Elsewhere, another night came and went for Jon's family, since all the really drastic changes had happened to other, less important people, for the first time in a week. Jon's mother Rachael had been home all day, waking up at seven o'clock in the evening to purchase a bucket of fried chicken for dinner, and after sharing a meal with her children, they went back to their rooms to pursue their own business (and hopefully do their homework,) while she got back in the car and drove to work. When Zoe woke up the next morning at the crack of dawn (another somewhat profound annoyance of her half-floral nature; she found it completely impossible to stay asleep if even the slightest sliver of daylight wormed its way into her room,) her mother was apparently still at work. Sighing, she lazily got her bed, went to the bathroom to freshen up, and headed to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast.
Yet another aspect of Zoe's change was her diet; since she was now photosynthetic, she only had to eat half as much as she used to; she got the rest of her nutrients from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. (Frighteningly enough, she didn't need oxygen at all anymore. She actually exhaled more of that than she inhaled.) This morning, she was feeling particularly thirsty, and for something more than just water. She'd never been much of a juice drinker before (and Mikey and Jon both loved Kool-aid,) so she wasn't feeling particularly hopeful when she opened the fridge.
To her surprise and delight, there was a large jug of tomato juice in the back of the fridge. This was as pleasant as it was unexpected; she hadn't known anybody in her family to like the taste of tomato juice. She hadn't liked it, either, but she was craving it now, in a tall glass with ice cubes. She cracked a few of them out of a tray in the freezer, popped them delicately into a plastic mug, and poured the juice up to the top of the glass. Excitedly, the girl brought the mug up to her lips and started chugging.
Jon awoke to the sounds of screaming and gagging. She was a fairly light sleeper now that she was a fairy, and the sounds she was hearing downstairs sounded completely unwholesome, so she went airborne and zoomed down the stairs, determined to see what the hell was going on. What she saw made her scream as well; the kitchen counter and much of the floor was covered in blood, and Zoe's head was firmly in the sink, where the girl was vomiting heavily. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and she looked like she had been witness to something horrible.
"Oh my god. Zoe!" Jon shrieked. "What the hell happened?"
The girl seemed not to hear her much smaller sister over all the ralphing, but she finally turned her head to face the fairy, red blood dripping rather horribly from her mouth. "I found a jug. I thought it was tomato juice. It was... hurrrrk!!"
She moved her head back over the sink to continue retching, and as Jon hovered over the floor she could see that most of the blood was coming out of a Six Flags mug. Further investigation revealed that there was a plastic jug like the kind apple juice came in on the table, filled with an unlabled red liquid that was definitely blood. Tomato juice was more opaque and more pulpy.
"Holy shit!" Jon shook her head in mortified disbelief. "Why the hell was there a jug of blood in the fridge? Ohmigod, ohmigod, I think I'm going to be sick..."
She was standing over the edge of the sink when Mikey wandered into the room sleepily, rubbing her eyes with her wingtips. "What's with all the noise?" He complained. "Why are you guys playing around with Mom's blood?"
Mikey's siblings turned from the sink to face her. "Mom's blood?!" Zoe and Jon said in unison.
"No, it's a cow's blood. Mom drinks it, remember?" Mikey gave her sisters a funny look. "Oh, right, I keep forgetting you guys are from the other reality. Mom's a vampire. She needs to drink blood once a week or she gets all lazy and tired. That's why she works the night shifts at the hospital, because she gets all sunburned if she doesn't wear sunscreen all the time. I guess we forgot you didn't know that. She caught the virus when she was, like, twelve. She can make her fangs come out, but she won't show us," she shrugged.
The harpy stepped over the spilled blood and grabbed a six-pack of yogurt from the fridge, walking briskly out of the kitchen. "You'd better clean this up or mom's gonna throw a fit," the girl sighed.
As Mikey walked away, Jon and Zoe turned from him to look at each other, completely dumbfounded. They stared at each other, horrified, for a completely silent thirty seconds.
"Come to think of it, Mom's looked really youthful and pale lately, but I thought it was just because of my new viewpoint..." Jon murmured.
Zoe slapped her green forehead in frustration. "Oh my fucking god. Jon, you retard."
Jon gave her sister a hurt look. "Me?! Why?"
Zoe sighed. "Not only have I now had the completely disgusting and possibly traumatizing experience of consuming bovine blood, but you made Mom a vampire. Nice going."
"What, I'm not suffering enough for it without you rubbing it in?" Jon's tone was agitated and defensive, not liking her sister's tone.
The wood nymph sighed again, wiping the blood off the counter with a rag and then pouring Spill-B-Gone over the floor to coagulate the mess. "No, I guess you are, I'm sorry. I'm just in a bad mood, what with the just having unloaded all the contents of my stomach into the sink."
Jon sighed. "I'm sorry. I really do regret this. I kinda fucked the world up, I know."
Zoe gave her sister a forgiving look as she scooped up the spill into the trash can. "Well, it's not that bad. It's kinda cool, I guess. I especially like how your hair grew an inch and turned hot pink last night."
Jon squinted at her sister in bemusement. "What are you talking about?" She pulled a strand of hair into her line of vision to prove her hair was still short and blond. In fact, her hair was now a distinctive shade of Barbie pink and went down to the small of her back. "What the... what the fuck?!"
Zoe shrugged. "You got me. I like it, though. You're glowing pink, too. Maybe it was a delayed transformation, like with Mikey's fingers, or it's some kind of seasonal thing. You're glowing pink, too. I feel like you should be hovering around me, giving me tips on fighting goblins." She giggled. "One thing's for sure, you definitely got what you deserve out of this. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go drink a few pints of Listerine." She walked out of the room with a smile, leaving Jon in horror in the kitchen.
Jon stared at herself aghast, shaking her head in dismay. "Pink? Aw, fuck."
