NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12 – Post Game Meeting
I didn’t even have to walk forward to grab Horton’s phone. He was still so petrified I snatched it out of his hand with ease, before throwing it on the ground and stomping on it with enough force the tiles in the bathroom cracked. Ah well, too late, that wasn’t going to get fixed by killing a Nightmare. And Horton had saved me the work of smashing an SD card by having an iPhone. Convenient. Just for good measure I kicked him in the stomach. He grunted, but didn’t react any further. And then I took my phone out and snapped a quick picture. “To remember you b-by.”
It was time, though. I sighed. I had only done so twice so far, but I hated this part. “Moon Wand Powers, Dim.”
I was in tears when I walked out the locker room and right into Emily’s embrace, which made me cry even more. Having to change back hurt, but knowing that Emily was fine, that she wasn’t hurt, made me feel incredibly relieved. We just stood there for a minute while she held me close and stroked my hair, and I sobbed. “I-I don’t w-want to, to do that a-anymore. I-I d-don’t want to change b-back in-into this,” I whimpered. I registered Claire saying something, but didn’t register what she actually said, which was followed by feeling myself be pulled away from the scene of the crime by Emily. The path I was pulled through was unfamiliar, and ended in a darkened room, illuminated by a phone’s flashlight.
When I finally got myself together enough, I looked up to see Emily’s face right near mine, smiling with sad understanding. She kissed my forehead and I managed a slight smile myself. “W-where, where are we?” I asked nobody in particular, trying to get a better idea of the space.
“The former AV Club room. School cut our funding for the sake of the football team, but it’s got blackout curtains and some soundproofing, so it’s a perfect hideout,” Aleah answered, dangling keys. “They didn’t expect the pres to make copies.”
“O-okay, yeah, t-that, that makes s-sense.” I looked down, surprised to see Potato Bun in my lap, holding my hand supportively. I really didn’t expect her to care.
Claire cleared her throat. “Right, now that the Nightmare has been dealt with, I want to know what exactly happened in there, and also, how the HELL you managed to take down a Nightmare of that size on your own.” Claire had been standing, but she pulled up a chair in front of me and sat down, crossing her legs. “Also, Aleah, please, turn on the lights.” Aleah clicked with her mouth and flipped the switch, and I could properly see everyone. Aleah was by the door, Ellie was watching from a bit further away in the room, and Blake was sitting on a table, cross legged.
I took a deep breath, and considered my options. I could stutter through the explanation, or just sign it. But then, I wasn’t sure if Claire or Blake knew sign language. Text to speech would do. “Horton threw me against a locker; it made Potato Bun and my wand fly out of my bag. He tried to rip Potato Bun apart, and found out I’m a Magical Girl.” My hands were a bit shaky by this point. “He recorded me transforming, and that made me panic.” I had the next sentence typed out, it was ready, all I had to do was press read. But the sentence felt like opening Pandora’s box. Emily squeezed my hand, and I pressed the button at last. “I caused the Nightmare to manifest. Fear of Being Outed.”
Claire looked surprised. “I’ve never seen one that big before. How would you be single handedly responsible for it?” I shrugged to answer her, and she sighed, rubbing her eyes. “Okay, that clears that up; I’m more concerned about that recording now.”
“I smashed his phone after I defeated the Nightmare.” I chuckled a bit. “I got a picture of him on the ground wet from his own piss, though.”
Aleah grinned. “Good insurance, since I’m not sure whether smashing the phone got rid of the video. Cloud storage and all.”
“Shit.” Emily cussed. “What happens if he posts it somewhere?”
“I’ll keep an eye out, report it as abusive if it pops up. We’ve dealt with the elephant in the room, now I think it’s time for the whale.” Aleah looked right at me, pointing just to make it clear what she was referring to. “How’d you do that?”
I tried thinking back to the fight, but it was like a chunk of time was missing. I knew I’d fought, I knew I’d won, I knew the before and after, but the actual fight felt fuzzy, like when an anxiety attack made me black out. Except I was sure I hadn’t blacked out, and I remembered my thought process beforehand. But the idea was ridiculous; it couldn’t have been that, how would it even translate into fighting ability? Maybe it wasn’t fighting ability, though, it was attitude, the transformation doing the rest. “I’m a lucid dreamer,” I typed out, and waited for everyone’s reaction. Everyone except Ellie looked shocked, but Ellie just kept her poker face, and hummed.
“Go on…” Claire said, gesturing for me to continue. It still felt dumb to type out.
“I’ve had nightmares and night terrors since before I can remember, basically every night. But I’ve learned to lucid dream, and it lets me take control of the situation and destroy the nightmare.” I sighed. “So I just figured, a Nightmare is a nightmare, you know? And it was like a switch flipped, and the rest is fuzzy.” The text to speech app finished, and Claire got up to pace around the room.
“That’s so dumb, that can’t be it, can it?” She looked at me, and I shrugged. “Think of the Nightmares as nightmares, what does that even mean?”
“I think it’s that Nightmares don’t have real power? Every time we defeat one, the collateral damage they caused to the surroundings is undone; the only things that don’t get fixed are lives lost,” Blake offered. “And our Magical forms are basically an extra life; if they get fatal damage we’re supposed to just revert back, right?” I thought all eyes were on me after that statement, but they were on Potato Bun, who looked down.
“I don’t know anymore! All I’ve been told about Magical Girls has been turned upside down by Daisy and her mom! I wouldn’t be surprised if they had lied to us about everything at this point.” Her outburst was surprising. The turn was sudden. “Just don’t treat your bodies as disposable. I can’t believe it took me this long to realise that I should care about my charge, not just push her into battle.” She slumped down, still in my lap, and I tentatively began stroking her head with my thumb. What a sucker, roped into it just like us.
“It is true that Nightmares come from humans though, isn’t it?” Emily asked, the token non-magical girl present here, for my sake. “If I understand right, they only happen because someone reaches a breaking point. Like Daisy did. So the logic of treating them like nightmares, as largely inconsequential, still works.” Emily pulled me closer. “You stare right into the maw of the beast and go ‘Not today, fuckface,’ and bash its teeth in.”
She was right. That’s how I had dealt with my nightmares. That’s how I had dealt with the Nightmare. Perhaps it could be how I dealt with my life going forward. There really was no point to me staying closeted. “I-I think I should come, come out as trans, a-after the weekend. A-also we should go see, see my mom. L-let her know what h-happened,” I said. Emily ruffled my hair and kissed my cheek, Ellie gave me a thumbs up, Aleah pulled out her phone and started scrolling through something, and Claire gently grabbed my shoulder.
“You’re tougher than all of us combined. We don’t have as heavy a ball and chain of Anxiety as you do. We’re all behind you, though.” Claire looked at the clock on the wall. “And honestly, yeah, let’s get out of here; I figure school is done for the day after that slug.” She pointed with her thumb to the door, and I got up while nodding.
Mom was sitting in the armchair, hands held together in front of her face, pointer fingers extended, while surrounded by six teens and a disillusioned mascot. Her face screamed ‘I’m barely keeping it together right now, so nobody push me or I will do something to lose my medical license.’ She had opened her mouth a few times to begin speaking, but always stopped herself. After ten minutes of that, she finally managed to speak. “Do I need to get a lawyer involved?” Aleah pulled out a pair of business cards out of her pocket and slid them across the coffee table towards Mom. “Are you sliding these over because we’d get a discount? As a… company benefit?”
“Sure, you can word it that way, Dr. Cloudton,” Aleah replied, and stepped back once more.
“Okay. I’m even more determined to be Team Mom when shit like this pops up.” Mom got up and walked over to the attic door, opening it to reach in there. In all our time living here, I had never seen Mom go up there, but she came down holding a wooden box. “I was hiding this away in case your father decided to show up for a visit, Daisy. I never expected I’d get any other use out of it. And I actually hoped I’d never have to open this.” The box held a double-barrel shotgun. “Please, make yourselves at home, everyone. Daisy and Emily know where the snacks are, I’ll be in the garage doing maintenance.” And with those words, Mom left us to our devices, taking the shotgun. With it being Friday afternoon, and me being at home, I transformed, and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Jackbox?”
