Zelda awoke to find Zoe standing over her. As her vision came back into focus Zelda realized just how much her old friend had changed. Her once pale skin was now tanned, and her hair was now a strawberry blond. "Like, are you okay?" she asked Zelda, in a voice which Zelda now realized sounded far more like Tiffany Sander's than her own.
Zelda instinctively touched the pendant at her neck, which was still securely in place, and looked to come up with a quick lie. "Uh... yeah," she said, "The blood just rushed to my head there, for a minute. I'm going to... I'm gonna go catch my breath outside."
As she exited the room, Zelda could here Michelle, in an eerily real French accent, say matter-of-factly "Well what do you expect? She bounces around so much, its only natural she crashes every once and awhile."
Zelda stepped outside, trying hard not to freak out. What had happened to her friend? Or her father, or Gladys, or Mikey? Where were the people whose lives they were leading? Where was the person who she had replaced? What the hell was going on here? Her mind racing, Zelda suddenly had an epiphany. The Spiked Pit. Athena would be more likely there than anywhere else on a Sunday, and if it was anyone who knew about weird stuff like this, it was her.
Zelda hopped in her pink car, determined to find someone left who was normal.
Meanwhile, at Zeldas destination, Lucy paced her mostly vacant club, trying to think of a way to help Joni, Jayne, and Linda. "What about their parents?" she asked the twins, who were standing nearby.
"We checked all three of the houses. The only one we managed to locate is Tiffany Madison, who appears to be most distressed at her daughter's predicament," Beth reported.
"Agatha DeVries' wasn't home, and there was no answer at the Whitefield residence," Christine added. "Their phones appeared to be disconnected as well."
"Any news from the police?"
"The girls are still in temporary confinement, and they might face dire charges," the twins said in unison.
Lucy cursed. So basically nothing new at all. "Any idea who might be behind this?"
The twins nodded. "When we arrived at the DeVries residence, we found two girls breaking in," Beth said in her deadpan tone. "Using the key Linda left in her purse, we entered after they had left. While we were unfamiliar with the house, we noticed Linda's personal computer was still warm."
"Alright, sounds pretty suspicious. Who were the girls?"
"They were both blonde, with forced tans and skimpy clothing," Christine said, "One was small, and seemed to be unnecessarily cheery, while the other had straight hair down to her rear and a particularly deep tan."
Lucy nodded, recognizing the descriptions from Joni's frequent complaints, "Sounds like Zelda and Burt. They're friends of Zoe, a shallow little thing that has made an enemy of Joni. Joni may have mentioned she hit Joni's car and then tried to get her blamed for it on Friday. And I think I remember Joni mentioning Zoe's father as chief of police. My god, if they're behind this, then-" she stopped, looking over at the twins, who were looking at the club's entrance. "What is it?"
"We believe the term is 'to speak of the Devil'," Beth said, as she and her sister pointed to the smallish girl that just walked in.
