by Cara Wylde
“You sure you don’t want to come?” GC was at the door. The truth was he couldn’t wait to show off his costume. “Pandora will be so disappointed.”
“Yeah, it’ll break her heart.”
“Last call,” Paz said.
“Go! Go, go, go! Let me read. And when you come back, bring me some beer and some… I don’t know… cupcakes. Or whatever they have there.”
They finally fucked off, and I was alone with Corri. She yawned and made herself comfortable on my pillow. Honestly, I’d grown very fond of her. I enjoyed her company, and even though she refused to say – or even think – that we were friends, I considered her my friend. I had three now. Patricia, Klaus, and Corri. A succubus hybrid, a mage, and an all-powerful pixie. Not too shabby.
I’d been reading for an hour when someone knocked on the door. It couldn’t be GC or Paz, because they never knocked. We’d been together for half a year now, and they still couldn’t grasp the notion of privacy or personal space. I got out of the bed and went to open the door. I would’ve asked Corri, but since she’d entered my life, I kept catching myself being lazier than usual, asking her to do the simplest things for me. I couldn’t have that. It wasn’t me, and it wasn’t right. I could open a stupid door, thank you very much.
Pandora.
Her beautiful red hair was hidden under a wig. Two pigtails, one pink and one blue. She wore exaggerated makeup – red lips, mascara intentionally smudged under her eyes, and a single small, black heart high on her right cheekbone. She was dressed scantily, in a pair or red and blue shorts and black fishnets. She can certainly pull off a mean Harley Quinn.
“You didn’t come,” she frowned. “You said you’d come, and you didn’t.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I changed my mind.”
She looked at me for a long moment, as if she was trying to decide the best course of action to get what she wanted. As far as I was concerned, that would never happen, so there were only two viable options: she either dropped the act she’d been struggling to pull off lately, scream, curse, and return to being the bitch I knew, or turn on her heels and walk away. I certainly didn’t expect what she did next.
Pandora let out a deep sigh, looked me in the eyes, and with the sincerest tone she could muster…
“Please, Mila, you have to come. Please.”
… she started begging.
“Why is this so important to you?”
“Because if you’re not at the party, no one wants to come. A bunch of people came one hour ago, looked around, saw you were not there, and then started leaving one by one.” Were my eyes playing tricks on me, or was she blushing? It must have been the light. “So, will you please come? Kitty and I have put so much into it, and it just sucks.”
I was speechless. I opened my mouth, closed it, opened it again. I gave up. If I said “no” now, that would make me the bitch. Not that I cared, but this situation intrigued me. It was all new, and I didn’t know how to react. It was strange and rather sad that I knew how to react when I was bullied, and stepped on, and mocked. I knew how to run and hide, how to stand my ground, how to take revenge. I knew how to stay out of people’s way, how to make myself invisible and inconsequential, but this… I didn’t know how to deal with this. Popularity… People wanting to be around me, willing to do anything so I’d at least learn their names, actually caring if I was at a party or not. The world had turned on its head, and if I was prepared for pretty much anything, I sure as hell wasn’t prepared for this.
“Pandora, I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say yes,” she smiled.
I scrunched up my nose. The funny thing was… A few weeks ago, I would have been convinced this was some sort of elaborate prank, and I wouldn’t have hesitated. Run as fast as you can from anyone who is willing to put so much time and effort into making your life hell. That was my motto. It had helped me survive. My gut told me it was not the case now. Pandora didn’t want to hurt me. Or, if she wanted to, she’d buried that desire deep down, because the new status quo meant she had to change her methods if she still wanted to get what she wanted. What did she want, exactly?
“Why would I do this for you?”
“Don’t do it for me. I know you don’t want to. But maybe, you could do it for yourself?”
“I don’t follow.”
She leaned against the doorframe, popping a hip forward and reclaiming some of her old power and confidence. Not that she wasn’t confident, because she was, but since my last name had become Morningstar, I’d noticed she’d started downplaying her qualities when she was around me. It didn’t happen when she was around, literally, anyone else.
“You’re someone new now. Don’t tell me you never dreamed of this, imagined how it must feel to be the total opposite of the person you were last year. Don’t tell me that Mila Lazarov never wondered what it must be like to be me, or Lorna or Sheba. Hot, popular, rich, confident, adored… Hell! Entitled!”
It was stupid to deny I hadn’t had such fantasies. Not that I was going to say it out loud. She was wrong about one thing, though. I’d never wanted to be like her or Lorna. Beautiful on the outside, but absolutely ugly on the inside. Gratuitously mean and ruthless. In fact, since I’d been accepted at Grim Reaper Academy, I’d had this fantasy much less often than when I was at my old high school. It was as if the discovery of the supernatural world had, in fact, cured me of my long-time dream to be special. It showed me what being special really meant, and how it had nothing to do with what I’d imagined. Now that it turned out I really was special, I wanted nothing to do with it.
“What’s your point?”
Her smile grew. “This is your chance to see what life on the other side is like. Why waste it? After all, you never know when it will all be taken away from you.”
I cocked an eyebrow. There she was! The Pandora I was accustomed to.
“It’s a truth universally known that nothing lasts forever, be it good or bad.”
“Are you saying that…”
“I’m not saying anything,” she cut me off quickly, pushing herself away from the doorframe and taking a step back. “I’m just stating facts. Anyway, will you come to my party? Come on, do it as an experiment. Your first party where you’re the center of attention. Aren’t you even a little bit curious?”
I sighed. I had to admit she had a way with words, and she knew how to read people. Or me. Maybe she just knew how to read me because I was so damn transparent.
“Give me a second.”
I slammed the door in her face, knowing she’d wait for me. There was no way she was going back to her party without the prize everyone was waiting for. Corri jumped off the pillow, flapping her wings viciously to keep herself in the air.
“You need me, right? You need me!” She spun around once and kicked her tiny feet in some silly dance she’d invented. “What shall it be, Mistress? Wonder Woman? Captain Marvel? Black Cat?”
“Superheroes?” I laughed. “I gotta say, though. Compared to my blockheads’ ideas, yours are inspired.” GC and Paz had gone for Disney princesses. Corri had only been around me for two weeks, and she already knew me better. Anyway, I knew I wouldn’t feel comfortable dressed up as a superhero, so I went for something tamer. Still a superhero, but less angry than the DC and Marvel ones. “Let’s go for Sailor Moon.”
Corri nodded knowingly. She thought for a second then started swirling fast in the air until she disappeared with a poof, leaving a cloud of sparkling dust that dissipated quickly. I went to brush my teeth and wash my face. It would take her a minute. The pixie had a bunch of tricks up her sleeve, and I still had no idea whether her powers were limited or not. They probably were, but since I never asked her to do anything difficult, I was never going to find out what her limits were. She was back three minutes later, dropping a costume onto the bed. It was perfect, and it even had a wig. I put it on quickly, laughing all the while. Sailor Moon had been my favorite cartoo
n when I was little. I related a lot to the clumsy girl with long, yellow pigtails. My own hair was blond back then, and my mother had insisted I let it grow. I chopped it off later, in fifth grade, and dyed it blue. It was fine. With my new look, I could still be Sailor Neptune, who I later considered way cooler than Sailor Moon. She was more feminine, more mature, and she could play the violin. So many things I was not…
“This is perfect! Corri, you knocked it out of the park.”
The pixie beamed at me. “It was no big deal. I just went to Japan and back.”
I blinked at her, then laughed out loud. She was kidding, for sure. Still, it was better not to ask.
“Now, be a good pixie and stay here, okay? I won’t be gone long.”
“Don’t worry about me. Go, have fun, party until morning!”
I rolled my eyes and opened the door. Pandora was waiting for me outside. Yeah, that won’t happen. The plan was to go there, stuff my face with some shrimp and cupcakes, have a drink or two, and once the students who’d come to see me got drunk enough to forget I was there at all, leave. The idea was to get Pandora the successful party she wanted, then ditch her. Maybe GC and Paz would want to ditch the thing with me.
* * *
It was cold on the beach. Not the best place to have a party at the end of October, if you ask me. On the other hand, I was probably the only one who was suffering. I was the only human. The mages could get warm in seconds with some hot brew made of weird plants I’d never heard about, the demons were naturally hot and never felt the cold, and the angels had their wings to protect them from the harsh breeze coming from the ocean. Vampires never felt cold, nor warm, and mermaids and mermen were fine with either temperature. GC hugged me to his chest to warm me up, as Paz went to get me a mug of mulled wine.
“I’m so glad you changed your mind, goddess.” He kissed my ear.
“Mhm…”
I looked around me. Word had gone out that I was at Pandora’s Halloween party, and more and more students were pouring down the cliff. As far as I could tell, no one was coming through the caves, which meant they had no idea they were connected to the Academy via a secret staircase and an underground tunnel. Warm air was coming out of the large mouth of the cave, and I pulled GC away and toward one of the campfires. But no matter how much distance I put between myself and the cave, I could still feel the damp air tickling my legs. This is stupid. It’s all in my head. Because I was wearing Sailor Moon’s tall red boots. The skirt was a little too short for my liking.
“You look sexy in that sailor outfit,” Paz smirked.
I took the mug from him and greedily inhaled the rich cinnamon and apple vapors.
“I regret everything,” I mumbled. “I should’ve come as a giant hot dog or something. Wouldn’t be freezing cold…”
He stepped closer and shoved GC in the shoulder. “Move. I can keep her warm. My skin is naturally hot.”
GC narrowed his eyes at him but decided that my comfort was more important than his ego. Well, that was a first! Pazuzu wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned into him, resting my head on his chest.
“Ouch! What the hell is that?”
He chuckled. “Sorry. Just my pirate sword.”
He pulled the prop sword out of its sheath and threw it in the sand. With the bumpy obstacle between us gone, I settled back into his embrace. Only to feel another bump, more familiar this time, against my buttocks. I smiled. This one, I could be on board with.
The beach got populated quickly. A bunch of boys and girls hovered around GC, Paz, and I, and I smiled politely. And fakely, I might add. I didn’t know most of them, and frankly, because I knew they didn’t want to befriend me because they genuinely liked me, but because I was Morningstar’s daughter, I wanted nothing to do with them. I thought about what Pandora had told me. Treat it as an experiment. Yeah, right! See what being on the other side is like. Fake, and boring, and unpleasant. I briefly wondered whether they liked Lorna and Pandora for who they were. Most likely, they feared Lorna because she was a powerful, vengeful mage, and envied Pandora because she was Satan’s daughter. How can they like this life?! They will never know if their friends are for real or not. I felt bad for them. I looked over at Pandora, who was giggling with Kitty and Sheba, and wondered if she knew. She must have known how fake this whole thing was, she wasn’t stupid. It must be harder for them to step out of their comfort zone and change something, I thought. Humans don’t get stuck in their comfort zones for more than a couple of years. These people… I threw a glance over the beach, at the students around the campfires, and the ones making out up on the hill. They can be stuck in their comfort zones for centuries. For the first time, being human made me feel like I had something they didn’t have – the capacity to change, adapt, and face the unknown with the least amount of resistance.
Sariel made his appearance. I couldn’t tell what he was dressed as because his wings were spread wide around him, covering his whole back and coming over his shoulders to protect him from the cold. He got himself a mug of mulled wine, blew into it, and just observed the party for a while. He was alone. Lorna had completely given up following him since he’d saved my life and gotten puked on. He’d been very lonely lately, but he didn’t seem to mind it. I ignored him at first. I wonder where Francis is… They were usually together, although they didn’t talk much. A few minutes later, when I saw Sariel sneak into the cave, my heart started beating faster, and my senses sprung into high alert. I pushed myself away from Paz.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“Too much wine,” I said distractedly. “Nature calls.” I pushed my empty mug into his hands and walked away, pretending I was headed toward the trees up on the hill. I need to ask him. I need to know. Why had Sariel led me to finding the caves and Francis’s secret? He hadn’t thought I’d live to tell the story. Not that I told anyone… The last thing I needed was to cause a panic by spreading the rumor that a tentacled monster slept under the Academy, and Francis fed it people once in a while. No big deal… Just once in a while… I sneaked after Sariel when I was sure no one was looking.
I found them in the main cavern, surrounded by stalagmites, flickering candles, and that rusty, warm water that made the air damp and heavy. Sariel had brought Francis a beer, and they were both drinking in silence and staring at the well. I approached them carefully, my eyes fixed on the low stone fountain. It had almost been my doom a couple of months ago, and I wasn’t going to let it out of my sight. Just in case a bunch of tentacles decided to spring out in search of a juicy morsel.
“Mila, come join us,” Francis said, not taking his eyes off the well. He’d felt me. But how? What were his special powers? What was he? Was I ever going to find out? Was I ever going to be brave enough to ask the question?
Sariel stiffened at his words, which meant he hadn’t been aware of my presence. That gave me courage. I sat down on the stone ledge, between them. It was as if all three of us were silently watching over the Great Old One’s slumber. At least, that was what I thought we were doing.
“You don’t like the party?” I asked. Neither of them was wearing a costume. Sailor Moon sitting between an archangel with his wings spread out, and a totally normal-looking guy. We were a sight to behold.
“I’ve never been into parties, to tell you the truth,” Francis said. Sariel simply sipped his beer.
“What are you into, Francis?” There was just a tiny bit of sarcasm in my voice. “What do you like? What are your hobbies?” Who are you?
He shot me a confused glance then shrugged. “You know, the usual. I like to read. Russian classics, mostly. I play video games sometimes…”
“Sure you like to read. That’s why you took up Literature recently.”
He sighed. We were all silent for a few minutes, then Sariel turned to me.
“Why are you here, Mila? Why aren’t you with your boyfriends?”
“Because I feel like something has changed,” I said
in a low voice. “And I want to know why. I’m trying to understand. Since you’ve all found out who I am, I’m the popular one, and you’ve become so isolated.” I was mostly talking about Sariel, and I was sure he knew. “You used to laugh, and have fun, and be in the center of attention. At my expense, sure, but I’m sure that if you really wanted to pick on someone now, you’d find a target. So, what changed, Sariel? What’s up with you?” I looked into his blue eyes. For a moment, I expected him to avoid my gaze, but he held it, instead.
“You know what.” He looked over at Francis quickly, then back at me, shaking his head as if to say that Francis didn’t know his secret, and this wasn’t the time and place to talk about it.
I nodded. Okay, it wasn’t like we were out of crucial things to discuss.
“Last year, before the finals, you created an illusion that led me here, into this cave. You made it look like Francis wanted me to follow him. You almost got me killed that day.”
“I know it was you who stole my scythe at the Yule Ball and replaced it with another, so I’d make a fool of myself in front of everyone,” he said in a tight voice. We were still holding each other’s gaze.
I laughed. “Seriously? That was your revenge for… my revenge? I merely made you mess up the choreography. It was all in good fun. A lot of people laughed. I just wanted to give you a taste of your own medicine. Didn’t feel that great, did it?”
“You made me hurt Paz,” he hissed. “But I guess you don’t care. You weren’t together back then.”
“Paz healed just fine. I don’t think you give a shit about a tiny scar on Paz’s face. Tell me, Sariel, what did your parents do to you after Christmas? Was it that bad that it made you want to sacrifice me to Francis’s god?”
His jaw tightened and his whole body tensed so hard that his beautiful wings trembled.
I gave him one last murderous look, then shot to my feet and turned to face them both. I crossed my arms over my chest and took Sailor Moon’s well-known power stance. Hip popped slightly forward, back straight, chin up.
