Our home town is just over an hour away as the magical girl flies, but I still have a teleport anchor in our spot under the abandoned railway bridge. Magical girl spells are built with a lot of safeguards, like the use of intangible teleport anchors which mitigate issues like the earth's orbit around the sun and help verify safe landing spots to avoid clipping. 

The safeguards don't include not scaring birds, though, so I scare the hell out of a bunch of starlings when I appear. I take a moment to run my hand nostalgically over some of our graffiti, and let an anxious sigh slip out. Sylvie itches at me sympathetically, and I pat her affectionately through my sweatshirt. 

Although I'm usually grateful for those safeguards, today I can't help but hate the Asterism just a little bit. 

Magical Girls have a few secrets they aren't allowed to share with anyone who hasn't taken the oath, not even our confidantes. One of those things are the Big Spells. The ones that would get us hunted down by every coven, government agency and despot in every universe if they knew we had them. The ones that our sisters occasionally discover because they're too naive and idealistic to understand that some things are impossible, even with magic, and then do it anyway.

And of course, the Big Spells have safeguards. Including the one that would let me have saved Sylvie.

"Time Invocation: D.C. al Coda" 

The only known real time travel spell.

Originally designed by a magical girl who failed a music recital, now our greatest contingency measure for the most dire emergencies. It sends the user back in time, to correct their mistakes.

The aliens blowing up that ancient Sumerian seal in just the right way to reverse the thaumic flow was incredibly lucky. It took thousands of tries to get that lucky.

But the time loop spell has safeguards too. A time anchor. One that resets every morning at sunrise in the inventor's hometown. 

If I hadn't blacked out like the most pathetic excuse for a magical girl I am, Sylvie would be in my arms right now.

I begged the Asterism to find a loophole. I only needed to go back one more day. On my hands and knees, I pleaded for it to remove the limiter on the spell just this once.

With its serene little smile, it told me it couldn't do that, but that it knew I could find a way to make things better. It said I should treat our situation as "a bonding opportunity."

If Sylvie hadn't been watching I would have strangled the rabbicorn bastard with my bare hands for that one.

Sylvie gives me a jolt of pain, shaking me out of my violent fantasies.

"Right, sorry, I'm not stalling. I... I just got distracted."

I jump down from the bridge onto the trail and transform back, beginning the familiar walk up the hill towards Sylvie's parents' mansion.

Being a magical girl has a lot of transferable skills. So does being a queer kid with an abusive bigoted dad.

And when you're both?

You get really, really good at lying.

Sylvie's mom and dad always go all out for Samhain. In addition to the usual runestones and vegetable lanterns, this year's centrepiece was a giant spider effigy twice my height which looked like it was made entirely out of decorative maize. 

I stop for a moment and lift my shirt so Sylvie can take a look, before making my way up the path and up to the doorstep.

I take a deep breath.

Then a second.

And- ow!

"Yeah, yeah, this time I actually was stalling..." I whisper, then finally press the doorbell before I lose my nerve.

Normally I have to wait nearly a minute for people to come down the stairs. Today, it only takes a few seconds before the door is thrown open.

"Hazel?! Oh thank the gods you're safe," Sylvie's mom immediately pulls me into a hug, then calls out behind her. "Oskar! The girls are home! Can you text the boys for me? Oh sweetie, we were so worried, the alien attack is all over the local news. Did they shut down classes during the lockdown? You two must have left early in the morning, before they closed the roads. I hope you didn't leave her with all of the bags..." 

She trails off as I start sobbing into her shoulder, her husband coming up behind her and putting a comforting hand on my head.

Finally, after a few horrible moments of silence, she finally asks the question.

"Hazel, where's Sylvie?"

I open my mouth to go into our story, but my voice won't work. I can barely suck in a strangled gasp of air before I start crying even harder. 

Sylvie's dad kneels down to hold us both as her mom starts crying as well.

And so is Sylvie, of course. Fuck, this must be so much worse for her. So close to her parents, but unable to tell them. To let them know she's okay.

I want to tell them so badly, but I can't. I made a blood oath to Sylvie I wouldn't out her to anyone, and now I can't, even if it would save everyone's pain. Typical rookie magical girl mistake, not to leave an exigent circumstances clause, and now everything's fucked. 

We have a good lie though. One that will keep them from worrying more than they have to.

All I have to do is stop crying.

Just... stop crying...

Please...