The trip to Karyn's house was silent affair as Karyn was gently holding her girlfriend's hand, giving her support. Neither Karyn or Jennifer really felt like talking after Zoe crushed their good mood. Thankfully for both of the girls they soon arrived at Karyn's place and walked inside. They were soon greeted by Karyn's mom Rachel "Hello, dear, Jennifer." she walked to both girls with a smile, hugging her own daughter first and then hugging Jennifer "If you need anything, just ask, okay dear?" she said gently to Jennifer and Jennifer rewarded her with small smile "I will, Mrs. Black." Rachel chuckles "How many time I told you, girl? You can call me Rachel, if you want. You are practically family, you don't need to be overly polite." Jennifer cracks a smile a bit wider "Okay, Mrs..." after getting 'the look' from Karyn's mother she continued "...Rachel. Thank you for letting me to stay here." Rachel gives her a warm smile "You are welcome, dear. Now go to Karyn's room and get comfortable. I want to chat with my daughter a bit." Jennifer nodded and thanked her again, going upstairs.
Once Jennifer was out of sight, the mother and daughter duo looked at each other. "Haven't seen her that sad in a while. What happened to her, dear?" Rachel asked her daughter and Karyn sighed. "Zoe. She came to home while we were in Jen's room and well... her comments really hurt Jennifer this time." she looked towards her room in worry. Rachel sighed "That family... Good people, but no tolerance to sexual minorities... Both father and sister, how could they be so cruel to such a good girl like Jennifer?" she asked sadly and didn't notice Karyn's eyes widen "Wait, Jennifer's dad too? Whoa... He didn't seem like a type before the wishes... is this something stone did or was it always that way? Damn, this complicates things." Karyn's mother then looked at Karyn "Tell Jennifer that she can stay as long as she wants. Also be there for her. You know how hard it is for that girl to deal with her family. If you two need anything, just say, okay?" Karyn nodded "Okay. Thanks, mom." she said and went upstairs into her room.
Once she entered her room she could see Jennifer's bag on the floor and Jennifer herself sitting on the bed and holding familiar jewelry box. "I see you took that with you..." she said softly and closed the door behind her, giving them some privacy. Karyn joined Jennifer on the bed, wrapping her arm around her girlfriend's waist. "Want to talk about what happened?" she asked.
Jennifer continued to look at the box and started talking "You know, last night I was thinking about changing them. Changing our whole life. To make them pay more attention, to make Zoe be less of the bitch... I would have done it too, but now..." she trailed off, looking at the box "Now I'm not sure if I want to. Sure, they will never know, but me? I would know. I would remember... and I would always think that the new life would be fake. That they would be puppets just acting out their roles because I wished for it..." she kept looking at the box "I am not sure I can take it anymore, really. I love mom, dad, Jacob... and even Zoe. But it is almost as if I am stranger in my own family, you know?" Karyn gently stroked Jennifer's hair. "I understand... What are you going to do?" she asked gently. Jennifer leaned on Karyn's body, relaxing slightly "Give them one chance. If they can't accept me I... I don't know." she said and felt Karyn kiss her head gently "I will be there for you. I will always be there for you." Jennifer smiled gently "I know. Love you." Karyn smiled warmly "Love you too."
Unnoticed by the two girls, the wraith form of Ember watched and listened to what happened. She couldn't read minds of two girls as easily as she used to because of their new telepathic powers, but she could piece the story together from conversations she heard. Ember vanished from Karyn's house, flying towards Madison house. Seemed she had several more stops to make today.
~~~
Ember arrived at Madison house quite quickly, feeling one person inside. Going through the walls, she soon appeared in Zoe's room and noticed Zoe listening to some music while flipping through magazines. Ember used her abilities to read Zoe's latest memories. If she could, she would narrow her eyes at little bitch. "Such a shame that Jennifer's little wish is preventing me from dealing with you directly. Such a shame indeed. I know you can't hear me, but I will feel better after saying this, so here it goes: Jennifer might be too good to punish you properly, but I have no such restrictions. I won't strike now, but know that the moment your little insignificant family pushes her too far, I will be there to offer comfort. I will be there and Jennifer will be part of my family... and then your fate will be in my hands..." she says darkly and for some reason Zoe could feel a chill running down her spine. Shrugging it off she returned to reading her magazines, not knowing that a great evil was scheming her demise.
~~~
Ember was flying in the sky, looking down and trying to find one particular house. "It should be somewhere around... found it." she thought to herself, making a sudden drop into the house and through the walls, appearing inside the room where the person she was looking for was.
The room itself looked dark, with dark purple walls and dark curtains. Dark tones seemed to dominate the room, if not for the female dark clothing in closet and purple tones, you couldn't even tell this was girl's room. There were also many more curious things in the room. Occult symbols, books about witchcraft and satanism, various baubles and trinkets, herbs and vials. The owner of the room was definitely practising some magic. Or at least tried to. The said owner was actually reading one of her books at her desk, with laptop at the side that seemed to have research notes. She seemed to be around Zoe's age and dressed in dark gothic clothes, her hair dyed midnight black.
This was Zoe's friend Athena.
Suddenly Athena raised her head from the book, looking around the room. She could swear that she felt something. "Probably my imagination playing tricks on me. No more horror movies at night." Athena thought to herself, not knowing that Ember was floating barely an inch from her.
"So she could tell something was around her, huh? Maybe dabbling in all this nonsense gave her a bit of awareness. Though she doesn't seem to have anything remotely magical in her room... Maybe it is in her blood, but diluted? Doesn't matter, she will do nicely for some things I want to do. At least until I get my own body. Wish I remembered more of my skills at times like this. Well, what I know will have to do. I won't need much..." Ember thought to herself and with a rush charged into Athena's body, making the girl to gasp for breath and collapse on her desk.
The next time Athena raised her head, her eyes glowed crimson red for a second and a sinister smile streched on her lips. "Success~" she purred darkly, closing her books and laptop and leaving the room.
