• Eventually, after a long and awkward silence between the three of them, the teachers started to usher the students back into the school. Serena bid a quick farewell to Marcia and Christian, and then went to her next class.

    The rest of the day continued on more or less auto-pilot. Serena did whatever she had to do for school, and otherwise remained on a different mental plane of existence.

    At lunch, when everyone had some spare time to interact outside of class, everyone wanted to talk about the fire alarm. Serena had the vague idea that the staff were planning on getting the ‘faulty’ smoke detectors replaced, but then the general conversation moved onto other people and homework.

    Nobody in Serena’s class had mentioned seeing the smoke frown. She had half-heartedly looked around for Christian in the cafeteria, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

    Serena was finally let out of school at the end of the day. At the front of the school she was met up with by Marcia, who was skipping around happily.

    “Hey Sera, wanna come over to my house after school? I haven’t seen you all weekend, and my Mom bought stuff for sandwiches, and we can do our homework together and watch TV and I can tell you about how I spent my weekend while you were gone and you can tell me what I missed!” Marcia said hastily. Serena paused a moment to return to earth and figure out what Marcia had just said, before airily answering, “No thank you, I’m too tired from school.”

    Marcia’s disappointment was clear from her frowning expression. “Are you sure? I won’t mind if you end up asleep on my couch or anything! Besides I bet you’ll recover quickly! At least I can call you when I get home right?” Apparently deciding this was satisfactory enough, Marcia carried on prattling tirelessly as they slowly walked through town to Serena’s house.


    At Serena’s house, they bid each other farewell. Serena noticed that after Marcia said goodbye and walked away, her movements were less energetic then they’d been earlier. Serena briefly felt uncomfortable before deciding not to dwell on it.

    Inside, Serena’s uncle was still watching TV, although a pile of notes had built up around him. Seeing her expression, he hurriedly muttered something about Charmed Night having a marathon. Serena decided to leave him as he was and went upstairs to her room.

    Once inside she dumped her bag onto the floor and then collapsed onto her bed as part of her daily after school ritual.

    A moment later she realized something was digging into her wrist. She rolled onto her bag and held up her arm in front of her.

    There, drooping slightly around her wrist and catching the light just so, was the silver charm bracelet and grey cloud-shaped charm.

    ‘Did I really forget I had this on?’ Serena wondered. She stared at it aimlessly for a moment or two, when she suddenly realized she smelt something burning. Immediately she sat bolt upright to see the thickest cloud of smoke she’d ever seen drifting into her room.

    Serena wondered if she should run. The smoke began to float around her, drifting about and blocking her vision. Serena’s eyes began to water and she found herself starting to cough. Serena rapidly jumped off of her bed and landed on the floor with a thud.

    Freed from the smoke, Serena scuttled up against the wall and sat up. The smoke was now floating over the bed, and just like it had done so much earlier that day, it was beginning to take a shape. But it wasn’t a frowning face this time. No, the smoke was taking the form of… a woman?

    Serena was too stunned to do anything but watch as the smoke began to become less like smoke and more like a real person. Before Serena’s eyes, where the smoke had been a naked young girl was floating in the air on top of Serena’s bed.

    Then she fell onto the bed and the spell was broken. Serena screamed at the top of her lungs.

    “Is everything OK up there?!” Serena’s uncle bellowed from downstairs.

    Serena stared frantically at the strange girl. She didn’t seem to be awake. If Serena’s uncle walked in on her with an unconscious and naked girl she’d never live it down.

    “Yeah! Everything’s fine!” She hastily yelled. “Then why were you yelling?!” Uncle yelled back. “I-I started menstruating unexpectedly!” Serena screamed, turning bright red and wishing she’d come up with a less embarrassing excuse. There was a pause then, “That’s nuts! You stopped your last one a few days ago!” “I AM NOT HAVING THIS CONVERSATION WITH YOU!” Serena screamed, then she slammed her door shut.

    “My God… I think the whole neighborhood heard that.” Serena muttered. “Why did I have to say that of all things?” She then turned around to look at the strange girl.

    The strange girl was very tall, with her feet dangling off of the end of the bed, and had a very… voluptuous build. Her skin was dark, and she had thick, straight, night-black hair shaped in a spiky way. Her eyes were shut tight, and bushy eyebrows rested above them.

    “Who the hell is this?” Serena wondered outloud.

    “Are you sure you want to know?” Somebody behind her said.