What the Future May Hold

     It had been about two months since Serica and Isabel started hanging out because of that incident. They had become very close over this time span and could be seen around the very tree they met. Most of their lunch periods were spent just talking or quietly reading a book each and just enjoying the other’s company. It was on a rare occasion that one of them would bring something to play with from their house.
     “Kick it over here!” Isabel called out to Serica who had placed herself a good distance away.
     “Here it comes,” she warned. She pulled her leg back and ripped into the soccer ball. It went sailing through the air in the general direction of her friend but it was still off the mark by a good distance.
     Isabel ran over to intercept the ball before it went behind her. She returned the kick and the ball shot toward Serica with better aim.
     This little game went on for several minutes with the ball occasionally traveling in directions the girls didn’t mean. It wasn’t until later that problems arose.
     One simple, misplaced kick from Isabel sent the ball flying well off its target and far to Serica’s left. There was no hope in retrieving it as easily as before so she just watched it sail overhead.
     Three other students were walking close by on their way through the playground. The shortest of them, a girl, was busy talking to the girl on her left and wasn’t aware of her surroundings.
     “Look out!” she heard someone call from nearby. She raised her head in confusion to see a ball hurling toward her rapidly. There was no time to react before it slammed into her-
     KSSSSSSHHHH
     Serica knew what was to happen as she watched the ball fly overhead. She turned to see two girls and a guy walking toward them at a distance. She couldn’t do anything to stop it.
     “Look out!” she heard Isabel call out from behind her. The short girl looked up. The ball seemed to slow down as it neared her until everything felt frozen in time. Isabel’s scream of warning sounded again but it was muffled as if she had yelled into a pillow. The girl just stood there staring directly at the ball until everything picked up again and it hit her in the face.
     They saw her companions stop in their tracks to look down at the injured girl. The guy suddenly broke into a fit of hearty laughter due to his comrade’s state. The girl who was left standing balled her left hand into a fist and-
     KSSSSSSHHHH
     “Ow,” stated the boy while he nursed his right arm. The punch didn’t really hurt but he said it nevertheless.
     The girl bent over the other and asked, “Are you okay?”
     A faded image appeared where the two were standing as they looked over their friend. The boy silently laughing once again as the girl’s anger built up. Instead of a punch to the arm and demand for him to shut up, she kicked him in the groin. The boy fell forward and merged with his actual self. The girl slowly bent down like before and combined as well.
     The one on the ground slowly saw the stars leave her eyes. She slapped the girls’ helping hand away and rose to her feet herself. She picked up the ball on her rise as she glared daggers at the two girls. With her face beat red from the blow, the girl stormed toward her “assailants” with a look of absolute fury.
     “How dare you hit me with this ball!” she yelled at Isabel when she got to them.
     “It wasn’t her fault,” Serica defended. “She just kicked it wrong is all.”
     “Oh, shut up!” snapped the girl.
     “It was really an accident,” Isabel told her. “You don’t have to attack her.”
     The girl glared at her with her friends behind her. A faded image of her leapt from her body and tackled Isabel right then and there. Other images of the others rushed to them; Serica to pry them apart and the other two to egg it on. Serica’s image was slapped back by the attacker. All the while, the normal selves just stood there in their dead-locked stares. The original versions slowly disappeared as the other copies became less insubstantial.
     “Get off of me!” Isabel yelled as she tried to push the girl off of her.
     “Make me!” she hollered back. She took another swing at Isabel’s eye and-
     KSSSSSSHHHH
     “Hey look -----.” No voice sounded when the name was said and it felt like it had been removed from his vocabulary. “Seems like there’s a party and we weren’t invited.”
     Serica turned to see two new guys who walked up on them. Before her eyes could get a lock, the world jolted violently and she could only see from their chests down.
     “Seems like it,” the second said.
     Everyone settled down and stopped what they were doing. The three slowly narrowed their eyes in hate.
     “You better get off of her ------,” the second boy told the girl who still clung to Isabel. “It’s for your own good.”
     She never let her eyes leave his but her grasp slowly loosened. She rose and dusted off her clothes casually. She threw one last threat at the boys and a warning at the girls before she left.
     The boys, still with their faces cut off from view, helped the girls to their feet.
     “Thank you for that,” Serica said to them. She was nursing the red mark on her cheek where she got slapped.
     “It’s no problem,” the second boy told her. “I know all about them so I know how violent they can be.”
     “Still…,” she trailed off. She paused shortly before she finally turned to them both. “What are your names at least? So we can thank you properly.”
     “Oh,” he said in surprise. “All right then. My name is-”
     KKKKKSSSSSSssssssshhhhhhhhhh………… -bloop-
----
     Serica awoke from the dream she had just witnessed. It all seemed like it was a bad channel on a tv dependent on a set of antennas. She sat up slightly and winced from the sun streaming in through her half opened window. The reason was unknown to her on why she woke with a headache but she could tell that it was there for sure.
     She slowly made her way down the hall to the bathroom where she found it occupied by her sister. Rather than yell at her and arouse her headache further, she descended the nearby stairs and made her way into the kitchen.
     “You finally decided to wake up, huh?” asked a man that was slightly older than her. He pushed his dirty-blond hair back over his shoulder and away from his food. It was a little uncharacteristic for it to be down at all.
     Serica paid him no mind as she made her way to the stove. She grabbed a mug from the drying rack and poured hot water into it from the kettle. After putting a green tea bag, four spoonfuls of sugar, and a fair amount of honey into the mug, she sat down to stir the concoction and to take some headache relief pills.
     After a while, her headache subsided slightly. With the pain in her head dulling by the moments, she realized how hungry she was. She reached out for a plate and placed a few pancakes on it. She turned away for a second to retrieve the syrup but when she looked back, there rested a tarot card on her breakfast. Knowing full well whose it was, Serica glanced around the table until she found Visia sitting on the other side of their father and waiting for Serica to notice her.
     “Tarot of Death. Not very promising for a quick morning reading.”
     Serica looked down at the card that portrayed a cloaked figure holding a scythe. Its face was half rotted off with only a slight portion of the decaying skin showing from the head angle. He was set before a sea of sun-bleached bones under a blood red sky.
     “Foolishness,” stated Serica as she tossed the card back to her sister without a second thought. “That’s nothing but parlor tricks and hocus pocus.”
     “Say what you will but it’s never proven me wrong. I’ve helped Siria and Lizzy plenty of times with this deck,” she said showing it to Serica as a trophy.
     “Whatever,” Serica said quietly as she returned to her food and tried to quell the rising throb in her head her sister had just resurfaced.
     “I’ve done it twice now,” Visia continued undaunted. “I also got the Tarot of the Hanged Man. You face a difficult decision in your near future that may bring death to someone or some issue but the sacrifice will be too great to deal with.”
     Serica barely got past ‘I’ve’ before she tuned her out. She ate her pancakes in silence and drank her tea gratefully. A minute passed before she realized about the bathroom earlier.
     “What were you doing in the bathroom for so long, Visia? You don’t take too long on your hair usually.”
     “What are you talking about? I’ve been down here this whole time.”
     A noise from the upstairs’ bathroom caused the three children to look at each other confusedly. Realization hit, terror plastered itself on their faces, and they all rose quickly to make a run for any exist that was quick and didn’t lead into the living room.
     “Sit down,” commanded Seris from behind his paper.
     All three slowly returned to their seats and began to eat their food in a silence that would make a corpse think he’s gone deaf. Heavy footfalls sounded in the room off the kitchen. Too late did Serica realize that the only vacant chair at the table was the one between her and Leer before-
     “Hello, wonderful family of mine!” greeted a man as he came into the room with his arms spread wide in front of him. “Did anyone miss me during my absence?”
     The only three who had not known he was there didn’t say anything while their parents smiled at their first son. Not seeing an comment forthcoming, the man put his arms down and took his place at the table.
     Sehe looked about the table to find all her kids trying to hide behind their food. She gave it about a minute before she had it with the silence and started a conversation.
     “So how hast college bin, Oric? Passink yer classes?”
     “Nothing worth reporting that Leer probably hasn’t already said.” After his brief show of happiness to rub it in his siblings’ faces that he was home this morning, he reverted back into his quiet, not caring mood.
     “He hastn’t reported much on ye t’ough. Yust about er und his friends.”
     “Typical. He avoids me like the plague.”
     The silence crept its ugly head once again. The occasional sound of fork on plate or ruffle of newspaper would break the peace but a legion of mutant cockroaches storming from their baseboards to attack the major cities and starting the nuclear war they longed for to claim the world as theirs could happen in the kitchen and it wouldn’t start the talk up again.
     Serica finished her last pancake but instead of asking if she could leave, she decided to sit there. She reached across the table to finish her drink and hopefully suggest to her parents that she was done so they’d comment about her day’s plans. She finished it, saw no one paying attention, and just placed the glass on the table. Upon releasing her hand and bringing it across the tabletop, she brushed against her brother’s hand.
     Feeling it, she looked down and saw his bare hand just laying there like nothing was wrong. She jerked her hand to herself and held it with the other with her body turned away from Oric.
     “Put your gloves on!” She shrieked in panic.
     Oric calmly looked down and saw his hands were not in their usual gloves. He shrugged it off and asked her why he should do it.
     “You know the reason,” she raised her voice back at him. Her chair screeched as wood dragged on wood when she stood abruptly. “Something could have happened to me and you know it.”
     “Kalmen sei down, Serica,” requested her mother as she rose from her chair slightly.
     “Listen to your mother,” Seris told her. “Oric doesn’t mean harm so nothing will happen to you.”
     “Like you would know. He’s always been trying to do things to me since we were little. Ya’ll have just never seen it.”
     Visia and Leer expressed silent agreements. Seeing no trust from her parents coming toward her statement, Serica stormed up the stairs and into her room where she began to get ready for the day.
     A short interval later, she was back down the stairs and hurrying across the living room.
     “I’m going out with friends!” she called as she made her way to the front door. “I’ll be home later! You know how to contact me!”
     Accustomed to Serica’s quick temper, storming, and disappearing, no one really said goodbye.
     “The Tower!” Visia called after her instead. She had finished another tarot reading with that card as the outcome. “There will be chaos before the enlightenment!”
     “Shut up Visia! Those don’t ever work!”
     “And the Wheel of Fortune,” Visia said to herself. “Unexpected events that will happen pretty fast.”
----
     “What are going to do today?” groaned Ampere. Like his best friend, he dressed in his usual attire no matter the weather. This consisted of a sleeveless hoodie he would leave unzipped over a T-shirt with a pair of gloves that cut off at the knuckles. He placed his head in his hands. He was beginning to regret leaving his handheld at home.
     “I don’t know,” replied Blaze. He leaned back on his elbows and stared up at the awning. “There’s really nothing to do around here.”
     Serica was sitting on the porch swing outside of Isabel’s house reading her book once again. The glazed look in her eyes said that it wasn’t keeping her attention that well and something needed to happen very soon.
     Isabel was sitting next to her. She rested her elbow on the swing’s arm and placed her cheek in her palm and began to rock it absently. The slow rocking caused Serica’s trench coat to sway with them as well as aided to the two’s lethargic nature.
     “You’d figure that we’d have more stuff to do since we’ve only begun to hang out this week,” she stated quietly but everyone heard her as she intended. “It’s like we’ve been together forever already.”
     The other three contemplated it as well and found it to be true. Blaze and Ampere had fallen into the same rut because they’ve known each other since early childhood as well had Isabel and Serica. Now it seemed that there was nothing left to do irregardless who they hung out with.
     They remained silent for the time until someone would bring something up. But alas, that never happened and the quiet lingered. That is until a cat ran up the porch and jumped into Isabel’s lap, settling there instantly.
     “Since when do you own a cat, Izzy?” Serica asked. The cat picked up it’s head and cocked an ear as if she had heard a can opener behind her.
     “Oh she’s not mine. I found her outside my window Monday night and she hasn’t left this area yet.”
     “So you just adopted it?” Ampere inquired.
     “I guess so,” Isabel shrugged. “I don’t feed her or anything but she still sticks around.”
     Blaze looked upon the creature with an inquiring eye. As if in response to his skepticism, the cat turned glaring eyes upon the young man. Despite him wearing his usual long sleeve under a tee, a shiver ran down his spine for some unknown reason. Even with the new topic, everyone fell quiet again until Serica broke the silence which was weird on its own.
     “I had the strangest dream last night about us, Isabel.” After receiving a puzzling look from her, Serica continued. “We were back in fifth grade playing ball. You accidentally kicked it too hard and-”
     Everyone looked at her as she cut off short trying to remember something. After a few seconds of racking her mind, she let out an exasperated sigh.
     “I can’t seem to remember anything else. I think I retrieved it and we continued until recess was over but I’m sure that I wouldn’t have woken from sleep with a headache from just that.” She turned inward again vainly trying to remember what she had really dreamed.
     Isabel put the cat down on the porch and stood up. She finally had it with waiting and decided to make them do something instead of just sitting there thinking of something. Without a word to the others, she set off down the steps and the front walk.
     “Where are you going?” Blaze picked himself up a little to look at her perplexed.
     “You guys can sit here all you want,” she told them as she kept walking and throwing the comment over her shoulder. “I’m going to actually do something. I’ll see you at the mall if you care to join me.”
     The three looked at each other as Isabel strolled off. They rose to their feet and followed behind, slowly catching up in the process.
     The cat sat on the porch licking her paw. She looked up curiously in the direction the four had gone. Seeing no one in sight, she shot back towards the right side of the house, and the way they left down the sidewalk.
----
     “Why are we here again?” Blaze asked with his chin resting on the table. When they made it to the mall, they went straight for the food court, bought sodas, and sat down at a table. That was an hour ago.
     “This beats sitting around my house doing nothing.”
     “I’d consider it about the same,” Ampere said taking a sip of the melted ice in his cup.
     “Would you have rather been there when my sister showed up with yours and Visia? ” Isabel asked with a smug look on her face.
     “You know I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
     “What? Having a run in with Izzy’s sister?” Ampere turned to Serica with a smile on his face.
     “No,” she replied ignoring his joke and taking a more serious approach to it. “I meant my sister. I wouldn’t want that hell placed on anyone.”
     “Your sister is not that bad,” interjected Isabel. “She keeps Lizzy active. Without Visia and Siria, she’d just sit around on the computer all day or holed up in her room writing stories.”
     “No one is as bad as my cousin. All she ever does is play with her lighter and berates the people who care for her.”
     “Your cousin is a pyromaniac, Blaze?” Isabel held a worried expression on her face that denoted her full concern.
     Blaze was about to say something further into the matter but he was cut off by a visitor. Except this visitor was hated by the better part of their group and she brought with her two more intruders on their peace.
     “My, my, my,” she said in a mock pleasant voice. “This is a very touching moment you seem to be having. What‘s the occasion?”
     “You sure do know how to kill a mood, don’t you Eva?” Serica glared at her and if she could have, through her.
     “There was a mood?” she asked. The girl flipped her waist-length white hair as she turned a questioning glance at the girl and guy on either side of her who only returned shrugs. “I just thought stupidity clustered together for a spark of intelligence.”
     “Well we finally learned why you three hang out together.”
     “Shut your yap Veltago!” hollered the brown haired girl. Her dark blue eyes flared with hatred.
     “What are you going to do Aquaria?” Blaze asked coolly. “You can’t do anything here and you know it.”
     The guy with disheveled brown hair began to lunge toward the teenager and mumbled an insult under his breath but the girl with dark grey eyes held up a hand to stop him.
     “Now, now Bane,” Eva said calmly with the back of her hand lightly placed on his chest. Even though he barely felt it there, it held the same force as him being shackled to the floor. “They’re entitled to their own opinions.”
     “You’re acting rather calm today, Eva. What’s the occasion?” Blaze redirected the question upon her.
     “Let’s just say I’m in a good mood.” She replaced some stray hair behind her ear without realizing it had even fallen to the side of her face. “We were just told some very elating news this week and there’s nothing out there that can damper our spirits.”
     “That’s wonderful guys.” Ampere suddenly become very bright and cheerful. A wide smile spread across his face as he glanced at everyone briefly. “They found a brain to replace the one Eva thinks she has.”
     Blaze and Serica began to chuckle. Even Isabel who barely knew the three before her had to stifle a laugh.
     Eva huffed up with her hands on her hips. She leaned over the table intruding into Serica’s and Isabel’s personal space, her left hand on the table to steady herself and her right finger pointed into Blaze’s face.
     “Look here flame-boy. We’ll have our revenge upon you soon enough.”
     “Someone shouldn’t be so sure of themselves when they don’t know what the future holds in store for them.” Serica elbowed Eva’s arm out of her way and looked up at her. “Things never go the way one intends for them to.”
     “Look whose talking,” Aquaria shot at her, “the one who can’t see what’s coming irregardless of what she can do.”
     “I believe of blissful ignorance.”
     “That’s a load of shit and you know it,” Eva glared down at her. “You’re just trying to cover the fact that you can’t see what’s next.”
     Serica just smiled one of her rare and unsettling smiles. “Of course I can’t. Could you imagine what would happen to you all if I could?”
     Both girls stared at one another without uttering another word. The tension in the air grew rapidly and the pins and needles everyone was standing on foreshadowed a long, overdue fight. Just when it seemed when one of them would make a move that would surely have all of them banned from the mall for life, another player joined the field.
     “Um… E-excuse me?”
     “What the hell do you want?” Eva turned on her new, unsuspecting victim furiously. She was a little shocked to find who it was when she looked upon them.
     “N-n-nothing,” Faelina faltered, a little abashed. She stared down at the floor nervously, not wanting to make eye contact with the girl.
     Eva stood there for a second looking at the girl, her anger slowly subsiding. Blaze looked at her skeptically. It wasn’t everyday Eva was slightly calm toward them nor did she let someone get away with anything.
     After a few more moments of silence on everyone’s part, Eva quietly said to her lackeys, “come on. Let’s go.”
     “But what about-” Bane began to ask.
     “I said we’re going!” she shouted in his face. Because of his size and how short she was, it was a feat to see her do this.
     Bane lowered his head in defeat and slowly walked behind the two girls as they departed the food court. Aquaria shot back a glare toward Serica that could have even sent chills down Ferizenth if he was present but she wasn’t fazed. She just glared straight back at her with a wry smile that unsettled her a little.
     “I’m sorry to intrude like this,” Faelina brought them back to the fact that she was there. “I’ll just leave you alone now.”
     “Fae, wait.” Isabel grabbed her left sleeve as she began to walk off causing the shy girl to stop. “Why don’t you join us? I’m sure no one will mind if you hang out with us. It’ll give them more of a chance to get to know you.”
     Serica looked over at Blaze to gauge his reaction to her statement. Just as she had thought, he rolled his eyes. It always took a while for him to trust any new person he met. It was a little bit of a shock that he had was so open with Isabel after only a few days.
     “I can’t…” she whispered so low that no one heard her. Her head was lowered and her long, white hair covered her face so none of them saw the pained expression on it. “I don’t want to hurt you…”
     “I’m sorry. What did you say?” Isabel asked. Despite the meekness to her words, it registered with everyone that she had at least said something.
     Faelina turned around to face her with a small smile on her face. “I said that I’d like to if it was okay with everyone.”
     No one objected to this and Ampere just shrugged with an ‘it’s alright by me’. Isabel grabbed a chair from a neighboring table and placed it next to her. Serica had to scoot a little to accommodate the girl now sitting between her and Isabel.
     “So what brings you here today?” Isabel asked. “Shopping for something or just walking around?”
     “I just decided to come here today,” Faelina replied. “I was bored and had nothing to do.”
     “Kind of like us. We were just sitting around my house trying to figure out something to do.” Isabel looked at Faelina’s shirt and commented further, “I like that shirt. I have one of them at home.”
     “What a coincidence,” remarked Blaze looking at the shy girl who adverted her gaze from his, “that a girl who just moved here has the same clothes as you.”
     “I bought it at a store that has chains all over. She must have gotten it from there too.”
     Faelina nodded and quietly agreed. She then started asking questions about Isabel so she could get to know her more. It seemed that Isabel had been doing most of the asking since they met.
     Finding that it was becoming boring again. Serica reached into her trench coat, retrieved her book, and began to read once again. She reached across the table to get her soda. It was still half full but since she never got ice in her drinks, all it was doing was getting warm.
     ~Help her.~
     Serica’s eyes widened with shock. Her grip on her soda gave way with it halfway to her lips. The cup landed on the table and its lid came off, the contents of it spilling across the table.
     “You okay Serica?” Isabel asked when she saw her friend’s face.
     “What is it?” Blaze asked. “What did you see?”
     Isabel looked over her right shoulder trying to see if there was anyone or anything that could have caused Serica to react like that. Seeing nothing, she turned back around.
     ~Please.~
     Serica shut her eyes tight and grabbed the corners of her eyes by her nose forcing her glasses up. She stood up and groped for the back of her chair to steady herself.
     “It’s… It’s nothing,” she told them. “Just a headache that resurfaced.” She began to walk off a bit unsteadily. “I’ll go get some napkins to clean this up.”
     They watched her walk for one of the closest restaurants. Blaze was still concerned about her and decided to have a private word with her. He caught up with her as she just received napkins from the cashier of a burger place and pulled her off to the side.
     “What was all that about back there? What did you see?”
     “I… I heard a voice telling me to help someone. To help ‘her’. The rest was a blur though.” she closed her eyes trying to concentrate. “White hair… A fight… An alter, a flash of metal, and a giant rift. Then I saw a hand hanging from the side of the alter, blood trickling down its arm and dripping from the fingertips where it pooled below. I heard the voice beg me please before it rewound so quickly I couldn’t get a sense of who it was.”
     Blaze’s eyes darted back and forth in quick thought. He bit his lip to help his concentration. “Is that all you can remember?”
     She nodded her head.
     He thought a bit more before expressing his views. “Well we know two people with white hair: Eva and Faelina. The alter and metal can only mean a sacrifice, and the rift has to be-”
     “I know…” Serica said solemnly. “But that can’t be,” she protested. “No one has seen one in ages.”
     “They must have some inkling as to who it is,” Blaze told her. “The last one must have died already. Are you sure you couldn’t see who was on that alter?”
     “I… I don’t know,” she replied feeling utterly useless. “I didn’t see a face. Just an arm.”
     “That’s alright,” he told her, noticing the look of worry on her face. “We know that something’s going to happen soon. I can get my father to notify the Counsel and they’ll monitor any odd behavior from Daemon or any influx of energy.”
     “Okay…” she said, not feeling the slightest bit better. “I’ll try finding out more information when I get home tonight.”
     “Alright. Well, we better get back before they come looking for us. We don’t want to get Isabel tangled up in this.”
     “Yeah…” was all that Serica said as she slowly made her way back to the table. The picture of the arm not forgotten. She knew that it would haunt her tonight if she didn’t find out what was really going to happen.
----
     After everything was said and done for the day, Serica had gone home and vainly tried to figure out what she had seen at the mall. She had tried several different methods but none of them offered any further information. One method she had refused to use was her sister’s tarot cards.
     At the current moment, Serica was resting on the couch. The strain on her eyes had caused a headache to rise. She was halfway between asleep and awake, letting the aromatic candles work their charms on her throbbing head.
     ~Help me,~ said a soft feminine voice. A flash of light appeared in Serica’s head and the scene of the bloody arm hanging from the altar showed once more. A droplet of blood dripped from the ring finger and landed in the pool below, the sound it made resonated multiple times before it faded away.

     Isabel lay sleeping comfortably in her bed. Despite the fact that nothing really happened today, she felt that it was wonderful. She was able to hang out with her two new friends, met up with the third, and was able to hang out with her best friend some more. It was a typical Saturday with its usual occurrences.
     One thing that bothered her later when she parted ways from everyone was the whole thing at the mall with Eva. She didn’t know why she verbally attacked her friends or what her problem was with them. She decided, however, to let things ride and discover their relationship as it unfolded. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d have a part in it sooner or later.
     A soft, cool breeze floated through the open window causing Isabel to roll over in her bed in a state of half consciousness. She heard something that was out of place: sobbing. She opened her eyes slowly against her body’s better wishes.
     Isabel sat bolt upright in her bed and scooted closer to her headboard. She automatically brought the covers closer to her as if they would offer some protection. There in the corner of her room, half shrouded in darkness, was a girl with long, white hair. She had her face buried in her knees that were drawn up to her chest. She was crying noticeably.
     “Fae-Faelina?”
     “I can’t do it…” she shook her head. She seemed oblivious to Isabel being awake.
     “What are you talking about?” Isabel asked her. The thought that this girl was inside her room this late thrown aside. She always hated seeing her friends hurt.
     The girl lifted her head to expose a tearstained face and red, puffy eyes. She sniffed several times to keep the snot from running that was loosened from the crying. She was about to say but a sound cut her off.
     Both girls turned to her open window when they heard the flapping of fabric on the wind. There in the tree outside her room was a lone figure wearing a black cloak with a popped collar tied around her shoulders. She was wearing an all black ensemble: a pair of sleeves laced to her arms by silver ribbons, calf high boots, a sleeveless shirt that hugged her body, and a skirt that came to her knees. Her white hair shone like silver in the moonlight.
     “I would introduce myself,” the short girl said in a calm, smooth voice. She opened her eyes to reveal dark grey pupils, “but we’ve already met just earlier today.”
     A small smile creased her lips to reveal an elongated canine. In one motion, she effortlessly jumped from the branch she had been standing on and seemingly flew toward Isabel’s window.

     Serica’s view slowly worked its way up the arm to the sight that laid before her on the altar. The body of a young woman rested there in a pool of blood that flowed from the wound in her chest. The scene slowly made its way toward the stone slab and she gasped in shock to find who it was.
     The girl’s dirty blond hair was matted with blood and her lifeless, brown eyes stared toward the ceiling. The wound in her chest was a clean cut with no retraction scarring for the blade never left her chest but it was no longer there either. It was then that Serica heard a distant screaming from somewhere beyond her field of view.
     The girl’s eyes flickered and slowly turned to face the one seeing this event. Her mouth moved to form her plea from before. New blood fell from her mouth to mix with the dried blood that stained her cheek. Serica’s heart was beating rapidly in her chest, the thumping added with the faint screaming.
     ~Please,~ the girl begged once again.
     “Serica!”
     ~It’s not too late.~ She raised her arm that hung over the side of the alter and held it up toward her watcher.
     “Serica! Snap out of it!” hollered the man above her, trying to shake her back to reality.
     She came back with a jolt and realized the screaming wasn’t in her vision, it was her. She placed a hand to her head and closed her eyes again.
     “What were you seeing?” asked Leer with a concerned expression on his face. “It must have been really bad to make you scream like that.”
     It hit her again and she suddenly stood up. “I need you’re help,” she told him as she threw on her trench coat.
     “What for?”
     “Isabel’s in trouble and if we don’t act quickly, far worse things will happen from the result of her death.” Serica looked at him pleadingly, a tear falling from her eye.
     He didn’t ask any more questions and nodded his head knowingly.
     “Come on,” he said, ushering her out the door and making sure the coast was clear of their parents. “Let’s hurry then.”