The town itself was fairly small, no mall, no chain stores, and no fast food. However, main street was somehow always busy with people running between the small restaurants, bars, and boutiques. A river ran through the town and a white covered bridge crossed it. There was a surprisingly large park along the river where families gathered around the playground, ate in the pavilion, or fed the ducks. 

You didn’t have to travel many miles from town before the terrain consisted of mostly corn fields. Still not too far away, the fields were interrupted by a large manufacturing facility.  A sign by the road identified it as Strong Technologies.

The sign at the edge of town was a vibrant blue with crisp white lettering. The paint looked so fresh it might not even be fully dried. Cheerful white daisies sprung out of red mulch surrounding the sign. The curly italic lettering read “Welcome to Strange”, below that “Town of Tomorrow”, and  below that “Population:???”.

Larkspur had grown up in Strange, which, unfortunately, was not strange at all, but about the most boring place on the planet. The only interesting thing about the town was the local legends surrounding the rather high number of unsolved missing persons cases. Larkspur didn't believe the conspiracy theories. She figured that it had to do with how rural the whole county was and how underfunded and poorly trained the local law enforcement was. Not that they had any reason to change. Crime was almost non-existent in Strange. Since the missing persons were almost always older teens and young adults, law enforcement and Larkspur believed that it was merely a matter of runaways. 

The town had been named after rumors that had started in the 1800's that it was some sort of mystical hotspot. It used to be the home of Doctor Hatton's House of Curiosities. A typical freakshow. Doctor Hatton had a mistress who went by the name of Neya The All-Seeing. She claimed to be of Romani descent, but was actually born to a man from New York and his Mexican wife. The two of them had started all the rumors about the town. Unfortunately, their kids hadn't had quite the same business sense, and tourism and the House of Curiosities died out long before great-grandchildren came into the picture. 

Now the most interesting thing left in the town was a museum dedicated to Doc Hatton's vision that was mostly funded by the town's Historical Society and the cruelty of middle schoolers who enjoyed looking at pictures of the "freaks".

It was the type of town that not many people left because they were never taught to have ambition. Larkspur on the other hand had worked hard all through highschool to ensure that she could get the grades she needed to go to college. Two more weeks and she'd be out of here. 

Tonight, however she was hanging out with two of her best friends. As she stepped into the local diner she saw them already waiting at a table. Tru was pushing her incredibly perfect wavy black hair behind her ear as she appeared to be lecturing the young man across from her. Gertrude Delaney came from a long line of women who believed themselves to be witches. She was often embarrassed by her family's reputation and flair for the dramatic, but at the same time practiced herself. Larkspur didn't believe in all that for even a moment, but found their eccentricity refreshing in the otherwise boring farm town. Gertrude and Larkspur had been friends as long as they could remember. They had grown up next door to each other. Their father's worked together as engineers at Strong Technologies.

The young man she was lecturing was Jack Kelsey. Jack had, at some point during elementary school, just started hanging out with the two of them. He was like the annoying little brother they just couldn't shake and somehow they had grown incredibly protective of him. "Just look at yourself right now," Tru was saying, "It is six o'clock, and you are meeting two sober friends at a diner and you're drunk because you were alone all afternoon and didn't know what else to do with yourself. If you don't want to end up like your father."

Tru wasn't the most diplomatic person, but they had both been growing tired of Jack's antics lately. It was hard to watch someone continually sabotage their life. 

"I guess I'm just destined to be a screw up," Jack was saying. Everybody else got fearless and chill drunk Jack. We always got sad and depressing Jack. Not that Larkspur would have him be any other way but honest with them, and not that Tru would let him be, but it made it so much harder to watch everyone encourage him thinking it was all fun when we knew the truth. 

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"No more than Tru is destined to be Grandma Moon," Larkspur said, referencing Tru's maternal Grandmother who frequently ran out of her house wearing only a disturbingly sheer caftan (she preferred to be nude) and chanted curses at neighborhood children.

Jack looked up at Larkspur and smiled and then slowly turned back to Tru, "I could see it."

Larkspur took a seat beside Tru who ignored Jack's comment and continued her lecture, "Jack, we're not going to be together much longer. We're all heading to different colleges in a couple of weeks. Quite frankly I'm worried what you'll do without us."

"Me too," muttered Jack just as the waitress arrived to take their orders. Thankfully, that broke them from their somber conversation, and they began discussing their excitement over heading off to college. Well, mostly Larkspur and Tru discussed it.

When they were done eating Tru said, "By the way, I have something for you guys." She pulled out two necklaces and gave one to Jack and one to Larkspur. "I know you guys don't believe in this stuff, but I made them for you guys for protection."

"Thanks," said Larkspur genuinely because she really did appreciate the gesture.

"With my luck, I'll need it," said Jack.

 "So what are we going to do now?" asked Tru.

"I don't know," Larkspur said, "What is there to do here."

"One last visit to the museum?" suggested Jack.

"I haven't been there since middle school," said Tru.

"I haven't either," said Larkspur. She had honestly never had any desire to go to it since then, but somehow she was feeling nostalgic tonight. "Let's do it," she said.

When they entered the museum it was exactly how she remembered it: Super cheesy and a little creepy. It did look much smaller than she remembered. 

"I don't remember this from before," said Tru looking at a book in one of the cases. It was a leather volume with "Spells" written on it in gold letters.

"Looks legit," said Jack looking over his shoulder at the caretaker who was sleeping before crossing the barrier and pulling a set of keys out of his pocket. 

"I can't believe you still have those!" said Larkspur. They were the keys to the museum Jack had stolen on their middle school field trip to the museum. Only Larkspur and Tru had known he had done it. Somehow even though everyone had known a student stole them and they had searched everyone's belongings before they returned to the school, the teachers had never found the keys. Since the two girls hadn't snitched, Jack had walked away free and clear. 

"Well," said Jack, "Shall we get a closer look."

Larkspur looked over at Tru expecting her to yell at Jack. However she saw that Tru looked intensely curious instead of agitated. Larkspur knew this wouldn't end well. As Jack fumbled with the keys until he found the right one for the case, Tru and Larkspur joined him on the other side of the door. When he lifted the book out and looked inside it he asked, "Is this even a real language?"

Tru snatched it out of his hand and looked, "Definitely."

"What does it say then?" asked Jack.

"Rough translation: this first spell is a spell for… those who wander… or stumble in darkness. I don't fully understand it but it seems like it is supposed to help them find their place… or calling," Tru seemed to be talking to herself rather than them.

"Well that sounds like the spell for me," said Jack. "Try it out on me."

"That would be incredibly reckless of me," said Tru almost as if she was trying to convince herself. Larkspur didn't like the look in her eye. It was like the witch and the genius who had always loved science experiments as a kid were merging inside of her. 

"You can't make me worse than I am, right?" said Jack.

"Tru, I don't think this is a good idea," said Larkspur, even though she still believed magic was nonsense. Why risk it.

"It probably won't do anything," said Tru, sounding like she had finally convinced herself. Larkspur thought Tru had convinced herself against the idea until she began reading the words on the page.

Jack smiled as if it were all a joke. Larkspur was growing more disconcerted with every word. However, when Tru finished there was a full minute of silence, but no other effect.

"See I told you it wouldn't work," said Tru with disappointment in her voice.

"Well, a guy can dream," Jack said, but his voice sounded weird

"What's wrong with your voice?" Larkspur asked, but then noticed that her own voice sounded weird.

"What's wrong with your face?" Jack jokingly replied but his voice grew distant.

Larkspur's vision was getting hazy. She blinked rapidly trying to clear it, but it only got worse. It was disorienting and making her nauseous so she closed her eyes momentarily and took a few deep breaths. When she opened her eyes again, she almost jumped. She was staring into the face of the most wrinkly old woman she had even seen.