Last night...

Mira clasped the hands of her best friends her best friends, Samara and Jean. "This is the best party ever!" she squealed in joy as the DJ ramped up the music in the school gym that their school had set up for their prom.

She felt the trickle of sweat beading along her brow from the hours she had spent dancing and moving about the room, socialising with every person that was worthy of her time and effort. She wanted those Prom Queen votes. Being the centre of attention was her favourite hobby, the chill she got from being looked at as though she was an expensive gem was the most wonderful feeling in the world, and becoming the Prom Queen would make her the centre of everyone's attention. There was no way that she would not become the Prom Queen. It was just impossibly to even imagine. She was the perfect queen: intelligent, ruthless, charming and ever so beautiful. The perfect Queen was admired by all her subjects.

And why shouldn't she be admired?

She wore an expensive luscious ruby-red designer dress that showcased her perfect, hard-earned slim figure. Her hair had been styled and coiffed to sheer perfection and her makeup flawless. She was beautiful.  Not a single mar on her soft skin, not a hair out of place. Samara and Jean weren't as beautiful as her, but they each had something that would do. Jean was short and made Mira's legs seem long in comparison to her way-too-anorexic ones. And Samara's hair was never as glossy or as perfectly placed as hers; poor thing had frizzy hair that just wouldn't be tamed. Just standing by them made her seem like the goddess Aphrodite. 

The best part about both of them, however, was that they were loyal to her. They knew their place in the world and they made sure that they di everything they could to not get on her bad side.

Maybe because they know you could destroy their lives if they ever stood against you.

The stray thought was a voice not her own and she tossed it out straight away. She was not crazy and thoughts like that were just not true...to an extent.

She felt a hand on her wrist tug her and spin her round to face a perfect male specimen for her to sink her $100 manicure into. Perfectly styled blonde hair with a pearly smile and green eyes to die for. But she was not some teenage idiot who got nervous anytime a boy talked to her. She was the future Prom Queen. She did not bow down to those infantile urges, no matter how delicious this boy looked.

"Mira, are you coming to the after party?" Drew asked her, flashing his knee-shaking smile.

She smiled back coyly at him, "Depends on where it is."

"A bunch of us are heading over to the Turner's Point to set it up. There's going to be a bonfire on the beach and my brother's bringing his college mates too."

Mira looked over her shoulder at her two friends who smiled happily at her, awaiting her judgement on this matter. An opportunity to mingle with even hotter guys than the ones at their pathetic school was a great way to begin their holiday. And to finally get Drew alone....even better.

She turned back to Drew, "I guess we could make an appearance. They won't be announcing the winner till late tonight anyway so we can go out for a bit and come straight back."

"Great! See you out there? I just have to grab a few things and I'll be right there." Then he and his black fitted tuxedo were out of the door and she was turning back to her friends.

"Let's go!" All three left and headed to Mira's convertible that she'd had someone park for her as she'd come in a limo.

They didn't hear the school's Football coach telling another of the chaperones at the side-lines that Drew hadn't turned up to the Prom because his sister was still in hospital.

***

"Oh my God!" Mira screamed as all three girls spun back to run through the forest to Mira's car.

The snarls of the wolves they'd stumbled onto on their way to the beach flooded in the air around him with hostility and anger. Goosebumps lifted across Mira's skin as she clutched onto her heels in one hand and pushed herself legs as fast as they could go. Her feet scraped across branches that littered the ground, limbs snatching at her dress and pulling apart at her hair. Tears fell down her face but she refused to look back. She was too afraid of seeing those beasts as they came after her.

"Ahhh!" Mira heard Jean's scream of pain but didn't look back. She just kept running to her car. Jean had twisted her ankle and it hurt. But she kept going, leaning against Samara, who'd come back to help her best friend out of this nightmare.

The growls were coming closer.

Jean just kept in the pain and quickened her pace, sucking in one lungful of air after another as they raced out of the forest alongside Mira who'd slightly lost her way.

"Come on! Get in the car!" Mira shouted out at them as she pulled back the door to her convertible and got in to the driver's seat. Samara climbed into the back seat as quickly as she could and Jean jumped into the back, not caring at the sound of her dress tearing as she leapt in. Mira turned the ignition key but the engine sputtered. Jean turned at the sound of the snarls and howling getting louder and closer to them. "Hurry!" she screamed at Mira.

Mira just kept turning the ignition key but the engine refused to start.

Pairs of golden eyes became visible at the edges of the clearing where the car had been parked. Mira's heart almost sputtered like the car's engine but then it roared to life and she stomped onto the pedal as hard as she could. The car raced out of the clearing and through the forest as fast as it would go. The wolves tried racing after it, but they fell behind and stopped.

"They've stopped chasing us!" called a relieved Samara from the back seat as she watched the forest fade into the night. Jean was sobbing quietly in her seat, relieved that she'd escaped.

Mira turned onto the motorway and sighed in relief. She never wanted to go back there for as long as she lived. Everyone knew Darling Forest was populated by wolves, especially on full moons - or so the legend went. She's just never really considered the stories to be true. And Drew had said that they would all be at Turner's Point which was only accessible through Darling Forest.

Anger washed over her fear.

"That party was Drew's idea!" She shouted as she Punched the steering wheel, putting more pressure on the gas pedal in her haste to leave the forest far behind her.

"Mira...maybe you should just calm down," suggested a hesitant Samara. Her voice was still shaky from the adrenaline running through her system, but her far was an acidic taste at the back of her tongue. Being around Mira did that to her often, especially when she was this worked up and driving them in her car.

"Are you kidding me?" Mira shouted back at her, "He's the one who set this whole thing up! He's probably still blaming me for his sister's coma!" She hit the steering wheel again.

"Maybe he's right. You did say some pretty mean things to her that day Mira," Samara said into the silence of the open highway and dark sky. Jean held her breath. Both girls knew Mira had a temper and this time they had gone to far. The fear had addled their brains and now there was no chance that they were going to escape her wrath now.

Mira turned round to look at her supposed friends. She took in the mussed hair and torn dresses, the look of fear and guilt filling their eyes. "Weak. Pathetic. Sluts. You dare accuse me of being the only person to have talked to her? Don't forget, I recorded all our chats so if I go down, you go with me-"
"Look out!" Jean screamed.

Mira turned back around to the road and clutched to the wheel as she swerved to avoid the animal that had jumped out in front of them. Suddenly, the tail of the car lifted off of the ground and the girls held on for dear life as the convertible twisted and turned in the air as it bounced across the concrete road. Screams filled the air and overpowered the sound of metal crunching and scraping. As the creams died abruptly, the only sound that echoed into the night was the sound of metal scratching as the car finally stopped spinning and skid to a stop on the road.

The wolf, with pure white fur and grey eyes that did not belong to normal wolves, came closer to the scenes before it was engulfed by a pure white light that spread until a woman with long black hair and the same unearthly grey eyes emerged and looked carefully at the wreckage.

The two girls who she'd been told were not the main culprits were spread out on the road. They hadn't been wearing their safety belts and had been tossed out of the car as it finally came to a stop. They were pretty scraped up and the scars looked deep enough that there was no way they would ever forget the consequences of their actions. One had a long gash on her head that looked to be bleeding a lot, the dark blood flowing into her hair and pooling on the road. The other was barely free of the wreckage and had her arm pinned under one of the doors that had been torn free.

With strong, defiant strides, Kentrix walked over to the car and crouched down to look at the person that had caused all of this. Mira was bleeding steady rivulets of blood from her head and nose. Her body was still strapped into the driver's seat and she looked like she was dead. But Kentrix's acute hearing could hear the strong heartbeat crying out from its cage. Mira was most assuredly not dead and didn't look like she'd be leaving for the grave any time soon; not with what Kentrix had in store for her. 

Mira was still clutching the wheel but Kentrix wasn't interested in any of that. Kentrix reached out to the girl's clutch purse beside her and pulled out the small thumb drive. She looked at it for a moment. The small piece of metal was no bigger than her thumb but it had caused a cloud of darkness to pollute and infect the minds of everyone this girl had ever come close to. This deal would fix so many lives and right the balance of her city once and for all.

She clutched at the thumb drive and whispered a small spell over it. Then she loosened one of Mira's arms. Over one hand, she looped the purses' strap then she placed the thumb drive into her hand and closed her fist around it.  Knowing that her job was done, Kentrix stood up and pulled out a cell phone from her back pocket, dialling a number.

"It's done. My part of the deal is done." Then she shut the phone and pocketed it before disappearing into a flash of light; the girls left to bleed on the ground as sounds of wheels screeching to a stop approached and the scream of "Call 911!" was the first sound of the approaching alarms and screams.

~ two weeks before ~

Lana took a deep breath and took her first step back into the life she'd once had. This morning, her and her mother had finally gotten off the plane and now, as she looked at her old house, she found those butterflies resurfacing once more.

It had been almost a whole year since the incident and though Launa couldn't look back entirely at the incident itself just yet, she was finally at peace with the damage done and that was always the first step in accepting things that couldn't be changed. Especially something as severe as her accident.

The front door hadn't changed in the time she'd been away. It was still that odd greeny-blue that seemed to remind her of her first trip to the city aquarium with her father. The only fish she'd been fascinated with that day was the angel fish. They'd looked so calm and at peace with the schools of fish swimming around them haphazardly in every direction. She'd just wished she could have had their calming nerve and strength to return home to her arguing parents then, soon after that, her M.I.A father.

Launa let out another sigh and pushed past the door and into the hallway. The mirror by the coat rack was still the way she'd left it all those months ago: her winter coat hanging there like a puffy pillow that she'd  be needing in a few months, her scarves abandoned with her mittens, her umbrella waiting for the sky to let forth it's angry tears at the injustices of her town.

She looked back over her shoulder. Her mother was rolling their suitcase up the driveway, a relieved smile lifting her all too tired eyes. The world around her sang in bright notes, colours almost too bright to not hurt. The world hummed of freedom and life.

Launa wasn't ready to go out into this familiar but all too strange world once more.

As deftly as she could, she continued down the hallway and made it up the single flight of carpeted stairs. The first door she came across was the bathroom. She continued past it and two other identical white doors till she came upon a door coloured the same shade as their front door. For a moment, she battled with herself.

The last time she had shut this door was the day her life had been turned upside down; the day that those whom she had stood against had made her fall so low that there were real marks left behind that no amount of surgery could ever fix. She had left this room, this entire house, expecting to be able to return home with piles upon piles of homework and a resigned sigh to show the effort she put into not crying each and every moment she was still in this town.Now that she was finally back, she had this horrid feeling that the moment she stepped back into her room, she'd feel that girl envelop her and become her once more.

There is no way that I can be her again. Too many things have changed, she told herself as she twisted the doorknob and pushed open the door.

Her bed was made, her desktop computer still sat at her desk and her textbooks were still sitting on her shelves, dust piling on all of the furniture like a best friend. Nothing but her had changed and with that thought, she realized that the world had carried on like she hadn't been part of it. She'd just stopped whilst everyone else had carried on and left her behind in the dust.

No! She stepped away from the blanket of melancholy that had begun to descend upon her. She had carried on, just in a different direction. A very different direction.

She shook away the negative thoughts and allowed a cool breath in to centre her inner turmoil. When she exhaled she opened her eyes and looked to her computer. She was back to restart her life, finish her education then move away to a college somewhere far from Angelsburg, New Hampton, and never look back. She went over to her computer and switched it on.

Memories of long nights staying up to finish essays sneaked past her mental shields and she almost smiled, until her she felt her cheek wrinkle and pull as her scar; a reminder that pulled her forcefully back down to earth. The smile fell from her lips but she nonetheless continued to log in to her computer. Her screen blinked out for a second before it refreshed itself and opened up to the last thing that she remembered using her computer for.

Angelsburg Northwestern High School News page was up and running. The page read the  week before her incident and she sighed, remember how that day she'd tried to get some work done but she'd been too excited about going out that weekend with a friend to pick out his birthday present. She remembered how she'd flipped between her books, tried to read articles on the school site and had even tried to exercise when he'd eventually knocked on her door to get her out. She hadn't logged back in since.

She refreshed the page, her curiosity getting the better of her. The headlines spoke of the the latest sporting events, how they had defeated their opponents and managed another victory in the various sports that the High School practiced.

She scrolled down the page and skimmed the article headlines. New students, new wings in the building, teachers retiring....

When she saw the picture of a young girl she recognized, Launa couldn't help but pause. The girl's smiling face was something she saw often in her happy memories when she shied away from trying to recall the moments just before her life changed. The face looked out to Launa and she found herself reaching out to touch it on the screen.

That was before she read the headline and found herself grabbing a hoodie and running out of the house as fast as she could towards Angelsburg General Hospital and towards a girl she saw as more than a friend; almost a sister.

***

The girl in the bed was a still version of the girl she had once known. Her hair still gleamed in blonde tresses. Her skin was still that oddly pale olive with s light dusting of freckles along the bridge of her patrician nose. Her high cheek bones, round face and strong jaw...Ellie still looked the same. But Launa's heart couldn't hear the tinkling laughter that followed the girl around everywhere she went. She couldn't see any traces of the smile that she had come to depend on when things in her life got bad.

The hospital room was empty of guests. Eleanor lay prone and silent in her hospital bed, her monitors beeping steadily behind her. A ma in a long white coat and green scrubs stood at the foot of her bed with a clipboard in his hands. Launa knocked on the door to draw his attention but kept her gaze on Elle and her hood up. "What happened to her Doctor?"

"Are you a friend or family?"

"I'm...a friend. I just came back into town this morning." The lie was no lie as it rolled off her tongue; she used to be Elle's friend and confidant...before.

"You're friend wanted an easy way to end her life. She took a few too many sleeping pills but they weren't in her system long enough before one of her brothers found her and called it in."

"How," she swallowed, finding it difficult to get the words out. "How long has she been like this?"

The doctor flipped a few papers on his clip board before he replied, "Seems that she's been like this for the past month."

Launa swallowed down her cry. She looked to Elles face. Bags under her eyes, the bones in her already slim figure almost visible through the thin sheets covering her. Launa reached out a hand and grasped Elle's. It was still warm but that wasn't what caught Launa by surprise.

Quickly, so as not to rouse any suspicion with the doctor who had turned back to his chart, she felt along Elle's fingertips. On her ring finger, she felt the scar that she'd dreaded to find. The X shaped scar on the top segment of her finger was a symbol that Launa recognized all too well. She placed Elle's hand back by her side, making sure not to show her pain and rage at her finding.

She thanked the doctor and left the room as quickly as she could. Her mind was so occupied with not trying to show her state of anger and emotional instability that she bumped into someone as soon as she exited Elle's room. Her hood fell back as she regained her balance. Whilst she stuttered out an apology, she took a look at who she'd bumped into.

That's when the biggest shock of all hit her.

The person she bumped into was a teen taller than her, just as he'd always been. His skin was similar to Elle's odd olive tones and his sharp jawline also the same. But where Elle had golden locks, her brother had dark brown hair that he refused to cut because when he was five, he'd had an accident and he had always been self-conscious of his scar. She remembered pestering him about it but he'd always just flick his hair and look away. His eyes looked haggard but their familiar blue depths seemed to have been shocked awake at the sight of her.

"Launa-?" he whispered brokenly.

Launa was in shock for all of two seconds before she turned around and started running down the hospital corridor as fast as her legs would carry her from that room.

"Launa!" she heard behind her. She didn't stop. She didn't listen. She just kept running. Down the corridor, down the stairs, out the front door and as far as she could get from the hospital and the plea of the best friend she'd abandoned.

Her lungs burning and her legs cramping in pain, Lana ran until she couldn't hear the pained cry of her name reaching out to her. When she eventually stopped running, she stopped and sucked in deep breaths. When she looked up from her bent over crouch, she found herself near the city's biggest of the two malls. As it was a Saturday, people of all ages milled everywhere. The parking complex across the road was a concrete box with cars coming in and out at a steady pace and little kids ran around the small children's park out in front of the mall's main entrance.

Sucking in one final breath, Lana stood straight and began walking. She had to get away from this place and find her way home. The only way she could walk was by the children's park, turn left and head down the street for six blocks before her house was visible from where she stood.

The park was filled with little kids. So many children ran about in the occasionally great weather that befell Angelsburg. An ice cream vendor was probably salivating at the mouth with how much money they were making; it seemed like almost every kid had an ice cream in their hand. Ignoring it all, Lana walked as quickly as she could without jogging or just blindly running from a past she didn't want to face with her head down and gaze on her feet.

Suddenly she bumped into someone. She looked up from her feet to find it was a four-year-old girl and her mother. Both had wild black curly hair and matching blue summer dresses on. The instant the little girl took a look up at Lana's face and her scars, she squealed in horror. The girl's mother gasped, horror etched on her face, before lifting her little girl and running away to the safety of the park.

But it was too late. The damage had already been done.

Lana reacted badly to the look of fear and disgust that had shone through in their eyes. It was the same look she'd given herself for weeks on end, the same look on the driver's face who'd driven them from the airport...the last look she'd seen on the girls that had put her in this position. All except one.

Shock wiped all conscious thought from her mind.

Blindly walking, Lana couldn't help flashing back to what she and her mother only referred to as the incident.

***

Almost a year ago, Lana was completely normal. She was a hard-working student who, like every other person, wanted out of Angelsburg and the very visible gifts that money had provided the privileged. She had plans to head to New York or Tokyo...just somewhere, anywhere, away from the place she'd grown up in.

The day that started the cataclysmic spiral of her downfall in high school, ending with the incident, was her day outside the library. She'd been heading in to grab a few books for her science fair project when she'd seen something from the corner of her eye near the study pods. Thinking that it might have been nothing, she ignored it and continued to look for her books.

When she'd clearly seen the smoke and smelt an acrid smell begin to surround her, she went and looked for the source. A guy was sitting with a girl that she recognized from school and both were smoking something rolled up. She knew they didn't see her, but she made sure to hide nonetheless.

All to the way to the library's front desk, she contemplated what she was about to do. Yes, she was doing the right thing by reporting them. On the other hand, the girl she had recognised was Mira Linescue. Her father was the Mayor of Angelsburg, and being the rich and privileged she wouldn't get into any real trouble. All of it could be cleared up with a few promotions, a few crisp bills and an expensive threat coming from a $1000 smile. Knowing the worst that could happen would be Mira being made to leave the library, Lana went to the front desk, got her books then reported what she had seen before leaving.

But the Head Librarian didn't tolerate anything like smoking pot in her library. Mira was not only scolded but the Librarian had also called the police who came and arrested them both. Mira was humiliated and her father had to put his deep pockets into action. That humiliating event for Mira was enough for her to get viciously angry and go on a hunt.

It was the following Monday when Lana realised that Mira knew what she had done. Her locker had been smeared with paint. Inside, it had been filled with some liquid that had made all the ink in her books run and stink up the entire hallway. People had just looked, laughed and carried on with their lives. Her friends had asked her about it and she'd told them. They worried for her safety but she foolishly told them that she could take care of it herself.

That, of course, was her naivety telling her that Mira would just tire out with her if she didn't react to the pranks.

So all week, no matter the embarrassments that had her running once or twice to the bathroom with tears in her eyes, she just braved it all. The ruined clothing after gym, chemistry experiments gone wrong, a blade glued onto her locker handle making cutting her hand as she tried to turn it...the list was endless. Mira and her group of two sheep following her every command pulled every prank in the book.

It was actually because of one of those pranks that the incident that scared Lana for the rest of her life had occurred. That and the horrid sort of luck that she had.

Mira had thought it a good idea to cut the stitching in the bottom of Lana's bag. That meant that eventually when she put enough weight in the bag that day, her books and notes all came flying out in the hallway. She tried to get back every book and sheet but by then she was late to her next lesson. As quickly as she could, she picked everything up and ran to her next lesson. She hadn't known that Mira and her two pets were waiting by her chemistry class with a trip wire ready for her.

At the same time, the teacher had also been running late and had to go and fetch special chemicals from the lab storage where they were kept. He had a trolley with hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate powder for his class experiment. As the halls were empty, he thought it would be fine and there would be no accidents so kept the lid off the acid so that he could go into his lesson and begin straight away.

Lana turned the corner and tripped just as the teacher with his acid came around. Luckily, her books and clothes kept her body from being damaged, but the damage had all been done to half of her face. She'd screamed in agony for the entire school to hear and the teacher had tried to get help and neutralise the acid before it did any more damage. But it was too late.

The scarring on her face was permanent, her screams of torturous pain would echo throughout history and the looks of pure delight in Mira's eyes would be the last thing she saw before waking up in a hospital with the news of how the damage couldn't be repaired.

***

Lana pulled herself out of the memory and looked around, trying to orient herself in the present rather than in the past. The street looked familiar but as she crossed the final block, she found herself down a street she didn't recognise. The homes were all red-brick brownstones. Small antique stores and vintage clothing shops were dotted everywhere and there weren't as many people as there was at the mall.

She had no idea how she had gotten herself lost. Her thoughts had run away with her and all she could think of now was the look of delight in Mira's eyes and how she wanted to erase it and replace it with one more familiar to her: fear. Turning around, she tried to walk back to get on track and bumped into another person. This time, the little girl with long black hair and a pink summer dress smiled up Lana.

Lana was stunned for a moment.

The girl didn't cry or scream, she didn't gasp or run away. She just smiled up shyly at Lana and whispered, "Hi."

"Um...hi." Lana looked around, "Where's your mom?" she asked the little girl.

"Not here," the little girl said, still smiling sweetly up at Lana.

At that Lana worried. The little girl must have been lost and her mother was probably worried sick about where her daughter was. Holding out her hand to the little girl, she said, "Let's go find your mom, shall we?"

"Angelique!" called an older voice. Lana moved away from the little girl and looked around, searching for the source of the voice. When she found it, there was only one thought in her mind: the woman was one of the strangest people that she had ever seen in their quaint town.

She had long black hair with a bright, white streak running through it from her temple down to where the black tresses fell to her waist. She wore a dark purple flowing dress that, when combined with her strangely pale luminescent skin, made her seem as though she was glowing from the inside. She had the sort of looks that made your head spin towards her, then her striking grey eyes, encircled with thick, long lashes, would pull you in too far to realise that she had you in the palm of her hand.

Lana was immobilized at the sight of the woman. She looked angry as she moved towards her and the little girl. She felt that she should protect the girl from this woman, but there was nothing Lana could do to free herself from the chains that kept her statue-still.

The woman came forward, went down to her knees and dragged the girl into a tight hug. "Do you know how worried I got? I don't care anymore, there is no chance I am not putting a seal on the door and the windows at all times of the day." She pulled the back so that she could now see her face. Placing her palms to the girl's face she pressed her forehead's to the little girl's. "What on earth were you thinking?"

The little girl, in the face of the older and much scarier woman, in Lana's opinion, giggled, "I saw a soul."

Lana, at that moment, snapped out of the paralyzed state she had been in and once seeing that they were both distracted, thought she could escape. She took a few small steps back and was about to turn when the woman looked up at her with those strange grey eyes and asked, "What's your name?"

"La-Lana," she stammered as she came to a standstill.

The woman stood to impossibly tall full height and picked the little girl up in her arms, resting her on her hip, "Thank you Lana, for making sure that my marisen* here didn't have anything bad happen to her."

Lana just shut her mouth and nodded her head; she couldn't get any words out. As she turned to leave as quickly as she could, the woman called out, "Wait!" Lana stopped and turned to look back over her shoulder. "Won't you come in and have some tea? You look a little rattled, and it’s the least I can do."

Lana didn't want to seem rude and show her fear of the woman, "I...um...need to g-"

"Nonsense," the woman said smiling. "It's just some tea." The woman spun around and walked back to the store she'd come running out of.

Lana paused for a moment before running after her. A single cup of tea would do her a world of good right now.

She ran up to the store and spared a moment to look at the name: 'Belladonna'. The name was exotic-sounding and the way the windows of the store were tinted so that you couldn't look inside, it was all mysterious enough to tempt you to go in. Hurriedly, Lana pushed open the store door, the sound of chimes ringing above her, and went in. What she saw was not something you would expect in a place like Angelsburg.

Sweet scented candles were lit on wall sconces, giving the room a soft golden glow. Dark wooden shelves lined the walls filled with stones and jars and jewellery stranger than anything Lana had ever seen before. At the centre of the store was a long table with a pestle, mortar and chopping board and baskets lined neatly all around them filled with plants and herbs. The cashier's desk was to the back with a sheer dark blue curtain behind it.

Behind the curtain, Lana saw the woman still carrying Angelique heading back and turning right. Carefully manoeuvring through the store, Lana made her way after the woman, not knowing now why she continued to follow after her when she could just leave right now. Snapping out of that thought, she pushed aside the curtain and turned right, finding a winding staircase.

Lana made her way up the stairs and came to a nervous halt at the top of them. The stairs had taken her to a large apartment above the store. The living room and kitchen connected to each other with three doors on the opposite wall. They were wide open with pale blue and white walls. The coffee table and book shelves in the living room, just like the round kitchen table and chairs in the kitchen, were all made from wood. The lighting in the room was all natural, coming in from large windows along the side walls.

The woman stood in the kitchen area, a kettle on the stove already boiling and her pulling out tea bags from one of the jars beside the kettle. Angelique was sitting on a high chair by the table swinging her legs and humming to herself.

The woman turned to look at Lana over her shoulder with a soft smile to her lips and that strange look in her eyes that made Lana weary. "Well, come on. Take a seat. The water's just boiling."

The woman turned back to one of the white cupboards along the wall and pulled out a few tea cups and saucers whilst Lana hesitantly took a seat at the table with the three doors in her line of sight. She was much to weary of the bad things that could happen when you walked into a stranger's lair, but something was dragging her here and she had a feeling that this woman had something that Lana needed.

The woman turned back to the table and set the tea cups down with their tea bags within them before turning to the stove just in time for the water to boil. Using a tea towel, she picked up the kettle and spun around to pour the hot water into the tea cups.

Everything was silent other than the girl's strange humming and the sound of water pouring into the tea cups.

The woman put the kettle back and sat down next to Angelique, looking at Lana, "So tell me about yourself Lana."

Lana was clueless on what to say. She knew she couldn't tell this perfect stranger anything true about herself that was just common sense. So she just stayed silent and shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Aren't you going to drink your tea?" The woman asked politely, turning to give Angelique one of the oranges that were laid out on the fruit bowl at the centre of the table. The little girl smiled and began trying to peel it open.

Lana looked down at her tea. The cup looked to be porcelain, blue flower drawn around its edge. The smell wafting from the tea filled her nose and her head, strangely untying the knots in the back of her neck slightly, but she was not going to drink it. For all she knew, there could have been a sedative in the drink and this woman was going to kidnap her. Not letting any of the panic in her show in her face, or at least trying not to let the woman see it, she just placed her hands on the sides of the tea cup and left it at that.

The woman, picked up her tea cup, took a small sip then placed it back on the saucer in front of her before looking directly into Lana’s eyes with her very own. "Listen Lana, I'm not trying to get information out of you, I'm trying to drug you or any other crazy situation you have concocted. I am simply trying to assess whether you are worthy.

The first question, one that Lana definitely kept to herself was 'How did she know what I was thinking?' The second question that came to mind, she couldn't keep from asking aloud.

"What do you mean 'worthy'?"

The woman smiled her eerie smile and took another dainty sip of her tea before speaking. "My name is Kentrix and I am what is referred to as 'The Broker'. I make deals with beings, such as yourself, in order to...correct certain imbalances in the world."

Lana looked at Kentrix. The woman looked sane enough but if Lana had just heard what she thought she had heard, then this woman was far from it.

"Um…I think I had better head home. My mother is waiting for me." Lana got up to leave.

"That would be pretty difficult dear, especially as she's working two jobs to save money to help heal your chemical burns,2 the woman said airily.

Lana froze. Nobody knew that they were saving money to help minimize her burn scars. Most people didn't even know much about her scar and how it had happened. "How did you-"

"Dear, I've already mentioned this, if you remember. I need to assess whether you are worthy or not. That means that I need to know everything about you and what would be the worth of a deal that we could make."

Lana was really freaked by all of this, "Thank you for the tea but I need to go now." Hurriedly she headed towards the stairs.

"Don't you want revenge on those girls?" Kentrix called out after her.

That made Lana pause.

"Those girls taunted you and pushed you, did extremely horrible things to you that are now within you for the rest of your life. Are you going to tell me that you haven’t thought about ruining their lives as much as they ruined yours?"

Lana didn't say anything as her deepest, darkest thoughts were said aloud by a woman she had just met.

"They deserve what's coming to them. After all, look what they did to poor Elle. Doesn't she, and others like the both of you deserve to see Mira and her two hags fall to where they constantly push you down?"

Lana admitted to herself that Kentrix's words did strike a chord within her. Everything, all of it, had run through her mind more than once and today, seeing sweet little Elle in that hospital bed had stirred her anger and her pain too much for her to hold back any notions of revenge.

But something in the back of her mind told her that she had to listen. It wasn't just her life that had been ruined. There were probably more out there, ashamed that they had been made to fall so low and refusing to tell anyone just as she had been.

"What if Elle were to wake up and see the days ahead of her still filled with torment?" Kentrix's voice whispered around her.

Thoughts buzzed wildly in Lana’s head, arguments that it was for Elle going against the fear of what Mira and the girls would do to her if they found out it was her. Everything was crashing around her mind. Then it stopped.

Lana felt a hand on her shoulder. "Take you time and think about this offer I give you. I can make those girls pay for what they have done and continue to pay for every bad deed they do, but it will require a price from you. Not one of monetary value, but something just as valuable."

Then Lana found herself outside Belladonna. Shaking away her disorientation, she walked home as quickly as she could; her mind churning over what it was that she had been offered.

*marisen: demoni term of endearment, for little children