“This… this place is incredible.” Even as she said those words, Hannah Daniels was still turning in a slow circle to take in the whole sight of the school grounds stretched across the tropical island below her. The dark-haired teenage girl was dressed in well-worn jeans, tennis shoes that probably should have been replaced a month or so earlier, and an unzipped gray sweatshirt over a simple black tee with the words, ‘Daring Donuts’ written across it. She stood at the edge of the lighthouse that Professor Dare had brought her and the other first year students to. They were the-- what was the word the woman had used? Bystander-Kin. They were the people, like Hannah, who had grown up in the regular world and hadn’t known anything about any of this… this magic stuff until about ten minutes ago.

Well, Hannah had found out about it ten minutes ago. Maybe fifteen by now. Apparently everyone else in this group had been approached months ago, at the beginning of summer. They’d had a lot more time to come to terms with all this. But Hannah was--well, she didn’t know why she was so late. All this Virginia Dare (Yes, that Virginia Dare, which was just about the most ridiculous and insane thing she’d ever heard in her whole life) would say was that there had been some sort of vote to determine whether she should be allowed to come to the school. When Hannah asked why they had to vote about her, Professor Dare had just said that it was a story for another time. Which was… weird. But then again, she really didn’t have time to focus on that right now, because she was standing on tropical island Hogwarts! Or Camp Half-Blood. Or Beacon Academy. Which of those was more of--oh who cared, the point was this whole thing was insane! She was standing in a magical lighthouse on a magical island after going through a magical portal all the way from Dodge City, Kansas!

“Yup, definitely incredible.” A boy standing nearby said that, and Hannah half-glanced that way to see him staring at her shirt. At least, she thought he was looking at her shirt. Trying to read the name of the donut shop her parents owned?

No. No, he certainly was not trying to read the words on the shirt. Belatedly realizing just what the boy was staring at when he murmured that agreement, Hannah quickly turned away and zipped her sweatshirt up as a deep blush rose across her cheeks. Several comments came to mind about telling the boy that staring like that was rude and made her uncomfortable, but it took her a few moments to work her way up to actually saying something. Really, wasn’t it easier to just ignore it?

But her father had been telling her she should be more assertive. So, once she finally worked up her nerve, Hannah turned and opened her mouth to tell him off. Or at least tell him something. And yet, even as her mouth opened, the girl found herself staring at empty space. Or a wall, rather. The boy had already turned to go focus on something else, meaning she had just spent the past several seconds psyching herself up to tell him off for staring at her like that and he had already dismissed it from his mind like it didn’t matter. And now if she pursued him and tried to say anything, everyone would think she was a crazy person. Because when you were a girl people liked to stare at, you could either call them out in the act and be considered an icy cunt, or you could try to tell them in private that it made you uncomfortable and they would act like you were imagining things. Or worse, think you were hitting on them.

See, this was why ignoring it and not saying anything was better. Shoving the zipper of her sweatshirt all the way to her chin before folding her arms around herself, Hannah did her best to put all of it out of her mind and focus, as Professor Dare stopped talking to those twin girls who had apparently spent a lot of time at this place and stepped up to address the group. She went on about showing them visions of the past through this lighthouse, which apparently would do something about allowing them to see monsters in the real world or--was anyone else having trouble following what she was talking about? Hannah had a sneaking suspicion that most of these people had gotten a much more thorough explanation of all this before now.

In any case, before she knew what was happening, a flash of light filled the young woman’s eyes, making her reel backward with a gasp. Professor Dare’s words about this being the true Heretical Edge echoed through the air.

And then Hannah was standing in the rain. Except she wasn’t getting wet. This was one of those visions that Professor Dare had just been talking about. She was on the sidewalk in the middle of a big city, very late at night. There were parked cars nearby that looked like they came from the seventies. To one side, she could see a woman running into an alley, carrying something in both arms. A much larger figure stalked after her from behind, dragging a heavy axe along the ground. He had to be at least eight feet tall, and very wide with a mixture of fat and muscle. His skin looked purple, and unless Hannah was going crazy (it was very possible), he had eight fingers on each hand.

Just as Hannah was taking that in, Professor Dare’s voice came out of nowhere, informing the girl (and everyone else in their own visions, she assumed) that this was a memory passed along through her family line of a time one of her ancestors saw a Stranger. Capital S, Hannah reminded herself. One of the non-human creatures, like… well, the giant purple thing with the axe.

This… this was what she was supposed to see. Looking that way once more, the girl took a breath to steel herself, then took one step, followed by another. It was just a vision. It was just a memory. She wasn’t really here. The thing in the alley couldn’t hurt her.

Peeking around the corner, she found the big thing standing over the woman. Her ancestor. Well, grandmother or something like that, judging from those cars on the street. Or an aunt, maybe? She wasn’t sure how that worked, and didn’t know anything about her birth family anyway. Hannah had been adopted as a baby after her mother had died during childbirth and her father abandoned her. She grew up knowing that her parents weren’t her birth parents, but that they still loved her just the same.

Whoever the woman was, she had fallen to the ground. Only now did Hannah see the blood seeping out from her stomach. She had already been injured, and the thing she had been carrying was a person, a little girl who couldn’t have been older than five or so. The young child was crying, screeching really, as she tried to reach out for her mother, only to be contemptuously kicked aside by the enormous purple-skinned man.

“Leave her alone!” the older, injured woman shouted, trying to push herself up. But the axe was at her throat in an instant.

“You don’t need to worry about the babe no more,” the big man growled. “Ain’t nothing neither of you gonna need to worry about ever again.” A dark chuckle escaped him then. “And once I collect the bounty, I won’t need to worry about nothing ever again either.”

“Alicia!” the woman shouted from her knees. “I love you!” Her hand snapped up then, revealing a small glass ball with writing on it, before she snapped a word in what sounded like latin.

“Leap Crys--no!” The purple figure went to grab the ball, but she had already thrown it at her daughter. The crystal was glowing brightly as it struck the small child in the chest, the girl crying out for her mother just as she vanished from sight.

“We live on,” the woman snarled, panting from what sounded like deep exertion despite the fact that she hadn’t gone anywhere or done anything more than throwing that magic ball. “Your masters failed again. They won’t be happy with you.”

“Happy enough to know they’re down to one more,” was the snapped retort. “And wherever you sent the little bitch, a kid can’t be that hard to find. And you… well, you ain’t gonna be there to help.”

“Someone will,” the woman informed him in a flat voice. “Someone always--”

Hannah saw the man swing the axe, and jerked her gaze away at the last second. But she still heard the results, and unbidden tears sprang to her eyes just as the vision faded. With that, she was back in the lighthouse, among others. Quickly, she blinked the tears away. Everyone else was talking about what they’d seen, excitedly or emotionally going on about the monsters in their vision. But Hannah didn’t say anything. She stepped out of the way, folding her arms tightly around herself as she stared at nothing.

Soon, they were taken on a tour of the island by those twins, Sands and Scout Mason. There was something about someone who was supposed to be there to give the tour, but hadn’t shown up. So those two had volunteered. From what Hannah had been able to pick out, they actually grew up on this island. Their dad was one of the teachers or something.

She was a bit distracted during the first part of the tour, unable to get the look of that doomed woman’s eyes out of her mind. She’d looked away just before the woman was beheaded, but the sick sound of the axe going through-- Bile rose in her throat as a shudder ran through her, and Hannah forcibly shoved the memory away. She would have to think about that later, about all of it, including the question of who on Earth had been killing her grandmother or great-aunt or whoever--was her bio-mother’s name Alicia? She couldn’t even remember. It wasn’t really something she thought about that much. But either way, the way that woman had been talking…

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It was a lot. It was all a lot. Part of her had wanted to immediately ask Professor Dare about it, but not in front of everyone. The woman was busy. She would… yeah, she would talk to someone later.

The dorms. They had reached the dorms. Sands was explaining about how the statues in front would come to life to stop anyone under eighteen from entering the wrong sex dorm, and Hannah was about to work up the nerve to ask what they did about nonbinary students when everyone was sent in to find their rooms. Once again, before she could open her mouth to actually speak up, everyone had already moved on.

Sighing at herself, Hannah followed suit, walking down the first floor hall past other students who were excitedly checking which dorm was theirs. Finally, she found the door with her name written on the plaque next to it. A small manila envelope was taped to the plaque, and she found the promised key inside. According to Sands, the key would allow her to open her door as long as it was on her person, rather than actually needing to physically unlock it. So, with a curious look, she held it in one hand before reaching out to touch the doorknob.

Only then did she glance at the plaque beneath her own name. It had been covered by the envelope before. But now she could see the name written there. Or rather, the word. Trouble.

Um. Why was the word Trouble engraved on a plaque under her own name? Wasn’t that supposed to be where her roommate’s name was? What was--

The door abruptly opened in Hannah’s hand, revealing a pretty girl with dirty-blonde hair tied in a loose ponytail and wearing what looked like workout clothes. The instant she saw someone standing there, the blonde girl’s hand snapped out, a knife seeming to magically appear there. Before Hannah could so much as squeak, the stranger (lower-case s) was right up in her face, knife held close to her jugular while the girl’s other hand caught the back of her neck to stop her from moving.

“So you think you can break in and fuck with my stuff?” she snarled darkly. “You think that’s funny?”

Eyes darting down to the blade and then back up again, Hannah tried to answer without moving her mouth or throat very much. It came out as a tiny, pleading squeak. “No.” Oh God, oh God, she was gonna die. She had been in magic school for twenty minutes and she was already about to die!

“You--” The blonde girl stopped, frowning uncertainly. Her gaze dropped to find the envelope and key in Hannah’s hand, then she glanced up once more. A look of realization crossed her face and she cursed, stepping back. The knife disappeared. “Fuck, that’s today? You’re my new roommate. I can't believe I forgot that was today.”

Oh, oh thank God, she could breathe. She could swallow without feeling that sharp blade cutting into her skin. Hannah immediately half-collapsed, slumping against the doorjamb. “I--you--we--you’re… you’re--”

“Trouble,” came the confirmation, as the blonde girl offered a hand to her. “Sorry, I’ve uhh, had some issues. It’s a long story. You don’t care, you don’t need to care. It’s my shit. Just--fuck. Sorry about the knife. I wasn’t really gonna cut you. Just had too many people fucking with me just because I’m not one of them.”

Finally trusting herself to stand without falling over, Hannah unsteadily pushed herself off the doorjamb and hesitantly asked, “Not one of them?”

“I’m from Eden’s Garden, not Crossroads,” the girl replied. “Some of the judgmental fucks around here have a problem with that. And--and you have no idea what I’m talking about. Boy, you really are new to all this, huh? Didn’t they give you a crash course over the summer?”

“I--um…” Feeling self-conscious in a whole new way, Hannah offered a weak shrug. “I didn’t really know anything about this until today. So I guess I’m even more new than you think.”

“Didn’t really know--” The blonde gave her a double-take. “You’re that girl the Committee was arguing about. The Owens girl.”

“Um, one, Committee?” Hannah blankly asked. “There was a committee talking about me? What are--what? And two, it’s Daniels. I mean, Hannah Daniels. My--um, I was adopted. My bio-dad’s last name was Owens, but my real dad’s name is Ned Daniels. They uh, Ned and Marie adopted me when I was still an infant. I never knew my bio-parents.”

“Never, huh?” Regarding her briefly, the blonde finally shrugged. “Well, the Committee are basically the people in charge of Crossroads. Not just the school, the whole organization. I don’t know why, but they had some big argument about whether you should be allowed to come here, Hannah Daniels. Heard all about it from the headmistress. Well, okay, mostly I just eavesdropped.” She grinned then. “She’s the one who brought me here.”

“Brought you--” Hannah stopped herself, amending, “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name. I think those… people you were worried about messing with you already got to our door. It says Trouble instead of your name.”

“That's because that is my name,” the other girl informed her with a new smile that showed her teeth. “I mean, not the one I was born with or whatever. That’s Felicity. But do yourself a favor and don't call me that. Not that I hate it or anything, but hardly anyone ever used it back at the Garden, so you might have to say it a few times before I realize who you're talking to. And with the sort of things we’ll be getting involved with, that’s pretty dangerous. So stick with Trouble, just to be on the safe side. It’s been my Garden name since I was ten, and they’re not even supposed to give Garden names until this year. So, you know. I guess they figured out I was Trouble early on.”

“Garden--Garden names?” Hannah shook her head, feeling dazed. “You said that before, that um, Eden’s Garden? What’s an Eden’s Garden?”

“It’s the other Heretic place,” Trouble informed her. “They're sort of like rivals to Crossroads. there's a whole history, we probably don't have time to get into it. All you need to know right now is that they don’t like each other very much. Not as much as they hate Strangers and all that, but still. Like I said, I came from there. Grew up there, really. Ever since my parents split when I was still a little kid. Left me all by myself in our little old house in Wyoming. Thankfully Seller showed up. He’s my ancestor, also a Heretic from Eden’s Garden. Apparently he keeps track of his descendants. He found out I was left by myself and showed up to take me in. Or, you know, bring me back to the Garden, anyway. I’ve been there ever since. Till now. Well, till this summer.”

“Well… well why did you move here?” Hannah was fascinated by all this, and was trying not to stare too much. The other girl really was incredibly pretty. It was distracting, and given all her own hangups about being looked at that way, it would’ve been really hypocritical. So, she focused on meeting her gaze, which was distracting in its own way.

Trouble, for her part, snorted. “I know we're roommates and all, but that's a really long story that we probably shouldn't get into right now. Ask me once we know each other a little better. For now, all you really need to know is that my name is pretty accurate. And a lot of people at Garden really don’t like me. Apparently the headmistress here is an old friend of Seller’s, so he talked her into taking me in. I guess she sort of adopted me too, as a formality. You know, so the angry fucks back at Garden couldn’t come after me without attacking the adopted daughter of the Crossroads headmistress. Made it into a whole official thing. That’s probably thanks to Seller too. Which makes me wonder how many favors she owes him, you know?”

There was an awful lot to unpack there. On the other hand, Hannah was already dragging a whole Samsonite collection just from the stuff she’d found out since waking up on that empty bus in the field, so maybe it was okay to let that one sit for a bit. This whole situation was overwhelming and she had no idea where to even start trying to come to terms with everything.

“Anyway,” Trouble continued with a nod over her shoulder, “I’ve been sleeping on that bed there over the summer, so you can have the other one. Unless you have, like, a severe allergic reaction to sleeping on the right side of a room or something?”

Snickering despite herself, Hannah shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I can sleep wherever. Err, on a bed, at least. Though I've fallen out of mine enough that I’m pretty familiar with the floor.” After saying that, she belatedly added, “I’ll uhh, try to aim for the far side so you don’t trip over me.”

“Maybe we can put up a gate against the bed or something,” Trouble mused. “Just to keep you in it. They're pretty comfortable beds, wouldn't want you missing out. Besides, your body’s gonna get put through the ringer enough when the training in this place starts up. You don't want to be trying to do that after spending the night sleeping on the floor, believe me.”

Blushing a little self-consciously, Hannah found herself smiling at the bed. It really did look comfortable. But why was she smiling like that? It was just a bed.

“--so I guess we’ve got that in common,” the blonde girl finished what had clearly been a longer sentence.

“I--” Hannah started, then stopped short. A rush of panic hit her at the realization that she had been completely distracted for the past few seconds. “What?”

Raising an eyebrow, the girl repeated, “I said, it sounds like we both grew up without knowing our parents, so I guess we’ve got that in common. Then again, that's not as rare as you might think when it comes to Heretics. It’s a dangerous job. Those Mason girls--”

No sooner had she said their names than both girls heard Sands in the hall calling out for their group to rejoin them so they could keep going. Hearing that, Hannah offered her roommate a quick smile and promised to see her soon before starting to turn that way, only to stop as the other girl moved behind her. “Uh, you’re coming?”

Trouble, for her part, grinned once more. “Sure, why not? I mean, I know this place pretty well by now, but tours are fun. Especially coming from those two. From what I hear, they know all the really good secret spots around the campus. And someday, I'm gonna make Sands see past me being the scary Garden girl so she’ll actually show them to me.”

With that, she stepped up and put a hand on Hannah’s shoulder. “So let’s get out there, roomie.

“Something tells me the two of us are gonna have a lot of fun this year.”