by Susan Harper
Each of her friends who stood before her had only learned of the other world she was from comparatively recently. Holly had been first, and as it turned out, she was part-mystic. She was something called an Ibeji. It was a rare creature thought to be extinct. They only came into existence if they had a mystic parent and an immortal parent. They were born with two separate bodies and a single soul, and one of the bodies was usually destined to kill the other before they reached adulthood. Holly’s younger sister, Anniston, was an Ibeji as well and had accidentally poisoned her other body and now had to carry around a doll that the other half of her soul was in to keep from going insane. Holly was lucky. Her mother, whom they had never met, had separated Holly from her other body—keeping one in the mystical world and one in the mortal world—which had allowed them to survive until adulthood, breaking the curse of the Ibeji. The soul split permanently from the other half, creating two distinct beings—two bodies, two souls—as opposed to her little sisters’ two bodies, one soul. It was an odd thing to wrap one’s head around. They were still searching for her mother, whoever she was, and her twin sister, the other Ibeji.
Ever since Holly had discovered the truth, she had been working closely with Monica. They had gone through quite a bit together, including finding her biological father and his family. Holly had been adopted, so she never knew the truth about her mystical lineage until now. Her adopted parents still had no idea.
Next was Brian. As Monica had been dating Brian and their relationship had grown more serious, she had applied for a reveal license, granting her permission to share the truth of her world with him. He had flourished since learning about the mystical world. Now he was part of the Wysteria Werewolves, a professional sports team who would be going to the semi-finals soon. He had also become portal keeper, a detective position that allowed him authority in his border town, so he was both an authority-in-training for Wysteria as well as a lead detective in Bankstown.
Finally, Isaac. Isaac they had intentionally kept the secret from for the longest as he was a conspiracy theorist and blogger, so they had worried about him blabbing their secret to the world, but he had thus far proven to be quite trustworthy. It had been a complete accident, of course, that he discovered the truth, but now Monica was glad they no longer had to keep things from him.
Isaac was still fiddling with his drink. “Sorry for bringing it up, Monica,” he said. “I know what happened in Boston was hard on you. I still don’t understand it all just yet, but I know what you saw there in that time really hurt you.”
“It’s fine, Isaac,” Monica said. “I don’t know if I’m going to reach out to Abigail or not. I told her not to come back when we last spoke. That I’d talk to her when I was ready and to give me space. I’m just not sure how much space I’m going to need to sort all this out. I hope the best for her, I really do. I even wrote a character witness statement for her telling the Sorcerer’s Council that I believe she was rehabilitated.”
“Do you really believe that?” Brian asked.
“I think so,” Monica said. “I mean, the Abigail we saw in Boston was her three hundred years ago. I have to remember that before I judge her too much. It was just really shocking.”
“We’re here if you need us,” Brian assured her. He glanced out the window at the pouring rain and sighed. “Don’t suppose there is a spell that could stop the rain before I have to head into work?”
Monica laughed. He was always looking for excuses to perform magic. “Sorry, not one that I know. I’m the unnatural witch, remember. You pretty much have to stick with potion work for me.”
“Okay, then, what about a potion that will repel water?” Brian teased.
“That does exist, actually,” Monica said. “But I don’t have any with me, I’m afraid.”
“Bummer,” Brian said. “Well, I’m off, ladies, Isaac.” He gave Monica a kiss on the cheek. “Call me if you need me.” He headed out into the rain.
“What about you, Isaac?” Holly asked. “About to head off to work too?”
“Yeah,” he said with a groan. “Do you guys have any idea what a bummer it is to work as a journalist and come across the story of a lifetime, but not be able to write about it?”
“Don’t you dare,” Holly warned. “You’ll get Monica in trouble.”
“I know, I know,” he said with a wave and a laugh. “So, I was wondering…” His cheeks flushed slightly like he was about to ask some sort of favor, but was afraid to. “We’ve been back from our fun little time traveling adventure for a week now. I didn’t want to jump down your throat about it too quickly, but I was really hoping I could go see Wysteria?”
Monica smiled. “That’s right! You haven’t been to the mystic world yet, have you?”
“No,” he said. “And it sounds really awesome. A whole world full of witches and goblins and trolls and… Well, who knows what else I might see there? I don’t know what’s real and what’s fantasy anymore, and I’d like to find out for myself.”
Monica smiled. “Well, this Saturday is the semi-finals. Holly and I are definitely going.”
“Rump-A-Roo?” Isaac asked, and they both laughed at him.
“Romp-A-Roo,” Monica corrected. “Yeah, that’s the name of the game. We’ll have to travel a little bit, but if you’re free…”
“Definitely free!” Isaac said excitedly. “I’ll definitely be there. I’m going to have to ask Brian about the game, though.”
“Oh! Wait, hold on,” Monica said, spinning around and hurrying toward the back counter. “I’ll get you a book on the game so you can read up before Saturday.”
“Awesome!” Isaac said.
Monica opened the back door behind the counter and stepped over the threshold. There was a flash of light, and Monica exited into the other side of Backroom Books. Her twin sister Mona was there, her jet-black hair pulled up for once as opposed to hanging in her face. She was chasing a few harpies out of the shop. “I thought harpy season was over,” Monica said.
“Yeah, I thought so too,” Mona groaned, and the two of them chased the harpies out of the shop together just as a family of wizards entered to do a bit of browsing for summer reading.
Monica located an introductory book on the sport of Romp-A-Roo and nodded to Mona, who was helping the wizards pick out their books, before she slipped back to her side of the shop. When she reappeared, Isaac was grinning ear to ear. “Is that really where the portal is?” he asked. “That’s so cool. How did you wind up with a portal in the back of your shop?”
“Aunt Wilma owned the property the portal was on,” Monica said. “And she got the idea for the bookshop. Really great idea, if you ask me. A good business plan. Able to sell to both mortals and mystics.” She held the book out to him. “An Introduction to Romp-A-Roo. I think you’ll enjoy this read. You’ll be ready for the game on Saturday and be able to understand what’s going on. It’s going to be really exciting. If they win, they’ll be going to the finals!”
“Thanks, Monica!” Isaac said excitedly, and Monica smiled as she watched him trot out the door, tucking the book under his shirt so it didn’t get wet from the rain.
2
“Go, Brian!” Monica screeched from the sidelines. Today, she was completely decked out in Wysteria red and gold. She had even painted her face and was wearing one of Brian’s spare uniforms to display his number, 7, proudly on her back. She had pulled her strawberry blonde hair into a ponytail and added red streaks, making her look like one of the biggest fans in the enormous crowd.
“Look at him go!” Isaac exclaimed in shock as Brian tossed the ball to Urrgah, the enormous troll on his team.
Holly was jumping up and down excitedly, also decked out in Wysteria colors, though not to the extreme that Monica was. On Monica’s other side was Mona, who had elected to wear a single red tie over her completely black outfit which, for Mona, was a rather impressive display of color. Mona’s boyfriend, Deimus, was the team captain.
They were in the town of Sl
ovack, a border town to the mortal city of Moscow. The opposing team, the Slovack Sorcerers, was one of the best in the league, which made for a rather exciting game. The Slovack team was made up entirely of witches and wizards apart from their goalie, who was a vampire. This was very typical of most Romp-A-Roo teams as it had once been a game strictly for witches and wizards to play. The Wysteria Werewolves was rather unusual because the number of witches and wizards on the team were the minority. Their coach was a sprite, Coach Joanne-Jo, who was speeding along the sidelines shouting at the team.
The green podium players, the men on the team, were made up of a single warlock, Deimus, who was also the team captain; Brian, the first mortal to ever play professional Romp-A-Roo; Bolt, a high-energy werewolf currently in humanoid form; and Urrgah, an enormous troll, also a first for professional Romp-A-Roo. The blue podium players, the women, were made up of only one witch, Rosemary, the professional league’s first female dwarf; Trixie, who had gotten a reputation for catapulting herself clear across the field from the springs quite often; Clowdia, the first female selkie in the league; and Ida, a female werewolf. Finally, the team’s fierce goalie on the red podium was another werewolf woman named Gale.
The game had been going on for a mere twenty minutes, and the score was 3-2 with Slovack in the lead. Both points by the Wysteria Werewolves thus far had been scored by Urrgah, to the Slovack audience’s surprise. “This is way better than football,” Isaac told Monica as the ball was tossed from one team to the other.
“You don’t watch football,” Holly teased.
Deimus scored, tying up the game. “They play to twenty, right?” Isaac asked.
“That’s right,” Monica said as she watched the girls wrestle the ball from one of the opposing team members and leap onto a yellow podium. The podiums stood hundreds of feet in the air, one of the more dangerous aspects of the game. They were large, allowing two players to fit comfortably on one at a time, not that there was a rule against having more players per podium. The mere height the game was played at made the job of the safety witches very important—they flew around below, prepared to cast spells to keep players safe in the event of a slip.
The male players on Wysteria’s team abruptly started bolting for the yellow podiums. “No way,” Monica said. “They’re doing the launch move!”
“Wait, what’s that?” Isaac asked as half the crowd rose to their feet in anticipation, Monica included.
“If the game is tied and all of your male players are on the center podiums, you can launch all the way to the opposing team’s goalie post to score and win the game!” Holly exclaimed quickly. They had seen this move done once before by Wysteria—they very unusually sent a female player from the blue podium. This move was almost always done by the men launching from yellow podiums, but Trixie, being a small, lightweight dwarf, had launched herself from the blue podiums that stood furthest from the opposing team’s goal post. It had been a game for the record books.
Monica felt Mona grab her hand excitedly. It looked like Deimus was going to take the shot. Three wizards from the opposing team were bolting toward him, realizing what was happening and trying to take him out before he reached the very middle yellow podium, the one with the spring. “Go, Deimus!” Mona screamed, much more energy in her tone than usual. She was beyond herself. “You can do it!”
Deimus launched. He too had done this move before and had landed right on top of the team’s opposing goalie to do it. He made it to the spring just in time and went flying across the field. He landed on the Slovack goalie podium and went to throw the ball through the goal post. The opposing team’s goalie kicked him clear in the stomach and got the ball from him. “Oh no!” Monica yelped. A countdown clock had started.
“Wait, what’s the countdown for?” Isaac asked.
“If you perform that move and you miss the shot…” Holly said breathlessly. “You’re only permitted sixty more seconds of play before you’re evicted from the game!”
It was already down to forty seconds. Deimus was desperately trying to wrestle the ball away from the opposing team’s goalie. The two of them were locked tight, and no one else could step onto that podium as it would be against the rules. They pushed and kicked, and Deimus took an elbow to the face as the buzzer sounded. “No!” Mona cried, and Deimus was evicted from the game. The Wysteria Werewolves were down their top player, their team captain. Deimus sat on the sidelines with Coach Joanne-Jo, looking distraught.
“Tough loss for the Wysteria Werewolves!” the announcer’s voice boomed. “Deimus is certainly one of the team’s heavy-hitters. Excellent save by Slovack’s goalie and team captain, Naven!”
The game continued with growing excitement, becoming more violent as the game went on. Urrgah’s foot took a serious stomping by one of the opposing players, and Trixie took a punch to the face by one of the Slovack witches. Clowdia scored two points in a row, surprising as she wasn’t one of the more aggressive players on the team, but it put a target on her back and the witches on the Slovack team went after her with great force the next time she got the ball. She came out of a tussle with a bloody lip. Bolt wound up kneeing a Slovack player pretty hard in the groin during one particular fight, but the warlock still wound up scoring and hobbling around for the rest of the game in agony but refusing to sit out.
The score was 17-19, Wysteria in the lead. Monica could hardly contain herself. She was impressed the team had held up as long as they did without Deimus, and to be only a single point from victory! The ball went all over the place. Gale blocked a goal and sent the ball to Clowdia. The announcer was exhilarated. “Ball goes from Gale to Clowdia! Clowdia to Trixie, and back to Clowdia, to Trixie— Rosemary! Slovack’s got the ball, great block by Lola Mack! Wait, Trixie’s got it back, easy for that dwarf to sneak up on those taller players… Back to Clowdia! Rosemary… The ladies have passed it off to the gentleman! Urrgah the troll has the ball, and a powerful pass to Bolt. Oh, wait, the goalie has left his post! Naven is on Bolt. Bolt’s got the ball! Sending it back to Urrgah. Naven’s back at his post, good call. Back to Bolt. To Brian, the mortal’s got the ball and…”
Brian scored. Monica couldn’t even hear the next thing the announcer said as the whole stadium went wild. “They won! They won!” Monica screeched.
“I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it myself, ladies and gentlemen! The Wysteria Werewolves will be going to finals!”
The next hour was one of blissful shouting and celebrating. Deimus was near tears and hugging everyone on his team for pulling off the victory with him evicted so early on in the game. The next thing Monica knew, the team had showered and changed, and they were all headed out to a nearby Slovack pub for celebratory drinks and partying.
The pub was like something one might find in Wysteria, though it was a bit darker, larger, and smelled of vodka despite it being a mystic pub. Monica and her friends gathered together, laughing and retelling excellent plays from the game. Deimus was upset he had missed out on half the game, but his smile was the largest Monica had ever seen. He held his glass high. “I could not have possibly asked for a better team!” he exclaimed. “You guys are like my family. You rocked it today, you really did!”
“Best team captain we could have hoped for!” Bolt said, clanging his glass against Deimus’. He then winked at Coach Joanne-Jo, who was nestled on Ida’s shoulder. “And best coach ever too!”
“Here, here!” Rosemary called, and they all drank to that.
Isaac looked like a child on Christmas morning. He was talking to everyone on the team with much enthusiasm, asking a number of questions about the game and their lives as mystics. It was quite an introduction for it being his first time in the mystic world. They hadn’t even had time to introduce him to Wysteria, since they had to travel quite far to Slovack for the game. Someone cleared their throat loudly, and Monica and the rest turned to see a number of the Slovack players standing before them. Naven, the team’s captain and goalie, was closest. He was a rat
her intimidating-looking brute. A scar ran from his forehead down his right temple. His hair was shaven clean, he was bulky, and he was at least a foot taller than Deimus, who he was staring at. Deimus stood upright, staring back and crossing his arms.
Then, the man smiled. It was a slightly crooked grin as he was missing a tooth after the game, and it reminded Monica a bit of a mortal hockey player. He held his hand out. “It vas a good game, verevolves.”
Deimus smiled and shook hands with him, and Naven wound up buying everyone on the Wysteria Werewolves team a drink, saying he was going to be cheering for them in the finals. The next thing Monica knew, both teams were crowded together in three booths, chatting excitedly about the upcoming match that would be taking place in only a few weeks. Monica watched as Holly made her way from the bar with a plate of food, looking quite excited to dive in. She was making her way around Naven, saying something to Isaac about having to try mystic food, when Naven spotted her. “Ah!” he exclaimed when he saw Holly. “Zere you are!” And he kissed her.
Holly nearly dropped her food in surprise. She slammed it down on the table and slapped him clear across the face. “What’s the matter with you!” she snapped, looking near ready to kill him.
“Hey, that’s not cool, man!” Brian snapped, jumping up from his booth. Bolt jumped up as well, following Brian’s lead.
Naven looked mortified. He took a step back. “Vat? Vat?” he exclaimed, looking at Holly with a confused expression. “Grace?”
“Grace?” Holly asked.
“Naven, what’s wrong?” a woman behind him asked, and he spun around. As he did so, the woman came into view.
Monica’s jaw dropped when she saw the woman’s face, which was completely indistinguishable from Holly’s. Holly and the woman locked eyes. “Whoa,” Isaac muttered.
The woman stared in shock and awe before flipping her hair back and grinning. “Well” she said. “You must be Holly.”
