose, paired with her weird smile, made her look creepy. But she was a friend of Jeff’s, so I ignored her and started the game again. This time I focused on killing the ones she didn't, but she switched targets and continued to focus on those I was aiming at. She was either doing it on purpose or really sucked at the game. Thankfully, I didn’t need to figure it out because Jeff and one of his friends came over to save me.

A maid came to get us for dinner shortly after that, but took us to a secondary dining room, so it was just us. Our parents were in the main one. They talked as we ate. I found it interesting just to listen, because the information wasn't normal things I could hear.

A boy I saw last night started it by saying, "My dad said there's a buildup of mutated beasts lately, so building material costs should increase and travel should become more restricted."

A different boy nodded at the information, then shared what he knew. “A warehouse near Pittsburg, is filing for bankruptcy. They just retrofitted it but their accountant ran off with the owner’s wife and took the money. Consequently, if you are still looking…”

It was like they were trading information that could benefit either themselves or their family. So, I got to hear where beasts were gathering, new projects that were being bid on, talents that could be poached and so on. But after they finished talking shop, I found out that the boys were all invited in the form of a blind date, with me being the target. They didn’t hide it, because most of them didn’t want to settle down and jokingly let me know so that I wouldn’t feel any pressure from their grandparents. I didn’t understand why I was “targeted”, but I appreciated their openness about it.

So, after becoming the butt of their jokes for a while, we retired to watch an action movie. I noticed that while there were others, action and horror were the more common ones in Roy’s movie library. By the time it ended, half of our group had left. The last ones to leave in our group was that strange young lady and Jeff. I watched as they walked out chatting happily. Their grandparents, who were walking ahead of them, looked even younger. I was seeing off the guests as my mom tended to an exhausted Roy.

***

Monday morning, I was running to school when my phone gave a chirp. It wasn't the same as a notification nor was it a beast attack alarm. But having been burned once before for not checking, I stopped and pulled out my phone. The alarm app icon was blinking with every chirp my phone gave off.

A message popped up after clicking on it:

[Attention: Huntingdon County is currently under attack. Those interested in lending aid please report to your local Protector's office or go to coordinates 40.5087° N, 77.9510° W.]

The message kept scrolling until I closed it. I opened twitter to see if there was anything else. Sitting in the top spot was #Beasts_in_Huntingdon, I clicked on it and then clicked okay to watch the "adult" video.

The video started and I watched as red brick apartments buildings shook, the sounds of screams, stone hitting stone, and air sirens blaring. There was a boom every time the building shook and the phone wobbled as the ground shifted under the cameraman’s feet. The video was all over the place and captured people in thin night clothes, something flying through the clouds, A man wrapped in a blanket that was pointing at something,

Were there mutated beasts? Where was Huntington? It looked like a poor section of a town. The camera man regained his footing and filmed more people coming out of some of the other tall buildings. But not everybody. I could see others staring out their windows, too afraid to leave the safety of their homes.

People were looking around, trying to find the things that were in the darkness. Then there was a resounding crash, dust and debris, and the video spun out of control as the person lost hold of the phone. When it stopped, all it captured was an old, wrinkled hand covered in dirt and blood. The big chucks of concrete that were behind it was probably where the owner had fallen. There were more screams followed by loud explosions before the video went black.

I put away my phone, thinking about what I could have done if that attack had been here. The things were in the clouds while big weren’t what caused the buildings to quake. It was too rhythmic, like footsteps. Whatever had made them had to be gigantic hitting the ground. But whether it was the things flying, or giants on the ground, I was sure I didn’t have any spells that could have hurt either of them. ‘Herculean Strength’ was the only one that might have a chance. Most of my spells either helped with evasion or controlling monsters, so I might have been able to help others to run away. But running wasn’t really my style. It’s just a shame I couldn’t pick the spells I wanted.

By the time I arrived at school, the news was everywhere. I finally got to see what attacked that town. In the first video, a rhinoceros type creature, with an armadillo type shell, ran through three-story buildings while people tried to run away. I say try because I watched as the things in the clouds sucked them up like it was performing an alien abduction. In the second, the earth cracked, a group of six people were pushed out, and then closed again, leaving the group to face the monsters. A few were wearing military flak armor, while others wore pajamas. But once they arrived it was like watching a superhero movie. Two flew up and revealed the three manta rays that had been hiding in the clouds.

The manta rays opened their mouths, trying to suck in the meals that flew in up to them. The pair looked surprised, then shocked as they were pulled in. Then there were more arrivals and soon there were over a dozen people attacking them with magic. The cameraman panned away, and I saw the giant rhino was covered in humans. They were like ants in comparison to its size but even so, they were united. The heroes clustered in groups according to their abilities. The super strength group would pry away a section of armor and then move away to repeat it somewhere else. Once there were openings, other groups with attack power would move in to hit the weak points.

Instead of exercising, I kept watching different videos. As more and more heroes arrived, I got to witness how people used their powers to the greatest advantage and used them to gleam some ideas on how I could use mine more effectively.

When school started, I noticed half the teachers were missing and most of the classes caulk boards had ‘self-study’ written on them. And by lunch, the school announced that anybody that wished to help with the cleanup could sign up. After hearing the announcement, I sent a message to my mom asking if I could go. The town looked like a hurricane hit it without warning, and for the first time, I wanted to volunteer for something. It was so unlike me. But after watching all those videos, I couldn’t help being moved. There had been so much destruction and death before help arrived. And by the end of the day, my name was written on the paper outside the office.