My First... I Don't Believe You

I awaken once more in my room, it looks exactly the same as every day before, but in my heart I can feel something is different. The events of yesterday play out in my mind again. I just can’t stop myself from replaying the moment Marcia whispered an apology into my ear as she took off and disappeared.
 If she understood she was going to hurt us, then why did she do it? What was it that made her go with that Spawn girl, what could she have threatened Marcia with to get her to do that? I can’t accept that Marcia would go all on her own.
After she disappeared a medical team arrived to treat Tikki, she had cauterized her own arm to stop her bleeding but it still needed to be properly looked at and bandaged. Once they had done their thing with her they gave Clarice and I check ups as well. While they looked us over, more MGI vehicles arrived on the scene, some cleaning rubble, others here to collect the giant Spawn we had defeated. 
Miss Gretchen took us back to our office, no one said a word on the drive back. Making it back to our dorm floor I collected my pajamas and entered the showers. I stood below the scalding water staring at the floor, I still couldn’t stop myself from imagining what-ifs. What if I had said something, no, nothing I could have written would have done anything. My voice maybe, but once again this curse upon me keeps me from the things I want. What if I had grabbed onto her and used all of Fool’s Knight’s strength to never let go, could she have fought me off?
As water runs over my body, as it runs down my shoulders and down my arms, it flows off my un-injured fingers. All that punching and the gloves had actually protected me from having to get hurt at all. Was I actually punching full strength? Surely if I was trying my hardest I would surpass the limits and hurt myself! Perhaps if I had tried harder Marcia wouldn’t have been able to get away.
That girl, Aurelia, just who is she? Her power is so frightening I can’t ever imagine she could have been able to be a Magical Girl. The way her words hit me so deeply I truly could feel the moon staring at me without eyes to speak of. But she was also able to heal herself? Talk about not fair, what was the connection between those two feats?
I need answers but how could I possibly get them? I was so tired at the time I ended up just returning to my room and collapsing in my bed.
Now in the morning with a fresh mind I felt more ready to find my own answers. What I hadn’t thought of last night was how D’Claire-na had known about this serious mission we were going to get assigned. No, more so she even knew about Aurelia being there! That brown giant might have been big, but he posed no real problem for Clarice and I, let alone all four of us. She must have been referring to Aurelia when she told me there would be a S Rank threat. I need to go back down to that strange floor of hers and talk to her!
I slided out of my bed and flung my pajamas off. I pulled out new underwear and picked out my outfit for the day. I shook a pill out from my pill container and took it. I still need to attend the morning meeting, but after that I should be able to try and find D’Claire-na’s floor.
Exiting out of my room I found a note had been taped to my door, “Morning meeting canceled today.” Well that’s perfect then, no need for me to even worry about that then.
I walk over to the elevator and begin trying to remember how it is I make her summon the elevator for me. I try knocking on the elevator doors to see if maybe that would get her attention, nothing happens. I walk along the wall feeling for the hidden door hiding the phone in the wall. I find it and pull the phone off its receiver, I hold it up to my ear but all I can hear is static. I don’t know her number so it isn’t like I can just call her.
Last time I was pretty huffy so I kicked the door a lot, maybe I should try that again? I do end up kicking the doors a couple times, but there isn’t any sign of anyone noticing.I turn around and start walking back down the hallway defeated. I don’t know what I want to do now, what are you supposed to do after all of this? I pass by Marcia’s door, I want to believe she’s still right there on the other side. I hope wherever she is right now she is at least safe, I won’t wish any harm on my friend, I won’t let her seeming betrayal come between us.
There’s a click from behind me, I turn to see Marica’s door has opened. All of the doors are the same, locked without fingerprint, and yet for some reason Marcia’s door opened itself?I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, getting to investigate inside Marcia’s room is more than enough of a lead.
I push the door open half closing it behind me, stepping into the dark room as I reach for the light switch finding it in the matching spot to where mine is. The lights come on and I’m greeted by such a simple room.
Her bed sits against the far corner of the room, and facing it is a decent sized TV. She has a wardrobe which is open displaying its collection of assorted clothes, underwear hanging off of the top of the open door tossed there seemingly lazily. There are some books piled in the other corner, and there is a pile of bags beside them. One is a shower bag, another is a makeup pouch, a third is some running clothes and a stopwatch.
I look over these items as I sit down on her bed taking it all in for any clues. I then spot on her nightstand a picture frame, but it doesn’t feature a photo. Inside is a sketch of four people, a tall boy with two smaller boys hanging and clinging to him. On his shoulders sits a small girl hugging his head. I pick up the picture and examine it. I'd almost say the little girl looks like Marcia, but that doesn’t make sense. Or maybe it does actually?
Something Marcia had said to me a few days ago pops into my head. She mentioned when we were leaving Madeline’s that she was good with kids due to some from her past life. Could the tall boy in this photo be Marcia, and these kids be his siblings?
I can’t help imagining a sad scene of Marcia, recently turned into a girl, frantically sketching her loved ones as the memories fade from her memory more with each passing day. If I had siblings I sure don’t remember them now, I must not have had any. I wanna imagine if there were other people I cared about I would have remembered them a bit better otherwise. I place the photo back down carefully, I can’t be snooping and damaging Marcia’s possessions after all.
Thinking of kids, where was Marcia’s flip phone? She has one, she mentioned she was going to use it to call Madeline when they watch whatever that kid’s show was called. I turn over baskets and bags, dumping contents across the floor searching, and yet I come up with nothing. Could she have the flip phone on her? Why would she have brought it with her into combat, she couldn’t have known she would be leaving, right? No, it had to be here. Or rather, it was here. What if someone had taken it before I got here!?
When I heard the door click and saw it was open I just imagined for mysterious reasons the door was opened. In my heart deep down I figured this was D’Claire-na’s doing, she seems to have control of the building so being able to open doors doesn’t seem that surprising. But what if she didn’t open the door to let me in, but opened it to let something out! What if she had sent a Spawn to retrieve the flip phone because Marcia wanted it and D’Claire-na is somehow connected to all of this!
I begin searching the room again, this time not for the phone itself, but for anywhere Marcia might have written down her number in case she ever forgot it! If I can find it and call it using the hall phone I might be able to reach either D’Claire-na or Marcia!
I dig around in her wardrobe and everything with drawers. I dump out bins and I shake out books in case there’s anything inside them. Finally I came across a small piece of plastic which was for a phone card! It lists the phone number for the card, this has to be it! 
I race down the hall and back to the section of wall the phone is at. I feel around until I’ve got the door open and pick the phone off the receiver again. I slide my finger across the turn wheel dialing up the number listed, and then I eagerly await to see if it worked or not! There is a silence only disturbed by the dialing sound and the sound of my heart beating out of my chest, and then there is a click. “Seriously?” Is the first thing the voice on the other side says.
I still can’t use phones so I just make a snapping sound with my hand and do a finger gun at the phone.
The person on the other side sighs, “One second, I’ll send the elevator you nosey girl.” Yup, that’s D’Claire-na alright!
I hang the phone up, pocketing the phone card in case I ever need it again. I close the box and make my way over to the elevator, the doors open as promised and I step inside. Down we go, deep into the secret basement floor even MGI seems unaware of. The doors part, and I step out into the dark hallway I’d seen once before. I come to the turn, then enter into the opening where D’Claire-na is waiting for me, her chains dragging across the ground as she paces.
I step into the light and wave a greeting. She stops her pacing and looks over to me, “Sophia this is really not the time to be playing games and such. But I do appreciate the effort you went to.”
I withdraw my white board from my bag, “WHERE IS MARCIA? ARE YOU CONNECTED TO THIS?”
D’Claire-na gave a light chuckle, “Jumping right into it, huh?” She scratched at her nose, “Yeah I have no idea where Aurelia is right now, but Marcia is wherever she is.”
“YOU TOOK HER PHONE, YOU PLAN TO GIVE THAT TO THEM RIGHT?”
“I won’t deny that. But right now I don’t know where it is going.”
“HOW WILL THEY TELL YOU?”
“You’re really planning to interrogate me huh?” D’Claire-na cracked her neck, “It’s an Aurelia Special, she’s got tricks you see, paranoid much honestly?” She brought one of her arms up to her chest, gliding it over her shoulder. As her hand approached long thin black looking rods raised from behind her from her hair. I took a step back reflectively as a tiny Spawn emerged from her under her hair, it must have been lying on her back this whole time. It walked into her palm, I then noticed iit had a flip phone tied to it. D’Claire-na raised her hand out to the side, the Spawn began to walk down her arm returning to her shoulder and back into her hair.
“Tell me Sophia, how do you think she is going to tell me? Your puzzle pieces are this Spawn, her powers, and me and my powers.”
I thought about it for a moment. D’Claire-na can talk and communicate with Spawn, and Aurelia has this thing with the moon. But how can any of that be used to set up a meet up? I made my best guess. “YOU BOTH SEND SPAWN TO GO TO A SPECIFIC PLACE, THEN THEY TALK AND YOURS COME BACK TO TELL YOU WHERE SHE IS?”
D’Claire-na shook her head, seemingly really disappointed. “Honestly that was a terrible guess Sophia. I told you it was an Aurelia Special, a method that only uses my powers would be my special obviously. I’ll also point out that Aurelia can’t make Spawn do what she says, so there is no way for her to command one.”
“JUST TELL ME THE RIGHT ANSWER THEN!” I stomp my foot. She was the one who said there wasn’t time for games yet look what we are doing.
D’Claire-na rolled her eyes at me, “Fine! The secret technique is that this Spawn here is under her Moon Curse. That means that when it goes outside where the moon can see it it can be told where it needs to go with the cell phone.”  She shifts her stance, “Of course the moon can’t MAKE it go there. But the Spawn can retain the info it was given inside its head from the moon, then I just command it to go to that place. Complicated and simple at the same time don’t you think?”
I admit it was a method I would never have thought of. “SO WHEN DO YOU SEE AURELIA?”
D’Claire-na chuckled, “Yeah, well we met once like a year ago? Since then we’ve never met.”
I stared at her dumb founded by what she said. What do you mean you’ve only met once!?
D’Claire-na grins at me leaning forward in a way I can almost see down her raggy top. “Did you forget about the curse on me? I can’t go anywhere with these chains on! HAHAHAHAHA” She laughed. “I’m certainly working with her, but only as a command center sort of thing. I dispatch some Spawn for her and occasionally leak some info.”
“WHY ARE YOU WORKING WITH HER!? I DON’T UNDERSTAND ANY OF THIS!”
“Well, because we’re both Fallen Magical Girls I guess? Plus it's in my best interest to support the person who has the greatest chance of one day defeating whoever the girl who put this curse on me.”
“BUT THEN WHY WOULD MARCIA GO WITH HER? SHE WASN’T FALLEN! SHE WAS DOING FINE OUR TEAM WAS JUST GETTING STARTED!” I felt like tears would begin flowing any minute now.
She just sighed again, “I have told Aurelia about some of Marcia’s issues, so she did have some understanding of the sorts of things she needed to say to win Marcia over and-” She stopped as my hand suddenly was around her throat, Fool’s Knight surrounding me as my anger boiled over. 

She kneed me in the stomach which knocked me backwards since I hadn’t been gripping her that hard. She coughed, “Yikes calm down Sophia geez!” She rubbed her throat as I got back up. “Look I only let her know about how Marcia wasn’t all that loyal to MGI and was the type clinging to her old life, Aurelia knows what that is like is all.”
“TELL ME WHY I SHOULDN’T JUST LEAVE AND REPORT TO MGI YOU’RE DOWN HERE!?”
D’Claire-na squinted her eyes confused, “What are you talking about? The same reason you didn’t last time? Or the time I called you on the phone? Or how about because they surely know I’m around her somewhere? MGI knows they left me to die down here, they just might not have imagined I’d be able to supply myself with enough of that delicious chemical you and I adore so much. But even then they knew I couldn’t really ever leave again.”
“HOW CAN THAT BE!?” I scribble.
“How do I get my chemicals? Mostly stealing pills from you girls or cannibalizing some of my Spawn. I do on occasion eat chunks of Magical Girl if they end up accessible to me. Mostly bloody rags and small little things.”
That is so gross. I write it to make sure she knows. “THAT IS SO GROSS.”
“Hey, I mean, obviously I don’t enjoy it. I do what I must to survive.” She shrugged.
I feel sick of talking to D’Claire-na, I don’t remember anymore why I thought this was going to be helpful. “I’M LEAVING, TELL MARCIA I WANT HER TO COME BACK.”
“Oh! Oh!” D’Claire-na chirped up, “Before you leave let me warn you about something!”
“I DON’T NEED ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR WARNINGS!” I scratched into my board, thrusting it at her.
“This one is part of what Aurelia let Marcia know, I was meaning to tell you as well but then you asked me 50 stupid questions and such.”
I stopped in my tracks, turning around to hear her out. “GO AHEAD.”
D’Claire-na cleared her throat, building suspense. “I was alluding to it the other day on the phone about how important this fight was with Aurelia and that giant oaf. Basically since you never were going to be able to beat Aurelia there was a good chance MGI was gonna start questioning the Marrowsville projects value. MGI really thought you had a good shot at doing it actually, but they don’t know everything I suppose. If you had won you would have gotten a huge media push plus merchandise and your team would really have been a guaranteed hit. But since you guys lost to Aurelia it really put a wedge in that plan.”
“SO WHAT? WE LOST BUT WE WON’T LOSE SO EASY NEXT TIME.” I retorted.
“Wonderful, great. Except, there may not be a next time. Now I admit this next part is hearsay and speculation on my part, but you can believe me when I say what I’m about to say has a good probability of happening.”
“GET ON WITH IT!”
D’Claire-na made an “eugh” sound as she resumed. “Well your team was honestly made up of some back of the shelf girls, no offense but you guys aren’t exactly the image of what MGI wants. Tikki is from a big group but couldn’t work there. Clarice is creepy and unmarketable but she does have some decent power. Marcia is rebellious and has never conformed properly to MGI. And you Sophia, I mean you’re fresh so they could totally shape you into something great, except you’re mute and that’s something MGI is on the fence about.”
“YOU’RE SAYING MY LACK OF SPEECH IS MY FLAW WORTH CALLING ME BACK OF THE SHELF???”
“Look, I don’t know how much you know about marketing but you’re just a tough cookie to sell. I mean there are certainly types into that “a girl who can’t say no” archetype but honestly MGI doesn’t want that type around their girls. Plus tons of the girl’s toys have talking phrases built in, and obviously yours would never be able to have that. It is just kinda a marketing nightmare, okay?”
“WHAT DOES ANY OF THAT HAVE TO DO WITH WARNINGS!?”
“I’m getting there!” D’Claire-na said almost whiny. “Gosh, forgive a girl who has no one but monsters to talk to for trying to get the most of this opportunity. Look, bottom line is Marrowsville never had that much value to MGI, so now that you’ve shown you can’t win the fights they thought you could, as well as now you’ve lost Marcia, it just starts to make sense to abandon this project.”
“ABANDON? LIKE WE’D BE SPLIT UP AND MOVED ELSEWHERE?” 
D’Claire-na chuckled, “Ah, no. Abandoned as in they’ll let the Spawn overrun this town and leave you girl’s without your meds so you end up turning into Spawn and are then used to prop up another Magical Girl group. Defeating you guys and stuff will make the next group have easy valor to market them with.”
I stand frozen, unable to really comprehend what D’Claire-na is trying to propose. That doesn’t make any sense! MGI wouldn’t just write us off after one little loss! I know she is working with Aurelia, obviously this is just another lie to try and mess with my head! I don’t say another word as I turn around and begin walking back towards the hallway.
D’Claire-na shouts after me, “You don’t have to believe me, just keep it in the back of your mind if anything suspicious ever starts happening!”
Whatever. I turn the corner and enter the elevator returning to the dorm floor. I’m not going to fall for this, I’m not! Yet I can’t stop imagining them abandoning us. When I get back to my room I slip a handful of pills from my pill bottle into my color pencil box without really thinking about it. 
You can never be too safe, right?