Novels2Search

Prologue 3

A Magical Anomaly

Prologue 3

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

Choices Made:

[ X ] Make breakfast with Mum

[ X ] Write in

- [X ] Look for a diary

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

You glance up at mum and tilt your head slightly to the side in thought. After a moment or two you nod to yourself as you give her a one with your fingers.

She giggles a bit, and her smile widens as she nods back at you.

"Alright then! Come on, follow me."

She turns around and holds the door open as she waits for you, and you follow as instructed.

A thought does pass through you as you enter the hallway, but you shelve it for later.

Breakfast probably won't take too long, and you can search for a diary when you've finished eating you think.

You notice how your mother matches your pace as you walk, her much longer legs taking shorter steps with grace. You smile up at her as she checks behind her for you as the two of you pad down the halls.

The wood floors are not too cold for your bare feet, and you notice that the hallways walls are a similar colour to your rooms as you walk.

Pictures dot the hall, some of a younger version of you, without the scar in most.

Some do have your scar, and your eyes barely pay attention to those, glancing past them before you can let the fear settle in again. No point worrying your mother any further.

There's a trio of pictures sitting on the kitchen counter as you enter. One has your mother in what looks like a beautiful blue dress, sitting on the grass with her back against a tree. A pretty sight that attracts your eyes for a few seconds before turning to the next picture.

This one has a taller man; you guess it's your father from the purple eyes. He's blond haired, very tall, and rather well built, muscle corded tight under the picture of him in a suit. Also, slightly tan skin. Huh. He's not too remarkable, especially compared to your mother…

Weird thought…

More for future you to unpack you suppose.

You spot your fathers form as he lays on the couch, its different from the picture… quite a lot different. Much wider, more muscle, you'd assume taller too maybe. Same coloured hair though.

And he snores. Loudly.

You're surprised the house isn't shaking from how loud it is.

And that your sister is somehow sleeping through it while at ground zero.

She has dad's blond hair, not currently styled, as well as dad's slightly tanned skin. You can't see her eyes yet, but you can see that she's in some fuzzy blue pyjama's… with small… doves? Printed on it.

It's almost comical how much larger your father is to her. Then again, you assume she's younger than you as well.

Your mother's quiet giggle brings your attention back to her as she lays a hand on your head and softly ruffles your hair.

"You can go join them if you want Lia."

You look back up at her and shake your head, giving her a hug to which she smiles.

"Alrighty then, let's get to work. Pancakes today."

It doesn't take too long to get breakfast set up, especially with your mum handling the harder work in the kitchen and directing you.

It's kind of scary how she changes when she picks up a knife… Like something in the back of your head telling you that she's watching your every move even when she's not facing you…

Nothing really comes of that feeling, other than you getting one of your feet tangled up with a mat and almost dropping a bowl and her catching you before you can drop it.

You notice there's a practiced grace to the way she flits about the kitchen space, pulling open cupboard and drawers, pulling out items without looking and continuing on…

You're pretty sure she doesn't even need your help to get this all prepped, might be faster without your help even… But you shrug and push that thought to the side as the sound of homemade pancake batter frying fills your ears, and the smell hits your nose.

Your mother's made a few comments as you cook with her, small reminders to not do certain things, or praise for doing something right that past you must have struggled with. You conclude that you've helped her cook a few times, and after getting used to the kitchen, that you're pretty good at knowing where stuff is despite your air headedness.

Honestly, you think you get stuck in your head far too much as it is.

Like now… you've been staring at the pancakes all this time…

You might be drooling.

Yup, you're drooling a little.

You go to wipe it on your sleeve, but your mum's already passing you a tissue as you look at her a little sheepishly. She smiles in response, the sharp aura that you swear was radiating from her dissipating as she puts the spatula with the last pancake down onto a plate.

"Why don't you put these on the table hmm? I'm going to go wake up the two sleepyheads on the couch."

You give her a thumbs up and move the plates over to the large dining table in front of the kitchen counter, glancing at the sunny outdoors through the sliding door to your backyard as you do.

It looks like a good day for whatever Alice has planned for you today.

You hope she has something planned…

She probably does.

The volcano snoring stops suddenly, making you turn and see your father rising from the couch, yawning widely enough to make you yawn as well. Blinking a few tears from his eyes as he places your sister on the couch and then stands up. Huh wow… he's tall… maybe at least 6'5…? Kind of reminds you of a bear… All muscle and height and all that.

Why you know what a bear is while you didn't even know your own name… you have no idea.

Dad looks around for a moment, and then spots you, walking towards you with a grin on his face that makes you want to roll your eyes for some reason... and protect your hair?

"You're up early Lia, Sleep well?"

You get why you wanted to protect your hair now…

It's a mess.

Your flowing brown locks now splayed all over the place from your dad's rough but gentle head patting…

You glare up at him as you push his hand off, only making him laugh in the process.

Stupid dad.

You give him an exaggerated roll of your eyes before nodding and heading off to the table, the sound of Lillia yawning making you want to as well, but you manage to hold it back with a bit of effort.

"So, I hear you're going out with Alice today?" Your dad says as he slides into the chair across from you.

Your mother and sister slipping into their own chairs as you nod in reply. The clinking of cutlery starts around the table as your dad hums.

"Is this a date then~"

…You're pretty sure you'd choke if this was past you… again, no idea why, but a vague feeling.

So instead, you raise an eyebrow and tilt your head in question at him as he blinks a few times.

"You were going after her right?" He asks you before turning to Mum, "Right?"

She shoots him a look that makes him wince for some reason, you can't really tell what her expression is behind the cup of tea she's sipping, but you guess that it's probably bad.

Now… how to answer that question…

You give him a non-committal shrug; a neutral answer probably gives you more options for the future after finding out more about yourself.

"Wait, you're going out with Alice? Like the busty blonde in the year above you?" Lillia asks around a mouthful of pancake. Somehow.

So, Alice's blonde? That's good to know.

You guess that there's maybe a few Alices in school… and that Lillia probably knows about her already if she's asking. So, you just give her a shrug as well.

Though that makes her look at you in surprise for some reason.

Is that a good thing?

People are going to be hard to understand… you can tell already…

Your mother lets out a hum as she looks you up and down for a moment, her expression sharpening before it relaxes… there's that odd look of worry on her face for a split second you think, but she's back to a cheery and relaxed smile as she talks.

"In that case, make sure to wear something warm today, the sun might be out, but the wind was pretty cool this morning. You could try on that new dress we bought last week?"

You have no idea what this dress is. Non-committal shrug it is!

Your mother raises an eyebrow at you but doesn't reply either way as she neatly slices a piece of pancake. Idly, you notice that your dads gone through his entire stack already even though you're only halfway through yours.

Your free hand grabs your pen, and you scribble down a quick question onto the pad as you hold it up. Taking a bite of a wonderfully fluffy pancake drenched in butter. A small question on what everyone else's plans are for the day.

Your mother mentions having to go shopping, your dad nodding along with her while your sister says something about a game she needs to finish making. Something about a magical girl shoot-em-up or so.

You nod along at them, taking note that only your sister will be home in case something goes wrong.

You wonder why that's the first thing that comes to mind…

Might be something to do with the odd feeling in the pit of your stomach... maybe its indigestion though... these pancakes are too good!

Overall, it takes you an hour or so to finish breakfast with the family. Eating at a leisurely pace and chatting about plans and such. Dad, oddly enough, keeps chiming in with small tips for your outing today… maybe you didn't go out much before this Alice invited you?

It might explain the pale skin…

Hmm. Interesting.

A few minutes later, you've finished washing the dishes, even if your mother said you didn't need to, and you're back in your room. You spend a moment to glance around, thinking about the best places to hide a diary… and eventually decide that it's probably in your bedside table's drawers.

It's not.

It's also not in your desk drawers or the drawers on your make up table.

Maybe it's on your computer?

It takes a few minutes of searching on it, diving through folders in folders in folders, you studiously avoid the homework folder and its 20 subsequent subfolders, apparently your weird magical amnesia doesn't apply to its contents.

Past/Future you was right. Magic is weird.

But hey. You like girls! That's a plus!... you think? Definitely a plus.

Though… that might affect your magical girl villain plans…

More for future you?... yeah, future you can deal with it.

Your diary is… sparsely detailed surprisingly. And doesn't go back too much either. A year or two at most if the created by dates are accurate. Your oldest entry mentions something about a smaller Lillia accidently spilling her water bottle on your laptop and frying it…

Now that you read it… there's a lot of entries about Lillia in your diary… not much about yourself… huh.

Ahh… you were the overprotective sister. That's good to know. Hmm… You find reference to meeting Alice last year, so she's a relatively recent friend at the least… maybe a crush?... Sadly, your diary doesn't mention your romantic feelings of any sort, so probably best to play the friend card for now.

It does mention younger you missing one of your other friends. A girl by the name of Mio… Moved to Japan a few years ago for some accelerated course… and she's a magical girl…

Wait.

You're friends with a Magical girl?!

No wait… Best friends with a Magical girl?!

Oh… she hasn't talked to you in a few years…. That bodes well for sure.

Nothing bad could have happened to you relating to her noooo.

You've only been ripped from a timeline where everything went to hell, only to be put back in a body that's most likely weaker than your previous one, with no mem-

You force the fear and confusion aside and back into its box. No use panicking over this for now, you can't do anything about it. Best to move on.

So you know Mio's a Magical girl, maybe she's where your love for magical girl stuff stems from?

Maybe younger/past/future you wanted to be like her?

You don't really know what it means to be a magical girl you realize. Your vision had a magical girl fighting you… you think.

Something about the idea of fighting a magical girl makes your heart race slightly…

Maybe you wanted to be a villain for that reason? To fight them?... no. Past/Future you said it was to help them grow…

That's what they wanted though… is it what you want now…?

Maybe you'll have to think about that down the line… you're not even a Magical girl now, you'd probably get slapped aside easier than a fly gets caught in a fly zapper.

You realise that you've spent a few hours browsing through your diary and other folders on your computer. You think you were rather plain for a girl… you didn't really do much other than study and learn…

You studiously ignore the pictures of girls in tight soccer pants you've taken pictures of. You probably just had an interest in soccer.

You might not have had much of a social life either.

There's a bit with Alice, pictures here and there. You're smiling in most of them, so she's probably a good friend…. You hope.

So many questions… so little time for answers… Then again… todays only your first day here, and at best, you have a month before things get, in your future/past self's words, "hectic", whatever that means.

You're probably gonna regret this, but more for future you to complain about, you suppose.

For now! You must explore your dresser!

…And there's the weird feeling of dread.

Like ripping off a band aid, you grab the doors and open them. Though the weird chill of fear doesn't really change when you do so.

Its… honestly just a normal dresser embedded into the wall. The right side is split into a variety of shelves, all housing folded clothing of various types, including your undergarments and socks. The right has a metal bar with your dresses, skirts and various other pieces of clothing that shouldn't be folded down.

Lots of grey, brown, and purple you notice, some red and dull oranges as well. Not many pastels or monochrome… though you think that wouldn't look too good with your pale skin… Too much contrast with black, and not enough with white… Some nice icy blue pieces though.

Why you know all this colour stuff, you have no idea. Probably more magic weirdness.

Probably not good to-

Your eyes snap to a black dress in the corner. The chill you've been feeling ramping up as you unconsciously examine it.

It's rather simple. Not much in terms of embellishment, ends mid-thigh with some gold buttons along its center.

Its real beautiful in its simplicity… or it would be, if it wasn't for the horrible gash cutting through one of its sleeves. The cut isn't clean, with strands of fiber looking as though they were sawn off over time rather than cut in one go.

Your breathing picks up slightly, but you pull your eyes away from it.

Younger you might have feared this dresser. But this is a new you… You'll just ignore the dress. If you don't notice it, it can't make you all panicky and weird…

God younger you got hit by something horrible if it's still effecting you through a mind wipe didn't they?

Okay. Well. You think it'll take a bit for you to get your makeup done… though maybe its smarter to go with something lighter when it comes to make up with your amnesia… yeah… might be best for now.

Time to pick something to wear on this… outing thing with Alice…

You feel like you weren't as good with clothing as you were with colours… [ Hmm… Maybe a smart casual look? White top, brown plaid skirt, white stockings, and brown trainers… maybe a purple bow around the collar for a pop of colour? ]

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.