Chesapeake road trailed east from High Valley through a slow canyon and up some switchbacks to the top of the rim. I knew the road from camping trips I’d taken with Jeff and some of the other guys when I’d been in boy scouts. The sun was just cresting the horizon as I drove over the rim. I could look down into High Valley from this vantage point and see the Mill, the meandering stream, and the town all laid out below me.

A dirt road led off across the top of the plateau, through trees, and out into a gorgeous meadow with a lake. I’d fished in that lake last year and caught some brook trout with Mitzy and Jeff.

The farm had an old barn that had been repainted to a bright green, and a smaller farmhouse that had been converted into an office area. Motor vehicles were not allowed past the gates, so I parked.

Another car was in the parking lot, which I thought strange. A black mercedes that looked incredibly familiar…

I hiked past the entrance and down the trail into the main area of the park. The Farm was setup to help establish and maintain the presence of butterflies in the entire region with a multitude of flowering plants available. They also had a caterpillar area, with thousands of chrysalis pods hanging from tree branches.

After hiking a few hundred feet, I came upon someone sitting in a lawn chair with an umbrella and a small table setup next to them with a bucket of ice.

Desdemonia Landcaster sat resplendent in a skin tight leopard print pantsuit with a black floppy hat and enormous cat-eye sunglasses. She smoked a long black cigarette as she drank what looked like to be margaritas.

“Hello there,” I said, approaching softly.

“Oh!” she said, getting up quickly. “It’s you.”

I nodded, looking her over. She wore thick makeup and her hair had been caught up in a hair net under the floppy black hat she wore.

“I assume that’s April under all that is Desdemonia.”

She started to nod, but something kept her head still. “No, I’m Desdemonia Landcaster, dark wytch of the first order and Vice President of the Magical Council of High Valley.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

“How did you…um..know it was me?”

I sighed. “Let’s say I’ve been through a few different realities lately.”

She nodded and adjusted her fur jacket a bit over her heavy decolletage.

“Margarita?”

“No, thanks. Got tired of the Mint Juleps?”

She made a face. “I hate…I mean…I adore mint juleps at certain times, yes.”

“You know you could have just told me. I would have accepted this.”

She sat down, very quiet.

I looked at the butterfly enclosure. We sat in front of a rather large mosquito netting covering a number of smaller trees and bushes. Butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors fluttered and flittered about in the dawn air, moving from one flower to the next.

About halfway back, an oversized monarch butterfly stood on a branch, with enormous wings that must have extended a foot to either side, slowly moving in the air.

“Hi Mitzy,” I said, waving.

Mitzy fluttered upward from her perch and came over to me. I could see the insectile head regarding me, long antennae tasting the air. I wondered if there was anything left inside there of Mitzy or if she was completely lost.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I did try…”

The butterfly fluttered it’s wings a few minutes, then flew away back to its perch.
“I…I mean, April didn’t intend for this to happen, Seth!” Desdemonia said.

I sighed, shaking my head. “Of course you didn’t.”

“It was just a joke!”

I looked at her. “If that’s what you want to tell yourself.”

“I never would have…I mean, my daughter never would have teased her like that if she knew she was this close to…”

A low rumble echoed through the plateau. All the butterflies scattered in different directions.

“What the hell was that?” I said.

“Temporal wave,” Desdemonia said. “They’ve been increasing in frequency.”

“What is that?” I said.

She shrugged. “A wave of chaos magic. As we get closer to—“ She cut off, sealing her lips. “Anyway, you might want to brace yourself.”

“Why?” I said. “What’s going to…”

The wave crashed through and over us. I felt my curse want to roar back in response, but I held it in check.

…The smell of rotten eggs. “No!” I said, trying to block it. “No, I’m not going this time!”
I thought about mom and dad, finally, together, happy in this reality. Sure, Mitzy had taken the brunt, but still, Mom was alive!

things decaying, and burning rubber flooding my senses.

Thunder echoed around us and a wind rose. Desdemonia’s hat flew off in a mad cacophony of wind and a spattering of rain.

I roared feeling the change wanting to overtake me. Desdemonia yelled at me, and I could feel her hugging herself tight to me as the gale swept over us.

“We have to get to shelter!” I said. She nodded, trying to wipe the onslaught of rain from her face.

We took shelter under the overhanging porch of the farm house. Desdemonia clutched her portly body to mine as the very air crackled with magic and energy.

“I’m sorry about Mitzy, Seth!” she yelled in my ear.

I fumed. “Little too late now!”

She nodded, shaking and cold as the storm raged around us.

“I’m sorry you’re stuck in that old woman’s body!” I yelled down at her.

“The geas lifted when the storm struck!” she said. “I can be myself at least for a little while.”

She clung to me. At least it looked like I wouldn’t be shoved into a dimensional shift again. The feeling had left.

“I’ve been falling through different realities,” I said. “I’m not the Seth that was here yesterday.”

“I know,” Des…April, said. “I was here yesterday too. You treated me like I was Mother.”

I nodded. “Why did you agree to this?”

She shrugged. “It’s what I was born to do.”

“So you’ll just live out the rest of your life like this?”

“Mother is already making plans for ‘college.’”

I nodded. “Well, I do hope you are happy with whatever you decide.”

She sighed and nodded. I felt started to smell rotten eggs again, and knew another shift was coming. If I could just control them a little.

The last time I’d been able to use magic was because April had cast a spell on me. I wondered if I could open my third eye again, if I could control the shifts —

“Hey, cast a spell on me real quick,” I said.

She blinked. “What? What kind of spell?”

“I dunno, change my hair color or something. Hurry!”

She waved her hands and I felt a tingle in my scalp. I closed my eyes.

Sure enough, I was finally able to open my third eye. I could see April standing with me, her aura pink mixed with blue and black.

I smiled. “I can see your aura now.”

“You can use magic?”

I nodded, feeling that strange otherwordly shift again. I wondered if I could get back to my original reality—

…The smell of rotten eggs, things decaying, and burning rubber flooded my senses. I could see something below me, something with burning yellow eyes that moved, undulated, something that had tentacles rising up into the air, latching onto me and—

I awoke, my head resting on some kind of vehicle door frame. We were moving.

Mitzy Butterfly smiled at me. “You’re awake.”

“Oh, and you’re you!” I said, wrapping her in my arms.

She frowned and looked at me as we screeched to a stop in front of my house. “Who else would I be?”

I was back in Desdemonia’s body, and it looks like only an hour or so had passed. It made sense, since *I* hadn’t been here to live the next series of events.

“What day is it?” I said.

“The fourth.” Jeff said. “We’re at your house, dude.”

April fourth. So I still had ten days. Ten days to learn as much about magic as I could. Ten days of attempting to control the waves of chaos magic flooding out from the Gate.

Ten Days to learn as much as I could about the Who, and how to stop it from coming through the Gate and creating hell on earth. Ten days of being Desdemonia Landcaster, before jumping back into one of my dual faction forms and somehow stop myself from opening the Gate.

Sure, easy.