EPISODE XIV

The Feeling of Home

The moon is the only witness to many of the world’s darkest atrocities. Always the moon’s gaze is directed downward at the land under cover of darkness, when the vilest tendencies emerge, hoping they will not be seen. For there is a reason the darkness hides from the light, and it is not generally because the light brings pain, but rather that the light reveals. All that people would rather leave undiscovered, it must be done in the dark, away from prying eyes.

The moon is the solitary observer of such happenings. It will betray no secrets.

At least, that is what most believe.

This night, the moon was full, casting much of the city below in a pale, ethereal light. It was the kind of light that granted the ability to see but was not enough to be considered illuminating. The world was still dark, the night was still oppressive. While in the center of the city, lights were on and people were going to party until the sun came up, everywhere else was giving in to the darkness. People remained in their homes, either sleeping or laying in their beds, unable to sleep for reasons unknown. One woman was curled up behind her front door, shivering and crying, the key to the lock in her hand. A man in another house stared out a window, unblinking.

The street was utterly abandoned, lit by fluorescent lamps that were nowhere near effective enough. One was completely dead, and another was actively flickering on and off, illuminating a bronze car. On… off. On… off. Illumination, and then utter darkness. Were anyone to be looking, the rapid fluctuations would force the eye to adjust, making the car utterly invisible when the lamp was off.

Then the light came back on and the car wasn’t there anymore.

No one had been looking at the time. No one saw it vanish. When the man staring at the window noticed it was gone, he told himself that someone had to have driven it away. Silently. Without making the noise of an engine starting up. Obviously, it had to be that, since cars didn’t just disappear without a single noise.

His neighbor heard the sound of a car horn in her dreams. No one else did.

The crying woman rammed her fist into the front door, drawing blood from the force of the impact. The sound was not enough to reach any other ears.

On the street, there was nothing. And then there was a boy, wrapped up in a dark blue hoodie, he turned a street corner and entered the view of the man watching. Such a young boy, all alone, holding himself tight. As he walked into the light of a working street lamp, cuts and gashes in his hoodie were evident, as was his trembling and slight limp.

The man clenched his fists. He backed away from the window—he could do something about that.

The child stopped for a moment, removing his hood to scratch his ears. His very obviously feline ears.

The man paused. He drew the curtains, observing no more.

The woman started drawing on the door with her blood.

The kid, feeling a little cold, put the hood back on. It made his ears decidedly uncomfortable, but it was warmer. Much warmer. It made him feel safe.

He continued limping forward, approaching the flickering street lamp.

The flickering lamp projected a shadow from his body onto the side of a white house. There was nothing behind him, and yet a second shadow appeared behind his own. A tall, bony thing with a rectangular head. Hands half as long as the thing was tall dominated the projection, and these fingers were reaching for the boy’s neck.

The boy knew nothing. The shadow appeared behind him. He only looked ahead, walking closer and closer to the street lamp.

The shadow closed its fingers.

The light flickered.

The boy was gone. The bony shadow remained, grabbing at nothing. It paused for a moment, clearly confused. It took a few steps forward, looking for its lost prey.

The light flickered.

The shadow was gone.

Everyone on the street heard the sound of a door slam shut as though it had happened right behind them.

Had there been anyone to look, for a split second, they might have seen a door appear in the middle of the street. But as it was, the moon remained the only witness to the happenings that night.

~~~

Amaris woke up on her bed.

Her bed.

She had been home for months and, still, every time she woke up a dumb grin crossed her face. She wasn’t out in some tent facing the wilderness. She wasn’t trapped in some dungeon somewhere. She wasn’t tied up in a holding cell. She was home, in her bed, and nothing had happened in the night to whisk her away.

I’m home.

She took in a deep, satisfied breath and got out of bed, jumping into her bright red slippers with the letters “L” and “R” on them. The letters were on the wrong feet by design, specifically that of her mother, since she found such little contradictions quite amusing.

Amaris’ first order of business was to check on Pitch in his enclosure—the large enclosure, filled with moss, a humidification system, a large heat lamp, and a snake shaped rock that Pitch liked to lay on. He was currently fast asleep, mouth hanging slightly open. Amaris decided not to bother him, but she did drop a live cricket into the enclosure for him to have fun hunting later. That is, assuming he didn’t sleep all the way until it was time for school, in which case she was going to drag him out, complaints about not being fed or not.

After her morning snake time, she went to the window and threw open the curtains. It was early morning—early enough that the sun hadn’t risen yet, her preferred time of day. This was when her mind was the freshest and when the least other people were out and about, for she was one of those people who struck fear in the hearts of many. A morning person.

As she had gotten into the habit of doing every morning, she checked the world outside for any signs of the strange. Aside from the magnificent ruby flower that adorned the corpse of the Strider in the distance, everything was normal on the suburban street outside. Cars were parked, lights were off, and somewhere far away a dog barked. The maple tree across the street was beginning to lose its leaves. This was how most mornings went unless Amaris managed to catch sight of Jenny out on her “patrol” to make sure nothing made it to the house. One morning she had even witnessed her friend wrestle a large goblin-centipede creature that they had decided to name Skitters. Sadly, Skitters was not pet material and had an unfortunate taste for the blood of humanity, so Jenny had to crack its skull open on a rock. And then clean it up since the local authorities would be absolutely useless in that regard and might end up hurting themselves on something freaky.

Still, today… today was calm. Not a soul moved around out there in the pre-dawn light save a squirrel. This was no indication as to whether today was going to be an “interesting” day or not, but now was always the time the thought came into her mind. Would there be a close call where Jenny wasn’t able to stop something from running in? Would something from the Strider rear its ugly head on the news? Or would there be… just school?

Amaris chuckled to herself. Today, she wanted all of the things to happen. Absolutely impossible to have it all, of course, but at least this way she could be happy no matter what the day brought her. It was a superior way to live, she decided, being up for the crazy and the mundane at any moment.

At long last, she tore her gaze away from her window. Her room was medium-sized for a suburban dwelling and was decorated largely with beautiful mathematical constructs, ranging from fractal patterned drapes to complex interweaving waves to one metal plate that gave the illusion of having a 3D cube printed on it, despite it being completely flat. These were just a small collection of Amaris’ various math knick-knacks. She had a small desk as well where a few books lay, but this was not their permanent place, the “study” had all the books. What did belong there were her notebooks, pencils, and pens.

Last night, she had been working on a drawing of Skitters, as well as what little information they knew about the mysterious bug creature. Her drawing had improved considerably since she was now devoting significant time to practicing, and while it definitely wasn’t the real thing, the three-fanged plated bug was easy to imagine walking around in reality if one accepted the fact that giant bugs existed.

She flipped through the notebook a few times, finding pictures of past encounters. She drew all of them multiple times to improve her skills, and she was getting to the point where the drawings were passable. Still not good enough for proper records, but she’d get there.

One thing she was still really bad at was people. Jenny, Irene, and Orville were all naturally present in her sketches, but never could she get the faces down. Curse human brains and their ability to notice even the slightest difference in facial structure and declare it creepy.

Amaris closed the book and walked to her dresser, choosing her outfit for the day. She was still absolutely terrible at fashion choices—improving art skills or no, she wasn’t exactly becoming more color-coordinated by attempting to draw realistically in monochrome. She decided today she should wear a black and white striped shirt with a neon green vest and a blue skirt sewn to a longer skirt that was of a slightly different color.

“Looking terrible,” Amaris said to the mirror. “…Probably, anyway. Neon clashes with stripes, right?” Amaris shrugged, putting on her boots. She always wore hiking boots. She never knew when something might happen and she’d need to bolt into uneven terrain. The last part of her outfit she placed on was her triangle necklace, which she wore proudly these days. On one side it was a crystal in the shape of Dia’s triangle, but on the other her mother had placed what remained of that old, tattered, beat up shirt she had left the Cat-ival in. That shirt, of all things, meant a lot to Amaris… and now it was shrunken down and the e to the power of x was sewn onto the back of her necklace.

Unchanging, Amaris thought, looking at the mathematical equation. There’s a deep metaphor here I don’t understand, isn’t there? About me, my journey, Dia maybe… or, alternatively, it could mean nothing since I was wearing this before I got cursed and there’s no guarantee it’s interesting in any way except how it relates to me.

With a shrug, Amaris set down the stairs. She was the first one up, which wasn’t unusual. Dad was also a morning person, but he worked late last night so was probably taking the time to rest. On her journey, she passed through the kitchen and took a quick snack—it was carrots, today. Mom probably hid the cookies somewhere. Oh well, not like Amaris needed a cookie right now, she could get one later if she was clever.

Her goal was the study, which had at one point been the office space for both Mom and Dad when Amaris was young, but just before she had vanished the two of them had decided that their ways of working were highly disruptive to each other. Sure, they both considered themselves mathematical artists, but Mom was definitely more artist and Dad was definitely more math. And so the “study” had just become the place to store everything. It was dominated mostly by books—math textbooks and references took up the majority of the space because of how huge such things were, but there were also academic resources on most scientific subjects, as well as quite a few relating to the arts (though naturally significantly fewer of these as, in her Mom’s words, “nobody can make a good art textbook; not even me, and believe me I tried”).

The “study” did not contain just books, and because of this it was a bit of a mess to navigate. The majority of what should have been empty space were taken up by Mom’s art projects, which ranged from small sculptures with intricate patterns to large canvases of lines upon lines upon lines. Dad’s projects were fewer in number, but a few existed—little wooden puzzles with hidden compartments, objects designed to fidget with, and the “perpetual motion machine” that rolled marbles up and down a ramp. The trick was, naturally, the magnet.

Amaris carefully maneuvered between the various projects until she came across one of the bookshelves. Was she in the mood for math today? Art? Some comic books? Oh, there were so many choices…

She decided to settle on a book about strange happenings across the world. That’d probably be a good laugh. Prior to the appearance of the Strider, very few people around here had even believed magical things existed. Now… well, that was now.

Amaris took the book off the shelf and walked to her favorite seat, a nice plush recliner in the living room. She attached a small lamp to the cover of the book and hung it over the pages like an anglerfish lure. It was enough light to read by and was directed in such a way as to keep the rest of the living room dark, which was necessary since there was someone sleeping on the couch.

Irene was bundled up in several blankets and looked more like a cocoon than a person. There was no way to actually see her, every section of her skin was completely covered. The hat nearby suggested she was in there somewhere, but that was no proof.

Irene had no place to stay. She was currently trying to amass enough money to get an apartment, but her job as a grocery cashier wasn’t exactly bringing in the big bucks. At least her parents were totally fine with her just living on the couch. They treated all the people who helped bring Amaris back with great respect. Even Jenny. Who slept out in the woods in the old tent because she liked it. At least, that was how it was last Amaris checked. For all she knew Jenny was now sleeping with the street cats in the alley. She had been offered a place to sleep but had declined, liking to be a “free bird” as it were.

Amaris turned her thoughts back to her book and settled into stories about UFOs, ghosts that were never able to be caught on camera, and mysterious creatures that prowled the dark. She was struck by how little information there was on any of these sightings. A few of them were probably real, yes, but given how much she had seen, these were probably all fake, people’s minds getting the better of them. Or, maybe I’m just a statistical outlier and my experiences should not be counted.

The sun eventually reached the point where it poured through the window and onto the bundle that was Irene. The woman jumped up and threw off the blankets in a handful of seconds, acting a bit like a fabric bomb. She had a smile on her face—less nervous than usual—and quickly put on her hat. “Good morning, Amaris.”

“Morning,” Amaris said, turning her page.

And that was the extent of their interaction for the moment. The two of them had been living in the same house for months, at this point the early morning meeting was exceedingly mundane and trivial. Amaris read or drew or something and Irene invariably ended up in the kitchen. Which was cleaner than it ever had been due to the woman’s presence.

Amaris could hear the sink running. Either Irene was getting some water to boil or there were dishes she was just unable to leave dirty. Were she more self-confident and less distractible, she would have made an excellent janitor or maid. As it was, she tended to rearrange things without thinking about it which confused everyone greatly. It took them forever to find the pepper on top of the fridge last week.

But with the beginnings of Irene rummaging around in the kitchen came Amaris’ Dad. He was a stout man with angled glasses on his face at all times. Even when sleeping. He broke many pairs in his young years, apparently. His hair was almost completely gray now, despite having been almost completely black when Amaris left. Every time she saw him, it reminded her of how long she had been out there.

Almost three years. Technically, if she was counting from this moment, it had been three years since she vanished.

He reached down and patted Amaris on the head. “I love you, Amaris.”

Amaris looked up at him. “I know, and I love you too, but… Dad, I know you’re trying to make up for lost time, thinking you didn’t tell me that enough, but still, you don’t have to do it every day. At the exact same relative time. Like clockwork.”

“Hmm… actually, I think I do have to do it every day, and that not even that is enough. The Fourier series of my love for my daughter diverges no matter how many terms you throw into it.”

Despite herself, Amaris giggled. “Daaaaad…”

“I’m just glad you’re here. I always will be. And we’ll make it through this together.” He sat down on the couch that Irene had just been sleeping in and turned on the TV. A news story was running. Amaris recognized the reporter, a red-haired woman by the name of Scarlet.

“The central Glen of the Strider is almost unrecognizable as belonging to the great monstrosity,” Scarlet said, gesturing at the bundle of green around her. The crew was standing just outside the Glen, but the couldn’t even see the six stones, for everything was obscured by vines arranged like curtains. Around the vines, though, the entire enclosure was absolutely covered in leaves, grass, flowers, and the occasionally glowing mushroom. “This place has come a long way since the first arrival, folks. As you can see, the dryads like their privacy; cameras are not allowed past the veil and most people don’t even get that far.”

At this point, Coleus poked her head out of the vines. “Um… are you Scarlet?”

“Yes, yes I am! And from the reporters at Network Eight, I thank you for seeing us today!”

The news story cut to Scarlet sitting at a desk. “The full interview between Coleus and myself is available and will be airing at the times you see on screen. However, since it is so long, we will simply summarize for this report…”

“I think I was there when this was recorded,” Amaris said, tilting her head to the side. “Huh. Coleus was so flustered and the other dryads really didn’t like her doing this. She even tried to keep the puns under control.”

“Normally, I’d say that people should be themselves in interviews…” her Dad scratched his chin. “Though in her case I think the puns would have just made people angry.”

“Yeah. If only everyone would like her… the dryads are losing patience with her… the Striders hate her… and our people… well…” Amaris folded her arms. “They don’t trust anything from the Strider and I can’t blame them.” Amaris sighed, letting herself flop back into the chair. “She was the big hero, I wish she had things a little easier right now.”

“I’m sure she’ll pull through.”

“Yeah… I think so too. Still rough, though.”

“Anyway, I came up with some new puzzles last night, I want you to look at the design.” He pulled out a sheet of paper with drawings of multiple spherical segments interlocked.

“Ooooh…” Amaris said, taking it in. “Hmm… certainly difficult to solve, I see all your pins there. The question is, will it feel good to move?”

“Always the hardest part of designing the puzzle…”

They talked a bit about the puzzle for a while until Irene poked her head in. “Breakfast… is served!”

At those words, Amaris’ Mom woke up. The woman emerged at the top of the stairs in an ornate green dress adorned with spirograph patterns. She jumped onto the railing and slid all the way down, coming to a stop in the living room with a graceful twirl. “Irene, did I hear mention… of food?”

“Yes, same as every morning,” Irene said.

“Oh, Irene, what am I going to do without you? I’ll have to cook again once you find a place… such a tragedy.”

“W-well I can teach you some of my tricks…”

“Oh, please do, later though. Right now…” Amaris’ Mom all but tore Amaris out of her seat and twirled her around. Amaris was not exactly light, but her Mom managed to move her around effortlessly all the same. “How’s my favorite little girl doing?”

“I’m doing fine.”

“Hi, Doing Fine…”

Amaris glared at her mother.

“I’m Doing Fine as well!” Her Mom set her on the ground, laughing at her own joke. Her Dad was chuckling as well. Despite Irene and Amaris not giving the jokester any laughs, they knew her husband’s chuckle was all that was necessary for the jokes to continue.

They entered the kitchen and sat down… and there was a knock at the door.

“Ah, the door-to-door salesmen are at it early!” Amaris’ Mom stood up and marched to the door and swung it wide. “How can I help you?”

“HEY! AMARIS!” Jenny called from the other side of the door. “I’VE FOUND SOMETHING COOL!”

“CAN I HAVE BREAKFAST FIRST!?” Amaris called out.

“OH! UH! YES!” Jenny stopped yelling. “Hey, Anastasia, can I have breakfast too? I don’t want to sit out here for an hour.”

Amaris’ Mom poked her head back into the house. “Irene, do you have enough?”

“Absolutely!” Irene called back.

“Then you are welcome t—” Jenny had already run into the house and sat down, gripping a fork and a knife in her gloves and ramming the table.

Amaris chuckled. “How goes guard patrol?”

“Nothing today, but I have found a thing and I want you to see the thing but I’m not spoiling what the thing is so ha.” Jenny crossed her arms and gained a smug look about her. “Deal with it.”

“And so… breakfast is served!” Irene set out a punch of plates with round, fluffy pastries on them. “These are Andaskilari Fluffcakes, made with…”

“Pancakes, you mean,” Amaris said.

Irene gasped. “How dare! The fluff is far beyond that of a… a… pedestrian pancake!”

“Pretty sure it isn’t getting up and walking around,” Amaris’ Mom said.

“A pedestrian can be standing still,” her Dad offered.

“Look, just… just eat it, it’s delicious.”

“Agreed!” Jenny said, having already mowed through half a fluffcake.

“How can you have such a large stomach if you don’t need to eat?” Amaris’ Mom asked.

“I have no idea!” Jenny said. “But it’s awesome!”

~~~

“Jenny, why are we at an abandoned farmhouse?”

“Because you’d object to climbing on top of one that people were still using.”

Amaris thought about this for a moment. She was probably right. As it was, her only concern about the abandoned farmhouse in front of her was the fact that it looked like it could collapse in on itself at any moment. How it was still standing with only three vertical supports was beyond Amaris, though perhaps the fact that most of the walls were just gone was enough to declare it fallen, nothing but a skeleton remaining. A skeleton that Jenny was currently climbing up with the help of a ladder.

Amaris judged the strength of the support, performed a quick calculation, and then ran toward it, placing her foot hard on the support to launch herself all the way on top. She landed in a crouched position, trying to make it stylish, but she had not been able to judge the quality of the roof and rammed her left foot through the wood.

Her right stood firm and she kept her body under control, so she didn’t twist anything and her boots protected her. Still… “Ow.”

“Just have to show off, don’t you?”

“My therapist says it’s healthy to turn the marks of my trauma into something everyday.”

“But weren’t you already doing that before? Why do you have to bring the lame cat into this?”

“Antonio is not lame!” Amaris huffed, pulling her foot out of the ground. “Antonio is great, nice, understanding, and…”

“And you’ve said he’s told you that he uses you as a way to relax.”

“Which means we’re helping each other.”

“Amaris, he’s supposed to be helping you relax. That’s how therapists work.”

“But he does!” Amaris rolled her eyes. “You’re just jealous.”

“Am not!”

“Are too.”

Jenny sighed, shaking her head. “Let’s not do this again… instead…” she gestured out at the cornfield they were now looking over. “Behold!”

Amaris’ eyes widened. “Well then…”

A good chunk of the corn stalks had been laid down in some way, forming large paths in the field that could only be viewed from above. Amaris’ angle wasn’t great, but she could still make out a wide circular arc with six points coming out of it that went to other circles, and within each of these circles was a unique pattern of other, smaller lines.

“A crop circle…” Amaris said, putting a hand to her chin. “So, a bunch of pranksters, aliens, or freaky magic voodoo ritual?”

“Well, there’s seven of these spread across town, so… probably not pranksters, I’d say.”

“Hmm…” Amaris quickly pulled out her notebook from her backpack, which allowed Pitch to slither on and around her arm as she scribbled down the basic shape of the crop circle. “It is worthy of investigation. And it does look neat. Not sure why you dragged me out here, though…”

“Because I can show it to you and it won’t blow up or try to kill you or make you suffer or anything!” Jenny said, beaming. “Just. Circles!”

Amaris smiled. “It is pretty neat.” She took a moment to take in the precise mathematical beauty that had been placed over the field. It wasn’t quite symmetric, but the asymmetry was beautiful in a way Amaris couldn’t describe. Perhaps by making enough sketches and studying them she would come to understand…

“Anything else you’d like to tell me about?” Amaris asked.

“Well, I did run into a large hairy hamster creature I think was from the Strider. Bashed its skull in. But in the process of fighting it, I hit something invisible. Some weird eyeball bat thing appeared for a split second and then ran away in a panic.”

“…Flying eyeballs and hairy hamsters. Seems… tame.”

Jenny shrugged. “Maybe your curse is wearing off slowly or something?”

“I don’t think so, things still happen. We might just be building to something.” Amaris glanced at her watch. “I should probably get going to school.”

“Still have no idea why you bother with that, you already know everything you need.”

“Socialization, societal expectation, and believe it or not I’m not the best at language so it’s actually not useless. Though it is infuriatingly inefficient.” She crossed her arms. “I could teach math better than Mr. Bink.”

“I bet.” Jenny jumped off the warehouse and cracked both of her legs. Amaris landed with a much more elegant roll. The two friends stood up and walked away, chatting about life, strangeness, and what else might happen to them.

The corn at the edge of the field rustled. Two round, orange eyes stared out from between the stalks. The eyes watched closely as the two girls walked away.

~~~

Amaris’ school was a somewhat high-class one attached to Nuk University. She only got to go because her father was a professor of Mathematics at the university, and anyone who worked there had the opportunity to send their child to the school on the University’s outskirts. It was well-funded, so students were never hurting for materials, but there were some problems that money couldn’t solve. Such as bad teachers and inefficient curriculum mandated by the government of Yeshalo for reasons nobody seemed to know.

The money did, however, make it so the cafeteria food was actually good. The students at Nuk High ate well and ate plentifully. Today, Amaris had selected a bowl almost entirely filled with shrimp. Well-cooked shrimp with butter at that! Granted, this wasn’t available every day, but today it was and that was great.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The cafeteria itself was very large and full of utter chaos. Amaris had to move carefully and jump around a few times to keep random students from accidentally spilling her food on the floor. She had to watch both for the wild swinging of human arms and the presence of cats at her feet. The student body was roughly half and half of the two different species. Prior to her adventures, Amaris hadn’t thought about this fact too much, but now that she’d returned it was glaringly obvious to her that there was a third type of person not represented in the masses. She still wasn’t sure what to make of this, if anything.

Amaris’ thoughts were interrupted when a cat tried to jump into her food. Amaris recognized Judit, a well-known bully. Amaris had so far managed to escape Judit’s notice, but it looked like today she was finally on Judit’s torture rotation.

Amaris wasn’t about to have any of this and quickly jumped over the jumping cat, landing cleanly on the other side of her and walking toward the table her friends sat at.

“Wh… hey! You! Girl!”

“Me?” Amaris asked, trying to look as innocent as possible.

“Where’d you learn to do that?”

“A distant land. I can show you more if you want.” She noticed that Judit’s posse was starting to form around her. Amaris realized with some amusement that she could probably knock all of them to the ground without spilling her food. But that would probably get her in trouble. She needed another way out of this, since apparently just “dodging” was enough to anger these people, and offering to show them things just made them angrier.

“It seems you’re new here,” Judit said, approaching Amaris.

“Been here for a few months actually, I know who you are, Judit. I’m Amaris.”

“I didn’t ask your name!”

“You didn’t look like you knew it, so…”

“Wipe that smarmy look off your face.”

Amaris wiped her face with her hand.

“That’s it, you’re gonna pay for that…”

“Look, Judit, what exactly do you want from me?” Amaris tilted her head to the side.

“Er… what?”

“There’s no lunch money to steal, I have no social standing to speak of, and I can probably run fast enough to grab a teacher at the worst moment for you.” To prove her point she jumped over one of Judit’s girls that was trying to circle her from behind. “Like that.”

“I want… respect. And servitude.”

“Ah. And you can’t get that from me so an example must be made out of me so everyone knows that not giving you those things is entirely unacceptable. And even if I get away now you’ll find me outside of school or in some alley or something and beat me up there, and the police aren’t going to take a bullying threat seriously…” Amaris clicked her tongue. “Hmm, this really is annoying. Because I am flat out not going to respect you.”

This seemed to confuse Judit more than anything. Which, honestly, was all Amaris had going right now. Maybe she’d be confused enough to let her go? As it was, this probably was going to end with her being targeted and probably needing to ask for assistance. With bullies. Though, if she waited until they targeted her out of school, she could take them… but that might get her in trouble since she was cursed with interesting.

Man, this situation just kinda sucks in general.

Judit narrowed her eyes. “You’ve just publicly declared war in the middle of the cafeteria, Amaris. I will make you wish you had never been born.”

“Unlikely.”

“We’ll see about that, smart mouth. Everyone, grab her, we’re going t—”

The doors to the cafeteria slammed open, revealing one of the teachers. “We forgot that Network Eight was coming in to film the school! Everyone, whatever you’re doing in two minutes will reflect on the school! So like…” the teacher gestured at Amaris and Judit. “Whatever this is, stop it, or I’ll find a way to expel everyone involved. The reputation of the school is on the line AGH!” With that, she ran out of the cafeteria.

“…Think you can beat me up in two minutes and not be caught on camera?” Amaris asked.

Judit hissed. “You won’t last long, Amaris. Mark my words.”

“Marked.” And ignored.

With that, Judit and her posse backed off. Amaris scrambled over to the table she sat at near a window. The window had a very specific purpose: if Jenny wanted to show up for lunch, she could. Currently, though, she wasn’t here, and the only people at the table were Amaris’ two school friends.

One of them was a blonde girl with a semi-permanent sweet smile on her face. Unlike Amaris, she knew how to coordinate her outfit and had a nice white blouse with rose patterns on it that matched the flowers on her leggings, though the background color on these was predominantly black. She was slightly younger than Amaris, but not by much—after all, she had been one of Amaris’ friends before Amaris had vanished, and was the only one to still remain.

“Hey Emma.”

“Amaris, I don’t know if you’re insane or brilliant,” Emma said.

“She’s both,” the third member of the table said. She was of a medium skin tone and had wiry dark blue hair. She wore a black jacket, designer jeans, and a shirt made out of some exotic fabric that Amaris wasn’t interested in analyzing. She had a rather stunning ruby necklace as well as sparkling sapphire earrings. Her tail flicked in the air behind her.

This was Rin. The only neko in the entire school.

“By the way, that’s not a compliment,” Rin continued. “The combination of your insanity and your brilliance results in explosions. Nuclear something something.”

Amaris chuckled as she sat down, setting her bowl of shrimp on the table and her backpack on the ground. Pitch slithered out of the pack as soon as it was set on the ground and glared at Amaris.

“He seems upset,” Emma observed.

“I woke him up quickly today,” Amaris explained. “He didn’t get to hunt his cricket.” She pulled out a dried cricket and gave it to him. He ate it, but he still glared at her.

“You know, Mrs. Bifflesworth is trying to get Pitch banned from school…” Emma said.

Amaris snorted. “She’ll have to go through Dad and Rin’s Dad.”

“And nobody can tell my family what to do,” Rin said, leaning back and examining the glitter on her nails.

“I forget you two have family and connections to the school sometimes. Anyway…” Emma glanced over her shoulder. “Anyone notice that Ralph hasn’t signed up for the team yet?”

Amaris groaned and Rin put her fingers to the bridge of her nose.

“Oh come on, Ralph’s amazing!”

Amaris pressed her hands together. “He’s a meathead.”

“Well, yeah, but being dumb doesn’t make him a bad person! He’s just so… dreamy…”

“Then go talk to him.”

“Amaris, I do not have your self-confidence.”

“Going to talk to him would be a good way to get it,” Rin said. “…Though it may cause other problems due to rejection, leading on, realizing that he’s not as good of a person as you think from afar, or maybe he just has a murderous streak against certain people. Or me in particular.”

“Maybe don’t give her reasons to panic?” Amaris suggested.

At this point, the reporters from Network Eight arrived and their conversation died down. Amaris was pleasantly surprised to see it was Scarlet.

“And here we see the state-of-the-art cafeteria of Nuk High, making sure the students have the best of the best in terms of nutrition, flavor, and, of course, various allergenic workarounds. There’s something here for everyone, and it’s a great place for kids to get to know one another!” Scarlett was walking backward while looking at a cameraman, but she somehow managed not to trip over anything.

Amaris took in Scarlet’s outfit as she approached. Narrow rectangular glasses adorned her angular face, and her suit matched the bright color of her lengthy hair after which she was named. The suit had pointed shoulders, a feature Jenny would approve of were she here, and sported a blue zig-zag tie. Amaris had seen Scarlet many times, and she had never seen the same tie twice.

“…Nuk University currently wishes to expand further and plans to redistribute the budget are underway. However, they have promised that the quality of life for students will not be cut, even for the younger ones. So they can look forward to meals like this for years to come!” She held her grin for a few seconds before cutting across her neck to cut the video. “And is that all we need? Because I think if we want to take it again we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the timing right.”

The cameraman indicated it was all good with a flick of his tail and a lifting of his paw.

“Great! See you for the next shoot.” At this point, Scarlet leaned onto the table. “Why hello there, Amaris!”

“Hey, Scarlet.”

Emma would have done a spit take were she drinking anything at the moment. “You know Scarlet Taylor!?”

“Well, yeah. We’re neighbors.” Amaris blinked. “I guess I never mentioned it.”

“Irene cooks a mean chimichanga,” Scarlet said.

Emma’s mouth watered. “I know… she cooked them for us last time we were there…”

“Anyway, this is Emma and Rin,” Amaris introduced. “You all… know Scarlet.”

“She’s only the best reporter in town!” Emma clapped her hands. “This is so amazing! Hi! Can I have your autograph?”

Scarlet pulled out a business card with her autograph on it. “I come prepared.”

Emma snatched it like it was a precious treasure.

Rin rolled her eyes.

Scarlet frowned. “Hmm… usually I give gifts to the kids who don’t like me, but I can’t think of anything the great Rin Kugimiya doesn’t already have.” Scarlet chuckled. “Guess I’ll just have to break through to you the hard way.”

“Using me as a battering ram?” Amaris suggested.

“Yes, precisely,” Scarlet said with a wink. “Anyway, Amaris, got any good stories sniffed out for me?”

Amaris thought for a moment. “You probably already know about the crop circles.”

“Yes, we’re already done shooting on that.”

“Jenny mentioned finding some kind of flying invisible eye.”

“Hmm. That’s a new one.”

“You haven’t met Jenny, have you? I should introduce you sometime, she’s fun. Though, uh, I’d rather you didn’t do a story on her.”

“Consider it done. No stories on you, no stories on this Jenny.” Scarlet winked and gave Amaris a finger gun gesture. “Always good talking with you, little miss interesting.”

“Let me know if you figure anything out!”

“If they won’t put it on the Network you’ll be among the first to know!” Scarlet waved warmly and walked off, returning to her film crew.

“…Amaris, do you know any other famous people you haven’t told us about?” Emma asked. “…Do you know President Castillero?”

“Oh, uh, no. And Scarlet’s not really famous, Emma, Nuk isn’t that big of a city. I do know famous people… who are far away. And Coleus, I guess, but I’ve already introduced you to her so…”

“Now who’s feeding her crazy?” Rin asked.

“I think Emma’s the sanest person I know. Dreams of boys, famous people, and flowers. Y’know. Things girls are supposed to do.”

“She likes school though,” Rin said. “That’s not normal.”

“True.” Amaris gave Emma a smile. “A normal girl wouldn’t choose to hang around me, would she?”

“I mean, I have to be insane, you two always roll your eyes at whatever I think is cool.” Emma paused. “Unless it’s space. Space is cool.”

“And a lie,” Amaris added.

“That makes it even cooler! What actually is out there beyond the dark you found? What actually are the sun and moon?” Emma grinned. “I… I wanna know. I wanna see the coolness.”

“You know, wish that hard enough and my curse might just latch onto you and make you regret it.”

“In that case, let me clarify. Hey, mister curse? I do not want to go on adventures. I just want to see the results of adventures. K? K.” She looked rather proud and smug about this.

Rin raised an eyebrow. “If the curse had a mind I’m pretty sure it’d be trying to put you on an adventure now.”

“Yeah, well… then the curse is a meanie.”

“Obviously. It’s a curse, Emma.”

“She made it work.”

Amaris sat back and watched as her two friends argued over the nature of her curse. She wasn’t sure why she found this so entertaining.

~~~

Later that day, the three of them walked out of their last class… and, as usual, had an hour to kill before Emma and Rin’s bus arrived. Amaris had no bus since her home was within walking distance, she could easily make it back in half an hour. As such, the three of them just… wandered around the school, talking. They were currently in a hallway with a lot of lockers and a few dozen students.

“Okay, so, using your words…” Emma started counting off her fingers. “I have a counterpoint. It is not silly or frivolous to think about boys, it forges… relational skills, spies out the potential for an excellent husband, and… uh… …I was hoping for three reasons here…”

“Falling into the trap of not knowing where you’re going when you start talking,” Amaris said, clicking her tongue. “Dangerous. We’ll weed it out of you eventually.”

“I’m not so sure she has the capacity within her,” Rin said. “Much as you are incapable of dressing properly. That… thing you are in right now. Garish.”

Amaris twirled as though she were on a runway. Emma clapped.

Rin opened her mouth like she wanted to object, but then a confused expression crossed over her face.

“What is it?” Emma asked.

“I just… felt a strange urge to turn and walk away.”

“Mighta been funny,” Amaris said. “If you timed it right.”

“Or you might just wanna get home already, like me,” Emma said with a groan. “Why did classes have to end up like this? I want dinner…”

Orville popped into Amaris’ perceptions. “Greetings!”

“Oh, girls, Orville just showed up,” Amaris said. “Hi, Orville.”

“Freaky ghost…” Rin muttered.

“Hi Orville!” Emma said cheerfully, even though he was not in her memories right now.

“Such a pleasant girl,” Orville said. “Anyway, Amaris, just dropping by. Went on a trip to the far north, found volcano creatures. I’ll tell you more about it for your notebooks later. Has anything happened while I was gone?”

Amaris shook her head. “No, not really. Jenny’s found some crop circles, if you want to check those out. Otherwise same as usual.”

“Great. In that case, I’m off to pay Irene a visit. Hopefully the customers haven’t driven her insane yet.” He tipped his hat and vanished.

“If I hadn’t seen him myself I would still think you were crazy,” Rin said.

“Magic is real, and nobody can deny it anymore,” Amaris said with a chuckle. “You just happen to get a front-row seat.”

“Joy.”

At this point, Amaris noticed something odd.

The hallway was abandoned except for the three of them.

Amaris narrowed her eyes. “Girls, something’s up.”

Emma immediately inched closer to Amaris. Rin rolled her eyes. “Really, Amaris?”

“I’m serious. The hallway is abandoned. It’s never abandoned.”

Rin glanced around, frowning. Not only was it abandoned, but every single locker was closed and locked tight. The hair on her tail started to stand on end. “We need to run, don’t we?”

Amaris tilted her head. “Maybe, but from what and where?”

“I… I don’t know, we just need to run.”

“Jenny will protect us, right?” Emma asked.

Amaris shook her head. “We can’t count on that, whatever’s made everyone vanish from the hall could have made her vanish as well…” She turned to Rin. “You said earlier that you had a strange urge to turn and walk away all of the sudden. Maybe something caused that.”

“…I got something similar,” Emma said. “But I just thought it was me being hungry…” She gripped Amaris by the arm. “I-is something going to eat us?”

“Not if I can help it,” Amaris said. The school didn’t allow any weapons, so she didn’t have her bow on her, but she did have some fragments of the anti-magic crystals. She always kept those on her.

She whipped her head left and right, trying to find anything to indicate what was wrong. However, all her eyes showed her was an empty hallway in both directions. Her ears, however, told her a different story. She could hear something a fair distance away grinding along the ground… like some kind of massive granite stone that was rolling slowly toward them.

“Whatever it is, it’s that way,” Amaris said, pointing down the hall. “Back the other way, Rin, keep your eyes behind us in case there’s something over there.”

“G-got it,” Rin stammered. Emma was in no position to do much more than slowly back away, horror evident on her face. They’re just kids, Amaris noted. Even Rin’s not prepared for this.

As they backed away, Amaris determined that whatever was following them was not truly invisible—she saw two pupil-less orange eyes appear as if they were rolling along the outside of an invisible sphere. The rolling stopped as soon as the eyes were directly forward, and the grinding sound ceased.

The only sound was the heavy near-panicked breathing from Emma.

The creature dropped its invisibility, revealing itself to actually be made out of granite. The eyes looked painted on, despite the fact that they were glowing. Everything about it seemed old, worn, and decaying. The only other defining feature was its mouth—a pie-shaped wedge cut out of its front that was filled with granite teeth lined up in row after row, dozens of rows going so far back there was no way that much space could physically exist within the granite sphere they were looking at.

The teeth began whirling like a chainsaw. The beast began to roll at them, except this time the eyes and the mouth remained fixed on them, sliding across the surface of the sphere like it wasn’t really part of them.

Amaris didn’t think she could kick her way through a stone monster, and an anti-magic plan would probably only stop the infinite mouth, allowing them to be crushed by the rock. So the only option really was to run right now.

“Run!” Amaris called. Rin listened—Emma didn’t, so Amaris had to hoist the girl up in her arms and take off down the hallway. Emma may have been a light girl, and Amaris very strong, but she was still slowed by the weight of a whole other person in addition to her backpack. Amaris realized with some annoyance that the direction they were heading was deeper into the school, but she didn’t really have any other options.

The hall was filled with the sounds of Amaris and Rin’s feet mixed with Emma’s soft sobs—at least the girl wasn’t resisting being carried. Amaris pushed all of this aside and focused on one thing: how to keep them alive. She brought up her mental map of the school, looking for some kind of window or path to the exit. To her shock, there simply wasn’t one in the direction they were going. It led to the central classrooms for the seniors, all of which were in the center of the building.

Who designs a school like this!?

She hadn’t figured out a course of action by the time they arrived at the end of the hallway, so she darted to the left without really thinking. They were a little faster than the rolling creature, but that wasn’t going to mean much if there was nowhere to go.

Amaris’ choice led them into another, shorter hallway that was slightly wider, but still not wide enough to safely look at the ball chasing them. In fact, she didn’t think any of the classrooms here were large enough for that—she could do it, certainly, but making sure all three of them survived while dancing around a bunch of classroom desks wasn’t something she trusted herself to do.

If looping it wouldn’t work, perhaps angering it, getting it to charge and embed itself in a wall? That was extremely risky and would involve her playing decoy. Furthermore, it wasn’t exactly going fast, it might not get stuck long enough for them to get around it. She filed the idea away for later in case she ran out of options.

Finally, though, her mental map gave her something interesting. The hallways in this part of the school looped. They just had to run all the way around the section and make it back to the start, at which point they could run to the exit.

It would be a long run, but it was doable.

Rin collapsed onto the ground.

But she won’t be able to make it, and I won’t be able to carry both of them effectively… She still reached down to help Rin up. “We’ll need to run a lot longer to go for my current escape plan. Can you do it?”

Rin shook her head, breathing too heavily to speak.

Amaris glanced back at the stone rolling at them. They had some distance between them, but only a few seconds. She let out a terse breath and threw Emma into the air so she could pick Rin up and stack them both on top of each other. Now the weight was too much for her and the stone thing would catch up, but her new plan didn’t involve running for much longer. It involved a gamble.

“Rin! Get the crystals out of my backpack!”

Rin was aware enough to do this while Amaris ran, getting the crystals that had been harvested from the arrowheads. Each one was bound together with string, allowing two crystals to flash in sequence, continually active.

“Good. Now smash the lock when we get there!”

“What?”

“Smash the lock when we get there!”

She slid to a dramatic stop in front of a heavy, metal door that had a huge padlock on it. The sign on the door said BASEMENT: NO ENTRY. Was this going deeper into the school? Yes. However, Amaris didn’t know what the rooms were like down there, and if she knew anything, basements were used for storage and often had very large rooms, especially for buildings of this sort. Might even be some things in there she could use, maybe some chemistry experiment chemicals, or something.

Rin drove the crystals into the lock, their supreme sharpness utterly destroying the lock—and making a few cuts in her hands as her attack was very uncontrolled. But that was enough, the door could be opened. As Amaris’ hands were still very busy with two people, she reached out and opened the door for them—it was a very rusty and awkward knob, to be sure.

It led to a stairwell that descended deep into the ground, deeper than any basement should have been built.

“Welp!” Amaris said, jumping through the door. “Into the frying pan and into the fire, I guess!” She turned around, pushing the door closed with her foot. It was heavy, metal, and reinforced. “I sure hope we didn’t just release something…”

Before she could get it fully closed, though, the stone creature arrived, ramming itself into the doorframe. The force was at an angle—the creature was trying to prop the door open, not force it open—but it was still enough to knock Amaris back from the door. Even with her excellent coordination, she was unable to hold her footing and was forced to backpedal down the stairs. There would be no closing the door.

So, instead, she twisted around—an act that twisted her ankle since she was so heavy—and ran down the stairs.

Running down stairs is a very dangerous activity. But it is very fast, which is quite necessary in situations where one is being chased by a rolling ball that has no issue at all going downhill at a rapid pace.

Despite the difficulties, they did arrive at the basement. But it was not at all what Amaris was expecting. Sure, it was made largely of polished stone, and it was a bit larger than the rooms above ground, but nothing was stored here. It was completely empty. There were walls, metal doors like the one at the top of the stairs, and that was it. There wasn’t even any dust.

She wasn’t sure anyone had been down here in years.

She ran to one of the metal doors, starting to feel the pain in her legs. She had been careful to keep her physical health up, but this was a bit extreme. Her legs would give out if they had to keep this level of nonsense up for much longer. Rin pulled the door open and they entered another room with nothing in it, but there was a door on the other side.

A lightbulb went off in Amaris’ head. I just need to find a way to cycle around…

The sound of rock rolling along rock told her she did not have much time. She had to hope the loop she wanted would be a short one, or one she could make faster than the beast. She bolted across the room and opened the door, finding another empty room, but this one had multiple doors and was much larger.

She didn’t trust herself to try to dodge around the creature at the moment, so she went with her current plan. She chose the door that looked like it might lead back to the original room eventually. The room on the other side looked identical to the one two doors previously… except there was a full human skeleton encased in some kind of glass cube situated to the side.

Think about that later, it’s not useful. …Might be dangerous though.

She ran across the room. Rin opened the door… and they arrived back where they had been originally. Good. I can loop it.

She did not trust herself to climb the stairs, she wasn’t sure if the beast could follow. However, she had a better idea. She ran back to the first room they had entered. The moment she did so, she dropped her two friends and slammed the door shut. There was no lock, but the doorknob’s bolt was rusty and very firm.

The spherical monster rammed into the door. There was a supremely loud clang that made everyone’s ears hurt… but the massive door held.

Amaris wasted no time running to the other side of the room and closing that door.

“A-amaris! You just sealed us in!” Rin shouted.

“I’m just covering my bases in case it’s smarter than it looks,” Amaris said. There was another loud clank from the same door as before. “And it doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“It’ll break that door down eventually…”

Amaris examined the door, frowning. The door hadn’t budged. “I’m not so sure… but we don’t need it to last lo—” she was interrupted by another loud clang. “…We don’t need it to last long anyway. Emma, can you stand?”

Sniffling, Emma stood. “Y-yeah…”

“I need you and Rin to stand next to that door over there, the one the monster isn’t at, with my backpack.” She took off her backpack and handed it to them—though Pitch opted to stay on her, wrapping around her neck. “You need to be ready to open it and run through at a moment’s notice. Got it?”

Emma nodded slowly while Rin did so dutifully.

“Our goal is to trap the creature in this room. It has no hands, it can’t use doorknobs.”

Rin and Emma did as asked. Meanwhile, Amaris herself approached the door the creature was periodically slamming into. With a deep breath, Amaris placed her hand on the knob. She took in a sharp breath. Please let this work.

Amaris waited for a clank. Then she opened the door and took off at full sprint. “NOW!”

Emma and Rin opened the door and ran through. Rin remembered what they were doing and stayed behind to slam the door shut just after Amaris passed through it.

“Make sure the knob is secure!” Amaris yelled back as she continued running. At full speed, she was a sight to behold. Even exhausted, she moved like the wind, pumping her arms left and right and taking extremely tight turns by jumping and ramming her foot into the ground at an angle. She passed through the skeleton room once again and returned to the original room.

She could see it. Through the doorway, the stone creature, ramming against the door Rin had closed.

Gotcha.

As she closed the distance to the door, her footsteps alerted the creature. It turned around and saw her approaching it. It had no facial expression, but she sensed that it was quite angry. It charged.

Amaris ran to the door, grabbed the knob, and pulled it shut.

The slam was nowhere near as loud as the previous ones, but the finality of it sent shivers down Amaris’ spine.

“We… we did it!” Amaris shouted. “It’s trapped!”

Rin and Emma emerged from the skeleton room, carrying Amaris’ backpack. She graciously accepted it back from them, taking a moment to take stock of the two of them. Rin was clearly shaken but was able to hold herself up. Emma, on the other hand, was a red-faced sniffling mess who shook with every step.

“Emma… let’s get you out of here,” Amaris said, putting an arm around her friend’s shoulder.

“H-how do you do it?” Emma stammered.

“…I didn’t have a choice.”

At this point, Jenny ran down the stairs, fists aflame. “All right, I hear the monster, where is it!?”

“You’re late,” Rin spat.

Jenny performed a quick head count. “You all seem fine.”

“We just ran for our lives from a giant… ball… mouth… monster thing!”

“And none of you are injured or dead, that means I didn’t arrive too late.” She dusted off her gloves. “So, where i—” There was a loud clang from the door behind them. Emma winced. “Ah. There. Trapped, I guess?”

Amaris nodded. “This… basement seems to be a good place to hold things. I am… really not sure why, though. There’s also a skeleton encased in glass in that room over there.”

Jenny poked her head through and, sure enough, there was the skeleton. “Weird.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll explore this place for you,” Jenny said, flexing her wrist. “You get the other two to safety.”

Amaris nodded. “Let’s get you girls home.”

“Home…”

~~~

Amaris returned later that afternoon to the basement with a lock. A lock she had the key to, naturally, but a lock nonetheless. She replaced the one they’d broken… and then descended the stairs.

The basement looked much the same as before, though Jenny had moved some heavy furniture and placed it in front of the door keeping the rock monster in. Currently, it wasn’t trying to ram into or destroy anything. All of the other doors had been opened. One of them looked like it had been burned and battered.

“Jenny!” Amaris called.

Her words easily echoed through the basement, reaching Jenny quickly. “Coming!” The immortal child took a minute to get to her, but arrive she did.

“So, what have you found?”

“These doors are extremely strong, I’m not even sure what they’re made of,” Jenny said. “The punches weren’t doing anything to them. I’d have more luck tunneling through the rock walls! Which… yeah it turns out I can do. Rock punch for the win.” She flexed her wrist.

“Did you find anything?”

“More skeletons encased in… well I’m pretty sure it’s not actually glass but it sure looks like it. All human, no cats, no neko, nothing else. I’ve found four edges to the area but I haven’t mapped the entire thing out yet, so this isn’t some endless corridor nonsense. But… there’s like, nothing down here at all but the skeletons. It’s lifeless here.”

“And nothing strange happened to you while you were here?”

Jenny shook her head. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Hmm… we’ll need to test a bit more to make sure this place is truly inert and not a curse waiting to happen. But if it is safe… nobody uses it, so we might be able to use it.”

“How so?”

“Some of the things we encounter can’t be killed or destroyed, or maybe we don’t want to do that to them. We… could keep them here.”

“…Lock monsters in the school basement?”

“I mean… it’s probably the safest place to put them, if even you couldn’t destroy those doors. The school’s clearly not using it…” Amaris frowned. “And I don’t think I could even ask for permission. The university’s official stance is still that magic isn’t real.”

“Idiots.”

“I think more like slow bureaucracy.” Amaris tapped her foot. “Until we find a better place to deal with all the things that go after me, we can use here.”

Jenny shrugged. “If you think so. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen for me.”

“Same here. But we should be trying to deal with all these things rather than just trying to survive. Remember, I do want to turn this curse into a way to help more people.” She shook her head. “This town used to be normal, and now the Strider’s brought all sorts of nonsense…”

“Um… Amaris?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m pretty sure this basement has been here much longer than the Strider has, and a basement full of nothing but glass-encased human skeletons is not normal.”

Amaris blinked. “That’s… that’s true.” A shiver ran down Amaris’ spine. “My curse doesn’t make new things… it just makes things that are already there show themselves.” She placed her hand on one of the basement walls, frowning. “…There was that mirror in the Cat-ival. There… of course there could be more.”

Pitch licked her cheek.

“There’s something wrong with this, Jenny.” Amaris took a step back from the wall. “I don’t know what it is. But there’s something wrong. And we’re going to figure out what it is.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Amaris giggled. “Yeah. Anyway, I’m going home to have dinner, got quite the story for Mom and Dad today.”

“What are they going to think about you locking monsters in the school basement?”

“Dunno. I expect Dad will immediately try to find a way to use his influence to get somewhere ‘better’ and less ‘legally dubious.’ Mom will want to come down and see it. I’m more worried about Emma’s parents, honestly, if they ever find anything out. She won’t even tell them about Rin’s existence, and I can’t bring myself to blame her.”

“What about Rin’s parents?”

“Currently believe the stories she tells them about me are exaggerations.”

“Well we can fix that…”

“Most people don’t believe us, we don’t have time to go out of our way and clarify everything to everyone.” Amaris shrugged. “It is… the way it is. Anyway, see you around.” She hoisted up her backpack and set off to home.

Home.

She could go home after adventures, now.

A big, stupid grin sat on her face the entire way back.