I awoke to Brianna charging through my bedroom door; she was never one for knocking. My first reaction was to roll my head to the left and glance at the bedside alarm clock which now read: 6:45 AM. Brianna was fully dressed in a silky blouse and black pants, and before I knew it, she was tossing clothes onto my bed.

“I found a shelter for Angela,” She explained rather offhandedly. “Get up, get dressed, we’re taking her right now.”

“I…can’t you just drive her over there?” I asked, pulling the blankets up to my chin. I didn’t want to move from the bed at all.

“Has anyone ever told you that you shop like a stoner?” Ashleigh peeked into my cart as we approached the self-checkout lane at the grocery store. Inside, as I well knew, she would see three bottles of lemon juice, a bag of tomatoes, six potatoes, and a quart of ice cream. I suppose she would think that was a little weird, but ever since I’d been changed and allowed to eat for the first time, I’d been craving citrus and random dairy products. Potatoes were just a plus today.

“Angela?” I perked up a bit, turning and placing my hand on the steel tubing that comprised the rail of the wooden bridge. I saw the girl, her jet black hair coursing with the flow of the wind, her wedge heels clipping the uneven planks. She looked just like any other girl really, apart from the paleness and the deep blue eyes.

“I hate school,” I said to Rhea as we walked into the bathroom following the last bell. “It’s worse than I remembered.”

“It’s not that bad,” Rhea rolled her eyes and leaned against one of the sinks, her body toward mine. “Fix your lipstick, it looks terrible.”

“And what is this?” Mellie asked, staring at the ground with the greatest amount of disinterest that I’ve ever witnessed from any human being.

“This is a dead body,” Broderick said to her, as if he were explaining to a child.

“What a shame,” She shrugged. “Well, now what we know what it is, I’d like to get on with my day.”

“Everyone here has something to lose,” Broderick paced back and forth. We were sitting the basement office, just below Howell’s pub, as I’d come to learn. There were seven of us here. Broderick, Mellie, my sister, and a few other people I hadn’t met yet. I was sitting on the desk, Meghan beside me, her hand in mine. “Everyone here, in this room, save for the vampire, is a member of house Greystem-“

“Wait, what?” I interrupted. “Greystem?”

My vision swam and my emotions raged as I was flung from the mirror and my body slammed against an old wooden floor, glass and debris bouncing, dust scattering after years of dormancy. I gasped for air and reached my hand upward toward the massive full-length framed mirror from which I had just been ejected. I scampered to my feet, rushed back toward the mirror, barely managing to keep myself standing. My arm outstretched I ran to it, slamming my hand against the glass. It shattered. The shards fell from the frame and turned to dust as they collided with the floor.

“Pay attention,” Meredith tapped the old dusty book in front of me with her switch. She hadn’t used it on me lately but she really loved using it as an implement. “Without referring to the book, tell me the name of the Seelie court, in old Fae.”

“’Allo,” I responded, hoping I wasn’t messing it up.

“And the inner sanctum?”

“Alloquandirm,” I said a little uncertainty. The look on her face told me I was wrong.

“Alloquandirum,” She corrected me. “You’ve gotta get that ‘u’ in there.”

“Sorry,” I shrugged. “It’s a lot to learn and-“

“Jasmine, sweetie,” Angela said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Go upstairs, please, into mine and Meredith’s room. I want you to stay there until we come to get you, okay?”

“Wait, what?” I turned to her, an expression of shock and confusion painting my face. “I don’t understand, I want to know what’s going on.”

“This isn’t for you to hear,” Anabelle said, her face stony. “Do as your mother says.”

“I’m not a kid!” I argued “I…”

“You are a kid,” Meredith informed me. “and you need to do as you’re told now.”

“First and foremost,” Angela said, standing maybe three feet from me. “You’re going to learn to string this bow. Notice how the arms are curved, you see?”

I nodded. For the first time I was really getting a look at my bow. It was made from a sleep black wood, very simple, but also a bit heavier than I’d expected. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of contempt looking at it, as Meredith had forced me to run the obstacle course over and over again while holding it. Still, it was something Angela wanted me to have, and that was enough to make me love it.

“Again,” Meredith said coldly. As always, my body responded to her command; I ran back to beginning of the obstacle course, bow in hand and gripped the rope net, hurtling up and over the obstacle as I raced toward the next.

“Meredith please,” I sobbed as I ran, completely out of breath and barely able to keep upright. “Please just let me stop for a minute.”

“Why did we drive a car if we can just walk through mirrors?” I asked as Meredith eased her car between two others on a temporary grass lot.

“Because it freaks people out when we just appear in front of them,” Angela told me, rummaging through her purse for something. Finally, she yanked a pink bracelet from the bag and handed it to me through the seats. It was pretty plain; there was nothing special about it, it kind of reminded me of a slap bracelet, though without the slapping part. “Put that on, it makes it easier to find you in a crowd.”

I stared incredulously at the creature that had just passed through the mirror. Were my eyes deceiving me, or was this really, truly a talking armadillo? Angela and Meredith immediately rose from the couch, though I sat there, mouth agape until Angela nudged my shoulder. I climbed to my feet and leaned into her, wrapping my arms around her waist. She laid an arm around me and gave me a partial hug.

“What should we watch next?” Angela flipped through the Netflix menu on the television, I laid comfortably between the two of them, kind of curled up. It was nice being small. “I think we’ve watched everything on Netflix and Hulu, we’re going to have to wait a few years for them to update the library.”

“And I am back with groceries!” Angela said cheerfully as she walked into the room. I had resumed my original position on the bed and Meredith was pretending to be busy with her phone, acting like she hadn’t just forced me to lick her feet for the last hour. I kind of wanted to say something to Angela, in fact I was pretty sure I could have, but I just didn’t want to. I was tired, I was hungry, my body felt like it had been hit by a truck. I just wanted to lay here on the bed and drift off to sleep. “Wake up over there or it’s going to feel worse later!”

My body turned away from the bed just as I finished dusting the sleek wooden headboard. It was like this, every day. Was it every day? I’d lost track of time a while ago. My body was just on repeat, working its way down a never ending chore list; never sleeping, never stopping. During the first few weeks I’d tried to think about who Angela was, how she had this kind of power over me. As the days and hours waned on I just stopped caring. My body was exhausted, my muscles were throbbing, the pain in my jaw still hadn’t subsided. I guess it wasn’t mean to.

“Come on Angela,” I grinned. “Like…just make me do your dishes or something.”

“God dammit Steve,” She rolled her eyes at me, brushing her auburn hair away from her face and shaking her head. “I told you, I’m not into the whole bondage thing, okay? Just drop it.”

“That’s a load of crap,” I laughed. “I found that ball gag in your closest.”

“What were you doing in my closet, perv?” She raised an eyebrow. “and yes, I have a ball gag, doesn’t mean I’m going to start dominating you or whatever.”

Woodcrest University Radio Broadcast September 8 2018

DJ: “What’s up Woodcrest! This is your boy, Barney Schmarney, and what kind of name is that you ask? Well I say fuck you! That’s right guys, I said fuck on the radio and the FCC is going to charge is five thousand whole ass dollars! Today I’m here with our special guest, the one, the only, Alexander Garron, the newest member of the Woodcrest Board! Tell me Mr. Garron, how does it feel to buy your way onto the board of Directors?”

“Angela, Angela stop!” I gasped, gently pushing her off of me. “What are you doing?!”

“I…I thought-“ She started to say, but Brianna appeared in the doorway, a bath towel folded around her head and a look of concern painted on her face.

“Is everything okay?” She asked.

“Uh…yeah,” I said. “Everything is uh…fine…”

Brianna looked from me, to Angela, and then back. She frowned a bit and then shrugged.

“Girl, this is the sheriff,” Zeke said, motioning toward the uniformed man near the front door.

“So I can see,” I said. “My name is-“

“Makayla,” The sheriff said. “They told me all about you, nappin’ in the woods like you owned the place. They’re gonna love you down at CPS, or whatever is it they’re callin’ themselves these days.”

“They change their name again?” Shelby said, shaking her head as she glanced up from her magazine at the kitchen table.

“Yeah, I have some concerns,” I said, raising my hand, though it was kind of a moot point. Melissa kind of looked at me blankly.

“Oh, yeah, what’s up Todd?” She set capped her marker and set it down on the whiteboard tray, crossing her arms and leaning against the desk at the front of the room.

“It’s just…Tiffany has a song to sing in Act 2, right? The um...oh what was it..'On my Own'. She hasn’t shown up for the last two practices, does she even know the song? I mean…I know she's good with her mouth but-”

I stood outside the GAT house, leaning against the railing and staring at the far off stadium lights. Football season would be starting any day now and you know, while I wasn’t a big fan of the games themselves I couldn’t help but be addicted to the energy. The screaming fans, the crudely drawn paper sighs, and oh god, the after-parties. I couldn’t tell you how much I was looking forward to getting completely smashed at the DEM house and waking up with a random stranger, especially after the events of the last few weeks.