>”Do you believe in Witchcraft?”
>Wallflower stares at Moondancer, judging the question heavily.
>”Isn’t that like… religious stuff?” She asks.
>”In a sense.” Responds Moondancer. “It’s more of a taboo subject that spans across many religions in one shape or form.”
>She reaches into her backpack and pulls out the really heavy looking book with faded colors she always gets defensive over.
>She never lets anyone touch it, let alone pulls it out like this.
>It gives Wallflower chills just looking at it.
>”What’s that?” Wallflower expects it to be like one of those spell books from a movie that the protagonists use to figure out how to beat the poltergeist or whatever.
>”It’s a book, what does it look like?”
>”What’s /in/ the book?”
>”My work.”
>Wallflower stares down at the book, confused and wanting to open it with Moondancer’s permission.
>”Let me show you.” Moondancer surprisingly opens the front cover and starts flipping through the raggedy pages.
>It’s all her handwriting, Wallflower knows her friend well enough to tell.
>Moondancer must have spent at least half of the time she’s spending the majority of her day on her side of the dorm on this.
>Wallflower knew she heard pen scribbling from her roommate’s side of the room.
>Great, not only is she taller and stronger than her, but she’s into literature too.
>”I’ve been getting these weird visions in my dreams at night. And after researching, I’ve figured out that the closest thing they resemble is witchcraft.”
>Moondancer goes on and on about her fascination on this kind of stuff, and how she first got into it years ago, and how she’s surprised that Wallflower, pretty much the only person she talks to (and vice versa), has never noticed.
>Then again, the two girls rarely spoke to one another until very recently, so a lot of things tend to be news when they’re finally explicitly brought up.
>”I think it’s not traditional witchcraft, but some sort of… spinoff?” Moondancer scratches her chin.
>”Spinoff?”
>”Yeah, I know. It sounds stupid when I say it like this. It’s like an… offshoot of witchcraft. You know, like Allah to Yahweh, or Jupiter to Zeus. That sort of thing.”
>”I guess I get it.” Wallflower nods as her eyes scan the dingy pages.
>”There’s a lot of stuff out there. Like, demons and stuff.” Moondancer starts to go on a rant again. “Tortured souls never sent to heaven or hell depending on how they were in life. And now they’re doomed to visit us all in our dreams. Did you know that there are ghosts everywhere in this room RIGHT NOW?”
>”Wh… what?”
>”We can’t detect them, but they can’t detect us. But they’re mostly just fish and other animals that lived on Earth spanning to millions of years ago, even more. There’s probably a few dinosaur ghosts if you go far back enough.”
>Wallflower would have been annoyed by this if anyone else ever would have talked to her in the past. But she sits on the edge of her bed, nodding and listening with actual interest accumulating in her mind.
>She loves listening to her only friend rant.
>The girl that only became her only friend because they were both alone all the time and needed a roommate for the first year of college living on campus.
>They didn’t talk much but they were forced to converse at some point.
>This is what Wallflower is grateful for as she listens to Moondancer ramble on like a crazy cat lady.
>”Most of this is me recording my dreams.” Moondancer points out the content of her book she’s writing. “I never let people see it unless there’s a reason.”
>Wallflower loves it when she hears Moondancer say things like this.
>Making her feel like she has value in the universe somehow.
>”You should write down your dreams too.” Says Moondancer. “There’s no telling what you could discover."
>There’s no telling what you could discover.
>Wallflower curses herself for having listened so intently to Moondancer, for that sentence is the very thing that convinced her to go through with it the following night.
>And so, some of the next blank part of the book went to Wallflower’s dreams and the interpretation of what they meant.
>She got interested in doing this pretty quickly. Aside classes, she had nothing else going on in life besides posting on 4chan, playing computer video games and watching YouTube videos until 4:30 AM plus another hour or two sometimes.
>She knows more about memes and obscure pockets in pop culture and questionable political ideologies than she does anything and everything from her classes combined.
>And these sorts of things appear in her dreams, of course.
>And she writes them all down in the book next to the much more… darker and morbid Moondancer has to offer for her space in the pages.
>But this is fun, much more interesting than doing the same thing every day.
>Moondancer especially likes this; no one she’s ever talked to about this stuff before showed any interest aside finding out if she was crazy or just had obsessive autism.
>No one else cared because they had all this other boring stuff going on in life that she didn’t care about.
>Drinking, partying, study groups followed by the former two once again. Shopping, texting friends, following Facebook drama, Instagram, Twitter, mainstream politics, that brand new pop song that came out featuring [insert new rapper here].
>No, Moondancer doesn’t care about any of that, and they never made it into her dreams.
>Her dreams are more of a patrician’s taste, touching up on more cultured topics like cults and conspiracies in society.
>These ghosts she can contact… she can make out what they’re trying to get through to her sometimes… and they can see what big businessmen in suits do behind the closed doors when they think no one is watching.
>But the ghosts of all those who died in the past, some of them are untraceable to human senses, and they know the deepest, darkest secrets of society.
>And they cannot spill the beans, for they are nothing more than floating spirits that are undetectable to those they would try to tell as they are to those they heard the dirt from.
>A blessing fused with a curse.
>Knowing the biggest secrets and never being able to tell them.
>Unless someone seeks them out in the ethereal realm, with their mind wandering and open to anything that comes their way.
>Dreaming minds have little to no cognitive dissonance blocking them, blocking the way they can receive this type of ethereal message.
>So it needs to be told to them through scenarios to really get the point across within the window of what little time there is, and Moondancer understands this.
>She remembers as much as she can every time she jots something down, and urges Wallflower to do the same.
>They’re already in the same room in the waking world, who’s to say they could not cross paths in the realm where they can meet the spirits?
>Anyway, Moondancer knows she’s onto something… she’s been paying attention to the world via the internet.
>She knows what to look for, she knows what to write down as a reminder to herself.
>She knows that it all ties together somehow, and she’s slowly starting to prove it as she goes back and reads.
>Yes, it’s all becoming clear now… Moondancer keeps on writing down her ideas:
>People in general have the ability to come together and figure out the secrets for themselves, to stay focused and alert with their interest in finding the genuine truth and nothing more.
>Not aligning with any specific political party to prove loyalty to every time there’s an issue, but looking at the situation from a neutral point of view and see some of the bullshit some people with power spew under the guise of appeal to their home base.
>There could be a cure for many different types of diseases, housing for th homeless and starving, and many other advancements in the place of the human population.
>Things that can push people forward as a species, as one.
>But there are people behind desks, who would be negatively affected by this. There can’t always just be winners.
>And these people, with as much power as they have, would end up losing a little, and they have the power to prevent it.
>And since they can, so they will.
>There cannot be a few who thrive without the many who suffer, but as long as that suffering is subtle and hard to point out, not many can stand against it… and the system within the system in place can go unharmed.
>Moondancer really, really gets into this.
>Remember those other people caring more about Facebook and shopping and all that? It’s partially for a reason.
>Not completely, but enough to the point where their daily lives need to be consumed with it all.
>Being kept entertained with lots of TV show. Not just a few TV shows, but all of the things that interest them. Things they want to fill in the slots of free time with, so they don’t get distracted by anything that’ll burst the… figurative bubble they live in.
>Yeah, binge watch that series! Follow all these people on social media and react to their posts! Hang out at the mall when you’re not jumping through hoops in class to get your degree that will allow you get a job with more money to sustain yourself with in the future!
>Anyone saying it’s a bad thing just doesn’t like fun. They think the government is lizards, like that one crazy tinfoil-head in his basement said!
>At the end of the day, they’re all like that, no matter what they say. No matter what they bring forth as proof, they’re all wrong. Everything’s fine, because you’re enjoying your life, aren’t you?
>Like, what, you’re going to expect more than this? Ha! Selfish! This is the best you’re gonna get because that’s just how it works. Don’t be a jerk, don’t be a debbie downer. CONTRIBUTE and be happy in the ways you see other people being happy.
>Oh yes, Moondancer is building up a magnificent collage of lots of things over time, and she hopes Wallflower is paying attention.
>At this point in time, Moondancer is just damn happy that she’s getting someone to listen to her own “woke-ness”.
>It should start making its way into Wallflower’s dreams soon. What should? The truth.
>The truth about the world that only the dead can truly see, because the living are kept under the eye that fails to see the dead.
>No wonder ghosts and shit and supernatural movie-tier stuff is dismissed by common thought as ridiculous and not true, and that anyone who does that shit in real life is a cultist, or crazy, or whatever.
>And yeeeeeeet, look! A Church! Look, a Mosque, Synagogue or whatever! Look at all the money attached to them, wow! But they’re safe because they have HISTORY.
>They’re engrained into modern society, just like TV and entertainment, and pop culture. They’re just like anything else, what’s the big deal, dude?! Stop complaining about nothing. Crazy dumbass.
>Now get offa that dumbass cultist shit that’s totally different from other religions. You probably think the government are lizards or something else obviously asinine.
>And if not, well you’re just as wrong as the people who do believe that to an extent because nothing seems wrong on my end! From my TV shows, from my social media, from the movies I watch in the theater. It’s all fantasy, and you must be oh so too deep into it!
>Moondancer keeps writing more and more as she visits spirits in the afterlife, choking on pills of a certain color that’s been censored for the sake of-
>You’re only supposed to read books for school, because those are all you care about! Most other things is TV, or other books that come from the bookstore that you can purchase or rent with money, and they’re for entertainment unless they tie into what you learn in school.
>Wallflower needs to up the ante with how awake she is so she doesn’t end up a sheep, but Moondancer had her under her wing now. Keeping her awake yet asleep and dreaming, taking in the realities she perceives in the world.
>Gosh, those guys behind their desks, those old men… with stern expressions and all that.
>They’re just protecting their assets, that’s all they’re doing. Survival of the fittest has been part of human nature since the beginnings of humankind itself. With the fittest being those with the most power and influence, including wealth.
>They’re just doing their job, what about you. Are you doing YOUR job?
>Moondancer swears she will never get one that will put her under the microscope.
>Month after month, she makes sure she sees the world exactly as it is, and she makes sure Wallflower can too.
>Little hints in reality tie back into the dream world, and what the spirits told them.
>Imagine having to turn to demons in order to defeat the true evil; the desperate power junkies trying to savor every last bit of wealth they can just to make their lives that much more luxurious.
>And keep themselves from falling, because they set themselves up to have the ability to fall quickly if what’s supporting them has the tiniest hiccup, but it’s just the way it works.
>Only the dead know peace from war, yes. But they also know peace from greed, and they can see into the greed now, that same greed that even causes wars.
>So many paragraphs upon paragraphs that Moondancer writes, it would be hell to summarize the main ideas of her thoughts into say, a short story, given how much detail there is to how awake she is.
>Moondancer knows the truth! She knows it!
>And she’s keeping herself alert, alert and energetic.
>No relationships to slow her down or obligate her to devote too much time to focus on this anymore. No, she’s going to stay truly free.
>Free and healthy; she constantly takes trips to the gym and lifts weights, refusing to conform to the ideal delicate female form. She must be strong and muscular, and keep her wits about her.
>To counter the weaker but countless brainwashed opponents who dwell within this bottom text society.
>This is what she warns Wallflower of whenever she sees her playing video games on her PC.
>Those video games are eating up all the time she could be spending waking up.
>But Wallflower convinces Moondancer that she’s doing it in moderation, and shows her that she visits 4chan boards that talk about the exact same societal issues she does.
>And that the video games only help her stay focused and have enhanced cognitive abilities.
>Moondancer figures that she and Wallflower are going to work together if shit hits the fan anyway, whether it be a complete government shutdown or otherwise.
>She agrees to the the strong one while Moondancer works on being the clever one who improvises and has more skill with technology since that seems to be her strong point.
>Moondancer loves books (the right kind), Wallflower loves computers (spending entire days and nights on them).
>They figure they really shouldn’t talk to anyone else anyway, since it would interrupt the jive they have together.
>Anyone else just wouldn’t understand what they know if they told it tot hem, they wouldn’t understand that Moondancer just wants to tell them the truth about the world.
>About the ascended dimensional planes. And how she can access it through dreaming, utilizing the residue from this offshoot of Witchcraft.
>Fuck a relationship, especially a sexual one.
>Those kinds of things are always informally promoted on college campuses.
>Yes, you’re told to not go too far with indulging in pleasure, whether it be TV, video games or sex. But that’s the point.
>So when you inevitable do from the obvious pressure and encouragement that’s every-present, it’ll be on your own shoulders and not the “underhanded tactics” that Moondancer knows about that keeps men lethargic and women nitpicking their own appearance and lifestyles.
>Do you know how many bros party? Do you know how many washouts don’t get to party? So they party with themselves to occupy their time?
>If they figure out a thing ot two about the truth, they’re already out of the in-crowd, and won’t have a strong enough voice to spread. they barely even know anyone on social media, posting on more questionable, less-trustable websites instead.
>Mr. Moneysuit doesn’t have to worry as much abou-
>”Um… excuse me, miss…” The librarian walks over to Moondancer.
>”Oh uh, I’m sorry.”
>The library will be closing now. I’m going to have to ask you to pack your things so we can close up for the night, okay?”
>Moondancer closes her laptop and heads off, muttering to herself in her head the same old stuff that droned on above.
>She’s going to dream about this tonight.
>…
>Moondancer forgot that it’s January already.
>She and Wallflower have been working together on dream stuff since mid October… how many months is that?
>Nevermind, Moondancer is seeing exactly what she always sees at this time.
>There’s the library, as closed as can be… has been for hours now.
>She spent a lot of time lifting weights until that place closed too, then went back to the dorm to shower and read her own writings again before returning after midnight.
>Moondancer tends to lift weights to temporarily take her mind off of something, to forget about the stress. But it’s coming back to her now as she stands on the icy sidewalk.
>And yes, there’s the closed-as-can-be library… with all of those lights still on.
>Feeding off of the bills the university has to pay to keep the electric bills covered… how high is the tuition here, again?
>Really makes you think.
>The first thing Moondancer does is go back to her down to tell Wallflower about it to get her take on it. Then she shall sleep.
>…
>Wallflower is slightly startled by Moondancer’s sudden entry.
>She was hoping that she’d stay out the whole night doing stuff at whatever computer lab she goes to, and that she’d be asleep by the time she got back.
>Wallflower didn’t mean to see Moondancer walk in earlier tonight, heaving and sweating after such an intense workout.
>The muscle on her body bulging through her sweatjacket before she showered.
>It’s not like she doesn’t like her as a friend, but it’s just that she’s a little envious that Moondancer still gets to have a body that looks nice while her own has been getting worse.
>But that’s only because she stopped caring. Letting herself go and sitting around eating pizza a lot while spending so much computer time to herself.
>Anyway, Moondancer captures Wallflower’s interest once again with the report on the library lights being on despite no one being in there. And that it’s like this every night.
>”Oh… wow.” Wallflower looks down and widens her eyes. “Why am I not even surprised?”
>”I know, right?”
>”I mean, are they even trying to hide it?”
>”I think they don’t expect people like us to be walking around much after hours. And that the partiers are gonna be out instead.”
>Wallflower laughs, remembering having seen the lights on herself at one point. “Wow… they don’t think anyone who thinks is gonna stride by and see that shit going on.”
>”It’s insulting!”
>It’s not long before the two girls agree that they’re going to post about this online… on 4chan of all places.
>They go to whichever board they think is most likely to listen, each of them on their own computer, plan in place to really cook up a big scene. Each of them have their phones out too to maximize the size and magnitude of their army.
>Moondancer is the one to start the thread, addressing how college campuses keep so many things running even when students aren’t using them, and starting to rant about things once again but this time typing it down into the post window and filling out the captcha.
>”Watch for my thread, alright?” Moondancer hits ‘post’.
>”You got it. Lemme know if you got dubs.” Responds Wallflower from her computer.
>”Fuck! One off!”
>”Damn it! Oh well. Going to your thread now.”
>It’s 2:24 in the morning.
>Wallflower and Moondancer begin replying to eachother in nothing but agreement, setting up the scene they wanted to have set up.
>Keeping on the lookout for shills and NPCs that will inevitably come to the thread. “Ooooh shit, we got our first one!” Warns Wallflower.
>”I see him!” Replies Moondancer, already typing up her rebuttal to the anonymous post. “We got ourselves a turd in the punchbowl!”
>By 3:30 AM, the entire thread is bustling with tons of anonymous posters who now see the light about the government stealing money from college students.
>Oh yeah, tons of anonymous people… all two of them. And their phones and proxies.
>”Yo, you got that kermit the frog meme you made on you?” Asks Moondancer.
>”Yup.”
>”Send it to me.”
>”You got it, girl!”
>This kind of talk continues off an on between frantic clacking of keyboards and clicking of computer mice.
>And the sounds of fingers tapping on phone screens, sometimes turning airplane mode on and off to change the IP address.
>Unique poster ID’s were a hell of a hurdle for these girls to get around. But like always, they figured it out.
>”You see the one guy who won’t shut the fuck up?” Asks Moondancer.
>”The one accusing us of being in a Discord server?”
>”Yeah, that one. That motherfucker.”
>”Get ready for screenshots, I’m gonna reply to my post and he’s gonna call me a samefag. Heads up.”
>”Roger that. You want me to make an extra post?”
>”Go for it. Just make sure it’s less than a minute after one of mine so he can’t debunk it.”
>”Awesome, thanks for the reminder.” Sighs Moondancer.
>”Anytime.” Nods Wallflower as her fingers type away at the keyboard, typing [>implying there are girls on the internet / lmao at you being this assblasted]
>Many snarky, condescending posts come from the college dorm. The thread reaches bump limit by 5 AM… more than 2/3 of the posts came from either Wallflower or Moondancer.
>But they won, and that’s the important part. Even got the last post in before the thread archived into 404 territory.
>”Damn, good job.” Congratulates Moondancer.
>”I’m really good at it.” Brags Wallflower as she leans back in her chair and sighs before munching on another barbecue potato chip.
>Isn’t it great knowing everything in the entire universe and being right about everything at the age of nineteen? Wow!
>Both of them are almost out of breath from doing this until 5 AM but they’re both satisfied.
>Wait a minute… there was something about witchcraft, right? Both of the girls lost track as they got caught up in the e-battle by eachother’s side.
>Wallflower starts to get really sleepy, with it being 5 AM and all.
>Moondancer has already tuckered out and fell asleep, and Wallflower decides she’ll get a drink of water from the mini fridge since she hasn’t left the room all day or all night.
>One thing leads to another and she is now staring at herself in the mirror.
>She starts to feel that envy coming back again and slips out of her sweater to get a good look at herself.
>Fuck, why can’t she at least put some muscle in this little bit of chubbiness like Moondancer did? She’d get a lot of that hourglass shape she used to have back.
>She knows she pretty much convinced herself that she stopped caring, but she wants to at least half-ass an attempt to get into shape.
>But then again, who’d care?
>She’s never talked to anyone casually since college started.
>When she was in high school, she had a pretty damn nice body with C-cup tits and everything… and no one fucking cared.
>No one batted an eye at her, not a single guy asked her out, she might as well have never attended school in that regard. It didn’t matter.
>And that’s why she figured she might as well let herself go, because it makes no difference.
>Whatever, Wallflower already stopped caring anyway.
>She puts her sweater back on, grabs the last slice of pizza, eats it cold along with a few pieces of chocolate and goes to bed.
>…
~
>Wallflower finds herself walking around an empty desert town.
>There’s fog everywhere, and she can hardly see where she’s going.
>There’s some rap music playing in the background, and the fog is getting thicker and thicker.
>So naturally, Wallflower approaches the local saloon where there are a bunch of floating cowboy hats just chilling outside, greeting her hello.
>She enters to find that there’s no one inside, but the door has disappeared and she is now trapped inside.
>There are suddenly growing growling noises that freak her own, almost like giant cerberus dogs emerging out of the basement of the place, and she slowly starts kicking at the wall trying to break it down.
>There’s this red light shining through the floorboard, and it’s accompanied by a rumbling that can be barely heard under the dogs growling.
>Finally, the wooden wall seems to just randomly give away like styrofoam or paper mache.
>All of the building disappears into shreds of this material before vanishing, and Wallflower finds herself in the middle of a misty wooded area.
>All of the trees have lost their leaves, and the branches look like straight out of a horror movie.
>And the rumbling hasn’t ceased.
>Suddenly, Wallflower hears labored breathing behind her, too scared to turn around to see what’s going on.
>She stands there, frozen in place, like a statue.
>And the breathing continues, a hungry breathing.
>Wallflower can now see herself from at third person perspective, and she can see behind herself, and wishes she hadn’t become able to.
>Behind her stands this freakishly tall old lady, scraggly white hair flying in all directions, black drapes covering her hunchbacked body, and they are torn at the edges.
>Wallflower is frozen in sheer horror, she watches her own eyes go completely wide and lost their pupils, and her hair stands up on its own as the lady behind her draws closer to her.
>Wallflower can barely see her face, and it can barely be described as a face, but it’s a face. That’s the best she can think of it.
>The lady slowly reaches out a pair of contorted arms, with boney fingers clawing at Wallflowers raised hair as the national anthem starts to play in the distance.
>Wallflower can see some folks in the distance form her third person view, watching men in tuxedos pop champagne bottles at eachother and cheerfully laugh in celebration.
>There are hundred dollar bills all over the grass where they stand, and they step all over them as they continue with what looks like a barbecue event.
>Wallflower completely forgot about her own situation with the tall old lady behind her… and she…
~
>Finds herself fading awake in bed not having concluded the dream storyline.
>But for a split second, she feels like she has hands on her shoulders.
>She jolts up, waking Moondancer up with the sudden noise.
>Wallflower finds her own hands on her shoulders, but feels like something is terribly different from the time right before she went to sleep.
>”Ugh, what time is it?” Groans Moondancer. “It’s the weekend now, right?”
>The clock on the side says 1:25; the sun is bright in the sky outside.
>”Afternoon.” Wallflower moans and falls back down to her back, staring at the ceiling.
>She can almost swear she saw the ceiling itself contort a little, but it must have just been her loopiness from having just woken up.
>But now she utters something she won’t forget for a long time. “Hey Moondancer.”
>”Yeah?”
>”Do you know about the Witchcraft?”
>Moondancer chuckles. “What are you asking me for? I taught you what that is.”
>”No, I mean. Do you believe in it… uh…” She barely knows what she’s about to say next, if anything. “Do you know about the witchcraft right here? Right now?”
>…What?
>”What are you talking about?”
>”Did you… did you see her too?”
>Moondancer sharply sits back up with her eyes bugging out. “Wait… you serious?! What happened?!”
>And just like that, Wallflower begins to explain to Moondancer what she dreamt.
>And this is where it all begins to really escalate… Moonflower.
>And all Wallflower can think about is that same phrase.
>Do you believe in Witchcraft?
~
>Yes.
~
>It’s going to be February in less than a week.
>And by then, Wallflower knows for a fact she’ll be entirely immersed into this whole witchcraft thing that has really taken off since her dream yesterday.
>She’s really just happy that there’s something finally going on in her life.
>Or rather, relieved. At least something interesting is going on for a change.
>She writes down her longest entry in Moondancer’s book yet, and proceeds to go about her day sitting in front of the computer like she always does.
>It’s a good thing it’s Saturday now, Wallflower doesn’t have to worry about skipping any classes today to make it so she never leaves her room.
>She does her usual routine, browsing a couple of websites she likes to keep an eye on, playing some more video games, all that jazz.
>She stands herself up and drags her feet over to the mini fridge and, oh that’s right, she ate the last slice of pizza already.
>And now there’s like nothing left except some ketchup, butter, half a glass-worth of orange juice and some other random bullshit that isn’t a meal.
>And Moondancer’s already out at the gym, so Wallflower looks through her phone seeing if she still has the girl’s number from when they exchanged contact info at the beginning of the roommate process.
>Yup, there it is. Not even labeled but it was added on move-in day, so that’s her.
>[hey it’s wallflower] Wallflower types.
>[wallflower? how do you have my number?] the reply comes nine minutes later.
>[we got eachothers numbers at the beginning of the school year remember?]
>[oh shit i forgot we did that / I thought we only had eachothers emails]
>[yeah I almost forgot too]
>[this makes things so much easier lmao / anyway whats up]
>[you near a store or anything?]
>[im working out right now]
>The question has not changed.
>[yeah but are you near like a gas station or convenience store] Asks Wallflower.
>[im kinda close to grocery store]
>[oh good / thats even better / can you pick something up for me when your done? / I’ll pay you back]
>[i guess / what do you need]
>[i guess microwaveable food preferably pizzas / maybe mac n cheese if they have any]
>[would you like a drink with that] Jokes Moondancer.
>[maybe cranberry juice, or chocolate milk, idk anything really]
>[ok ill get it]
>Wallflower looks through her wallet to see that she has a couple of tens in there. [i guess just get two frozn foods and one drink so its less than 20 dollars / *frozen] she texts.
>[ok]
>[thanks]
>[no problem, anytime]
>…
>Wallflower has microwaveable mac n cheese after Moondancer gets back a couple of hours later.
>She quietly eats as she listens to Moondancer in the shower, slightly caring less and less about her comparisons to the other girl.
>Eh, her little speech about being the clever techie one convinced not only Moondancer but Wallflower herself about not needing to be fit to survive in some random government collapse.
>Feeling sort of zen for the moment, she checks the weather and discovers that today’s going to be the warmest day for at least another week.
>With this, Wallflower does something she rarely does; she turns off her computer and leaves the dorm.
>Threw a jacket over her sweater, so she’s already warm enough. And it’s above freezing temperature today, so the sidewalks aren’t as slippery with ice.
>…
>About twenty minutes later.
>It’s sort of funny, because there’s the grocery store Moondancer got the food from right there down the street from where Wallflower is currently walking; the same name as the label on the bags.
>And they don’t close until a few hours from now.
>If Wallflower knew she was going to decide to go outside anyway, she would have just went to the store herself.
>She figures she might as well go and get some extra food since she still has a little bit of money left.
>Goes in, gets a couple of cans of spaghetti, a pack of juice boxes and heads to the checkout line.
>She didn’t think to bring a basket, so she’s carrying it by hand, trying to keep it from falling… and so, a spaghetti can falls despite Wallflower’s wishes.
>Picks it up, rearranges her grip on all her stuff and then notices that another college student and his girlfriend have cut in front of her in line.
>”H-hey uh… excuse me.” Her tone changes from ‘talking to Moondancer’ level to ‘talking to literally anyone else’ level.
>The couple completely ignores her. “So I was watching the season finale with Katie the other day…” The girl says.
>”Excuse me.” Wallflower somehow musters enough courage to tap the girl on the shoulder.
>Finally, their attention is diverted to Wallflower.
>”I was… already standing here.” Says Wallflower.
>”Oh, you were? Ah shit, sorry, didn’t see ya.” The boyfriend apologizes as he and his girlfriend become polite and let Wallflower go ahead of them.
>”Of course.” Wallflower mutters, but only in her head.
>Meanwhile, the couple goes right back to their conversation literally two seconds later.
>”I’m so glad Tyrion hasn’t died. He’s like my favorite character.” Continues the girl.
>”Shh, don’t jinx it!” Jokes the boyfriend.
>”Well it’s true! He’s like the best one!”
>Wallflower catches on to the fact that they’re talking about Game of Thrones.
>And she starts whistling the theme song, thinking about the South Park parody of the song and remembering how funny it was to her.
>”Oh, you watch Game of Thrones too?” The boyfriend actually turns to Wallflower at his own will, having heard her reference something in pop culture.
>”Oh, uh, not really.” Wallflower blurts. “I just like the song about dicks.”
>…
>There’s no way that came out the way it sounded in Wallflower’s head; the couple starts stifling laughter as what she said.
>”Fr-from… South… P-…” Wallflower does her best to damage control. “It’s a… South Park reference…” The same spaghetti can from before falls to the floor and Wallflower has to focus on picking it up because it’s her turn to put her items on the conveyer belt.
>The couple didn’t even notice that she continued trying to say words to them.
>The rest of Wallflower’s eternity that was spent at checkout was spent either being ignored by the couple talking about the show or noticing them glancing over at her with smirks on their faces they failed to hide.
>And she didn’t even have enough money for all of her items, so she kept the juice and left the spaghetti behind despite the situation implying the opposite.
>Yup, this is why Wallflower normally doesn’t bother going out in public.
>…
>”You mean you went to the same store you wanted me to go to?” Asks Moondancer.
>”I’m so sorry, I didn’t know today was going to be warm.” Wallflower apologizes, teeming with regret.
>”Oh, it’s fine. I liked the extra walking I had to do.”
>”Okay, nevermind, then.” Wallflower would rather not explain the real reason why she regrets going to the store.
>”Anyway, we should fall asleep at the same time. To see if we can sync everything up. What time you going to bed?”
>”I think I’m gonna be up till… I think 3 at least.”
>”Same.”
>”You uh, going on 4chan?”
>”Nah, I gotta rest my eyes tonight. Just, not actually rest, but I’ll be up.”
>”Alright.”
>Wallflower is in the clear to make a thread on 4chan venting about what happened.
>And this is exactly what she does hours later.
>Thread’s up for an hour without a single reply.
>Now feeling sour, Wallflower doesn’t even bother using her phone or proxy to reply to herself and just lets her thread die so she can go to sleep in defeat.
>And just try again tomorrow.
>”You going to bed already? It’s not even ten!” Moondancer looks over from her side of the room.
>”I’m uh, suddenly really tired.” Admits Wallflower. “I’m sorry if it’s a bit early.”
>”Nah, this is fine.” Moondancer puts down her book and rubs her eyes. “I haven’t been doing what I was supposed to be doing anyway. I could use some shuteye.”
>They’re both in their beds within the next fifteen minutes before Moondancer pulls out a little capsule of pills. “Hey, you want some of these?”
>”What’s that?”
>”Sleeping pills. In case I need to fall asleep at a certain time but I’m not tired enough to fall asleep. I save them for special occasions, and this is the first time we’re trying to dream at the same time.”
>Wallflower knows she’s perfectly fine falling asleep drowning in her own sorrow. “I’m tired enough to fall asleep on my own, trust me.”
>”Alright. You Sure? Cause I’m gonna be knocked out in about five minutes.” Moondancer pops one of the pills.
>There likely wouldn’t be any pills left in that container right now had Wallflower been alone in this place after a day like this.
>”Yeah, I’m sure.” Wallflower turns down the offer to take even one pill. “Goodnight, Moondancer.”
>”Goodnight, Wallflower.”
>And off they went to sleep.
~
>Moondancer is standing in the middle of a misty forest.
>She’s jogging, making sure she’s in good enough cardiovascular shape to outrun an angry mob when the time inevitably comes.
>It’s only a matter of time before the authorities crack down on the truth sayers once more.
>But they’ll never see her training in here, concealed by trees.
>Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, or the residual livelihood of suburban and commercial life.
>No one can try to brainwash her here, no one can try to even do so much as talk to her here.
>She runs through the woods still, not worrying about getting lost because she might as well get lost and challenge herself to find her way back to the civilization she’s going to fight.
>Makes perfect sense.
>She starts to sense someone’s presence nearby, like something just became real, or not real, whichever one is happening first.
>There is a strong wind exclusively at the top of the forest’s trees, and the trees sway back and forth without Moondancer feeling a hint of even a breeze where she’s now standing while looking up.
>The trees miraculously grow taller, and taller until they block out a lot of the daylight that shines through the overcast clouds. But the mist remains.
>Then… Moondancer swears she can hear the theme song to a movie or TV show she heard about before.
>But she doesn’t take in enough media to identify it.
>As the song grows louder, the bark on the trees starts to grow pulsating veins on it.
>Moondancer avoids touching the trees, fearing that they might try to close in on her since they just became presumably sentient.
>She looks to her side and sees herself holding a sword in her right hand, and a shield in the other.
>This confuses Moondancer a little, but she persists towards the music until she stumbles upon a huge festival where the music is coming from.
>At the festival are a bunch of nobles and knights from the early middle ages, their faces musty with dirt and their teeth almost looking like they haven’t been brushed for years.
>They have on these really rag-tag looking clothes aside the rusty armor they have on.
>Moondancer hides behind a small grassy knoll, watching the events of the festival unfold.
>The veiny trees all around Moondancer begin to sway around a lot in the wind. All of them except for one of them.
>Moondancer looks at the motionless one that the wind above seems to be ignoring.
>Looks up the trunk to see that there is an archer with a crown resting on one of the large branches.
>This archer looks like a short dude with short blonde hair, and a very snooty expression on his face. The crown on his head looks like it doesn’t belong there, and he looks really young, about Moondancer’s age of 19.
>He’s aiming the bow at something at the festival, and Moondancer looks over to see that there is the horse drawn carriage with a king and a queen riding it that just entered the festival.
>Going through the middle space where there aren’t any people blocking the way.
>Moondancer senses something inside of the king and queen, something about them being very important regarding the future, and then notices that the trees around them look like normal trees while the trees surrounding her and the archer have all these pulsing veins in them.
>Still hiding behind the grassy knoll, Moondancer draws her sword and, without thinking, stabs it into the tree.
>The blade sinks it with ease, as though sinking into human flesh.
>The tree automatically begins to bend itself out of shape and contort in agony, gushing blood from the stab wound.
>The crowned archer in the panicking tree loses his balance, slips off and falls to his death as the music gets louder.
>No one at the festival seems to have noticed any of this happen, and proceed to check on the gold coins they have carefully stacked up on the tables away from the ground.
>Moondancer doesn’t know why she does this, but she emerges from her hiding spot and goes to join the festival. Just in case they have any spaghetti for her to eat or something.
>As she enters the crowd, a booming female voice catches her off guard.
>”COME ONE! COME ALL! AND WITNESS THIS GREAT POWER!” The voice proudly declares above all other voices. “FOR THIS POWER HAS SAVED YOU ALL FROM TYRANNY!” It speaks in this unrecognizable accent.
>Moondancer looks over at this blue woman with light blue hair and six arms, like an ancient Hindu Goddess.
>”Look, for the archer in the trees is no more. And it was this blade that slew him!” The six armed woman points to a dagger in her hand with one of her other hands. “Know your heroes and bow!”
>All of the festival-goers get on their knees and bow to the woman as Moondancer stares angrily at her.
~
>Moondancer wakes up to the sound of Wallflower’s computer’s keyboard making loud clacking noises.
>Oh, she was asleep.
>”I… what…” She mutters as she slips out of bed. “Oh.”
>”I didn’t dream of much.” Wallflower says. “But I do kinda feel a bit better than I did yesterday.”
>Moondancer nods lethargically and pulls out her dream book to write down what she remembers of what she dreamt in the night.
>Something feels entirely different on her end.
>And as she comes to, she can only internally ask herself one question.
>Do you believe in Witchcraft?
~
>There’s a pun about witch-hunting in here somewhere.
>Moondancer is constantly on the lookout for that same being that Wallflower encountered in her dreams.
>She tries hard to push her mind while asleep, but nothing seems to be happening.
>At least not at first.
>It starts out with Moondancer realizing that she needs to focus on the characters from her own dreams before worrying about those within Wallflowers dreams.
>If she’s going to access anything in her dreams, it would be something that connects with her own mind first, and she should have kept this in mind, but something’s been bothering her.
>Moondancer gets the feeling that there’s something in the real world that needs her attentiveness that has opened her third eye as much as before.
>She can’t put her finger on it, and meanwhile, Wallflower seems to continue to have her dreams about this really tall woman in black like it’s straight out of a horror flick.
>Moondancer knows she’s missing out on something, and it’s making the urgency within her feel so much worse as time goes on.
>She needs to find this witch that Wallflower has been encountering in her dreams.
>But something else happens in real life before she has a chance to make any of the progress she wanted.
>…
>In the gym.
>Moondancer enters the room to proceed with her usual workout routine.
>Leg day was two days ago, and now she’s ready to work on her arms, shoulders and abdomen.
>She sets her bag down and slips out of her sweater.
>The ripples of her muscles get goosebumps in the cool air like they always do, and Moondancer begins with a few warm-ups with dumbbells.
>She’s chilling out doing her usual routine and clearing her mind of at least most of her worry when she hears yelling from down the hallway.
>It sounds like two women shouting at eachother… and there’s something peculiar about one of the voices that Moondancer still cannot put her finger on as she listens.
>She can make out what they’re saying.
>”Freezing bread was Capitalist invention!” A voice talking in a heavy accent declares. “Is not the same as bread freezing in Siberian winter!”
>Moondancer squints in their direction, wanting nothing to do with what’s coming into the room.
>She just wants to work out.
>Two young women enter the gym. And immediately raise the noise level from 1 to 100 is 6 seconds.
>One of them is blue and the other one is pink… the blue one seems to catch Moondancer’s attention in a peculiar way.
>Her face looks familiar, but Moondancer is immediately distracted by the fact that both of these women are wearing full-body Adidas tracksuits.
>They’re either planning on working up a hell of a sweat or they don’t know what they’re doing.
>”You never saw macaroni and cheeses commercial?!” The pink one shouts with a half smile. “Is obvious! You act blind!”
>Moondancer’s hand grips the dumbbells hard enough to snap them in half.
>The ridge of her nose wrinkles into a snarl.
>”The Capitalists are getting to you, comrade! They are get you to spend money on freezer electricity utility!” The pink one shouts once more. “Think about the money!”
>”And what money is that?” The blue one with the familiar voice replies. “Pig dollars with leader’s face on it? I rather burn it.”
>Moondancer isn’t in the mood to talk to these two, then again, she’s never in the mood to talk to anyone else in the gym when she’s in here clearing her mind.
>”Anyway, can we please become stronk now?” Says the blue one.
>”Riiiiight, I forget. You want to catch up to me, no?”
>”We already talk about this in past! Like is not obvious! Yes! Now we pump iron like good factory workers!”
>Moondancer growls at the two, annoyed especially at the skinny blue one acting all tough and whatnot when she sets herself on one of the rack.
>She soon gets their names, and feels some sort a familiarity in one of them.
>Starlight and Trixie.
>Trixie.
>Why does that name sound famili-
>It finally hits Moondancer.
>That dream she had!
>It’s barely been a couple of minutes into this dumb shit and there are already parallels being drawn between events and other things. Moondancer can feel the sentimental source of this kicking in.
>Among other woke stuff she likes to think to herself while she’s building up the meat on her bones.
>”You are not even trying!” Starlight shouts at Trixie, who’s getting eyed up and down a lot more by Moondancer now. “This is why you are weak! Like corrupt dictator!”
>”Shut up! Am knowing what I am doing!”
>Moondancer finds it impossible to ignore them now.
>”You have seen how tough I am! You know what I do and can do, Trixie could raise hunting wolves in the Urals if I wanted to!” Gloats Trixie as she struggles with her tenth rep.
>”You have any proofs?!” Starlight shouts back with a laugh. “You talk lots of shit, and is why I love you for it.”
>”Trixie accepts compliment.”
>”But you are weak. And I shall make you strong.”
>”Trixie is already strong!”
>”Not when we wrestle, no?” Smirks Starlight.
>Moondancer formulates a polite sentence in her head: “Excuse me, you’re being very loud, could you please quiet down?”
>Then she tries to repeat it orally the best she can.
>”WILL YOU TWO SHUT THE FUCK UP?!” Her voice’s volume goes above all else.
>Trixie and Starlight fall silent for a split second as they look over at Moondancer.
>Moondancer realizes what she just did and contains the spaghetti in her pockets.
>It /is/ kind of her fault she let an outburst like that occur.
>”You are saying what you son of basterd bitch?” Trixie stands up too fast and makes herself dizzy.
>”Trixie step back!” Starlight grabs her friend as Moondancer herself stands up with a blushing snarl on her face. “She is massive! Do not step forth!”
>”Trixie can take her.” Trixie cracks her knuckles as Starlight holds her back.
>Starlight is wary of the decently ripped muscles on Moondancer’s arms, knowing what it takes to get there; and not even she has gotten there yet.
>”She is slow and heavy! Bulging with muscle weight!” Trixie urges. “Trixie can beat her! Am fast!”
>How fortunate is it that there is no one else in the gym right now?
>”Many apologies!” Starlight says to Moondancer. “We get a little… excited at times. Are not from here, we are from across Ocean where homelands are! Where bloodlands are!”
>Moondancer squints annoyedly some more but nods. “Okay…”
>”We are very sorry! I always forget gyms here are different from homeland! Less vodka too.”
>Trixie knows that she has a point.
>She can take on Moondancer no matter how swole she is with them gains and anacondas on her arms.
>She always had speed on her side.
>Speed is better at winning a fight than brute strength, at least in her experience.
>Then again, this is the fables western world, so things might be a little bit different here.
>Those fans of pussyrugby with their super bowl seem to value size a lot, and that girl with the red hair’s got it.
>”Do you go to school here?” Asks Starlight.
>”Yeah.” Moondancer lets her energy build back up so she can go back to her workout. “Do you?”
>”We are visiting.” Trixie joins in. “We are here to study in land of the whopper.”
>”So… foreign exchange students?”
>”We are not students.” Clarifies Starlight. “But we do sometimes study American classes.”
>Moondancer looks around, confused.
>”We go to where professor preach to student…. lecture hall, yes?”
>”Are you enrolled here?” Asks Moondancer.
>Trixie and Starlight promptly become tight-lipped about the whole thing, giving answers with more brevity in information.
>But at least this situation didn’t devolve into a full-on brawl with the most pointless roots.
>But Moondancer’s attention now fully devotes itself to Trixie, who now goes to the treadmill to show off how fast she can run on it.
>She starts off at regular walking speeds as Starlight rolls her eyes while knowing what’s coming.
>Trixie reaches into her duffel bag during mid stride and pulls out a half-empty bottle of vodka. “Watch Trixie.” She says before taking a swig.
>After setting the bottle down, she turns the speed setting up more and more, requiring herself to run.
>The number goes higher and higher, but Trixie’s determination correlates with it.
>She ends up sprinting on the treadmill as Moondancer raises an eyebrow at her from one of the racks.
>Starlight turns around and waits for the inevitable crashing to begin.
>Trixie slowly gets out of breath, and her lungs feel like they’re about to slip out of her ribcage and into her pelvis.
>Moondancer almost admires her persistence, even as that persistence refuses to fade after Trixie’s feet slip off of the treadmill and Starlight giggles a little bit.
>The crashing is loud, but just like Trixie’s confidence, the bottle of vodka is not shattered.
>Stunts like this come up every several minutes before Moondancer starts to wonder why Trixie is trying so hard to impress her.
>Maybe she’s trying to intimidate her instead of impress her.
>At least, that’s what Moondancer is getting from this with the mean looks Trixie is starting to give her, as if it’s going to make her look any less like a fool before someone who actually regularly works out.
>Meanwhile, Starlight actually undergoes a proper workout routine, seemingly used to this whole set of antics that Trixie is doing.
>Moondancer and Starlight manage to strike up some regular conversation by the end of the next hour.
>Trixie has surprisingly not worn herself out, but she mostly just walks around looking for something completely different to do like a kid at Chuck-E-Cheese.
>”I know some capitalist propaganda depicts folk like me and my friend as being smokers.” Says Starlight. “Is funny, because it does not make sense.”
>”How does it not make sense?” Asks Moondancer, hoping these girls aren’t too far left for her tastes.
>”Cigarettes are money machine for capitalists.” Says Starlight. “Dictators here make citizens addicted to chemical in cigarette and deny it. They deny death it causes. They deny it polluting air other people breathe and pretend it is tradition. And then lobby in front of white palace if their money is in danger because of this.”
>Moondancer’s pupils dilate in delight.
>It doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum Starlight is on, she’s woke on the issue of cigarettes.
>”I know exactly what you mean.” Replies Moondancer as she continues working the leg press thingy to make her thigh muscles stronger or whatever. “It’s just another puzzle piece in the grand illusion rich people set up to stay rich.”
>”You understand the fault of capitalism?!” Starlight sounds thrilled to finally hear someone else say this.
>”Do I? There’s a chance I know a lot more than you probably do about the shit that goes on behind closed doors. Cause I’ve been here longer, and I know how to read between the lines better.”
>”Ah, but yuo see, Moondancer, am quite educated myself from what lies the college professors say about home country. I know what really goes on outside of this place, am from there. I can tell you.”
>Moondancer squints and nods. “Y’know, I think we both could enlighten eachother on a thing or two. I can tell you more about here and you can tell me more about where you’re from.”
>”Indeed we can.” Says Starlight.
>”Look!” Trixie calls over from elsewhere in the gym.
>The other two girls look over to see Trixie balancing herself on an exercise ball, squatting with both of her heels jutting into the rubber material.
>”Bet you cannot do this, Moondancer!” Brags Trixie as she almost loses her balance form slight drunkenness.
>…
>Workout time has finally ended, and Moondancer is exhausted once again, ready to go back to her down and shower.
>Starlight has already gone back into the locker room to use the shower there, and Trixie is about to follow her there before she goes and talks to Moondancer for a split second.
>”Hey uh, sorry about that whole thing before.” Apologizes Moondancer, assuming that Trixie’s still bent out of shape about it all. “I get a little grouchy sometimes, I guess. My apologies.”
>”Is all good! Where I come from, we do that all the time and stay friend! Am glad I have met you, Moondancer. But I must ask you something.”
>”Yeah?”
>”Yuo are very big and strong like spetsnaz.” Trixie clamps her hands together, locking her fingers together. “What are your secrets? Tell!”
>”I’m very dedicated, and I’ve been doing this every couple of days for almost two years.” Answers Moondancer.
>”Do you… do the steroid like capitalist athlete?”
>”What? No, I don’t do steroids. I don’t put the wrong kinds of chemicals in my body.”
>”Do you know where I could find some?”
>Moondancer just stares at Trixie, not knowing how to respond to this until she decides she’s too tired to not go along with this.
>”No, sorry. But it’s nice meeting you, though.”
>”Okay. Yes! It was nice meeting new friend! We should hang out more often. You should teach me how you become strong like spetsnaz.” Trixie starts to ramble before Starlight’s voice calls out of the showers and beckons Trixie to join her.
>Moondancer senses something inviting about the tone, and picks up on the implications rather quickly.
>She’s hurrying to finish up at her locker so she doesn’t have to interact with these two anymore at least this time around until she can do it when she’s not glistening with sweat and wearing nothing but a sports bra in front of them, but Starlight emerges straight out of the showers completely naked in search of Trixie.
>Moondancer will admit that Starlight has made some progress, but she’s definitely not as tones as she is, not that she thinks of it as a competition or anything.
>”Trixie, where are you— oh.” Starlight notices Moondancer standing right there talking to Trixie.
>”Oh, I’m sorry…” Moondancer looks away.
>”Is fine, comrade. We do not listen to capitalist propaganda looking down on hating friends seeing us nude.” She walks past her and grabs Trixie by the arm. “Oh by the way… Trixie is jealous of you.”
>”Starlight!” Trixie blushes.
>Starlight giggles in response. “I have talked with her. She is smart, no way she did not notice already.”
>And with that, Starlight directs a mumbling Trixie into the showers with her as Moondancer awkwardly leaves to go back to her dorm so she can shower there.
>…
>Moondancer comes back and showers like she usually does, with Wallflower sitting in front of her computer like she usually does.
>She once again sits there and contemplates like as she listens to the shower run, wondering what it looks like inside of the shower.
>Moondancer finishes up and comes out to immediately tell Wallflower about the two foreign women she saw at the gym today, and how it was one of the most hysterical yet awkward moments in her life.
>Wallflower giggles a little bit at the thought of some random girl trying to intimidate Moondancer when she’s like a foot shorter than her and less muscular, but then finds herself intrigued by the fact that this girl was exactly like someone who existed in one of Moondancer’s dreams.
>This is one of many things that are going to be prominent in Moondancer’s mind during the course of the next few days.
~
>Many dreams are had, but some of the more recent dreams start to take on bizarre undertones.
>But not before Wallflower has a chance to meet the two foreign girls that Moondancer met at the gym.
>…
>”But what am I even gonna do there?” Asks Wallflower.
>”You don’t have to work out or anything. Just come see these two girls. They’re just as awake about the government as we are.” Moondancer replies.
>Wallflower knows she’s not going to talk much, and mostly hopes hat they cannot speak English very well so she doesn’t have to talk much.
>But if Moondancer was able to get some woke-ness out of them, then they must have definitely had something to say.
>”Oh by the way, just in case one of them starts hitting on you, they’re kinda lesbians and from somewhere where flirting isn’t their strong point, but that’s not the important part. What matters is that they’re not sheep like most people on this campus. You’ll understand what I mean soon enough.”
>Moondancer and Wallflower enter the lifting room where Trixie and Starlight already are, and working out just like the last time they were.
>They notice that they don’t recognize Wallflower and rush over to her. “You must be Moondancer friend, yes?” Trixie goes on to introduce herself in her thick accent. “I am Trixie Lulamoon. Greatest magician in town and out of town. What your name is?”
>Wallflower nervously tries to answer the great and talkative Trixie.
>”She’s Wallflower.” Moondancer answers for her. “And Wallflower, this here is Starlight.”
>”Is nice to meet you.” Starlight shakes Wallflower’s hand as Trixie starts showing off again as per usual. “What bring you here? You do not look of the strong lift type.”
>”She’s the one I’ve been in the dream world with, remember?” Says Moondancer.
>”Oh, yes! I now remember!” Starlight claps her hands together. “Please tell me, what are your methods? My comrade and I are of tryings to this but have yet to get grasp!”
>”Um… well the first thing we do is sleep at the same time.” Wallflower answers. “Also… hi nice to meet you. I’m Wallflower.”
>”Hi…” Starlight shakes her hand, having already learnt her name.
>They talk for a bit, then talk while working out for a bit.
>Wallflower just sits there on a nearby bench watching the others work out, keeping up with the conversation.
>She almost thinks about running on the treadmill a bit, but literally just doesn’t care enough.
>But it was nice meeting these other two girls, though.
>…
>But now, the dreams start to get a little strange, and Wallflower can’t exactly figure out why other than the possibility that the presence of those two foreign ladies at the gym has something to do with it.
>The two roommates make sure to fall asleep at the same time, both of them drinking one small container of apple-juice each in order to maximize the effect of the dream world that will be bestowed upon them.
>It’s not long before they doze off.
>…
>Moondancer finds herself back in the desert village with a couple of tumbleweeds rolling by at record distance.
>There’s this thick haze that feels really familiar regarding other dreams.
>But it’s a slightly different color, but Moondancer cannot make out which direction on a hue scale it would be going in compared to the last haze from whichever other dream she dreamt where there was a haze.
>The wind starts to howl very quietly, and she can get this apprehensive sensation that she is not alone on this main street of the desert town.
>Something is bearing down on her, and it feels specifically directed at her.
>She steels herself and looks in all directions in search for something she can’t put her fingers on, and footsteps can be heard in every direction, rushed and frantic.
>Dust picks up, and invisible people from every direction encircle Moondancer with whatever weapons they may have drawn.
>She feels no fear, but anger instead, looking for whatever is causing this, unaware of the fact that she’s dreaming.
>Spins around with fists raised, gritting her teeth and letting the soles of her shoes dig into the dirt below until she sees someone standing right in front of her.
>This person looks familiar… it’s one of those foreign girls she met in the gym that one time… what is she doing here?
>”Who are you?” Moondancer asks anyway.
>Starlight stares back at her, wearing this long cloak with a hood that she pulls up as she doesn’t respond and waits for more footsteps to surround her and the now shivering Moondancer who has her feet planted onto the ground.
>”WHO ARE YOU?” Moondancer hollers at Starlight, red in the face as she hears a voice behind her answer for her.
>”You are in Trixie’s way.” Trixie the other newly met girl reveals.
>Moondancer spins around and sees Trixie standing before her with this intense red glow in her eyes.
>And with this, Moondancer begins to try and question Trixie, but Trixie raises one hand with fingers aggressively clawing at the air and telepathically lifts Moondancer off of her feet.
>”OUT. OF THE WAY.” Trixie uses levitation powers to abruptly slam Moondancer into the side of one of the buildings.
>”You will not take this town!” Starlight takes a step towards Trixie. “It is mine! My property. Everyone here is my property! Not yours!”
>”They will be.” Trixie smirks with a heavy-handed wickedness as she balls her hands into fists and lets her red eyes glow brighter under the hood of her cloak that is darker than the one Starlight is wearing.
>Moondancer gets up, nowhere near as physically strong in this realm as she is in real life.
>She automatically tries to draw conclusions about what’s going on from a political standpoint as Trixie and Starlight face off. She has not registered that their accents are gone, and instead they are talking like they are movie or video game characters in mid battle.
>Another tumbleweed comes barreling by with a gust of wind, almost looking like it’s growing as it rolls, like a snowball tumbling down an avalanche.
>Starlight snaps her fingers once, only once. And all of the doors to the saloons, shops, offices and everywhere else fly open to have people pouring out of them.
>Trixie takes one step backwards to figure out which one of the people trying to rush her is going to reach her first, and she starts to swing her hands around in the air with a red aura emitting from her fingertips.
>The people coming out of the doorways have blank yet frantic expressions, as though they are in a constant state of shock that forces them to allow whatever is controlling them.
>They are all dressed in outfits that fit western movies, but they don’t look authentic, as though they’re fake costumes.
>And it’s pretty clear that something is controlling them once they get thrown onto the ground with that expression refusing to leave their faces.
>And they get back up as though nothing hurt them unless Trixie decides to go all out and use her powers to a lethal extent.
>Her grimace intensifies as she has to thrash away at people closer and closer to her.
>This battle continues until a rogue energy blast goes wild and hits Moondancer right in the face.
>Then… everything goes totally black.
>…
>Flames. Everywhere.
>This is definitely hell, no doubt about it.
>Whichever girl is dreaming this expects the flickering inferno to sear the side of her arm as she walks by it, but she feels nothing as she walks past deeper into the echoing cavern.
>Not even her sleeve is getting burnt… what kind of hell is this?
>She continues to listen, and there’s no semblance of terrified or agonized screams in this place.
>No traces of suffering, nothing. This is a bit confusing to the girl. Something about this place, or rather, something about what was in her head prior to this moment had led her to expect a much darker set of occurrences in this place as she entered it.
>But she meets the first passerby; a young woman in a long black dress wearing sunglasses and black lipstick.
>She’s smiling, and casually waves before snapping her fingers to bring the newcomer front and center before a throne.
>The dreaming girl looks up, in sudden fear of what she might be face to face with.
>On the throne is this massive monster-like figure, horns on its head, blackened eyes with a terrifying smile full of razor sharp teeth.
>Claw-like hands tightly gripping the arms of the chair, tomato-like skin reflecting the images of the flames off of its surface.
>The girl who just entered has now become two people… Moondancer and Wallflower.
>They stare at eachother before looking back at the figure that momentarily introduces itself as Satan itself.
>And with this, Moondancer and Wallflower are asked to sit back as everything is explained by Satan, as to why no one in hell seems to be suffering.
>A long time ago, up in heaven, one of the angels had disobeyed God… or something. The dream’s getting a little hazy at this point.
>One thing led to another and this rogue angel ended up being kicked out of heaven for the sole purpose of God maintaining his circle of worshippers and loyal spirits.
>This God wants to to build up an army, wanting to get as many loyal spirits as he can to come up to heaven with the mindset that he is all there is that is truly good, and that he is all powerful and deserves nothing but respect.
>On Earth, God allows pain and suffering to persist, despite being able to end it.
>Treating the ones in his own image like he’s an abusive, neglectful drunk father. Hardening hearts and softening them for the sole purpose of fulfilling his narrative, his “plan”.
>Making these rules as to what is okay and not okay to do, and mixing it with the obvious things about what is okay and not okay.
>Encouraging needless rituals, needless loyalty, and needless test of faith, all to keep the humans from enjoying life to the fullest, because they must not know how much better Earth and Hell are than Heaven.
>Make them see a light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel full of things the ones traveling down it are told to block out, as they believe it is bad for them.
>These moments of joy and pleasure in life are the work of the rogue angel, soon to be labeled as Satan by the ones who blindly follow God. The ones who lie for him.
>And the rogue angel proudly accepts the title, fuck it.
>People of faith are told to resist their very human nature, because God would reward them for it. With turning them into an ever-loyal servant to the one they deem as all powerful and should not question at all whatsoever.
>Freedom is not allowed in God’s house. God will tell you what freedom is, and you should not question it.
>God will tell you what to do, and you should not question it.
>God will tell you what truly makes you happy, and you shall not question it.
>For if you question God, or stray form his “light” without becoming loyal before you die, you will suffer forever in hell. But remember, he still loves you!
>He’s your father, for christ’s sake.
>Your drunk, neglectful, abusive father… who loves you. God damn.
>God will sometimes make things in the universe work against you when you haven’t been a very good follower, or when it’s convenient for his master plan.
>But he’s doing it for you.
>You’re not allowed to believe in anyone else in God’s realm being a god but God himself. He doesn’t like having the attention go to someone else; you must only pray to him and worship him.
>Even if he makes life unfair for you due to his plan, then gets mad at you if you start playing without fairness in his unfair game.
>But remember, he loves you! And if you deny it, you’ll feel eternal pain in hell! The eternal flame of God’s love for you. Oooooh, it burns so good, man!
>But hey, what about Satan?
>Satan tries to get you to enjoy life to the fullest and be happy, indulge into your pleasures that GOD hard-wired into humans (the ones that Satan created specific moments in life to bring them out more since God stifled them) and lets you question anything you like, and is evil according to God.
>Satan is a liar and a deceiver… according to GOD, the one who manipulates you and threatens you to never question it.
>Do you think that Satan’s presence itself is the real test here? To see if you have your own moral compass that is independant of outside influence?
>You you have your own moral compass? Or is someone else’s moral compass living inside of your head?
>This is what Satan says to Wallflower and Moondancer.
>To which they reply, they don’t know. Because they’re dreaming and non-lucidly, so they’re not fully conscious of what’s going on.
>Satan points around the caverns, points to all of these sudden scenes of people laughing together, drinking, partying, enjoying themselves, having sex, all sorts of things, without any of it damaging them in the afterlife.
>This is what hell truly is. All of the enjoyable sins rolled up into this cluster of bliss. The bliss that God told you was in heaven instead.
>As it turns out, it was God who was the liar.
>Humans generally fear death, and they fear being burned by fire, and many other things, which God played upon in a genius fashion where he made them imagine all of those horrible things being in hell.
>And if they didn’t do everything he said and became loyal worshippers to him, they would suffer in that way when they inevitably die.
>But hey, if you praise God hard enough, suck and stroke his dick enough with them good ol’ prayers n’ shit, he’ll let you into h e a v e n .
>Where everything PURE and there’s nothing else there but clouds and angels and your love for God and God’s love for you.
>Alcohol? Sex? Parties? Nah, that stuff gets you into hell (where it’s more suitable and rampant, but God doesn’t want you to know that).
>Live a life of PRAIZ DA LAWD and being pure and boring? That’s the kind of place you’ll go to once your life is over.
>Live a life of parties, sex, alcohol and drugs and all kinds of other shit? Well we’ve got a realm chalked full of that for your afterlife too!
>Guess which one got more popular?
>Guess who got jealous of that?
>Guess who wants to warp your perspective of it all and get you to join his seekret club more?
>A lil dweeb named Yahweh, that’s who.
>Don’t forget to mutilate the tip of your dick, don’t forget to dress nice for praising him, don’t forget that any babies you have before marriage (BY THE CHURCH, MIND YOU) is bad.
>Don’t forget to read his novel, that a bunch of other anonymous people in the ancient levant were told by him to write, just to make the message jumbled. And even more jumbled when you have to reference the book instead of have the one himself who “wrote” it come down and clear up any misconceptions.
>Nah, keep wondering, it’s funny. But remember, Satan’s a liar! Don’t you DARE follow your heart unless it’s what God defines as following your heart. Which is following him and his son or whatever.
>Don’t forget your rituals, you know, the ones you didn’t initially want to do on your own without any outside influence.
>Why do you think it got this way to begin with? You think it wasn’t done deliberately but the ONE WHO IS IN POWER? The one who is supposedly all-powerful, by the way. (and can stop anything the “EVIL!” does on his own without having his dick sucked every Sunday/etc. by weekly worshippers)
>C’mon, you’re smart enough to call out bullshit when you see it. Would you have gone to church if no one made you go? Or would you have done whatever the hell you wanted with your free time?
>And here Moondancer and Wallflower stand, before this throned beast that is Satan.
>Watching so many other people have the happiest times they’ve ever felt; times of eternal sin in hell. Where they belong.
>And meanwhile, God’s all up in his lil cloud hood all like “…” because he doesn’t talk much despite so many people talking to him because they’re scared of dying and burning forever and have no idea what the fuck is going on because no one currently alive knows for sure where you go after you die.
>All they got is FAITH. Faith that God plays upon, to get worshippers. So he’s not too lonely on pseudo-cloud nine.
>Don’t trust him? Well, you don’t want to go to hell, do you? You’ll burn forever! Nothing else happens there.
>Why should you even believe there’s only one heaven and one hell? Or even that there’s only one level to heaven or hell?
>Just blindly believe what people tell you, forget having your own perspective, right? Fuck that.
>Satan then goes on to tell the two girls about how all of it is conflated with “are you a good person or a bad person?”.
>So if someone resists God’s illusion, they must also somehow be resisting the methods on how to be a good person, and then there’s that whole “it’s about the message” argument that God hides behind when he inevitably gets question, which he hates because it’s pretty easy to see through something that’s not true on this scale. (So he wants to you turn your eyes away from it and have your ears facing it instead so he can directly whisper into it).
>”He said you’re happy in hell? He has no proofs! He’s only running on what he believes! From that text that said so! We already have established that hell is bad and heaven is good, why should we change that because of what these people think?” is like saying “He said that God is real? He has no proofs! He’s only running on what he believes! From that text that said so! We already have established that space is a thing and we have people who have gone there and come back, why should we change that because of what these people think?”
>”Waaaah, it’s not my opinion!”, right?
>Anyway, both of the girls wake up at the exact same time.
>…
>”I gotta write this down!” Huffs Moondancer as she scrambles for her book, as Wallflower says something similar.
~
>Months go by, and Wallflower and Moondancer’s friendship becomes an increasingly tight bond.
>They’re becoming aware of the dangers of succumbing to the allure of college life, and giving into the pressure that is exerted constantly unto them.
>Since Moondancer is the one who works out the most, she tasks herself with retrieving all of the food for the dorm after working out so she can go on comfy jogs after straining herself so much.
>She enjoys it, feels like it makes her stronger.
>Not going to be the weak little damsel in distress that the illuminati wants her to be.
>That same illuminati that serves as the same thing she keeps looking over her shoulder for; it’s never over.
>Wallflower spends the majority of her time on the internet, getting excessively good at coding when she’s awake.
>It’s a good thing each of these girls has a friend, because they can now work as a system.
>Staying physically protected while also staying protected on a cyber level.
>Because when shit hits the fan in this bottom text society, people are going to need ways to protect themselves. On multiple levels.
>This is the whole theme of what Wallflower and Moondancer have become obsessed with in their waking hours.
>Not trusting society because of one reason or another, and it’s eating away at them morally.
>Twisting their imaginations into creating blanks that don’t belong there, and then filling them in. Blaming the global conspiracy people
>The lizard people, triangle hat wearers, aliens, etc. etc. Pretty much any nonsensical strawman scapegoat one can think of.
>But Wallflower and Moondancer, they’ve got it all figured out!
>They stopped going to their classes and began to plan their bunker they’re going to build.
>Refusing to talk to anyone except eachother and the two foreign ladies from across the Atlantic ocean Starlight and Trixie.
>This further shrinks their point of view to match the ones they find on the internet.
>Wallflower and Moondancer learn more about their college from anonymous people online from all over the world, rather than anyone they could have talked to actually on campus and there to see things for themselves.
>Because that’s totally how that works.
>You can’t see what sheep culture is until you start obeying dog culture. “Everything’s a lie, the big scary government is gonna git u better watch out”.
>It’s just rich powerful people competing in dick measuring contests; actually controlling other people requires hard work, and these people are too lazy for that shit.
>Either lazy because they’re tired from working hard their whole life to get their money, or too aloof to begin to imagine working hard because it’s been that unfamiliar to them their whole lives.
>Controlling millions of people? They’re just covering their asses so they can feel cooler than their fellow zombies in the castle next door half a cobblestone block away.
>But hey! If it’s negatively affecting you without them knowing or caring, that’s your problem, man!
>We got our success, you’re on your own, peasant!
>You need us anyway! Society would collapse without us, but fuck being responsible for those outside the circle, right?
>Anyway, more wine, please.
>This luxury cruise ship is making me seasick and I want the people judging me daily to only think I threw up because I was drunk.
>(the political narrative kinda changes every now and then, welcome to the internet)
>…
>And when night falls, Wallflower and Moondancer make sure to dream at the exact same time.
>They know for a fact they must have run into eachother before in the dream world, and they’ll do it again.
>They fall asleep on clumsy schedules, and wake up at the same time only because one woke the other up.
>And it’s really fucking with their sleeping patterns, and metabolisms as well.
>The unhealthy diet of pizza and microwaveable foods doesn’t help either, but at least Moondancer is sure to sneak a few veggies in while Wallflowers counts a slice of pizza with pineapple on it as close enough.
>This builds up over time, and it starts to show in the very far and few between interactions they have with other people on campus whenever they go outside, mostly for Moondancer since Wallflower almost never walks through that doorway anymore.
>There’s one day at the gym when Moondancer is considering ending her workout early because it feels like all of her energy is draining out of the back of her head and not coming back.
>She’s on whatever the leg machine thingy is called, and she sees a couple of guys looking in her direction and smirking.
>The turn away before they can see her glaring back at them, and Moondancer finds this to be the most angering thing because now they’re gonna do it again.
>She initially thought they were just making fun of her, but now she realizes that they’re leering at her.
>Nope, that’s now too far in the opposite direction.
>She’s never really gotten much attention before, but she didn’t want this kind of attention, and now she has to worry about how she’s going to tell these guys to fuck off without saying “fuck off”.
>She’s probably going to end up saying “fuck off”.
>This whole thing continues for the next 20 minutes but the guys get gradually nervous when they see the combination of how strong Moondancer is and how much angrier she’s starting to look in her facial expressions.
>She can hear their whispering, and they’re getting a little enthusiastic with what it sounds like they’re saying.
>When Moondancer finally packs her things and fixes to leave the gym, they happen to be standing right next to the door.
>She gets close and they turn their faces away out of nervousness.
>What is she going to say that won’t make a scene?
>She’s too exhausted to think straight, drenched in sweat and aggravation to the point where she’s almost growling with every breath.
>One of these little twig-armed men is going to say something, Moondancer knows it.
>”You’re really good at this.” A voice barges into the air.
>Moondancer doesn’t say anything mean, in fact, she doesn’t say anything at all.
>The guy who spoke falls into the weight rack in front of him from the blunt force of Moondancer slapping him in the back of the head.
>Moondancer freezes in place as the other two guys gasp and back away from her.
>She almost says “I didn’t mean to”, but remembers the behavior she saw and second guesses just long enough for them all to be gone before she says anything.
>”That was awesome.” Another girl’s voice says behind Moondancer.
>Trembling with anxiety, Moondancer slowly turns around to find that four other girls who were on the treadmills have walked over to her and are basically cheering her on.
>Oh right, this is a college campus. Nope, Moondancer isn’t going to get in trouble here.
>”Th-thanks.” Moondancer awkwardly replies super quietly, unsure of what else to say to these strangers she’s never met.
>”Hey, can you spot me?” Another girl asks.
>Moondancer nods and figures she might as well stay in this place that’s comparably less public than outside at the store or wherever.
>She spends several minutes with the other girls in the gym, and they all start praising her for slapping that guy in the back fo the head.
>Well, he was kinda being an ass. So Moondancer just starts pretending that she meant to do it as the other girls start talking about their favorite movies and activities and how they’re going to hang out together this weekend.
>After commenting on how Moondancer doesn’t talk much, they invite her to join them, unaware that she’s nowhere near as normal as they are.
>”Yeah, that band’s having a concert here this weekend. Wanna come along?” The first girl asks Moondancer. “This is the only time they’re performing in town.”
>Moondancer takes the longest time to answer. “Uh… I’m gonna be busy.” She twiddles her thumbs.
>The other girls look rather disappointed, having been looking forward to hang out with this cool new friend.
>They probably think she’s nice just because she’s quiet.
>”Aww, well if you change your mind, wanna text sometime?”
>Moondancer never liked the idea of exchanging contact information with other people.
>But she doesn’t decline to exchange phone numbers, and now she has these random 4 new contacts on her phone.
>…
>Wallflower didn’t show much of a reaction to what Moondancer told her about the gym.
>She’s too busy being engulfed in her video games and shitposting online.
>Moondancer figured she wouldn’t care all that much, which is fine because she’d rather not talk about it much.
>”Hey, so when are we getting some sleep?” She asks.
>Wallflower looks away from her screen, eyes bloodshot. “Well I’m not really tired yet.”
>”I am. Exhausted myself a lot today.”
>”Damn, can you try to stay up?”
>”Nah, I’m going to sleep. My body’s about to collapse.”
>Alright, then.”
>Moondancer goes to sleep as Wallflower continues her game, not needing to worry about being too loud because Moondancer is knocked out the very second her head hits the pillow.
>…
>Days like this continue for moondancer and Wallflower.
>One of them goes into public, finds herself in a situation where she has to interact with other people and then does something so head-turning that she can’t just be ignored.
>It almost feels fitting that Wallflower is the one who goes through this the least often and does something where she can’t be ignored.
>Of course, from the times this does happen, dreams start to sprout.
>Wallflower has many dreams where she’s in a large public location and has to meet someone, but there’s no way of telling who it is, so she has to go around asking people if they’re the person she was supposed to meet.
>Moondancer has her usual run-of-the-mill fighting off a crowd of people dreams.
>Spring starts to go by more quickly, and the two girls exploring their own minds together make what they call “progress” but they’re really not going anywhere.
>The book that Moondancer had all that stuff written in just sounds like it’s full of nonsense, at least to Trixie and Starlight when she eventually showed the recent dreams to them.
>This causes Moondancer to try and find Trixie in her dreams again, trying everything she can to induce lucid dreams, but nothing seems to be working anymore.
>Maybe her mind is becoming too sober, or connected to reality. But something inside of her brain tells her that fate wants her to find Trixie once more.
>And then she’ll tell her in her dreams herself, that way, she can later tell her in the awake world, and Trixie will have to believe her.
>She has no idea if she’ll be able to reach Starlight the same way, but Trixie already appeared in Moondancer’s universe, so it shouldn’t be too hard to make it happen again.
>Moondancer searches for Trixie over and over again, in multiple different setting that seem to get darker and darker in nature.
>One is just a regular residential neighborhood, the next is a dark alleyway at night in the city, and the next is a literal graveyard with streams of lava everywhere.
>But the graveyard does find Moondancer some luck one night, long after her (latest) run-in at the gym.
>She runs into Wallflower.
>The girl is striding through the mist, probably trying to find a curse tablet or something she can use when she sees a distant familiar face.
>Wallflower is creeping around behind that mausoleum over there.
>Moondancer points directly forward, and the sound of a distant explosion sounds as Moondancer’s gaze reaches Wallflower and makes her freeze in place.
>”You! Friend!” Moondancer stands like a statue with her arm and hand pointed. “Our paths have crossed!”
>Wallflower turns her head and gasps. “We meet again.”
>The sky gets darker except for one point where a bright light shines out of the clouds from the heavens above.
>The grass blades sway as the wind picks up and moves the thickening mist by faster.
>”Why are you here?” Moondancer asks. “Are you dreaming about dying?”
>Wallflower looks at Moondancer, unaware that she is dreaming. “I am here because I fear my future.”
>”Is that why the mist is picking up?” Asks Moondancer, losing her lucidity by the second as everything gets hazy.
>Both the wind and the mist are picking up.
>It’s not long before something wakes both of the girls up.
>…
>”But like… where’s the kitchen in this place?” A mystery figure in the room stumbles around and peers down at the refrigerator. “Like, it got this food cooler thingy but like, where’s the cool tiles and shit? Where’s the cabinet? Isn’t this a house?”
>Moondancer rolls over with drool on her cheek. “Uhhh, wha… what the fuck…”
>”It’s got a microwave, though. Look!” A second mystery figure  points out.
>”Whoooooaaaa! We got a microwave! Sick!” The first mystery person pushes her fingers onto the buttons, delighted at the beeping sounds they make.
>”Moondancer…” Groans Wallflower out of the covers. “What’s going on? Who is that?”
>Moondancer springs up out of bed, soon noticing the thick smell of marijuana in the air. “Wait a m- WHAT THE FUCK?!”
>”Oh shit! Hiiiiiiiii!” One of the other girls in the room declares. “Welcome to our house, man!”
>Through the smoke, Moondancer fumbles out of bed and backs Treehugger up against the wall.
>Her friend Mary just stands there with a blank reddish stare. “Where’d you go?”
>”Someone’s in our new house!” Treehugger responds with a pained groan. “Hey are you the dude who showed us the place three years ago? You know where the real kitchen is? I want graham crackers.”
>”This is OUR dorm! How did you get in here?” Growls Moondancer.
>”Wha….?” Treehugger squints through the smoke and sees Moondancer’s face. “Whoa! Sick eyebrows! They’re even better than mine!”
>Moondancer’s eyebrows only angrily furrow some more, which only further impresses Treehugger.
>”How do you do that? What da fuuuuuuuck!?” Treehugger is herded to Moondancer’s empty bed.
>”Who are they?” Wallflower waves her hand around, starting to cough from the smoke.
>”I don’t fucking know. Who are you?!” Moondancer pulls Treehugger closer to herself.
>”I like your hair.” Mary says to Wallflower. “Can I touch it?”
>Moondancer lines both of the intruding girls against her bed and gets a good look at them, seeing as they’re definitely not a threat at this point aside the weed smoke they filled this place with.
>”Dude, where are the graham crackers?”
>”Shut up! How did you get in here?” Moondancer crosses her arms and glares at the two as Wallflower opens the window.
>”What are you talking about? This is our house.” Responds Mary. “We helped you decorate the dining room, remember?”
>Moondancer groans and grabs the two girls to drag them out of the room.
>Wallflower coughs and wheezes as she tries to rid the place of smoke as quickly as possible.
>At this moment, Moondancer realized that she must have forgotten to lock the door to the dorm at some point, because one of the girls is now muttering about how they went through the “front door”.
>It doesn’t take a genius to see that these two are a couple of stoners, which is the only reason why Moondancer now remembers that today is April 20th.
>”What did you do?” Moondancer speaks slowly so they can understand. “Did you leave anything else in the dorm?”
>The two other girls start looking around, and Moondancer’s brain finally wakes up enough to realize that she’s talking to other people and loses the mood to say much to them.
>She just wants to haul them out of this place, but they probably live here somewhere. Maybe down the hall.
>”Wait… is this a college apartment?” Mary points to the now unfamiliar door she was just herded out of.
>”DORM! College dorm! Yes, it’s my dorm!”
>”You didn’t tell me we were still at school!” Mary turns to Treehugger.
>”How was I supposed to know?” Shrugs Treehugger. “I swear we crossed the highway at one point. There were huge trucks and everything!”
>They definitely crossed the high something.
>Moondancer proceeds to explain to the two girls that they are in the college dorms… like ten times in a row.
>Mary and Treehugger introduce themselves by name, and ask why there are “weird clones” of themselves standing right in front of them.
>Moondancer tilts her head. “…WHAT?”
>”I found this on the floor.” Wallflower startles Moondancer as a couple of other students peek out of their doors after waking up.
>Wallflower holds a couple of joints in her hand.
>”Oh for fuck’s sake! Quick, her rid of it! We’ll get in serious trouble for that shit!” Moondancer turns back to the other two girls. “What the fuck? My dorm is not your house!”
>”I’m sorry!” Mary sways back and forth. “I thought we were supposed to cross the highway after getting our driver’s license renewed.”
>Moondancer gives up trying to get through to these two, they’re high as a couple of kites.
>Wallflower flushed both of the joints down the toilet, and the other students start to giggle, not very likely to tell the R.A. about what happened once they inevitably show up.
>”Did you cross a mirror highway or something? You’re literally us!” Treehugger points up at Wallflower and Moondancer.
>Wallflower and Moondancer look at eachother, then look at Mary and Treehugger.
>Treehugger has skin like Wallflower’s but similar eyes, hair and eyebrows to Moondancer’s.
>Mary has green eyes and hair like Wallflower’s but skin like Moondancer’s.
>”Holy shit…” Wallflower mutters under her breath. “Wh-where did you two come from?”
>Right away, Moondancer’s tinfoil hat gets activated once again. “There’s no way this is just a coincidence.”
>Now all four of the girls are high on something.
>Moondancer and Wallflower first have to completely air out their room, lucky that the smell of pot didn’t escape to the hallway that easily during the ten minutes the door was open.
>The two obviously high girls are sent back into the room, told to hide under the beds which they find fun in.
>Once the R.A. appears around the corner, she approaches the scene mostly clueless and unenthusiastic about responding to noises at 4:32 AM.
>Some rabbling is had, the students apologize without a single one of them ratting anyone out because they either don’t care or were doing some shady stuff in their own dorms that they don’t want getting investigated.
>Yeah yeah, everything’s fine Missus Residence Assistant.
>And the R.A. is more than content with going back to bed without another question asked.
>Doors close, and Moondancer angrily glares under the bed at the two stoner girls. “Where the fuck did you two come from?!”
>Ever take in a stray cat and have to take care of it?
>This is what it feels like for Moondancer and Wallflower every time these stoner girls come to visit their dorm.
>Repeatedly returning like they built a strong connection out of nothing but a few eye stares and light hearted conversations.
>Mary and Treehugger always pick the fridge as their first objective when coming to the dorm for a “visit”.
>”You got any more ice cream? I love the cookie and cream flavor.” Mary reaches for the handle, eyes red as an exit sign.
>”We don’t have anymore because you ate the last bowl-full two days ago.” Moondancer grouches. “Before I even found out about it.”
>”You got any cereal?” Treehugger pushes Mary out of the way and starts fishing her hand through the freezer section for cereal.
>This keeps continuing on for quite some time.
>It doesn’t take long to get used to these girls but it feels like a long time.
>What do they want?
>Neither of them seem like they have bad intent at all so it’s not like they can’t hang out every once in a while, but they still do need to learn that Wallflower and Moondancer aren’t always free to “burn grass and chill”.
>It’s like they moved in uninvited, but only for short hour long intervals.
>Whatever, it’s always nice to make a new friend or two.
>Meanwhile, Moondancer and Wallflower are insistent on continuing this whole dreamscape exploration.
>The pages have been filling up, and sleeping routines have become regular in a sense where the methods used are becoming consistent.
>No surprise that the stoner girls seem to be down with this right off the bat; Moondancer only seems to take an interest to them in this sense.
>With all the constant visits from Mary and Treehugger, they might as well start joining in, and this is exactly what starts happening when they finally convince Moondancer to throw a slumber party in the dorm in late spring.
>Of course it had to be after the semester ended.
>Too much shit to worry about during the semester, and there are more students there on campus.
>But once they leave for the summer, for the beaches… the place becomes paradise for Moondancer and Wallflower.
>Quiet, devoid of life, just nothing but empty spaces where the shitheads used to talk.
>Mary and Treehugger are strangers to this town when they’re high, but it’s definitely big enough for the two of them.
>And they roam around at night asking where the good times are.
>And it’s time Wallflower and Moondancer show them around.
>So they get gallons of apple juice and sleeping pills and hop on to it.
>”Whoa, are we gonna take these with the weed?” Asks Mary, very amused and enthusiastic.
>”If… you want. We really shouldn’t smoke in the place, though.” Moondancer replies.
>”Oh I can make us some brownies!” Offers Mary. “And we can just eat it.”
>Wallflower groans in anticipation of potentially getting caught, but she’s not used to the feeling too too much since she’s usually able to do bad shit unnoticed in plain sight.
>”I got a shake n bake we can use to make brownies.” Says Treehugger. “And I’ve done it before, it’s cool.”
>”Yeeaaahhh! I remember that!” Mary replies with a prolonged gasp. “Shake and baked! Wooooo!”
>The idea is eventually reluctantly approved.
>And all the necessary materials are gathered aside a certain vegetation required, that is provided by two of the girls themselves.
>And so… the night begins.
>Yup, fuck it, we’re actually doing this shit in the story. I’m not sorry.
>Mary and Treehugger prepare the brownie batter mix and put the “special ingredients” in for that extra spice the brownies need.
>They’re sure not to let the scent fill up the dorm room.
>Milk is brought in from the store to accompany the brownies.
>”Yo, uh, what would happen if we put the sleeping pills in the brownies too?” Asks Treehugger.
>”I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Refutes Moondancer. “Too many things at once could be harmful, or even deadly.”
>”Bah, trust me, if that were true, I’d have died years ago.” Treehugger tries to break one of the pills open.
>”Wait wait wait… we got Nyquil though, right?” Says Mary.
>”I… don’t like where this is going…” Comments Wallflower.
>”We can use the Nyquil as frosting.” Says Treehugger. “OH WAIT! I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN!”
>”Yeah! Yeah!” Mary rapidly nods her head. “Put THIS in the batter since it can be mixed in…” She grabs the bottle of Nyquil “…then grind the pills up and mix it with some cream cheese or some shit and that’ll be the frosting.”
>What the fuck are these two girls doing? They’re not even high yet.
>It takes about a couple of hours, but they eventually get everything figured out.
>Moondancer and Wallflower are highly reluctant to take the brownies with Nyquil in them and prefer to take the Nyquil separately after being high for a while, so there is a half of the brownies that just have the weed in them and the other half includes the Nyquil.
>Everything’s prepared, and then slapped right In N Out of the Shake N Bake, and voila! Brownies are done.
>Moondancer looks closely at the coloring of the brownies, making sure they don’t look undercooked… she doesn’t get a good look at the first one before Treehugger pops it into her mouth.
>From what she can tell, they look okay, but she starts going off on Mary and Treehugger anyway about how they’re probably going to see really bad side effects.
>She doesn’t know why she didn’t start scolding them until now… she was in almost complete disbelief when she heard what they were planning AS they were carrying it out.
>”Do you have any idea what those chemicals are going to do to you?!” Moondancer points a finger up at the ceiling with her palm facing her angrily concerned face.
>Wallflower quietly picks up one of the non-Nyquil pot brownies and takes the smallest bite she can.
>She expects it to kick in right away. Like it’s supposed to work like a sedative dart or some dumb shit.
>Glasses of applejuice are poured along with smaller cups of milk.
>”So like, have either of you gotten laid before?” Asks Mary with a mouth full of brownies. “Just curious.”
>”I uh… stay focused on the topic at hand here! You’re killing yourself.” Moondancer feels her arms flex with enraged guilt for not speaking up sooner under her sweater.
>Her face blushes a deep orange, almost loud with color as Treehugger just proceeds to ask the same bone-headed question… as if sex matters in life.
>”Well if you must know, sex is a major trap in life.” Moondancer begins her rant, straightening her posture. “All these college students have this trivial goal on their mind 24/7, it’s stupid. Pointless distraction.”
>Wallflower quietly nods in agreement while taking another bite of a brownie.
>”Yo, you need to join us in an orgy sometime. You sound really tense about this.” Treehugger suggests before another bite.
>”That’s not the point!” Moondancer starts before realizing that Treehugger can’t answer until she’s done chewing, but then decides to go all out solely because Treehugger can’t answer until she’s done chewing.
>”You mean you’ve never fucked before? Ha! Turbo virgin!” Mary lets out a slurring chuckle.
>”Look at what society has done to you! Eating poison food and worrying about how much pleasure you can take out of the mainstream pop life. I bet you learned to think this way from some rap video!” Moondancer orates as Wallflower gets into the good taste of the brownies with a larger bite.
>”But like, how can it be pop culture if it’s rap?” Asks Mary, still a little high from her earlier joint. “If anything, hip hop is closer to rap than pop.”
>”Oh my gosh, you’re so blue pilled it’s crazy! Look at how far left you are. I pray for you. How many music sub-genres do you believe in? It’s all just noise! True music is classical music.” Moondancer starts to list artist after artist, composer after composer from the 1800’s. “But it’s okay, I can get you back on the right track. And now that your brain is entering sponge mode, this is the perfect moment.”
>”Wut…” Treehugger says through the brownie in a muffled tone. “Heheheh.”
>Moondancer starts to do another one of her cultural rants, and promises that once they all dream together, the secrets and truths of the world will all become clear just like they has for Wallflower months ago.
>”Whoa, cool, witchcraft!” Mary blares after the term is brought up. “Can I have some?”
>”You put chemicals in the brownies that’ll turn your freakin’ brain cells gay!” Moondancer proclaims with a gruff voice, slamming her fists on the table.
>”Dude, I’m high and I still don’t even know what you mean.” Mary chuckles. “But hey, if these are gay brownies, right oooonn!”
>”Yeahhh!” Treehugger pats Wallflower on the shoulder. “Wait hold on, so you’re a virgin too?”
>”Well… it wasn’t obvious?” Responds Wallflower.
>Moondancer continues to try to argue with the two stoner girls, before taking a few sips of apple juice as Wallflower sips some milk to wash down the brownies.
>”I think I’m starting to feel it.” Wallflower announces. “Moonie, you didn’t even eat any of the brownies yet? They made half of them without Nyquil just for you!”
>Moondancer grunts, not having gotten through to Treehugger or Mary.
>Mary picks up one of the Nyquil lacking pot brownies and starts limply shoving it into Moondancer’s face. “Try iiiiiittttt… tryyyy ittttt.” She playfully groans. “It’s good for your third eye.”
>After making the others promise to hear her out once she starts eating the brownies and getting high, Moondancer accepts the offering and waits for the effects to kick in.
>[cue the spongebob 1 hour later timecard]
>”So you see, the rich are never going to band together and take over the government, we’re the ones who have to get rich and do it ourselves. We have to be the GOOD rich people!” Moondancer falls back onto her back. “We have culture values!”
>”But how are we going to convince all the rich people to give us all their money?” Treehugger feels a looming sense of worry overtake her. “Do we have to sell them a bunch of cool stuff?”
>”You know… I really like that idea! I like it a lot! But we have to come up with something reaaaaaally good!”
>”Well we got these brownies, don’t we?” Says Mary. “Capitalism likes it when you have commodities to sell.”
>”You really think they’ll like the brownies?” Asks Moondancer. “Do you REALLY think that?”
>”Rich people can just grow their own weed. They have so many window sills on their houses to put their gardens on.” Says Treehugger. “Hay moonie… you’re good with gardens, right? Do you know how many gardens rich people have? Maybe we can sell dirt to them for their garden.”
>Wallflower lies on her back on the floor. “Haaaangin’ out! Down the streeeet!”
>”Uhhhhhhh, hey, Moondancer, do you know how much dirt this campus has? I think we can do this.”
>”Duuuuude, we got tons of grass all over campus! We can just pull it out and take the dirt away and gather it up! We can take as much as we want.”
>”We can’t just go and do it right now! We’ll be arrested! The fuck is wrong with you?” Says Moondancer. “We need to sleep first anyway. Take some applejuice so we can lucid dream just like I told you. We’ll plan in the dream where no one can hear us!”
>”Not a thiiiiiiing toooo dooooo. But TALK tooo yooou.” Wallflower waves her arms around. “We’re all alright! We’re all all right! Hello Wisconsin! Come to Brazil!”
>Treehugger bursts out laughing at the Brazil bit in a drawn out, airy laugh.
>”We should totally go to Wisconsin in the dream!” Mary realizes. “They got so many farms there! Imagine how many tons of dirt we can get! Also, anyone got another Nyquil?”
>”I think we’re getting a little to ahead of ourselves, actually. There’s no way this plan will work! It’ll take too much time and effort!”
>…
>Outside of the dorm building, two whispering voices mutter to eachother.
>”Are yuo sure this is dorm?” Starlight’s voice asks. “We have no direction. This may well be wrong building.”
>”You dare question Trixie’s great and powerful memory? She was here during the day! This is the place.” The other voice insists.
>The two of them get closer to the side door but then discover that it requires a student ID to open.
>They had found themselves locked out of their house after their keys mysteriously disappeared from the kitchen table at a party.
>Now they are forced to turn to the first friends they can think of, Moondancer and Wallflower.
>It’s a good thing Starlight still has Moondancer’s number on her phone from a couple of weeks ago after hanging out with her at lunch at once point.
>But none of her texts are being answered.
>”Come on, pls respond already!” Starlight growls.
>”They will not let us in?” Asks Trixie.
>”She is not responding. Fuck!”
>”Did you tell them what happen?“
>”Yes! I said everything! She is probably sleeping or some shit. We’re fucked.” Starlight gives the upper windows a frustrated glare. “Actually…”
>…
>Moondancer’s head hurts like hell when she fades awake.
>She struggles to sit up after realizing that she can’t even remember what she dreamt, and only has to face the sharp pain in the muscle tendons in her scalp now.
>”Ugh… what the fuck…” She has to stop herself from rolling off of the bed.
>What’s all those loud noises?
>Can they fucking stop?
>”And then I swear it all turned into a fuckin’ kraken! All of her dreadlocks morphed into tentacles! With the suction cups and everything!” The noises turned out to be enthusiastic talking. “It was sooooo sick!”
>The nonsense makes its way to Moondancer’s ears, which she doesn’t recognize until she remembers the nature of the things she tends to write down in her little book.
>But there are a couple of voices she hears now that weren’t here last night.
>”There is many ancient legend about kraken!” Trixie’s recognizable voice makes Moondancer’s eyes shoot open. “Many stories and fables about how it sink ships. Am surprised how it entered dreams now.”
>Moondancer ignores her pain and clenches her fists. “Excuse me, what the fuck?!”
>In the room are five other people now.
>Wallflower sits in her computer chair turned away from her desk, listening intently to the story that Mary is telling her. Mary is grabbing Treehugger’s dreadlocks and wiggling them around for dramatic effect, making monster noises to imitate the kraken in her dream.
>Trixie and Starlight stand together in the room next to the bed, fascinated by what Mary is telling them.
>Wallflower is just glad that Starlight keeps turning to her and asking her if what she dreamt was the same story as Mary is telling, being very considerate of her side of the story and giving her attention.
>But then Trixie interjects and tells them all about how her dream last week was more intense since she was (slightly more) sober when she heard her tales about the kraken.
>”I said… what are you doing here?!” Moondancer repeats to the two foreign exchange girls who were just ignoring her. “How did you get in here?”
>”Hey! You! You’re finally awake!” Trixie is delighted to see that Moondancer is not dead and hugs her.
>Moondancer turns to Starlight, the one who’s more likely to explain. “How did you get in here? Tell me.” She’s concerned about ways she could get in trouble in proximity of however the event was played out.
>”We found… ways.” Starlight answers. “But do not worry, that is not of importance. What is important is that we are all together as friends!”
>”Did anyone see you get in here?” Moondancer inches her way towards the window to search for police cars below.
>”We are the stealth!” Trixie loudly announces in a blaring tone. “Just like assassins in the night!”
>”Shhhh! Lemme tell you more about the kraken!” Mary menacingly whirls Treehugger’s dreadlocks in circle.
>Treehugger giggles in response. “Agh! Stop! That tickles!” She playfully falls away from her friend.
>”If the cops were gonna come, they would have been here already.” Wallflower tells Moondancer. “Are you alright?”
>Moondancer has gone back to gripping the side of her head.
>”Whoa, you’re so fricken’ muscular!” Compliments Treehugger. “Have you ever beat anyone up?”
>Moondancer gets ready to tell her that she’d rather not answer when she realizes that she’s only in her tank top and sweatpants. “Fuck…”
>She scrambles around for her sweater, not used to being seen without it on herself outside of the gym.
>”Relax, we’ve already seen how muscular you are all morning when you were passed out.” Says Mary. “I even poked you a few times. Treehugger just forgets a lot.”
>”I didn’t notice yet!” Treehugger replies. “I was too high!”
>This type of crap goes on for some time, but the conversation shifts into what everyone actually dreams, and through her annoyance and migraine/hangover, Moondancer manages to follow along everything that happened and finds herself pleasantly surprised.
>Everyone dreamt of a similar plot… a message in a bottle in the ocean being delivered to them from the ocean.
>Mary’s was about Treehugger going swimming in the ocean, getting lost and then becoming a kraken before eating a pirate that had the bottle, Wallflower became a pop star and had the bottle tossed up to her while onstage, Treehugger was lying on the ground in the grass as a limousine went by and the bottle rolled down to her off the top of a knoll, and Trixie had a dream where she was defending a very important city during wartime from a giant kraken monster like it was a Godzilla movie, and she ripped its hear out and put it into an empty vodka bottle she found on the street and then the heart said something to her she can’t remember.
>Starlight said she also vaguely remembers dreaming about a glass bottle recently but forgot the details.
>”I remember what the little paper in mine said, though.” Mary announces. “I was sooooo lucid!”
>”Did it say anything about going to live in the wild like the Scythian people from long ago?” Asks Trixie. “That is what Trixie had lucid dreams about even if no kraken! They were fascinating.” She clamps her hands together.
>”I think it did!” Mary gasps. “And it had some math homework problems on it too.”
>With this, Trixie starts to boast about her deep knowledge of the Scythian people from the ancient times when “everything was simpler”.
>It very quickly becomes an obvious history channel tier revisionist story about why all of society was on the right track in those days before some random crap about religion came barreling in, or whatever it is Trixie starts rambling about with Starlight backing her up every couple of sentences.
>Trixie isn’t hesitant to mention how easily she could survive out in the wilderness on her own, apparently capable of raising hunting wolves in the Urals and hunting bears for food.
>But of course, Mary and Treehugger are instantly blown away by the story like they’re watching a movie, while Wallflower sits there with a skeptical look on her face as Moondancer grips the side of her head waiting for her migraine to let up just a little.
>Is there any orange juice in the fridge?
~
>So this is quite the interesting group of friends.
>It started off with these two antisocial girls, not realizing how lonely they really were.
>They weren’t as understood by society as they wanted to be, and it really drove them to want to stand out yet fade in in only ways they could hand pick in their minds that would never work when applied in real life.
>In this bottom text society, you’re either invisible or a behind-the-back laughing stock if you do the whole life thing like this.
>Get attention and make sure it’s the good kind by being normal, but Wallflower and Moondancer just can’t help but not do that. Normal is too, weird for them.
>However, it’s not like they aren’t more impressionable than they’d like to be either.
>In came a couple of young ladies from out of the country, Starlight and Trixie.
>Met Moondancer after an episode at the gym occurred, and the three became fast friends soon to ass Wallflower as a fourth.
>The bonding over disdain for modern politics was strong, and it worked like magnets with none of them knowing how the fuck it happened.
>Their own version of having fun while sleeping worked well too, at least a little bit.
>Moondancer wasn’t too opposed to hanging out with Starlight and Trixie since she didn’t have that many other people to talk to that agree with her.
>Wallflower just wanted more people to talk to her.
>Mary and Treehugger were just wandering around looking for somewhere to have a good time, and they happened to stumble upon two friends who were superstitious enough to pine up to the fact that they look like them, and think that the universe must have done this on purpose.
>A few run-ins and semi-convenient interactions later, and here we are.
>Starlight and Trixie met Treehugger and Mary through mutual friends they have.
>Not much happened between them besides the weird storytelling and the dumb dream thing that Wallflower and Moondancer do all the time.
>That and the episodes where Mary and Treehugger are too high to care what’s going on and entertain the others while the favor is returned due to the effects of the substances they took.
>Wallflower finally has a group of friends that care about her, and Moondancer finally surrounded herself with like-minded people that buy into the “wokeness” she has.
>And now summer is here, and the six friends can hang out like the bunch of protagonists a couple of them see themselves as.
>…
>It’s a slow day for Wallflower, and it’s easy to tell this when she stays in bed a lot more often than even sitting in her computer chair playing video games or something.
>She just can’t find the energy to be only half as lazy as she is now, and it’s comfy this way because she’s under the warmth of the covers in opposition to the chilly air-conditioned room, in opposition to the scorching sun outside in the summer atmosphere.
>Wallflower would just turn the AC off and open the window but that would require too much work.
>Her phone vibrates, and it’s eventually picked up 30 minutes later.
>[hey can you get something at the store again? I’m gonna be at the gym longer than I planned today] Moondancer’s message from 11:45 AM reads.
>Wallflower sighs. [does it have to be right right now or can it be in a few hours]
>[just any time today before 8 pm if that’s okay with you]
>[sure] Wallflower figures she might as well find a reason to get out of bed that isn’t computer related.
>She knows she’ll wake up on her own in a couple of hours anyway due to her sleeping pattern, so she just lets herself fall back asleep until further notice.
>…
>Wallflower scans the sides of the aisles she walks down at the grocery store, looking for the giant bowl of mac n cheese Moondancer wanted.
>Literally just a giant bowl of already prepared mac n cheese that’s apparently sitting on one of the shelves somewhere, spoon included.
>The girl continues her dreamlike pace down the aisles as she finds more and more bizarre things on the shelves.
>She’s about to turn a corner when she hears a deep and rather angry sounding voice talking to someone, and she slowly recognizes the topic as the voice rants on.
>”It’s bullshit! Daenerys should have won! Game Of Thrones is basically about saying ‘fuck you’ to plot armor and having the strongest people with the most legitimate advantages survive. AND it’s been anything but hesitant to kill off tons of characters and showing that the bad guys can win too, so this finale is a fucking letdown.” The voice sounds really salty.
>Oh shit, it must be those same people from the last time at the store when Wallflower embarrassed herself.
>In one lumbering motion, Wallflower backs up into one of the aisles, loses her balance at the same time, and knocks the shelf over.
>The entire row of selves of the aisle, with the contents of the shelves and all, goes barreling down to the tile floor, with a deafening, continuous crashing sound that follows the falling shelf down its connected length that falls over further and further.
>The shelves basically had ceramic plates and stuff on them, so the crashing and shattering is unpleasant to the highest degree, only going on and never stopping as more of the aisle falls.
>Wallflower’s horrified eyes can only watch as the massive mess grows more and more as all the attention in the universe is directed towards her like it’s making up for all the times she was ignored.
>The opposite end of the aisle falls too close to the adjacent aisle for some reason, and the entire next aisle (of once again, ceramic plates) continues the chain reaction as the next step of the domino effect of Wallflowers epic unintentional destruction of the store.
>Aisle after aisle topples over, multiplying the noise of shattering plates like there’s an army of Logan Pauls in the store with no dead people to film because George R. R. Martin is still on vacation.
>Everything in the store is totaled, and this is exactly what lingers in Wallflower’s mind as she slowly lifts out of the dream world.
>…
>Wallflower wakes up in a cold sweat.
>Breathing heavily and shaking all over her body, she forces herself out of bed and into the chair, as unenthusiastic as ever about going to the store.
>…
>Moondancer continues her usual gym routine.
>She works up a hell of a sweat as always, and wonders how much longer it’s going to be until all of this pays off, and the apocalypse comes and she can make good use of her physique she’s building.
>Looks like Wallflower just texted her back.
>Moondancer assumes she just got back from the store since it’s definitely been a few hours since she agreed to go, and now she just wants to ask what she specifically wants her to pick up.
>Nope.
>[hey uh I overslept and still didn’t go and things came up]
>Annoyed, Moondancer grunts and texts her back. [fine I’ll do it]
>She then turns to the clock and realizes just how late it actually is; she might as well have gone anyway at this point because it’s almost 8 PM.
>Within the next twenty minutes, Moondancer heads to the showers and gets re-dressed in her normal clothes over an extra set of workout clothes she brought.
>She leaves the place right as the sun is about to set and heads over to the store on foot.
>It might be a little annoying walking the shopping bags back right after wearing herself out, but she’ll manage.
>It’s a good thing the store is open because the walk over itself was already annoying enough as it was.
>Thighs burning, Moondancer goes and grabs the things she wants off of the shelves.
>Right as she gets enough in the basket before it would be too annoying to carry while exhausted, a middle aged lady approaches Moondancer for the sole purpose of smalltalk.
>”I see you’re dedicated to your studies.” She says to Moondancer. “Must be stressful, eh?”
>Not in any mood for smalltalk, Moondancer swallows what she wanted to say and simply nods, wishing she’d just walk away.
>Why do these locals HAVE to fucking talk to everyone?
>”Are you a freshman?” She asks, unable to hear moondancer’s teeth gritting.
>”Mhm.” Moondancer forces her voice to make a sound just to answer with something.
>”You sure have a long road ahead of you. I’m sure you’ll make it through okay since you’re even staying the summer to work on your academics.” The lady CONTINUES.
>”…Yep.”
>”When I was your age, I went to a lot of parties in my freshman year. But I learned my lesson after my grades started to slip, and one of my friends was dismissed from the university because of her grades. That’s what made me get right down to business and focus on my grades.” She starts to ramble on and on and on.
>Moondancer wonder, oh she wonders, what the hell it was that made her appear to be the talkative type to this lady.
>Was it the turtleneck sweater in July?  How could that even be a sign?
>Can Moondancer just go home already? Instead of being stuck in this grocery store aisle with this lady she really doesn’t want to talk to.
>But the lady just keeps talking on and on and Moondancer doesn’t know how to end the conversation because she’s not experienced in conversations, so she just stands there trying not to frown.
>The lady eventually leaves her alone, and then it’s off to the checkout line.
>Guess who gets in line right behind Moondancer?
>”Oh, I love that brand of coffee! I got the same one, see?” The same lady from the last eternity approaches yet again for the next eternity.
>Even the cashier can see Moondancer’s unwillingness to keep this going, and moves along quickly and stalls a bit with the lady so Moondancer can make her escape from the store with her packed bags after everything is paid for.
>…
>Moondancer decides to take the shortcut home since she spent longer in the store than she intended; it’s already dark.
>At least all she has to do is make it back to the dorm and then she can fall down onto her bed until tomorrow afternoon.
>All she has to do now is get through these alleyways back to campus and then get to her building.
>Moondancer proceeds in the direction she’s trying to go until she sees someone walk out from somewhere, blocking her path.
>She pauses, already able to tell how sketchy this situation is.
>But when she turns around to walk the other way instead of confront this mystery man, there’s another man standing behind her, accounting for the light footsteps that Moondancer barely even noticed until just now.
>She turns back around to find the man blocking her path is now standing a couple of feet away from her, with his friend obviously blocking her from behind.
>These two are probably in their late 20’s, almost look like they’re crackheads.
>They don’t look very strong, pretty out of shape too.
>Moondancer’s slightly taller than both of them.
>”Hey there.” The man in front says with a smile in a raspy voice as his friend closes in.
>Moondancer doesn’t say anything, wondering what the hell to do with the groceries she’s carrying.
>Does she just put them down? Does she whack the guy in his face with them? How close is the other guy standing behind her now?
>But then the man tells her. “C’mere. Why you walking around all alone? How about you put your groceries down? You look tired.”
>Moondancer gets fidgety, keeping the bags in her hands.
>The man pulls out a closed switchblade. “C’mon now. How about you put your groceries down?” He can be seen eyeing his friend inching closer.
>Moondancer knows she must put the groceries down.
>”What’s a pretty girl like you doing out this late?” The man in front fiddles with the closed switchblade in his fingers. “You lost?”
>A third man appears on the far end of the alley where Moondancer had entered, this one extremely scrawny and wheezing with quiet giggling.
>”Why you wearing a sweater? It’s not that cold out.” The man behind suggestively comments as the grocery bags hit the ground. “Aren’t you hot in that?”
>Moondancer can’t think of anything to say, but she’s seen enough dark-themed movies to know where this is going.
>She steps closer to the man with the switchblade, who makes sure to stay directly in front of her in case she tries to run.
>”Whoah, now. Take it easy, we don’t want much.” He grins with his eyes wandering down. “Just need ya to do something for us.”
>Moondancer makes sure she’s close enough to him and still far enough from the guy behind her.
>She gathers up whatever strength it would have taken to walks back to the dorm and balls her hand into a fist.
>”Wh-” The man with the switchblade’s sentence is cut short by a sudden hook in the jaw. A surprise sucker punch.
>It’s a good thing today was leg day.
>Both of his friends could hear something in his neck let out a sickening crack as he’s spun around by the impact.
>He drops the switchblade, then drops himself. Moondancer kicks the weapon further down the alley out of reach as the man behind her grabs her.
>She pushes him back with all the force she can, making him run into a couple of trash cans and stumble to the side after noticing his friend not getting back up to help him.
>Moondancer turns around as the two other men now stand before her, the scrawny one reaching for her groceries.
>They freeze when they see her slip out of her sweater so she’s just in her clean sports bra, revealing insanely more muscle than they imagined.
>”Shit… she’s jacked as fuck.” The scrawny guy drops the grocery bag, intimidated.
>Cracking her neck and knuckles, Moondancer angrily struts over to the retreating alley cats.
>They’re both unsure of what to do next, after having seen their frontman with the weapon go down in one punch; their brains panic.
>With this, they turn around and flee as the downed man comes to and starts to writhe in pain, blood dribbling down to his chin, one of his teeth lost underneath a trash can.
>Moondancer hears him start to incoherently holler out loud.
>The last thing Moondancer would ever want is a situation that draws lots of attention to her; she just wants to walk home and this disoriented fuck is making all this noise.
>She’s pumped with adrenaline, her brain is rushing around in panic, and no one else is around at this point.
>One kick in the head while he’s down wasn’t enough to completely silence him, but it definitely lowers the volume to moaning.
>She doesn’t know why but she kicks again like it’s football.
>Moondancer had already fled the scene with all her belongings before the panic left her system and her brain started thinking rationally again.
>What the fuck did she just do? Is he alive?
>Imagining cops already on their way to the scene, Moondancer evades the entire situation and startles Wallflower with a hasty entrance to the dorm.
>Moondancer’s energy now disappears entirely and she can’t even sit up in the bed.
>…
>Moondancer has been up all night, only having fallen asleep as the sun was coming up.
>She doesn’t say a word to Wallflower about what happened until after she gets up, once again not having remembered what she dreamt.
>She then tells a watered down version of the story to Wallflower so she doesn’t freak out, and explains that one of the guys that tried to jump her in the alley might have died.
>There’s… really no easy way to water this story down.
>But for the next couple of days, both of the girls nervously check local news websites for any hints about whether or not they should stay concerned.
>And then, after two and a half days, a peculiar story pops up.
>A man died in the hospital after experiencing a severe concussion caused by traumatic blows to the head. Local law enforcement is still investigating.
>There’s no pictures, but it’s easy to put the pieces together after reading more of the details; it’s him.
>His friends apparently must have came back to the scene and rushed him to someone’s house before deciding to call an ambulance.
>Moondancer watches her hands tremble, not having imagined that it would feel like this to have murdered another human being. Especially in such a barbaric way.
>She vomits from the tension, staying in bed breathing heavily in this sinking belief that she’s going to be arrested by the capitalist police that always find everything out ever in this surveillance state she has always envisioned.
>…But nothing happens.
>To Moondancer’s absolute surprise, nothing else comes of it. Not after a couple more days, not after another week or two, not after a month… and so on…
~
>…
>Wallflower walks between the grocery aisles she’s grown to despise.
>Now carefully walking and peering around for anything to go wrong as though the whole universe is out to get her.
>Wishing she was more invisible than she really is, now that her wanting to be noticed so badly was cut short by that one embarrassing event she refuses to think to herself about.
>Gets several cans of beans, ravioli, bread, milk, that’s just the beginning of the list.
>Moondancer got her a long shopping list and a ton of her money to use to stock everything up. And Wallflower is pretty much the only one that’s safe to go out in public.
>No one would even notice her, and she’s sort of happy about that at this point.
>This wasn’t exactly the way as she planned to come to terms with it, but this is what she gets.
>And now Moondancer has to stay within unseen seclusion, while Wallflower makes sure there’s enough food and other resources to last the next few months, especially once the weather starts to get colder again, but that’s not going to start up for another several weeks.
>The cart is a hell of a pain to push, making wallflowers shoes drag against the store floor.
>This definitely means she has to take a taxi since she doesn’t have a car; this is a huge fuckload of groceries. Not even Moondancer could carry this much at once.
>But it’s fine, Moondancer covered the expenses for that as well with the amount of money she gave Wallflower.
>With this, Wallflower goes through checkout without uttering a word until she makes it tot he cash register, and she keeps an eye out for anyone her age who might be talking about any TV shows.
>It’s like she has schizophrenia now… one little humiliating event happens in her life and she never wants anything to have to do with anything that reminds her of it again, and she starts to look over her shoulder in the checkout line every time there’s even the slightest noise.
>The cashier gives Wallflower a super confused look as if all of these groceries were bananas or something, but only a handful of them are.
>Maybe it’s the way Wallflower is acting, that has to be drawing the attention.
>It’s like the sheer amount of groceries is the only thing the cashier notices, as if they’re waiting on their own to be bought.
>Nah, that’s stupi-
>”Cash or credit?” Asks the cashier.
>The second weirded out look was warranted, due to the fact that Wallflower pays for everything in cash.
>The cashier is watching all these twenty dollar bills floating over to her side of the counter.
>After the checkout is completed, Wallflower accepts that she will have to call up a taxi in order to get all of these back to the dorm on her own.
>She forces herself to make the phone call, and starts to reconsider her decision to not take multiple trips to the store.
>Nah, fuck that, that would be awkward. Talking to the same cashier so many times and increasing the chance of running into talkative shoppers.
>The taxi comes, there still enough money to pay for the ride over… but there’s one problem.
>The groceries themselves.
>Wallflower isn’t the type to carry lots of bags in one trip, even if that trip is a few feet.
>The driver impatiently waits as he watches all these shopping bags mosey their way into the back seats of the vehicle, with nervous giggling right behind them.
>At least Wallflower won’t have to worry about this guy remembering her, though the little stunt she’s pulling right now might beg to differ.
>The bags take up the entire back row of the cab. This is ridiculous, but the driver allows this for some miracle of a reason.
>”Heh… sorry.” Wallflower rubs the back of her head and apologizes.
>The drive over after everything got loaded up is long, quiet and awkward.
>Wallflower almost once again considers wishing she’d just take multiple walking trips, since her not being remembered by anyone might apply to the same cashier in the store.
>But it would take longer and require her to do more talking.
>Wallflower sends Moondancer a text, very politely DEMANDING the she help her with the groceries, to which Moondancer agrees.
>…
>There was just enough money to pay the cab driver for his time, and there was just enough stamina in either of the girls to get all of those groceries into the place.
>And just enough food in the mini fridge to fit a third of the food. But it’s a good thing only that amount of it needed to be refrigerated.
>Most of it just sits there in one massive mountain in the middle of the room like an unhealthy volcano of junk food about to erupt with sugar and calories.
>Moondancer formally apologizes to Wallflower for her bullshit, but assures her that she’ll take everything form here aside letting her eat a lot of the food to help minimize it, to which Wallflower has less than any objections to.
>Technically free food is always nice.
~
>Waiting out the heat could be fun if one just tries to find something to do while the ordeal lasts.
>All you really have to do is stay quiet and  work with whatever resources you have until it’s safe to show your face in public again; “nope, I don’t exist right now, come back when you’re not searching anymore.”
>This is the perfect time for Moondancer and Wallflower to see how far they can go into the whole “dream world” thing they’ve been exploring for the past year-ish now.
>Classes only start up next week, so there’s plenty of time to stay in bed and do nothing.
>Wallflower agrees to go to the local gas station to pick up some NyQuil or something to help with synchronicity. It’s only a little bit to carry and no one goes to that place at the times Wallflower can go.
>Before they decide to fall asleep at the same time, the two girls have fun on the internet once more.
>Not so much on 4chan anymore, just expanding their territory out to other sites where they can get into that good old meme culture that all the young-ins like them are into nowadays.
>Before pushing a wagon wheel down a dirt road with a stick became an obsolete variation of personal amusement.
>Nowadays, it’s apparently playing video games and summoning satan in your dreams.
>Those soccer moms were right, video games are evil, as well as that rock music that has lots of vulgar lyrics.
>But of course, after the fun-posting has concluded, Wallflower and Moondancer make sure they take their NyQuil to fall asleep at the same time.
>Maybe they’ll run into eachother in their dreams, maybe they won’t.
>”I uh, still feel bad about what happened.” Moondancer finally says it. “I mean, not about the guy, but about how I have to stay here all the time.”
>Wallflower looks over to her. “Hey don’t worry about it. We’re still fine now. I say we give it until right after classes start and then you can start going back to the gym.”
>”I guess you’re right.”
>Wallflower considers what she just said, thinking back to how she felt about Moondancer whenever it was clear she was more fit than her.
>She almost wants to convince the other girl to stay laying low so she weakens up like her, but that’s not something she has the heart to do, especially now that she already said something totally different that would have to be contradicted.
>”Something wrong?” Asks Moondancer. “Is there something I should know?”
>”No… I’m just… kind of sad. About life.” Wallflower reveals, swallowing her envy.
>”Oh…”
>”I know you know how it feels but, I’m just kind of feeling left behind, you know? Like I should have gone far by now but didn’t. And it’s all because no one cared about me.”
>”Hey, don’t tell yourself that.” Moondancer scoots over to her on the side of the bed. “It’s only beating you up so bad because you made yourself want social interaction more.”
>Wallflower lets out a genuine but also exaggerated sniffle, prompting Moondancer to pat her on the back and continue talking softly to her.
>”Having lots of friendships is a crutch. It’s a lot of people to depend on. It’s better not to get close to people because that’s how you stay yourself.” Says Moondancer. “People tend to like being alone sometimes for a reason. But society teaches them to hate being lonely.”
>”But… we are friends, aren’t we?”
>”Well, yeah. But that’s different because we don’t follow the social norms.” Moondancer is on the verge of ranting again. “Besides, I’d have probably gotten caught a lot easier had I had lots of friends who know me. Police go to people who know the person to get info.”
>Moondancer holds Wallflower closer.
>”Don’t cry okay?” Moondancer continues. “You don’t need friends, they’ll just turn you normal. You have me, and those two stoner girls, and Trixie and Starlight. We’re outcasts together and we’re stronger if we stand together. Not as friends, but as a team. Against society.”
>Against society. lol
>”Yeah…” Wallflower realized that Moondancer needs her company, which is more than fine by her.
>If anything, the two girls need eachother’s constant company.
>Something something eternal depression.
>Now they both head on off to sleep.
~
>This setting is one hell of a landscape.
>Res fog all over the bottom of whatever place this is, with extremely thin skyscrapers ascending beyond the glowing haze.
>Someone standing on the tops of one of them better hope they don’t fall, because that looks like a certain death that would probably only result in waking up but scary nevertheless.
>Atop one of the towers is a lone person, standing straight up with their spine perfectly perpendicular to whatever level ground there would be below.
>She stands with a straightened spine, glaring at figures in the distance as though they’re watching her.
>All of her feelings that she kept inside and locked away run around rampant now, waiting to be used on something that dares to come near.
>A voice catches her off guard; it came from behind. “So you think you know the answer to everything, huh?”
>Moondancer turns around to find Trixie standing on an equally high up tower.
>”Why do you keep coming here. This is Trixie’s realm to conquer. Not your personal classroom.”
>With her index finger, Moondancer fixes her glasses. “Why would I leave the classroom if I am the teacher?” She questions.
>Trixie smirks. “Don’t be so coy. Trixie knows why you choose to come here. It’s all around us. You come here to vent your emotions that cloud your judgement. Those ones that made you angry when Mary and Treehugger smoked in your dorm room.”
>”I was merely annoyed by it. Don’t take it too deeply. The only thing that angered me was the fact we could get in trouble.”
>”Oh? Then what is that?” Trixie’s arm jolts out into open air, pointing directly at a giant pair of stone hands.
>Within the grip of those stone hands, is one of the girls that Moondancer recognizes from the waking world: Treehugger.
>They’re holding her by the throat.
>Moondancer’s eye shoot wide, and her whole body tenses with shock. “Wha… what is this?”
>”You know what it is.” Trixie continues. “You surely do. It’s your fantasies.”
>”I wasn’t thinking straight when I had these!” Defends Moondancer. “I wasn’t myself and you know that!”
>”Are they not your hands?” Trixie points out the sweater sleeves.
>Moondancer takes a deep breath. “No… they are not. They are the hands of someone who needs to be more like me.” She pauses to let the wind breeze by, as if she is closely listening to it.
>”Trixie knows you’re thinking something.” Trixie mutters in a low tone.
>Moondancer’s eyes gaze back up at the other girl, then past her towards the defenseless Treehugger in the stone chokehold.
>Treehugger gives a smile and a weak thumbs up, eyes almost bugging out of her head as she strains something out of her voice box.
>”Trixie will show you that this is who you are on the inside, do not try to deny it.”
>”No…” Moondancer clenches a fist. “What I imagine doing to people when I’m tired and angry is not something I would do to a… f-friend.” She struggles to get the word out.
>”What was that last word?” Trixie mocks. “Trixie didn’t quite catch that. Did you just say you have… friends?”
>Moondancer grunts.
>”It’s too bad you didn’t get to bring them here.”
>With a sudden jolt, Moondancer springs off of the tower she was standing on, making dust fly off of it.
>The wind drastically picks up, and Trixie is floating right in front of Moondancer within the same second.
>”Out of my way.” Warns the girl trying to keep her glasses from falling off.
>She steps forth in thin air like a Coyote and Road Runner cartoon.
>”Oh, you dare to be approaching the Great and Powerful Trixie?” Trixie’s eyes light up first a deep purple, and then a bright red.
>”Actually… does the Great and Powerful Trixie truly wish to stand where I will tread?” Moondancer tilts her head. “You are my compan…ion as well, but I will not hesitate to choose one in danger over one blocking me from them.”
>”Those are bold words.”
>Moondancer rips her sweater off of her body, prompting Trixie to gasp and wish she could safely take a step back.
>The hands around Treehugger’s neck motivate Moondancer even more, and she breaks into her battle stance, chiseled arms, shoulders and abs almost glowing from the redness below. “I dare to approach those who hurt my friends!”
>Trixie’s hair starts to stand up like she’s about to be struck by lightning, but Moondancer lunges forward in a flash with her strong arm stretched out.
>”Then you dare to approach yourself.” Trixie grabs onto one of Moondancer’s arms.
>She has to dodge quickly, because each blow would be nearly fatal; two of which would render her unconscious.
>But Moondancer’s swings are rather slow, more focused on strength.
>Trixie spreads her arms and cries out. “Taste the wrath of Trixie’s power! Iron Eagle!” A deft flash of light engulfs her, and a sharp protrusion careens itself towards Moondancer’s chest.
>Moondancer’s heart skips a beat, the sound of it sending a shockwave throughout the air.
>Time freezes just enough for Moondancer to process where to dodge to, wisely knowing the nature of Trixie’s stand.
>But she is not intimidated, furrowing her brow and tensing her muscles that Trixie hopes she wouldn’t have to deal with, but some things in this world are inevitable.
>”How did she-“ Trixie thinks to herself for the most split of seconds.
>”POUNCING TIGER! DEFEAT ME!” Moondancer extends one leg and spins.
>She uses Trixie’s massive blade against her, spinning around in one hundredth of a second with the side of her shoe ringing the metal like a church bell.
>Like a gear, Trixie is spun around by the force transferred from Moondancer’s kick, the blade hopelessly attached to her so long as her stand is in use.
>Trixie spins faster until she is a blur to the world, and the world is a blur to her.
>Moondancer wants to wind up a punch, but only holds her fist out without any movement, waiting for Trixie to spin uncontrollably towards her.
>Assuming Moondancer won’t step forward yet, Trixie gets ready to hold out a dagger from her pocket, and plans to slice Moondancer up like a blender, but she gets a cold hard surprise.
>Trixie’s face meets the still fist, square on the cheek, her own momentum used against her.
>Cracking noises sound, and Moondancer does not lunge forward towards the stone hands until Trixie flies down to the ground with a weak remaining downward spiral.
>Her impact with any kind of ground level is never heard.
>Moondancer flies forth, meeting her now attacking fist with the stone to shatter it in one blow.
>The sculpted has become the sculptor, breaking away the parts of the hands that choke Treehugger and replace them with smaller, softer hands with kind smoothness in their texture.
>Hands that have let go of her friend.
~
>Moondancer wakes up with the heaviest jump.
>The whole bed shakes with the sheer force of her strength.
>And the first thing she think about is how she’s going to put up with the other girls telling her the story of their dreams once more.
>She looks over and only spots a peacefully sleeping Wallflower in the room with her.
>After a deep breath, Moondancer lies back down and stares at the ceiling for a couple of minutes before remembering that she should write down what she dreamt.
>What could all of this mean?
>…
>The school year starts up again, and classes need to be attended.
>The first round of classes from the first two semesters was already hellish; expecting the students to write all these papers about things they don’t care about.
>”Hahaha so why are you taking this class?”
>”I fucking have to or else I won’t graduate.”
>”Glad to hear about your interest in this subject. First assignment is due Friday. It should be at least 1,000 words. Don’t forget to use your textbooks you paid hundreds of dollars for! And cite your sources so I know you really do know what you’re talking about because you certainly are sooooo interested.”
>If there’s anything both of the roommates hate, it’s working in groups with other students.
>They can’t even work together on account of them being in different classes, so they have to talk to other people.
>Wallflower has trouble getting her classmates to hear her idea out, or even let them know she has one for a group project she wasn’t too thrilled about anyway.
>Moondancer has to silently watch everyone in her own group have the wrong opinion, and ends up just analyzing them as either one of them does the bulk of the work or she ends up getting stuck with it.
>All of the thing that Moondancer said about school and society to Wallflower starts to feel like it rings true the more pointless assignments have to be completed.
>This is such a drag, why can’t we just stay in bed all day and- well Moondancer did start sneaking over to the gym every once in a while but that was at least something she wanted to do.
>Fall is right around the corner, and winter after that.
>Wallflower hates getting up so early and into the cold morning air just to make sure she took enough notes to get a high enough grade on the test to pass the class.
>Moondancer hates having to listen to these sheep talk about their stupid daily lives; none of them understand anything about anything.
>Both of the roommates get more accustomed to staying inside their dorm and going on the internet to heighten their studies in different fields like the problems with society.
>How people can hate their neighbors and for what reasons, and why human interaction can be extremely damaging when it’s with the wrong people.
>The types of people who never cared about Wallflower, who often overlap with the types of people Moondancer cannot stand.
>School assignments have become distant to the two girls more instantly than whatever the hell it was that made them become friends with the two stoner girl and the two Eastern girls.
>It’s like coincidence wanted them to become friends, on account of no one else being compatible with them. But maybe that was a good thing.
>The less people out there one can find common interests with, the easier it will be to find someone who actually does have common interests.
>At least, that’s what Moondancer and Wallflower have learned so far this school year, along with a bunch of other stuff about tinfoil hat tier conspiracy theories.
>…
>It’s finally starting to get colder, but a few certain friendships grow stronger.
>The only people at the gym who really know who Moondancer is are Trixie and Starlight. That group of girls who cheered Moondancer on before seem to have graduated before last summer or something.
>It’s still a bit tense to be out in public for Moondancer.
>She assumed she’d have to be on the run 100% of the time, but nothing has been happening and now she just hangs around the place hoping that nothing goes wrong for her.
>Moondancer has gotten used to Trixie endlessly showing off on the workout machines, understanding that she’s learning at her own… strange pace and it’s easier to just let her run her course than to explain that she’s not going to kill a bear just because she can do 30 bicep curls with a heavier dumbbell than a week ago.
>Starlight likes to go on rants about the nation’s food industry, and how it weakens everyone’s young… as she’s on the elliptical machine.
>Moondancer is next to her, remembering a couple of things she saw on rebellion blogs about chemicals in the water, and asks often asks Starlight where she gets the information, and if she got if from the same source.
>It turns out that Starlight has never seen those sights, but feels reinforced to know that this whole internet world is starting to understand what her elders have explained to her about these oh so super duper evil western nations.
>There are many ways Starlight would change society to make sure all of the food resources are evenly spread out for everyone, without the weakening chemicals coming with unnecessary flavors.
>She too has seen the shallowness in modern people’s attitudes that Moondancer has observed, and blames the west itself for it and then repeats her idea of a perfect society where everyone is equal and under one power that knows what they’re doing.
>Some stuff about market competition is talked about while Trixie brags to a couple of teenagers in the gym that she could kick their ass if she wanted to, but she says it in another language so they can’t understand and then report her.
>Just another day at the gym for Moondancer, hoping the heat is off by now and she can spend more time with her new friends without worry.
>The last thing she needs is this taken away; she never knew she could make friends with anyone other than Wallflower.
>She didn’t realize how much she needed this, and my oh my does she tolerate their bullshit to the ends of the earth if she has to.
>She’s recently been thinking about how she can bond with her friends.
>Trixie’s been talking non-stop about how she could raise hunting wolves in the Urals now.
>Starlight’s continuously telling Trixie that she needs to know how to properly survive in harsh environments, and not just be able to lift a few weights, in order to do that.
>But Trixie’s ambitions keep screaming louder and louder.
>Now is when Moondancer starts to get annoyed again, because Trixie’s voice could be heard from blocks away in a busy city, probably.
>”Trixie knows the limits of her adrenaline!” Proclaims the confident girl. “She can stay warm through the sheer force of her rage alone! And she is slim, so she can move quickly through the snow and warm herself through friction and fast movement. The winters that, mind you, Trixie is used to do not stand a chance against such a great power!”
>”You are being stupid!” Starlight replies. “You speak stupid words, you do not know what you are saying. You do not even know how to keep hamster alive for two month! Remember?”
>”That hamster was weak! And there will be no hamsters in the wild! Only Trixie and her survival instinct!”
>This argument goes many, many places, and it ends up with a challenge by Starlight.
>”Well, then…” Starlight is now shouting too. “If you are so tough, then why not go innawoods yourself and we’ll see how good you actually survive!”
>”Challenge accept!”
>”Let me finish! You have to take me with you! So you cannot tell tall tale! And I am not talking about one day and you are done. I mean a week in woods!”
>”Week in woods, you say?!” Trixie aggressively steps forward. “Hah! Trixie accepts your challenge.”
>Moondancer lets a small stack of weights fall loudly in a machine, making the other two jump like it was a gunshot.
>Her face says it all.
>”Oh…” Starlight apologizes. “Sorry. Our bad.”
>Moondancer sighs, already feeling bad for looking at them so angrily; they are still her friends.
>”Hey, uh…” Moondancer starts off again, thinking about possible cops looking for her. “You mind if I join you?”
>…
>This cute little camping trip started off as Starlight’s little challenge for Trixie.
>But then Moondancer joined, but she never got around to telling Wallflower about it at first.
>Not until a few days later when she brought it up after Wallflower had a dream about walking through the woods, so it was topical.
>Nothing was official at first, but Wallflower did mention it to Mary, who was visiting once again with Treehugger the next day.
>Mary and Treehugger were immediately eager to go into the woods for a week and get as high as they want without worrying about anyone catching them.
>Treehugger said something about wanting to bring acid too.
>Mary said something about wanting to have a vision quest like the natives did.
>…Of course…
>But the cute little camping trip is really just a bonding experience for Moondancer, who would have had no one else to bond with otherwise.
>Plus, she can test her own survival skills for when society collapses. She’s already been building up the body for it.
>Anyway, the whole event they plan to undergo develops into a full fledged “let’s start preparing and packing shit for everyone who wants to go but not Trixie since she wants to prove her point so badly”.
>Wallflower stays on the fence line about whether or not she wants to go, knowing there’s no innernet innawoods.
>Moondancer wouldn’t go had it not been for her desire to get used to living off of the land.
>But these four other girls, they are excited to go now.
>Trixie is determined to teach Starlight a lesson, Starlight can’t wait to see Trixie come crawling back and accept that she was wrong, and Mary and Treehugger are sure to stock up as much drugs as they can for the trip going “aw fuck yeah”.
>…
~
>Wallflower knew she would regret this, but she decided to go out into the campus streets one evening on a Friday to see what kind of parties she can go to.
>She can be able to say that she’s tried drugs now, which means there’d be something in common to talk about with the partiers.
>And if she doesn’t make friends with any of them, that’s fine because she already had her own social circle, which is great.
>All she really wants is to have regular casual conversations with popular people for once. Something she’s always dreamed of.
>Those popular people with the plastic red cups in hand, loud music blaring in the background. Those fakies.
>Anyone’s allowed to enter the house parties, so Wallflower already has enough confidence on her shoulders as she walks through the door, thinking that this is the time when she turns her life around and becomes who she wanted to be.
>She swears she’s going to be that one student in her class that never shows up to lectures again because she was partying all night long. She doesn’t even know if she cares if she fails anymore; what’s a diploma going to do for her in a society like this?
>Who cares anymore? Just live life.
>And Wallflower has her friends to thank for opening her mind enough to gain the courage to be here, in the middle of this crowd of 20-something year olds yelling over eachother.
>She tries to talk to some but she can’t yell loud enough because it takes a lot of vocal projection.
>That’s okay, she’ll just tap someone on the shoulder to get their attention and exchange stories about how they had fun and did drugs in the past.
>There’s one girl right in front of Wallflower… tap tap.
>She turns around with her eyes almost seeming to glow with all the eyeliner she has on.
>”Yo, I think I remember you from the club that one time.” Wallflower makes up a lie she can pull out of since lots of people at the clubs look the way this girl does.
>”Wha… I don’t think I saw you…”
>”Ah, it must have been someone else.”
>”Well which club?”
>Wallflower loses her balance and stumbles over her words. “I, uh, um… I was at the… the one near main street.” She cobbles together her answer.
>”The BlockBox?”
>”The Block Box! Yeah, the BlockBox!”
>”Heh, I was just there last weekend. You didn’t wear that sweater in there, did you?”
>”No, I-” Wallflower starts.
>”Yeah, I was gonna say, why you wearing a sweater it’s like 70 degrees in here!” Another girl says as her boyfriend chuckles.
>Wallflower seriously decided to come here in her sweater and jeans while everyone else is dressed up in typical college student “let’s get drunk and fuck in a few hours” clothes.
>She didn’t realize this mistake until now.
>”It’s… comfy…” Wallflower blurts. “I dunno.” She keeps her cool.
>The college partiers start to lightheartedly joke about Wallflower’s choice of attire.
>And the more they say, the more she realizes the outfit sticks out like a sore thumb.
>But fuck it, this is great, now she has to get people’s attention. She’ll even let them call her sweater girl if they want; they’re acknowledging her.
>Wallflower continues to mingle among the crowds, and “accidentally” bumps into people, though she doesn’t have to try very hard because some are drunk and/or don’t know where they’re going.
>But they don’t say anything to her unless she says something to them first… and Wallflower can’t think of any opening line to say other than “hey who else did drugs before?”
>There’s nothing else she can relate to when it come to these people, so she does what she knows best, kinda.
>”So who here likes weed?” The phrase escape Wallflower’s mouth before she can realize how cringy it sounds.
>Luckily, no one heard her.
>They all start to sing along to one of the pop rap songs playing, and Wallflower figures she’ll just join them.
>…And she doesn’t know the words.
>Wallflower’s brain races to find a solution… use this lack of song knowledge to get attention.
>She starts singing off-key and out of tempo random words.
>Ready to be all like “uh hehehe yeah, I dunno the lyrics, silly me huh? Anyway how’s your sex life?”
>Wallflower jokes to herself in her head about actually saying that, since half of these people here are probably here to get laid at some point.
>She feels someone tap her on the shoulder.
>”Is that you doing that?” Some guy says to her.
>Wallflower wants to pretend to have seen this guy before too at some place where all the cool people meet.
>She clears her throat. “Oh hey, how’s your…” She stops herself in mid sentence.
>The guy looks at her, confused as all fuck. “How’s my what?” He shrugs at one of his bros. “Do I know you?”
>Wallflower can’t think of anything to finish the sentence with aside “sex life”. But she couldn’t say it to save her life life.
>”Hello? Anyone home?” The guy waves his hand in front of Wallflower’s face after a few seconds.
>”Why is she wearing that sweater?” One girl on the other side of the room yells to her friend in a shrill voice.
>Yeah, this isn’t working out.
>…
>She just straight up walked out of there.
>Didn’t even say anything to anyone, just turned around and walked away and aimlessly around until she found the front door again.
>Most of the details were repressed, and now Wallflower sits on the side of her bed again trying to hold back tears.
>She succeeds, but she doesn’t feel any better anyway.
>No matter how many friends you have, you’ll never escape your cringe.
>…
>Events like the house party are rare for Wallflower due to how much she stays inside.
>Now Moondancer is here too, and Wallflower can talk like a normal person again. “So uh…” Her voice is shaky.
>Moondancer can already tell. “What happened this time?”
>”I went to a party. And left because of reasons.”
>”Didn’t I tell you about these people? They’re nothing like us! They’re shallow.”
>”I know, I just wanted to see what it was like.”
>Moondancer proceeds to lecture Wallflower once again, which ends after a short twenty or so minutes.
>But then something surprising comes up.
>”So I’ve been thinking about the time we spend with the rest of the girls.” Moondancer brings up. “And I wanted to know if you really wanted to do that camping trip thing I mentioned before.”
>Wallflower hesitates, wanting to rather forget the party she just went to as if she was there the whole night and actually forget the morning after.
>”It’s nothing much, just sort of a bonding experience.” Moondancer tries to convince Wallflower to follow through with it.
>”I can bring some of the food we have here with me, right?” Asks Wallflower.
>Moondancer nods.
>”Alright. Let’s do it.” Wallflower responds after looking out the window.
>She starts packing a bunch of her sweater shirts into a bag, happy that it would be more appropriate to wear them now that it’s starting to get colder outside.
>”Well we’re not going until like a couple of days from now.” Reminds Moondancer.
>”Oh I know, I’m just making sure that I got everything packed ahead of time.”
>”Alright. Makes sense, I guess.” Moondancer returns to her side of the dorm as Wallflower eventually returns to her computer, not able to wait to get out of this town for a week. “Anyway, I bought a bunch of cool long lasting battery type stuff for our phones since we’ll definitely need it. Here let me show you.”
>…
>It has been decided that the classes that Moondancer and Wallflower would have to go to will be skipped, something they’re totally okay with.
>They’re so excited for the trip, the start skipping all of their classes before the trip has even started.
>Besides, Trixie probably won’t even last a whole week anyway; Moondancer’s sort of counting on that. But there’s still a shit ton of food available regardless… at least for the first couple of days.
>She’ll just test out her own survival skills for the practice she needs, and she’ll let Trixie run her course, and then everyone will be forced to go back due to lack of food. (and she’ll still keep skipping classes anyway)
>Moondancer and Wallflower mostly just stay inside of the dorm doing stuff of their computers.
>Fuckin’ around on the internet, playing video games, whatever, who cares?
>Moondancer is the only one who actually leaves to go somewhere; the gym. While Wallflower stays in the dorm and lazily waits for the trip that’s going to apparently bond her and her friends.
>She remembers something that Moondancer told her.
>Something pertaining to the fact that there’s going to be such a strong bond between them that the end of the world will never be able to tear them apart.
>When society is falling apart, they’ll know how to survive together already, even without food bought at the stores, because by then, they can just steal it since all law in the world (or at least the nation) will be obsolete as far as the chaos is concerned.
>Perpetual, indefinite purge.
>Meanwhile, at the gym:
>While everyone else was partying and having fun, Moondancer was silently accepting the secrets and corruptions of the world.
>While they went clothes shopping, Moondancer lifted weights.
>While they had sex at parties, Moondancer read books and explored forbidden online topics.
>While they closed their eyes to the haters, Moondancer opened her third eye to the truth.
>And when they come to her for help, Moondancer will take from them everything they have for her own benefit.
> Have them wondering how someone out there figured out all of the patterns they were putting out in plain sight. Weren’t people supposed to never be able to become smart enough to decipher these thing?
>Moondancer outsmarted the New World Order. Lizard-shits be damned for all eternity.
>No one can see what she sees but her and her friends, and they are the group that will prevail at the brink of the end of the world as the phone-face-planting zombies know it.
>Everyone else looking at Moondancer in the gym is wondering what’s going through her head that’s making her glare angrily at them all.
>She leaves a little early to help lower the odds of someone reporting her disturbing behavior she didn’t catch until she was out of the zone again.
>Any fool would be able to tell that this might lead to her being questioned by the police, which is something Moondancer really couldn’t use in times like these.
>And meanwhile, back at the dorm:
>Wallflower gets a little drowsy, but stays up waiting for Moondancer to come back.
>Though, she doesn’t manage to stay awake for long, and she passes out in her chair.
>…
>There’s this very short vision where she’s walking through the woods (again).
>She has her arms spread out with hands almost high-fiveing the trees.
>But there’s something following Wallflower, but she can’t see what it is, but she can see from its perspective like a horror movie.
>It’s whispering something.
>”When you go on the trip, what you’ve created will follow you. And you shall become a witch by the end.”
>…
>And just like that, Wallflower wakes up dazed and confused, disturbed by the sound of Moondancer entering through the door.
>”Hey.” Greets Moondancer with an exhausted look.
>”Hey.” Wallflower lethargically replies. “You got the book? I just dreamt something.”
~
>Early Saturday morning.
>All around town, a couple of women with heavy foreign accents are going around and talking to some of the locals.
>One of them, Trixie Lulamoon has a handheld video camera with her, and she is filming herself and the people she is talking to… mostly herself.
>”And so, this is a town where no one knows the wilderness. No one knows how to survive. Not like their ancestors hundreds of years ago did. But Trixie is like those from long ago.”
>Trixie pans the video camera over to Starlight Glimmer, who’s grinning nervously almost ready to apologize to the people Trixie is randomly pestering on the streets.
>Starlight tries to be cute about it, but can see the expressions of annoyance stained onto their faces.
>One guy is just trying to mow his lawn while sipping on his beverage.
>A middle aged lady is just trying to walk her dog and enjoy the cool October air.
>A younger lady and her daughter are just trying to get to the store.
>But their days are interrupted by Trixie halting them in their tracks to tell them all about how she’s about to prove Starlight wrong by surviving in the nearby woods to the north for a whole week, living off of the elements.
>And she’s documenting every last bit of it to be able to rub it in the naysayers’ faces once she proves herself.
>The locals just assume that it’s a couple of foreign exchange students from the nearby university, who are filming around town for a school project or something.
>And they’re almost correct.
>Trixie and Starlight continue talking to people at random, asking if people normally camp in the woods nearby and if the weather gets turbulent in the winter.
>Trixie also wants to do it again in the winter, but she’s too impatient to wait to show Starlight how tough she is and would rather do a practice week now before it starts snowing again.
>But something peculiar comes up when more people are talked to.
>”I gotta say, I think you should choose different woods than the ones to the north.” One lady says as Trixie practically jams the camera into her face. “There’ve been a few disappearances in those woods over the past couple of decades.”
>Trixie is immediately interested by this. “What kind of disappearances?” She asks.
>”Just people going camping or hiking and never coming back.”
>”Are there the bears around this part of the region?” Trixie huffs out her chest as if she’s killed even a teddy bear before. “Trixie is very familiar with the bears. They are of many history with Trixie.”
>The lady just stares at her, wondering why she’s talking this way, even more so now that bears have been brought up… by her.
>Conversation like these continue with the locals as Starlight and Trixie go around town now mentioning the local disappearances more and more as Trixie keeps documenting, unintentionally making this look more like a school project.
>”Oh, aw yeah there sure were some disappearances ‘round here.” And old farmer man begins to reminisce. “Couple years ago, a hiker and his dog went into those woods for the night, his wife was waiting for him at their home for him to come back the next day after he was supposedly supposed to catch a fox or somethin’.”
>”How many years in the past was this?” Asks Starlight, genuinely intrigued.
>”Not long, couple years back. ‘Bout five r’ ten.” The farmer says. “His wife swore she heard his voice all distant and such in the wilderness, and she had a dream about having a bunch of children then losing them all. She told the police that it felt odd that she had that dream then after her husband disappeared.”
>Trixie and Starlight wind up sitting down from standing up so long as the farmer continues.
>”A couple decades ago, a few college students ‘yer age went into the woods. Ah can’t imagine why they’d do that superstitious stuff, but they disappeared as well. Not many people remember lots of these stories as life goes on, but those of us who have been here our whole lives know more about this town’s history.” The farmer starts to then ramble about the town’s politics in the past and how it shaped a few of the local laws today.
>Starlight continues to listen, and intends to tell Moondancer about this guy’s take later on, but Trixie soon resumes filming herself and talking about how she shall defeat the witch of the woods and become the new wicked wizard of the woods.
>The farmer gives her a funny look as Starlight awkwardly looks away.
>”The woods in the motherland have always been harsh at nightfall. It is of no surprise that Trixie finds herself fascinated by these stories, this community does not deal with hardship like motherland has, Trixie does declare.” Trixie goes on and on even more than the farmer.
>The battery of the rather outdated video camera starts to get low, and Trixie realizes she needs to buy a ton more for the week long trip.
>The dumb little interviews for the townspeople concludes, and she and Starlight head off to go pack all their things.
>Meanwhile, back at the dorm:
>Moondancer and Wallflower pack their bags, texting all four of the new contacts on their phones… waiting for them to either drunk-text or high-text back.
>”So you said Trixie’s going to be straying from the camp so she’s ‘truly’ in the wilderness?” Asks Wallflower.
>”That’s… the general idea of what she’s doing, I guess.” Shrugs Moondancer. “I guess it would help to try that at some point too so our survival skills are tuned up.”
>”I… think I’ll pass.” Wallflower plans to just stay in the tent and shitpost online on her phone if she can.
>”Eh, your call.” Moondancer’s just glad she’s bringing tons of supplies.
~
>Now it’s mid October, and that Halloween spirit is fresh in the air for those who give a shit.
>Most of these people under the age of 20. Whatever it’s a fun little thing to do with your friends, hanging out like you always do but in costumes to make it interesting for once.
>Everyone in town is setting up their decorations, all that stuff.
>The college students are getting their assignments and all that done so they can go to halloween parties and get drunk as hell with their friends like they do every weekend but they’ll be throwing up onto costumes this time.
>…
>”So that’s all you’re bringing?” Questions Moondancer as Mary and Treehugger bring in one rather small bag that’s for both of them.
>”Well, yeah.” Responds Mary. “Drugs don’t take up that much space, you know. It’s what they do that matters.”
>”Right on!” Treehugger cheers her on. “Night one’s gonna be a blast!”
>Wallflower just gives them a stare, while Moondancer sighs and starts to text Trixie and Starlight to see if they’re ready.
>Yup, everything seems to check out; all six girls are going to be together once more for their “ultimate bonding experience” as it is according to Moondancer.
>Or the “little camping trip”, as it is according to Wallflower.
>Or “Trixie’s Great and Powerful Challenge”, as it is according to Trixie.
>Or “Another one of Trixie’s ways of expressing herself” as it is according to Starlight.
>Or “Woods-Stock”, as it is according to Mary and Treehugger.
>There were many ways this trip could have been avoided.
>Maybe Trixie would at least postpone it until the winter only so she could really prove her point.
>It could have been prevented for at least the other girls if they didn’t decide to come.
>They could have chosen a safer and more familiar location.
>They even could have cut down of the dream recording thing so they wouldn’t have been so spiritually connected with whatever it is they believe in now.
>Couldn’t this demon stuff have been more corny to them so they would have lost interest by now?
>Nope, apparently.
>Yup, they’re actually going to do it; whatever shall happen, will happen.
>The dream book is brought on the trip.
~
>Day 1.
>Treehugger had a friend lend a rental car for the driving portion of this trip. Moondancer’s holding onto the keys.
>It takes a bit of time to get from the parking lot near the abandoned train station to the beginning of the tree line of the woods at the edge of town.
>There’s this huge field of grass in between, and getting across it can bring someone on their feet on the ground impatience.
>It’s like it takes a million years to get across it; so much open space for around here.
>But then once Trixie gets into the trees, it feels cramped. Like all the trees are too close together all of a sudden.
>She calls back out. “Well come on, then! Follow Trixie, and she will tell you where to set up camp.”
>Wallflower looks up at the trees, noticing how tall they are and strangely familiar they look to that dream she had.
>She doesn’t like the way the tops of the trees look, the way they’re tilting over slightly. Despite this not really meaning anything, it almost feels like this is a bad sign.
>Like these are the wrong woods to be in. The REALLY wrong woods.
>Moondancer struts past her alongside Starlight, both of them carrying the huge heavy bag with the tent in it with backpacks of their own on their shoulders.
>Behind Wallflower are Treehugger and Mary, sort of chilling in the field.
>Usually, it’s been kind of cute when they wander around and say random stoner girl stuff, and Wallflower never really noticed that until now due to the fact that she was getting attention she so longed for.
>But now it gives off the vibe of the last moments of tranquility and zen they’d be feeling for some reason. Like the last hurrah, the final fireworks of the festival before it ends.
>They’re so innocent, and they don’t belong in those woods. And neither does Wallflower.
>She almost feels like apologizing to them, but they would understand why she’d be doing that and neither would Wallflower.
>Wallflower is the last one into the trees, hesitantly stepping over the shrubbery and looking at the rugged brown trunks.
>…
>Starlight has become really quiet as she watches her friend Trixie lead the way, first for the next quarter mile, then the next half mile.
>The parking lot can no longer be seen, and the sky overhead is starting to get cloudier but at least it’s late morning.
>Though, it doesn’t feel like late morning anymore.
>Feels more like an hour of… pleading? That doesn’t sound right but it feels right.
>The six girls mercifully continue into the woods, Trixie the least merciful of them all with her camera in hand, and all the bold statements she makes about herself.
>”Through her intuition, Trixie can tell there are no bears for the next five kilometers at least!” She points around after sniffing some dirt she scooped from the ground.
>Starlight’s brow furrows as Trixie’s act continues, more than usual.
>Now does not feel like the right time for Trixie to be doing her dumb thing. Nor does this feel like the place.
>”Yo, can I have one?” Treehugger notices Mary pull a mushroom out of her plastic baggie.
>”It’s one of the weak ones.” Mary responds. “Besides, I’m just kinda hungry right now.”
>”We already HAVE food!” Moondancer surprisingly gripes early on into the day.
>The group stops, looks over at Moondancer for a split second.
>”Sorry, I’m already worn out cause I worked out yesterday.” Moondancer huffs and then carries on with the large tent bag in her grasp.
>…
>It’s been about another hour or two, and some of the bags had to be put down for resting.
>”Alright, so we should definitely be in the deeper woods by now.” Wallflower looks at the map app on her phone. “And you got that battery thing? I’m running low.”
>”It’s in one of the bags, let’s set up camp then I’ll take it out of it’s wrapping.” Replies Moondancer.
>Trixie creeps around with the camera, filming random things in the woods with close up shots pretending to be all cinematic.
>”So Trixie…” Starlight finally speaks up. “Where we set up base? I grow tired.” Her hair is starting to get disheveled.
>”I little further, comrade.” Trixie points the camera over to her. “Trixie sees you are already grow tired of mountaineering adventure.”
>”I am carrying tent bag, you are carrying camera. There is difference!” She groans as Moondancer holds back a growl while carrying the same bag.
>Just a couple of hours in and they’re already getting irritable.
>And Treehugger’s bird calls she’s doing now isn’t helping to ease that.
>The group continues walking and walking and walking until Starlight finally starts begging Trixie to let everyone rest and just pick that spot to set up the tent.
>”Trixie, please, we’re deep enough. Look, I’ll show you, I have the map up.” Wallflower walks over to Trixie.
>”NO!” Trixie holds her hand out and damn near smacks the phone out of Wallflower’s hand Rice-gum style. “Trixie must not know where she is! She will use her great and powerful instincts she uses to hunt her prey to navigate the wilderness.” She continues filming Logan-Paul style.
>”Ugh, fine. But can we stop now? My feet hurt.” Complains Wallflower.
>”Pssh, you think your feet hurt?” Moondancer struggles to stay on hers after carrying the tent bag for so long. “We can barely go a few yards without needing to rest. Trixie, can we please just STOP NOW? Holy shit.”
>”Fine, fine. If we are lost enough, then so be it. Trixie will go from here.”
>”So how are you going to find us again?” Starlight immediately drops the tent bag in relief. “You will call out to us?”
>”The Great and Powerful Trixie will find her way back on her own.”
>”Are you sure this is a good idea?” Asks Wallflower, genuinely concerned for Trixie’s well being.
>”Trust me, she has done crazier than this before.” Starlight assures her with a half-sarcastic nod. “Trust me.”
>Mary giggles at this, trying to hide her smile and not taking any of this seriously.
>But the way the trees look suggest that things should be taken a little more seriously.
>Just something about their appearance.
>…
>Trixie had run off to do her thing as the other five set up camp in anticipation for her return after the day is over, where she will inevitably brag about something.
>The tent is put up, a small campfire is prepared and ready to use after a bit of difficulty getting it all together, some of the bags are unpacked inside of the tent…
>It’s actually a pretty huge tent, and it would have to be in order to fit all five of them into it.
>Despite all of the things that happened before, Wallflower once again asks Starlight if it’s a good idea for Trixie to do this, now obviously way after it’s too late.
>Starlight responds by telling her all sorts of stories about Trixie being dumb as a stump when trying to prove to the universe how tough and badass she is.
>The sky starts to turn colors, and Wallflower retreats to the safety of the tent as Starlight continues.
>Oh, so that’s why Trixie was singing those folklore songs at the top of her lungs when she galloped off into the distance when she left.
>Oh, that’s why she believes in kraken stories.
>The other girls learn a lot about Trixie through what Starlight tells them. In short: Trixie isn’t just arrogant, she’s borderline insane it’s gotten so bad.
>But hey, what can Starlight do? Trixie’s her friend. Right?
>Well Starlight still starts calling out for Trixie once the sky really starts to get dark.
>Moondancer and Wallflower can feel the worry thick in the air as this happens, still not feeling this idea at ALL, given how big these woods look on the map.
>They remember that Trixie promised she’d stay relatively close by, through all that boasting she wouldn’t shut up about all the way over here.
>Yeah, this is a great idea, just let her run off into the woods with a fucking video camera. What could possibly go wrong?
>Where the hell is Trixie right now? Starlight’s not getting any…
>Nevermind, Trixie’s voice could even be recognized from however far away that was.
>Starlight waves a flashlight around for Trixie to come towards as it gets darker and darker.
>The slight silhouette of the baring tree branches against the nearly blackened sky feels almost haunting, with the wind above blowing them side to side as if they’re waving down to the girls.
>A pressing apprehensive feeling overcomes Starlight and Moondancer, and they pressure Trixie to hurry up so they can go inside.
>The wind picks up the very second Trixie makes contact with the tent.
>Now everything is completely pitch black aside the lit inside of the tent.
>”So now all six of us are staying in here?” Asks Wallflower.
>”Hah! No way!” Trixie flips her hair. “Trixie only came here to tell you all that she already found a comfy tree to sleep inside of.”
>”Can you stop fucking filming us, please?” Requests Moondancer.
>Trixie continues anyway. “As far as the Great and Powerful Trixie is concerned, she is just passerby visiting lair of feeble campers. Huntress of the shadows.”
>Moondancer angrily glances over at Starlight, who just grins awkwardly and shrugs back.
>”Yooooo, this thing’s so cool!” Mary watches as the entire structure of the tent sways in the force of the wind outside.
>The movement is making her amusedly dizzy, and she eats another mushroom from the bag before handing another to Treehugger.
>Wallflower just hopes this thing stays sturdy enough until the wind dies down.
>”You do not need to film right now!” Starlight finally intervenes, mostly being numb to Trixie’s behavior from being so used to it. “You will waste battery anyway!”
>”Fine, fine.” Trixie turns the camera off.
>The whole inside of the tent keeps swaying back and forth from the windstorm that Trixie seems to have brought with her as if it were some kind of a curse.
>”It’s like Star Wars! We’re doing flips and stuff!” Treehugger holds a couple of water bottles pretending they’re a spaceship steering wheel. “Whoosh! Whoooooooooooosh!”
>”Yeeaah!” Mary leans back into the side of the tent, losing her balance due to her imagination alone.
>Moondancer sits in place, clamping her hands together as she realizes that she was stupid to EVER expect peace and quiet on this “bonding experience”.
>She starts to shake as it’s all trying to keep itself contained inside of her.
>Breathing heavily in the face of her great mistake, beating herself up inside as strongly her heart is. This was a bad idea.
>It’s a while before /everyone/ goes to sleep. Trixie has already gone back out into the woods to find her tree again, using the camera to see.
~
>Day 2.
>No one dreamt anything last night, yet Moondancer had still brought the book with her along with all the other supplies.
>Despite being the last to fall asleep, Moondancer is the first to get up.
>It’s finally light outside, and the turbulent wind has died down to a cozy breeze. Yup, tent’s still up.
>Moondancer is sure to go outside and check the stakes in the ground anyway, just in case they need some re-doing.
>She quietly takes the phone charger she bought away from Wallflower’s side of the tent to use to charge her own phone with.
>Out into the trees she does, checking the phone’s map so she knows exactly where she is and maybe try to estimate where Trixie’s “perfect tree” might be.
>She remembers Trixie taking some of the batteries that were brought just in case she filmed herself talking too much and spent the camera’s life on her own arrogance.
>There’s so many tree trunks and bushes that Moondancer wouldn’t be able to see the tent at all if she went too far out.
>Honestly, these woods look somewhat unsettling, and that’s not just because most of the leaves and stuff have fallen off by now.
>They have a weird vibe to them.
>Anyway, everyone gradually gets up one by one, with Wallflower the only one who just wakes and and decides not to stand up until she absolutely has a reason to.
>”My family back home used to camp sometimes.” Starlight tells Mary. “We would look at the moon and the stars, and fish in the river that was near. It was good times.”
>”That’s pretty rad.” Answers Mary. “I’m kind of a camper myself, you know. Just more closer to town. In the parks.”
>”Oh, remember that one time that one guy gave you ice cream?” Says Treehugger. “And you were like ‘what flavor is it’ and he was all like ’sympathy’?”
>”Oh yeah!” Mary smiles widely. “I swear we all laughed for like ten hours after that!”
>”Did you eat the ice cream?” Asks Starlight.
>”Some of it.” Shrugs Mary. “It didn’t taste very good.”
>The girls continue to converse for the next hour or so as Starlight keeps looking in the direction Trixie left in to do her thing.
>She’s probably just filming sticks and rocks and stuff, getting bored already as she realizes that there’s nothing to do out here.
>Then again, she does have herself to talk about.
>That’s something Trixie can do while innawoods.
>Wallflower’s struggling to retain an internet connection, which is strange because she had one yesterday and part of today so far.
>Everything’s starting to lag or just not load at all because of lack of mobile service in this area. She already doesn’t like this.
>It’s not long before she asks Moondancer if everyone can go back now, to which Moondancer explains that Wallflower’s the one who chose to join this “bonding experience” and that she’ll have to wait until everyone else, including Trixie, gets bored and wants to leave.
>Wallflower noticed that Moondancer is still as about as irritable as she was yesterday, which is probably due to the lack of sleep since she made it known that she didn’t sleep much last night.
>Meanwhile, Starlight keeps feeling like there’s something watching her from the distance, but there’s nothing anywhere she looks.
>It’s soon debates whether or not camp should be moved to somewhere with better mobile service, since the map app on the phone is kind of needed in order to find the way back.
>But of course, Moondancer came prepared for that anyway, and she pulls out a paper map from one of the bags.
>And she also explains that they’d need to let Trixie know before moving the tent and camp site to somewhere else, just in case Trixie actually knows what she’s doing and has an idea where the camp site would be if she wanted to go back for more batteries or something.
>This whole thing feels pointless, then again, Moondancer does get to skip town for a bit as well as skip her classes. But the latter would have been accomplished either way.
>And then there’s still the “””bonding experience””” which so far has only resulted in everyone annoying eachother for the most part.
>This has honestly already started to fall apart, and it hasn’t even been a full 24 hours yet.
>Treehugger has already taken almost all of the best tasting food out of the cooler and food bags, leaving none of the yogurts Wallflower likes left.
>And Wallflower is pretty annoyed by this, and only wants to leave even more.
>Moondancer is lucky she’s not getting another migraine, but listening to the two stoner girls make a ruckus might as well be a migraine.
>And Starlight’s just impatiently waiting for Trixie to come back after giving up by now, since she hasn’t even eaten since they left the house yesterday morning.
>Nope, nothing seems to be going perfectly, and Trixie should be coming back any hour now.
>The whole days is just devoid of anything interesting happening, and it’s just this random group of friends talking to eachother as they wait for their party “leader” to return for more camera batteries.
>Moondancer decides to hike around on her own without her sweater on for the time being, since it gets some stamina training in and some peace and quiet away from the others.
>She remembers to keep note of where she’s been going, and how to get back to avoid getting lost, since her phone’s not getting any bars.
>Yeah, such a bonding experience, when you’re going out of your way to avoid interacting with your literal friends.
>Then again, Moondancer starts to doubt whether or not she can even call most of them friends, since it hasn’t been that long since she met them.
>She’s probably legitimate friends with Wallflower by now, though. Well of course she is.
>How much time together does it take before two people can be considered legitimate friends?
>Moondancer’s brain jumps way too far into analyzing it. This is why she’s been socially awkward ever since she was young.
>But it did help her be isolated enough to see the truth in the world, so fuck it, she’s glad it happened this way.
>With the thoughts in her mind, Moondancer makes her way over to an open field overlooking a high up drop.
>There’s a log in the tall grass, and Moondancer instantly sees an opportunity to try to roll it off of the cliff to suffice for a workout.
>She’s already tired and exhausted from this whole trip, so of course an idea like this was going to come to her head eventually.
>She does figure that there’s no real harm it could do, as trees themselves fall in the woods from things all the time. Rolling a log that’s not even that big off of a cliff really isn’t a problem.
>Moondancer goes up to the log and pushes with all of her strength, getting it to roll closer towards the edge of the cliff. Her glasses nearly fall off.
>It takes several minutes to actually get it to there, but Moondancer finally feels gravity finally start to take over the log’s momentum.
>It doesn’t really make that much noise until it hits the bottom of the drop with a loud crash.
>Moondancer doesn’t know why, but a sudden feeling of apprehension washes over her.
>There is no way to tell what caused it, but she feels like that crash just attracted something really bad. She can feel it in the veins on her muscles, can feel it in her bones.
>As if there’s a bear right behind her, but she checks and finds nothing, but the feeling is still there.
>She silently looks around with beads of sweat on her temples, expecting to see something appear from behind literally any tree she lays her eyes upon.
>There’s nothing here, but she gets an overpowering urge to run out of there as fast as she can.
>…
>Heartbeat in her ears, Moondancer returns to camp to find Trixie having already returned, still filming, but now Mary and Treehugger are gone.
>Trixie had come back in search for a weapon she could use to hunt things… since she discovered that she can’t even capture or kill a squirrel after trying dozens of times.
>And of course, Starlight has been telling her that it would be cheating if she did that, and Wallflower is just hanging out in the tent, airing it out of the weed smell that Mary and Treehugger left in it before they went to find somewhere to go skinny dipping.
>And then Trixie reveals that she recently saw a bear in the woods somewhere but had nothing to kill it with, so she spent some time stalking it before she came back here.
>Trixie SWEARS she can kill it upon receiving a weapon of some kind, and Starlight just starts berating her for this.
>”Let Trixie do this! She can put her hunting instinct to the test!” Trixie shouts as Moondancer shushes her.
>”If there’s a bear near here then it could be nearby right now!” Moondancer yell-whispers, already just as annoyed as before.
>It becomes more and more clear that Trixie might be making all of this up, since there’s apparently no video evidence of this bear that Trixie “stalked”.
>The camera begs for her to prove her honor, and make up for all that footage of her unsuccessfully running around throwing rocks at critters on the ground.
>Trixie eventually proclaims that she’s bored and wants to go home… of fucking course.
>Welp, that’s it. That’s all the others needed. Other than needing Mary and Treehugger to be here.
>But upon trying to bring up the map app on her phone, Wallflower discovers that there is absolutely no mobile service anymore. No matter how hard she tries.
>With this, Moondancer brings out the paper map once more, but she herself discovers that she has no idea where on the map the group is because they didn’t mark anything on it yet.
>After watching all of this go on, Starlight gulps deeply while Trixie pouts with her arms crossed.
>An argument over where the group is on the map eventually starts up between the four girls.
>It continues as the sky’s color above the trees starts to indicate that the sun is getting closer to the horizon.
>After a few more moments, Mary and Treehugger come rushing back out of breath with some news.
>”Oh good, you two are ba-”  Starts Starlight.
>”YOU’RE NOT GONNA BELIEVE THIS!” Yells Treehugger. “You’re not gonna believe what just happened!”
>”Wha… what happened?” Moondancer asks, nothing but exhausted at this point.
>“We were looking for a river, right? And we finally found one, so we took out clothes off and started skinny dipping.” Treehugger continues.
>”But there was an angel!” Says Mary. “We only saw it right after we got in the water.”
>”Shh, lemme tell it!”
>”No, lemme tell it!”
>The rabbling continues on for several more minutes, but the eventual story that comes out of it gets more confusing as it progresses.
>Here’s what apparently happened:
>Mary and Treehugger finally found a river to skinny dip in, and then they took off all their clothes and left them at the riverbank and got in the water.
>Then they started to hear a bunch of weird noises but assumed it was nothing.
>After a couple of minutes, Mary started seeing something floating above the trees, like a big, moving, elongated balloon that went in multiple directions.
>What happened next is extremely vague and confusing, but neither girl could see where the moaning would coming from.
>Then it was definitely coming from the floating thing that came out of the trees and at the river, it was a really special angel that was all black.
>All the way blackened.
>It was allegedly attracted to their nudity but in a non-sexual way, like them being naked meant something important was going on for the angel, or it made the angel think something important was going on.
>And then the two girls start questioning if what they saw was actually an angel before trailing off into a conversation about completely unrelated things, completely forgetting what they were just talking about.
>After hearing this story while seeing that neither Mary’s hair nor Treehugger’s hair is wet while their eyes are bloodshot, Wallflower just assumes they’re still high as a kite and none of this story makes sense because it didn’t really happen.
>In any case, the sky is getting dark, and there is no cell phone service, and there are no marking on the map to indicate where anyone is.
>”Okay okay okay, which river were you two at? Which direction did you go in? Maybe we can find it on here and work our way from there.” Moondancer scans the three thin and squiggly blue lines cutting through the green on the map.
>Mary dizzily shrugs as she looks around. “I don’t fuckin’ remember.”
>Treehugger is equally as helpful as Mary is.
>And now it’s too dark to go anywhere anyway, so the group decides to just call it a day, sleep one more night and see if there’s more luck finding mobile phone service tomorrow morning when they have the whole day ahead of them.
>With that, almost everyone just angrily goes to sleep, gradually starting to hate eachother.
>Hours later…
>Mary and Treehugger get the munchies from being stoned and eat a bunch of the food that’s left before Moondancer and Starlight can stop them.
~
>Day 3.
>Moondancer spends a good chunk of the not-all-the-way-light-yet morning yelling at Treehugger and Mary for eating a lot of the food.
>There’s a lot said, but she basically points out that even though they’re getting packed up to leave now and they had enough food for a couple more days, it’s smart to conserve food anyway just in case something goes wrong.
>Mary gazes back with a distant expression as Treehugger slowly nods after comprehending half of what Moondancer told her.
>Wallflower jolts awake after a nightmare.
>She doesn’t remember it much, but she was trying to go through the trees to get away from something, and the trees were closing in on her until they crowded around her so much that she couldn’t go anywhere.
>Then she woke up in a cold sweat, relieved that it wasn’t real.
>Trixie is still asleep, after having eaten a lot of the food on her own before the other two cleaned out the inventory, and now catches up on her spent energy.
>Wallflower sits right next to her, feeling as uncomfortable as ever as Starlight comes back into the tent from outside.
>”Do you want last trail mix bar?” Starlight asks her. “I already had one and I see you have not eaten yet.”
>Wallflower’s appetite is not with her right now, and she actually feels sick to her stomach, so she declines.
>Meanwhile, Moondancer just can’t take this anymore, and kicked Wallflower and Trixie out of the tent so she can pack it up with everything and have the whole group getting going as soon as possible.
>Trixie is extremely perturbed by this, because she’s not well rested yet, and starts to curse at Moondancer in her own language.
>Moondancer just rolls her eyes and gets the tent packed up.
>Wallflower still fails to find mobile phone service, and the sky is super cloudy today. But it’s the best the group is going to get.
>…
>Some more arguing is had, and a specific direction to travel in is hesitantly chosen as wisely as possible.
>If only they could remember exactly which way they chose to face the tent in relation to where they came from. They sort of remember, but only because it was facing “South-ish” as Wallflower recalls it.
>They probably came in from the Southeast, so that’s the direction they decide to head in.
>It’s not guaranteed that they will reach the parking lot on the first try, but they have the entire day to get to it.
>And so, the group gets moving, and they walk, and walk and walk. Trying to remember anything they can as they pass by more special-enough looking trees and things.
>”Anyone remember that?” Asks Starlight as she points towards a tree with a really weird curved shape to it.
>Trixie shakes her head, Wallflower and Moondancer shake their heads, and Mary and Treehugger shake their heads as well.
>”I’d have remembered that tree.” Comments Wallflower after getting creeped out by the bizarre way the tree looks. “I definitely would have.”
>”Same, actually.” Sighs Moondancer. “Looks like we haven’t been here before.”
>Just the sound of Moondancer saying that makes the rest of the girls uneasy.
>Everyone nervously walks past the tree, knowing for a fact that they never saw it before now.
>Luckily, Wallflower remembers the general area of the forest part of the map where the little dot on the phone was, back when there was mobile service.
>The problem arose when it was uncertain exactly where on the paper map that was.
>And now everyone’s clearly on a different path back towards that parking lot.
>But still luckily, they’re probably going to only end up a little down the road from the lot or something… hopefully.
>Starlight starts to remember all of the stuff the townspeople said about people disappearing in these very woods.
>She starts to feel like she’s being watched once more, but ignores it as she treads along.
>It’s obviously just paranoia.
>”Hey uh, I hate to bring this up, but anyone else feel like someone’s watching us?” Says Treehugger.
>Wallflower feels a sharp twinge in her heart, having been just thinking about this… still unaware that Starlight has also been thinking it.
>”Can you please not say things like that?” Wallflower complains. “That’s really creeping me out because I was just thinking about that.”
>Wallflower realizes that this is probably the first time she’s felt THIS unenthusiastic about someone she can’t see possibly watching her. She’s too used to being on the other side of that deal, and she’s starting to miss it after looking at how eerie some of these trees appear to be.
>She looks over at Starlight, who glances back with the most terrified looking expression that can only say one thing: “I was just thinking what you were thinking as well”.
>And all of this has to just be ignored by everyone as they continue, Moondancer hauling the tent bag on her back on her own since the food bags are lighter now.
>Worst case scenario, they’ll just have to set up camp and try again with the mobile service connection.
>The six hike further and further in search for any sign of the end of the woods, but they find nothing.
>”Let Trixie stay in front.” Trixie reassures. “For she has the strongest survival instinct out of all of us and will get us out safely.”
>”Trixie, are you still filming?!” Says Wallflower.
>”Why yes, thank you for asking so kindly.” Responds Trixie with a careless stare.
>”Now’s not the time for videotaping, Trixie!” Moondancer says. “Turn it off, we need to focus.”
>”Ah, but Trixie can document what we go past!” Trixie says to Moondancer. “So we can know if we went by something like scary tree once more!”
>Wallflower hates having the image of that tree being put back into her head; something really looked off about that thing.
>”Yeah well, thanks but no thanks.” Moondancer is extremely annoyed and at her wit’s end. “Now turn it off!”
>”You can’t tell the Great and Powerful Trixie what to do!”
>”Moondancer, please, leave it. It does not matter.” Says Starlight, knowing full well that Trixie will not budge on this.
>Moondancer growls and continues hauling the tent bag on her tired back.
>…
>The day drags on, but the hike has no end in sight.
>After a few resting breaks, everyone’s starting to get really hungry again.
>”Okay… I think this is going nowhere.” Says Wallflower. “The Sun’s gonna set soon. You wanna just set up the tent somewhere and sleep?”
>Trixie automatically objects, insisting that everyone continue. “What? No! We must go!” She points the camera at increasingly agitated faces.
>But everyone else has already agreed that they’re too tired to go much further and would rather eat some food and then rest and start super early tomorrow morning.
>Even Mary and Treehugger have agreed upon this.
>Trixie lets out a sigh and accepts that she herself is pretty hungry too.
>Camp is set up, the tend lazily perched just to last one night.
>Most of the rest of the food is eaten; there’s barely anything left.
>The situation is looking more and more bad as this continues on, but Moondancer is sure that the edge of the woods will be reached by tomorrow afternoon latest.
>Everyone sleeps early.
>…
>Wallflower finds herself waken up in the middle of the night; everyone else in the huge tent is fast asleep.
>She hears this low, uneven droning noise.
>It unnerves her at first, but she gets bored of dwelling on it and assumes it’s the wind being weird or something.
>Falls back asleep.
~
>…
>Moondancer is walking through the woods in the dark.
>She has these lines of fire on the sleeves of her sweater, and there’s snow falling upwards from the ground.
>There’s a small light source a bit brighter than the flames following her around; she can’t tell where it’s coming from.
>She can barely see a couple of feet in front of herself in the blackness of the woods, but she keeps walking until she finds the outline of a really old building in the darkness.
>It looks like a hundred your old abandoned house.
>She goes in through one of the doorways that leads inside, letting the fire on her arms grow in size.
>There’s this dissonant humming noise coming from somewhere inside of the house, and Moondancer gets the urge to seek it out.
>She goes through the musty remnants of rooms one by one, getting angrier for no reason as she goes upstairs.
>But the humming gets louder as she makes her way back to the first floor, and then goes into what would probably be the living room in a modern house.
>Now the humming has more definite tones to it, and it’s putting Moondancer on edge.
>Out of nowhere, someone walks into Moondancer’s line of sight.
>It only takes a couple of seconds for Moondancer to recognize Trixie, but this only makes her feel more animosity within herself.
>Trixie is dressed up in what looks like a ball gown, and she’s grinning really sinisterly with her eyes glowing red.
>”What are you doing here?” Moondancer intends to interrogate Trixie. “What is that?”
>Trixie just stares at Moondancer, her grin growing more and more unnatural looking.
>”What IS THAT?!” Moondancer yells at Trixie. “TELL ME! What is that?!”
>Trixie doesn’t respond, so Moondancer reacts reasonably and lunges at Trixie’s throat with her arms reaching out, spreading her fire to her.
>She strangles Trixie, but then Trixie lifts up her hands and breaks Moondancer’s arms.
>There is no pain, but Moondancer cries out in rage.
>…
>She wakes up.
>Day 4.
>Wallflower is woken up by yelling.
>She springs out of her sleeping bag and exits the tent that’s about to collapse from being poorly set up anyway.
>”TRIXIE!” Starlight hollers into the woods, getting no response.
>Treehugger and Mary are sitting next to the tent as Moondancer is running around in search of Trixie.
>Wallflower promptly joins the search for Trixie and follows Moondancer everywhere she goes.
>Starlight heads off into the woods to join the search as well, telling Mary and Treehugger to wait there by the tent.
>Having gotten high just a couple of hours ago, Mary and treehugger stare back with intoxicated bloodshot eyes, nodding okay and starting to quietly mutter to eachother.
>The three look high and low, searching all the ground for any clue as to where Trixie apparently ran off to.
>They even look for just the video camera, but find not a trace.
>After it’s clear that they’re going to lose their own time looking for Trixie, they decide to not let her bullshit get in their way and just continue on without her.
>Starlight says lots and lots of things under her breath in her own language as Moondancer and Wallflower talk to eachother as they head back to the tent.
>”I’m so sorry this happened.” Apologizes Moondancer. “I should have never joined these two on this stupid shit. This is all Trixie’s fault!” She’s getting mental urges to strangle her if/when she sees her again. “Now we’ve got a missing person’s report to deal with. I can’t have this shit! Not after having to stay away from the police.”
>Starlight shudders to herself after once again remembering all of the stuff the locals said about people disappearing.
>They were right, they were right about everything.
>”Wait a minute…” Moondancer picks up her pace back towards the camp. “Treehugger! Where did Mary go?!”
>Wallflower and Starlight follow right behind her.
>Treehugger is sitting where she was before, but Mary is gone.
>”Treehugger?” Moondancer kneels right beside her.
>”Yeah?”
>”Where’s Mary?”
>Treehugger looks to her side. “Oh… well that’s weird. I was just talking to her.”
>Moondancer slams her fists onto the ground. “GOD DAMN IT, TREEHUGGER!” She almost clamps her hands around Treehugger’s neck, but then thinks about what she’s doing.
>And then she remembers the dream she had before, and finds herself stumbling back from the realization of the parallel between this and the dream she had a while ago.
>”What the… what happen?!” Starlight shakes Treehugger by the shoulders. “Where is other hippie girl? Tell!”
>Wallflower realizes that now Mary is missing too, starts to feel dizzy and nauseous, and retreats behind a few bushes to throw up onto the ground.
>”I dunno, man.” Treehugger responds with those same reddened eyes. “That’s like, some kinda mystery I guess.”
>”For fuck sake!” Shouts Starlight.
>…
>At this point, the tent itself is just abandoned. Only a couple of bags with some supplies like flashlights are taken with.
>Moondancer is in front now, trying to see how the hell they can get out of these woods as fast as they can.
>Wallflower and Treehugger are leaning on eachother as they walk together in the back of the now smaller group.
>They’re keeping track of Starlight in front of them, who herself is following Moondancer who has the map.
>And still… no mobile phone signal.
>Moondancer and Starlight keep checking, having remembered to bring the portable chargers with them for their phones.
>”Are you still high or something?” Wallflower asks as she weakly pulls Treehugger along. “C’mon, we’re falling behind.”
>The sun is still high in the sky, but that won’t be the case for long.
>…
>Moondancer and Starlight eventually walk next to eachother to avoid getting split up, and they call back for Wallflower and Treehugger to catch up and do the same.
>”Wallflower?” Moondancer calls back.
>No answer.
>”Fuck… Wallflower? Where are you? Answer me!” Moondancer repeats.
>Starlight stops in her tracks, mortified as the thought of the other two already being gone.
>”Wallflower!” Moondancer’s starting to lose her voice from exhaustion.
>Still nothing.
>”Uh… Moondancer?” Starlight points ahead.
>”WHAT?!” Moondancer snaps unintentionally.
>Starlight barely even questions it, because she’s too busy pointing at what she sees on the ground ahead.
>Moondancer quickly apologizes for lashing out, but then looks at what Starlight is pointing at.
>It’s the tent, torn to shreds.
>…
>”Come… on!” Wallflower tries to drag Treehugger further and faster. “They’re probably a mile ahead of us by now.”
>”But I’m so tiiiiired, though!” Treehugger whines. “Can’t I stop and sleep for a little bit?”
>”No, we have to keep going! We’re already lost! The last thing we need is to be split up too.”
>Wallflower continues to struggle to move fast enough to catch up to where the other two are, already feeling mortified enough about Trixie and Mary disappearing.
>Getting this horrifying sinking feeling that’s she’s next.
>As she’s persisting with trying to get Treehugger to keep moving, she starts to faintly hear that droning noise again.
>And it’s right as the sky is starting to get darker once again.
>Now the droning sounds even more uncanny and sinister, something Wallflower did not interpret last night when she was too engorged with fatigue to really be terrified of it.
>But now it’s really asserting itself into her ears, and Wallflower hates it so much that she’s considering just leaving Treehugger here so she can catch up to the two stronger party members who can protect her.
>…And that’s exactly what she does when the droning can finally be made out to be coming up from behind.
>Wallflower lets go of Treehugger and runs for her damn life, away from that horrible droning noise of death.
>And Treehugger just kneels in the dirt as it gets louder for her and soon envelops itself all around her. “Where you going? Wallflower? What’s that noise?” She’s still considerably out of it.
>…
>Moondancer and Starlight have been running as fast as they can in blind panic now; went around the remains of the tent and frantically tries to find the edge of the woods before it gets too dark.
>Starlight has a flashlight in her bag but doesn’t want to use it, because it would be easier for her and Moondancer’s position to be seen.
>Looking back frequently, feeling something there in their hearts instead of seeing everything.
>Hard to run out of breath with high adrenaline from pure terror.
>All of their energy is drained from their bodies from the day they’ve had, and the sky is getting darker and darker by the minute.
>It’s becoming harder to see anything.
>Suddenly, Moondancer trips over something.
>Starlight barely notices, but stops when she realizes she took several paces forward alone without Moondancer’s footsteps next to her anymore.
>The last thing she wants is to be completely isolated here.
>”What happened? You okay?” Starlight can barely Moondancer getting back onto her feet.
>”I tripped over something.” Moondancer replies before looking back at what it was.
>”Wait a minute…” Starlight can barely make them out. “Train tracks! TRAIN TRACKS!”
>Moondancer realizes the same thing seconds later, and starts to figure out where the abandoned train station would be given the direction of the tracks if they were running Southeast.
>The entire environment becomes pitch black within the next few minutes, but Moondancer pulls her own flashlight out of the bag she has.
>But she hesitates to turn it on.
>They continuously shush eachother as they slowly follow the train tracks in the dark using their feet, hoping they’re following them in the right direction.
>Too scared to turn their flashlights on.
>…
>It’s definitely past midnight by this point.
>The clouds have all gone away and the full moon is out for this part of tonight.
>Wallflower was extremely lucky enough to find a part of the woods with a lot less trees and actually a pretty open grassy field. Basically an opening in the forest.
>She stays in the middle of that opening, too afraid to go back into the woods where it’s completely dark in there.
>But as she’s sitting there, Wallflower notices something lying in the grass near her. It looks geometrical.
>When she goes over to it expecting it to be a rock or something, she discovers that it’s the video camera.
>This is extremely fortunate that she found it lying out in the open like this, and it raises so many questions as to what happened to Trixie.
>After messing with the camera a bit, Wallflower finds the night vision setting of the camera that she can use to see better for once the moon is shrouded in the clouds once more.
>But the moon is still out right now, so Wallflower figures she’ll conserve the battery since it’s the only one left available at this point.
>But Wallflower’s terrors are far from over; she sits there looking around until she hears the noise again.
>She faces its direction and screams.
>Wallflower recognizes Mary soon enough, and stands up to run away immediately.
>Mary’s completely naked, her whole body sleek and shiny with something sopping wet coated all over it.
>She says something to Wallflower, but too quietly for Wallflower to even notice that anything was said at all. “Come back, you gotta try this.”
>Behind Mary follows Treehugger in the same state of nudity, and behind Treehugger a tall, looming dark figure… with glowing green eyes and a two-toned giggle.
>Chrysalis.
>…
>The moon was out for a little while, but now it went back away behind the clouds.
>Moondancer and Starlight are lucky it didn’t start raining on them as they follow the train tracks.
>But luck seems to be even more on their side when they soon start to notice poles and other structures all around them, indicating that they are exactly where they want to be.
>Both of them weakly rejoice as they step onto the rusty old platform of the abandoned train station.
>Yeah totally not still a creepy as hell place to be, but at least it’s familiar.
>They find their way to the car, and Moondancer opens the doors with the keys she still has from Treehugger.
>Starlight already passes out as the doors are locked.
>Now would be that cliché time when the keys go in the ignition and the car doesn’t start.
>Well not even that’s going to happen, because the same thing that made Starlight pass out makes Moondancer pass out as well, and they are both out cold.
>…
>Wallflower is using that night vision feature oft he camera 100% of the time now, and she’s spinning around in all directions trying to find the escape from the woods.
>She has no idea where she’s going, now directionless as well as hopeless.
>She eventually gets too tired to keep going, and retreats between the roots of a large tree before tucking herself away the best she can.
>Puts herself under a dead bush and stays as still as she can, turning the camera off, closing her eyes and praying for all oft his to be a dream itself.
>And she doesn’t fall asleep, not with every little noise out there having the possibility of being something that Wallflower wants nothing to do with.
>She stays in the position she’s in even though the sky above the trees starting to get light again.
~
>Day 5.
>Wallflower has been awake the entire time, and only decides the turn the camera back on when the darkness won’t make the camera’s lights easy to see.
>Now it’s morning, and the woods gets a well fitting morning fog rolling into them.
>Wallflower wouldn’t dare go out into that environment, so she does what she can with the only thing available to her; she watches the footage on the camera.
>…
>The footage is pretty much 95-99 percent Trixie talking about herself while doing various things. But there’s a certain unspoken narrative to it.
>Trixie’s views of herself start off as just selfish and arrogant, and she thinks she’s capable of accomplishing anything in life without having to really try.
>It then shows Trixie’s talking to people in the town about the woods, and they’re telling her about these superstitious stories telling about people disappearing in the woods.
>Some old dude talking about three college film students disappearing after going on some witch hunt, stuff like that.
>Then it’s back to Trixie talking about herself. But she seems a lot more assertive about her ambitions as time goes on.
>Then there’s the parts where Trixie annoyed the rest of the group by constantly filming and boasting about all the things she’s going to do in the future.
>Her voice starts sounding different, her tone more unstable, her choice of words more unhinged.
>And then comes the night before Day 4.
>Trixie just grabbed the camera and turned it on, which the footage suggests as it shows her pointing it outside of the tent.
>Wallflower can recognize the exact same droning from before, but it’s only on the camera’s recorded sound now.
>[“Trixie will take it upon herself to destroy the witch of the woods and take the throne for herself.”] Trixie says in the recording.
>Wallflower turns the volume up.
>There’s lots of shots of Trixie pointing the camera at various places in the darkness of the woods, looking for something.
>She’s breathing heavily, her original accent seemingly gone when she talks and replaced by a new one.
>[“These woods are under the control of a witch, and it is my destiny… it is my destiny!”]
>There’s a few more shots of Trixie trying to follow the droning noise.
>Then Trixie pans the camera tp the upper half of her face as it keeps filming.
>And the deranged look in Trixie’s eyes makes Wallflower’s heart skip a beat.
>[“The Great and Powerful Trixie cares not who’s territory she treads upon, for she is fit to rule over all others! Trixie accepts all responsibility for her ascent into great power! And she accepts all responsibility for anything that happens to her friends; it was worth it!”]
>Wallflower is frozen and speechless.
>Trixie’s way of speaking switch back and forth. Her eyes light up with each words, the light from the camera making the upper half of her face the only thing that can be seen.
>And the deranged eyes are unforgettable.
>[“I am the Great and Powerful Trixie! I hold no regrets for what is happening to me. For this whole world is a shameful place, and there is nothing truly great about it anymore, and it needs someone like me, The Great and Powerful Trixie in it. Strike me down now, witch. Strike me down so I shall come back more powerful than I ever was before! I shall conquer the underworld, and the ethereal realm, and the afterlife all in the name of my unstoppable sorcery! I am the hunter of the shadows, cold blooded to the bone. To hell with all these ordinary people, I have no apologies. I regret nothing. I’ll see you all in hell!”]
>And right after that part, the picture starts to distort, followed by a few camera shots of Trixie holding the camera running through the woods again.
>She’s following that same noise, further and further down past the trees.
>Eventually, Trixie makes it to what looks like a dilapidated old house that’s been standing around falling apart for a century.
>Going through the place, turning all the stones and decrepit furniture upside down, soon starting to loudly screech at everything she sees like she’s a vulture.
>Trixie heads down to the basement of this mystery place, still screeching at the top of her lungs as if about to pounce or attack on something.
>Wallflower watches the camera shot turn to someone standing in the middle of the room where Trixie just entered.
>The picture distorts heavily, and Wallflower can’t see who it is.
>Then the picture snaps to a bird’s eye view of the woods during the day, which confuses Wallflower greatly.
>All of the movement that can be seen, from what Wallflower can tell, indicates that whoever is holding the camera is flying through the air, with change in direction.
>It’s like they’re holding it outside of the window of an invisible plane and pointing it down.
>Trixie’s laughter can barely be heard through the wind resistance on the camera’s microphone.
>The view of the trees from overhead starts to get shaky and blurred, from intense movement, and Wallflower struggles to see what’s going on at the moment given on the little screen.
>The trees get closer as barely seen through the distortion of the camera.
>It flies by a bunch of branches and bushes, until the whole screen becomes a jumble of movement after a loud smacking sound.
>There’s still a few hours of footage left to watch, but Wallflower can already tell it’s going to be that shot from the camera lying in the grass, the grass blades poking out sideways with the distant trees and the sky starting to change colors to indicate that night is coming.
>And the battery on the camera is super low anyway.
>Wallflower turns the camera off and rests her eyes for a little bit.
>She can’t really tell how much time is going by, not even able to know if she’s really passing out or not.
>Too physically drained to care, she just assumes she passed out and then actually passes out.
>…
>And still, there’s woods all around Wallflower.
>She’s asleep right now, and actually somewhat aware of it to her surprise, so she knows that she can have all the energy she wants and get up to move around the place.
>Might as well take advantage of lucidity while the opportunity is there.
>Wallflower wanders around the misty forest with camera in hand, her heavy breathing echoing through the trees along with her soft footfalls in the dirt and dry leaves.
>She turns around in every direction, feeling surrounded as though every tree in the forest is out to get her.
>Feels as though something is closing in on her.
>And before she could even expect anything to happen yet, she hears Mary’s voice once more. “There you are!”
>Wallflower runs away from the direction of the voice, but then sees Mary blocking her path and naked just like before.
>An instinct told Wallflower to turn the camera on and film Mary like it would shoot an energy beam at her or something, but the device falls apart in her hand.
>”You gotta try this, Wallflower, it feels so good!” Mary says to her. “Free love in the woods is the best!”
>Wallflower shrieks and turns around to run in the opposite direction, figuring she can outrun Mary since she has shoes on.
>And she’s not suffering from the slow dream run either, so she should be- no, there’s Mary standing right in front of her once more.
>”You’re asleep, dude.” Treehugger’s voice sounds from the left. “We just found you between the two tree roots. There’s nothing to be scared of, this won’t take long.”
>”WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!” Wallflower backs away to wherever she can.
>There’s suddenly an urge inside of Wallflower screaming “wake up and run away, wake up and run away”.
>She pieces it together and darts away from the approaching nude stoner girls to try and escape the woods so she can wake up before they can pin down her sleeping body in the real world.
>Wallflower really has no idea how she’s going to accomplish this, but she’s planning to fight tooth and nail once she comes to with these two reaching out to grab her.
>The other two girls keep appearing right in front of her, probably because Wallflower is resting motionless without going anywhere in the waking world, and they’re simply just closing in on her from a few feet away as she’s completely unaware.
>Wallflower keeps running away from them until her arms and legs feel heavy, and they almost can’t move at all.
>Another running attempt is made and she manages to take several steps before feeling the bottom of her sweater ride up her abdomen.
>She shrieks again and tries to pull it down, but it won’t budge.
>Invisible kisses are planted around Wallflower’s bellybutton, and something brings her down to her knees before she can take another step.
>Her sweater lifts itself higher, and the chilling air along with grabbing hands makes Wallflower kick herself awake.
>…
>Wallflower’s eyes shoot open to stare directly into Mary’s lidded eyes.
>With a weak jump, Wallflower makes a sound into Mary’s mouth, which only gets Mary to do the same back.
>Mary leans into the kiss with more assertion as Wallflower realizes that Treehugger has a grip on her arms from behind.
>They already have Wallflower restrained, and that droning sound has returned once again.
>Looking straight ahead, Wallflower discovers a horrifying tall dark figure emerge into her line of sight.
>It’s a woman, with pale tan, almost gray skin, long dark turquoise hair and bright green eyes that sharply stare right back at Wallflower with a vibe that can’t be describes as anything less than malicious.
>Wallflower feels more than two hands tugging at the rim of her pants, and looks down to see her undone bra being pulled away from her.
>Then Mary distracts her with another deep kiss.
>Wallflower’s brain twists and turns, finding comfort in the kiss Mary is giving her.
>Then Mary releases, letting a few bridges of saliva stretch between their parting lips. “Doesn’t this feel amazing?”
>”We’re witches now, Wallflower.” Says Treehugger. “And you’re about to be one too.”
>The tall lady from the background comes to the foreground with her eyes glowing even brighter now.
>Wallflower’s desire to get away has now diminished, and she hates to admit that she wants to kiss Mary again and maybe Treehugger too, but their faces are too far away when Wallflower leans towards them puckering up.
>They have wallflower sandwiched between them as the demonic witch of these woods lowers herself up against Wallflower.
>The voice is terrifying on its own, sounding cold as ice with multiple different tones to it.
>”Finally.” The witch slowly grins. “A virgin.”
>Wallflower lets out a confused whimper as her pants are undone.
>”I dearly accept your virginity, lonely one.” The woman’s voice grows excited.
>Above the trees, birds fly away.
~
>Still Day 5.
>Moondancer is the first to fade awake while Starlight snores loudly in the passenger seat of the car.
>She weakly opens her eyes and realizes that it’s no longer nighttime.
>”Ugh, Star… light?” She groans. “What time is it?”
>The snoring soon startles Moondancer, and she jolts to full awake-ness in the seat which wakes Starlight up as well.
>”Wha…” Starlight starts to thrash herself around. “BLYAT! Shit! Fuck!”
>”We’re safe! Don’t worry, we’re safe.” Reassures Moondancer. “We made it to the car, remember?”
>The scene de-escalates for the next few minutes, and Moondancer and Starlight just sort of talk to eachother about what the fuck they’re planning to do now.
>Literally over half of the entire group has gone missing into the woods that are apparently known around here for having people go missing in them, and Starlight can see why now.
>Starlight tells Moondancer about this, and explains that she tried to talk Trixie out of going into the woods too too deep, but Trixie didn’t listen.
>Outside, it starts to lightly rain.
>Moondancer curses Trixie’s name and tells Starlight that it’s nothing personal, but Starlight already understands and is cursing Trixie’s name as well in her own language.
>Wallflower, Mary and Treehugger are all missing because of Trixie, who is also missing. Moondancer becomes engulfed in a fit of rage and slams her hands onto the steering wheel, honking the horn multiple times.
>There’s no way the cops won’t investigate this.
>The rain outside gets heavier, and escalates into a full downpour.
>Starlight crouches away in the passenger seat as she watches Moondancer hurl herself into fits of rage, making the whole car shake as she nearly rips the steering wheel out of its socket.
>Moondancer screams and hollers, road rage in a parking space.
>She grabs the base of the steering wheel like it’s someone’s throat and starts to wring it like there’s no tomorrow.
>There might as well be no tomorrow at this point.
>In the middle of all of this, Moondancer notices Starlight starting to scream with her, but for a completely different reason.
>She looks over at her and notices Starlight pointing at something again… forward right outside the windshield.
>Looks forward and drops her jaw with a gasp.
>The rain is extremely think and hard to see through.
>However, emerging from the tree line ever so gradually, are the stumbling, naked forms of the three other girls.
>They’re all clustered together, and slip and stumble over eachother as though they were thrown out of the woods just now by something larger than them, and precisely in this location.
>”HOLY SHIT!” Moondancer opens the car door and dashes into the rain with Starlight joining her.
>They both get soaking wet in seconds, and it takes thirty of those to reach the side of the field where their friends struggle to get back on their feet.
>”What the fuck is going on?!” Moondancer becomes entirely hysterical. “What the fuck! Wallflower! Mary! Treehugger! What the FUCK!” Her voice reaches the top of her lungs.
>…
>The entire inside of the car is drenched in rainwater, but thank fuck for Treehugger’s friend having a few spare blankets in the trunk before lending the car.
>Trixie is the only one missing, but that doesn’t matter right now.
>The car speeds down the road towards the town, kicking up water from the asphalt as the tail lights disappear into the thick rain from the abandoned train station.
>Answers are needed.
~
>In the scene of the rain, the video camera was seen lying on the ground.
>Starlight had noticed it, and thought about going back to get it after retrieving Wallflower, Mary and Treehugger.
>She doesn’t even remember doing so, but she apparently must have picked the camera up and tossed it into the back of the car.
>Because there it is, lying on the floor of the back bed.
>Starlight assumes it won’t work anyway, and she needs to tend to the others right now regardless, so she ignores it and doesn’t give this any further thought.
>…
>Everyone is just driven back to the dorm.
>Whatever it was that just happened, it wasn’t good.
>Wallflower rests on her bed, now passed out after being exhausted and exposed to the rain so much.
>Mary and Treehugger are in a similar state, resting on Moondancer’s bed as Moondancer and Starlight try and figure out what the hell they’re going to do now.
>Trixie is still missing, but that’s not so much the important part of this right now.
>The rest of the food that was used to sustain the girls on the trip (or rather what was left of it) is used to rejuvenate the three passed out girls.
>Starlight ends up doing most of the care-taking as Moondancer paces back and forth muttering something about the police and whether or not she should go into hiding somewhere.
>This is anything but okay, this wasn’t supposed to happen.
>But it happened, and now Moondancer is a wreck for just having experienced it.
>Starlight seems to know what she’s doing, and the other girls look like they’re recovering just fine.
>The time of deep concern is over, and Wallflower stares at the ceiling for a few hours waiting to hear any news at all about what on earth just happened.
>”Alright, s-so… I don’t really know everything that happened.” Explains Moondancer. “But all I know is that we got split up in the woods at some point, and you must have fallen behind the day before we found you.” Moondancer isn’t sure if she found Wallflower or if Wallflower found her. “But you’re safe now. That’s all that matters.”
>Wallflower lies face up in her bed, now dry and breathing normally… skin not looking as pale as it did before.
>”Do you remember what happened to you?” Asks Moondancer, placing a hand on Wallflower’s forehead ever so gently to check for a fever.
>”I… uh…” Wallflower’s voice croaks as the words are too confused to come out saying anything definite. “I know I was in the woods.”
>A lot of her memory from the day before to now is gone from her head, and she just remembers camping with Moondancer and the others when they decided to go back at some point and then things started getting creepy.
>And the next thing Wallflower can gather in her head is that she woke up in bed as though it was all a dream.
>As if it was all a dream.
>”So what else do you remember, then?” Asks Moondancer as Mary drowsily asks what the hell did she smoke before the current time and day.
>”I had a dream about being chased by… the trees? They were after me. But then I woke up and the trees weren’t after me. They were just there. One looked really weird like that one forest in eastern Europe where they grow curved.” Wallflower has finally completely come to.
>”Do you know what happened to you clothes?”
>”I… no.” Wallflower blushes. “I was wondering why I woke up in this.” She looks down at the white tank top and panties. “Did I get drunk?”
>”Not during the part of the trip I was there, no.” Moondancer pulls Wallflower in for a hug, just happy that she’s alive and not vanished like Trixie.
>Meanwhile, Treehugger’s side of the story is quite different than Wallflower’s.
>Treehugger says she remembers walking around the woods naked with Mary holding hands with her. They were just exploring the place with someone following them.
>But it wasn’t anyone from the group that went camping, it was someone completely unfamiliar to any of the girls, but she can’t remember who it was.
>However, there was definitely someone there following, even thought nothing about them is remembered. A mysterious presence.
>Mary’s head is still spinning a little bit, but she remembers being “swept off of her feet by a floating ghost” and then stripped naked.
>Needless to say, Moondancer and Starlight are troubled by these stories.
>Wallflower doesn’t remember how she ended up naked, but hearing what Mary said makes her start to panic and hyperventilate.
>Moondancer does what she can to try and calm Wallflower down as Starlight receives a text message on her phone and then gasps.
>”Uh, girls?” Starlight turns her head slowly as her pupils contract.
>”What is it?” Asks Mary.
>Starlight holds the phone screen up. “It’s… it’s Trixie.”
>…
>It’s decided that, from what Trixie texted, that the friends will reunite at the park.
>Moondancer has the right mind to say and do all sorts of things with Trixie once she gets her hands on her.
>That is, until she remembers the dreams she had, and remembers her current situation.
>She almost doesn’t want to drive Starlight over and just have her go alone, but something is giving her a strange feeling that she needs to be here for this.
>Moondancer leaves the dorm with conflicting emotions, fingers trembling with the keys as they stick one into the lock.
>…
>The car slowly pulls up to the park where Trixie told the others to meet her.
>It fades in from the distance through the fog, wheels seemingly silent in the tension of the atmosphere.
>Starlight recognizes her friend on the nearby bench as the car pulls into the parking space.
>The only other one there is Moondancer; the others stayed behind.
>”So you have back if she tries funny shit right?” Starlight turns to Moondancer.
>”What are you talking about?” Moondancer assumed that Starlight was the one to go first to approach Trixie.
>Trixie is already standing up, slowly striding towards the car, being the one doing the approaching.
>Menacingly grinning over at them, she lets her hair flow in her wake that cuts through the still air.
>”What do we do?” Starlight can’t think of a way to handle this sudden situation.
>”She’s YOUR friend!” Strains Moondancer as she peers through the windshield.
>They fall silent as Trixie’s blue hoodie glows in the car’s headlights, all eyes meeting in mid gaze, minds thinking of something to say to break the silence.
>Moondancer gets an urge to honk the horn; why does Trixie’s face seem a little off?
>Neither girl in the car can put their finger on what it is that’s off about Trixie. Is it the way she’s… standing?
>Almost like the leaning tower of Pisa, but she’s not tilted at all, but something seems blaringly off-balance about Trixie. It’s shining through her eyes.
>Her dilated pupils do quite the opposite, acting like black holes almost, but reflect the headlights in reflectivity of the eyes themselves.
>Glowing black.
>”What the fuck are you two waiting for?” Trixie speaks up in a surprisingly piercing yet deeper-than-usual voice, projecting it even to behind the car. “Unlock the doors. Trixie needs something to drink, she’s thirsty.”
>…
>Something in the air gives off a chill that leaks through Starlight’s and Moondancer’s clothes, and it’s not the air conditioning.
>It’s Trixie’s presence.
>She moves and looks around like she’s responding to everything they’re thinking, before getting distracted by the sunrise in the distant horizon, just across the water.
>Trixie’s appearance is so… loud. Somehow.
>But what speaks louder is the story she just told, the story that initiated the long era of silence that only gives away to the car’s engine and tires against the asphalt.
>”What do you mean you flew?” Moondancer hesitantly raises an eyebrow.
>”Trixie saw the entire forest! She knew every way to escape, but she didn’t want to leave.” Trixie keeps her arms crossed, tightening them. “She has proof on the video camera. The world will witness the might of The Great and Powerful Trixie.”
>Starlight awkwardly shrugs off her friend’s behavior, despite it being unfamiliar to even her this time.
>Trixie’s voice is different. She sounds… stronger.
>”How do you still have your phone?” Asks Moondancer as she grips the steering wheel.
>”It was always in Trixie’s pocket. It should have been broken by now, but then again, Trixie should have been by now too.”
>Trixie tilts her head in the eeriest way, emptily gazing at the lines on the road like she can see them pass under herself through the floor of the car.
>Starlight can’t decide if there’s something wrong with Trixie, or something wrong with everything around her that’s making her seem this way at this point, because the car is starting to feel odd, as if something followed Trixie here.
>But she can tell somehow from Trixie’s same eyes that she was not followed - nothing would dare follow her anywhere unless it was malicious enough.
>”Well, we happen to have the video camera too.” Moondancer goes over in her head all of the belongings that might as well have been lost in the woods. “I’m not sure how we found it without you. Since you had it basically the entire trip.”
>Some ominously sinking feeling overcomes Moondancer regarding the camera.
>What is she going to find on there if she looks through the footage?
>What in hell’s earth is going on?
>”Well I- OH FUCK!” Starlight cries out.
>The other set of headlights came before the truck horn, and both of them came before Moondancer’s time to react.
>But the car stops and pulls itself away from the approaching vehicle before Moondancer’s foot hits the brake.
>And it skids along the road until stopping flush against the divider wall concrete exactly where Trixie wanted.
>Everyone’s hearts race, all eyes are on the lumbering truck barreling down the wrong side of the road, nearly tilting over in the morning light, completely out of control.
>”Holy fucking shit!” Moondancer wheezes with her back nearly snapping the driver’s seat into breaking backwards. “Oh my god!”
>Starlight immediately gets out of the car, and starts to run after the swerving trucker, shouting profanities in another language at the top of her lungs.
>Trixie gets out and follows her “BLYAT!” She balls her hands into fists and sprints after the truck, joining the pursuit.
>She’s seen this shit happen one too many times in her life; this time better be the last time.
>Her track shoes pitter patter against the road faster and faster with more step with each step, as if they are becoming heavier but she herself is becoming lighter with more speed.
>Starlight a blue blur race ahead of her like a reverse doppler effect.
>Trixie’s hand grabs part of the truck’s side view mirror.
>She hangs on for quite some time before the driver notices her there.
>The look on the driver’s face shows an expression of true fear, but it’s not from Trixie being there.
>He has lost control of his body, and is trying to stop himself from barreling down the wrong side of the freeway.
>Who is this girl? Why is she getting urges to shake her off of the truck as violently as he can?
>His hands shake with sweat all over the palms, his knees bend and retract his feet from the floor until one foot slams down onto the breaks.
>The loud skidding noise can be heard from blocks away, and Trixie is almost sent careening down the road.
>Her grip is tight, her eyes stern with rage, her voice loud and commanding as she climbs onto the hood of the truck and continues the profanities.
>The windshield is cracked by the soles of her track shoes, and the truck driver feels a sort of trance involving Trixie set in.
>He is not aware of what is going on; something is trying to have Trixie killed.
>As it turns out, she is being followed, and she does not yet know that she can sense it.
>But the truck driver is experiencing the full wrath of a witch’s power, trying to fight his own body from getting violent with the young lady kicking in his windshield.
>”Greasy capitalist swine!” Trixie screeches as Starlight approaches.
>”What is he doing, comrade?!” Starlight already completely forgot about all of the other things that have happened. “Is more than one of them in there?”
>”Is only one!” Trixie squats down to get a better look through the cracks in the glass.
>The two girls proceed to harass the truck driver as other drivers get out of their cars at the scene.
>A scuffle starts up before Moondancer arrives.
>”What the fuck are you two doing?” She waves her arms around. “Get back here!”
>Moondancer soon realizes that she’s out in the open and retreats to the car before the cops inevitably come to the scene.
>She doesn’t look back as she hears the commotion escalate, and lots of loud screams are heard.
>Gets into the driver’s seat and gets ready to lock the door before hearing the passenger door open.
>It’s Trixie, holding Starlight by the arm.
>”Wha… how did you…” Moondancer looks at the distance Trixie would have had to run with Starlight in that short amount of time.
>”Just drive!” Trixie commands in that new voice, which wouldn’t need to work on Moondancer who was already more than willing to flee the scene.
~
>Treehugger’s car is kept FAR away from the college campus, as well as Trixie and Starlight for the time being.
>Moondancer’s paranoia soars high, not only from what just happened but from Trixie’s sudden reappearance and new disturbing behavior.
>She would have forced them out of the dorm room had it not been for the two already wanting to run to somewhere secluded.
>As far as Moondancer is concerned, they are contaminated with figurative wanted posters hanging over their heads.
>Wallflower is already back on her computer, seeming a little bit better now and lethargically scrolling through her browser while Treehugger herself wandered off with Mary somewhere without even asking what happened to her car.
>She’ll eventually start caring again once she inevitably sobers up once more.
>But Moondancer is more than glad to have her gone too; the less of these troublemakers there are around her causing shit to happen, the better.
>It’s at this point when Moondancer decides that she completely regrets making friends with these people.
>Bonding experience camping trip? What in the actual blueberry motherfuckery was she thinking? This only led to exponentially more problems than it solved.
>Now there’s two rowdy comrade girls stirring shit around town that are a magnet for 9-1-1 calls, and two stoner girls who are also a magnet for the same thing for pretty obvious reasons.
>Politics is too flimsy a reason for these people to be friends; Moondancer KNEW she should have never socialized.
>Wallflower appears to not be too well right now, and can’t even stand up out of her chair.
>”I’m so sorry about all of this.” Moondancer rubs her temples. “This was all a shitty idea. We need to keep to ourselves from now on. Those other girls are just a waste of time and resources.”
>Wallflower groans, staring at the computer screen in preparation to fry her eyes with the light for hours on end once again, glad she has a reason to stay a shut-in for the rest of time.
>It’s only going to get colder and colder, and going outside is going to be much less favorable especially to people like Wallflower who don’t normally enjoy outside no matter what day of the year it is.
>But her internet trance is broken when Moondancer’s hand pats her on the shoulder.
>”Are you listening to me?” Moondancer just got done with another rant about the government or whatever.
>A very barely noticeable shuddering spreads through Wallflower when she looks up at Moondancer; something’s different about her.
>Something about the way her strong hand patted her.
>”We need to work on our dreams, okay?” Repeats Moondancer. “Because sooner or later, we’re probably going to end up in the woods again.”
>Wallflower just stares over at Moondancer, getting flashbacks to moments she can’t quite pinpoint into her life.
>Something about a lady with super long greenish hair.
>That’s all she remembers, but she has no idea where in her life it’s from.
>But her attention is drawn back to Moondancer.
>”Anyway, we should get some shuteye. All that bullshit made me tired. You wanna join?” Moondancer side-nods over to the book on the shelf where all the dreams are written down.
>Wallflower thinks about the phrase to herself.
>Wanna join?
>…
>Why on earth did she just think that?
>She tries to look back over to the computer screen, only to find her mind scrambling and thinking it’s a TV screen.
>It is a lot like a TV screen, and Moondancer did warn her about the dangers of commercial programs and whatnot.
>Maybe she should go outside a little bit more… maybe those woods are a little comfier during the dead of winter.
>Wait, no, no, no, why did Wallflower think that.
>”You wanna go to bed now or not?” Moondancer asks for a third time. “Are you sure you’re okay? You should probably get rest.”
>”I… think you’re right, Moondancer.” Sighs Wallflower as she watches Moondancer stretch her arms out.
>She remembers how fit she is under that sweater, something she used to envy her for.
>Well she does still, it just feels a little bit more… intensified than the last times.
>”Yeah… we should sleep.” Moondancer answers for Wallflower. “You don’t look well. Come on.”
>Wallflower stares straight forward as her computer goes onto standby mode, and even in the blackness of the screen, she can see how heavily she’s blushing.
>Moondancer thinks she’s brewing up a hell of a fever, though it’s not quite that… she feels fine.
>Actually, it may be a fever, who knows?
>Wallflower looks down at her bare arms, noticing all of the goosebumps that only become more defined when Moondancer steps closer.
>”We should head to bed, okay? You’re burning up.”
>Wallflower pictures things she shouldn’t be picturing, at least not with her roommate.
>She looks up at Moondancer and transforms into a stuttering mess who refuses to leave her computer.
>Having no idea what’s coming over her.
>She never felt anything quite like this until AFTER the camping trip with Moondancer.
>Now what’s going on?
>”Wallflower, I’m only going to tell you one more time… you NEED rest.” Moondancer places a hand on Wallflower’s half-bare shoulder.
>It’s electrifying, and Wallflower twitches from the physical contact.
>”Come on, get up, you need to lie down.” Moondancer puts an arm around her roommate in preparation to stand her up herself. “Maybe get you some water before you sleep.”
>Something possesses Wallflower to resist, wanting to get Moondancer to force her into bed.
>The thought of that does something to Wallflower she never knew was in her… it might not have been until now.
>The shuddering and tingling has only increased, and Moondancer hooks her arms around Wallflowers arms to stand her up to her feet.
>Holy fuck, she’s strong.
>Less than a minute later, Wallflower is lying on her side in bed wishing the struggle lasted at least a little bit longer, but she was too weak to be a match for Moondancer.
>It felt so strange, but she wants to feel it again so much that she hopes she dreams about it.
>The two girls eventually go to bed after a couple of cups of applejuice for enhanced dreaming experience.
>Wallflower’s “fever” worsens, and her brain assumes a whole new identity in her dream…
>She somehow turns into even more of a nobody in life, and imagines herself younger than before…
>…
~
>Back to the lab for the labrat.
>Mulberry recently tried his episode livestream stunt again and failed even harder than last time.
>But fuck it, ask random questions to get shit moving as long as his site’s up (not the “monthly” Neon-specific one since he’s apparently too scared to post it anymore so far).
>”Guys! Guys! Mulberry has another question! Yeah it’s from before, so what?” How environmentally conscious to recycle discussion.
>Playing 20 questions with himself like a lonely kindergartener sitting on the floor with a see-and-say.
>Falling back on copy-paste responses such as “okay and?” and “if you don’t like me then leave bro” responding to heckling, imitating the times he was told to stay in his lane.
>Sometimes when he’s told to fuck off after pestering other people’s sites, he flips the chessboard all like “no YOU leave! I stay!”.
>He doesn’t know how to be funny like good trolls, he’s just annoying.
>Making his site traffic move as fast as he can is all he’s able to do. Just fluff it up pretending to be dozens of people. Fake poor english to stave off criticism and hope predators underestimate him.
>What good is having 75% of the posts be your own because almost everyone else filtered your site, when those you need to “prove wrong” most definitely can’t see shit because they filtered you to begin with?
>This is why Mulberry has to play missionary messenger and go to other people’s realms, put multiple smug masks over his crying face and pretend he’s a smash hit and not a splashed shit.
>He’s probably going to pretend to have a short time of “prosperity” in that tiny window of time before the game series ends for everyone anyway.
>Gotta grab everything he can get, even if it’s just crumbs that are left.
>He’s only champion in the mental gymnastics olympics. Gold medalist record breaker, but even that’s slipping away.
>Mulberry’s slowly starting to realize that he’s not fooling anyone, not even himself.
~
>…
>Wallflower jolts awake in a cold sweat, breathing extremely heavily from the sheer terror of her dream that just attacked her brain.
>She looks down at her hands and remembers who she is, suddenly thankful to be back in reality.
>Suddenly remembering that it could always be worse for her in life, shit, she’d never want to be that guy. Who even would?
>”You’re finally awake!” Moondancer is pouring herself a glass of orange juice just out of eyesight. “Want some?”
>Oh, of course. Applejuice to orange juice, the typical healthy night of sleep.
>”I had a nightmare.” Wallflower leaps out of bed, suddenly full of energy.
>”You did?” Moondancer’s voice turns to concern right away, mostly because of the shit that happened in the woods. “What was it about?”
>”I was a pathetic loser no one respected or cared about, but more than usual and-” Wallflower stops right in her tracks as she sees what Moondancer is wearing.
>Really small white tank top that’s getting stretched partially by muscle… partially. The rest is facing strain from the chest area-
>Wallflower shakes her head really quickly.
>”What’s wrong? You got a headache?” Moondancer walks over to her and grabs her arm.
>Wallflower stands as stiff as a mannequin, needing way too many napkins for the sweat on her forehead.
>Her legs shake like an earthquake as she tries to maintain balance in Moondancer’s presence.
>This is going to be a long winter.
>What the fuck happened to her brain in those woods?
>…What happened to her mind?
~
>Mary and Treehugger don’t need to be asleep to see their dreams with their own eyes, they got a few useful things of their own to distort their comprehension of the world and see what cannot be seen.
>It’s hard to keep all of the smoke together without a tent, so they bring their own weak little tent with them every time they return the woods they’re starting to love a lot.
>It’s fine if they go there without a lot of physical protection, they’re already going to be protected from bears by someone they know.
>As they go back using the same car as the last time, they bring with them a couple of friends.
>The rest of their friends who used to be the eco-kids with them back when they were in high school at CHS.
>Just a couple more guys and girls, their inner circle of friends that stayed together for the most part over the years, they would love to go on this trip together since it would be a great further bonding experience for them.
>That along with this being the perfect time to have a Halloween party and get super “spiritual” in costumes and stuff.
>There’s also a huge stack of pizzas in the back fo the car, and the reason why it’s there is not only pertaining to the need for having food on this trip.
>”Yeah, the girl we went with last time was also named Starlight! Isn’t that funny?” Treehugger speaks to the other Starlight she knows.
>”What was the other Starlight like?” Asks Starlight.
>”She’s sooooo cool!” Responds Mary before Treehugger can say another word. “She and her friends know a lot about mythology and stuff. Has a really cool accent too and I love the way she dresses. Would have been sweet to get high with her but she didn’t return any of my calls when I invited her to come back.”
>Mary was high as a kite when she tried to call Starlight Glimmer by phone, and ended up calling a pizza place asking if her friends would like to come back to the woods with her.
>She then ordered pizza thinking it was Starlight making it in that shake n’ bake oven that’s not even at the place where she lives, but it was luckily never revealed what else was done with the said shake n’ bake.
>Long story short, there’s a stack of pizza boxes in the car waiting to be eaten by a group of stoners with the munchies for a night, and Treehugger is jokingly calling it “the other Starlight” like they’re pretending to be eating her alive on the trip.
>There’s very half-hearted attempts as wearing Halloween costumes, the feeling of that holiday spirit is almost absent in the car and no one cares because they’re very unsubtle about the fact that they just want an excuse to go fool around in the woods.
>”It’s too bad we couldn’t do this in August and pretend it’s like Woodstock or something.” Says Mary.
>”You’re right! We should have meet Moonie and Wallie sooner.” Gasps Treehugger in a brief moment of realization.
>The two then explain to the rest of their friends who the two girls Treehugger just mentioned are, and that they’re basically “doomsday preppers” type of people from what they could tell, but more watered down in that regard and really just love to be on their computers a lot on the internet.
>They continue talking about them after the car pulls into the parking space closest to the abandoned train station before they walk into the trees.
>The one who will protect the entire group from bears is already waiting for them in an unknown position.
>…
>A couple of the hippie dudes set up the dinky little tent at the resting point, and the vibe this group gives out is a lot more relaxed than that of the previous group.
>No Trixie talking about herself non-stop into a video camera while annoying everyone else.
>No Wallflower wanting to complain about how her feet hurt and how the internet connection here is shite.
>No Moondancer grumbling about lizard people or how everyone needs to become a literal hunter after the world ends.
>And most importantly, no bickering of any kind either. Just a group of longtime college friends “Celebrating Halloween” together in late October, bundled up with a few costumes half meant to counter the increasing cold weather.
>Well, they technically are celebrating the holiday, just in their own unique and obscure way.
>Camp is set up, everyone cramps together inside and the fun begins.
>The words they say that echo into the forest outside become less coherent after another hour or so passes.
>The wind eventually starts to pick up, and not a bear is in sight… nope, there’s not a bear in sight of the came grounds.
>Mary was the one who lured her friends to the camping trip, and Treehugger helped her too in order to help their queen get more people involved.
>Now their judgement is clouded, their hand-eye coordination is terribly out of order…
>Mary takes one of them out of the tent for some “privacy” and lures him out into the darkness of the woods at night.
>Treehugger does the same with another one of the guys while the other girls stay in the tent with the last guy who’s starting to feel a bit lucky tonight.
>The guy who followed Mary down to an apparent creek or something for skinny dipping sees his partner already nude in the beam of the flashlight and ready to join her.
>Something creeps up behind him, and he doesn’t even notice as he basks in his last moment of free will.
>Mary says something to him he didn’t quite catch, and then he feels something gently grab his shoulders.
>He barely wonders what it is, already completely out of it and giggling like an idiot as Mary holds tight from in front of him.
>But she’s merely holding him still.
>…
>The guy in the tent tried many times to woo the girls around him to no avail, as they just want to pretend they’re in a spaceship or something like Mary and Treehugger imagined the last time they were exactly in this spot in the woods.
>But now he hears footsteps of his friends returning to the tent from outside, unaware of why he should be trying to escape right now.
>Too late now, he’s pidgin-holed inside the tent as Mary, Treehugger and the other two re-enter.
>Mary and treehugger decide to take the last guy outside to “show him something” as the other two guys are left alone with the rest of the girls.
>The night continues on… and no one is themselves by the time the morning is closer than the previous evening.
~
>Now Wallflower hears more distant voices in her head calling for her to come back to the woods.
>Or at the very least, for her to do something specific with Moondancer who’s currently in the dorm room with her.
>”Hey… can we talk?” Wallflower asks Moondancer.
~
>”This doesn’t make any sense, there’s obviously something fucked up about those woods. The last thing I want to do is go /back/ there.” Moondancer rubs the sides of her temples.
>”It could just be the two of us.” Wallflower almost shudders in her voice as she says this. “The bonding experience was ruined by Trixie last time. She’s probably the reason any of that bad stuff happened to begin with.”
>”And you expect me to trust those woods again, why?”
>”I dunno, I just wanna give it another chance. And you can do your survival thingy without anyone else around.”
>It would make more sense to do that thing when there’s no one else around, but that doesn’t change what happened.
>Moondancer has picked up the camera and began to sift through the recorded footage, seeing only increasingly distorted angles of the forest from a bird’s eye view.
>That almost sounds like cackling.
>Wallflower can almost recognize the footage, but maybe that’s just deja vu setting in on her brain that’s still a little confused.
>”I’m sorry but I don’t like the looks of things here.” Moondancer gives her final verdict.
>Wallflower continuously tries to convince Moondancer to camp with her somewhere, with some not-so-platonic camping scenarios flooding her mind as Moondancer turns down every single proposal.
>Something is getting into her mind, probably from afar… that’s the only way Wallflower can make sense of this somehow even if she doesn’t believe it.
>It feels so out of place but she can’t shake this dumb suspicion.
>Awkward encounters like these continue for the roommates as their increasingly less communicative friends start hanging out in the woods more often just like Wallflower admittedly wanted to despite the weather getting colder and colder as the weeks of later Autumn go on.
~
>It’s already getting to the point where some days have some slight snow occurring.
>But two others are undergoing an adventure of their own.
>…
>”It is like drugs taken to perform on stage better and amaze crowd!” Asserts Trixie as she downs a 5 hour energy.
>Starlight points to the bottle. “What is the matter with you? That is Capitalist poison!”
>”The Great and Powerful Trixie is immune to all poison.”
>”How many of those have you drink?” Starlight steps over to the kitchen trash can to discover another couple of red bottles on top of everything else that was throws away. “You could die!”
>”Trixie is already immortal! The woods is in her soul and nothing can stop her from her dreams!” Trixie picks her words out from something telling her that the woods have some sort of love for her.
>Starlight sees that look in Trixie’s face once more; the one where her eyes light up yet somehow get slightly darker.
>For all she knows, something incredible could have happened to Trixie in those woods, and she actually won’t be negatively impacted by the energy drinks being taken in such high quantities.
>But this will not make her magically trust those chemicals she saw on “Capitalist Propaganda Networks” or whatever it is Starlight calls TV commercials.
>”Come practice with Trixie. We will brave the cold and dance in the snow!”
>Starlight groans. “This is oh so tiring. Can we not just go to bed instead? You could do dream thing, yes? Then you get better at-”
>”How is Trixie going to practice voice projection if she does not use voice in real life?” Trixie taps the side of her forehead with her finger. “Yuo must do this wisely.”
>”You are idiot, Trixie.” Starlight begins to mock. “But that is why I love you so.”
>Trixie grins at her.
>”However!” Starlight resumes. “This is bad idea. We must stay away from those woods! They have something evil in them.”
>”Trixie is not afraid of an evil that is less powerful or great than she is.” Trixie is already starting out the door.
>”Come back here this instant! Now, comrade!” Starlight says to the closing door.
>”Do you follow Trixie to woods? Yes or no?”
>”No! Those woods are evil! You are more crazy than normal!”
>”You miss out, then.”
>The door slams.
~
>Evening, a cold cold evening.
>Trixie can sense the trees themselves wishing they’d part way for her to enter, in her mind at least.
>She can feel their energy through the bark, tempted to bite into it to display her raw strength this forest has granted her.
>The rushing breeze welcomes her deeper in to the trees, and her eyes cast themselves upon this now more familiar surroundings that she saw from above in the past.
>Those other girls; her friends; they don’t understand her power. They can’t begin to comprehend what Trixie is capable of.
>If they were here right now, they would be able to see how she can not only keep herself surviving throughout the night, but also protect them from any dangers to further ram that point how that she is not to be fucked with.
>Her spite boils over as thoughts begin to enter her head… how she can still prove it to them with her great mental strength she always had with her.
>It’s really just Trixie’s way of interpreting her own arrogance, but these thoughts seem to be coming from an exterior source.
>Something that’s in these woods, but it seems to want to be helping Trixie.
>After a couple more minutes, there’s some audible whispering that doesn’t bother Trixie at all as she sets up her camp.
>The “camp” she sets up in literally just her jacket and a few sticks she collected while moseying through the woods like she was searching for breadcrumbs.
>Trixie slipped out of her jacket in the dark and used her jittery fists to ram the sticks into the dirt with the stamina the 5 hour energies gave her.
>And the tent she pitched is nowhere near enough to suffice unless she were the size of a puppy or a squirrel, but Trixie is not deterred by the cold.
>And part of her detects admiration regarding this… coming from somewhere.
>It’s not something in the air, or the trees, or the ground or the water, it’s something that is standing nearby, like a sentient deer or bear that watches an unfazed Trixie.
>Either way, Trixie intends to work on making her vocal chords stretch as much as possible in this empty area where no annoying neighbors can send in noise complaints like the last several times.
>Damn, those neighbors were so annoying, Trixie can’t stand them hindering her practice sessions.
>Whatever it is in the darkness watching Trixie better be more of an applauding audience than a fun-ruiner that is too much to handle someone shouting at 2 AM.
>”COME ONE! COME ALL!” Trixie lets her echoes flood through the unseen trees masked by blackness, envisioning crowds of people clapping and cheering for her. “AND WITNESS THE UNDYING MIGHT OF THE GRRRRRREAT AND POWERFUL TRrrrrrIXIE!”
>The goosebumps on her shoulders are more from the excitement, and only intensify as Trixie grabs a nearby rock and throws it into the air.
>She can hear the wind resistance against its surface area.
>With the stern point of her finger, Trixie illuminates the air slightly with a small blast of what must most definitely be magic; it’s a tiny little purple glow that creeps like lightning over to the rock with precision and halves it.
>Trixie raises her fist with her chin up as she hears the two thumps on the ground she expected. “BEHOLD!”
>No noise-hating neighbors to stop her this time.
>Her feet stomp around in the dark looking for something else to zap apart with this power that she’s the only one around to see.
>Her eyes crazed with pupils dilated due to the chemicals she put in her body; she might as well have snorted crack or something.
>All the squirrels and shit or whatever are damn lucky to have scurried away before Trixie could get to them.
>Trixie hollers and howls into the woods in whatever “practice session” she wants to initiate while no one is around to be disturbed.
>She remembers all the times she told Starlight a million and one times over that she’s not nervous about people hearing her, she just hates it when the neighbors file noise complaints.
>Starlight believed Trixie the first time, but Trixie just wanted to make sure that this fact was understood so she’s not seen as a coward who’s shooken by stage fright.
>Trixie commands the stage and she won’t let you forget it.
>She continues on and on until she finally starts to feel the un-promised crash set in because varying those individual results started to take their toll.
>With a few minutes passing, Trixie get sleepy and retreats to under her perched up jacket-tent on the ground and proceeds to doze off.
>As she does so, she still tries to think up a way to show all of the others that she’s a force to be reckoned with, because arrogance does not take breaks, like an uncontrollable wildfire in her soul’s rainforest.
>Those other two girls were doing some dream exploration stuff, right? Trixie could just get into their heads as she sleeps and make them convince Starlight that the wizard of the woods is real.
~
>…
>Moondancer is sitting in a fancy cushioned chair with a fireplace before her.
>Monocle on her eye and suit making up her attire, she takes a puff from her corn cob pipe or whatever those things are called.
>With a wineglass of antifreeze in her hand.
>”They don’t understand how hard we have to work.” A maid mopping the carpet floor says to her. “The billionaires never had to work a day in their life, they’re so aloof.”
>”To hell with them.” Moondancer’s voice gets menacing the very second she opens her mouth.
>”Indeed, to hell with them all. Please do not end up trapped in this cycle of manual labor like me.” Warns the maid. “If the government gets a hold of you, they’ll have your ass until you retire, and you’ll be forced to be a wage and tax slave until you kick the bucket.” She kicks the bucket over and spills the rainwater with earthworms in it all over the floor.
>”Do you think there are enough people to stop them?”
>”It’s easy to convince people how distant billionaires are through numbers alone. Say you have a billionaire with a Swiss bank account, and a college graduate with 5,000 dollars in their normal bank account. And say they each have a chance to give away most of their money to help starving people in Africa.”
>”I see.” Moondancer takes another sip of the antifreeze.
>”Here’s how you understand how obscenely rich billionaires are: If the normal person with 5,000 dollars gives away all of their money except 10%, that leaves 500 dollars in their bank account left to pay rent, buy food, pay electric and water bills, and eventually pay off their loan tuition if that applies. They’re going to have trouble staying afloat until their next paycheck if even that.”
>Moondancer shudders, spooked.
>”But if the billionaire gives away all of their money except not 10%, but 1% of their funds, they’d still have at least 10 million dollars left. After having given much more to Africa in total anyway. You think they’re going to have trouble staying afloat?”
>The ceiling opens up above Moondancer and red pills start raining down from the sky.
>But the scene is interrupted bu the door being burst open.
>”BOW BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!” Trixie barges in carrying two barren pine trees in her arms.
>”What the fuck are you doing here?!” Moondancer stands up with fire in her eyes.
>”The wizard of the woods made a new friend!” Trixie announces. “The witch queen of the skinwalker succubi, Chrysali- wait, what?” Trixie trails off and looks to her side as if she was just given the wrong flashcard to read.
>There’s no one beside her, but yet the thought still came to her mind.
>”Piss off!” Moondancer rips her other outfit off and then the sweater she was wearing underneath to reveal a wrestling outfit.
>”Wait, hold on, Trixie needs to check something.” Trixie stops in her tracks trying to figure out if she’s actually dreaming or not.
>Little does she know, she is, and something in the woods just worked its way into her brain.
>Moondancer doesn’t care about any of this and gives Trixie the strongest punch in the face she possibly can.
>Trixie goes flying back outside as the maid from before seems to have disappeared into thin air.
>Moondancer angrily groans at the collapse of her dream that was going so well before seeing a dark figure approaching from the darkness outside where Trixie was thrown.
>But it’s not Trixie, it’s this super tall lady with glowing green eyes, dark turquoise hair and a long black tattered dress that drags across the ground behind her.
>Moondancer bravely doesn’t take a step back, figuring she can take this thing whatever it is.
>Distracted, Trixie stumbles to her feet as her brain tries to figure out if she’s dreaming or not.
>”It’s about time I found you.” A chilling voice suddenly comes out of the tall woman’s mouth. “I’ve been searching for a while for you.
>This mythical being takes a long step forward towards Moondancer, continuing to speak. Moondancer watches it approach her, unsure how to react to it.
>”You are one of the most important ones I’ve come across when you came to these woods.” The chilling voice continues. “My biggest challenge yet, both mentally and physically strong. Aside…” She suddenly turns her head to face the angry and stumbling Trixie who’s trying to sneak up from behind.
>”Who are you?” Groans Trixie as her ego starts to kick in and her eyes light up in anticipation of the attack she plans. “Do you have any idea who you’re toying with?!”
>The tall monster lady smirks wickedly and chuckles. “Do you?”
>Cold Steel The Hedgehog come racing from around the corner and zooms straight at the tall lady with green eyes, with a katana raised high.
>She points one finger up at him and holds him levitating in the air as he swings the blade quoting video game cutscene lines.
>Snaps her fingers and snaps his spine like Bane.
>Moondancer and Trixie witness the ugliest, bloodiest mess hit the floor. “You were saying?” The lady responds. “By the way, the name’s Chrysalis. Hope I’m not too edgy for you.”
>”That was seriously edgy.” Moondancer comments before remembering she’s dreaming. “Like, seriously overly edgy. You didn’t need to do that, c’mon.”
>”Silence and pay attention!” Chrysalis snaps back. “I will give you a choice.”
~
>Trixie’s eyes slowly open, not to complete darkness, but to a green glow.
>”The fuck…” Trixie opens her eyes a little more to find a face in that glow, grinning back down at her.
>Chrysalis’s hands hold up the back of Trixie’s head, cupping it in them.
>Trixie jolts up, taking Chrysalis by surprise by waking up due to an extra kick from the energy drink her body didn’t know it still had.
>Chrysalis seems to be speaking to someone else but somehow keeping eye contact with Trixie. “Your friend Wallflower has already decided to join us. And you need to help her by joining as well.”
>”Fuck out of here, cyka blyat!” Trixie punches and kicks, making Chrysalis fall back.
>Chrysalis instantly realizes that the jig is up for now, and immediately submerges back into the darkness of the night.
>Trixie starts sending little blasts of magical energy in all directions like a madwoman, hoping to hit the imaginary predator that’s still there.
>What the fuck did she just lead to Moondancer? She didn’t mean to do this.
>…
>Moondancer wakes back up in her bed with a shriek.
>She has no recollection of what day it is, no memory of what she was doing before she went to bed, and soon realizes that her leggings she went to bed in were pulled down a little.
>”I… wha….” She looks around the room to soon see Wallflower sitting upright in her bed, tight-lipped despite the ruckus just now.
>”What Just happened?” Moondancer slowly fades her mind back into the waking universe.
>”Nothing!” Wallflower quickly replies. “You scared me.”
~
>Days later.
>Chrysalis now made her name known, and it feels like she just now started existing in this universe where the college girls are as well.
>Now she slithers her way over to the biggest fish to fry; Trixie. Peers inside to find the two girls in their living room.
>”This drug is better, see? And the capitalists hate it!” Starlight pats Trixie on the shoulder after a long lecture about why she should never ever go back into those woods for as long as she lives.
>The entire room is filled with weed smoke, of course. And both of the girls are high as kites.
>Trixie, meanwhile, is on top of a stage, performing magic tricks to the people before her in the audience.
>”TRIXIE DEMANDS YOU TAKE HER SERIOUSLY RIGHT NOW!” She hollers. “Stop laughing at her great power!”
>The audience is on the TV screen just continues to laugh more and more.
>”STOP IT!” Trixie’s face grows as red as her eyes and the rolled up paper falls from her mouth to the floor. “Trixie said STOP IT!” She cutely stamps her feet on the floor, disturbing the tenants below trying to sleep.
>The audience on the screen keeps laughing, and then laugh harder as Dave Chappelle makes another joke about cancel culture.
>”There is nothing funny about the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie rages on as Starlight laughs her ass off in silence from behind.
>Wallflower and Moondancer have become more secluded in their dorm room ever since the weather has gotten colder.
>The shorter days have prompted more time for sleeping, and the two girl have done everything to take advantage of this.
>All that Moondancer has written in her book, the one that only Wallflower is allowed to see at this point, is starting to draw together an interconnected narrative about society that’s going to have governments scrambling over eachother to get their hands on it before too many eyes get to see its contents.
>Among all of the awkward moments they’re starting to have together, they begin to bond after all that’s happened.
>Best friends become more loyal when they have to keep quiet for eachother.
>Whenever Moondancer needs to go get food, Wallflower has to go do it for her lest Moondancer be seen by a cop or someone.
>It doesn’t even matter if a million years have gone by; Moondancer trusts nothing about the outside world.
>Her paranoia has only heightened after the incident in the woods. All of her suspicion has gravitated together and begun to spin rapidly like her pulsar of a mind.
>Every little detail counts.
>Every movement, sound, piece of potential evidence, all of it can play together in helping the authorities find out who really murdered that scumbag. Moondancer saw those crime shows.
>If the channels have no qualms regarding putting those kinds of details into those shows for everyone to learn, then there’s no telling what methods were chosen to remain hidden.
>Moondancer sits up in bed at night with this keeping her eyes open, and Wallflower is falling asleep without her guidance or protection.
>…
~
>When Wallflower opens her eyes, she’s wandering around inside of this bright white shopping mall with towering ceilings and red flags hanging fro, the sky windows above.
>It’s extremely luminous here, with the clear blue sky of mid afternoon greeting the girl from above, almost feels like heaven.
>There was something Wallflower vaguely recalls about being able to walk around with her eyes closed due to the intense brightness, but the dream has already diverted her focus onto the new route she’s taking.
>Now with her eyes open, she can sense the dangers hidden within the beautiful scenery as she passes it by.
>Something looking for open eyes among the more numerous closed ones.
>And everything in this shopping mall radiates with pristine nature.
>Vibrant with cleanliness in a neat and orderly fashion.
>So much space filled with clean surfaces to touch and potentially make impure, only guarded by what the eyes belong to.
>Wallflower looks down after realizing she walked inside from a walk in the woods.
>She turns around to address a quiet sound she heard, only to find dark marks on the reflective tile floor she was striding upon.
>She’s been tracking mud.
>Out of the corner of her eye emerges a tall figure, same color as the white surroundings with streaks on its face resembling the red flags.
>”I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” Wallflower realizes that this is the part where she has to fight this thing that’s appearing into view.
>It has four arms and what appears to be a vent for a mouth at the bottom of a long metallic mask, with wild glaring eyes bearing sharp elliptical pupils, almost a cross between robot and reptile.
>Dragging behind this thing is a long white cape.
>Immediately, this guardian can tell that Wallflower is going to put on little to no fight at all, even if that.
>But he has a duty to fulfill, and extends one of his lanky claw-like hands towards her.
>”I didn’t mean to.” Wallflower repeats, wishing for Moondancer’s company in this empty, barren shopping mall where the echoes of footsteps last for over a second each.
>”You have to stop Mary. And only Moondancer will be willing to help you with this.” This guardian insists before flicking his finger and sending a streak of light between Wallflower’s eyes.
>She was finished just like that, probably torn to pieces, probably just disintegrated. Regardless, she stood no chance against this thing in her dream.
>…
>Wallflower kicks against the inside of her covers in bed, only now realizing to the fullest extent that she was dreaming when she sees the murky outline of the dorm’s ceiling light above her to the side.
>Her heavy breathing attracts Moondancer’s attention.
>”Oh… h-hey…” Moondancer waits to see if Wallflower noticed that she’s still up since hours ago.
>”Ugh… oh my gosh… my dream…” Wallflower slowly recovers everything ,suddenly feeling a sensation of urgency erupt within her. “Moondancer?”
>”You uh, need the book again?” Moondancer reaches for where she keeps her book of recorded premonition dreams.
>Wallflower realizes that there’s no time for this when she realizes what night it is; October 30th. Every second counts.
>”We have to go.” Wallflower stumbles out of bed and damn near falls flat on her face.
>”Where are we going?”
>”Do you remember where Mary and Treehugger live?” Wallflower’s eyes communicate the gravity of the situation to Moondancer.
>”What’s going on?” Moondancer panics and looks around for her shoes.
>”I don’t know but we need to find Mary! Now!”
>Before one would know it, the two are bundled up and out the door.
>Ready for the next horrific event to go down, hopefully the last.
>…
>That one night before Halloween.
>For a lot of the people in this town, hunting season is probably over now that all the animals meant for hunting have surely gone into hibernation by now.
>That is, if they do so during this month.
>In the more rugged part of town has a few places where the guys who hunt go to entertain themselves.
>Strip clubs, bars, things like that.
>Really tough and hardened man here, many of whom are perfect for a certain thing that a certain witch in the woods needs done.
>But it would be unwise to go into those public areas where companion dogs can sense something wrong in the air and warn their armed owners that something’s up with that random person who’s totally not a supernatural being in disguise.
>…
>The front doors of the shady biker bar swing open, and in struts a wandering college girl named Mary.
>She doesn’t seem to give the slightest fuck about her extremely loose and low-cut top falling off of her chest to the point where her nipples themselves are pretty much holding it somewhat in place.
>All of the potential catches of the day turn their heads, whistles fill the room the the dismay of jealous girlfriends.
>Mary sits herself on one of the stools at the bar, and she says to the bartender “why the long face?”
>It’s some attempt at roleplaying one of those oversaturated “X walks into a bar” jokes, but no one is even paying attention.
>The bikers can see it in her eyes; she’s intoxicated and probably waltzed into their territory without realizing it.
>All of them gaze down at her chest in awe, wanting to buy her drinks and all that yadda yadda whatever.
>Mary doesn’t even need to say much coherently since no one’s processing it beyond “yeah this lady’s high as a kite”.
>Butch from the trailer park down the road asks her if she’s lost, to which Mary replies “heheh, I dunno. I don’t really feel lost. You guys seem nice.”
>”What’s yer name, miss?” Asks Butch as a couple of his friends stand behind Mary with the expressions of lions closing in on a steak that was tossed into the den. “Don’t think I’ve seen ya ‘round here.”
>”I’m a college student. Don’t worry, I’m old enough to drink.” Mary responds with a laugh.
>”That why you’re here?”
>”I’m gonna need to see some ID, miss.” The bartender’s been here long enough to know where this is going.
>”Yeah, I came to get crossfaded.” Mary leans back and forth dizzily on the bar stool. “Don’t worry, I have a weed permit too.” She pulls out her little wallet with both her ID card and medical marijuana pass or whatever you call it.
>”22 as of last May.” Comments the bartender as he looks at the ID.
>Some of the bikers almost cheer a little realizing she can stay.
>”You know uh, you’re kinda losin’ your top there.” One of the non-bikers comments from a nearby table.
>A biker walks over to him and splashes beer on the guy’s plaid shirt and khakis. “Whoops. Better go clean yourself up.” He assertively escorts him to the bathroom and away from the scene.
>”Nevermind him, you’re fine.” Butch assures Mary. “Oh, you’re daaaamn fine.”
>”It’s okay, I already know. I don’t really care.” Replies Mary, staring at Butch with her bloodshot eyes and the instantly recognizable smell of pot all over her.
>A few totally-not-harassment conversations take place as Mary gets a little drunk with the boys.
>If this were a better side of town, the bartender would have kicked these guys out. But that ain’t happening with these 1-percenters.
>The bartender gets busy with several other patrons in the meantime, only to soon find out that Mary went somewhere else in the building or maybe even outside.
>Before he even had a chance to get to the phone.
>Motorcycles can be heard revving up outside, and that’s all the bartender knows right now.
>…
>What better place for Butch and the friends he left with to take Mary to than the woods right around the corner from the bar?
>It’s already dark out and no one wants to come outside in this cold weather anyway, let alone the wooded areas no one’s really allowed to trespass into anyway.
>And here they come with Mary stumbling between hem, two of them holding her up by the arms after having made up some bullshit excuse to her to come to the woods where no one is around.
>Mary gleefully giggles as the bikers escorting her through the forest find a place to stop before they lose sight of the road where they parked their bikes.
>One of them holds her still from behind as Butch moves in and starts kissing her on the lips, feeling through her thin top her nipples erect from the cold, before yanking it all down entirely.
>This only causes Mary to giggle a little bit from the groping tickling her.
>”They sure as fuck don’t make ‘em like this around here.” Butch grunts as he undoes more and more of Mary’s clothes until she’s naked before him.
>Mary’s on her back before she even knows it, with Butch on top of her between her legs.
>She smiles and moans cheerfully with her own arousal matching that of the biker’s, only heightening the enthusiasm for the moment as they conclude that she actually loves this.
>”Who gets to go next?” One of Butch’s buddies asks while trying to contain his boner in his jeans.
>Butch barely hears him, only assuming it’s hypothermia that’s starting to make him dizzy, but it’s something far worse.
>He loses control of his body, but it doesn’t show, he continues as he was, bucking his hips between Mary’s thighs as his friends hold her in place.
>”He’s in the fuckin’ zone, man! Give him a minute.” Another biker says.
>Mary throws her head back in enjoyment as Butch ejaculates inside of her, not even pulling out or caring if she gets pregnant.
>It’s just sort of an unspoken agreement after a few greedy shoves that Earl is going next; he undoes his pants as Butch stumbles off to the side with a cigarette in his mouth.
>”Think you can last longer than him?” Mary teases him with a laugh, only encouraging him and the others even more.
>”I’ll try, little lady.” Earl gets himself into position as one of his friends turns to him.
>”Hey, Earl. What’s wrong with Butch?” Meryl points over to Butch who’s standing there with his arms spread out in a jarring T-pose.
>”Fuck off, man! I’m busy here!” Earl pushes him away as Butch starts breathing really heavily.
>”I think he’s more drunk than the rest of us.” Another one of the bikers observes as Butch looks like he’s about to collapse. “I’ll get him.”
>Butch is tended to as Earl goes to town on Mary, but notices himself loosing all of his energy right away but unable to stop.
>Something inside of him tells him to cry out for help, but Mary’s beautiful eyes stop him.
>He leans in and lock himself into a long kiss with her, and she wraps her arms around him as Butch falls to the ground.
>Earl barely processes any of this, and is the last one to hear Meryl shouting and hollering at him.
>”We gotta go! We gotta fucking go, man!” Meryl shakes his shoulder. “Hey! Are you listening to me? We need to get an ambulance!”
>Butch can be seen out of the corner of Earl’s eye, foaming at the mouth.
>Earl can’t pull out with Mary’s legs eagerly locked around his waist, and his altered instincts prompt him to continue.
>”What the matter with you?” Meryl tries to pull him away as another biker picks Butch up. “What the fuck, man?”
>But the other biker drops Butch and back away from the dark path of woods in front of him. “Who the fuck is there?!” He pulls out his pistol.
>”Hey!” Meryl jumps up to next to his friend and parrots him. “Who’s there? Show yourself, fucker!”
>Butch is dragged out of the way as the other two keep shouting into the woods and Earl loses control of himself with Mary on the ground, dreading the same fate as his ring leader.
>”Hey, man. You alright, man?” The biker who perched Butch up against a tree lightly slaps him on the face. “What the fuck… this can’t happen, man.”
>Butch’s eyes are mostly void of well, anything.
>He soon starts to shake uncontrollably as his friend slowly backs away.
>Meryl suddenly starts screaming, with the biker who was beside him having disappeared. “Hey, fuck this, man. I’m outta here!”
>He books it back towards the road for his bike, praying to god that he makes it.
>Earl falls onto his back as Butch stands back up.
>He looks up as Mary stands up as well, and then starts walking over to the last biker left.
>”The fuck is going on?” He shudders as he turns to Mary, then he freezes in place.
>She grabs him and shoves him to the ground, momentarily positioning herself on top of him to give him his turn.
>Earl can feel his body getting hotter and hotter, looking over to Butch for some sort of hint as to what’s happening to him.
>It’s too dark to see now; Meryl was the only one left with a flashlight.
~
>In the darkness, Chrysalis holds Mary in her arms and strokes her hair.
>”You’ve done well, my subject.” She says between deep kisses. “We’ll see how well those two sticks in the mud fare against what we sent for them.”
>”It felt so amazing…” Mary sighs. “Can you have them come back here after they’re done? I want to do it with the rest of them.”
>”I’ll make it their reward.” Promises Chrysalis. “A tad bit of motivation for them.”
>…
>On the side of the road are five motorcycles.
>One of them has a shotgun in one of the back compartments that hadn’t been taken into the woods
>They’ve been parked there for about 30 minutes. More like 45 minutes by now.
>Emerging from the woods are five figures… each of them dressed up in leather with menacing orange glows atop the shoulders.
>A couple of passing by teenagers notice the scene taking place when the light from the flames catches their eyes.
>Assuming it’s a cop of something, they stash their rolls of toilet paper into the backpack and plan out how they’re going to act all cool and not up to any mischief on gate night.
>But what they find walking in their direction is either better or worse depending on whether or not they are targets of interest.
>Five leather armored warriors of the underworld with eyes glowing orange brightly return to their bikes all at once, with only two targets of interest in mind.
>Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon. Especially Trixie Lulamoon.
>Their mistress already knows where the two foreign girls have made their refuge, and the address to the apartment is not necessary since they have a supernatural navigational sense to help them reach their destination through instinct alone.
>Upon turning on the engines, their heads transform into skulls, set ablaze by the malicious fire within their tortured hearts.
>The teenagers have already run away, doing quite the opposite as what they always imagined they’d do if they saw five Ghost Riders emerge out of the ominous blackness of the forest and start revving up their bikes.
>All the motorcycles are set ablaze as well, with the same flames that possessed their owners.
>Their loud growling travels across the town.
~
>It's the middle of the night, and Trixie and Starlight have already went off to bed sleeping with that figurative one eye open.
>Stoic expressions with closed eyes nearly peer over the covers as the dull hum of motorcycles is concealed by the wind outside; the windows closed due to the cold.
>Trixie happens to wake up through some sense of premonition; she awoke from a dream she can't remember, but realizes that she's still in her apartment with the whole world around her that could pose danger at any time.
>Her paranoia seems to spar up on its own this time, with her extra sense telling her something.
>She sits up and remembers specifically telling Starlight to not close the window, so she could practice getting used to the cold winter air that she's already used to but also hasn't somehow.
>Trixie growls, unflattered by how Starlight doesn't have faith in the toughness of The Great and Powerful Trixie.
>Everything that drew Trixie towards waking up fades away as she spitefully goes over to the window and opens it.
>The sound of it being opened immediately triggers Starlight's ears. "No, Trixie." Starlight groans, prepared to do this all night. "Save it for when you go to woods."
>"It is only for night." Complains Trixie.
>"It is COLD." Growls Starlight. "I want to sleep warm! Dumbass."
>"Trixie thinks it is too warm. She wants to sleep cold because she is strong."
>"Do you want to get kicked out?"
>"Yuo think the Trixie is scared of the cold?" Smirks Trixie.
>But that smirk disappears after the hum of the motorcycles flutters its way into the room through the open window.
>"The fuck?" Starlight listens to the motors cease.
>There is a slight sound of flickering flames that ceases with it.
>"What goes on out there?" Starlight whispers as quietly as she can. "Do you see anyone?" She turns her head to Trixie who is still angrily glaring at her.
>Trixie peers through the glass just instantly enough to see the remnant of someone moving around a corner away form her line of sight.
>”Stalkers.” Hisses Trixie with an angry grimace. “Wait… worse.” Her senses tell her something different.
>Outside grows quiet as the two dart around the rooms trying to hear if there’s someone outside.
>…
>And on the outside, silent footsteps draw nearer to the premises, creeping up to the windows while just out of sight.
>They can hear the two ladies inside of the house quickly walking around, clearly having knowledge that someone’s outside of their inhabitance.
>Staying still for a few seconds, they wait until they know they are at a point of entry too far away for someone to attack them while coming through to the inside.
>Less than a minute later, glass shatters in the laundry room, sprinkling all over the floor.
>”Trixie!” Starlight hollers as she trips over the corner of the bed. “Where are you?”
>Another window is broken somewhere, and heavy footsteps flood the whole place soon after.
>Starlight stumbles around a hallway looking for what she uses to defend herself. “Fucking capitalist pigs! Do yuo know who you’re fucking with?”
>”Where are you, comrade?” Trixie’s voice can be heard over the boot-intensifies footsteps from the bikers.
>”Your weapon!” Starlight yells to Trixie before she suddenly finds herself face-to face with one of the bikers.
>Doesn’t even remember how he got to standing right in front of her, but here he is towering over her, wielding a pistol in one hand and a crowbar in the other.
>And he says not a word, only swinging the crowbar at Starlight who instinctively dodges.
>She’s far enough away now for the gun to be more useful, and the biker fires a shot.
>It makes a hole in the wall next to Starlight, waking up the rest of the neighbors in the complex that weren’t already wondering what’s going on.
>Starlight scrambles to her feet but is then pushed to the floor as she tries to run back into the bedroom.
>Another biker appears next to the first and they both charge at Starlight as she squirms on the carpet towards the space under the bed. “Where ya goin’ lil lady?”
>She’s only halfway under when each of them grab one of her legs and pull her out from underneath, but halfway in was all she needed in order to grab Trixie’s AK-47.
>The bikers are ready to pick starlight up and pin her to the bed before the realize she’s pointing something at them, and jump back before she fires.
>”Fuck off!” Starlight get up onto her knees, having missed all her first couple of shots.
>The biker without a gun ducks behind the corner as the armed one points at Starlight again.
>Both of them startle leaping around the place firing at eachother, missing every shot.
>”What the fuck? I thought they weren’t armed!” The biker around the corner gripes as a third biker with a shotgun trudges past him with shotgun in hand.
>He stands in the doorway with legs spread, pointing the barrel at the corner where he saw Starlight’s head retreat behind the bed.
>”You take left, I’ll take right!” The biker with the pistol starts to maneuver around the bed.
>He makes it to the narrow aisle between the bed and the wall, only to find Starlight’s foot poking out from under the side of the bed.
>The biker suddenly feels a sharp pain in his own foot as a bullet rips through it from under the bed.
>He pulls his trigger and blows several holes through the ceiling, falling against the wall with his ankle shattered.
>Another gun similar to Starlight’s can be heard firing, followed by the bloodcurdling scream of an unseen man.
>”Get over here!” The shotgun biker calls to the other bikers, but they seem to be occupied with something else.
>The biker with the pistol jumps atop the bed to avoid getting hit. “Don’t come in here! She’s under the bed!”
>One of his friends walks out with gashes in his arm and neck, having been caught off guard opening the shower curtain only to get bullets ripping through the shower curtain and by extent himself.
>He falls to the floor as another biker behind him flees from where Trixie is.
>”They got rifles!” He yells. “They got rifles! Fucking get the shotgu-AH!” He didn’t think to turn around before Trixie put lead in his back.
>From under the bed, where the pistol man can’t see, Starlight pokes the barrel out from the hanging bedsheets at the distracted shotgun wielder.
>It takes her a second and a half to get her aim straight.
>”Ron, look out!” The biker facing the bed cries out before more shots ring out and the shotgun falls to the floor along with another body.
>Not time to pick the damn thing up, the other biker dodges and leaps his way out of Starlight’s line of fire, only to find himself and his buddy in trixie’s line of fire as she emerges into the living room.
>”BLYAT!” A hyperfocused Trixie screeches as she empties the clip on the two intruders.
>The multiple muffled 9-1-1 calls overlap from the neighbors through the walls.
>”Guys?!” The last biker alive finds himself trapped on top of the bed lest he get shot from underneath.
>Trixie emerges from the hallway, wanting nothing more than to open fire on the man on the bed but finds that she’s out of bullets.
>She curses under her breath as she ducks back behind the corner right before the pistol sounds off a couple more times before it makes a clicking sound.
>”I’m out, Starlight!” Trixie looks around for a knife or something to resort to.
>”Stay there!” Starlight pokes her head out once more. “You there?”
>”Yes!”
>”Catch!”
>The AK is thrown from under the bed and lands on the floor, closer to where Trixie is hiding than where the man on the bed can reach.
>Right when she hears in and realizes what happened, Trixie races out to grab her gun. “Starlight why the fuck did you do that?! Idiot!”
>The man on the bed seizes the opportunity and jumps off to grab it, but can’t make it over before Trixie picks the thing up.
>But she picks it up the wrong way, and he charges forth to tackle her before she can aim at him.
>Starlight crawls out from under the bed, watching as Trixie drops the AK while struggling with the man.
>She runs over and picks it up before he can grab it, and gets her aim straight once more as the man starts punching Trixie in the stomach as hard as he can.
>It’s hard to get a good shot with them struggling like this, and Starlight is afraid she’ll shoot her comrade by accident.
>But before Starlight can hope to get a good view, Trixie instantly grabs the man’s head by the sides and gives it a hard twist; she does it so quickly.
>There’s a sickening snapping sound, and he momentarily falls to the floor.
>Trixie’s eyes glow a faint purple once more, and she stands over the man while breathing heavily.
>She then envisions cop cars in her brain, realizing that there is no time for arguing.
>”Sorry! I wasn’t think-” Starlight starts off.
>”No time! Get gun! We must go!” Trixie wisely saves the inevitable argument over who hid who’s defense weapon where for later.
>In a matter of seconds, Trixie has a few necessities packed right before sirens can be heard outside.
>The door bursts open and the two bolt outside to retreat over to where Trixie’s trailer is.
>…
>A couple minutes after Trixie’s senses detected them, the police sirens reaches the ears of the neighbors who called 9-1-1.
>The two young women in their 20’s, Trixie and Starlight, are on their way down the backstreets and into the backwoods away and out of sight of any passerby as the entire apartment is flooded with barking SWAT team members, but only for a couple of minutes before they’re forced to evacuate and call the fire department.
>Trixie can see the whole scene taking place in her head, and she knows exactly where everyone is going to look.
>She and Starlight make their way through the town at night, trying to lug the things they packed as quickly as they can as distant police sirens in the night wind keep them on their toes.
>”They are going to know who we are!” Grunts Starlight with a tug on her giant briefcase. “They shall have FBI people everyWHERE! Taking fingerprints! Looking at living records!”
>Trixie giggles, not having anywhere near as much effort required to pull around her even heavier suitcase.
>”What is funny? This is serious, comrade!” Growls Starlight, soon noticing how easily Trixie can pull her suitcase around. “Wha…”
>”The Great and Powerful Trixie’s expanded brain had thought two steps ahead!” Trixie reveals.
>”What do you mean? What is this you speak of?” Starlight hears fire engine noises mix in with the distant police sirens.
>Trixie chuckles to herself again. “They will never find shit. You remember we were never in database, right?” Trixie refers to how she and Starlight got that apartment to begin with.
>”What do you mean? You said you make payment and it is official! And they were already sketchy of whole situation as was!”
>”Do not worry, Starlight, Trixie lied to you for your protection.” Proclaims Trixie, quietly as the two turn a corner into a more well lit street.
>”What do you mean PROTECTION?! That means they have more reason to be after us! Surely they will find out through evidence and track us to trailer! We should not be going there!”
>”Relax, you did not let Trixie explain the rest of her master plan.”
>Starlight squints. “What did you do…?”
>”Do not worry, Trixie gave them mental warning. Telepathy.”
>”WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!”
>”They will have no evidence. It is all destroyed soon.”
>Starlight reconsiders the fire engine noises she heard.
>…
>Back at the apartment, a towering inferno engulfs the entire building.
>Turbulent streams of water shoot from the fire hoses.
>Thick smoke tries to enter lungs through mouths and noses.
>Fire axes break down the doors.
>Frantic boots rush across the floors.
>Tenants panic and echo eachother’s screams.
>Time is running out before the collapse of support beams.
>Flames drive everything to escape to the curb.
>From rats to mice, people to cats, dogs and birds.
>And which of those are true and which of those are false?
>Well anyway, a growing crowd of people collects on the street as they watch their apartment building get devoured in a horrific blend of red, orange and yellow.
>”What the fuck happened?” One college student in his 20’s asks, having grabbed his computer just in time to save all of his hentai with a daki in his other arm that a couple of people are staring at.
>”Everyone stay back!” One of the firefighters herds the crowd as far away from the danger as possible.
>”Is this everyone?” Another asks.
>A head count is underway, and it’s starting to look hopeful that everyone’s okay as long as the couple of people who aren’t standing there were just out right now and weren’t home to get trapped inside.
>It /is/ really late at night.
>Trixie, safely far away from both the flames and the law, watches the scene take place, now too far away to tell if everyone made it out alive.
>But she can see the building itself in her vision.
>…
>Starlight follows Trixie into the trailer looking like she’s seen a ghost.
>Her stomach churns, hands shaking. “T-Trixie, what the fuck were you thinking?”
>”It is survival. They will not catch us. Promise. Like Trixie said, all evidence is burned.”
>”WHAT ABOUT THOSE PEOPLE?!” Starlight shakes Trixie by her shoulders. “If they knew the building was burning but couldn’t leave, or they were asleep, will they die?!”
>”It would be a necessary sacrifice.” Replies Trixie.
>”You’re fucked up, Trixie.”
>”For you, maybe.”
>Starlight loudly groans. “For fucks sake! Was making shit worse part of your plan?!”
>”Of course not!” Trixie stomps forward. “They will live! Trust Trixie!”
>Right as she says this, Trixie gets a vision of the whole building caving in with plumes of flames erupting from within.
>”Th…they’re fine…” Stammers Trixie.
>”Well congratulations, shit is fucked! And the more survivors there are means more witnesses anyway!” Starlight grabs the sides of her head. “What’s the next step of your master plan?!”
>”Calm the fuck down! They will live!” Trixie says, now more quietly. “The only real witnesses were the men who broke in to our place! And none of them survived. We are not on the records and all evidence burns now. We are safe here!”
>Trixie finally gets a vision where there are only five charred sets of remains inside of the burning rubble, and five motorcycles parked nearby. Everyone else is either in the parking lot or elsewhere in town.
>”Trixie got vision. They are all alive.”
>”This can’t be happening…” Starlight mutters, visibly upset.
>”Do not worry, they all survivors! Except the men we killed!” Assures Trixie. “And yet the fire rises.”
>”Are you stupid? They have nowhere to live now, you fucking idiot!”
>Trixie’s eyes flash a bright red glow. “Well that’s THEIR problem!”
>The only person awake in the closest trailer to earshot of the heated argument is too drunk to be disturbed by the noise.
~
>”This is where they live, right?” Asks Moondancer.
>”This is the house they’re rooming with other students at, yeah.” Wallflower looks up at the second floor window to examine the light that’s on.
>She almost sends Treehugger or Mary a text but can’t find a number on her phone and questions whether or not either of them have a phone.
>Wallflower and Moondancer camp outside of the house for several minutes sifting through their contact information, wondering why the hell everything looks different.
>Did someone mess with their phones? Did they even save the other girls’ numbers at any point in time? What the fuck is happening, here?
>”What about you? Did you find anything?”
>”No, nothing.”
>”Well how are we going to get in?”
>It soon becomes debated regarding whether or not this is important enough or not, but Wallflower seems insistent on this due to the fact that there’s this pressing urge that not only was with her as she woke up but also stuck with her up until this very moment.
>She convinces Moondancer to stay right outside the house for a little bit longer
>”Is Treehugger in danger too?”
>”I don’t know, my dream only mentioned Mary!” Repeats Wallflower.
>A soft set of footsteps approaches from behind.
>The two spin around at the sound, not having expected someone to be standing outside with them at this time of night.
>”Of fuck, uh, wait… Mary?” Wallflower starts off before backing away.
>Moondancer stands in place, watching Mary gradually approach them and emerge into the outside light over the front door.
>”Holy shit, what happened to you?” Wallflower walks towards Mary now, seeing that she has lots of dirt and smudges on her and her top is falling down.
>”Are you okay?” Moondancer becomes overwhelmed with concern.
>”Oh you know me… fun night.” Mary replies with a laugh. “Kinda sad you couldn’t join me, Wallflower.”
>Wallflower feels something make her spine tingle as Mary says this, as though something within her actually is let down that she couldn’t join whatever she partook in.
>But then Wallflower remembers the dream she had.
>”Do you remember what happened?” Wallflower asks the first question that comes to mind.
>”Yeah, but I had fun tonight. Don’t worry about me. C’mon, I’ll let you inside, you two must be freezing.” Mary clumsily searches for her keys.
>”We’re wearing sweaters, you’re the one who must be freezing.” Says Moondancer.
>Mary momentarily lets the other two girls in.
>The first thing Moondancer notices is that the house doesn’t feel that much warmer than the outside air.
>”Did you forget to turn the heat on in here or something?” Moondancer walks around as Wallflower sits on the couch.
>”I dunno, I just got here. Remember?” Mary rests herself at the foot of the stairs to the second floor.
>At the same time, a door on the second floor can be heard opening.
>”Hold on, I hear people down there.” A sheepish, frantic male voice says before a face can be seen peering around the dark corner to the hallways of bedrooms. “Yo, hello?”
>”It’s just me, Virgil.” Mary calls back up to her housemate. “And a couple of friends. Kay?”
>”Uh… alright.” Virgil contemplates how he’ll use this along with what his cartoon-addicted friend just told him over the internet to get out of his current situation.
>”Oh, so he lives here too?” Asks Moondancer.
>”Yeah.”
>”So you’re safe, then. And we can go.” Moondancer glances over to Wallflower on the couch.
>”Wait! Don’t go yet, uh…” Virgil peeks back to find that someone else is approaching him.
>”Where ya goin’ We were just getting to the fun part.” Treehugger’s voice smoothly calls to him.
>”I-I have to go. My friend on Discord said his whole apartment place burned down and he has nowhere to sleep.” He starts, but something about Treehugger’s current attire is keeping him from believing his own story even though it’s true.
>No one downstairs can see Treehugger, but Virgil can see her clearly.
>Moondancer happens to notice that the thermostat is indeed set to the heat being on, and yet it doesn’t seem to be working.
>Out of sudden curiosity, she puts a hand over one of the nearby vents as Virgil is chatting with Mary about whatever unimportant thing she doesn’t care about.
>There’s heat directly coming out of the vent, but the air is rather chilly in the place.
>Mary starts climbing the stairs, soon mimicking the kind of tone that Treehugger has in her voice whenever she speaks.
>Two steps down the stairs, Virgil sees Mary and stops in his tracks, trapped on the cramped stairway.
>”Come back to bed, dude.” Treehugger keeps repeating. “It’s okay, everyone’s nervous their first time.”
>Wallflower hears Treehugger says this, and each half of her reacts accordingly to it.
>”Ohohkay, we should go. See ya later!” Wallflower awkwardly bids goodbye as she walks towards the stairs with intention to go to the second floor before realizing she’s supposed to want to go out the front door. “Wait…”
>”Yeah whatever, Mary’s safe now, we can go.” Moondancer grabs Wallflower by the arm and drags her out the door.
>On the way out, she sees one of those b urself plaques people hang around in their houses saying “wherever there are bad forces, good forces fight them”.
>”Don’t leave me!” Virgil tries to sound like he’s just kidding not to be rude before Treehugger grabs his shoulders and Mary reaches for his pants.
>”Oh hey, tits out already?” Treehugger asks Mary.
>”Fun night.” Mary responds right before the front door shuts.
>There’s an unsettling glow coming from the windows as seen from the outside.
>…
>That last glow she saw through the windows is the only thing Wallflower can think about.
>Meanwhile, Moondancer jumps right back into bed the very second she enters the dorm room.
>”I’m not sure how I feel about this.” Wallflower sits at the foot of her bed, trembling and worrying too much to remember the specific details of the dream she had.
>Moondancer shuts her eyes in anticipation of sleep, wanting nothing more than that and nothing less than having been recognized by the wrong person out in public.
>The vision of that little ornamental plaque has burned itself into her memory enough for her to envision it as she tries to sleep.
>But she doesn’t even need to dream anything this time to remember the thing about the thermostat and feel the two factors combine to give birth to an urge to rush back to the student housing unit.
>Moondancer’s eyes shoot open.
>”Are you sure everything’s okay over there?” Wallflower’s concern for wanting to go back there mostly lies within wanting to see what was going on upstairs out of some misplaced interest.
>”We have to go back.” Moondancer sifts around for her old crucifix with a motive much different than Wallflower’s motive to go back. “Something’s wrong.”
>Wallflower has no qualms about getting her shoes back on.
>…
>It must have been at least an hour or two since they were last here, but it appears that no one bothered to come down and lock the front door from the inside when Wallflower and Moondancer left the premises.
>All the windows are completely dark too.
>The two walk right in and feel the air even colder than before; they can see their own breath in here.
>Upstairs, there is nothing but dead silence.
>”Where’s the light switch?” Asks Wallflower with her hand probing the surface of the wall.
>She immediately finds it herself, and flips the switch to find that it doesn’t work.
>”Is the power out?” She asks.
>Moondancer hesitates a few seconds before giving a grave answer. “…No…” She stares up the narrow flight of stairs into nothing but pitch blackness. “Worse.”
>With her hand tightly clutching the crucifix, Moondancer climbs one step at a time in a slow charge uphill.
>Wallflower follows, wishing she was in front.
>There is no way to see one’s way around on the second floor until the end of the single short hallway where a small window to the outside lets some moonlight in.
>”Mary?” Moondancer makes sure not to be too loud, but eventually finds herself trying the doorknobs to see if they’re unlocked or not.
>Every single door is unlocked, and there are no people at all in this house whatsoever.
>”Oh. So everyone just left!” Exclaims Wallflower.
>Suddenly, the smoke alarms let out a tiny noticeable beep and all of the lights switch back on.
>Moondancer was wrong, it really was just a power outage.
>But only a couple of seconds pass before Wallflower cries out.
>”WWAH!” She jumps back and nearly falls onto Moondancer.
>”What?! What happened?” Moondancer holds up the crucifix like a sword.
>Not even wallflower was sure of what she saw, but there was some figure just standing there right outside of one of the bedrooms that she could now see with the lights on.
>But a second glance over there confirms that there’s nothing there.
>Moondancer investigates the room Wallflower yelped in the direction of.
>She barges inside to find that the room has a particular smell of crotch to it.
>”Oh, they definitely… did things in here.” Moondancer can piece everything together after feeling how damp the bedsheets are and quickly wiping her hand off in disgust. “What did you see?” She returns to Wallflower in the hallway.
>”I don’t even know, I didn’t see it long enough. I swear there was something there.”
>”Like?”
>”I don’t remember what it looked like. It happened too fast.”
>”Maybe we should-” Moondancer starts before she’s interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. “…leave.”
>Wallflower almost looks like she wants to jump out of one of the windows before realizing she’s on the second floor.
>”What the fuck do we do?!” Wallflower whispers so quietly that she’s pretty much mouthing her words.
>A few flashbacks to Moondancer’s previous dreams happen, and Moondancer thinks about that plaque once again.
>Was it the good force of the bad force that brought her here? Something definitely wanted her to have those visions and be influenced by them.
>She remembers most of the places in her little book where she wrote these things.
>”Yeah, you can sleep here, dude. Sorry about your apartment.” Virgil’s voice sounds different than it sounded before.
>It sounds more confident, and quick to take initiative in a conversation.
>”Are you alright?” His friend asks.
>”Yeah, it’s all cool, fam.”
>Moondancer doesn’t know if they remember leaving the lights on or not.
>Is her position already given away?
>She’s already had enough of this, despite it being her fault she’s here this time.
>She drops the crucifix reaches into one of the bedroom closets and finds a metal baseball bat.
>Fuck this shit.
>Wallflower almost gets the urge to call out “hello” to someone downstairs.
>But nothing comes out despite her feeling this involuntary need to surrender herself to the situation.
>Meanwhile, something downstairs turns the TV on which starts playing one of the exorcism scenes from some cookie-cutter horror movie.
>The music and sound effects flood the student living space, and the crucifix lies on the carpet as Wallflower resists the urge to go near it.
>”Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a virgin forever.” Mary says to the friend holding his daki. “Virgil here can tell you all about how fun it is to lose it to someone.”
>”Anyone want something to drink?“ Treehugger goes right for the alcohol in the fridge, looking forward to a long night of continued fun.
>Something about their voices makes Wallflower shiver a little.
>She crosses her knees in an awkward stance, wondering why on earth she feels so funny right now. Is this destiny?
>With a quick spin, Wallflower turns around to find that Moondancer is gone.
>Looking back towards the stairs, she hears heavy footsteps going down them towards the talking she hears from the other college students.
>The TV continues to play the exorcism scene right as the priest and reciting verses from the bible or whatever they do during these things, who cares.
>Treehugger starts saying something else rather incoherent to Virgil’s homeless friend before trailing off as Moondancer appears before the group downstairs.
>Wallflower hears nothing but silence now.
>There’s a fifth person who happens to be downstairs, and he’s in the kitchen with his girlfriend, a sixth person downstairs.
>His girlfriend stares at Moondancer, having already been weirded out by how strange her boyfriend’s been acting on the way over here.
>What kind of house party is this supposed to be? Her boyfriend promised drinks and food but she doesn’t see anything on the kitchen or living room tables.
>She starts to question the trustworthiness of her boyfriend as Treehugger and Virgil step towards Moondancer.
>”Oh, did you turn the TV on?” Asks Treehugger. “I swear it was off when we walked in.”
>”You didn’t see Jack turn it on?” Jack’s confused girlfriend says from the kitchen, looking at the weird smile of Jack’s face before she sees him follow suit in stepping in the direction of Moondancer. “I just thought it would lighten the mood since Justin’s apartment burned down.”
>She then meets Mary face to face in a prolonged stare. “Hey, let’s sit down.” Says Mary, blocking her view of the others.
>The scene on the TV screen intensifies as the characters in the movie fight the demon with all of their bravery in their hearts, holding up the crucifix to the evil red light and outshining that light with their own white blinding light that would strike envy into the heart of a toothpaste commercial.
>Now Treehugger and Mary are cornering Jack’s girlfriend in the kitchen as Jack and Virgil move in towards Moondancer before she has a chance to leave the narrow stairwell and not be blocked from access to the front door.
>Justin just stands there, hoping no one notices his daki in the trash bag he used to conceal it as he holds it in his arms.
>He looks at the scared expression on Justin’s girlfriend’s face and then the glows in almost everyone else’s eyes.
>Everything about this moment rouses his instincts to prompt him to look for the window that looks the easiest to jump out of, since the two other guys have the path to the front door blocked from his angle as well.
>Listening to her tactical side, Moondancer backs her way back up the stairs, seeing how quickly this situation is devolving into something her stomach told her it would devolve into.
>”Wallflower?” She calls back up the stairs as she maintains her high ground over the two guys.
>”Yeah?” Wallflower peeks around the corner to find two pairs of glowing eyes heading towards a tactically retreating Moondancer.
>”Go into one of the rooms.”
>Wallflower now gets a strange feeling from the glowing eyes that meet hers, as if they’re speaking to her.
>The name “Chrysalis” soon starts to ring over and over again in her head.
>And she suddenly wants to stay at the top of the stairs so Moondancer has nowhere left to back into, as if she’s supposed to let those guys catch up to Moondancer.
>This is supposed to happen, something inside of Wallflower wills it.
>Both she and Moondancer can hear sounds coming from the kitchen.
>Nothing can be seen from the stairs, but Jack’s girlfriend starts to shriek as pots and pans can be hears being knocked around the place in an unseen struggle.
>”C’mere, there’s nothing to be afraid of!” Treehugger asserts to her. “C’mere, c’mere.”
>Justin is the only one who can see what’s going on, getting flashbacks to hentai comics he saw on the web and unsure of how the fuck to react to this kind of stuff in real life because of what his mental training has told him to do about it.
>Not even as she starts calling for help does Justin budge, and he only stand there in disbelief as it all happens before his eyes.
>”Justin, fucking help me! JUSTIN!” The cries grow more frantic as the voice’s sound from the kitchen is deliberately kept pinned in one corner.
>Moondancer can’t even imagine what Mary and Treehugger are doing.
>”Whacha doin’ with that?” Jack asks Moondancer, now ahead of Virgil on the stairs. “Something wrong?”
>Holding the bat’s fuzzy sweatband-bound handle, Moondancer stays stern and silent, ready to home-run this dude’s head right off of his shoulders.
>Virgil, the physically weaker of the two possessed guys, starts to undo the front of his pants in anticipation.
>”Don’t worry, Jill. You’ll love it in a minute or two.” Jack calls down to his girlfriend. “My bro and I got one up here.”
>The struggle in the kitchen continues, with the sink’s faucet being knocked on and running water accompanying Jill’s terrified whimpering.
>”C’mon, you can’t say you don’t absolutely love that.” Treehugger’s voice insists.
>Jill’s voice becomes muffled in Mary’s mouth.
>”Wallflower what the fuck are you doing? Move!” Moondancer is at the second last step now, with the two guys just three steps below her.
>Wallflower crosses her legs again as she bites her lip, wanting to experience from these two guys what Jill is experiencing from the other two girls.
>Jack decides that his patience has run out, and he rushes up the last couple of steps.
>Moondancer forcefully pushes Wallflower back, knocking her against the wall with her brute strength.
>Like a Spartan Hoplite at Thermopylae, she strikes Jack across the side of the head with the bat full force before he gets any elbow room to do anything himself.
>His hands hit the walls of the narrow stairway.
>”Wallflower go now!” Moondancer shouts.
>The scene on the TV shows the demons leaving the body of the victim at the end of the exorcism as the kitchen has demons entering the body of a new victim.
>Jack seems unaffected by the baseball bat blow to the head and persists up the stairs.
>Moondancer forces him to lose his balance by kicking him down into Virgil, sending them tumbling to the bottom of the flight of stairs.
>And this happens right as Justin was taking the only chance he had to get to the front door while it wasn’t blocked.
>But Justin makes it outside, having left his daki behind, and flees to the street.
>But something lunges from one of the bushes right as he runs by, and it tackles him to the grass on the other side of the street as the noises inside the house continue.
>Virgil instinctively shuts the front door as Jack goes to keep his girlfriend from escaping Mary’s increasingly lewd embrace.
>Moondancer hears ruckus downstairs as she waits for Justin to come back in or something.
>The music from the TV’s movie goes on, and Virgil now waits at the bottom of the stairs for one of the girls on the second floor to come “join the fun” on the first floor, knowing there’s no way for either of them to escape the second floor without breaking a leg or something.
>Moondancer mentally goes over the fact that she’s in the exact same position she was in when this bullshit started.
>In less than a minute, she stomps down the stairs without care regarding whether Virgil sees her or not.
>The kitchen is now silent aside a few instances of sickening kissing noises.
>Jack turns around as Virgil lunges towards Moondancer.
>But Virgil goes down in one swing, and loses a few teeth to the floor.
>The front door opens and Justin comes barging in as Jack rushes towards Moondancer from the other side.
>Wallflower can hear the violence downstairs taking place as Moondancer puts the noises of domestic abuse to shame.
>”The power of Christ compels you, motherfucker!” She shouts at the top of her lungs are the bat bludgeons its targets and breaks bones.
>The TV screen is smashed, holes are made in the walls, Jack lies motionless on the floor, Mary and Treehugger have disappeared, and so on.
>Justin barely recognizes his daki lying next to him atop the dirty tiles.
>But his old self barely reaches for it before Moondancer’s shoe stomps on his arm.
>Moondancer barely even realizes what she just did, and only comes down from her trance-like state as Wallflower appears in her line of sight.
>It was all happening so slowly, and then it quick out of nowhere and was suddenly over in a flash.
>Moondancer knocked a bunch of people unconscious, without realizing they could have died with how hard she hit them.
>She didn’t even realize it was this serious until just now.
>”I… oh fuck. Oh FUCK.” She drops the bat and stumbles to the front door.
>Wallflower didn’t realize she picked up the crucifix until she sees herself holding it in her hand.
>”What the fuck happened?” Asks Wallflower, looking away from the disturbing aftermath.
>”I… I don’t remember.” Moondancer confesses, haphazardly opening the front door and slipping out into the night thinking she’s already hearing police sirens.
>”Is everything alright over there?” A middle aged lady in a bathrobe looks out the window of her house at the person she can’t see clearly in the dark.
>”We have to go now!” Moondancer is careful not to say Wallflower’s name now that people can hear her talking.
>The two have left the premises in under a minute.
>Now they’re back to their dorm; that’s how fast they hustled away from the crime scene before the cops had a chance to flash the fuckin lights.
>Moondancer made damn sure of it.
~
>The next day, Halloween, sees the local news releasing a rather troubling story.
>4 college students severely clubbed by a baseball bat with no fingerprints left over. All of them are alive but very badly injured, one of them in critical condition in the hospital.
>And two are missing.
>Moondancer could automatically tell which story pertained to what she did as she looked it up online.
>It makes her double check to make sure the door is locked despite that not mattering if the cops come.
>She stays right in bed, not wanting to leave the covers so she’s sure that she’s not starting any kind of trouble.
>Mary and Treehugger got away, and Moondancer has no idea if they will know or tell anyone what happened a couple of minutes after she picked up that damn baseball bat.
>Moondancer thought this was over, but now she just got herself further up the creek without a paddle before she had a chance to realize it.
>She is entirely convinced that something is controlling her and Wallflower, and that it not only has to do with what happened in the woods, but what she wrote in her book all this time.
~
>There’s some early Halloween parties going on in the nearby dorms.
>The college students can’t help but have their fun early before it’s even the weekend; barely any of them know about the news story.
>But in Moondancer’s mind, all of them know, and they’ll instantly recognize her at first glance.
>She still stays in bed as the music blasts next door, above the ceiling and below the floor.
>Every little sound is something that can potentially blow her cover and change her life for the worse in an instant.
>…
>Wallflower herself already hates hearing other people having fun from her dorm room. It’s almost tantalizing, though it would be had she even had the slightest chance at any point to go and join them in their grand moments of festivities.
>Dressing up in costumes on Halloween night, drinking, having fun together… but Wallflower actually decides that it’s fine that she’s not with anyone this time.
>And Moondancer especially feels this.
>Every tiny little breeze outside is a cop siren inside of the sinister howling of the wind.
>Beer and wine bottles breaking are the cackling of witches, frat boys chanting are warlocks.
>Ghosts of their ashamed ancestors haunt the walls of these cursed dorms within the walls of which unspeakable things take place.
>Unspeakable college student stuff.
>Unthinkable fetishes and hormones running rampant and rancid in the rooms all around the sole dark room in the dorm building where Wallflower and Moondancer try to sleep their problems away on Halloween night.
>The best thing to do in the midst of this is lay low.
>The scariest thing in the world is human nature.
>Greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, sloth, pride, envy…
>Humans turn on eachother, they lie, they fuck, they kill, they steal, they turn their backs to god if not their own godless morality that dwelled within them before their heart shrunk for whatever reason.
>Politicians put on their vote-vision glasses, billionaires hold up their wine glasses, and even the poor riddle themselves with sin, especially on some college campuses on Halloween night.
>Everything Moondancer hates about society can be summarized in what these people do for fun, everything they love that she hates.
>And it roars from all directions, asserting its dominance in this modern world that Moondancer could never hope to change or even survive as the law may or may not be looking for her at this very moment.
>All because of something she doesn’t even see as her fault despite it being solely sprouted from her own actions.
>The horrible seed of what she’s done germinates within her guilty heart; she did those things, and hiding away in silence can only feel comfortable for so long.
>As long as she stays under the covers with her eyes shut and the lights off, nothing can get her. Right?
>Right?
>Her past actions can’t catch up to her, and the forces of what keeps everyone dumbed down in society will not have prevailed in this unseen, unknown battle that only Moondancer can understand.
>Is it a battle against herself? It only feels partially like that.
>What’s been controlling her and how can she stop it from controlling her life?
>The Halloween party music rages on as Moondancer sulks in her greatest fear of all; succumbing to society and never getting her life the way she wants it.
>And dying with unrealized dreams that will haunt her tombstone for all eternity or at longest until the sun inevitably obliterates the Earth.
~
>The next couple of days after Halloween is over finally see some peace and quiet throughout the town.
>No apartment fires, no house violence, just people chilling around the downtown shops or going to work or whatever they have to do each day.
>And Moondancer forces herself to imagine this in full detail to calm herself down.
>Everyone has their own lives they’re trapped in to worry about instead of all the things she’s done. There’s no way she’s drawing any attention when she’s hiding away in her room sleeping and not bothering anyone.
>She’s not bothering anyone and no one is bothering her.
>Wallflower continues her video game quests when she’s away, grateful that it’s finally getting really cold so her computer doesn’t overheat whenever she’s gaming or shitposting online.
>Maybe she’ll do something special with her worried friend after it gets warm again to celebrate both of their 20th birthdays at once since their birthdays are so close.
>But Moondancer is too nervous to join her, not even wanting the take the chance of someone on the internet recognize her through some nonsensical logic that they not only knew who she is at first but would also be able to recognize her just because she knows that it’s her saying something somewhere simply typing on her keyboard.
>She knows how shitty her luck could be if those unseen, undetectable forces do their work once more. She just knows it.
>And there’s no way she can prove it wasn’t all her fault because it was solely her own actions that led to the things that happened.
>With that, she drifts away into the dream world after setting her alarm as Wallflower doesn’t need to worry about trying not to make noise tat would wake her up because she’s so good at being quiet anyway.
>…
>Moondancer finds herself back at that house she was at when she beat the living daylight out of those sheep who didn’t see what she sees.
>But now it’s daytime, and it feels familiar to her as though she lives there.
>She looks into the hallways closet and recognizes a jacket she owns; okay so she actually does live here.
>With a few minutes going by, Moondancer slowly walks around in the house, wondering if Wallflower lives here too.
>She might as well since they would need to split the bills together, that’s the only way that would make sense.
>Who else would she even live with?
>But then again, are there more bills to pay when living in an on-campus dorm? There’s no easy way of telling since Moondancer’s brain is wandering into nothingness right now in the midst of her dream.
>Beams of sunlight pierce through the slightly musty glass of the windows onto the carpet of the upstairs hallway.
>Moondancer senses that this room right here is her bedroom, and she opens the door to find her own bed right there in the center of the room; a very odd place to have her bed.
>She almost wants to go to sleep on account of her feeling so tired at the moment, and she’s not aware of herself being asleep, so the possibility of inception is not among her worries at the moment.
>But she forgets about going to bed within the minute anyway.
>So, how long has she been living here again? This place isn’t haunted, is it?
>Moondancer picks up her double-sided bass drum that’s used in marching bands and starts hitting it with mallets to try and bring any spirits out, just in case this place is haunted.
>If it were, it would be here own responsibility to make sure the ghosts are out and away from the tenants living here.
>Poltergeist insurance isn’t a thing yet, is it?
>Nothing around here seems to appear as Moondancer continues to beat the drum, and she’s confident that she and Wallflower are safe.
>She gets so excited to tell Wallflower the news of their spiritual freedom that she decides to go to the kitchen and make celebratory pancakes.
>The next thing moondancer knows, she’s stirring a massive bowl of batter.
>The entire dream becomes this overly sunny and happy scene where there’s cheerful upbeat music playing as Moondancer hums to herself stirring the fuck out of that bowl of pancake batter.
>Wallflower is outside tending to her hobby of gardening, planting flowers into the ground.
>But they look a little weird, like they’re rotten flowers that deeply contrast the celebratory scene of happy go-lucky purity.
>They look dark and discolored, as though they’re… evil?
>But Wallflower doesn’t seem to notice, planting them as thought they’re not out of place for this setting.
>They’re not bright green like the grass or calming blue like the cloud spotted sky.
>And they could have only come from something involving Wallflower in real life that Moondancer must have overlooked or just completely missed entirely without any hope of noticing, because it’s in these flowers and seeps into the ground.
>Anyway, Moondancer has completely cleared out the inside of the house of all evil, beating it away with her drum.
>Something appears to be killing the grass around where Wallflower is planting things, but she doesn’t seem to notice or rather just not care because she’s tending to her passion out in the garden.
>Moondancer is the first to take note of it, calling out to Wallflower.
>As she plants, Wallflower hears a voice calling out to her, saying what sounds like her name, but it’s too distorted to confirm this.
>She continues gardening, trying to ignore any negative thoughts, distracting herself with her passion.
>The grass under her knees feels a little weird, a bit more stiff than before.
>Wallflower takes one look down to find that the grass is drying rapidly, and starting to stand straight up as though suffering from rigor mortis.
>She starts to feel uneasy, but her mind tells her to go back to her gardening that has been distracting her from negative thoughts.
>She continues planting flowers as a way of ignoring anything bad happening, hoping everything else will just go away, but she starts to notice that the flowers look a little off.
>And then she hears the voice again, and it must be something that’s trying to distract her from something she really cares about.
>Wallflower was doing perfectly fine before that voice started up, it’s trying to break its way into her moment.
>She has to keep it out so it doesn’t kill any more of the grass or make and of the flowers completely die before Wallflower has a chance to plant them into the ground and give them the supply of water soil and sunlight they need to flourish later on.
>But the grass is so uncomfortable to rest herself on, even if she tries sitting down instead of kneeling.
>If actually feels like it’s getting worse once she sits, like it’s trying to jab into her like hundreds of little daggers.
>Wallflower can’t get into a comfortable position, now unable to ignore the voice calling her name.
>She looks over to the house she’s behind to see Moondancer in one of the windows, cupping her hands at the side of her mouth and calling her name.
>She listens a little closer, trying to hear what else she’s saying.
>”Run! Wallflower, get out of there!” It finally becomes coherent enough to decipher.
>Wallflower starts looking around, trying to figure out if she should listen to Moondancer or not.
>The flowers in the dirt start looking worse and worse until Wallflower gets too afraid to even look at them anymore.
>She’s getting clumsy with her hands, hardly able to pile the soil onto the bases of the flowers properly with her shaking hands.
>Sweat trickles down her brow, fear dries up her mouth.
>Wallflower’s whole body starts to feel limp, like it’s welcoming something underneath the surface of the ground it’s sitting on.
>A couple of roots Wallflower didn’t see before have emerged from the dirt; why are they moving?
>She’s stopped doing what she was doing but only because her body has gotten so accepting of its fatigue.
>Moondancer can still be seen through the window, looking like she’s trying to smash the glass in order to go and rescue Wallflower.
>Each exhausted breath that comes out of Wallflower seems to make the increasingly nimble roots slither around faster.
>Wallflower finds too much difficulty in trying to move out of the way, stumbling and falling as they catch up to her.
>From the inside, Moondancer is trying to break the window with a toaster, but the glass consistently heals itself with each series of cracks Moondancer makes with the metal object.
>The moment only becomes more and more desperate as the extremities from underground only shoot out into the open in larger quantities, now with the thickness of a garden hose.
>Some circle around Wallflower as others wrap onto her shoes.
>She falls to her side again after trying to stand up, and then again after she tries to rise to her knees.
>A sudden chuckle draws her attention back to where the garden used to be.
>Now someone’s standing there.
>”Wallflower, get out!” Moondancer keeps repeating despite it being far too late.
>It seems that Wallflower already knows who this is, as her mind has already been informed and reminded by something in the past.
>Chrysalis looms over her with her own towering height as the sky behind her grows darker.
>Those green glowing eyes brighten, and the tentacle-like roots multiply into many more dozens of themselves.
>From the house, there is a loud banging and cracking noise, and the outer wall itself, siding and all, starts to bend outwards with splintering breaks in the wood.
>Chrysalis doesn’t seem happy about this, and sends one of the roots to go and barricade the hole Moondancer is making to escape the house.
>The ax rams through the wall entirely before the root can slither over there, and Moondancer uses her strength to kick the rest of the wall open enough to force her way through.
>She sees a huge root with the thickness of a telephone pole heading her way, and listens to her very first reflexive instinct.
>Takes a few swings at it immediately, hitting it on the third try and causing it to squirm away in panic.
>But Moondancer follows it and swings again even harder, jutting the blade into the thing with enough force to leave a deep gash.
>On the other side of the ax blade is a pickaxe, which almost impales Moondancer’s face after she pulls the ax side of her weapon out of the massive living root.
>Luckily she closely missed herself.
>Swings again, misses. Swings again, hits.
>But the root was already retreating, but Moondancer doesn’t care. She chases it down on her way to Wallflower.
>Gives it a few more heavy blows with the blade and the root can barely squirm around properly after being hacked up this badly; it moves a lot more slowly with fluids leaking out of its wounds.
>Moondancer flips her weapon around and drives the pickaxe directly into the extremity, and makes it all the way through to its other side.
>More blows like this and the root lies dead on the grass, shriveling up.
>However, the rest of the roots detach its fallen counterpart from the rest of their pack before the quick decay can spread to the rest of them, like cutting off a finger to save the rest of the hand.
>”Moondancer get the fuck over here and help me!” Wallflower weakly wrestles against the three or four smaller roots grabbing her by the wrists and ankles.
>Moondancer jumps over and chops away at the smaller roots from close to their roots on the ground, delivering blows so hard that she not only cleanly separates them on the first try each time but sends dirt flying with each downward swing.
>One of them coils around Moondancer’s weapon and pulls it to the side as more sprout from the ground.
>”It’s no use!” Wallflower blurts, her voice sounding different. “Give up! Let it take me!”
>But she says this right as all of the other tendrils are retreating anyway to heal, and Chrysalis’s fingers extend into the dirt shooting some sort of light into it.
>More roots come up from the dirt in the next few seconds, and the one around the ax releases its grip.
>Wallflower shakes her head rapidly and stands up. “Moondancer, help me!”
>Moondancer swings harder and harder, only now realizing how woefully unprepared Wallflower is.
>Some roots retreat to the soil, and others stay above it to rot away after Moondancer’s ax take their life away.
>She’s not resting until they’re all gone, having been sick of this shit for far too long.
>Chrysalis’s hands are now back to semi-normal, and she points one elongated finger at Moondancer with her evil grin transforming into a frown.
>”You are stronger than I thought.” Chrysalis declares in her chilling tone. “I’ll take you first.”
>It was only now that Moondancer realizes that this was only so easy because this thing’s focus was on taking Wallflower.
>But Moondancer’s absence did not last, and the plan was foiled. So now, there’s been a change in plans.
>Wallflower is completely left alone while dozens more thicker roots come up out of the ground to attack Moondancer.
>Meanwhile, she slowly starts to realize that this is a dream.
>”You wanna start some shit?! Okay.” Moondancer is already swinging her ax at them all, intending to do as much damage as possible before they have any chance to restrain her.
>Wallflower lies on the ground, not making any effort to retreat as Moondancer fights off the tentacle roots all by herself.
>They strike with insistent speed, some of them grabbing hold of Moondancer’s legs before she severs them from their pack.
>Now Moondancer can obviously tell that this is just a dream, but she still needs to make the mental connection that she can become lucid and make anything happen that she wants to happen.
>The roots strike in larger numbers and grab the weapon Moondancer is holding once more, this time more than one of them coiling around it from multiple angles.
>She can’t swing it anymore, and a couple of the roots freely wrap themselves around her legs.
>”Fuck you!” Moondancer growls as she tries to break free, but only finds her weapon being pulled away from her grasp.
>Wallflower stays on the grass, not wanting to get involved in what she’s witnessing because there’s something she really… likes about it.
>It’s almost mesmerizing to her, just this instance alone.
>Why would someone want to fight something like this? This could be beautiful.
>She continues to watch Moondancer struggle with the roots, as Moondancer gradually sees her realm of possibilities increase when she discovers her lucidity.
>Chrysalis isn’t struggling, however, she’s easily wrapping her extremities around Moondancer’s body as Wallflower watches, enjoying these kinds of things just as it was intended by Chrysalis herself.
>”Do you know me yet? My name is Chrysalis.” Hisses Chrysalis. “Well if you don’t, you’re about to. You’ll love this in a couple of minutes.” She says something Moondancer vaguely remembers from real life.
>Moondancer struggles with the roots grappling themselves around her, calling for Wallflower to help her already.
>She looks down.
>Wallflower is starting to drool and undo the front of her jeans.
>”What the fuck, no!” Moondancer feels the tentacle roots begin to slide around all over her and try to find a way under her clothes.
>”I see you got a lot going on under there.” Chrysalis leans in a little closer. “Let’s see what I can do with it.”
>”Go fuck yourself.” Snarls Moondancer, tensing her muscles and growling in her breath. “Because you’re not gonna fuck me.”
>Her lucidity fully kicks into gear, and Moondancer makes a pair of revolvers appear into her hands.
>The tentacles around her wrists make it hard to angle the barrels to aim correctly, but Moondancer manages anyway, and fires a bullet directly into the front of Chrysalis’s throat.
>Chrysalis, surprised and in pain, releases her as her neck heals, but Moondancer pulls out a gatling gun from behind her back and automatically starts unloading endless lead into everything in sight that isn’t Wallflower.
>”Okay fuck it, you’re waking up now.” Chrysalis snaps her fingers.
~
>And just like that, Moondancer jolts awake.
>Her own breathing is too loud to hear it at first, but Moondancer soon hears Wallflower desperately whimpering in her bed on her side of the room.
>Something’s telling her they’re having the same dream, and that same thing tells her that she needs to wake Wallflower up in next 2 seconds and not a jiffy more.
~
>…
>Trixie and Starlight barely at all think about the drama that must have been going on with those other two girls they keep forgetting the names of.
>Their own story keeps distracting them; did anyone die?
>Mostly Starlight is wondering this since Trixie didn’t care enough to say anything too official yet, since she’s still getting used to her new abilities.
>And Starlight is the only one who’s skeptical about wanting to go to the celebration for the Day of the Dead that Trixie wanted to check out.
>There was some old textbook that Trixie had under her bed, it talked about spiritual stuff.
>There’s no telling what part exactly Trixie read from, but she got the bright idea to try and find out if necromancy can become a real thing in real life.
>And now here they are with invitations from a classmate in hand, wandering around people who came to celebrate their family and other loved ones.
>You know how some people put on makeup for Day of the Dead?
>Trixie thought she was going to a circus or a carnival, apparently. Starlight naïvely followed suit, literally, wearing tuxedos with her longtime comrade.
>”You never know, comrade, necromancy may come in handy if one of us gets killed.” Trixie whispers quietly enough to not spook too many people as though it’s two days ago.
>”This doesn’t make sense.” Starlight keeps thinking back to the apartment fire that happened, still unsure if everyone survived. “I do not want to be in situation where we could die anyway! Stop being crazy! You stupid bitch!”
>Surely the news would have displayed the death toll, but she doesn’t want to trust them darn western news networks just yet.
>”Why are you doing this?” Starlight asks the question her heart knows the answer to.
>”The Great and Powerful Trixie must expand her abilities.” Trixie starts to trot around in the red tuxedo, looking for anyone mourning over a lost loved one.
>They would likely be trying to contact the dead.
>The more the party goes on, the more obvious it becomes why Trixie wanted anything to do with here in the first place.
>She wants to undo her fuckup that, in her mind, probably happened in the worst way anyway.
>People must have died in that fire, and Trixie wants to see if she can bring them back despite the possibility of their bodies being completely charred “life”sized beef jerky strips that are far from boneless.
>Make no mistake, this is what’s going on in both of their heads. And the guilt almost makes them trip over their own feet.
>Starlight can’t see what Trixie thinks she’ll accomplish.
>Trixie can’t hear what Starlight means when she tells her this.
>Starlight can’t taste the wine with her appetite lost.
>Trixie can’t feel calm until she knows her backup plan of bringing people back to life is sturdy.
>Both of the girls can smell the blood of rotting corpses on their hands.
>Man oh man is it hard striking up some conversation with these people.
>Better not talk about a recent bonfire someone had, or how well-cooked they like their steak.
>The best thing Starlight can do is stand in a corner as Trixie starts asking people to tell her stories about the relatives they’re celebrating today.
>She looks away and cringes, trying to find escape in how the stars look tonight.
>The guests would be angrily looking at her anyway; Starlight is starting to think that she didn’t use the right face paint design for this event.
>”So did your lost brother believe in ghost?” Trixie asks one of the fellow college students she’s totally one of. “Do he believe in the Jesus?”
>The peer just blankly stares back at Trixie, trying to figure out the nature of what she was just asked by this nosy stranger.
>Trixie’s face paint looks really out of place. Almost an insult.
>Is this one of those inconsiderate mob members that got her brother killed a couple of years ago? Why is Trixie so interested in him?
>Why does she talk like one of those people too?
>”In Soviet Winter, many in my relative’s land had to face possibility of afterlife. There was no way of bringing so many people back. Not enough food, would might as well keep the dead from coming back so there’s less people to feed.”
>”I’m sorry, what?!” The classmate feels offended in every last bone in her body.
>”How connected are you to your brother?” Trixie continues.
>”Can… can I please enjoy my punch, please?”
>The punch in the plastic cup is almost spilling over the edge due to a tilt from lack of attention.
>Trixie is the first to hear the stream of liquid hit the ground.
>”Hah, almost thought someone was pissing at first.” Trixie brings up. “Like in gulag.”
>The other student just walks away.
>Starlight’s eyes widen as she hears this exchange take place.
>”But Trixie is aware that they do not have those in public in Capitalism society.”
>”Stop!” One of the other girl’s friends steps in. “Please, we just wanna have a good time.”
>”Alright, come on now, come on.” Starlight has no other choice but to try and diffuse the situation.
>”Please leave us alone.” Someone says.
>The girls can’t even tell who said it anymore. Starlight just wants to leave and Trixie just wants to figure out how she can bring the fire victims back to life so she won’t have capitalist police trying to tase her.
>Not what she needs.
>It gets to the point where she figures that people in this country just get rowdy and assertive at parties; she heard about this before coming here.
>Like they’re trying to outdo how the people where she’s from act at festivities, some sort of competition the capitalists want to win.
>”Well what’s the point of party if you do not want to talk about loved ones? Trixie has loved ones too!” Trixie almost wants to start a shouting match with these people.
>”Let us go sit down, comrade.” Starlight urges Trixie, realizing that clown makeup probably wasn’t the best option.
>”Do you have any idea who I am?!” Trixie’s voice starts to change once more as the magic begins to flow through her veins.
>Her identity is lost within what she’s feeling, the situation is lost within what she wants to say.
>”I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, GRAND WIZARD OF THE WOODS, AND SOON TO BE NECROMANCER!” She hollers into the night.
>Now… there’s a problem.
>”We must leave.” Starlight shivers, ready to just leave Trixie on her own.
>A couple of the staff members start walking over towards Trixie, having already been inching towards the couple of girls wearing clown-face makeup at the Day of the Dead party.
>”Your society does not know magic as well as I do!” Asserts Trixie. “I have amazing powers of observation you would only dream of, worm!”
>Starlight is already in the parking lot.
>”Miss, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” A burly security guard looking guy says with his meaty arms crossed. “You’re being really insensitive.”
>”So that’s what is has come to, huh?”
>Trixie raises her hand and draws energy to the tip of her finger.
>She’s trying to gather the necromancy energy of the festival to her being, raising eyebrows with the light that appears atop her fingernail.
>”BEHOLD!” Blares Trixie. “I have the power to revive those you have lost if you will let me! Instead of abandoning me and treating me like trash!”
>”What the fuck are you talking about? What are you doing?” Another lady asks, extremely nervous now.
>”You are in the presence of an ascended being and this is how I am repaid?! I come to your party ready to make your wishes come true, and you do not care! For you are blinded by capitalist society! And want me to leave party because you are closed minded!”
>Not even Trixie herself understands what she’s saying. She’s just trying to gather all their spirit energy at this point and break for it like she’s robbing a soul bank.
>This is the only chance she’ll get, and these people are going to have to deal with it. Trixie is NOT going to spend the rest of her days being chased by government drones.
>She WILL bring the unconfirmed fire victims back to life.
>…
>”This was shitty idea.” Starlight mutters under her breath as she disappears into the night. “We should have never come here.”
>But from the direction of where the party was, there’s a sudden boom, and a flash of light that forces Starlight to turn around.
>She stands there in silence, watching tiny glowing debris flying through the air.
>Footsteps approach, unnaturally fast.
>Trixie instantly appears in front of Starlight.
>”What the fuck happened this time?! What did you do?!” Shrieks Starlight.
>”They got what they deserved!” Trixie pulls Starlight by the arm.
>Just wait until Moondancer hears the news story about this and blames herself for it as well.
>Starlight retreat back to square one, unsure of what they’re going to try as a plan B.
~
>Moondancer sits in her chair feeling like the whole universe is after her.
>She breathes slowly, but surely. The tension in the air strangling her even more than the turtleneck of her sweater.
>On the inside, she knows everything’s alright, and that she’s just being paranoid.
>But at the same time, it’s not like it can’t be found out that she’s the one who did what she did in that student housing unit.
>It’s a good thing Moondancer wasn’t going to attend her classes anyway. She stays in bed trying to maintain as much comfort as she possibly can.
>She doesn’t know how she’s going to keep her physique up now that she’s skipped several lifting days.
>It’s suddenly almost the middle of November now; the days keep going by at rapid speeds. Sometimes convenient, sometimes not.
>Moondancer knows that the holidays coming up are going to be a burden to have to deal with.
>Mostly because of how annoying human beings can get, especially to someone like her.
>She remains in bed for the majority of each day, feeling like seeing the truths of the world carried the toll of having to be a shut-in that gradually becomes weaker as time goes on.
>That idea Wallflower had was very useful, though.
>In the other girl walks once more with another stolen dumbbell.
>All she has to do is carefully walk right into the gym and take it with her; no one even noticed it was gone until the next day when someone needed to use it in their morning workout.
>And it’s not like there are any clues on the security cameras in the hallways, because no one can be seen walking around when Wallflower makes her way out of the building.
>Like her clothes, the dumbbell Wallflower was holding becomes just as invisible as she is, associated with something to unfathomably unnoticeable.
>Of course, she can’t just take the barbells with her, or the larger lifting machines that Moondancer said she needs. Some of those things can’t even be lifted by Moondancer herself.
>But this isn’t the only type of thing that Wallflower can steal.
>As long as she’s quiet enough, she can sneak a few things out of the local grocery store, which she’s never had the fortitude to try before.
>But her level of bravery has skyrocketed recently.
>There’s been something changing her attitude towards things, making her fantasize about exploring new territory in life.
>All she knows now is that she certainly believes in witchcraft.
>She watches Moondancer maneuver around the stolen bodybuilding equipment on her own side of the dorm and lets out a silent sigh.
>Everything about this is owed to Moondancer, and those strong arms of hers.
>Oh shit, now it’s December.
>And now that there’s the adequate equipment now accessible to Wallflower from the same place she sits on the computer practically all day, Moondancer offers to spot her if/once the larger things to lift can be transported here.
>”Oh, uh, no thanks.” Wallflower can sense herself getting nervous before the question was even asked.
>”Come on, it’s obviously necessary. I’ll even do it with you.” Urges Moondancer. “You sure?”
>”I’ve never been a… lifting person.”
>”You used to say it was because you don’t like being in public, remember?”
>”Yeah, well-”
>”Well the gym’s been brought home now. Come on, this is the perfect opportunity. Unwillingness is what caused people to become to one-track in their lives and easily controllable. You and I both know this.”
>Wallflower can see no excuses in her imagination.
>Moondancer continues to lecture her about how she should get into excellent shape for whenever the world ends, which would be extra dire if it happens during the dead of winter.
>Wallflower cobbled something together to decline, which Moondancer instantly figured out was a load of shit of an excuse to just not have to do any physical activity.
>There’s no doubt that Wallflower’s also just nervous, so it’s whatever.
>Moondancer decides to just let it slide and send a few texts to Starlight instead, telling her about the home-made gym she’s making in her dorm room.
>Knowing that Starlight still lifts weights a little too, Moondancer invites her to join id she ever feels like it, but the deleted the text message and calls her so the evidence of shit being stolen from the gym isn’t in writing.
>”Yeah, Wallflower and I have been doing great. Sorry you have to put up with Trixie and all that. She still had all her powers and stuff, right?”
>[“Why yes, she does indeed. She does not overstep her reach.”] Starlight answers on the other line. [“Not too much at least.”]
>”Oh…” Moondancer realizes but then gets an idea. “Hey uh, can you do us a favor, though?”
>[“What do you mean, new comrade?”]
>”If Trixie still has her powers and all that, and you’re also sort of strong, would it be possible to, I dunno, get into that gym with Wallflower one day and bring me one of the heavier pieces of equipment?”
>What the fuck? Why is Moondancer asking this? There’s no way anyone can pull this off.
>”Wait wait wait, forget what I just said. Nevermind.” Moondancer immediately backpeddles after considering any possible repercussions.
>The questionable call ends and Starlight doesn’t bother saying anything to Trixie, who is quite enough concern herself.
(it's a joke, relax)
>And meanwhile…
>…
>There’s been lots of reports of unidentified shoplifters in town.
>And no one knows how they’re able to get things out of convenience stores and grocery stores without being detected somehow.
>Even the detector things right before the exits don’t go off whenever something happens, and the fire doors would have sounded the alarms.
>Right away, it is assumed that the employees are at fault because of this, and that they’re secretly stealing things.
>But at multiple stores, and so suddenly? That hypothesis doesn’t hold up very well outside of conspiracy theories.
>As more and more people in town report strange disappearances of merchandise, investigators in law enforcement try to pice everything together.
>There’s some strange things going on in this college town, and now some of the students are coming up with stories about aliens or ghosts or something.
>Maybe there’s a new breed of foxes that can slip into any store and take whatever food they need.
>Maybe there’s an underground cartel that had lots of their people apply to stores to be able to steal shit more easily.
>Maybe the town is haunted or cursed, and the stores are being targeted by ghosts trying to send a message or witches stealing food to eat with their magic.
>Not even mentioning the apartment place burning down, that violent episode in one fo the student housing units, along with other things that are making the citizens of this town extremely uneasy and unwilling to step outside into the winter air to set up their Christmas decorations.
>Fuck, the holidays are sure are ruined now, aren’t they?
>Emotionally unaffected by this development, Trixie starts to wonder how she can take advantage of this growing witch hunt that the town might go on in the coming months.
>They’re all looking for whoever is responsible for things happening, looking for someone to blame.
>All of that attention could be Trixie’s as long as she plays this game just right.
>She needs to come up with an alias that doesn’t give her name away.
>Wicked Wizard of the Woods is too long, and it’s too close to how Trixie always shows off how she wanted to be a wizard.
>And everyone’s starting to think it’s a witch anyway; Trixie needs to reinforce this mindset with shit that a witch would do during her downtime in order to terrorize the town and make them REMEMBER her.
>Trixie decides not to give any name since they’ll already call her a witch, but she has to make sure she does it in a way where she’s hard to recognize.
>A costume won’t work, she has to go into the blackness of the night to wreak havoc.
>This could be perfect for training herself to be less susceptible to the cold air of the winter.
>And Starlight just might have to come with t-
>”No!” Starlight rejects right as Trixie makes the request. “What has gotten into you, comrade? You have gone completely insane!”
>”Well what else are we going to do? This town is boring! And they will slaughter each other if no one is to be a scapegoat to all wrongdoings.”
>”That is craziest thing you have said! And that is saying something!” Starlight clenches her fists. “Vodka and power has gone to yuor head! This is not end well! I see it!”
>”Lack of power has gotten YUOR head!” Trixie raises her voice and lets her eyes glow a little bit.
>Starlight doesn’t get intimidated by this; she only sees it as more incentive to end this madness once and for all.
>By… somehow talking Trixie out of starting more shit around the town.
>”You cannot go around and do the stir shit! It will only make them more afraid of everything!” Starlight follows Trixie as she stomps out the door. “Listen to me!”
>”I will not listen to you unless you join.” Trixie’s voice gets a little low and warpy.
>”Fuck you!” Starlight throws a pair of mittens lying around at Trixie.
>”Fuck yuo harder!” Trixie chucks them back. “With pitchfork! And a rake!”
>”Those are same thing! Dumb bitch!”
>”Who cares? Both of them can be used for you to fuck yourself!”
>”There is no both! You do not even think straight with your insult! You have no rational thought!”
>”It is YOU who has no rational thought! It is YOU who is the retard!”
>”You say that while waiting for capitalist pig cops to kick down door! Meanwhile, Trixie shall keep town at bay like tactical genius!”
>”That is not even what you first said! And you are yelling plan into the snow anyway! Fifty people probably heard you by now! How fucking genius is that?!”
>The shouting match goes on for a couple of minutes, followed by Trixie’s lone set of footprints growing through the trailer park and out of it.
>And then extending down the streets into town.
~
>”So then I said to the bartender… that’s tacticool!” Treehugger puffs some more of the special spice that gives her comfy hallucinations.
>”The same thing you said to your dealer?!” Mary leans forward and asks. “You gotta get more jokes, dude!”
>”Hey no fair! The bartender never heard it before.”
>”How do you know?” Mary scoots back onto a silver platter, and would have broken it by sitting on it had it been ceramic material like the bowl Treehugger is wearing on her head.
>”Bartenders don’t know a lot of jokes, they’re just in them!” Treehugger re-adjusts her head-bowl. “Besides, I swear he laughed.”
>”No, he didn’t.” Mary grins and points her finger.
>”Yes he did! I know I saw it for real because I wasn’t high yet when this happened!”
>”You’re remembering it wrong! You’re too drunk, Treehugger. Lemme take the wheel, you can’t drive.”
>”You’re not Jesus, Mary! You can’t take the wheel, c’mon! You’re not even the Mary from the bible so don’t even start with that again.”
>”I’ve had more wine than you so that makes me Jesus anyway.”
>”That’s not how it works. Ayy, get me another joint, mine’s running low.”
>Mary sifts around the wooden surface, looking for the glove compartment she remembers she stuffed the rest of those darned things into.
>There’s a couple of plates, a coffee mug, some other shit she shouldn’t have taken into the car with her.
>”Guh, what’s with all this dumb clutter!” Complains Mary. “Are you like, actually a hoarder or something?”
>”These aren’t mine! I swear.” Treehugger looks at the items closer to make sure they actually aren’t hers. “Hahahaha, these plates look like pancakes!”
>”Oh… my… GAWD! They fricken dooooo!” Mary’s eyes light up through the pale red. “Duuude, we should totally get pancakes!”
>”Aaaaaaaaaagh! That is the perfect idea!” Treehugger waits a couple of minutes for her common sense to kick in. “Wait, though… isn’t IHOB only open during the day though?”
>”I thought they were 24 hour pancake service.” Shrugs Mary. “Wait, hold on, you mean IHOP? IHOB is the other one.”
>”What do you mean other one? They sell pancakes and now they also moved to pizzas after Papa John left.”
>”No they fucking didn’t, that’s Pizza Hut you’re thinking of. Remember? The one where the guy got fired and then ate nothing but pizza for 30 days and 40 nights?”
>”You’re… you’re too fucking high. I’m glad I’m driving.”
>”No you are! I swear to god!”
>”I HAVE AN IDEA!” Screams Treehugger.
>”What! What idea?” Mary leans in.
>”We should go get Pizza Hut! And then get pizza! And THEN get pancakes! And THEN, get this…” Treehugger pauses. “Put the PANCAKE… on the fuggin PIZZA! And then eat it!”
>Mary is absolutely blown away by this hypothesis.
>So blown away that she accidentally kicks the door open and is startled by a couple of bowls and plates shattering blow where they fell from.
>”Oh fuck! My plates!” Mary almost scrambles after then before a much much more reasonable Treehugger pulls her back inside.
>There’s a deathly silence for the longest time before footsteps can somehow be heard.
>”It’s not the neighbors! I told you!” A woman’s voice shrieks.
>”Marty who is it?!” A middle aged woman emerges from around the corner before looking back up the stairs. “Go back to bed, sweetie! It’s okay.”
>The little girl at the top of the stairs has no idea what’s going on in the kitchen.
>”How did you get in our house?” Yells Marty.
>”I told you it wasn’t just the neighbors!” His wife Gladys berates him.
>”Get out or we’re calling the police!” Marty starts to tug at the girls camping inside of the kitchen cabinets, wondering how they got all the shelves off in order to fit inside.
>”No, Papa John, no! You’re not a cop! You can’t pull us over!” Mary struggles.
>”Your day of reckoning is here! HHAHAHAHAHA!” The sweaty Papa John inside of Mary’s head asserts as she leaps out of the “car” and runs away from him.
>…
>The 9-1-1 call is made at 11:02 PM.
>But due to the roads getting slippery tonight, the cops didn’t arrive to the townhome until 11:22 PM, well after the two stoner girls escaped through the backyard.
>A plume of smoke has erupted into the kitchen like a misty tidal wave of good vibes.
>Meanwhile, somewhere lost in the woods, the two girls cross a babbling brook and thus make a break in the footprints left in the snow without even intending to.
>”HOOOOOOLYFUCK it’s so cold!” Mary crosses her arms tightly.
>”You shoulda worn a jacket like me, dude. I told you.” Treehugger tromps through the barren brush across the ground.
>”But I couldn’t find it before we got into the car.”
>”Well you should leave it in the car next time. Just sayin’.” Treehugger feels the cold air biting away at her hands.
>Neither of them realize how far they have to walk through the cold and snow just to get back to where they live… and there’s police looking for them.
>But they are not alone in the backwoods behind another neighborhood, however, it is not anyone from law enforcement that is giving them company.
>After a couple more minutes, a glow appears before them.
>And it engulfs them.
~
>The streets of the town are quiet at this time of night.
>The snow quietly falls onto the concrete and asphalt as it’s supposed to around this time of year.
>A man is walking his dog around since there’s not that many people out and about now.
>It’s a really cozy feeling as long as he’s bundled up, but his dog doesn’t mind one bit.
>There have been a few rumors going around his community about the strange occurrences, but this man doesn’t believe in ghosts or demons.
>He more or less enjoys hearing the thin layer of snow crunching under his feet.
>The sky is slightly lighter due to the town’s lights and the thick clouds and refraction of those town lights throughout all the snowflakes fluttering down from the sky.
>He looks up at it for several minutes, now sort of glad that there’s no one on the street he just turned onto.
>The man hums to himself as his dog sniffs wherever on the sidewalk.
>Without any kind of warning, all of the lights in the town, outside and inside flicker off.
>Whatever, it’s not- okay it’s actually really dark all of a sudden.
>The sky is still kind of let up but nowhere near as much as before.
>Now the dark outlines of the town’s buildings take up most of the man’s view, and he can’t see where he’s going.
>No real way to use the clouds in the sky for bearing on where to step around and not bump into anything.
>This man has to move extremely slowly, looking down to where his dog is when he hears it begin to bark on and off at something in the blackness he cannot see at all.
>He doesn’t think much about it until he hears a lot more of a frantic nature in the way his dog is barking; it gets more high-pitched and whiny.
>Looking down at this dog with a concerned expression, he starts to pull his dog towards himself, but the dog voluntarily hides behind his legs from something.
>The man gets a dreadful sensation that something horrible is right there in front of him.
>But he can’t see anything in the blackness.
>He can’t back away too much either, lest he trip over something.
>Now he stands there and stares, trying to see anything at all.
>Nothing appears before him for the longest time.
>He has a feeling that the lights are about to turn on and it will be nothing.
>He’s right about one of those two things: the lights flicker back on.
>And before him is something he was just starting to notice before the lights turned on: the source of that round shape he saw sticking out of the outlines of the tops of the buildings.
>It was the top of this woman’s head… she’s floating with her arms spread out, dressed in an all black cloak.
>Within the next second, the dog starts barking wildly and the man hollers at the top of his lungs, having already tripped backwards and scrambling away as the chiming of the town’t little clocktower strikes 10:45 PM.
>…
>Trixie retreats around the corner with the black cloak she stole from someone’s house.
>She goes down dark roads with secluded houses here and there cackling her little heart out.
>The way that idiot was scrambling away was the best thing she’s seen in forever.
>It’s kind of funny, really.
>The town has been getting suspicious of the events that have been happening and have come up with theories including the likes of witchcraft.
>And now here’s Trixie, deliberately validating those fears they had all because she wants attention.
>But she actually has powers so it technically is actual witchcraft or rather wizardry anyway.
>If this were Hogwarts, Trixie would have been expelled by now.
~
>Lying on the couch with a half empty vodka bottle in her hand, Starlight Glimmer stares out the window at the snowflakes falling.
>It’s almost midnight.
>Is this the most she’s going to get out of life?
>Waiting for Trixie to return after presumably starting even more shit downtown?
>Why does she have to babysit this girl? All she does is cause more and more trouble to the point where it’s not worth being friends with her anymore, even by her own extreme standards that she’s gotten used to since years ago.
>She suddenly hears something outside the window.
>Some sort of really soft sound at first, but then it sounds like something made of metal scraping against the side of the trailer.
>Mostly too drunk to care, Starlight Glimmer decides to drunk dial Moondancer and see what’s up with her on this lovely dead of night.
>The phone rings for several seconds before it’s picked up on the other end.
>Moonie, friend, I wish to talk to you.” Slurs Starlight before her attention is drawn back to the window by something out there she just missed getting a good look at.
>…
>On the other end, Moondancer noticed that Starlight called her back.
>”Hello?” Moondancer starts off. “…Hello?”
>Not a sound comes from the other end at first, just silence.
>Moondancer continues to repeat herself.
>She picked up the phone and there doesn’t seem to be anybody on the other line.
>…
>”I wish to talk to you about… stuff. I do not know of what but I am bored.” Starlight continues to babble drunkenly into the mouthpiece. “Hey yuo said you could lift the weights later? Like pump IRON! Right?”
>[“Hello? Starlight are you there?”]
>”I know, I know, we are two of soul, comrade. We were lifting buddies since we met like two ancient greeks. And I will be honest, I am not all the way opposed to such a relationship with you since Trixie is being bitch. I might want to replace her. FffffFFffFFffFFFFFfuck Trixie! She has become cunt, destroyer of… something.”
>[“Are you there, Starlight? I can’t hear you.”] Moondancer says again.
>”Yeah you know, we could get an extra bottle of alcohol or your choice, whichever you you happen to choose. Yuo ever hear of the sacred band? From ancient, what was it? Thebes? We could be like that but sisters instead of brothers.” Starlight sways back and forth on the couch, gazing at the glowing pair of eyes in the window she thinks she’s hallucinating. “You know, I do not want to fuck Trixie, I want to try a few… WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!”
>…
>The audio cuts on right as Starlight is yelling.
>”Hello? Starlight?!” Moondancer’s voice is frantic enough to briefly catch Wallflower’s attention before there’s a knock at the door.
>There’s a knock at the door on both ends of the phone call at the exact same time.
>”What’s going on?” Asks Wallflower.
>”Don’t worry, you go get the door.” Moondancer points away as she keeps the earpiece against the side of her head. “Starlight? What’s going on? Is Trixie there?”
>[“Yes, yes, she’s right here. She tried to scare the crap out of me because she thinks it’s funny.”]
>”Well why did you call me?”
>[“I am bored? Did you not understand?”]
>”I couldn’t hear you! Your line must have cut off. What did you say before?” Moondancer sits down as Wallflower peaks through the little circle thing to see who’s outside the door.
>[“Hold on, Trixie wants me to let her in. She is being brat. Probably freezing her ass off.”] Starlight tells Moondancer.
>Moondancer can hear the audible bangs on the front door on Starlight’s end. Trixie’s really being erratic over there, which isn’t surprising given what she’s seen of her.
>”Hey, should I let Trixie in?” Wallflower comes back into the room.
>”…What?” Moondancer processes this in seconds. “You mean, Trixie’s out there?”
>”Yeah. Is it okay if I let her in?”
>”Moondancer?” Trixie’s voice sounds from outside. “Is me, Trixie! Starlight does not love me anymore right now! Can I sleep here until morning?”
>The light knocks on this door are a lot less threatening sounding than what Moondancer hears on Starlight’s end of the line.
>She pieces it together immediately. “Starlight, do NOT open that door!”
>[“Trixie also brought her two pothead friends with her!”] Announces Starlight. [“They must be colder than she is.”]
>”Starlight, listen to me, that is NOT Trixie! DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR! Do you hear me? Starlight? Can you hear me?”
>Nothing.
>Moondancer glares into the phone. “Starlight?”
>No answer, and Wallflower backs away from the dorm door in the light of what’s going on.
>Starlight sounds like she’s already heading over towards the front door of her place and opening it.
>This makes Moondancer clench the phone even harder before realizing that she should get the Trixie over here on the line so Starlight can see that the real Trixie is here.
>”Wallflower, let Trixie in!” Shouts Moondancer. “I need to get her on the phone!”
>In seconds, Wallflower obeys, ready to tackle whatever obstacle this is.
>”Starlight, can you hear me?! That’s not Trixie. The real Trixie is actually right here with us! The one outside your door is not Trixie!”
>[“Why have you brought them here?”] Starlight’s voice can be heard talking to Trixie. [“Come in.”]
>”NO, GOD DAMN IT, NO!” Moondancer nearly chucks the phone across the dorm.
>She gets ready to turn to Trixie and explain what’s going on, but Trixie doesn’t seem to be questioning any of this.
>Having been immediately let in by Wallflower, Trixie gives Moondancer an unsettling stare.
>Trixie’s hoodie is unzipped with nothing underneath it, and her hair is too messy for it to have just been from getting out of bed.
>Someone else walks through the door too; it’s another one of the college students who lives in one of the dorms here, in a similar disheveled condition to Trixie’s.
>He’s one of the rugby players.
>”The fuck…?” Moondancer places the phone down, now sensing more danger being on this end of the line.
>”What’s goin-” Wallflower is interrupted by Trixie suddenly tackling her to the floor. “Ah! Moondancer, help!”
>The rugby player charges towards Moondancer with a green glow in his eyes.
>Moondancer pushes him back as he tries to repeatedly grab her, then elbows him in the nose before two more college students enter through the still open door with the same appearance and look in the eyes.
>This was unexpected.
>Instinctively, Moondancer’s adrenaline kicks in and forces her to choose between fight of flight.
>The rugby player she elbowed didn’t go down so good, and a couple of engineering students are his backup now.
>There’s more footsteps outside the door approaching.
>With a quiet “fuck this”, Moondancer fights her way past the cluster of students and barges out the door running.
>She got a brief glimpse of Wallflower being pinned down by “Trixie” and another possessed girl that slipped in during all this.
>Something inside of Wallflower keeps her from fighting back as intensely as she means to as hands reach under her sweater and tug at her jeans.
>Barely thinks before breaking the lower lock on the doorknob from the inside then shutting it before the others can reach her.
>She backs away as she realizes she trapped Wallflower inside of the dorm with five of what must be the same minions from that other house.
>The door cannot be regularly opened from inside or out now, and Moondancer booked it down the hall before the noises inside get louder.
>…
>”Are yuo still there?” Starlight holds the phone up to her ear, trying to stop swaying around. “Trixie tells me she saved these two girls from some kind of witcherly possession.”
>The only thing Starlight can make out on the other line now is Wallflower’s distant screaming rising above the moaning of a plethora of other college students bunched on top of her.
>”Where are you, Moonie?!” Starlight considers handing the phone to Trixie, who might be better able to decipher what’s going on.
>But Trixie already snatches the phone from Starlight’s limp hand. “Moondancer! Are you okay?”
>There’s no answer from Moondancer to be heard.
>Trixie recognizes Wallflower’s voice almost right away, and she hears the screaming gradually turn into moaning just like the rest of the voices she’s hearing on the other line.
>”What is the going on, comrade?” Starlight slurs. “Is she dead?”
>”She is fucked.” Trixie replies before hanging up. “Everything is fucked. We are the only ones left.”
>”You got any Cheetos or something here?” Mary asks with her arms tightly crossed. “Or some potato chips? I got the munchies like crazy.”
>”There were some in the car we left!” Remembers Treehugger. “But you left them behind with the weed!”
>”Trixie found them in the woods.” Proclaims Trixie. “They would have froze to death had she not saved them with her navigation skills.” She turns to them. “You’re WELCOME!”
>Mary and Treehugger stare back at Trixie. “So… cereal? I can eat some cereal dry right now. Unless you got milk too.”
>”We only have vodka.” Starlight tells them. “Take it or leave it, bitch.”
>”No, YOU only had vodka.” Trixie corrects her. “There’s juice in the fridge but that is not important right now. Evil is lurking. It got Moondancer and Wallflower.”
>The girls in the trailer persist the chattering as the nigh goes on.
>A lot of speculation regarding what happened to Moondancer and Wallflower is thrown around, but it ends up going nowhere and giving way more to plans about skipping town since this place has become too cursed for reasons Trixie insists isn’t her fault.
>She insists it again and again and again.
~
>The college dorm building is mostly quiet aside the howling wind outside.
>All of the hallways seem slightly darker even between the times the lights are flickering; some of the lights actually go out after this point.
>And through these hallways, some residents wander.
>College students, ages around 19 through 22.
>Their minds were easy to subdue by forces beyond their control or comprehension.
>After all, lots of intercourse was going on among these people anyway, putting temporary control into their minds that takes advantage of their libidos is like having train tracks already set up for the train to go down.
>It’s like a non-lethal version of a zombie apocalypse, yet somehow more fucked up too.
>And down one of the hallways is a shut door, having been broken by the handle on the inside.
>There’s a few soft sounds coming from behind it, before several seconds of silence.
>And that several seconds of silence lasts for minutes on end as the rest of the possessed dorm residents scout the entire building for the one young lady they’ve been assigned to hunt down by their mistress.
>…
>It’s rather easy to tell where Moondancer must have escaped to, because they would have known if she went down any of the stairwells to exit the building.
>There is still time to subdue her before the police arrive as a result of the reports of strange and disturbing activity taking effect.
>The discovery of what just happened in here is going to have the entire town shook for the next several months, if not the next couple of years.
>It’s known that mistress wants this done quickly and swiftly.
>Any detection of Moondancer’s life force is not taken lightly, and it is momentarily triangulated to the women’s bathroom on the other side of the building on the same floor.
>No one was there to see her run into there when she must have, but it’s clear to their senses that she’s still in there somewhere.
>The locked door confirms it.
>The bathroom door itself cannot be broken down, but the janitor’s keys are right there on his belt as he’s walking around on the first floor mopping the floors.
>…
>The door is opened, with footsteps echoing into the bathroom as quietly as they can, and they are most certainly heard.
>It’s three guys who just entered, all possessed down to the very soul.
>The one in front scans the stall doors, noticing how they’re all closed just like in the movies.
>He takes one step towards them before having his whole field of vision completely blocked by a thick wall of fleece.
>The following happens within three seconds.
>Emerging from the corner she was hiding behind, Moondancer pushes him forward to his knees with her sweater wrapped around his head and quickly turns around to face the other two.
>The second one up was luckily slightly close enough to be in the way of the third guy, and Moondancer elbows him square in the throat as hard as she can.
>Three seconds have now passed.
>The guy with the sweater on his head scrambles to his feet, unable to see anything happening until he unveils the situation behind him.
>He heard a few guttural choking noises followed by the sounds of the crowbar his buddy was holding clanging to the floor.
>Now feeling around on the tile floor, he tries to find the knife he was holding as his ears pick up the sounds of heavy blows landing on a person, some hard enough to break bones.
>The third guy into the room cries out in pain while the first finally untangles himself from the sweater with knife in hand.
>Now the first guy turns around to find the other two already having their shit kicked in.
>One lies on his back, kicking his legs with his hands clamping his throat while suffocating.
>The other just took Moondancer’s knee to the face.
>…
>Moondancer emerges from the enclosed space a minute later barely bruised, now face to face with the two possessed girls that converted those three guys to begin with.
>They had stayed outside to wait for them to subdue the would-be victim, by Chrysalis’s command, now fleeing as they realize how much of a threat Moondancer is now armed with a knife and a crowbar.
>Moondancer watches them run away, unwilling to put her sweater back on since her body is heated with adrenaline and need for increased mobility if she’s going to make it out of here.
>Fulfilling the task they now have to carry out, the two possessed girls run in the direction of where Chrysalis disguised as Trixie told them to meet her if shit went wrong.
>They approach the door as the force beyond nature behind it slowly but surely breaks it down with blunt force.
>Now in her natural tall and slender form, Chrysalis kicks the door to the dorm down with brute force, eyes glowing brightly with wrath to unleash upon the owner of the dream-book she just ripped apart and burned.
>With a snap of her claw-like fingers, she makes the nearby security camera shatter like glass. This is going to get ugly.
>She already knows disguising herself as Wallflower, let alone sending in Wallflower herself, will not work.
>Moondancer’s smart enough to piece together that the real Wallflower was already taken by force, and should no longer be trusted under any circumstances.
>Meanwhile, a newly converted tech student notices Moondancer approaching his position at the door to the stairwell, and he’s in the way of her escape from the building.
>She can already see him standing there, walking faster menacingly in her tank-top and khakis as her muscles tense while she grips the crowbar and knife more tightly.
>”She’s over here! Over here!” The tech student cries out for his mistress Chrysalis.
>Only but a couple of seconds later, he pounces towards Moondancer before taking the crowbar to his jaw.
>He falls to the floor with blood on his chin as Moondancer looks behind herself to find Chrysalis standing there at the opposite end of the long hallway, making the lights flicker with her very supernatural presence.
>Chrysalis’s scowl is crooked, her rows of teeth sharpened into a twitching frown as her rapid footsteps propel her to her prey at about the speed of a car.
>The overhead fluorescent lights go out completely with shattering bulbs as Chrysalis passes under them; she spreads the darkness with her.
>Moondancer is already halfway down the stairwell by the time Chrysalis’s hand stops the door from closing all the way.
>Jumping the rest of the way, Moondancer lands on her feet praying that her shins don’t break, then sprints through the emergency exit with the fire alarm triggered by the door being pushed open.
>Half of the building is awakened by the fire alarm, with the other half either possessed by Chrysalis after having investigated the ruckus or hunkered in their dorms wondering what all those horrifying noises were over the past several minutes.
>The fire door is busted open by the force of Chrysalis kicking it.
>Chrysalis follows Moondancer into the darkness, rushing past a couple of passerby students who noticed all the shit going down in this dorm building they don’t have student ID access to.
>There’s actually dozens of students standing around what the fuck has been going on in there, and Moondancer uses this to advantage after discovering this by running into the small crowd where Chrysalis has to follow her.
>One of them part of the campus police, who can’t do jack shit because they’re fucking useless outside of warning people and calling the actual cops.
>Luckily, this one already called the real cops a couple of minutes ago, and the sirens are approaching early because one of the non-cop students called the cops even earlier than the campus “police”.
>But Chrysalis follows suit anyway, chasing the now terrified crowd of students who flee the unnatural looking demon-like witch lady who just came out of that dorm building.
>They scream and carry on, causing more and more commotion as the panic spreads around this part of the college campus.
>Moondancer manages to lose Chrysalis in all of the chaos as everything is caught on the security cameras that are literally everyfuckingwhere.
>It’s less than a minute before the actual police arrive on the scene and encounter the very thing the town has been spooked out about: a witch.
>One cop immediately pulls his gun and and fires shots (of fucking course) while the other one shouts warnings and pulls out his taser.
>Chrysalis is barely hurt by the bullets and charges at the cops instead, figuring that pursuing Moondancer is a lost cause for the time being.
>The cop keeps firing but Chrysalis won’t go down, and backup is called right before the one holding the walkie talkie is grabbed by the shoulders.
~
>Really late at night.
>The magic is really starting to get to Trixie’s head more than ever.
>Her decision making process is that of someone who is under the influence of something at this point.
>”This is bullshit! Why do we have to stay here?” Starlight complains as she lies on the couch, gleamy-eyed.
>”Where the fuck are we going to go, dumbass?” Trixie says to her.
>”Anywhere but here? That sound good, do you not think?”
>”Cowards run away. But we are strong!” Trixie raises her fist into the air. “We fight and because of that we win! Trixie does not fear the witch! She is more great and powerful!”
>Starlight groans loudly. “Will you shut the FUCK UP about that?! Even I could beat you in fight if it weren’t for magic protecting you!”
>”It is not magic protecting Trixie, but Trixie’s great power finally being realized through the magic. As she always knew.” Trixie looks down her nose at Starlight. “You would not understand when you are drunk. We shall wait for you to enter hangover phase.”
>”This tastes like skim milk.” Complains Treehugger after taking another bite from the cereal bowl. “Or is the cereal stale?”
>”For the thousandth time, that is Vodka!” Trixie says it once again. “Why would skim milk make you dizzy after a while?”
>”No, like, she mixed milk with the vodka.” Clarifies Mary. “Well I did.”
>”Wait, you pranked me?” Asks Treehugger.
>”THIS IS NOT GOOD! WE MUST LEAVE AT ONCE!” Starlight cries out. “How are you not worried? The whole town is fucked! Witch has been sending biker gangs after everyone, and Trixie only made shit worse. It is fucked, we must go. NOW!”
>”You are drunk, comrade.” Trixie pats Starlight on the head. “Rest easy, the Great and Powerful Trixie will solve everything with her abilities.”
>”You are fucking retarded.” Hisses Starlight.
>”No YOU are!” Trixie responds, stroking Starlight’s forehead as though she’s petting her. “You will be less retarded when alcohol wears off.”
>There’s a multi-minute pause.
>”So what are we waiting for anyway? What’s going to happen next?” Asks Mary. “We throwing a party or what?”
>”If what you told us is true, then the witch had possessed you with her powers somehow, and she sent you to find Trixie, but then Trixie was smart and found you first and broke the spell she had on you with her warming powers and then brought you to where she is setting up her trap.”
>”Groovy. So what exactly is this trap anyway?”
>”Trixie will not allow herself to think about it, because the witch can probably read mind too. She will not know what to expect when she comes here to win, and she will lose. It is inevitable.”
>Under Trixie’s bed is a couple of handguns, which she will hand to Starlight to distract Chrysalis with so Trixie can sneak attack her with her own powers.
>If all goes well, Chrysalis will be burnt to a crisp… or something… Trixie isn’t allowing herself to think anything through because she doesn’t want her glorious planning process to be compromised by the apparently all-knowing Chrysalis.
>The apparently all-knowing Chrysalis who is apparently approaching the trailer park right now; Trixie can sense someone.
>She almost feels confident enough to holler out there into the wind, since she can afford to have Chrysalis know that she’s aware she’s there at least.
>But that jeopardizes her elaborate planning through lack of planning she thinks she’s so smart for coming up with.
>Trixie’s plan is that she has no plan, so she cannot be predicted.
>All she has is her raw power and the benefit of surprise at every turn since Chrysalis has no idea what she’s going to do next.
>Trixie’s a wild card, and she improvises nicely when she’s a wild card; she’s proven this on stage when she performs without knowing what the fuck she’s going to do.
>Her warped and selective memory plays this current situation out like it does in her head regarding all of the performances that turned out to be disasters in the past which she refuses to acknowledge in that sense.
>”TRIXIE!” Moondancer’s voice echoes throughout the whipping winds. “STARLIGHT! TRIXIE!”
>Mary peers out the window.
>Treehugger stumbles around behind her as Trixie gradually realizes how grave the situation is after listening to the harsh tone of Moondancer’s voice for long enough.
>All three of the other girls are either drunk, high or both.
>And her “epic” lack of planning didn’t do anything about this in the time that passed from when the two stoner girls first arrives to right now.
>Right now when Moondancer’s voice suspiciously arrived here to the trailer park.
>As if she knew how to get here. Trixie can’t remember any point in time where she gave her the directions to this place.
>It has to be Chrysalis having found her way over to here through navigational senses, there’s no other possible way.
>Trixie turns back around to face Starlight, wondering if she’s going to need to do more than just make noise with those handguns she has un- NO, DON’T THINK ABOUT THE PLAN.
>Starlight is drunk, Treehugger and Mary are crossfading, Trixie is the only sober human being right here, and she has no plan other than to use her powers which she is confident will carry her through the whole situation.
>”Who is that?” Starlight slurs from the couch.
>”It’s Moondancer!” Mary starts to get excited.
>”Shut up! Shut up!” Trixie covers Mary’s mouth. “That is not Moondancer! She and Wallflower got fucked, remember? They’re dead, possessed at best! Or worst, Trixie cannot decide.”
>”Duuuuude, what if that’s really her, though?” Treehugger peers at the window.
>”You are going to blow our cover! Do not make sound!” Trixie scolds from where she stands, letting go of Mary’s face.
>Mary presses her face against the glass, fogging it up with her breath. “Whoa… it’s so misty out there!”
>”Shut up! Shut up!”
>”Moondancer looks so menacing walking through the mist like tha-” Comments Mary before Trixie’s grabbing hand silences her.
>”Trixie?! Are you here?” Moondancer calls out for the fifth time now. “We need to stick together right now!”
>”Dude, that has to be Moondancer!” Says Treehugger.
>”Let her in, dumbass! You just going to let her freeze out there?” Starlight chimes in from the couch, not even able to see outside from her position.
>”Did you literally just forget what we heard happen?!” Trixie feels her paranoia rising exponentially. “Moondancer and Wallflower are gone!”
>Starlight just blankly stares back, wordlessly telling Trixie all about how much she let the situation get out of her hands with her neglectful and impulsive actions.
>”STARLIGHT! TRIXIE! Where the fuck are you?!” Moondancer hollers again. “You have any idea what I had to do to find here?! I lost my phone back in my dorm!”
>Moondancer continues to wander around, looking for wherever she just heard Mary’s voice come from.
>”Fuck!” Trixie is forced to try and come up with a plan, pulling it out of her ass if she has to. “Uh…”
>”It’s cold as fuck out there!” Starlight stumbles to her feet, not getting any less drunk yet.
>”We… we aren’t prepared…” Trixie feels it all dawn upon her as she listens to Moondancer’s voice outside. “It’s up to… up to…”
>”TRIXIE!” Moondancer staggers back and forth in the same spot.
>”Hey shut the fuck up, I’m sleepin’ here!” Someone calls out of one of their trailers over a dog barking.
>”I’m looking for my friends!” Desperately blurts Moondancer, feeling the frostbite kicking in to a massive degree.
>She remembers hearing something Wallflower said as she was texting Starlight at some point.
>Asking her how often she stays at her trailer in the nearby trailer park.
>She never thought about it until she was desperately hiking through the intense cold with nowhere left to go to after everything on campus started closing down.
>Even the commons areas that are supposed to be open 24/7 close down at night now in anticipation of Holiday Break.
>She managed to stay in there for a little bit while using the student-accessible computers they have there to find out where the trailer park is and how to get there on foot.
>And then hid whenever cops entered the building to check on all of the other students that were huddled there as the situation in the dorm building kept unfolding.
>Moondancer had eventually slipped out the back door, ready to make a dash for where she now knows the trailer park is, but fearful that she’ll succumb to the cold any minute now that she’s here but none of the other girls seem to be here.
>”Trixie, where are you?!” Moondancer repeats, her breath pluming out her mouth like a dragon’s fire. “Fucking god damn it!” She shivers uncontrollably.
>”I said SHUT UP!” The same neighbor from before now chucks something out the window at Moondancer, closely missing her.
>Moondancer looks down at what was thrown at her; it’s a rusty bike lock.
>”Do you know where someone named Trixie lives?!” Moondancer starts limping towards the neighbor.
>”No! Fuck off!”
>”Can I come in?!”
>”No!”
>”Please!”
>”FUCK OFF! CUNT!”
>”I’m freezing to death out here, you asshole!”
>Some other random object is tossed at Moondancer, hitting the side of someone else’s trailer with a loud thud and disturbing anyone inside.
>Trixie can see this taking place from the window, unwilling to take the risk that this is actually Moondancer out there.
>It’s like the paranoia becomes contagious.
>”We’re in here!” Shouts Treehugger and Starlight at the same time.
>”What the fuck?! No!” Trixie spins around and tackles both of them to the floor. “Fuck you!”
>”T-treehugger?” Moondancer recognized that voice. “HELP! Where are you?!”
>There’s a bit of a ruckus inside of the trailer Moondancer zeroes in on.
>She’s barely able to stand now.
>”We can’t stay split up like this!” Moondancer’s voice grows exhausted. “Let me in!”
>The ruckus inside stops, and only Trixie answers. “We know you’re not Moondancer, vile witch!”
>”What the fuck are you talking about?!” Wheezes Moondancer, hand gripping her side. “It’s me, you dumb bitch!”
>”Trixie heard what happened over the phone! Moondancer and Wallflower are gone!”
>Moondancer overflows with rage on the inside.
>”FfffuuuuuUUUUUUUUCK!” She slams the side of the trailer with her fist as she pieces together her current situation. “It’s MEEEEEEEEE! I survived!”
>”You’ll never take us! The Great and Powerful Trixie is too strong for you!”
>Moondancer makes a couple of seconds to cobble together something that might convince Trixie to let her out of the cold before she literally freezes to death as these surrounding rednecks heckle her in her final moments.
>”What about Wallflower, then?” Asks Trixie.
>”She didn’t make it! But I did! Let me in!” Moondancer keeps thinking. “If I was the witch I would have broken anyway in by now!”
>”Riiiiiight, right.” Trixie starts getting extremely cocky under the impression that the witch can’t even get inside unless she breaks The Great and Powerful Trixie’s willpower and gets her to open that door.
>”YOU BIIIIIIIITCH!” Shrieks Moondancer, losing the last of her composure. “We’re all going to die because of your shiiiiiiit!” She pummels the side of the trailer like a cold, metal drum.
>Trixie retreats to grab her guns while this happens.
>”RRAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Moondancer goes full ham on the side of the trailer, letting the hypothermia fuse with her heated rage as she screeches like a wild animal. “AAAAAAAAHHHH!”
>”Hey!” Someone grabs her shoulder.
>Moondancer sees the middle aged lady with tight curling roll things in her hair tugging at her tank top.
>”Let’s go!” The lady is trying to herd Moondancer inside before the situation escalates even more. “C’mon, let’s GO!”
>”They’ll kill us all!” Moondancer howls into the wind, too weak to use her muscles to their fullest extent. “They’ll kill us aaaaaaaaall!”
>”LET’S GO!” The lady keeps repeating, managing to haul Moondancer through the snow all the way back to her front door.
>At this moment, Trixie returns with her clocks in hand, but sees no Moondancer to shoot at.
>…
>”Where are ya from?” The lady who dragged Moondancer inside fetches another blanket.
>Moondancer shivers on the couch, numb all over her body.
>”You need a moment?” The lady asks with her two kids hiding behind her with curious eyes on Moondancer.
>Moondancer weakly nods, not having even processed the question.
>Several minutes go by, and the lady who took Moondancer in comes back with microwaved gatorade.
>And then several more minutes go by on the lady sending her kids back to bed, and assuring them that this is not one of “Santa’s messenger elves”.
>Moondancer’s mind is still spinning, and her critical thinking is still diminished.
>”Y’know? I’m tired of your kind stirring up all sorts of trouble ‘round here. You college students, with yer partyin’ and yer pop culture and all that nonsense.” The lady begins to grill Moondancer for this conduct uncharacteristic of her actual personality.
>And Moondancer does NOT take kindly to being lumped together with people she hates.
>”So where ya from, anyway?” Asks the lady.
>”…Why?” Moondancer responds.
>The lady sighs. “Look, you can either answer me properly or I can call the cops! Yer lucky no one did yet cuz we get lots of nights like this ‘round here already cuz of you!”
>”Why does it matter to you where I’m from… friendo?” Snarls Moondancer with clenching fists.
>…
>An unreasonably pissed off Moondancer chose to go back outside over having that lady call the cops on her.
>Mostly because of the fact there were a couple of teenage boys already standing out there smiling and giggling out there while looking in through the window.
>They definitely came out from somewhere, and they obviously don’t give anywhere near as much of a shit about disturbing the peace than this lady, instead more interested in the possibly drunk girl having wandered into their trailer park.
>Taking advantage of this, Moondancer gets them to let her into their trailer instead.
>”Holy shit, she’s jacked as hell!” One guy sitting on the couch watching TV comments as Moondancer stumbles in between the support of the other two guys leading her in. “The fuck is goin’ on here?”
>”You’ve seen this girl before?” One of the three half-brothers asks. “And uh… Miss Lacy’s just gonna let us take her in? Just like that?”
>”She kicked her out, retard. So she’s staying here, maybe the night.”
>The other two giggle at the implications this puts in their heads, but cease upon seeing Moondancer’s arms compared to theirs.
>”And ‘fore you ask again, no I haven’t seen her before. I’d have fuckin’ remembered this one.”
>Moondancer now rests on a different couch bundled up by different… crustier… blankets than the last place.
>On either side of her sits a scrawny teenage boy with ratty hair, one with blonde hair and one with his hair dyed blue.
>”You may be muscular but you sure are purty.” One of them says with a dopey chuckle as the third redheaded half-brother returns from the kitchen.
>Moondancer just takes the creepy compliment, already aware that they’re too intimidated to make a move on her due to her stature compared to theirs.
>”Ah don’t think she’s from around here, Marlo.” One of them says.
>”No, shit, it’s a college. Lots of the girls ain’t from around here.”
>”You done?” Gripes Moondancer. “I can answer for myself, you know.”
>”Yes ma’am!” They all half-jokingly say in unison, getting a growl from Moondancer in return.
>Only now does Moondancer’s mind finally start thinking clearly again.
>That witch lady is definitely going to find her way over to here, and she probably already did while she got sidetracked by Trixie’s stupid shit and then the whole episode that unfolded from that.
>Moondancer needs to finish up recuperating and then go back out there to try again with the trailer where Trixie is.
>The best way to deal with this is to stick together as a team.
>No reason Starlight and Treehugger and presumably Mary should suffer from this any longer.
>…
>”Think Pa’s gonna be home tonight? We could get in trouble havin’ a girl over.” One of the voices in the other room is overheard.
>”Did you see her? There’s no way Pa will think we tried any funny business with her!”
>”How the fuck do you kn-”
>The power is instantly cut off.
>The howling wind outside gets lower and lower.
>A dim green glow becomes the only light shining as the severed wires of the power lines weakly fall to the snowy ground.
~
>Trixie paces back and forth in the darkness of the trailer, trying to figure out if Starlight can shoot a gun accurately yet or if she’s still too drunk to do so.
>Mary and Treehugger probably have less than half of an idea of what’s going on.
>In the other trailer, Moondancer can’t help but think of all the bullshit that’s been going on since she met these people, and how it lead to this happening.
>None of this would have taken place had it not been for Trixie’s arrogance, for many cases including the trip to the woods, the episode with the truck on the road, and even now with Moondancer almost freezing to death outside.
>And what is Moondancer even doing this for? Her friends?
>She thinks back to a couple of minutes ago when she felt like the other three girls should suffer from Trixie’s bullshit anymore.
>But then she remembers, they were part of the problem too. Mary and Treehugger complicated everything with their unannounced visits and involvement with drugs.
>Starlight continuously enabled Trixie and brought this upon herself when she probably had the most ability to prevent what’s going on now.
>Moondancer weighs her options as she hears the low growling outside, not wanting anything to do with this witch lady anymore.
>There’s no way her book of dreams is still intact, and her only real friend Wallflower has fallen to the same thing that surely destroyed the book.
>All because of these girls left whom Moondancer now wants no obligation to any longer.
>This journey with them feels like it should go on longer, but Moondancer wants no more of this; with nothing left to lose, she’s cutting it short and severing all ties.
>Fuck this.
>Moondancer abruptly stands up out of nowhere and heads to the back door of the trailer.
>”You gonna make a break for it?” One of the trailer park boys asks.
>Moondancer nods as the glow shines through the window of the front door.
>”Hey uh, you might need protection.” The same boy gets Moondancer to wait.
>”I’m listening.” Replies Moondancer.
>The boy goes back into his bedroom as the other two start whispering to eachother.
>He comes back with a fucking fire ax. “Here.”
>”Oh, I was gonna say.” His half-brother sighs. “You better not have give her pa’s shotgun or anythin’. His old ax should do just fine.”
>Their dad probably used to be a fireman or something.
>Moondancer raises her eyebrows at this, and all three of the boys register what this implies as Moondancer clenches her fist.
>”What the fuck, Marlo?” The third half-brother facepalms. “You gotta learn to keep yer mouth shut!”
>Moondancer already stepped over to the boy holding the ax, gripping the handle already so he can’t swing it and then pulls it away from him with her strength.
>”Fuck!” Marlo falls back onto the couch. “Listen, we don’t want no trouble!”
>”Then give me the gun.” Moondancer snarls at him, impatiently.
>”It’s locked up. We can’t give it to you anyway. Only our dad has the key.”
>Moondancer looks down at the fire ax in her hand and then back at the three intimidated teenage boys. “Where’s the lock?” She speaks a little bit louder with more assertion in her tone.
>…
>The back door eventually swings open with Moondancer slipping out as quietly as she can.
>She waited until Chrysalis headed closer to the trailer where Trixie starts boldly shouting from.
>There’s a lot of commotion there now, with no easy way of telling how the battle over there is going.
>Moondancer just glances over her shoulder, listening to the screams and mutters to herself. “Nope. Don’t care. I’m done.”
>She heads to the nearest exit of the trailer park, keeping an eye out for any of Chrysalis’s minions that might be trying to close in on her.
>They must all be busy sieging Trixie’s trailer.
>Whatever, all that matters is that Moondancer managed to keep those three scrawny, dimwitted trailer park boys intimidated enough to lock herself into their dad’s room and hack that locked box open.
>She almost thought they’d try to jump her at the last second, but they were too scared and confused.
>They’re going to have a lot of explaining to do when their dad thinks it was them who did that, which they must have promised they wouldn’t do.
>They all looked so scared when Moondancer walked out fully armed; she can still see their faces in her mind.
>Luckily, both the shotgun and the fire ax fit snugly in Marlo’s backpack.
>Moondancer has no idea what happened to her non-friends. But Wallflower is already gone.
>As she looks around for the fastest way to get back to campus before the cops show up, Moondancer can only think of one thing.
>It’s over. She’s on her own now. Now sneaking away as the other girls are most likely getting ravaged as she leaves footprints in the thin coat of snow on the ground.
>Maybe she won’t go back to campus, maybe that’s a bad move.
>Moondancer needs to think quick, but she already knows she’s not going back into that trailer park.
>This is the end of Moonflower.