Soar, Part 24 - Conclusion

"Sounds like we have company," came Irene's voice from the room and all the girls tensed. "Sebastian? Do bring our guests in!"

Sebastian pressed one gloved finger to his lips and winked. Then he pushed the girls into the room.

Irene looked up as they stumbled in. She frowned and looked over at Anka. "These were your, ah, friends, yes?"

Anka's face was frozen, his wide eyes full off horror and his mouth slightly agape. He swallowed thickly. "I... I'm sorry," he said and turned away. Alex had no idea if the words were directed at them, his mother, or even himself.

"Well then," said Irene. "What ever should we do with you?"

Anka's head whipped up.

"Please, mother, they have nothing to do with this," he said, panic very evident in his voice. "Just let them go, please, don't hurt them."

Irene laughed, but didn't stop whatever she was doing.

"I'm not going to hurt them, silly," she said, a lopsided grin on her face. "I have no interest in having casualties. I'll have to remove their memories, a bit later, but right now I don't have the time to deal with that. Sebastian, tie them up."

"Yes, mistress," said Sebastian and procured a rope from somewhere.

"I thought you were on our side," hissed Roxie when he started to tie their hands behind their backs. "You told Vanilla about-"

"I'm terribly sorry about the confusion," Sebastian cut her off, a small smile playing on his lips. His expression was impossible to read. "I am the butler to the Wuopio family, and I owe my utter and complete allegiance to the head of the family, until they are deemed unworthy of the title. And that, at the moment, is mistress Irene."

"Oh," said Roxie. They looked at each other for a moment and then she nodded.

"And that means I must do any and all things that my master commands me to," he continued as if he hadn't stopped. "I hope you don't take it personally, miss."

"What exactly are you doing?" Alex asked Irene after Sebastian had tied all their hands behind their backs and they were sitting on the floor against one of the walls. "Some kind of witchy shit, right?"

"And why should I tell you?" asked Irene calmly. "It's not like you're going to remember any of this afterwards, when I've erased all your memories."

"Yeah, but it's really gonna bother me right now if you don't," said Alex, just as calmly. "And don't evil geniouses love telling their plans to the captured heroes?"

"I am not evil!" Irene protested, finally looking up from the bowl.

"Could have fooled me," said Alex. "What with the kidnapping, soul sacrifice, and, you know, tying us up."

"I am doing this for the greater good," Irene said, trying to regain her composure. "To make the world a better place. And I'm not sacrificing anything, all the souls will be returned after the spell has been completed."

"You keep saying that," came Anka's voice. He was staring unseeingly at the opposite wall, his mouth turned down into a sneer. "You keep saying that you'll return the souls as if there will be any of them left after this."

"There will-" started Irene.

"You don't know that!" shouted Anka. "You have no idea what you're doing and you have no idea what'll happen to the souls during the spell and you have no idea what you're dealing with!"

"What are we dealing with?" asked Skye, studying the large pentagram in the middle of the room. "That's a summoning circle, that much I know, but what exactly are you trying to summon?"

Irene sighed. "It's going to be okay," she said. "You need to calm down, Anka. He promised me, see? He promised, that once I free him, he'll make everything better. Don't you want to make life easier for all of us? For Ahiru?"

Anka swallowed again, and looked over at the small girl next to him. She looked back, her eyes wide. Her face was oddly void of emotion. He sniffed and placed a hand on her head, pulling her close. The girl lets out a soft "ah" as her face collides with Anka's shoulder.

"He can do it," said Irene, something manic glinting in her eyes. "He can make her all better. No more nightmares, no more overwhelming emotions. She'll be able to live normally. And he'll be able to fix all our lives."

"What... what's wrong with her?" asked Olivia quietly. Irene's gaze turned to her.

"You probably don't know this, but animorphagi are a species which possesses empathic powers. It helps us connect with nature, and the world around us," she said. "Sometimes being surrounded by large groups of people can be fairly draining on us, so we tend to keep to ourselves."

"That's why I've been homeschooled until now," said Anka quietly.

"Yes, school was an unpleasant place for Anka when he was a child," conceded Irene. "But Ahiru... Her empathic powers are without comparison. There's never been someone as powerful as her in the recorded history of the entire family. But that means she's constantly overwhelmed by other people's emotions. She can't go anywhere with a lot of people without having a panic attack, or worse... But he," the manic glint was back in her eyes, "he can make Ahiru all better. He can make us all better once I free him."

"Oh no," said Skye. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the summoning circle. She had recognized the pattern. "Who is 'he'? Tell me, right now!"

Somewhere up in the house a clock chimed midnight.

"Time's up, little ladies," said Irene, turning back to the table.

"No, no," screamed Skye, trashing against the ropes. Her wings were flaring up dangerously. "You can't do it, you can't free him!"

"Who!? What's going on Skye??" asked Roxie, yanking at her own bonds.

Irene started to reciting something in Latin. The flames of the candles around the room flickered threateningly. There was a distant rumbling sound.

"Stop it, please!" Skye cried. "You'll get us all killed!"

"Mother..." said Anka cautiously. Ahiru was clutching her head in obvious pain, whimpering slightly and pressing against Anka. Irene's eyes flicked to her children but she didn't stop. If anything she seemed more determined to finish the summoning.

"Please," Skye was outright sobbing now. "You can't do this!"

"Someone tell us what's happening!" shouted Alex. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears and the rumbling sound was growing louder. "Who is she freeing?"

"Samhain," breathed Anka.

Alex and Roxie stopped dead on their tracks. Olivia paled.

"No," she whispered. She turned to look at Skye, then at Irene. Her eyes were wide with fear. "You fool. You have no idea what you're about to unleash into the world."

Irene's voice faltered but she didn't stop. Olivia's calm horror seemed to affect her more than Skye's uncontrollable sobbing.

"Mother, please, we can still stop this," said Anka shakily, although it was apparent he wasn't hoping for much anymore. Ahiru was still clinging onto his arm, her whimpering having been replaced by quiet sobbing.

"Isn't summoning Samhain one of the unforgivable taboos?" asked Vanilla. Her voice was level and indifferent and if it weren't for the extremely focused look on her face one would have thought she didn't care at all about the situation.

"It... it is," said Roxie quietly. Her eyes flicked to Sebastian and then to Anka. "Anka! Your mother has committed an unforgivable taboo! She is no longer worthy of to represent the family and that means you must step up!"

Anka drew in a shaky breath. A few candles were blown out. The summoning circle began to shine. Hie eyes widened as he understood the implications. His expression steeled.

"Sebastian," he said. "Stop her."

"Yes, my lord," said Sebastian, his lips curled into a devilish smile and he bowed. In the blink of an eye he was on the other side of the room, twisting Irene's hand behind her back and slamming her against the table as she let out a screech. He spoke something in a language that sounded similar to Latin but wasn't and swiped his hand horizontally.

The circle stopped glowing. The rumbling became more distant before it disappeared completely. The candles that had gone out flickered back into life, illuminating the room with their happy dancing once more. Irene kept screaming and cursing against the table.

Anka got up on shaky legs and rushed over to the girls, quickly untying them. He returned to Ahiru's side while Alex took rope to Sebastian, so he could tie up Irene.

"You traitor!" she spat at Sebastian as he sat her down in the side o the room. She tried to struggle against the ropes, but to no avail. "I am your master, you must do as I say!"

"Unfortunately, miss," said Sebastian in a tone that said it wasn't unfortunate at all. "You no longer are. I am bound to serve the family and it's head, which you no longer are. I owe you no allegiance anymore."

Irene's eyes widened in shock and horror. Sebastian's smile was very selfsatisfied.

"I guess you're the head of the family now," said Alex, bumping Anka with her elbow. He scratched his cheek.

"I guess," he said. Irene's eyes snapped to him.

"And you," she seethed. "You think you can manage being the head of the family? You can't even take care of yourself, let alone your sister, and you think you can run the family? Don't make me laugh!"

"I'll take good care of Ahiru, so don't you worry," said Anka, steadier than Alex had anticipated.

"He could have helped her," Irene snarled. "He could have made her life easier! He could have fixed her!"

"She's not broken, mom!" shouted Anka and the room fell quiet. Irene stared up at her panting son, who looked much older, suddenly. "She's not broken," he said again, quieter.

Ahiru tightened her grip on his waist and looked up at him. "Right," he said, and put a hand on her head. "Let's get out of here. We can call the police from upstairs."

~x~

It took the police ten minutes to arrive and another ten for the children to explain exactly what had happened. Irene kept shouting obscenities until Sebastian gagged her. Roxie's mom arrived just as they were finishing up the explanation, eyes panicked and wide. The moment Roxie saw her, something broke and she started bawling, tears rolling fat and wet from her eyes. Ma'at rushed over to her daughter, kissing her wet cheek and engulfed Roxie in a giant hug. The other girls found themselves teary eyed as well.

They cried. They hugged. They called their parents, which made them cry even more. Ma'at spoke to each of their parents, explaining the situation a bit more clearly than their bawling daughters had and while everyone was concerned they were also glad that no one was hurt and it was truly over now. Fatigue hit all of the girls near simultaneously as their tears dried up and Ma'at packed them, Anka and Ahiru included, into her car and drove them over to Roxie's place. She had arranged it with their parents that they could spend the rest of the night together and then she would deliver the children back home in the morning. It would be Monday tomorrow, but given the circumstances no one suggested that the girls need go to school.

For the second time in the past 24 hours they climbed into Ma'at and Reginleif's huge bed and fell asleep, drawing comfort in the closeness of the others.

~x~

Tuesday morning opened up clear and crisp. It had snowed in the night, just a bit, but the temperature was to rise as the sun did and it would no doubt melt immediately. Alex sat at a bench in the park where it had all started, and stared down at the road that... The road. Technically she should probably be in school, but after everything that happened, her parents had told her that if she needed a few days it would be alright.

"Whatcha thinking about?" came a voice by her ear and she turned to see Olivia grinning at her. Skye and Roxie were standing next to her. Alex huffed out a laugh.

"Nothing much," she said with a smile. She felt more peaceful than she had the whole week. "Trying to sort out exactly how crazy the last two weeks have been."

"Yeah, don't I know that feel," said Roxie and plopped down on the bench next to her. She stretched her wings above her head and then pulled them against her back again. "I spent the entire yesterday just staring at a wall, I couldn't believe all the stuff that happened."

"Oh, have you heard about the condition-," started Alex and then paused, a sudden lump appearing in her throat. She swallowed past it and continued. "The condition of the victims?"

"After Mr. Wuopio found out we'd arrested his wife and told him exactly what she had almost done, he became a whole lot more cooperative," said Roxie with a smirk. "Seems like he hadn't been in on all of the details there and had had no idea who exactly they were about to summon. He promised to retract the curse."

"So they're..." tried Skye, her hand taking a tighter hold on Olivia's where it was looped though her arm. "Okay?"

"Last I heard they were still in the hospital, although some of them had already started to wake up," said Roxie. "Don't know about Annalise yet, though."

There was a short silence, broken by a small cough from behind them.

"Hello," said Anka, smiling sheepishly. Ahiru was clinging to his waist again, clearly shy. "I, uh, I hope I'm not disturbing... I understand if I'm the last person you want to see right now."

"That's okay," said Skye with a pleasant smile. "We can't blame you for what your parents did, and you did help out in the end a lot."

"I guess, but..." he said, looking down. "I'm sorry I got you all dragged into this mess."

"Nah, bro, you didn't really drag us anywhere, we dragged ourselves," said Alex, waving at him. He looked at her, brows knit together in confusion. "I mean sure, the graffiti got us really interested, but we were already knee deep in the thing before we even noticed that." She paused and considered something for a moment. "Although I'll have you know, that was still the dumbest possible thing you could have done."

Anka laughed softly. "Yeah, I guess it was," he admitted. "Well... Thank you. For helping out."

"So what's happening with you two?" asked Olivia. "They didn't arrest you, clearly, but what's next?"

"Oh, well, I am going to be a witness in the trial," said Anka. "The police don't really consider me an accomplice since I was being coerced by my parents to do what I didn't want to, and if I'm cooperative with them they won't find it necessary to press charges. As for what next... I'm not sure. I'm almost 18, so I'll be able to get Ahiru's custody soon enough, and it's not like we'll have any financial trouble since the family assets are still ours... I'll try to find Ahiru a good tutor, or a school somewhere and then continue my own studying." His grip on the small girl tightened and he smiled slightly, worn out and too old for his young face, but happy none the less.

"Sound like a plan," said Olivia. "If you want, I can recommend some schools especially for empathetically gifted children?"

"That would be so helpful, thank you," said Anka, his face brightening.

"Shouldn't you people get going to the hospital?" asked a new voice behind them and they all turned in surprise. Vanilla took a lollipop from her mouth and gestured at them with it. "You'll be late for the touching reunion soon."

"Haha, what?" asked Alex, as she pieced together what exactly that meant. "Are you saying...?"

"That your fifth little dancer is waking up?" said Vanilla and grinned. "Go see for yourselves."

Alex's face broke out to a grin and she hopped off the bench. "Oh my gosh, let's go!" She stopped. "How do we get there?"

GET ON, said Skye, already morphed into a giant beast. Alex blinked up at her in surprise, while Olivia squealed and climbed on her back. COME ON I WANT TO GET THERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. FLYING IS THE FASTEST WAY.

"Oh, right," said Alex and climbed on, Vanilla right behind her. Roxie flapped her wings a few time, indicating she was ready to fly as well.

"I'll see you guys later, I guess," said Anka.

"Shut up and start flying," Alex told him. He blinked. And then he smiled.

The four figures took off from the park and flew their way to Sam Memorial Hospital.

~x~

Annalise blinked her eyes a few times, looking up at a white, unfamiliar ceiling. It was weird, why was she looking at a ceiling. The last thing she could remember was hurrying to dance practice... She noticed the distinct beeping of a heart monitor and panic hit her like the tide crashing in. She was in a hospital, staring up at a hospital ceiling, having been hospitalized for something she had no recollection of. Why was she here? How long had she been here? Was someone else hurt? Were the girls..?

"Annalise?" a soft voice next to her said and she blinked again and turned her head. Her eyes focused on Alex's face, very close to her own. She looked relieved, but also like she'd been crying a lot. "Hey, you're okay. You're okay," she said, really more to herself than to Annalise, and took a deep breath. She was pushed aside by Roxie who leaned in closer.

"Oh thank Odin, you really are okay," she sighed and smiled.

"What-" tried Annalise, but her voice gave out. Her throat was cry and sore and she cleared it. "What happened?" she managed to croak. She sat up a bit more and suddenly she had a pile of girls in her arm, all her friends hugging her tightly and crying. She squeezed them back the best she could, but her muscles were still slightly numb. She noticed three figures standing a bit away from the bed. A boy and two young girls. The boy seemed slightly familiar...

"Hi," he said and waved at her. She frowned and he scratched his cheek.

"You..." she said. Her friends let go of her and pulled back to see what she was talking about. "You're the new kid."

"Oh, right, you don't really know them, do you," said Alex. "These are Anka, his little sister Ahiru, and uh... Vanilla. She's, well. One of the other victims."

"Victims?" asked Annalise. "What... exactly happened?"

The girls exchanged glances and pulled up chairs around Annalise's bed.

"Now that... is a long story."
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Yay.

I'm not sure I like the very very end but ahhh it's good enough. I still think this would work a lot better as visual story but well we'll see.

So you're up tomorrow again. Can't wait to see what you'll come up with. Bye~

Pie out.

Soar, Part 23 - Mare

They spent the rest of Sunday afternoon sitting around at Roxie's, trying and failing to do anything productive. They went through some old books and the internet to try and find the curse used, or some kind of cure, but their efforts were about as fruitless as they had been the entire week. Which was to say they found squat. Roxie's mom came home briefly around six, updated them on the situation, which hadn't changed too much, and then left again, telling Roxie not to wait up. After that the girls fell back into a somewhat uncomfortable silence, as they watched the time tick away.

Quarter to eleven and Vanilla, who had spent the whole day sprawled on one of Roxie's armchairs and staring at the clock, stood up and stretched. Everyone's attention turned to her.

"Well then," she said. "Time to go, I think."

"Excuse me?" said Roxie, standing up as well. "You can't leave! You're a material witness! I don't care if you're a centuries old deity, I'm not letting you leave!"

"Millennia old, actually," said Vanilla easily, and grinned. Roxie's frown only grew. "And I didn't mean it like that." She turned to Alex. "I believe you're about to receive a text message."

"What?" said Alex. Two seconds later a short, soft tune chimed through the living room. Alex's eyes widened, and she slowly pulled out her phone. Vanilla looked at her pointedly as she opened the text she received. Her eyes widened even further. "It's.. it's Anka. He wants us to come, immediately."

"So... time to go," said Vanilla, already pulling her coat on. When no one moved, just stared at her in stunned silence, she scoffed. "Let's move, people!"

She was out the door before the rest of them scrambled to their feet to follow her.

"How are we gonna get there though," asked Skye when they were gathered in front of Roxie's house. "It was a full fifteen minutes by car, it's gonna take us a long time to walk."

The look on her face clearly said that she really didn't want to use her trueform anymore. Luckily for her Vanilla chimed in.

"Oh don't worry, I can take us," she said, rolling her shoulders.

"How, exactly do you plan to do that?" asked Alex, crossing her arms.

"Shapeshifter, remember," said Vanilla, flashing her a smile and got on all fours. Soon there was a very large, incredibly beautiful mare standing in front of them. She flicked her mane and trotted around the group of astonished teenagers.

"Wow," breathed Skye. She extended a slightly trembling hand towards the horse and she let her pat her neck. "Are you sure you an carry all four of us?"

"Oh yeah," said Vanilla, settling down so that the girls could climb on. It was slightly weird to hear the horse speaking. "Don't even worry about it. What you should worry about is not falling off."

"This is so cool," said Olivia, and climbed on. She seemed extremely giddy.

"Wow, this is pretty cool," said Roxie with a sly smile. "Say, is this the same form you had back when that one guy was building the wall..?"

Vanilla snorted. "Just get on," she huffed, clearly annoyed. Roxie's grin grew, but she got on without another word, as did Skye and Alex. It was slightly uncomfortable, since two of them had wings, but they managed somehow and Vanilla stood up. "Hold on tight," she said and broke into a gallop.

~x~

They raced across the city at an astonishing speed. The wind whipped their hair around as they glided along streets, Vanilla's hooves hitting the pavement in a frantic rhythm, and the girls hugged each other tightly, having nowhere else to hold onto. Olivia, who was sitting up front, was holding tightly to Vanilla's mane and if it hurt she didn't say. They were moving so fast none of the girls could keep track of where they were going until they came to a stop.

"The house is just around the corner," said Vanilla, decelerating into a walk. She knelt down on the ground again, to let the girls off her back and then shifted back into the form of a small girl. "And I think we're just in time."

Skye checked her wrist watch. It was exactly eleven o'clock.

"Anka's sent me another text," said Alex, thumbing at her phone. "He says we should go through the back, there's another door there."

"Well let's get going!" said Vanilla, and started to round the house. "It's starting to get exciting, wouldn't you say?"

"Okay, wait up," said Alex finally. Vanilla turned to look at her with a tilt of her head. "You clearly know more about what's going on than you're telling us. Just... tell us! What is going on? What's waiting for us in that house?"

Vanilla looked at her for a while, considering the question. When he finally spoke it was just one word but it sent shivers down Alex's spine.

"A conclusion."

"That really doesn't explain anything," Alex managed after finding her voice again.

"Who said I was going to explain?" asked Vanilla and turned to walk around the house again. "Let's go in and you'll see yourself."

Reluctantly the girls followed. They couldn't shake the feeling something was about to go terribly wrong.

There was a small door at the back of the house, like Anka had said there would be. It lead directly into the house itself, not the garden, unlike the gate in the front of the house. It had probably once been a servants' entrance, Alex thought. The house was old enough to have been here when those were still a thing.

"How do we get in?" Skye asked, turning to Alex. She pulled out her phone to check the text Anka had sent.

"I... I don't know," said Alex, frowning down at the phone. "Anka didn't say."

"Well, send him a message," said Roxie, huffing. "Really, that's kind of vital info, don't you think?"

"Yeah, yeah, give me a minute..." muttered Alex. "That's weird, I don't have any bars..."

"You're kidding! How can you have no service in the middle of the high class neighborhood?"

"Don't yell at me, Roxie, it's not my fault! Let me just..."

There was a soft clack and they both turned to look at Olivia who was standing next to the open door. Wait, open?

"It wasn't locked," she said. Roxie and Alex gaped, while Vanilla strode in.

"Great job, Livie!" said Skye, smacking a kiss on her cheek as she walked past her into the house as well.

"You gonna stand there the rest of the night, or..?" asked Olivia with an amused smile and the two remaining girls snapped out of it and hurried in after the others.

They walked through the first room and found themselves in a very large kitchen. There were no light on, but the streetlights illuminated the room through the window, and as their eyes quickly got used to the small amount of light, they could easily avoid colliding with anything. They hurried, as quietly as possible, to the other door in the kitchen, and peeked thorough it. It lead into a dining room, unsurprisingly, which was also empty and dark. Skye had a tight grip on Olivia's arm.

"What exactly are we even doing here?" whispered Skye as they opened the door properly and walked through.

"We're here to help out Anka," said Alex then paused. "I think. He did sound like he needed help."

"But why are we sneaking through the back door?" specified Skye. The door out of the dining room was in front of them and they stopped. "And where even is Anka?"

"Probably in the basement," said Vanilla, glancing through the door into the entrance hall.

"The... what?" said Alex, stopping dead on her tracks. "Why would he be in the basement?"

"Cause that's where, as you kids say, the shit's going down," said Vanilla and walked into the entrance hall.

"And you know this.. how?" asked Roxie, as the girls followed Vanilla. She walked over to the staircase, went around it and ran her hand along the side of it. The girls walked next to her and looked at the wall. There was nothing there.

"Sebastian told me," said Vanilla, her fingers stopping in the middle of the wall. She pressed at the wall, experimentally.

"Seba- oh, the butler," said Skye. "That's what he told you back at Roxie's?"

"Yup," said Vanilla, and smacked the wall. The girls jumped at the sudden aggression, and stepped back slightly as the wall flung open. A dark stairway opened up behind it. "Shall we go?"

"Am I the only one who thinks this is a very, very, very bad idea?" asked Skye. "It's... so dark..." she added with a soft voice, like she hadn't meant to say it out loud. Olivia's finger brushed against her cheek and she swallowed, steeled herself, and nodded.

"We going down?" asked Alex quietly.

"We going down," said Skye with a nod and newfound determination.

The stairway was long and it curved around in a large circle. It was also pitch black, with obviously no windows underground, but also a surprising lack of any kind of lighting fixtures. Alex was so sure it was the kind of stairway that should be littered with torches or something. It wasn't, unfortunately, although after considering it for a moment, Alex concluded that it would probably be a pain in the ass to light all of them anyway, not to mention a fire hazard.

After a moment that felt like forever they saw a light around the corner. They slowed down, tiptoeing closer to the bottom of the stairs and the doorway that waited them. Alex put a finger to her lips, but it really wasn't necessary; they all knew they had to be very quiet. Alex, who was at the front of the group, peeked around the corner of the doorway.

Ahead opened up a high, circular room. The walls were lined with shelves full of books and other magical looking artifacts, and the room was littered with candles, which were the only source of light in the room, aside from a small lantern resting by the big table in the back of the room. In the middle of the room, drawn to the ground with what Alex guessed was white chalk, was a round symbol. It was probably a pentagram or something, but Alex really wasn't an expert. Either way, it didn't bode well.

By the right wall Alex noticed a figure crouching, leaning against the wall. She couldn't see his face, but the tuft of white hair told her it was Anka. He had his knees drawn up to his chest and he was hugging them tightly. Next to him sat a small girl. The same girl that had been with him at the dancing competition, Alex noted. It felt like a forever ago.

"Oh, stop pouting, Anka," scoffed someone and Alex's eyes were drawn to the back of the room, to the table. Anka's mother was standing behind it. She wasn't wearing a mysterious hooded cloak, like Alex had sort of been hoping for, instead clad in the same very professional looking outfit she had had on when they'd met in the afternoon. She was drawing something onto the table with a piece of chalk.

Anka let out a pitiful whimper, and Irene scoffed.

"And stop being so pathetic," she said, looking down at the table with a frown. She took out a wooden bowl from somewhere as she spoke. "You know this has to be done. It'll all be over after tonight. You won't have to worry about anything anymore."

"But," Anka managed. His voice was hoarse and it cracked slightly after the syllable. He sniffled and tried again. "But it's not right. It can't be! Not if we have to sacrifice people to achieve it!"

"Now, now," said Irene. "No one's said anything about sacrificing people. We just need them temporarily to power the spell. Of course I'll let the souls go after we're done!"

"You're... you're assuming there will be souls left at that point..." muttered Anka. He lifted his head, rubbed at his reddened eye and shouted at his mother. "But there might not be! There probably won't be!" The girl next to him petted his head, and he sniffed again and ran a hand through his already messy hair. "There won't be anyone left and I will be a murderer."

"Nonsense," Irene huffed. She was mixing some kind herbs together in the bowl.

Someone poked Alex in the back and she turned to look back.

"What's going on?" mouthed Roxie. Alex glanced at the doorway again before answering.

"I'm not sure, but it looks occulty," she whispered as quietly as possible. "Anka is in there and he doesn't look happy. It's his mom, she's the... one.... behind this......."

She trailed off as her eyes widened. She was looking somewhere over Skye's shoulder. The daemon tensed, suddenly very aware of another presence behind her, even though she was supposed to be the last one. Slowly Skye turned to look behind her...

The flickering candlelight illuminated a smiling face directly behind her and she screamed.
__________________________________________________________

Okay I lied there's one more part. Luckily it's half way written already and it will be posted tomorrow. I'll see you then~

Pie out.

Soar, Part 22 - Family

The afternoon sun was shining through the curtains as Alex blinked blearily. They were a tangled mess of limbs on the bed, no one having cared much about personal space when they went to sleep, and Alex found one of Roxie's wings covering her almost entirely. She pushed at it softly, and Roxie moved it in in her sleep, letting out a soft grunt as she turned around. Alex sat up and stared at the window for a long while, before turning her head in search of a wall clock. She found on on top of the door and it told her that it was almost half past two in the afternoon.

Heavy metal started to blast in the room and everyone jumped up, wide awake. Everyone but Roxie, who sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes, pushing her hand under the pillow she'd been using and producing her ringing phone.

"Hello," she answered it, accompanied by a yawn. "Oh, hey mom. No, we were still sleeping. That's okay. What time is it? Half past..? Okay." She stifled another yawn and scratched her head. Everyone else was looking at her except for Vanilla, who had flopped back on the bed and was lounging in the sunlight.

"Could you..." started Anka and then stopped. Roxie turned to look at him. "Could you maybe ask her if... I mean... have they already arrested... father?"

"Hey mom?" said Roxie to the phone, eyeing Anka slightly concerned. The boy was fidgeting a lot, and wringing his hands together. "Anka was just asking if.... you heard? Yeah? You did? And now he's... Uh-huh. Has he said anything? Okay. Okay. Home? Are you sure? Okay. Alright. Can you call me again when you find out something? About Annalise, you know. Thanks mom. I love you too. Bye." She hung up and took a deep breath.

"So what's going on?" asked Alex, about to burst with anticipation.

"They've arrested mister Wuopio in suspicion of hexing people. They've been questioning him for a while now, and while he refuses to say much, he hasn't denied anything either," said Roxie, dropping the phone back on the bed and stretching. "Mom said it might be wise for Anka to go home for now. To at least let your mom know where you are. As long as you stay there, of course, because they will want to talk to you too at some point." Anka nodded.

"Would you... mind coming with me?" he asked after a moment. "I don't really feel like being alone right now..."

"Of course we will," said Skye. Olivia nodded enthusiastically next to her.

"Sure," said Alex. "It's Sunday, it's not like we have anything better to do."

Anka smiled softly.

"Thank you."

~x~

While they were having their breakfast/lunch Anka made a phone call. It was short call in hushed tones and it ended with him sending a text message. Alex narrowed her eyes as he rejoined the group at the table.

"Who was that?" she asked. Anka blinked and looked at her.

"Well, I live quite far away from here," he said, scratching his cheek. "So I thought I'd call someone to come pick us up."

"Or Skye could carry us!" chimed Olivia happily, stabbing a fried egg with her fork.

"No," was all Skye said to the matter. She was wrapped up in her own wings and was cradling a cup of coffee in her hands. Roxie snorted into her own cup. Olivia pouted a little, but didn't dwell on it, instead picking up another toast and spreading a generous amount of jam on it.

15 minutes later Anka's phone chimed and he fished it out of his pocket. He quickly read through the message and then turned to the girls.

"Our ride is here," he said. "Is everyone ready?"

The girls exchanged looks and then nodded. They quickly cleaned up what was left of their food and hurried to the entryway.

"Oh, are you coming too, uh, Vanilla?" asked Alex when she noticed the small girl(?) pulling on her coat as well.

"Well duh," she said, hopping into her boots. "I don't generally meddle in the matters of the mortals, but this whole ordeal has been entertaining enough and I'm not planning on quitting now that we're so close to the big finale."

"The... what?" said Alex, frowning.

"Don't try to make sense of what she says," said Roxie, clapping the fae on the shoulder. "Loki's special talent is talking her way out of anything, which means she's the master bullshitter."

"I'm not bullshitting," protested Vanilla, but without much effort. She seemed amused more than anything. "I just know more than you. But that's how it's supposed to be, you know. You guys are the main characters, you can't know too much or there won't be any suspense."

"Ooookay," said Roxie and turned to the other three. Alex was looking at Vanilla very confusedly, but the trickster just grinned. "If everyone's' dressed let's get going."

In front of Roxie's house was a parked car. This in itself wasn't particularly surprising but the car was a sight to behold.

"You have a frigging limousine?" Alex laughed as she came to a stop at the front gate. Olivia peered around her with a grin.

"It's not a limousine... exactly," said Anka bashfully, walking around the group of girls staring dumbfounded at the car. A man around the age of thirty stepped out from the driver's seat and walked around it. He bowed slightly as Anka walked up to him. "Thank you for being here so quickly."

"Of course, young master," said the man. His eyes turned to the rest of the group. They were red. "There are your friends, I presume?"

"You have a fucking butler??" Alex wheezed.

"Yeah, my family is kinda... super rich," said Anka. He was blushing quite feverishly. "It's not something I like to, you know.... shout around too much. You understand, right?"

"Of course," said Skye, although she seemed as stunned as the rest of them.

The butler opened the door to the car and gestured for them to get in. No one moved, except for Vanilla, who skipped over to the open door. She stopped and looked the butler up and down. He gave her a smile, and she returned it. They both seemed like they were hiding something, their smiles not insincere, but rather mischievous.

"You seem like fun," said Vanilla. The butler bowed.

"Thank you kindly, mistress," he said. She entered the car. The girls felt like they'd missed something.

"Come on, then," said Anka and they all unfroze, starting towards the car in unison.

~x~

The car was very spacious on the inside, which was very nice because two of them had wings. Anka kept insisting that it wasn't a limousine, but the girls were pretty sure it was. Of course, none of them had ever been on a limousine, so they didn't know, exactly, but they were pretty sure it was.

"Had an, ah, eventful evening, then, young master?" the butler asked about ten minutes into the drive.

"Hnn," said Anka. He was sitting in the front seat and glanced back through the front mirror. "You could say that."

"Your mother was quite... worried when you didn't come home last night," the butler continued after a while. Anka's eyes widened slightly and he swallowed.

"Is she home right now?" he asked quietly.

"Indeed she is," said the butler. Anka tensed even further. "I didn't mention to her I was coming to pick you up, although I suggest you talk with her at the earliest opportunity."

"Thank you," said Anka. The butler inclined his head. The rest of the trip was made in silence.

~x~

"Holy shit you have a fucking mansion??!" Alex shrieked, staring out the window as the butler parked the car. They all scrambled out of the car and stared wide eyed up past the golden gate at the enormous house. There was a large garden in front of it which no doubt would look stunning if it weren't the end of October and all the flowers would be in bloom. But even with a bare garden the view was very impressive.

Anka had walked over to the gate and punched in a security code on the keypad. The gate made a loud electronic beep and started to open.

"I know, I know," said Anka and sighed. "It's super big and way too grand and stuff. But it's an old family estate, so it's not like we could move or something."

"Wait, you've been living here for a long time?" asked Skye. Anka nodded. "But didn't you just transfer to our class, like... this week?"

"Oh," said Anka. "I've been homeschooled until now."

"Of course you have," said Alex as she walked past him and through the gate. Vanilla was on her heel and the others followed soon after. "But man, this place is huuuuuuge! You're like... filthy rich, aren't you?"

"Well, I don't know about filthy, but..." Anka trailed off as he trailed after the girls. The butler had somehow made his way to the front door and pulled it open for Alex, who curtsied with a grin. "No, wait, Alex!" Anka called but Alex was already inside.

The entrance hall was just as grand as the front of the house had been. It was a large room with a high ceiling and at the back of the room was a double staircase leading up to the second floor and beyond. The floor was polished mahogany and the walls white stone, and it looked just like a mansion of filthy rich people. Alex whistled.

"And who might you be?"

Alex turned her head to find a woman standing on top of the stairs. She was a spitting image of a ruthless business woman, her clothes tidy, her hair up in a neat bun, and her heels looking like she could stab a man without a moment's hesitation. She started to descend the stairs with determined strides and Alex an automatic step backwards.

"Uhhh," she said. The woman was very tall, even without heels, and the way she held herself high made her feel even taller. Alex would be lying if she said she wasn't a little intimidated.

"Mother," said Anka, walking up from behind her. The woman glanced over at him. "These are my friends. Guys, this is my mother, Irene Wuopio."

"Oh," said Skye, stepping forward. "Nice to meet you Mrs. Wuopio. I hope we're not disturbing you."

"Yes, lovely," said Irene, glancing at the girls and then turning her attention back to Anka. "And where, if I might ask, have you been?"

"Uh, I was... we were over at Roxie's house. Doing a group project for school," Anka said, recovering quickly from the death glare his mother was giving him. Roxie gave a small wave as Irene's eyes flicked to the group again.

"I see. And this was so important that you had to leave in the middle of the night?" Anka looked guiltily down and scratched his cheek, but said nothing. "Tell me, young lady, what do your parents do?"

Roxie blinked in surprise but regained her cool quickly. "They're an art dealer and a police detective," she said with a sweet smile. Roxie could really play the part of a sweet young girl, despite her rash nature and somewhat wild appearance.

"A detective?" said Irene, more to herself than to any of the other people in the room. "I suppose that's good enough." She turned back to Anka, who flinched. "But that does not excuse you leaving the house without informing me about where you're going and with whom. I want you to know I am very disappointed in this kind of behaviour, and I sincerely hope it won't happen again."

"Yes, mother," muttered Anka as his mother talked, keeping his eyes to the floor. "It won't, mother."

Irene let out a huff. "Now," she said and turned to the butler, who had appeared inside as well. "Sebastian, if you would be so kind as to take these young ladies back home. I do believe that I have some more things I need to discuss with my son." Alex noticed Anka grit his teeth as the last word fell from Irene's perfectly colored lips, but she wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. "It was... nice to meet you girls. Now, if you'll excuse us."

Irene gave them a very forced smile, placed her hand on Anka's back and guided him towards the stairs. The girls were left standing in the entrance hall, confused about what to do next when the butler spoke up.

"This way, if you please, ladies," he said, bowing slightly and gesturing at the front door. The girls looked at one another, slight disappointment apparent on several faces, and then they exited the house.

Once they were all packed into the car again, and the butler asked where they wanted him to take them, they realized they didn't exactly have a plan.

"I suppose we could go back to my place," suggested Roxie. "Wait for mom to come home?"

With no real objections they settled for that, and the butler shifted the car into gear. As they got out of the car parked back in front of Roxie's house, he spoke up.

"Oh, excuse me, but may I have a moment, mistress," he said, addressing Vanilla, who turned to look back at him with an amused quirked of an eyebrow. He motioned her closer and then whispered something in her ear. It was weird, because Alex, who was standing very close to the two, would swear she could hear the words, but she couldn't understand them at all. It was incredibly nerve wrecking.

A sly grin grew on Vanilla's face as the butler kept talking. When he finally pulled away and she let out a small laugh, followed by, "I knew you'd be fun." The butler grinned as well, toothy and white.

"I am glad, mistress," he said and then got back into the car and drove away. The girls regarded Vanilla for a moment, unsure how to proceed.

"Well, then," she said suddenly and spun around, walking to the front door of Roxie's house. "In we go!"

"Well what the frick was that all about?" asks Roxie as Vanilla stops at the door. She blinks up at the Valkyrie before calmly starting to go through the keys on a key chain. Roxie's key chain.

"He was just catching me up to speed on this evening's plans," she said easily, flicking between keys. "That's not something you need to worry about, though. At least not yet." She flashed Roxie a smile and unlocked the door, stepping in and leaving poor Roxie flabbergasted on the doorstep. Her friends walked past her into the house, giving her sympathetic pats on the back.

"What the Hel, Loki?!" she finally screeched and rushed inside after them.
________________________________________________________

I reeeeaalllyyyyyy don't want to end this part yet to this point buttttt I have no time to write atm and I really want to get this out sooner rather than later. After this it should be one more part which will appear.....!!!! sometime!! Tomorrow, maybe. Or Saturday. Before Monday at least. Yeah.

Ohh boy did I have trouble with this one! I mean I know more or less what's gonna happen but it was somehow really hard to get the scenes into words. But oh well it's here now enjoy.. this. Yeh.

Pie out.
P.S. If someone wants to give me a topic for the final part you're welcome to do so. Otherwise I'll just decide it myself, like I did with this one.

Soar, Part 21 - Token

"My name is Vanilla," said Vanilla, smiling sweetly and tilting her head. She was the very picture of an innocent little girl, but the girls knew better than to trust that smile. There was something obviously wrong with the child, and Ma'at seemed to have noticed it too.

"That's weird, I haven't heard of a missing child report for anyone by that name," she said, hands on her hips.

"That's probably because there's no one to make such a report," said Vanilla. Ma'at quirked one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

"Care to elaborate?" she asked. "Are you saying you don't have parents? Guardians? Do you live alone?"

"Of course I have parents! Everyone has parents!" Vanilla laughed. "Haven't seen them in forever though... They're probably dead by now." She shrugged. Ma'at tensed. That had been way too cheerful a tone for discussing dead parents. "I don't really live anywhere right now, I just kind of drift through."

Skye could feel the automatic "I'm sorry" dancing on top of her tongue, but she couldn't make herself say it. There was no regret, no sadness in Vanilla's voice. It sent shivers up her spine.

"Do you have any next of kin?" continued Ma'at. "Someone you want us to notify?"

"Not really," said Vanilla, starting to sound bored. "I don't really care either way."

"You will have to be a bit more cooperative than that," Ma'at sighed. "We need to find out exactly who you are. And if we can't find any family to take you in, we're going to have to put you to foster care."

"Hah, foster care," Vanilla said, her laugh dry. "I've already had one set of adoptive parents, I think they were quite enough."

"Should we notify them? Who are they?" insisted Ma'at. Vanilla tisked and leaned back on the couch.

"As I said, I don't really care either way." She paused. "Although the chances of you reaching them are very slim... Rótafkárr here might be able, as a Valkyrie, and I suppose you do have a higher than normal success rate, being a fellow deity, but I wouldn't really count on it."

Roxie grit her teeth. Her mother glanced at her, frowning, no doubt wondering how the little girl knew her full name.

"So your adoptive parents are Norse Gods?" asked Alex. Vanilla turned to look at her.

"Why do you assume Norse?"

"Well, you said Roxie is your link to the world of the living, and Valkyries can only influence souls that Odin has a claim on, right? That means that if she was able to pull your soul from Limbo, or you were able to pull yourself from Limbo using Roxie as an anchor, that means you are part of the Norse clan, and your adoptive parents are most likely Norse Gods."

Vanilla looked at her for a moment.

"Impressive," she said. "And true. There's no reason to deny it... I am a part of the Norse clan."

"Wait, what's this about Limbo?" asked Ma'at.

"Oh, right, you don't know yet, do you?" Alex said, coming to a realization. "The souls of the petrified people are stuck in Limbo."

"The curse that was used is one that plucks a soul from a body, casting it to Limbo," Anka explained. "As a result of having no soul, the body seizes to function, and freezes. That's why everyone appears petrified."

"Well that's the first good news I've hear all evening," said Ma'at, a smile on her lips. "That narrows the possible curses down considerably, and it also explains why we haven't found anything yet. We've been looking in the wrong place if the petrification is a side product, not the main goal!" She whipped out her phone and started to write a text, her fingers gliding along the screen swiftly. "Anything else you can tell me about the curse?"

"The caster was very skilled," Vanilla said, picking at her nails. "A solid curse, even though it didn't feel very, how to say it... advanced. The distraction spell on the other had was very crafty, even fooling me for a moment. A moment too long, I'm afraid."

"That brings us back to the interesting part though," said Alex, crossing her arms. "You've yet to explained that. You look like you're, what, ten? But you can't be, not when you're this knowledgeable about things like curses and stuff."

"Ah, that," said Vanilla. She hummed for a moment, thinking. "I guess I should tell you. We're quickly approaching the end after all, I wouldn't want to leave any big loose ends."

"O...kay?" said Skye. "So, who are you then?"

Everyone turned to look expectantly at Vanilla. She closed her eyes, seeming to savor the anticipation for a moment before she spoke.

"I'm Loki."

There was a pause.

"Get the fuck out," said Alex. Vanilla laughed.

"But... I thought Loki was a male god," said Skye quietly. "And.. an adult?"

"Shapeshifter," said Vanil- Loki, demonstrating by turning to look like Skye and waggling her eyebrows. "And I prefer not to label myself. Unnecessary restrictions that way."

"So you go around pretending to be a adolescent girl?" asked Alex.

"At the moment... I've had many forms and this just happens to be the one I'm currently in. You have no idea how much fun you can have when you're several thousand years old but look 10." She sniggered.

"I don't think I wanna know," said Skye.

"You're actually the trickster god of Asgard?" asked Anka, his eyes wide.

"That's right," said Vanilla, shooting him a thumbs up. "And you're the token white boy!"

"I... What?"

"Why Vanilla?" interrupted Olivia. "And should we keep calling you that?"

"I like Vanilla," said Vanilla. "And preferably yes, although at this point I'm going to have to come up with a new form either way."

"Well then," said Ma'at, running a hand through her hair. She turned her gaze to Anka. "Now to you."

"Wh-what?" squeaked Anka.

"Who exactly are you and what is your part in all this?"

"Uh," he said. "I'm Anka Wuopio, and it was my father that performed the curse."

"Your father?" she asked. "Were you at the scene of the crime then?"

"Yes," he admitted. "I- He never told me what exactly the souls were for, just that it was very important, and that there was a deadline... Halloween night."

"So, he's going to do something to the souls on Halloween night?" asked Ma'at. Anka nodded.

"Uh, mom?" said Roxie. Her mom turned to look at her. "Halloween night is today."

"Oh, shit, it is," said Alex. "Today is the 31st. Right? I'm not 100% sure, I'm a bit sleep deprived."

"That's right, it is," said Ma'at, tisking. "We're in a hurry then, we need to apprehend him today."

"Oh, um, I notice that you found a button from the scene," Anka chimed back in. He was holding up the photo from earlier. "I recognize it. It's from my father's coat, no doubt about it."

"Really?" asked Ma'at. "Are you certain?" Anka nodded. "Well that makes things easier. If we can place him on the scene we have enough to pull him in for detainment, of questioning at the least. If we keep him preoccupied for the night, he can't finish whatever he's planning and we can figure out the counter curse."

A loud yawn erupted from the corner of the couch and Olivia smacked her lips.

"Can we... go to bed now?" she asked, blearily. The other girls noticed their own fatigue creeping up to them as well and soon everyone was yawning as well.

"Sure," said Ma'at, her eyes gentle as she looked at the tired children. "I'll take care of the rest. You've done good, all of you." She gave a kiss on Roxie's temple. "You can use the master bedroom, there's enough room for everyone there."

"Thanks mom," said Roxie with a small smile, and led her friends to the second floor and to her parents' room. The bed was indeed huge and they all collapsed on it, in a big heap, without bothering with the covers.

They were all asleep in a matter of seconds.
________________________________________________________

So. Seeing as you don't want to write anymore, you don't have to. I have the rest planned. It'll be two more chapters, the first one coming this weekend and the other in the beginning on next week (probably).

I've come to realise that this story is much more suited to a visual medium, and I have some ideas about a webcomic, buuuttttttttt I don't have the time or patience to do that right now, so I'm not gonna promise anything. I do still like the characters, and the plot is, ehhhhh, manageable, so who knows. Maybe one day I will have the will power to tackle a large scale project like that.

In the mean time, sit tight and hold on to your hats. It's not over yet.

Pie out.
P.S. You have no right to tell my I'm late this time, I had to finish your last part at midnight two nights ago, and refused as a principal to write yesterday. Also, I might or might not write the next part tomorrow (Friday) because I'm going to Helsinki so I'm gonna be in the bus for 5hours, but idk if I'll manage to do any writing.

Soar, Part 20 - Present

"What time is it?" Olivia asked, mumbling sleepily.

"Quarter past seven," Roxie answered, looking at her watch.

"We've been waiting for hours," Alex said.

"Really, you think so?" Skye snapped.

"We're all tired, okay? So let's just keep it together," Roxie tried to calm them down, but she was growing impatient too. "I'll try calling mom again."

She dug her phone out and dialed the number. She lifted the phone to her ear, the others waiting half eagerly, half just plain tired. After a minute she put down the phone and shook her head.

"I just hope something hasn't happened to her," Alex said. Roxie nodded, her face tense.

"Okay," Skye said, digging herself out from under Olivia and sitting up straight for the first time in hours. Olivia groaned. "Maybe, since we're having to wait, we could figure out a way to get everyone out of Limbo."

All eyes turned to Anka, who stared back for a moment.

"What, don't look at me," he shrugged. "I don't know how to do that."

"You know more about it than the rest of us," Alex said.

"I don't know how to do that," Anka repeated. "I've said that a dozen times tonight already."

"You must have some idea," Skye said.

"I. Don't," Anka repeated once again, irritation in his voice. "I mean, I don't even know what the spell is. The only way I know how to reverse it is to get my dad to reverse it, but it's not like there's any chance in the world he'd do that. So unless someone can figure out what exactly the spell he used was, I've got nothing."

"And why is there no chance in the world he'd do that?" Alex asked.

"Because if he didn't think it's a good idea, or important, or vital he wouldn't have done it in the first place. And whatever it was that he thought that important, it will still be important, because if it was a thing that could've stopped being important, it wouldn't have been important in the first place."

Roxie's phone rang and they all jumped to the unexpected sound. Roxie dug our her phone.

"It's mom," she said and answered the phone, "Hi, mom. Yeah, we're all at home. Yes, our home... Yes. Yeah. And we found someone who knows... Yes. Of course. Okay. Okay, bye." She turned back to everyone in the room. "She's coming home. She just has to take care of a couple of quick things before, but she'll be here soon."

The others seemed to relax with the news.

"Great," Alex said. "That's about the only good news in the last six hours."

"I'm sorry, do you mind if I get some water?" said Anka quietly. "I'm getting kind of thirsty."

"Sure," said Roxie, waving a hand at him. "Kitchen's down the hall and to your left. Cups are in the cupboard above the sink."

Anka muttered a small thanks and left the five girls alone in the room. He returned much sooner than they had thought, and he wasn't holding a cup. He was holding papers.

"Uhh," he said, frowning, as he approached the sofa.

"What is it?" asked Roxie, standing up to take a look at what he was holding. To her surprise they were some of the case photos her mom had been looking at earlier.

"This button..." said Anka pointing a photo with his finger. "It is from dad's coat."

"Are you sure?" asked Roxie. "It was found from the crime scene, but the forensic people couldn't match it to anything. How do you know it's you father's?"

"It has the family crest on it, and my uncle has the only cast to make these buttons," Anka said, his voice getting more and more excited. "The coat is tailor-made, given as a present to him by my mother."

"That's great, isn't it," said Olivia drowsily. She was curled back on top of Skye on the couch. "Now there is good evidence and the police can stop them."

Anka's excitement turned into anxiety in a second when he realized the meaning of his finding.
Everyone was looking at him, but no one said anything.

Anka sighed. "He is my father, but this must end now."

Roxie put her hand on Anka's shoulder. "I cannot imagine how hard it is for you, but I am sure you are doing the right thing," she said.

There was a loud clank as the front door opened and everyone turned their heads, though they couldn't see the door from where they were sitting in the living room.

"Roxie?" came her mom's voice, panic only slightly evident in her voice. Judging by the noises coming from the entrance she was taking off her coat and hanging it on the rack as quickly as she could.

"We're in here!" Roxie called, and in a second her mom appeared in the doorway, eyeing everyone in the room. She looked even more tired that everyone felt, but at least she seemed to be intact.

"So," she said. Everyone waited for her to continue. She sighed deeply. "The fire department managed to put out the fire before any serious damage was done. No one was hurt, luckily. The mob, on the other hand, now that was weird... After the fire was out everyone seemed to... wake up, or something. No one seemed to have any idea where they were, why, and how they had gotten there. They were all admitted into the hospital, just to make sure they're okay."

"You seem to have had an eventful evening," said Roxie, going over to her mom and giving her a tight hug. It was laced with desperation and worry, and they both felt it, but didn't mention it. She pulled back and the air shifted, and Detective Ma'at looked over to the rest of the children. No one dared say anything.

"You I haven't met yet," she said, looking directly at Anka. He looked incredibly guilty as he tried to avoid the drilling gaze of the woman standing in front of him. "My daughter said they'd found someone who knows something. I assume that's you."

Anka nodded, clearly nervous now.

"You'll have to wait," said Ma'at and turned to Vanilla, who smiled back at her, unintimidated by the fierceness of the deity. "I want to talk to you first. Who exactly are you?"
________________________________________________________

You already know why I didn't write yesterday. Because I spent ten hours at the university, and then I got home at half past six and realised I don't actually care what happens next, because the big ending is obvious and I'm not really interested anymore how we get there. So I called dad, and he promised to write this bit for me.

Well, instead of writing, he got distracted with trying to save the world slow and steady, so that didn't work out so well.

And I have to admit I didn't write all this either, because I still wasn't interested in the details. So I hope dad filled in the gap.

Your topic is Token.

~matu

Soar, Part 19 - Answers

"On fire?" gasped Skye and rushed to the edge, Olivia in tow. Her eyes widened, her mouth falling open, when she saw the front yard of the hospital. The red glow from the fire below cast deep shadows on her stunned face. "...holy fuck."

"You know it's bad when Skye starts swearing," said Roxie humorlessly. "What do we do?"

"We need to get off the roof!" Alex said, a rising panic in her voice. "Now!"

"Fuck it," said Skye, trowing her hands in the air. "Fuck it!" She walked to the middle of the hospital roof. "Just fuck it all."

She hunched, her wings flaring up, as she let out a small grunt. Her eyes flashed deep red and her silhouette started to gradually grow, morphing into something much more horrifying. There was a low guttural growl that echoed through the night. The giant creature that was Skye's truefrom dropped to all fours with a loud thud, wings stretching out into the sky.

GET ON, she commanded. There was a pause as everyone stared at her in surprise. NOW!

They all moved at once, rushing over to Skye and climbing her back.

"Babe, did you get bigger?" said Olivia with a smirk, petting the side of Skye's face. The answer was a growl and a flap of gigantic wings as the daemon took off. They were up in the clouds in a matter of seconds.

"What about the people in the hospital?" shouted Alex against the wind. "There's tons of people still stuck there! Including Annalise!"

"And my mom!" replied Roxie. "Don't worry, the police will take care of the mob and by now someone will have called the fire department! We just... we just need to get out, that's all we an do right now!"

Alex looked like she wanted to argue, but didn't have anything to say. In the end she tisked and turned away.

"Say," came Vanilla's voice and the girls turned to look at her. She pointed behind them. "What's that?"

The girls slowly turned to look back just in time to see a flash of white pass above them. Skye noticed it too, as she let out a roar and flapped her wings to stop the forward motion.

"Is that... the bird?!" said Roxie, rising as up as she could sitting on someone's back.

"I think it is," said Alex, straining to see as well. The bird glided over their heads and then swooped down again. It let out a screech.

IT WANTS US TO FOLLOW IT, said Skye as the bird ascended again. It was flying loops a bit up and ahead of them. SHOULD WE DO IT?

"No way that's not a trap!" said Alex. "I mean, the bird was at the crime scene, I bet it's connected to this somehow!"

"I think we should go after it," said Vanilla calmly. Alex turned to stare at her. "We can probably learn more about what's going on from it, and even if it is a trap, I won't be careless enough to get caught in one again. Besides, we have a class A demon, I'm pretty sure we can handle anything it tries to throw at us."

GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME, said Skye, dashing after the bird. They curved around the city, flying on and on for several long minutes. Finally the bird started to descend, dropping down into a small park on the outskirts of town. They could all see the bird shrink and change shape as Skye followed it down.

Alex hopped off Skye's back, taking long strides across the park and slamming Anka against a tree with a hand pressed at his throat.

"Speak," she hissed, her eyes squinted and her voice dangerously low. Anka waved his hands in panic, trying to get Alex's death grip to loosen up a little.

"A-ah, calm down," he said, wincing as Alex pressed harder at his throat.

"He'll suffocate," Olivia's singsong voice came from behind her and she relented her hold a little. Olivia leaned closer to Anka, studying his face. "I do suggest you talk though. And keep in mind that I will have no problems setting Skye on your ass if you prove to be useless or of any kind of danger."

"Tha-that won't be necessary, I promise! I'll tell you everything I know!" he said.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" asked Roxie. "You've clearly been a part of this from the very beginning."

"Ahhh, yes, I remember you," said Vanilla, peeking around Alex. Anka's eyes widened as he looked at Vanilla. "You were one of the people in the middle of the crowd. You didn't look particularly excited back then either."

"I knew it," spat Alex. "I fucking knew you were a part of this, you little piece of - "

"No no no no, wait!" Anka hurried to say. "I mean, yes, I was there, but I never liked the plan, I wanted nothing to do with it to begin with, but then they tried to burn down the hospital and I couldn't just live with that! I... I don't want to be a part of this anymore!"

"Who's 'they'?" asked Olivia.

"My...my family," Anka said, hesitant. "My family is behind this."

"Shit, son, that's some whacked up family you got there," said Alex, her arm on Anka's throat tightening just slightly. He gasped. "But they are your family. How do we know you're not trying to double cross us?"

"I'm not, I swear!" he shouted. "I told you I don't want to be a part of it anymore! I never did! Too many people are getting hurt, I can't.... I just..."

"I believe him," said Vanilla. Alex glanced at her. She was staring up at Anka, like she was staring right into his soul. "He's telling the truth."

Alex's grip loosened and then fell off. "Well, she is the victim here, and if she says we can trust you, I guess we can give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Thank you," Anka wheezed, a hand rubbing his throat.

"So why exactly was your family petrifying people in broad daylight?" asked Skye, who had taken on her usual form again. Anka looked away.

"I... I don't know, exactly," he said quietly.

"I will personally drag your sorry ass soul into the lowest level of hell if you try to lie to us, boy," sneered Skye, pointing a threatening finger at Anka's face. He would have taken a step back if he wasn't backed against a tree.

"Ahh, I mean..." he started, holding his hands up. "They needed souls. I don't know what for."

"Souls? But..." said Roxie and then turned to Vanilla. "You... you said that your souls went into Limbo, didn't you? What happened there?"

Vanilla shakes her head, looking sad. "I don't know, really. I hadn't been in Limbo for a very long time before you appeared to the scene, at which point I was yanked back into the dream realm. Or almost yanked... I spent a lot of time drifting between the two..."

"And I don't know, because no one would tell me..." Anka said quietly. "It's a big operation, though, and mostly on a need to know basis, and I definitely didn't need to know. I do know it's very important to the head of the family..."

"Okay, so Limbo," said Skye, turning back to Anka. "They needed souls for whatever reason. So they set up the petrification curse and just... waited for people to walk into their trap?"

"Basically," said Anka. "It didn't matter whose souls they were, so they just set it up on a street they knew a lot of people would be walking on during the day. The plan was to get a truck and take all the bodies away after we had enough, but that kinda backfired when you guys appeared... The distraction spell was still on, you know, but since you were already suspicious of something being wrong it didn't work..."

"Lucky us," said Alex dryly, crossing her arms. "And you were left there alone to... guard them? We saw you fly out of the alley, by the way."

"Ahh, I thought you might've," said Anka, scratching the back of his neck.

"What about the text?" asked Olivia. "The graffiti on the street. 'Soar'."

"That was me," Anka confessed. "I... I'd heard about your dance group, and when I noticed that one of the victims was Annalise, I thought that... maybe if I got your attention... you would be able to, I dunno... do something about it?"

"That is a terrible idea, you know that right?" said Roxie, sounding amused. Anka huffed out a laugh.

"Yeah, I know. I was panicked. One of the people had paint, I just went with it."

 There was a silence. Alex burst out laughing.

"What?" said Roxie, a smile tugging on her lips as well.

"I just...." Alex managed between giggles. "It's just to... crazy!"

Olivia snorted out a laugh as well. Anka let out a somewhat awkward chuckle. Soon they were all laughing, the tension of the night and the absurdity of the situation finally being relieved.

"Okay but seriously," said Alex after the laughter died down. "Your plan was the stupidest plan ever, you should have gone to the police and you are so lucky that we've figured out this much. What do we do now?"

"We need to go hide somewhere, I think," said Roxie. "Our place? I think we're kinda close, and mom will want to talk to us later on..."

"Where's your other mom?" asked Alex.

"Móðir is on a trip for work, she won't be home until next week," said Roxie. "There's no one there at the moment, unless mom's gone back already."

"Sounds good to me," said Olivia. Skye nodded in affirmation.

"Shame about your mother though," said Vanilla, shaking her head. "I had been hoping to meet dear old Reginleif again."

Roxie tisked and turned away, digging her phone out of her pocket and opening up the navi app. She thumbed at it for a moment and then said, "This way, let's go."

They all followed her, as she lead them through the night and back to her home.
_________________________________________________________

I do hope you're still not planning on ending this on Monday. Because this is so not ending on Monday. Your topic is "Present" which I don't think we've used.

Now I'm off to pack for the scout camp. Toodels.

Pie out.

Soar, Part 18 - Blaze

"Where are we going to go?" Roxie asked as the five of them hurried to the hallway.

"Where did you get in? Not the front door, I assume?" Vanilla asked.

"We flew in," Skye said. "We came in through a door on the roof."

"Then I suggest we go out the same way," Vanilla said. They all started hurrying down the hall, Alex in the lead, trying to remember the way they'd come.

"What did you say about the mob being here for you?" she shouted back to Vanilla as they ran.

"Does it seem like a good moment to explain things right now?" Vanilla plainly answered. And she was right. Time for talking was later. Now they needed to get out, if they didn't want to get squished by the mob.

"Wait," Olivia stopped. The others stopped too, looking at her like she'd gone insane. She turned to look at the others. "Are we really going to leave Annalise and all the rest of the petrified people here? What is the mob finds it's way up here and hurts them?"

"It won't," came a voice behind them. They all turned. It was Roxie's mom, with a gun drawn. "The mob did get in, and they're coming up as we speak. You need to get... Is that one of the victims?" she asked as she noticed Vanilla.

"Uh..." Roxie said, "Yes."

Her mom spent a moment thinking clearly very hard, and then she nodded to herself.

"Roxie, I need you to get out, all of you, and take the girl with you. Do not let the girl out of your sight. I need to talk to her after we get the situation under control, but right now I need you safe, and I need to know the only person that could help solve this won't get hurt before I have the time to talk to her."

Roxie nodded.

"I won't let her out of my sight," Roxie promised. Her mom nodded at them and hurried in the other direction. "Don't get hurt, mom!" she shouted after her, but her voice was probably drowned in the noise coming from somewhere way too close down stairs.

"Ok, let's keep moving," Alex said, and they all started down the hall again.

They ran fast, Skye and Roxie practically gliding along the hallways in pace with the rest. Impossibly Vanilla didn't get left behind even though she was way smaller than any of them.

"In here," Olivia motioned to her friends as they came to a stairwell that probably led to the roof. She opened the door for the others.

They hadn't even had time to get through the door when they realised something was wrong. They stopped at the door, cautious. The whole stairwell smelled of smoke. Not only that, there was enough smoke in the many-stories high stairwell that it was clearly visible. It wasn't thick, at least not yet, but there was obviously a fire somewhere lower in the stairwell. A big fire. Otherwise there wouldn't be this much smoke.

"We can't go up here," Alex said after she recovered from the shock.

"We have to," Skye said.

"We can't go into the smoke," Alex said again, "We wouldn't make it all the way up to the roof before passing out."

"She's right," Roxie said, "There's no way we can run up a few flights of stairs in smoke like that. We have to find another way up."

Skye sighed.

"Alex, you lead the way."

And they were running again. They knew there had to be another stairway somewhere, it was a hospital, after all. If only they knew where. They ran around corner after corner, and finally came to a bigger stairway, one that wasn't behind a door.

"I think I'm beginning to smell smoke here in the hallways too," Alex said as they started up the big stairs.

"Me, too," Roxie said, "I hope they're just burning something that gives out a lot of smoke instead of a hell lot of something."

The others nodded, breathing hard from all the running. They got up three flights, but then the stairs ended. They were on the highest floor now, but they still had to find a way to get to the roof if they wanted out. It didn't take long for them to find another stairway, but it was just as filled with smoke as the first one, if not more.

"Is this the same stairway?" Alex asked, coughing.

"I don't think so," Skye said.

"Have they lit fires in all of them?" Roxie asked.

"We need to keep moving," Vanilla reminded them. Olivia closed the door to the smoky stairway and hugged Alex, who was still coughing from the heavy breathing and smoke. Then they ran again.

They found two more stairways, but they were filled with smoke too.

"Ok," Olivia said as they closed the door to the last stairwell, "No more running. Alex can't run with having breathed in the smoke."

"We need to get out somehow," Skye said. "Maybe we could go through the smoke anyway? Roxie and I can blow the smoke away from a small area."

"I don't think that'd work," Roxie said, catching her breath. "I think all we'd end up doing is blowing the smoke around."

"They're trying to keep us in the building. The crowd at the door. That's why they smoked up the stairs," Olivia said quietly. They all turned to look at her. No one said anything for a while.

"Well, we need to get out somehow," Alex said finally.

"We can go through a window," Skye said, "Olivia? Could you go and break us a window? I know it's bad and we're not supposed to break stuff, but I think in this situation it'd be fine."

Olivia stood up and disappeared into the nearest room. After a few seconds there was a clear crash from the room as the window in the room broke. The others followed her in.

"Thanks," Skye said, patting Olivia on the head, "Well done."

"Do we go up or down?" Roxie asked, looking out the window. This was a window at the back of the hospital. It was dark since there weren't any lamps, but the noise was still easily audible from the other side of the building. The autumn air was cool and fresh, and only now she noticed how smoky the air inside truly was.

"Up, I think," Alex said, "I bet some of the crowd is still down in the ground."

"So up it is," Skye said.

"I'll take Vanilla first, since I promised mom I wouldn't let her out of my sight," Roxie said, "And you take Alex, we need to get her out of the smoke. She's coughing again. Olivia, can you wait here? Me or Skye will be back to get you in just a moment."

Olivia nodded, and the rest of the girls disappeared out of the window. They were on the top floor, so it only took them a moment to get up onto the roof. As soon as they were up there, Skye returned for Olivia.

While she was gone, the others started towards the edge of the wall on the front side of the building. There was a weird light coming up from somewhere down they couldn't see. As they reached the edge, they saw why and froze.

"What is it?" Olivia asked from behind them, having been brought up. She was too far away to see down to the ground. The girls on the edge turned to look at the other two, and just stared at them for a while.

"The whole yard is on fire," Alex said.
__________________________________________________

I was supposed to start wrapping this up, wasn't I? But what can I do, with a topic like that? Hope you can do a better job with trying to make this end. Here, let me help you with just the topic to do that: Answers.

Ok. Bye.

~matu

Soar, Part 17 - Tongue

Vanilla jumped off the bed and started to walk around the room, quietly inspecting the medical supplies and other things that were scattered all around it.

"Just Vanilla?" Alex asked as the girl picked up a syringe from the side table.

"Oh, that's not my real name," she said cheerily, putting the syringe down and picking up a medicine bottle. "But it's the name I go by, in this realm. I can't just go around giving my real name to people just like that, now can I?" She flashed the girls a smile, a very creepily innocent smile. "Names hold a lot of power, you know."

"Right, Vanilla," Roxie said, taking a step closer to her. She turned her orange eyes to Roxie. "You were about to tell us what happened? Back when you got... cursed? When you were petrified."

"Oh, yes, that's right," she said, smacking herself on the forehead. "You said you had a friend there, didn't you?"

"And you said you knew what happened to her," said Roxie, taking another step closer.  She was starting to get anxious, to lose her temper, and she loomed over the small girl in front of her. Vanilla didn't seem intimidated though.

"What happened to her is what happened to all of us," she said calmly, walking back to the bed and jumping on it. "There was a curse laid upon that street that petrified all those who set foot on it."

"That could have been us," Skye whispered, her hand flying to her mouth. "We went to the street, didn't we?"

"You were lucky," said Vanilla with a smile. "The curse had been removed by then. It was no longer necessary."

"But wouldn't people have noticed?" said Roxie, gaining the attention of the rest of the group. "I mean, if the victims didn't arrive at the same time, but got gradually petrified, shouldn't have someone noticed? Or at least found it before we did? We did come at least an hour after the curse had been made."

"Ah, that's where it gets clever," said Vanilla. "There was a distraction spell."

"A distraction spell? That is clever," said Olivia.

"So you're saying that everyone that walked down the street just... didn't realize anything was wrong?" said Alex, dumbfounded. "Sounds incredible. I mean concealing a person or too, that's no stretch, especially in an environment you're familiar with, but an entire city block? Wow."

"Why though? Why did the people get petrified in the first place?" insisted Roxie. There had to be a reason. There had to.

"That I don't know," said Vanilla, shaking her head. "By the time I realized that no one was moving around me it was too late. I was careless....."

"But you noticed no one was moving? Despite the spell?" asked Olivia, sitting down on the bed next to Vanilla. She squinted at the little girl, who smiled and looked up with a tilted head. "...your aura is funny."

Vanilla laughed, and despite the oddness of her voice it was a refreshing sound. "I suppose it would be," she said. "Actually, I noticed that there were some people that were moving in the middle of the group. I didn't have time to figure out what they were doing or who they were before I was petrified, but there were several of them, and I would bet that they were the ones that were doming the spells. I don't think there's any other way they could've stayed awake."

"Awake? You mean you... fell asleep when you were petrified?" Skye asked.

"Not quite," said Vanilla, swatting away Olivia's fingers where she had been trying to touch her golden hair. She stuck out her tongue, but Vanilla continued, uninterrupted. "After our bodies were petrified our consciousness were sent into a plane beyond the dreamworld... into Limbo. We were stuck there, wandering around helplessly trying to break free to no avail. There were dozens of souls. Most of them desperate... I'm glad I managed to wake up, but the rest are still stuck there, until we can break the curse."

"How did you wake up?" asked Alex, crossing her arms. "If none of the other victims can."

"Because of Roxie," said Vanilla happily, looking up at said girl. She shuddered. There was a weird glint in the girl's big eyes. "Oh I never imagined I should get so lucky... A Valkyrie, just happening to walk by. Of course, it is rather unlucky for you, considering the state of your friend."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up," said Roxie, waving her hands around. "What's this got to do with me being a Valkyrie?"

"Everything," Vanilla breathed. The manic glint was back in her eyes. "The Valkyries, the warriors of Valhalla, the choosers of the slain, the leaders of the fallen warriors. You are the ones that lead the souls, you are the ones carrying the dead to the gates of Valhalla. You are my soul's link into the realm of the living, Rótafkárr, daughter of Reginleif."

"How did you..?" whispered Roxie, her eyes wide as she stared at the small girl in front of her. Suddenly she didn't feel so small anymore, but somehow bigger, older, wiser...

"Know your name?" Vanilla asked, smiling. "I know a whole deal more than you think I do, and your mother is one I know very well."

"But since Roxie's mom is a Valkyrie, why wasn't she her link the realm of the living? She's been hanging around the hospital because of the investigation, right?" Olivia whispered to Alex, while Roxie could only gape.

"The one who's a police officer isn't a Valkyrie, that's Roxie's other mom. Detective Ma'at is a deity, dumbnut," Alex whispered back.

"What's wrong, Roxie?" Vanilla asked, grasping everyone's attention. She didn't seem malicious, but rather... amused? "Cat got your tongue?"

"I know..." said Roxie, her voice barely above a whisper. "I know what your name is."

"Ah, names... they are powerful, are they not?" Vanilla said, her lips curling into a smile. Roxie shuddered and drew in a breath.

There was a loud crash from somewhere in the hospital.

"Shit!" yelled Alex as she sprinted to the door of the room and glancing down the hallway in panic. "What the Hell was that?"

"Oh, I think the mob has finally gotten inside," said Vanilla, walking up to her. Whatever had been different about her just a moment ago was gone, and she seemed like a, well not normal, but a little girl none the less. "I hear the police talk about it before I could move again."

"Oh right, I forgot about them," said Olivia, looping her hand through Skye's arm. She squeezed it reflexively. "I wonder what they'll do."

"I'm reasonably sure they're here for me," said Vanilla, way too calmly. The four teenagers turn to stare at her. "Well, I guess we better move. It ought to be trouble if they catch us."
_________________________________________________________

This is just one cliffhanger after another haha.

I have an idea for who Vanilla is but it still needs some ironing out, so I won't say anything yet. Now it's time to escape some zombies! they're not actually zombies i think they're possessed people but it's really up to you idk

I wanted to tie Anka back in but looks like I didn't manage to do that this time..... hmm..... ohhh well.

Your topic is *drumroll* "Blaze"

Pie out.

Soar, Part 16 - Vanilla

"Hello, excuse me," Olivia said, tapping one of the nearest women on the shoulder. The woman slashed her hand away, not even looking at the girls, and Olivia pulled back, looking confused. She stood there for a second, watching the woman clearly trying to go somewhere through the crowd and then went to the next person.

"Hi," she said, grabbing the tall man on the arm. He tried to pull his arm away, but since Olivia was holding on to her he he couldn't. He turned to look at Olivia, eyes both angry and empty, and bared his teeth. Olivia let go of him, and slowly backed to the other two.

"They don't respond," she said. "They won't say anything."

"Yeah, we noticed that," Alex said. "But we need to get into the hospital, and it looks like the door's locked. Or that these people are for some reason able to open it to get through it. Either way, we're not going to get through this crowd to it."

"So how are we going to get in?" Skye asked.

"We fly," Olivia said, like it was obvious.

"She's right, there's got to be a door on the roof, so they can bring people in flying," Alex said, turning to Skye, "Are you up for some more flying?"

"Not unless I don't have to change," she answered, "I mean, I know we have to get in. But I don't want to change back." She looked up. "But I should be able to make it up there with one of you at a time."

Alex nodded, and Olivia clenched onto Skye. She took a good hold on her, and took off. The flying was harder with two people, but Skye had luckily had some practise with that. The dance choreographies included her holding up the weight of someone else for a lot of the time. She put down Olivia carefully in more or less the middle of the roof, and flapped back down. When she got back up with Alex, Olivia had ran to the door on one end of the roof.

"It's locked!" she shouted at them while they walked towards her. "I mean, it was. Until I picked the lock," she continued as the others got to her and opened the door, grinning.

"Let's go," Alex said, and the girls were on their way, jogging down the wide stairs until they found a door to get into the hospital properly. They ran through the mostly empty hallways, looking for Roxie. It was weird how empty the halls were, even in the middle of the night. It was like everyone was occupied somewhere else. Which they probably were, with the mob down stairs.

The hospital was so big they ran for a good while before finding anything. They had ran through the long hallways, peering into every occupied and unoccupied room on their way. They almost flew (and Skye sometimes literally) down more stairs, down more hallways, and then more stairs.

"Oh," Olivia said, peering into a room four flights down from the roof.

"What?" Skye asked, stopping to see what had surprised her.

"This man in this room is petrified," Olivia said, beginning to move again.

"We must be getting close to where Roxie is," Alex said, hurrying down the hall, "Assuming she's where the petrified people are."

They rounded a corner and almost bumped into Roxie, walking back and forth in the hallway.

"You got here!" she exclaimed, as the others stopped to catch their breath. Alex nodded.

"Yeah, you kinda said it was important," she noted once she had more or less caught her breath.

"So what is happening?" Skye asked, still breathing hard, though the running had been easier for her. She could glide some of the way while running, after all.

"I don't know," Roxie began.

"Well, it's great you woke us up for that," Alex said, as much sarcasm in her voice she could muster trying to catch her breath.

"No, I mean a lot," Roxie said, "I had this weird dream about a girl who said she knew what happened to Annalise, but then she had to go before she could tell me anything, and that woke me up and I just got up to get some water but mom was up looking at pictures of the victims and I spotted the same girl from my dream in one of the pictures and then mom got a call from the hospital and she left and told me to go back to bed but I obviously followed her, "she was speaking fast now.

"You had a dream of a girl that knew what happened to Annalise?" Skye interrupted as Roxie paused for just a moment to draw a breath. Roxie nodded.

"What did she say?" Skye asked.

"That she knew what happened, but that she had to go and I should go find her," Roxie said, "And then it turned out she was one of the victims. Which I already said. Anyway, when mom left I would've followed her even without the dream, because I obviously want to know if something's going on with the people, but then I got here and it turned out that the thing that was happening was that the girl that had been in my dream had gained some brain function, which was weird, because none of the other ones show any sign of being alive, and then it turned out that her brain activity increased when I was around and talking, so I guess she somehow recognises my voice and now I have no idea what's happening."

"And then there appeared a mob in front of the hospital?" Skye asked, trying to keep up.

"Yeah, the mob, I have no idea where they came from, and no one else has either, or then they're not telling me. But it seems no one knows what that's all about. They just appeared here just before I texted you. It seems none of them are reacting to being spoken to and if you try to get physical they just push you away and that's all the contact you can get," Roxie explained, speaking really fast. Skye nodded. This they had noticed. "Either way, they put the hospital on shut down until the police can figure out what's going on with the mob, but it seems like they're under some kind of a spell, so I'm thinking, and actually my mom too, that that spell is somehow connected to the petrified people -spell. And now I can't go anywhere, because my mom rushed off and told me to stay put, and I'm probably in enough trouble anyway and..."

"Is this the girl from your dream?" Olivia interrupted, standing at the nearest door to a patient room in the hall, facing into the room.

"Yeah, why?" Roxie asked, confused.

"She's awake," Olivia said, disappearing into the room. The other girls shared a glance, and then rushed into the room after Olivia.

The girl was sitting on the bed, legs crossed, swinging slightly back and forth. She was silently humming to herself, and as Roxie entered the room a big smile appeared on her face. Her orange eyes looked almost like they were on fire, something that Roxie's dream hadn't quite made justice. The eyes had been weird even in the dream but now that they looked almost alive they were even more unnerving.

"You came find me!" she said happily. Her voice was almost as weird as her eyes. It wasn't a voice quite like anything any of them had ever heard. A lot of the creatures in the world didn't exactly have human voices, there was something elvish or fae or magical about them, that was hard to put your finger on, but the voice of the girl was weirder still than any of them. There were no way to describe it.

"I did," Roxie said slowly. "You said you know what happened to Annalise. But I guess also to you and everyone else."

"I do," the girl said, looking like she was going to continue.

"Who are you?" Olivia interrupted her, watching the girl with huge eyes. The girl laughed, a sound that was the same kind of fascinatingly weird as her voice.

"My name," she said, staring straight into Olivia's curious eyes, "is Vanilla."
_________________________________________________________

Your topic for Monday is.... I had a really good one right on my mind and then you texted me and I got distracted and forgot it.

The topic is Tongue.

~matu

Soar, Part 15 - Crowd

Alex was laying in bed, reading on her phone when it vibrated to indicate an incoming text. She frowned and checked the time, which was indeed way past two in the morning, before opening up the text. It was from Roxie.

Holy shit it said.

Alex's frown deepened. The next text came in a few seconds.

Okay I need u be awake please tell me ur awake

yeah, im awake whats up? she texted back.

Oh thank Odin, I knew I could trust your whacked up sleeping habits

excuse u
i get plenty sleep

Yeah, yeah, not important right now
I need you to go get Skye and Olivia and meet me at Samhain Memorial

the... hospital???
y r u in a hospital??
are u hurt??
did something happen???
is that where the petrified ppl are???????
????????
ANSWER ME!!!

Sheesh, Alex, relax! I'M fine
It's got to do with the petrified people

Alex stared at the screen of her phone, her heart beating in her chest. Every passing second the new text didn't arrive was agony.  

It's... a long story. I'll tell it once you're all here

OH MY GOD roxie, don't leave a girl hanging!! u gotta tell me what's going on!!

I WILL, once you're all here! I gotta go find my mom now, explain things to her... GET HERE ASAP

Alex waited for a few tense seconds if there would be something else, before throwing her covers off and dashing up from bed. She pulled her clothes on, and opened her window, shivering as the cold autumn air hit her face. Then she hopped down.

It was the second story, but that hadn't stopped Alex before. She might not have wings, but she was very good at breaking a fall, partially thanks to her being a fae. She hopped gracefully over the fence dividing their house from the next, which incidentally was the one Skye lived in. This wasn't the first time Alex had sneaked over to her friend's room in the middle of the night, much to the dismay of both their parents.

Alex picked a small pebble off the ground and flicked it at Skye's window. Years of practice had made her aim pretty good, and it hit the frame with a knock. She waited. Nothing happened. She threw another one, a bit bigger this time. Still nothing.

After waiting for a few minutes she concluded that Skye must be asleep, and swiftly climbed the big maple on their yard, on of its large branches conveniently located within jumping distance of Skye's window. She inched as close to the window as she could, took a deep breath...

And she leaped.

The outer windowsill wasn't wide, and the only place to hold onto was the window frame, but Alex held on. As usual, the latch on the window wasn't on, which meant that she could open the window from the outside. It was a bit hard without tipping the center of her gravity too far out but she managed, and then she slipped in.

Alex flicked on the desk lamp, which incited a sleepy, though annoyed, groan from the direction of Skye's bed.

"Mornin', sleepyheads," Alex grinned. Skye squinted up at her from where she was curled against the still sleeping Olivia.

"No," she said and wrapped one of her wings around the two of them.

Olivia made a surprised squeak and scrambled up. She blinked, looking around dazedly until her eyes landed on Alex. She smiled and waved as Olivia squinted as well.

"This is new, never had you in one of these dreams," said Olivia, her voice hoarse with sleep. "Well, first time for everything." She lifted the blanket that was pooled around her waist. Skye slapped her arm.

"As fascinating as that proposal sounds like," Alex, crossing her arms. "This isn't a dream and there's something a bit more pressing going on right now."

Skye picked up on the seriousness of Alex's tone and sat up straighter. "What's going on?"

"Roxie texted me," Alex explained, walking over to the pile of clothes on the floor and chucking them at the two figures on the bed. "Something's happened concerning the petrification case. She needs us at Sam Memorial, as soon as we can get there."

"Sam Memorial?" said Olivia, apparently woken up. "She's not hurt, is she?"

"No, she's fine," said Alex, as the other two started to pull clothes on. "She didn't explain what had happened, said she wanted to tell us all at once when we get there."

"Well, let's go!" said Olivia, wrapping a scarf around her neck. "You wanna fly us over, babe?" She leaned towards Skye, resting her hands on her shoulder. She bit her lip.

"I hate using that form...." she said, rubbing her arm. "But I guess since this is urgent."

Olivia let out a small "yay" as Alex climbed out of the window again, hoisting herself up on the roof with momentum. The other two followed soon after.

Skye walked a bit further away, to the middle of the roof. She rolled her shoulder and flexed her wings and closed her eyes. When he opened them again they were pitch black.

Alex always found Skye's transformation a little too gruesome, so she turned to look away. Olivia on the other hand was completely engrossed with it. Skye didn't often use her true daemon form, mainly because it was inconveniently big, but mostly because she was a very unusual daemon in the sense that she was gentle in nature. She always thought that the form was a bit too morbid. It had its uses, of course, as one would assume a 5 meter tall demon beast with gigantic wings, horns, claws, and fangs had.

I'M READY, came the low rumble of her demon voice after a moment. GET ON. I DON'T WANT TO STAY LIKE THIS ANY LONGER THAN NECESSARY.

 Olivia squee'd happily and climbed Skye's back to sit at the base of her leathery wings. Alex climbed on as well, with less vigor. Skye flapped her wings, a strong gust of wind hitting the house underneath them, and then they took off.

~x~

They glided through the sky, way up high. The wind was strong and biting, and Olivia and Alex huddled close together on top of Skye. The trip didn't take too long, the distance had been short to begin with and with Skye's flying speed they made it to Samhain Memorial in record time.

They landed in the small park behind the building, and Skye turned back to her humanoid form. She slumped forward but Olivia caught her.

"Sorry," she said. "It's been a while since I did that, it drained me a bit more than I thought it would."

"Don't worry about it," said Alex, as they began to walk towards the hospital. "Thank you for going through the trouble. Really saved us a lot of time."

Skye smiled, a little worn out, leaning against Olivia for support. They rounded the corner and stopped.

"Uhhh," said Alex. "Is this normal? At this hour?"

"I don't think so?" said Skye, looking at the sight in front of them with a frown.

"I'm pretty sure visiting hours are way over," said Olivia, biting her lip.

The front of the hospital was crowded. There were people everywhere. They were moving this time, and Alex thanked the stars for that, but they seemed... angry. She wasn't sure if they were trying to get inside, or if they were trying to keep something out, or what they were trying to do.

"An angry mob?" Alex said, only half joking.

"Lord, I hope not," said Skye, looking very worried.

"Let's go ask them!" said Olivia and started to skip at towards the nearest person. Alex and Skye dashed after her.
_________________________________________________________________

dundundun. I'm sorry, I know nothing really happened, but I did feel like it was very important that the whole gang be present. I get the feeling we're on the home stretch here.

20 parts is fine, if we can wrap it up in that. I think that it's okay if we just kinda... end it where is ends. Or something.

Anywayy. Your topic is.... "Vanilla"

Pie out.