Burlington, Vermont was not the easiest place to live during the winter months. Being next to Lake Champlain as well as being built on a hill, there was nothing to stop the wind from whipping through the entire city. It didn’t help that said wind was also typically rather powerful too. If it was any other state people would likely stay indoors till something came along to free them from the exceedingly chilly atmosphere of the lake-side city. Vermont, however, was not any other state.

That was something that Melissa had learned very quickly. What she saw as weather too chilly to even think about going out in, everyone around her saw as a normal Friday. A decent few probably even felt sitting by the lake wasn’t too bad, which she heavily disagreed with. The only thing she knew for sure was that Vermonters were made of tougher material than she ever would be, and that despite the insanity of living in such an environment they were also rather accepting of her.

Considering she had come from small town Georgia, with zero sexual education and not even knowing what transgender truly meant until meeting Lucy and Drew online, that was a welcome change. She could at least thank the hellish wind for waking up what little of her was still asleep as soon as she left the dorms. Even with a heavy brown jacket, tye-dye scarf, and black gloves – all of which she had to thank Drew for helping her find at a nearby outdoor clothing store – she could feel the wind pass right down her neck and into her chest. It left her in a rather confused state of hating the wind for how cold it was yet also euphoric at feeling her breasts against it. To think that a pill could do even that much was shocking to her.

Though not as shocked at how much she was shivering as soon as she took cover from the outdoors of the college courtyard to the warm embrace of the indoors. She had pulled her fingers into a fist, causing the parts of the glove meant for them to flop around in a fashion similar to a spaghetti noodle. She was even more glad than she was earlier that she had her friends around as all of them, save a well-bundled-up Lucy, were using each other as a wall of warmth. The fact she was shivering despite that all made it clear to Melissa that god was an evil creature.

“Fuck. That. Lake,” Melissa replied with a heavily exasperated groan. “I swear it has some sort of vendetta against me.”

“Nah, that is just Burlington winter,” Drew replied, unwrapping himself from the girls on either side of him and giving Lucy a stare. “However, it should be colder and there should be more snow. I wonder whose fault that is.”

“Yeah, sure, blame the rich girl,” Lucy replied, rolling her eyes in frustration. “You know, my family’s company is not the only one at fault here, and even then we have been better than nearly every single company in this damn country at lowering carbon emissions.”

“Doesn’t mean you aren’t part of the problem,” He replied, walking towards the women sitting at a table outside the dining hall.

Pulling his student ID from his wallet, the woman motioned for Drew to put it in the card reader. He did so, and after a couple of moments the women gave him a thumbs up. He pulled his student ID out of the reader, put it back in his wallet, and gave Lucy another look before going into the dining hall. The french girl looked at where he had been with a stunned expression, arms in front of her in a v shape and fingers spread out. She then brought her hands to her face, letting out a purposely loud groan as she spun to look at Melissa and Dragon.

“I swear to Christ,” She muttered under her breath, over exaggerating her words. “One of these days that mouth of his is gonna get him punched.”

“You are the expert in that, aren’t you?” Melissa teased smugly.

Dragon ignored the two of them for the moment and followed Drew’s lead, using her ID to gain access to the dining hall. The women at the table watched what was a pretty typical display for the group of friends each morning. She watched as Melissa’s words first caused the girl’s shoulders to sag a bit, and then for a blank stare to overtake her face. Lucy went to speak, reconsidered her options, and then let out a sigh of defeat before putting a finger to her lips.

“Shush, plebeian,” Lucy jokingly replied.

She then turned around, Melissa shaking her head behind the girl with a wide smile still on her face. After going through the same process as Drew and Dragon before them, both girls made their way into the dining hall. It was smaller than that of most colleges, but then again it was a private school; it was more expensive and therefore needed to seat far fewer students overall. For a moment, Melissa eyed the many, many pancakes that were out for students. She then watched Dragon, who was currently putting a stack of six onto her plate. She was pretty sure the girl was drooling a little, but she couldn’t tell from her angle.

Compared to her friend's sugar-crash inducing meal, Melissa grabbed a singular pancake and then a small container of raspberry jam. As if to balance out the fact that she was being far healthier than her friend, she then followed it up with a glass of lemon-lime soda to tell her consciousness she didn’t care. After that she found the usual spot she and her friends sat at, a table next to windows overlooking Burlington and Lake Champlain. Even after a year and a half in Burlington, the beauty of the city and its lake still wowed her consistently.

“... which is why your earlier statement, at least pertaining to that of Bernson Steel, is wrong,” Lucy said, Melissa catching the tail end of whatever she was saying to Drew. Judging by the smirk on the french girl’s face, the trans girl was certain they felt pretty confident about themselves. “Take that Drew. My revenge is complete.”

“I don’t know whether to be flabbergasted by your pettiness or sad at the fact you spent your entire time getting breakfast thinking of how to prove me wrong,” Drew replied, ripping off a chunk of the jalapeño bagel he had decided on.

“Isn’t both an option?” Melissa interjected, taking her seat next to Lucy as usual. She opened up the plastic container of jam and used a knife to start spreading it along the top of her pancake. “You can’t deny that they are one of the better companies in this hellscape of a country.”

“I… guess I can’t argue with you there,” Drew responded. He pointed with his bagel to Lucy, managing to conjure a smile. “I mean, we do have her mother's charity to thank for starting your transition. Not to mention your father's work in helping stamp out human trafficking and assisting victims of rape.”

Lucy smiled sadly and closed her eyes. The mention of her father's work were some of the only things that broke through her tough, pampered facade. Melissa wrapped an arm around her friend, patting them on the back. Lucy, in turn, opened her eyes and met her friend’s comforting glance.

“What can I say? Couldn’t have ended up in a better household,” Lucy said before shaking her head and hiding her softer interior with a smirk. She pointed her fork at Drew, readying to reply before shifting her glance slightly to the right. “Holy crap Maria. Is there any pancake under that maple syrup?”

“Bad night. Need it,” Dragon responded, paying zero attention to the fact her friend had used her birth name as she sat down.

No one dared to ask, knowing well that Dragon would refuse to tell them what had happened. Instead they focused for a time simply on eating, Lucy in particular devouring an entire bowl of scrambled eggs and home fries as if she hadn’t eaten in the past four days. Melissa pulled out her phone as she did, the smile that had been put on her face due to a delicious breakfast fading as she saw the latest thing on her Lock Screen. It was a snippet from the news app, the headline so terrifying yet so standard that it didn’t phase her.

“Fucking hell,” She whispered, catching the attention of her friends. Noticing the stares, she put her phone on the table and flipped it towards them so they could see the headlines. “Another shooter. One dead, three injured.”

“Poor kids,” Drew muttered. Everyone nodded in agreement.

All three of her friends reacted differently to seeing the headline. Drew stares at it as if possessed, the hand gripping his bagel pressing into the bread. Lucy felt her legs ache and the hair on the back of her neck stand up, a mixture of fear and fury filling her body. Dragon did her best not to think about it, turning back to her pancake stack and taking another bite. She hoped that, by doing so, the headline wouldn’t manage to mingle with the other horrid thoughts that were already in her mind.

“I’ve said it before and will say it again,” Melissa replied, picking her phone up, unlocking it, and opening up a rhythm game she had installed on it. “This country is doomed.”

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“Boomers and other old fucks are leaving a mess too big for us to be able to clean up,” Drew said, the dejection in his voice absorbing any other emotion that dared to try and push through it. “Can’t help but feel sorry for the optimists out there who actually think we can still pull things through.”

At those words, Lucy and Dragon both slammed their hands into the table, getting the attention of some of those sitting at nearby tables in the process. Drew flinched in shock at both girls' actions, looking between them in surprise. While Dragon couldn’t find the words to counter his, Lucy had already thought up her response and had leaned across the table till her nose was nearly touching Drew’s.

“So you’re suddenly gonna be a quitter?” Lucy asked him, poking his chest as she spoke. “That ain’t the Drew I know. Yes, shit may seem bad right now and the metric fuckton of screw ups the previous gens have dumped on us might be great, but that is no reason to quit.”

“Holly would be disappointed with what you said, Drew,” Dragon responded, her voice nowhere near as loud Lucy’s put her words stinging the man far, far more. Both Melissa and Lucy looked at her in shock at what she had said, something even Dragon realized was a mistake. “R-r-r-rerr.”

Drew let out a long breath, holding his shirt tightly as he did. “No, you are right, Dragon. I’ve chosen my path because of her. If I don’t put my all into making the world around me safer, then I have no right to call her my girlfriend.”

“She’d love you no matter what Drew. No reason to be that hard on yourself,” Melissa reminded him before taking another bite of her pancake. “Any updates on her, actually? She’s in rehab now, right?”

“Took longer than it was supposed to, but yes,” Drew answered, nodding his head. He closed his eyes for a second, allowed himself to smile, and sighed. “She only just started, but it sounds like she will be able to walk again.”

“That’s good. When you told me about what happened I got really worried,” Melissa replied, shoulders relaxing. “Yes America might be doomed, but the knowledge she is recovering shows that we aren’t doomed just yet. There is hope for the future, even if that future is not what we expect it to be.”

“Not quite sure what you are trying to say, Melli,” Lucy replied, eyebrow raised.

“She means that the people will rise even while the country falls,” Dragon replied, having completely cleaned her plate of pancakes. She leaned back in her chair and tilted her head at Melissa.

“In time, whether right-wing fucks like my parents like it or not, socialism will beat out their capitalism,” She explained as she started up a stage in her game. Her smile grew, fingers wiggling for a moment before the music started. She continued as she started tapping and flicking her fingers as the game instructed. “A land for all sounds far better than a land for the rich, doesn’t it?”

A nod from each of her friends told Melissa that her words were in the right place, or at least that they saw things the same as her. This was then followed by her mouthing a swear and banging her fist against the table, seeing that she had failed the level. With a sigh, she checked her phone’s time, grabbed her backpack – which felt like it weighed ten thousand tons – and then got up. Each of her friends looked at her as she smiled, tipping her head as if she was wearing an invisible fedora.

“Well, that is enough politics for one day. Gotta head to class,” She told them. “See you at the usual place?”

“The cafè or the ramen place?” Drew asked, crossing his arms.

“The cafè,” Melissa replied. Drew nodded as Lucy gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. They didn’t need Dragon’s answer; the girl would most definitely be there later. “Anyways, sayonara for now!”

Drew, Lucy, and Dragon all waved at her and she waved back as she started to walk backwards towards the dining hall exit. She felt her backpack collide with a table, the girl using the edge of it to swerve around and face the direction she was walking. As soon as she was out of the dining hall and out of sight from her friends, she took a deep breath and pulled her phone back out. She frowned as she looked at the number that had tried to call her, the real reason she had pulled out her phone earlier.

It was her mom’s number, right before the news article in terms of recency. She sneered at the sight of it, mentally wondering why she couldn’t bring herself to block them. As if to try and prove herself that she could, she pressed on the “i” next to the number and tried to press the block button. It should have been simple, easy, and all around the least painful thing she had ever done in her life.

Yet she couldn’t do it, her thumb hovering over the red letters saying “block this number”. Growling, she shoved her phone in her pocket and stormed outside with a scowl painted on her face. The icy wind didn’t help her attitude, only making her madder as she walked her way towards the building her class was at. Her tracks were stopped as a far stronger gale cut into her, causing her to shield her face. It took her off her focus, the wind chill causing her eyes to water as she stood there, fists tense and nails digging into her palm.

“Why can’t I do it?” She muttered to herself. “She doesn’t care about me, so why do I still care about her?”

“Look out!”

In the same way the wind had stopped her from moving, the sound of a new, rather odd voice woke Melissa from her funk. She looked up, eyes widening as an object she instinctively thought was a baseball flew right at her. In fear, she clenched her eyes shut, looked away, and held her arms in front of her face in an attempt to try and keep it from hitting her skull. When she didn’t feel the hard impact of a baseball crash into her, she opened her eyes and looked to see… a plush doll laying on her arm.

“That isn’t a baseball,” She stated, picking up the doll to get a better look at it. She audibly gasped at very sharp and realistic teeth filling the doll’s maw. “Well aren’t you the most terrifying thing that I’ve seen.”

“Hehehe, glad you think so,” the same odd voice from earlier said. Melissa looked around her to see where it was coming from, but as everyone else was sensibly inside and not out in the frigid cold like her, there was no one she could pin it on. She then looked to the doll, who had lifted its head. “We nightmares are supposed to be rather scary, after all.”

Letting out a banshee screech as she did, Melissa tossed the doll in terror, taking several steps back as she did. “Demon doll. Demon doll!”

The doll plopped onto the ground softly, Melissa shivering both due to the cold and fear at what she had just seen. When the doll didn’t move after five seconds, she relaxed a little and took a step closer. It was at that point the doll managed to stand up under its own power, something that Melissa knew that dolls were not supposed to be able to do. She shook her head, then pinched one nail tightly into one of her fingers, and then slapped herself in one last vain attempt to wake herself up. When all her ideas didn’t work, the doll looking at them (she wasn’t quite sure how but she knew it was staring at her) befuddled at their actions, Melissa realized something downright absurd yet true.

“You… you’re real?!” She shouted, pointing at the doll.

The doll looked at itself, then nodded at the girl. “Wait, you didn’t figure that out already?”

“You’re real… and talking… and moving,” She said, believing what she was saying less and less with every word.

The doll let out a sigh at the girl’s words, shaking her head.

“First human you meet and you somehow manage to break them. Good start Vee, good start.” The doll, Vee, muttered to itself.

After speaking, it caught onto a rather tantalizing aroma. Vee had smelled it before, knowing it well from nights of feasting on fears, traumas, and the like, but it had never been this potent. As Vee sniffed the air, her plush feet moved on its own towards the source. Melissa did her best to back as far away as possible as it drew closer, worried about what the doll was doing. It was only when her back was to the brick wall of another school building that she stopped. Instead of moving to the side and out of Vee’s reach she looked back in horrified belief she had nowhere to go.

With the doll standing at her foot, Melissa watched as it opened its maw, spread its arms and… hugged her. Vee, the creepy doll that looked straight out of one of Drew’s campy horror movies, was hugging her leg happily. The doll continued to sniff her, drinking in the wonderful smell and refusing to let go even as Melissa started to vigorously shake her foot. She tried to shake Vee off for about a minute, but when it proved to do nothing she stopped and let the ankle grabbing, leg smelling, creature of her nightmares due its thing.

“The aroma of nightmares, so fresh on you. It’s like a freshly brewed, overly sweet cup of coffee,” Vee said. It was at that moment that Melissa noticed that, along with the doll’s other oddities, it was talking without needing to move its mouth. “Gosh, I could just gobble you up if I didn’t have any self control. Thankfully for you, I’m one of the very few nightmares who can control themselves.”

“Okay, that is it. Get off me,” Melissa replied, reaching down and prying Vee off her leg. She brought the doll up so that she was face to face with it, pointing a finger at them with her other hand. “I'll deal with you later.”

Melissa swung her backpack in front of her, opening up one of the secondary pockets. Realizing what the girl was about to do, Vee flailed her tiny limbs in some vain attempt to attack the hand holding het. It did nothing, instead being unceremoniously shoved into the girl’s backpack. When Melissa tried to zip it up, Vee managed to just barely stop the zipper with a hand before she was closed in for good.

“Wait, wait. I need to talk to you about something,” Vee tried to tell her.

“Later!” Melissa shouted, easily pushing Vee’s hand back in and completely closing off the backpack. She could see the faint outline of the doll squirmed around from outside, letting out a sigh. “Listen I got a criminal law class to go to, so shut up and leave me be till I’m done with that.”

“Okay, okay. No need to get angry,” Vee said from inside.

Melissa groaned. Today was gonna be one of those days, she already knew it.