Bill had expected pandemonium the next day after. Their school would be in the news… students transformed into monsters. The fact that magic was real, had entered into the world…
…and yet there was nothing.
He looked through the internet, doing various search terms to see how the world reacted… but there was nothing there. He frowned a bit, not quite sure ‘what’ to make of it.
“Honey are you okay?” His mother called. “We heard about what happened…”
Bill glanced to her. “Oh- yeah I’m fine.” He got up stretching a bit. “Just you know… I’m not too sure what to say to the others in class-“
“Oh they’ll understand,” she smiled.
Understand? “Uh… understand what?” Bill frowned in confusion.
“Oh- uh- nothing it’s okay. I’m just glad to see you coping so well.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll get through this if you need anything.”
Bill was now ‘very’ confused. His mom seemed more concerned about him, then the other students. They had turned into monsters! He saw at least a weird ‘Bird’ like creature… a harpy right? A mermaid… some kind of demon which was a little different to the little ‘imps’ that were causing all the mayhem. “Why is there nothing on the internet about what happened?” he asked.
His mother shrugged. “Well, I think most would respect your privacy on that.”
“…my privacy?” he was again very confused. “Uh… mom, what exactly happened today?” It was like his mother was acting from a completely different set of memories now.
“Don’t worry honey, you just get some rest. I’ll make breakfast for you in the morning.”
…now Bill was ‘very’ creeped out. He usually did everything himself. His mom was acting like he was supposed to be severely traumatised- well- maybe that ‘would’ be the case given he just saw a couple of freaky imp-demons causing chaos in his class, changing students in weird ways- but- yeah, something ‘odd’ was happening here.
“I should call one of them,” He thought. He knew plenty of phone numbers, and had access to a group chat. He wasn’t sure ‘who’ though… he didn’t exactly have a ‘close friend’, and always kept a slight distance… even if people considered him ‘popular’. In the end, he decided to call Shawn. His transformation was extreme, with both a gender change and species into a bird… and he didn’t really want to call his teacher. “I hope she can still use a phone with wings,” he idly thought. He activated her name on the phone and waited.
“Oh- hey-“ the new girl said anxiously on the phone. “… are you okay?”
“Hey,” Bill said. That was going to be my question,” he said calmly.
“Oh we’re fine.” The girl said with a gentle smile. “I heard these changes are probably temporary if that helps.”
“Oh- that is a relief,” Bill replied, still wondering how ‘anything’ like this had any rules. “I um… I’m sorry I- ran off-“ He grimaced. He did run… he saw his fellow students being attacked and just ran. He wasn’t much help at all…
“It was understandable,” the girl at the end replied. “Don’t worry we’ll still invite you and stuff-“
…and again Bill had that strange feeling that ‘something’ was wrongs. “I… never worry about that,” he said blinking. “Uh- are you okay?”
“Uh huh,” The girl nodded behind the phone. “You do sound very different as a guy though, I hope you don’t mind me saying.”
Bill froze. “…wait… what?” He was now ‘very’ confused. “Just- uh- what happened today?”
“Well…you turned into a guy… freaked out and ran out of the class.” Shawn replied confused. “Don’t you remember Bree?”
Bill blinked. Bree? What? “Uh… that’s not… well- um-“ He didn’t know what to think now. “…so… uh… did you turn into a bird?”
“What?” Shawn laughed. “That’s funny. No of course not!” the girl giggled again.
“…but you are a girl.”
“…I’ve always been a girl, Bree,” Shawn frowned a little concerned on what she was hearing. “…you sure you’re okay? That change might have done something to your memories.”
Bill rubbed his head. Shawn was under the impression he was a girl... turned into a guy? He had always been a guy! Where did she even get that idea? This was crazy.. this was nuts… “I- uh-“
“-But it should be temporary! You’ll be back to normal in no time, I’m sure!” She smiled encouragingly. “If not… well… you make a nice guy too. We could even go out!”
So… the day was just getting crazier…
“Order of Light Return!” A magical girl tapped her staff as the radiant light energy engulfed the demon-imp. She had finally cornered it in the park. The second one she had caught in one go!
The creature in front of her was like the size of a football. A ‘demon imp’ of some kind, now writhing in some kind of painful torture- which it apparently enjoyed on some level. “Ah- ha that tickles!” she moaned. “Oh, come on! Those were great mythological beings! I went all out!” The creature seemed delighted by its actions.
The young girl was only about ten years old... clad as she was in strange magical garments. A white skirt down to about her knees, ribbons of red on her blonde hair. She had a crystal necklace around her neck, which pulsed in pure white light. “I have to stop you- what- where are you going!”
“I’m running?” The imp stated fluttering away.
“Get back here!” She tried zapping the creature a few times with powerful light… but the demon kept on dodging. “Ha ha! You’re so slow. You’ll never get all of us anyway…”
“I’ll get you!” she tried to run after it…
Unfortunately, the creature flew away… and she didn’t have enough power to give chase. she gave a sigh. “I’m never gonna be able to do this…” How was she to cope?
At that point, a small cat-like fox appeared. The curious creature was similar in size to the imp, but.. fluffier. “You did well though. You managed to remove two corruptive forices...”
“but not the third one...” She looked sadly. “It’s my fault.”
“Well, it can’t be helped. We’re out of time now.” The fox-cat reminded.
She looked down at the medallion on her neck which started to pulse faster and faster… A ‘bong’ sound could be heard as time began to unravel itself… and re-stitch again into a ‘new’ normality. She watched as a soft ripple cascaded across her vision… though no changes could be seen. “So… those students are always going to think they had always been that way?”
“Yes,” The fox-creature nodded. “…and that’s the way it works. Those demons cause a change… you have some time to undo it… but if you fail, those changes become part of the new fabric of reality. A change of gender doesn’t change your fundamental reality though, and it’s not like that imp changed ‘everyone’ in the class… So I would consider this a victory!”
Emma sighed. “… I don’t know if I can handle this.” She whispered. “I’m only ten- I should…” she should not be thinking about the entire world being in trouble…
“It can only be you.” The fox-creature explained. “The evil Queen is returning… you need to fight her. If you don’t your entire reality will descend to chaos and ruin. Sorry kid.”
Emma knew that… of course she did. She had those memories, small glimpses of an old time where she had been someone else. She recalled the terror of facing up to something like that but… that was a whole other life! Why did this creature give her that knowledge… memories of a time so long ago she had not even been born. Could they legitimately even be called her memories, even if they had the same soul?
…being a magical girl was hard work.
