Back from the long day of traffic jams and almost witnessing a death, Jennifer walked into the quiet house and plopped her purse on a chair. Her mother had to take an emergency night shift at Savemart; Tessa had hurriedly dropped off her son at his friends’ party and then her daughter back at the house.
Jennifer chuckled and shook her head in disbelief at the poor girl her parent had hit. She couldn’t shake off the random stranger bouncing up from the car’s impact and dropping off the bridge like it was nothing.
The sun had lowered on the lucid horizon. She knew her brother wouldn’t be home until later tonight, so she was on her own for dinner. While she made a box of mac n cheese and scrolled on her social media, Jennifer retired to her bedroom after she ate.
Glancing at the clock to see the time, the minute hand on the clock wasn’t moving, and the time read at twelve, which she knew wasn’t the case. I’ll put in new batteries tomorrow. Tired from her classes and still mildly shocked by the weird afternoon, Jennifer started her gaming PC. Thankfully, she had no homework due tonight.
As one of the top gamers on a site played by millions, all she had to do was stream or get paid to game with others. Fans watched her, and she interacted with her audiences to give them the best experience.
Applying makeup and wearing the right blouse to show off her curves, Jennifer was ready to conquer the world and get money, summing up to one hundred thousand dollars a year.
She found her cat ears headphones, not needing to prepare her voice since it was naturally sweet and soft-spoken. She was a natural gamer, and thousands say, ‘Egirl.” Although the gamer hardly dyed her hair or wore emo clothes, Jennifer had her aesthetic of being herself, which people loved.
Liking her side job hassle and the possibility of attention it brought, she was ready to put her headphones on. However, a humming noise caught her attention, as if the air conditioning was overworked.
The college student went over to the vents, but the noise wasn’t coming from there. Sighing and wishing to have a break from life, she walked downstairs, where the humming got louder. The house seemed to get colder, and goosebumps ran along her arms, back, and legs.
Jennifer’s gut grumbled uncomfortably. Dizziness overtook her, and the living room was darkening surrounding her. Then the clock that she swore was broken started swirling around uncontrollably. She wanted to run back to her room and lock her door, but the humming increased and her legs felt weak, almost as if they had turned to noddles.
A few seconds went by as she steadied herself and blinked away from the spinning room. The clock reread twelve. Rubbing her temple, Jennifer felt she was going crazy and believed she had hallucinated. When she turned to return to her bedroom, there was a cat-stuffed animal on a white couch.
Oddly, the sound seemed to be emanating from it. Her brows knitted together in confusion because Jennifer didn’t remember putting her cat-stuffed animal down on her. I don’t recall having that one…
A shiver shuddered her bones when she went closer to it. Jennifer reached out her hands, the humming bellowing, and she winched her fingers back. Something wasn’t right, and being alone in the dark house worsened her gut feeling.
She dialed her brother, not wanting to distract her mom from her work. He didn’t pick up. Come on! I’m going to chew your ass out when you get home. Jennifer redialed and got his voicemail. Desiring to yell at him, instead her tone shook in trepidation, and she whimpered, “Jack, please pick up. There’s something wrong.”
Hanging up in frustration, the girl refused to call her mom for maybe a wrong hunch. Quickly grabbing a knife from the kitchen and checking all the doors and windows, there wasn’t a breaking entry she could spot. She checked in case someone was stalking her that could’ve come from her games or social media, but usually, she was always careful with her information and location.
The gamer tossed her phone on the couch and muttered to herself with a roll of her eyes, “Don’t be ridiculous; why would someone come in and put a random stuffed animal in the house?”
Turning back to it, Jennifer decided to throw it in the trashcan outside. She put the knife back in the kitchen, and before touching the stuffed animal, she stared at it. Then, without another beat, Jennifer snatched the hot pink cat-stuffed animal. Her last thoughts to the world were: It’s kind of cute.
The humming receded in a snap. Light blazed in the living room from the stuffed animal, and it engulfed the human. Jennifer vanished from sight and was never seen again.
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The world spun in a dizzy circle around the aghast girl. Kate watched her best friend plunge into the rushing banks below. The wind gusted at her stricken face. The bullet was for me, but she…
Her heart broke into a million shattered pieces, stabbing at her core. She couldn’t breathe or blink from pure shock. She threw me aside to save and protect me. Shaking her head with revulsion, Kate refused to think Sara could die that easily.
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She squeezed her eyes shut, hot tears stinging down her cheeks. A bullet in her head—no one can survive that—not even her. Kate screamed in rage when her friend’s body splashed into the river, the assassin not moving as she had carried her down the stream.
The Prowler hated herself more than ever to assume that the wizards had run away when their attempt failed. The reason they had blown up the bridge was because they knew the Harmonies would leave the train to stop it from going off the rails.
No, Kate wouldn’t let those awful wizards savor their win, even if they missed their mark. She lurched into action, running off the tracks. Her emotions choked in the back of her throat, and she was suffocating from it.
Diving into the water, Kate shivered from the warm day into the icy waters. The chill electrified her. She rose to the surface, kicking and swimming like there was no tomorrow. She screamed until her voice broke into a hoarse cry, “Sara!”
The rushing river had her swallowing gulps of the water, and she gasped for air, not daring to give up until she had Sara in her arms. In the corner of her eyes, Nathan yanked off his shirt and leaped into the bank.
Timothy was about to follow, but somehow Kate ordered with a scratchy voice, her lungs raw from all her exhilaration at once. “Finish the job!” The passengers on the train had to continue their way to their destination.
The Prowler threw away any politeness, claiming anger instead. Her friend floated away from her, no matter how hard Kate swam to get closer to her. She pleaded with anyone who would listen for her best friend to be alive. Her arms and calves throbbed in pain, her heart pounding against her ribcage so that it felt like her ribs would break.
She scanned the river once she got the leverage, but Sara was nowhere in sight. Water must’ve gotten into her lungs, and now she was drowning, her body sinking to the bank’s floor. The girl glanced right and left so fast that she heard popping up her neck. Finally, she spotted a dark spot a few feet away.
Kate splashed towards the dark spot and felt the cloth of Sara’s cloak. She held her breath, diving into the water to find her. Bubbles came from her friend’s mouth, her black hair waving above her. Swimming towards her, she felt the clasp to unbutton Sara’s cloak because the weight of the water and her weapons would make it nearly impossible to get the assassin up.
Once the clasp was released, Kate wrapped her arms around Sara’s torso. She lifted both up to the surface and gasped for fresh air. Nathan was next to her, helping drag Sara back to the shore. Kate fell on the grass. The clothing on her stuck to her like a second pair of skin, and her cinnamon hair was tangled.
“Is she okay?” Timothy asked, but he didn’t get a reply.
Kate hiccupped, and all her training came to her at once, like a click of a button. Pressing her hands on Sara’s chest, she started CPR. Hot tears ran down her face, the world feeling unreal and a nightmare instead. She yelled, and her body shook with frigidity. “You aren’t going to fucking die! Do you understand me?” There was no response from Sara. The Prowler’s fingertips sparkled, hoping that maybe her healing could do something.
“That bullet was supposed to be for me, you idiot prick! You should’ve let me take it!” cried Kate, pumping her arms up and down and breathing heavily in the same rhythm. She didn’t care if she broke all of Sara’s ribs to get rid of water from her lungs so she could breathe again.
Blood poured around the small spot of grass. Sara’s messy, wet hair clung to her face, and her eyes closed. Timothy rushed over. He opened her eyes and breathed out, “They aren’t dilated. That’s a good sign.”
A single thought could only cross Kate’s mind, and that was a frantic question: Is Sara…dead? She couldn’t think of anything else. Letting her emotions speak for her with no inclination, Kate asked in questioning how her friend was positive if Sara was alive or not, “Are you sure about that? You aren’t a doctor!” She hadn’t once stopped her CPR, but her glossed hazel eyes didn’t help see any life in the young assassin.
Timothy mumbled, with no retaliation but only feeling gut-wrenched in his stomach, “I’ve been taught some stuff.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Nathan said, staring at Sara’s ghost skin and seeing no movements from her. He wanted to puke at the deathless body but instead swallowed vomit and looked away in disgust at the people who did this to them—to Sara.
“Just shut the fuck up, okay?” shouted Kate, swallowing emotions and tears. After twenty seconds of CPR, but seemingly she had been doing it for infinitely long, water coughed up from Sara’s lips. The oldest Prowler pried the girl’s mouth open and flung her to the side. With a pat—well, more like a hard smack on Sara’s back—water came out.
Putting her finger on Sara’s neck, she felt a weak pulse but a pulse, nevertheless. Kate sat down and gasped in relief. Her bum got dirty from her clothing being wet from the water, yet she didn’t care about her cleanliness.
However, she couldn’t rejoice for long because Sara had gone limp after getting the water out of her lungs. Kate flickered her friend’s hair away from her face, seeing swallow breathing. Timothy kneeled in the sticky red grass, his jeans getting blood on them. He turned her head so gently to find where the blood was leaking from, but Kate smacked his hands away.
She stood up and lifted Sara around her shoulders. The boys immediately offered to carry her, but Kate refused. “She needs to go to the hospital wing at the Realm. Come there after you are finished.” Looking dead at Nathan, she rasped, “Find whoever did this to her.”
Nathan nodded, and he heard a rustling noise on the other side of the riverbank. He seethed, clutching his fists in hatred. “I’m going to fucking kill them.” Then he disappeared before anyone could say another word.
A heavenly fire portal was electrified in front of Kate. She declared, walking towards it, “Once I inform Michael about what happened…” she began tentatively wondering how the Archangel would react. “I’ll have the Choirs come, make sure the humans don’t record us, and assist you if still needed.”
Not wanting Timothy’s reply, Kate vanished into the sparkling portal with her friend over her shoulders like a ragged doll, dirty and forgotten and now being picked up to be scrubbed clean and back to its original state.
How would Michael react? She had overseen the mission, with her boss putting his trust in getting the task done. She was the leader, and with that title, her job was to protect the Harmonies that came along with her.