Paranormal is Relative

by S.J. Drew

costumes," she said.

  "You worry too much. If we see him, just say hello and tell him who you are," Nora sighed, adjusting her fashionable sunglasses. "He can't miss you in that orange dress."

  "I like bright colors!"

  "To each their own," she said, straightening the skirt on her light blue dress.

  "I feel so dull," Leah said. She was wearing a dark red t-shirt and khaki shorts. "How about you, Isabella?"

  "I've got an orange and blue striped t-shirt. Does that count as bright?" she asked.

  "I don't know. It's mostly white, and that's not a color. Or it's all color, if we're talking about light, which we aren't."

  "You guys just make fun of me," Maryann pouted.

  "Yes. Yes we do," Nora replied. "And usually you don't even notice."

  Maryann's pouting did not last long. Near the craft booths they ran into Jack, who was wearing an outfit very similar to the day before.

  "There you are," he said, recognizing her immediately. "I made you this to wear today," he said, holding out a flower garland.

  "Oh, it's so pretty. And you made this? That's so cool." She put the garland of small, pink flowers on her head.

  "I'm glad you like it. Come on," he said, and held out his arm.

  "Later," she said, and went off with Jack.

  "I am really surprised he recognized her," Isabella said.

  "I still think he's trouble," Nora said.

  "Come on. Let's go check out the competition," Leah suggested.

  Nora and Isabella followed Leah. They listened to some of the other bands, got lunch, and met back up with Dave.

  "Well, who's better?" Leah asked.

  He shrugged. "Dad says never make judgment calls on the music. It's all about taste, and no matter who you say is the best, someone is always going to think you're totally wrong."

  "That is a fair point," Nora agreed.

  "Listen, I got a text about one of my homework assignments. The due date has been moved up and I am way far behind. Can I get a ride back early?" Dave asked.

  "It doesn't make sense to drive Dave back to the hotel and then drive back here," Nora replied. "That's over three hours of driving with traffic and it'll be time to go anyway."

  "You're right. We might as well all had back and get in some rehearsal time. We'll just go round up Maryann and head out," Isabella said. She sent Maryann a quick text but it didn't go through. "Damn, she let her phone go dead again. We'll have to split up and go look for her."

  With a sigh, they split up, including Dave, and threaded through the crowd looking for Maryann. Forty-five minutes later Leah managed to spot Maryann and Jack near the edge of the forest and far away from the festival crowd.

  "I am so glad she wore that orange dress," Leah thought, walking up to them. "You let your phone battery go dead again."

  "I did?" She pulled her phone out of her purse to check it. "Oh, I did. I'm sorry!"

  "Dave needs to head out early, and since we gave him a lift, we need to head out. Sorry."

  "I'm sorry, Jack," she said. "I thought I'd have a little more time with you, but Dave is our agent's son and we really don't want to be responsible for him failing a class."

  "I really think you should stay," Jack said. "They can go and come back for you."

  "Yeah, I don't think so. We spend way too much time driving anyway. Besides, we'll get in some rehearsal time," Leah said.

  "She has a good point. Gas is expensive and it's not very environmentally friendly to waste it like that."

  "I really think you should stay," he repeated firmly.

  Maryann and Leah exchanged awkward looks. "Yes, well, I think I just explained I can't. So it was nice spending time with you. I had a really nice time."

  He blinked his vibrantly green eyes. "I said, you should stay."

  Maryann and Leah looked at each other again and both took a few steps back. "We'd really better go now since Dave has to do work and all."

  He looked quite confused. "I don't understand. That should have worked. Why didn't that work?"

  "I'm sorry," Maryann said brightly as she and Leah continued to back away.

  He sort of shrugged. "Fine." He lunged at Maryann, picked her up as though she weighed nearly nothing, threw her over his shoulder, and jogged towards the forest.

  "Hey! Put me down! Heeeeeelp!" she screamed, flailing and struggling, but he was surprisingly strong for having such a thin frame.

  Leah barely had a chance to register what was going on when Jack darted between two oak trees and both he and Maryann vanished.

  Some of the other festival-goers were looking at Leah and the area in confusion, but either they did not turn in time to see the two people disappear, or they did not believe they just saw two people disappear.

  Leah muttered something in Spanish and texted Isabella and Nora. It took them about fifteen minutes to find her.

  "What's the emergency?" Nora asked.

  "Maryann got kidnapped by Jack."

  "Er, what?"

  "Jack picked Maryann up and ran off with her. They disappeared between those two trees."

  "Like, disappeared into the woods and you couldn't see them anymore or disappeared into thin air?"

  "Thin air," Leah clarified.

  "I told you he was trouble. Maybe you should check every one of Maryann's boys with spirit sight from now on, Isabella," Nora said.

  "That's really not an easy thing for me to do," she said with a sigh. "With a few exceptions, they're normal. Some that aren't normal could hide their nature from me. But I will give myself spirit sight to find that doorway."

  "What do we tell Dave?" Leah asked.

  "Just tell him we think Maryann ran off with that boy and it's going to take longer than we thought to find her," Nora answered. "Especially since her phone is dead."

  "Yeah, but we don't know how long this could take. Eventually he's going to get worried."

  "Leah, you need to go get the emergency kit anyway," Isabella said. "Tell Dave we're really sorry but he'll have to get a lift back with that other band or he'll just have to wait. If he's got to wait, give him the valet key and let him use the laptop and give him the guest password. I don't think he'll pick up any wireless, but at least he can start typing. Since the valet key is busted, he can't drive away, but he can at least lock the doors if he wants to go get some food or something. I hope he won't get worried, but there's not a lot we can do right now."

  "This really makes a great impression on our agent's kid," Nora sighed.

  Leah walked away to do as she was told. Dave was pretty confused, and somewhat worried, but he agreed to use the laptop and wait for the band since the Widgets had already taken off and he had no other ride back to the city. He was also curious why Leah was picking up a large, black duffel bag from the van, but he figured it was better not to ask.

  Isabella and Nora were standing near the two oak trees when Leah returned.

  "I've found the door," Isabella said. "I can open it, but I'm not sure where it's going. I'm afraid it might be one of the fairy realms, in which case there's no telling when we'll get back, or if this door is stable and will re-open to this spot from the other side. Also, do not eat or drink anything there just in case it is a fairy realm."

  "Got it," Leah said.

  "How many fairy realms are there?" Nora sighed.

  "Way more than you think. Alright, let's go," Isabella said. She pulled out a pen and a piece of paper from her purse, wrote some Japanese kanji on the paper, and stuck it in the air right between the two trees. "The door's open."

  The three of them walked through and disappeared from normal sight.

  "I said, put me down," Maryann snapped, kicking and flailing.

  Jack suddenly dropped her.

  She landed on soft grass with an indignant squeal. "That wasn't very nice," she snapped. She stuck her hand in her purse and quickly slipped on a ring, and then stood up and looked aroun
d.

  They were standing in a clearing of trees but the autumn colors were more vibrant than the state park. The branches grew into a thick lattice work that made it feel like a building of sorts. There were logs covered with thick moss that almost looked like couches or chairs. Sunlight and blue sky peeked through the branches. There were also flowers in the grass, which didn't match the season, and there didn't seem to be any animals or insects.

  Jack's green clothes now looked less like cloth and more like leaves.

  "You take me home right now!" she demanded.

  "I still don't understand why the spell didn't work," he said, ignoring her. He snatched away her purse.

  "Hey! Stop that! Give that back!" she shouted.

  He darted up a tree with inhuman dexterity and turned the purse inside out.

  "Hey!" she said again, gathering up her belongings. "You're going to break my stuff!"

  He jumped back down and held out the purse.

  She snatched it back and angrily put her stuff back in.

  "What in the world is that?" he snapped, looking at her hands. "Is that an iron ring? You couldn't have been wearing that all day. Where did you get that?"

  She zipped up the purse. "It's an iron ring made out of an old nail. I keep it in my purse just in case I run into fairy-kind, like you," she snapped back. "Now you take me back home."

  He frowned and sprawled across a moss-covered log. "I thought you were more fun than this, Anna."

  "I don't like being kidnapped. We were having such a nice day too and then you had to spoil it all."

  "This isn't spoiling it. I'm making it better. Your dull friends were going to take you away from me. I just wanted a few more hours, that's all."

  She crossed her arms. "I want to go back."

  "I'm not