Black Bloodstains
Chapter 9: Bring It On Home

I stopped seconds before ringing the doorbell, and I cringed a little as I pressed it. The stereotypical sound came up, twisting my ears from the nervousness. My grip became stronger on the Gladstone that Alice had lent me. Some sweat drops began to fall from my forehead. I removed the hair blocking my right eye with my other hand, removing some of the sweat as doing it. “You know what to say, and the spell isn’t tough to make…” I said to myself trying to calm down my nerves. I’m about to become a distant cousin of the Johnson family and to do it, and I’ll have to implant a long set of memories, so they don’t close the door in my face as soon as it opens. 

After the horrible news, Alice gave me some hours ago; I’ve been following Johnson’s family to slowly and discretely implant the memories. The sister, in contrast to the brother, was training at the field for her cheerleading squad. While she was jumping and doing all sorts of flips, she placed the memories that I’m cozy’ Eli, who she had played with a long time ago, and that we recently saw each other last Christmas. The father was buying some groceries after work, I found him in the cereal aisle. I made him have a long memory of his dead brother, who never existed, which had a “me” before passing away; we didn’t talk to each other a lot, and only saw me on important family events. And the mother, I ran to find her while doing the dishes, below the window, I placed all the memories I could before she went away. And she was the one which I placed the whole “I’m going to live for a while here” thing.

It was already late night, the streetlights were already on, and barely any car would pass. The medium size house had some lighting at the front, the light over the door was flickering, there’s even one especially for the garden gnomes. Are those things still a thing? The door slowly creaks open, and a small girl wearing pajamas was on the other side. Shit! Had I forgotten a family member?! The idiot only told me he had one sister, and this doesn’t look a lot like the girl in the field. Or did I implant it to another person?! She has light brown colored hair, blue eyes, but was she this little? I only saw her from a bush; probably I placed the memory on another person! She had her head tilted a little, apparently trying to remember if she has ever met me. She had some dinner, on her right hand there was a small bag of chips ahoy (!), and some milk marcs on her lips. 

Seconds later she dropped them on the floor and jumped at me, hugging me. “Eli! What a surprise to see you here!” She said tightly hugging me it was only a few inches shorter than me. Her head rested just a little above my breasts. Did the spell take time to take effect? Did I do something wrong? “Eli! O my gosh I could barely recognize you with that new haircut you have.” Oh, so there’s the problem. I heard some dishes shuffle coming from the kitchen, and a newspaper quickly being folded. Seconds later the mother and the father arrived.

I merely stood there, graving the suitcase tightly hoping that the spell worked on them too. The father, wearing some reading glasses, scratches his mustache and later combed his almost bald head. The mother, just a bit smaller than him, stood aside wearing an apron and looking a little dumbfounded. She had two large ponytails that almost reached her back. She then placed her hand over her open mouth, gasped, and almost shouted. “Elizabeth! It was today the day you were supposed to come to our house!? Gosh! I could have sworn that it was tomorrow!” The dad stared at her, wondering what was going on. 

The sister dragged me from my arm and let me inside the house. She was jumping all over the place, while her mother closed the door behind us. “You see honey, Elizabeth’s house recently got destroyed by a tornado, and her mother asked us if we could take care of her for a while until the situation over there improves.” She said the husband. “Elizabeth dear how was the flight? Did they treat you like those meanies always do? And would you like something to drink or eat?” 

I gulped and mentally screamed ‘Yay!’ that the plan had worked. “No thank you…” ‘Shit! Shit! I don’t know her name! Okay, calm down, remember you can read people’s minds? First I’ll pause the time around us, covering the room with the invisible black aura. Perfect! Now, get inside their minds, make your body travel inside of them…’ I suddenly felt very strange, a tsunami of memories and thoughts hit me everywhere. From good or bad, the five senses were all trigged at once. I searched for auditory memories, either they were saying the name or hearing it… If I’m not wrong the mother’s name is Jane, daughter’s Emily and father’s Bruce. I returned their time to normal and sighed as soon as all of the aurae returned to my body. “…Jane, I’m fine right now.”

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, turning my head around I saw Bruce looking down at me, slightly smiling. “You do look a bit pale Elizabeth, why don’t you take a seat on the living room while we go to get you something to eat?” He said very politely. I follow them to what seemed to be a standard living room, a simple glass table with a flower vase and several other decorations, the typical three-set couch set up, all white and each one becoming smaller than the other, and a reasonable size flat screen TV. I sat down in the middle of the most massive couch as the parents quickly walked towards the kitchen, and Emily ran upstairs, she had told me something, but I couldn’t understand because of how fast she said it. 

I felt a little intrigued with the whole conversation the parents were having, so focusing on losing myself I tried to become invisible and listen to whatever they were talking about. I left the Gladstone on the floor as I sneaked into the kitchen, I remember that I could easily pass through any matter, so I only made my head able to pass through one of the kitchen walls. It was a nice setup, very humble if you like to call it that way. A medium size wooden table covered by a red checkered tablecloth, sink with a tray filled with plates, no sign of any dishwasher, shelves all over the place, a fridge in one side of the room, and the conventional oven and stove combo, and a little microwave nearby. 

Jane was pouring orange juice on glass, while Bruce was helping her out by making a sandwich. “I can’t believe you forgot to tell me all of this Jane! What are we going to do now?!” He practically yelled while spreading the mayo on the bread. 

“You are not complaining that she’s staying here for a while, right mister?” She answered back sassily. “What could she be able to do? Just stay at a hotel and make tighter the money on…” 

“I’m not complaining that she’s staying here, I don’t care if all your sisters stay here because of an emergency.” He said now hugging her. “I’m surprised that you didn’t tell me about the whole tornado scenario, I could easily send some stuff with Carl because he’s traveling nearby. We could send some money or some medicines and such.” 

Jane turned around and kissed him on the lips. “I just love how sweet you are sometimes.” She said as they embraced each other in a hug. I smile looking at the happy couple in the kitchen. I’ve never seen this kind of stuff, so it’s bizarre and at the same time satisfying thing to view. Like when you look at small children playing and being all happy and stuff, you don’t know what is going on, but you do feel satisfied knowing they’re so glad for the simplest thing in the world. I walked towards the couch just in time when Emily returned. I honestly have no idea of what she was showing me. I was so tired of pulling consciousness, and manipulating memories that I could fall asleep at any moment now. 

The parents came by later, and I slowly devoured the small sandwich they had made me. But of course! Food is now useless, human food is. There’s too much light here. I need to be in the darkness as fast as possible. I began a simple conversation with the family, inventing whatever seemed logical or checked with the story I’ve made. The idiot arrived a while later, it seems he had just returned from Legatos, and only discovered his energy types. “Hello… Cousin…” He said as he looked at me. I chuckled at his reaction. I find a bit entertaining that you are now living with the person who killed you. That is so fucked up that only a few people will experience that situation. I merely answered back by lifting my hand.

The father stood up and once again scratched his mustache. “Son, I need your help to move some things to the guest’s room.” He told the idiot as soon as he arrived. The boy loudly sighed and pretty much dragged himself upstairs. The mother had to finish cleaning up the kitchen, so she excused herself, re-accommodated her apron, and walked to the kitchen. Emily had to go to bed now, it was getting too late, and her bedtime already had passed. So with a yawn, she gave me a hug, of which I try to make as warm as possible, and went upstairs towards her room. 

So… With nothing else to do, I decided to check what they were precisely moving. So I picked up my stuff and gently walked upstairs. The house, as I mentioned before, has this classic charm to it. Wooden, carpet floors, it says cozy all over the place. The second floor was simple, a rectangle with five doors. One leading to the main room, two to the other rooms, one for a shared bathroom, and one guest room. The idiot and Bruce were moving up to the attic what seemed to be some sets? Sets of something, I’m not quite sure of what they are, but they are tables with land like terrain on them.

I felt a light bump on my leg, and when I looked down I saw… “Oh my god!” I said to myself like a kid in a toy store.

 

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“Uff,” I said out loud resting on one of my father’s storage cabinets. “I swear dad. I don’t see the point of you collecting this stuff. And also, why would you always need to move them each time we have guests.” I took a look around, staring at the many different Lego sets. And yes, my dad collects Lego. But he’s taking it to a whole new level, creating cities and all of that, and pretty much own most of the stuff since he was a kid, my age. 

“Sam…” He told me as he fixed some piece here and there that had fallen off as we moved them here. “You know it’s my thing that I like these. And you need to respect other people’s hobbies. Your mom likes to collect coffee mugs, your sister is into posters, and you… you have whatever those Japanese cartoons you like to call. We all respect each other’s likings, and so must you.” He finished doing whatever he was fixing on his model and then walked next to me. He patted my back and gave me a little pull. “Now come, let’s fix your cousin’s bed.” He said as going downstairs. 

So she pulled off the trick, now she’s my distant cousin, which her house had been temporally destroyed. How weird, having her under my roof, well it’s not that I have another choice, pretty much I have to run on whatever that little girl says. Today I sign a contract from which it says, “I’m owned by…” on this whole fantastic parallel world thing. I also now know that I can use light and wind — something I would never have expected that I’d have. I quickly concentrated on the palm of my hand, and a little firefly light hovered over it. 

I’m so excited to learn everything about this, things like this only happen in anime or many different TV shows. As I got out of the attic, I could see a mom giving some sheets and pillows to… Elizabeth. Weird to have her living with me now. Like… I don’t hate her, but at the same time I do, because she fucking killed me, but it’s not that she didn’t want to, and she’s pretty, but she dislikes me… I sighed as I covered up the attic and dragged myself to my room.

I crashed into my bed, and remained there for quite a while, thinking of the whole mess of the situation. Probably I had fallen asleep because when I decided to stand up, I had my cheek moisten and it had passed two hours. I removed my uniform and remained in my briefs for a while. I turned on the computer as I decided to do my night routine. I’ve been working on my six-pack for years now, doing around 100 each night, but somehow I don’t see any payoff… After my work out, I put on my pajamas and head towards my computer. The blue screensaver light up the room as I put on a pair of socks on. 

I clicked on the game, and while it was loading, I decided to feed my pet rabbit, Julio. I have it on a cage near my computer, and whenever I play, he loves to move nearby using the heat that comes out of my laptop, as some heater. I have the bag of generic “bunny nutrition” under my desk, so I grabbed a handful of it and opened the cage’s door. However. He was not inside the cage. Whenever I open the little door, he comes to snuggle my hand, and I could hear her thumping somewhere in the hay. This is a problem. My mother would be mad at me if she finds his poop somewhere that’s not in the cage. So I turned on the lights and began looking for him in my room.

Thankfully it was “clean” so there weren’t a lot of places he could hide on. I still had no clues of where he could be confusing, and I couldn’t hear his thumping on the floor, or his tiny claws rasping the level. I have forgotten something. The door was open. And there’s a big possibility he ran outside my room. But there’s a problem… My mother would have woken me up if she saw him jumping around, my dad would be reading a book or upstairs fixing his collection, and Emily was asleep for quite a while. This leaves with one suspect, Elizabeth. 

What would she do with an innocent rabbit? Kill it so she could ride an army of rabbits to battle? Whatever she’s doing to Julio, I’m going to stop her this instance. The house was dark and quiet, and my family was already asleep at this moment now. But, but, but, but, I could hear some giggling and some movements coming from the guest room. I moved as quietly, and as fast as I could, I felt like a ninja when I turn the lights on her room, and she jumped up in surprise. And I saw her, in the bed, with Julio in her hands, petting her? “What are you doing with my rabbit?” I told her trying to sound determined and strong. 

She just stared at me and grabbed Julio’s paws. “Is this yours!?” She squealed in a childish tone. “It’s so adorable!” It’s weird hearing her talk like that and having a natural smile rather than a grin. “Look at her paws, and they are so fluffy!” She said while she played with his paws, moving them up and down. “And she’s adorable! She thumped the ground and growled whenever I stopped petting her!” I could tell she was happy, she had a huge smile on her face and talked in a very high pitched tone, kindergartener levels of happiness. “What’s her name?” 

I remained a little dumbfounded after her question, her eyes were so big at this moment, and she looked even cuter than… Julio? “Wait, her name? It’s a he, and his name is Julio.” I answered with a grin on my face, feeling proud of finally correcting her on something.

“Um… no…” She quietly said. “I think you should start calling her…” she placed a lot of emphasis on this letter. “… Julia. Because look…” She carried Julio, leaving his feet dangling just a little off the ground. “She doesn’t have a penis.” I laughed at the way she pronounced those words. You rarely see a normal girl saying the word ‘penis.’

She looked at me wondering the reasoning of my laughing. “It looks like you like animals a lot, Elizabeth.” It was now me who emphasized the last word. I know her as a serious person, and I was rarely going to see her again acting in that way. She immediately blushed and looked away from me, clearly showing signs of embarrassment. “It’s weird seeing bookworm satiric Elizabeth investigating the gender of a rabbit she just met.”

She coughed, trying to do a severe tone. “I do, I love animals, a lot.” She sounded a bit more serious than the last time, but now she was hiding behind a red wall of embarrassment. “Sorry if I took your rabbit. I couldn’t simply resist.” She now had Julia/o extended towards me, so I grabbed it and began petting her/him. “I love animals, any animals. And I just…” I saw a small tear dropping down rolling down her cheek. “I’m going out for a jog.” She quickly and quietly evaded me and ran downstairs. I didn’t notice at first, but she was wearing some sweatpants and a light hoodie, she was planning to do this way before I entered. 

I quickly left Julio back in his cage, and place the right amount of food on his plate. I picked up a jacket, and promptly put on a pair of sneakers. Still putting on my coat I ran downstairs trying to be as quiet as possible, I pick up a set of keys, and slowly closed the door. It was cold outside, we had currently left a cold front, and the snow had dried off for a while. However, the news said another one was incoming and with it came more storm. The streetlights barely helped in my search of Elizabeth, and it clearly shows she has had a good start from me. But suddenly one of the streetlights blew up, it wasn’t a massive explosion, but it told me where to look. 

I ran as fast as I could, it was first tricky due to the lack of “proper lighting,” the houses and the streetlights didn’t provide enough to satisfy my condition. But lucky for me, a massive storm began to above me, and with it came an awful lot of gusts of wind that provided the energy I needed. I started to run faster than I have ever done before, I was running along the street, and there weren’t many obstacles in the way. I saw Elizabeth’s silhouette in the distance, almost as she had covered herself in a dark mist. But suddenly she tripped, landing roughly on her front. This gave me more time to catch up to her, and as I did she turn around to see me, I knew that because I saw a pair of red eyes shining in the middle of the street. She began to shake it off as I was meters away from her.

She once again began to run, and I was very close to reach her. The ground was a bit slippery, and there was barely any lighting where we went. I was running behind her, on a typical street. She unexpectedly cut a corner, her sneakers shrieked loudly, and she used her right hand for stabilization. I couldn’t react so quickly, the only thing I did was to stop myself from running. But the full acceleration I had, made me fall down my ass because I couldn’t finish properly. Now with my pants wet, I stood up and continued the chase, she had only won a block in the distance. 

I concentrated all of my energy on my legs, hoping that somehow this would grant me some speed boost. And it did, I was slowly approaching Elizabeth by the second. But she, however, had another plan, on the other side of the road there was an upcoming Costco building, yet she continued running towards it. The whole place was surrounded by a metallic fence so that no one tried to enter without permission or so. Elizabeth didn’t care. There was a pile of construction material just before the wall, and it didn’t have enough heath for someone to jump above the wall using it. Yet Elizabeth found a way, she used the pile of rubbish so she could have enough height to grab the horizontal pole of the streetlight, then she used it as if it were an Olympian pole and did two laps using the speed she was carrying over. And finally, she let herself go to practically grazing with her back the top of the fence, and did a backflip before she landed. 

The landing was a bit rough, yet she continued as if it was nothing. I couldn’t pull off the same thing she did, so I stopped before the fence, and concentrated on passing through it. It took me some seconds, but I was finally on the other side of the wall. Elizabeth however, had won me half of the parking lot of the future Costco. I once again place all my energy to my legs; I still haven’t run out of power because the storm had become even stronger. Huge gusts of wind regularly hit me in the face, I could barely see what was in front of me, and the sky was squeezing every single drop of water above us. 

She was now inside the building, well the foundations of it, there were only a few walls, and the ceiling wasn’t even placed already. But the place was filled with machinery and construction materials. I could see the silhouette of Elizabeth jumping and grabbing onto a chain, she the swung and caught the edge of a horizontal placed beam, she once again turned but this time landed above another beam and continued running to the other side. She was several feet above me, she was horizontally closer than me, yet vertically she had quite a distance. Elizabeth’s movement, made an unscrewed beam above her to fall near her. 

I didn’t know what happened next, but I shouted: “Watch out Elizabeth!” And from my hand came out a shiny gust of wind, which traveled quickly towards the beam. It was strong enough to send it flying to the other side, evading Elizabeth by a few feet. The trajectory of the shaft wasn’t very convenient, it bounced against another structure, making the whole place shake due to the sound it produced, and it slowly began to crumble. Even the floor, which Elizabeth was standing on, would fall at any moment. Elizabeth’s black tentacles appeared once again, and picked up the beams and threw them to the ground planting them as they fell. 

Elizabeth’s was running out of the ground, she luckily had no more beams falling above her, but the ones below did. The building was also about to end, and on the other side awaited us another chain of houses. I could see Elizabeth jumping with all her will, leaving behind the crumbling building and landing rolling on the first house. Me on the other side, had a fence to walk through, but I didn’t have enough time, the building was about to fall on me. So I concentrated again on my hands, and shoot another gust of wind against the fence. I send it flying, but it luckily landed in the middle of the street and didn’t cause any more destruction. 

I need to catch Elizabeth before the police came by and find us jumping on the roofs. I once again created a gust of wind, but this time I pointed to the ground behind me, and just before I built it I jumped, making the blast send me flying towards the roof of the houses. It was mere luck that I landed on an actual roof, rather than on the other side of the street, or that the blast blew me up. I fell roughly, destroying many of the shingles or sending them flying. I discovered that I managed to land in front of Elizabeth because seconds later she jumped above me. 

I stood up and removed pieces of bricks that had remained on my jacket, and my pursuit of Elizabeth continued. I was running with all my might to catch her, jumping above the gaps between the houses, trying to land as gently as I could. Most of the timed I’d trip and fall face first, but I was determined to catch her, and I shrug the pain off as if it wasn’t anything. Some house lights began to shine on the street. People might have woken up because a Costco had just been destroyed. Unexpectedly the streetlights began to blow up, and the lights inside the houses started to flicker. I could barely see Elizabeth’s dark lighting destroying the streetlights, and it was probably her who was causing the light flickering. 

Our jumping game was about to finish, Elizabeth was running out of houses to jump on, and we will soon be on the street level again. She slid off down the last rooftop and continued running to the other side of the road. I couldn’t risk injuring myself more, so on the previous house I stopped and climbed off like an average person. She might have outrun me by some meters, but at least I wouldn’t have my legs broken. The chase ended on the docks, on a forgotten ship that had crashed here several years before. It was big and rusty, and it was left here because it couldn’t be removed without expending quite the amount of money. I saw Elizabeth running inside the boat, and I decided to follow. 

But I couldn’t get very close, before entering the ship I saw Elizabeth standing in the middle of it, nervous and looking at her hands. And suddenly fire began to spout out of them, not a small light flame, army flamethrower levels of flash. The whole insides of the ships were filled by it, probably burning everything inside. Any little hole on the ship’s wall began to leak out the fire. The boat could barely contain it! I hid inside a cluster of boxes and materials that had fallen off the ship. The eternal flames also scattered more rubbish on top of it. The fire wasn’t going to get me. At the same time, I surrounded myself in a ball of wind and gusts, I didn’t know how I managed to pull it off in such a small amount of time, but I even send some rubbish flying, and the few flames that were long enough to reach me, wouldn’t even touch me. 

In the middle of all the chaos, there was a silhouette of Elizabeth, it was completely black, and it stood out from the fury of flames she was causing. Next tentacles began to form around her body, the image was utterly fantastic, and the arms contrasted so well the fire that it looked surprisingly amazing. The fire started to get constricted. The tentacles were now covering them encapsulating them. It slowly began to take form it was forming some creature, the black energy seemed to be the skin, and the fire was everything inside. 

Holy fucking shit! She’s forming a gigantic ass dragon with the fire! It was made out of energy and light, so it didn’t have scales or anything. But it was incredible, it was the size, or even more significant, than a cargo ship, standing even taller than half of the skyscrapers in New York, and to top it all, it fucking roared. Its eyes shined red, and moments later it spouted an even bigger flame towards the night sky. It extended its wings as if it was about to fly, the ground trembled, and moments later there was a skyscraper dragon flying in the middle of the sky. 

But it didn’t last long. The creature began to subside, and it slowly fell to the ground as the fire and energy returned to Elizabeth’s body. I could see a small body falling quickly to the ground, and just before it touched it, it was once again engulfed by flames and an explosion that had to tighten down the fall. It sends a wave of fire once again, and I could feel it as it passed over me. It didn’t last long, and I was still in silence. The rain had ceased, and the fire was no more. I stopped doing what I was doing, and I ran towards the body in the middle of all the chaos. 

Elizabeth was curled in a ball, crying her heart out, she was saying to herself. “Most keep it inside, no one has to know, no one needs to know, keep it to yourself, need to control me…” And several other phrases I could barely hear because of her crying. I just stood there, without saying anything for a while, just waiting for her to calm down. And she did, not immediately, but it was refreshing to see her standing up and trying to hold her tears. She was trembling, and some parts of her clothing were ripped apart. 

She saw me standing a few meters away from her, and when she did, she burst out into tears once more. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to cause all of this trouble. I’m sorry that you’re like that, please don’t…” I couldn’t understand more than that, she was covering her face with her hands, and her voice came about stifled because of it. I ran towards her and standing now a few inches away from her, and I removed her hands off her face. 

Her eyes were red, entirely red, and her hair was a mess. She was a mess at that moment, but we couldn’t stay here longer in the cold. “Look Elizabeth, I don’t care what happened, but you shouldn’t act like that.” She looked at me like a kid looks at you when they know they are getting scowled, and they know it’s their fault. “But we don’t have time for this, you…. We made quite a mess, and the police should be getting closer by now. And with the whole dragon thing you did, it’d be impossible that they don’t search here.” 

She hugged herself as she trembled. “We don’t need to worry about that…” She said between her teeth, and even her mouth was shaking horribly. “Normal people can’t see our actions, and only us can.” That was a relief, the police wouldn’t investigate here, and there wasn’t any trait of a dragon flying and spouting fire. I just smiled and nodded, she then began to walk behind me, but seconds later she fell roughly. 

“Are you okay?” I said running towards her, and she didn’t look hurt. Only her clothing was a bit destroyed. However, she did look tired, she was trembling and looked very pale. Probably she wasted most of her energy doing the transformation, and she was now wasted without being able to move. “Come, I’ll give you a piggy ride home,” I said gesturing her to climb on my back. 

She was surprised by my offer, but she slowly accepted it and placed herself behind me. I could feel her heartbeats, as well as respiration. She rested her head on my back, and with her remaining breaths, she told me. “I’m sorry for this. And please, don’t tell anyone about this.” She then proceeded to fall asleep right over me.

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A light gust of wind roared through the guest’s room, it wasn’t annoying, but it had enough strength to wake me up. The room wasn’t very light, but it had enough sunlight to let me see what was going on. Thankfully the bed was positioned right below the small window, and the sunshine didn’t even touch the bed. I stretched my arms and legs, and I discovered that I’m not wearing the same clothing I was yesterday. Most of yesterday’s events began to crash down into my reality. I covered my body with the blankets and hid my face on the pillow. I can let the idiot see me again, that’s so embarrassing. 

To be sincere, I think I need to call him by his name. I mean… I know he’s somewhat annoying, but after yesterday’s events or today in the morning, I can’t return to normal with him. And… I don’t know what happened yesterday, and I found the rabbit and I couldn’t control myself. I’ve always have had a thing for animals. I don’t know, maybe because I spend most of my childhood playing with the neighbor’s cat. But some memory triggered after, Sam, found me playing with his bunny. I began feeling sad and embarrassed, I felt my energy going all over the place again, and I wasn’t sure if I could control it. 

I decided running was the best option, I needed to go to a safe place so that I wouldn’t hurt anyone. I remember the site with the abandoned ship that Bob gave me the other day. But he followed me, and I did whatever I could to lose him. I even accidentally destroyed an entire building because of it and obliterated a whole avenue of its streetlights. And after that, I could barely remember what happened, and I just felt my body go off and exploding. I can’t recall what happened at that moment, and I couldn’t think nor feel anything. But there was something or someone there, and I’m sure of it. 

I heard the door knocking, “Elizabeth?” It was Jane’s voice coming from the other side. “It’s a little late for being asleep honey, but you still have time to shower and everything. So get up sweetie.” I heard the doorknob twisting, and as the door opened, I shuffled my body into a sitting position. “Oh you already woke up, the shower is clear honey, and I’ll have the breakfast ready downstairs. So hurry.” She closed the door, and I heard her footsteps going downstairs. 

I crashed down on my bed and sighed loudly. I remained a few seconds there, before standing up and stretching. “Wait a second… I wasn’t wearing this yesterday…” I said to myself grabbing the loose hoodie. “Wait did he?” I decide to check my underwear, and I find nothing but a loose t-shirt. I begin to blush, heavily. I can’t blame him for changing my clothes, I was soaked yesterday, and he probably did it to take care of me. But I bet he had a hell of a time taking care of me.

I sighed still feeling embarrassed. I walked towards my bag and took out the school’s uniform, and a fresh set of underwear. Sheesh, I only have two games, I should ask Alice for more. I hugged my clothes tightly to my chest and proceeded to walk out of the room. The hall was apparent, thankfully, so I began to walk towards the bathroom, the sensation of the carpet rubbing on my barefoot was kind of cool, but it entirely changed when I reached the raw ceramic material. I closed the door, left my clothes on the toilet, and let the hot water began to pour out of the shower. 

I turn around and saw my reflection on the mirror. The same girl stared surprised at me, red eyes, pale skin; everything is like the same before. The only difference was that she looked tired as hell, and her hair was a complete mess. Rather than the soft straight black hair she has, it was now all crazy, and in some places it even defied gravity. I sighed and began removing my clothes, the t-shirt slid out with the hoodie, the pants were simple, but I was surprised by something else. I was wearing boxers. Which means he… I blushed once more and quietly slid off the underwear without looking. 

I was completely naked now, so I stared at the girl in the mirror again. It’s weird to not find any sexual attraction to a beautiful girl in the mirror. Maybe because it is me? I don’t know…. I feel that I’ve lost any sexual tension towards any gender. I can’t see what girls see attractive in a boy, and I don’t feel anything whenever I look at the parts a boy should feel very happy to see. I know that I might be considered attractive, like my bust isn’t too big nor it stands out. I began to weight them as if they were an extraordinary mass hanging off my chest. But while doing that, I could see the three slashes that Alice made me. I couldn’t resist, so I once more poked inside my body, my heart beating, and my lungs expanding. Such a weird thing to touch. Does Sam have the same thing on his throat? I should ask him later. Steam began to block the reflection; I could only now see my silhouette. I sighed as I enter the shower. 

The water felt cold on my skin, even if there wasn’t any cold water pouring out. I’ve missed showering on hot water, ever since the change I can’t feel comfortable while showering. There was a brush with inside the shampoo case. I decided to give it a try and began to brush my hair. At first, it hurt, like a lot, I had many knots, and every time I roughly passed the brush over them, I squealed as I pulled my hair. I still don’t feel comfortable touching myself down there, so I tried to remain those undergarments as private as possible. I did have to clean myself down there, and only two times I accidentally brushed the electric jolt organ. And I moaned the third time I touched it. I closed my mouth as I dropped the soap. 

I finished the shower with no more problems; I just tried to be as gentle as possible while drying myself with the towel. The only thing that took me a while to dry was my hair, it’s not Rapunzel’s length, but it still cost me a while to finish drying it. I put on my underwear afterward, I struggle a bit with the bra, and I still feel uncomfortable about how the panties comfortably hug my bum. I put on the rest of the uniform, it’s simple, but it takes some time to get it all set. Afterward, I quietly sat on the toilet to put on my shoes, and I was ready to go out. 

But when I did… Fuck… Sam was going out of his room also ready. I just blushed and looked down, trying not to make any contact with him. The only thing I told him was. “Please, please, if we keep it between us I won’t say or do nothing, please?” I looked up embarrassed, I was tomato red, and at the same time, I felt his eyes scanning my body. He just gulped and nodded, and I ran to get my stuff on the guest’s room. 

I could smell the delicious odor of frying bacon while I walked downstairs. But to my surprise, my stomach remained as untouched as possible. I didn’t feel hungry for bacon anymore, neither any food. Another issue I have for being dead, it compensates with the whole ‘not gaining weight’ if I ever eat. But there is no satisfaction of doing so either. The father wasn’t in the kitchen, so I assumed he was gone all ready for work. Jane was serving Emily her breakfast, while Sam was standing up eating his. “Elizabeth, sit down, and I’ll give you your plate in a sec.” She told me gesturing an empty seat in the table. 

I sat down and looked to what everyone else was watching, the TV. To be precise the morning news channel. “Good morning for everyone that was just tuning in.” The blond newscaster began saying as several images appeared on the corner. “Citizens of the outskirts of New York, last night suffered from an atrocious event. A soon to be Costco was destroyed last night. Investigators still don’t know what happened.” Pictures of what we did last night appeared on the screen. “Several streetlights have been caught on camera exploiting with no apparent reason, and a large crater has been found in the middle of the street this morning.” 

I turn around and nervously stared at Sam, he merely placed his hands in the air in a ‘don’t know’ position. “Anyhow.” The newscaster said catching my attention. “Investigators, by using the camera files, had found in several frames of the videos two silhouettes running on the affected areas.” Very pixelated pictures showed Sam and me outlined in several positions as we ran, even one of Sam flying in the middle of the air. “Two human-like figurines had been found in the files, and they speculate those two were the ones who caused this. The police had begun searching on the nearby area for any trait to follow…”

I once again stared back at Sam, ignoring the several interviews with locals on the TV. He was surprised and nervous too. ‘We need to get out of here.’ I telepathically told him. His eyes widened for the sudden voice in his head, and I gestured with my eyes the door. “You know mom, and we need to file in some papers so that Elizabeth can properly enroll while she stays here….” He told Jane as I stood up picking up my backpack. “So… We thought we should do it early in the morning, and right before school starts. So… See you in the evening.” And we ran off towards the door.

But before I leave, I return to the kitchen. “Thanks or the breakfast auntie!” I told her even if I hadn’t even touched the damn thing. Sam was waiting for me on the door. “Look, police will be roaming around, searching for anything suspicious. We most reach school as soon as possible you understand?” He nodded grabbing the doorknob. “We need to run and at the same time go directly to the school, so we must, AAAAH!” I screamed as Sam opened the door, and a brand new shiny day hit me in the face. I jumped outside the sunshine, shaking nervously just by looking at it being painted on the floor. 

“What?” He asked me, completely oblivious of my current state. I began to create small dark energy balls, which disintegrated as soon as they touched the light. “Oh, oh!” He almost shouted realizing what was going on. “Well that’s a shame, I don’t know how to drive nor have a car. And we live so close to the school, that we were signed out of the bus program, so… You’re pretty much fucked. It’s not that hot!”

I stood in the borderline of the sunshine and saw him as he slowly walked past the front yard. I tried to spot in the distance any shade, but there weren’t any trees nearby, and I couldn’t run between houses. “Why do we have a sunny winter?” I said to myself and clenched my fists. I close my eyes and begin to run towards the school. As soon as I stepped into the sunshine, my scalp started to burn, my clothes somehow work as a skin protector, because the sunlight wasn’t hitting it directly. But any exposed skin would slowly cook, and all the energy in my body will travel towards those spots, to prevent actual scorch.

I knew the path to school, and it was like three or so block away from here. I barely opened my eyes to see where I was going. Light makes me get confused all the time. I could hear Sam slowly overtaking me. Well, he does get a boost whenever it’s a sunny day. But no matter, I shouldn’t give up even if I had the source of life against me. I put all my will into outrunning him, and I could hear the theme of Pirates of the Caribbean in my mind. The school was only a block away, and I was inches behind him, I could see the school in the distance, as I finally managed to win the race.

But I knew something terrible is about to happen, my stomach trembled, and I felt super dizzy. Instead of falling in the grass, while the shade from the building helped me making me feel better. But no… I knew what was about to happen. I ran to the first bathroom I saw, ignore everyone that was inside, head to the first clear stall and…. “BLAAAAGH!” I shouted as all the burnout energy exited through my mouth. Black, black as a fucking lagoon, a reasonable person can’t produce that kind of color without some sickness. 

After vomiting all of my toxic energy, I pretty much rested my head on the wall and tried to breathe normally. But wait a minute, what bathroom did I correctly entered? I turn my head a little, and I see two guys standing on the doorframe. “Fuck…” I said to myself resting my head on the wall again. I began to feel colder than usual, why did I do such a thing? Am I stupid?! I started stroking my legs tremble, and my vision started to become very distorted. I felt embarrassed and sick, I once again look behind me to see the guys moving but this time with a peculiar character pretty much taking all of the space. Jackson was watching me with a face expressing ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ I felt my stomach shake once more, and I placed my mouth over the toilet and let more toxins out. 

I heard some mumbling and shuffling outside the stall, a moment later I heard a voice that I wouldn’t like to listen to this moment. “Goddammit Elizabeth,” Shawn said before a face-palming sound came from his position. I look back at him trembling and blushing. He looked around and then turns his body towards Jack. “Dude, I know this might be weird to ask but… could you please take her to the infirmary. You’re like, the strongest guy in the room in at this moment.” 

I saw Jack doubting a little, and he was biting his finger. “I don’t know Shawn, and my girlfriend would probably get mad at me.” After hearing that, I turned around and puked a little more. “She already thinks that Elizabeth has the hots for me, who wouldn’t?” He whispers the last bit to Shawn, but I could hear him. “I’d take her to the infirmary, but if my girl…”

“For fuck's sake Jackson! She has been cheating with you for over a year already!” I shouted at him, realizing more toxins to what looks like a witch’s cauldron by now. They remained in silence. I had forgotten that I was the ‘new kid’ and in what possible way I could have this information. “While you were on your football training, I saw her making out with a tall dude, on the parking lot, I think he’s the one that owns a 1998 BMW Z3. I asked some people around and turned out she has been doing that for more than a year. And the only reason they haven’t told you is either fear of her, or they don’t give two fucks about your relationship.” I swear what came up next was completely natural and by accident. “Could you please carry me to the infirmary? Please…” I said that looking at him, and with the combination of my embarrassment, dizziness, and the fact that I was a girl, showing a lot of her legs on the boy’s bathroom didn’t help my cause, my eyes were a bit red, and they came out as puppy eyes. 

Thankfully, fucking thankfully, I didn’t have enough energy to go all nuts again, so yay for not destroying the entire school and its inhabitants. I saw Jack asking around if it was true, and even Shawn told him that he had seen her with Brandon Nicolson. “You seemed so happy with her. I didn’t want to ruin it for you,” Shawn told him scratching his arm. “And don’t kill him, your girlfriend is cheating with more than two guys.” Golly, I didn’t know that.

I felt a pair of huge arms suddenly picking me up. I mean huge arms. I know that Jocks have the trait of being super jacked. But holy shit! His fucking bicep was more significant than my face! I think his entire arm is more comprehensive than my fucking waist. He quickly picked me up, as if my weight was the same as a water bottle. I just blushed and tried to not look at him. I was dying of embarrassment, when he picked me up, and when he carried me all the way to one of the beds. I ignored most of the students in the halls and tried not to make eye contact with him. After gently leaving me in one of the beds I told him. “Thank you, Jack, and sorry for your girlfriend.” 

“Don’t worry, just try to get better.” He told me petting my hair. I feel a little bad now; I shouldn’t have done that! I know that he doesn’t mean any harm, he’s like a baby on a bear body. Or probably a huge bear cub. The point is… He’s pretty much harmless if you don’t bother him. I think the only reason we didn’t get along was that of my sister, I’ve heard that he’s a very nice guy. I should try to be friendlier towards him. I’ve heard some steps coming from the nurse’s office. Seconds later Kalyn, Shawn and the nurse came storming with several bottles in hand. 

But wait a minute, the nurse looks familiar… She has green hair and looks very, very young. Hold on, is she? “Laurie?!” I almost shouted sitting straight before my own body forced me to lie on the bed again. They closed the door and walked towards me. Kalyn placed a wet towel on my forehead, and Shawn helped Laurie prepare a potion.

“Yes, It’s me Elizabeth.” She said now mixing in a flask some red looking liquid. “But I go by Ariel when I’m a nurse.” She began feeling my arm and sending some green waves towards my body. “I get bored whenever I’m all day doing the housework. The good thing is, Alice had let me work as a nurse. This way I don’t get bored as easily, and I train my healing magic and my alchemy.” The flask then poofed out some green smoke, as it suddenly changed to black. “You know what to do guys.” Shawn, out of nowhere grabbed open my jaw, while Kalyn pressed down my body. Seconds later, Laurie placed the flask over my mouth and closed my nose. So that in no way possible I could refuse the thing. 

It tasted horrible! The worst thing I’ve ever eaten in my life! It burned my throat, and my own body began to reject it. Thanks, gods they were holding me down. Otherwise, I wouldn’t drink this thing on my own. But energy started to come back into my body. The horrible thing made me feel beautiful. I stopped feeling pain, and the dizziness was entirely gone by now. After the whole thing was inside my system, they all began to leave me in the bed. “That’s something,” I told Laurie as I sat up straight.

“Yup, you pretty much drained your entire energy levels down.” She told me while she placed her flasks back in place. “You probably didn’t recharge properly yesterday. Anyhow you need to stay away from the sun at any cause. And please if you are placed in a situation of which there’s no other way than standing under the sunshine, not push yourself to your limits.” She stopped and checked the wall clock. “Now you better hurry, classes are about to start.”

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The school was such a boring mess. People were talking about what I’ve had done this morning. I had to say that I accidentally had eaten peanuts or shrimps, which caused an allergic reaction making me puke. I pulled off the new kid card once more, meaning that I’m still getting used to the installations and that in my previous school all the girl’s toilet was located on the left. They didn’t question further that statement, and that even got me saved from visiting the principal. 

Beyond that, nothing unusual happened. I had a school like usual, the classes were easy and boring, the exams were long but smooth, and recess was long and tedious. Lizzie didn’t come today. I heard rumors that she was sick or something. And I couldn’t find the other two in recess. I looked where we were sitting the other day, and the cafeteria, and I couldn’t see them. So I decided to go to the library and continue reading the book of grimoires, I could finally understand the title. Have I told you how much I love the library? It’s quiet and empty, and there’s no sunlight over there, which is excellent! 

And somehow staying on the library helped me to stay alive. It turns out my sister was seeking revenge towards me. She was somehow mad that I'd made Jack brake up with her. I don’t see the point of she being angry, the only thing I saw them doing together was Jack buying her stuff. … Oh… Otherwise, she never found me, so good…?

It was now time to visit the shack; Kalyn warned us that Alice had something huge to tell us. Did she found out what we did last night? Or was it time to do something else rather than going for Chinese or cleaning up the place. Anyhow, the five of us where here Floyd, Shawn, Sam, Kalyn, and I. Laurie opened the door for us from inside, and one by one we entered being sure that no one was watching or following us. We left our stuff on one corner and headed toward the main room. There, we sat down on the couches as Laurie brought some tea and biscuits.

“Nice work you did last night,” Alice told us, especially Sam and I, she then threw a newspaper with reports of what we had done last night. I saw Sam getting a bit nervous, and playing with his hands. “Why are you acting like that? I’m pleased about what you did last night!” She said standing up. “See how you guys are useful and special!” She said giving Sam a pinch in the cheek. “I told you so Mr. three foot crater. Now, Shawn reported me that your weapon is a spear, that’ll work perfectly with your gust blast, you’ll become a nice wallbreaker.” 

“Shawn, Kalyn,” Alice said pointing at them before sipping another cup of tea. “I want Sam to join you while you work. Teach him all the insides and outsides of the process, got it?” Both of them nodded and stood up. They gestured him to follow them into the training room. “Don’t forget the training! He’ll need it to start working!” She then turned around and faced me, she took another sip out of her tea and sat on her chair again. “And you… Nice… I loved every single part of what you did last night, the building, the lights, and the ending, and it blew my mind.”

“Wait,” I said interrupting her. “The ending? But, but how do you know about that? The cameras didn’t catch any of that. They couldn’t… then that means…”

“Yup!” She said removing me from my thoughts. “I followed you last night! I was with you when you destroyed the Costco, on the other side of the street while you exploded an entire avenue of its streetlights. And the whole dragon scheme, fucking Christ that was amazing! I need you to train to control it.” She took another sip of her tea and pretty much crashed on the seat. “I bet you are wondering, ‘why did you do that?’ or something along the lines. You see, I need to take care of you guys, and I was sure that something might happen last night.”

“Sam doesn’t own a rabbit.” She said pointing at the room in which we train. “I was the rabbit, I did the same thing you did with his family, and I simply brought some rabbit food and a cage. Why do you think a bunny was so friendly to play with you? Rabbits aren’t friendly. Those things wander off as soon as you get near them.” She stood up and served herself more tea. “Anyhow I saw everything you did, and let me tell you. We need you. Which brings me to Floyd.” Alice now threw her a small cookie, and she simply caught it. “She’ll become our rogue, slash assassin. I’ll take care of the sneaking and killing part. You take care of the rest. If you need to go somewhere, feel free to take one of them.” 

We both stood up, and Floyd began walking to a room, which I’ve never been inside. But seconds before leaving I stopped and looked towards Alice. “Um… I know it’s weird for me to ask, but… I need some money to buy clothes, mainly underwear. I’m close to running out of clean stuff to wear.” I told her sounding tough yet gentle. I need to remain on her happy side. Since she was standing up, she merely walked towards a small box and took out several bills. 

“Here, make sure to get everything you need. Now go on, Floyd is waiting for you.” How weird it is to be given money by an eleven-year-old. That got me thinking, what is going on with Alice? She doesn’t act like such a small child, whatever. I need to talk to Floyd and see if we can get to a mall or anywhere that sells comfortable underwear. I began counting the money, as I slowly walked towards the room. I had three hundred in my hands, how did she manage to get all this money? It does look stolen because every bill is a twenty. 

“I see you’re carrying quite the bill,” Floyd told me snapping me from playing with the money. I blushed a little and hid it inside the school’s jacket. “I was already planning to go to the mall, so now you can kill two birds with a single stone.” She disappeared for a second, and then I could hear some clopping and Floyd doing some kisses. Moments later, she appeared with a brown horse with white spots. I just stood there, wondering if we were going to ride on a horse. She looked at me staring at the best, and she said. “What? It’s a Pinto.” 

And I kid you not. I swear I’m not lying here, and the horse began to transform. Seriously, I don’t even know how, or if it was even possible. But the horse slowly took the form of a car. “A 1975 Pinto, to be precise,” Floyd told me as she opened the driver’s door. “I take the wheel. You go co-pilot. Come! We don’t have all day.” I slowly walked towards the door, looking anywhere on the car if it had hair or a tail. The only thing resembling the horse was the color, which was white. 

I slid myself inside the horse-car, and as soon as I closed the door, Floyd pretty much planted her foot on the pedal, which sends me crashing into the seat. We somehow jumped outside the shack and appeared on the parking lot. But we didn’t remain there for long, Floyd was in a hurry. There was no seatbelt on the car, so I pretty much clawed the seat. “You are hurting him,” Floyd told me as she passed by several cars and entered the highway. I just looked at her, eyes wide open. “The horse, you are hurting him by burring your fingers in the seat.” I stop doing that and pretty much held into my life by sitting down and staring at the front.

“O relax Sideburn, and I know what we are doing!” She told me to calm my nerves. “I bet you just figured out right now, but the car is the horse’s soul. Isn’t that amazing!” I just looked at her eyes wide open still. “The first rule of horse riding, don’t make the horse feel your fear. They somehow sense it. And also, I’ve been driving ever since I reached the pedals, you can trust me.”

I had to calm myself down, I indeed have heard that statement before. So to calm my nerves, I decided to follow Floyd’s light conversation. “How young were you since you began to drive?” I told her, trying to calm down. “And why? Was there any special reason?”

“I was I believe eight when I managed to reach the pedals.” I was surprised by what she said that I almost shouted back. “There wasn’t any special reason for it, racing and driving have been in my family for a while. My granddad was a mechanic, and my dad used to be a famous racer, he managed to win several cups and everything. But after his father died, he inherits the store, and now he works there after he retired.” We were getting close to the mall, pretty much the next exit and we were there. What’s usually a twenty-minute ride by bus got shortened by less than a minute. “You can pretty much say oil runs, and grease runs in the family veins, and you wouldn’t be lying.”

We reached the mall’s parking lot seconds later, and I couldn’t be happier for touching the ground. I tried to not act as cheerful for leaving the ride, and slowly sneak away from the beast, while Floyd pet it and gently caressed the hood. We walked towards the mall moments later. It felt odd walking with the bombshell of the school, like the BOMB of the school. She practically has everything to make any men mad. And even wearing the school’s uniform, she still looks like a model. 

We took the escalators upwards to get a beautiful view of the mall. There were a lot of people going from here and there. Only guys were the ones staring either at Floyd or at me. “So tell me, what do you want to know?” She asked me as she rests her back on the crystal fence. 

“Just everything I need to know,” I told her resting right next to her. 

She lifted her eyebrows and stared back at me. “You do have the face to be a charmer, that’ll work.” She told me leaving me dumbfounded. “You see rogues specialize on stealing energy from humans but without harming them. That’s our main objective.” She then turned around and began pointing at people walking. “And the way we do it is by stealing the energy humans make when they express emotions. That boy was feeling happy because his mother bought him a toy, that lady buying a dress…” She pointed out easily twenty more persons doing a daily routine on the mall. 

“That sounds rather easy,” I told her pointing at more people feeling happy or any other viewable emotion. “Why don’t you go to a concert or a theme park? That’s practically an ocean of happiness, and there’s rarely someone angry at those things.” 

She turned around, and a tiny white ball appeared on her palm. “This is the energy we stole from sixty-two people.” She told me picking up the marble size ball and throwing it in the air. “The best way to steal energy is by causing it yourself. Look.” She walked towards a group of girls, probably the same age as us, and then. “Guys! What are you doing here! There have been rumors of Chris Hemsworth shopping on Adidas!” The group squealed at the same time, including Floyd, and practically ran towards the store. Floyd didn’t even move, and her face transformed from pure happiness to bore. 

She walked towards me and generated a ball size of a baseball in the other hand. “See the difference? If you cause the emotion the more energy, you steal. It’s simple. However, the two main emotions you should be looking for is love and hate. Those two give you the most energy out of all. Look.” She now sexily walked towards a group of boys, her hips were moving, and she made her hair float all over the place. She chatted a little with one of the boys, but I could see she was very flirty. Touching his chest and giggling loudly. I saw her writing down a phone number and then walking back towards me. 

She rested on the fence once more and looked at me. “This is the amount you get by doing that.” A ball, size of the ones you find on a gymnasium appeared on her hand. “Now, it’s time for you to do the same thing. Come on!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the different shops and places at the mall. 

At first, I refused to flirt with the boys and learned to absorb energy from a distance. It was a kind of fun. Looking for people feeling any emotion and gently stroking their energy flowing towards me. I then learned to absorb large amounts of energy, by telling lies that made people happy. Should I feel bad for that? I mean, I’m practically cheering up their day. Anyhow… Floyd forced me to try charming any boy in the mall. I did it twice. My first objective was a nerdy looking boy who was buying books. I acted the same way I did with Sam, and I ended up with quite an amount of energy.

The second one, which I’m not very proud of, consisted of going lingerie shopping and standing out among the crowd. We made several guys turn their heads towards us, as we merely showed which underwear we might be wearing. The worst part, that it was all my idea. I saw the store, and I thought of buying the underwear I needed. One thing led to another, and I somehow ended showing out a thong to a group of guys who were walking there. 

We ended up wasted on a nearby coffee shop. We both were tired, and I had finally made the shopping of the day, which was more tiresome than I thought so. I bought simple things, like t-shirts and pants, nothing more nothing less. So now Floyd was sipping a very girly drink, while I slowly drank my coffee. “You’re going to have a good time being a rogue.” She told me breaking the silence. “You have the face, charm, and the butt.” 

I blushed a little, and to make her feel the same, I answered. “Look who’s talking! You pretty much own the entire package, even the voice!” I saw her blush, and I rested my case by drinking more of the coffee. “You are pretty much born for the job.”

She leaned towards me and gestured to get closer. “Can I tell you a secret?” She told me whispering. I nodded curiously about what she was going to say. “But don’t tell anyone alright?” I nodded once more. “Ok…” She lightly said as she took out her cellphone. She took some time searching for something on it, and moments later she handed me her phone. “This is what I originally looked like.” I was surprised to find a chubby looking girl, with pimples all over her face, wearing huge glasses, and her hair pretty much a mess. 

I bet she read my reaction by seeing my eyes. “Shawn reacted the same way.” I looked up at her and realized how nervous she was. “Yes, that was me, five years ago, before all of this happened.” She said gesturing her face and her body. “Back then, and still today, I wanted to be a mechanical engineer just like my dad. I pretty much didn’t care for my looks, and ate lots of trash food, and didn’t take care of my skin as other girls did.” She blushed and searched inside her purse. “And those glasses… I still need them whenever I need to read something.” She took them out, and the crystals pretty much covered her entire hand. 

“And then Alice came.” She told me throwing the glasses on the table. I raised my eyebrow and picked up the huge thing. “Don’t get me wrong, and I’m super thankful of her coming into my life. I was diagnosed since I was little, of a kind of common cardiovascular disease. Peripheral artery disease. Pretty much my arteries became very narrow and prevented a proper blood flow. The catch is… I was allergic to the treatment. I couldn’t ingest the medicine without losing my breath. So I was fucked. And it began to complicate and spend quite a time on the hospital. I was pretty much destined for Death. But then she came! In the middle of the night, she told me she would make me live forever, and remove any pain in my body. And I agreed almost immediately.”

“Without even knowing I was the first victim of Alice. Well, I wouldn’t fall victim. More like… Member of her little club.” She sighed as she finished her drink. “That pretty much granted me the position or piece of the queen. And all of the changes began. I grew taller and began to lose weight rapidly, my skin pretty much purified itself, my vision improved, and everything grew. It sounds like a blessing, but on fifth grade, a girl looking somehow like this wasn’t the best.” I was very interested in her story, but something caught a glimpse of my eye, the people weren’t moving. I think Floyd realized the same thing because she immediately stood up.

We both rushed outside the shop and stopped at the fence which granted us a vision of most of the mall. Everything had stopped, nothing was moving, and not even the clock was ticking. “Fuck!” Floyd shouted desperately. Before I could ask what was going on, we heard a loud stomp coming from behind us. A red portal appeared on the floor, and a human-like creature engulfed in a red aura appeared seconds later. He was huge! He was probably reaching a seven-foot height. He was wearing a colossal armor; it looked massive and impenetrable. I couldn’t accurately tell the color, but it shined as if it were made out some golden material. On his right hand there was a sword probably more significant than me, and on his left a shield suited for his body. He was looking down, but a distorted mask covered his face.

And then… He looked at us. 

To be continued…