A Spark

“Hey, Don, why don’t you take a look at this?”

I turned around in my swivel chair, and took Martha’s phone into my hands. Scrolling down, a few blurry images of a thin man appeared before me. There were also pictures of a woman, standing above several unconscious figures. Speeding past the text portions, I came across a few more similar pictures. “So? What’s this supposed to be?”

“Don’t give me that.” Martha jabbed a finger at the screen. “Look at this! This is you, isn’t it? With your goofy-looking blue hair and all!”

“Don’t call my hair goofy,” I muttered, running my fingers through it self-consciously. “I consider it one of my main selling points.”

“Who cares about that right now?” She powered off her phone angrily, sticking it in her pocket. “What exactly did the two of you magic-wizard-jokers do when I was unconscious?”

“We took care of the bad guys!” Crossing my arms at her, I leaned back in my chair. “Come to think of it, wasn’t this your idea to begin with?”

“Not by throwing magic spells everywhere! Except, what else should I have expected, leaving it to you to execute the plan?” Martha threw her arms onto the table and buried her face in them. “My face is on the news, and not in a good way!”

“I mean, it’s not so bad,” I leaned down with my arms crossed to be at eye level with her. “These pictures are so blurry no one’s going be able to tell it’s you.”

“That’s not my point here. You can’t go around using magic so recklessly in public,” Martha said, peeking up from her arms. “We’re lucky that the story is ridiculous enough it’s only being picked up on small articles and scattered around social media.”

“If that’s the case, then everything’s still fine, right?” I said, sitting up straight. “From what you’re saying, it seems like no major news source has decided to report on this, so it’s probably going to just die down in a week or so.”

“Well… that is true, but you’re still going to have to be more careful now, especially since people will begin to connect these cases of supernatural events.” Retracting her arms, Martha frowned at me. “On that note, if I ever see another picture of me shooting fire from my hands again, I’m going to skin you alive.”

“Blame Kin, not me.” I tilted my head away, a feeling of irritation clinging to me. But that feeling gradually changed into one of mild relief, as I looked back to Martha’s pouting face. After the robbing incident, things pretty much went back to the way they were with me and Martha. None of my questions had actually been resolved, per se, but I had come to the conclusion that worrying myself unnecessarily over her would just end up with a negative effect on me. Accepting that, it became easier for me to hold conversations with her. This is the best option. Right?

“But, putting all that other stuff aside,” Martha said, looking me in the eye, “I still haven’t thanked you yet, have I?”

“For what?”

“Using your magic back there. To save the others.” She cast her eyes down earnestly. “That must have been a tough choice for you to make, for the sake of helping my friends get away.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say it was just for your sake.” I rest my head on the back of the chair. “I wanted them to escape as well. They’ve grown on me in one way or another, and I didn’t want them getting hurt either.”

“Really? Well, I’m glad.” Martha gave me a little sideways smile. “Maybe I underestimated you.”

After Kin and I had rounded up all the unconscious attackers, we basically made a run for it. I figured that the current train station we were at would probably be shut down due to this, so we took the bus to the next town over, and decided to take the train from there. Kin told me that Martha would be out cold for a couple of hours after he exited her body, so we determined the best idea would be for him to stay all the way until we got home. After scrounging around in Martha’s purse, for which she aggressively reprimanded me after, we managed to locate some human currency and somehow made it back, based purely on what I remembered Chris doing on the way there.

And once we got back to the Oasis… things weren’t as chaotic as I imagined. I assumed that the day or so it took for us to get back gave the other three enough time to mull it all over, and come to a basic acceptance. Naturally they still demanded the full explanation, but it went over so much more smoothly than I would have thought, and none of them really freaked out. The only notable reaction that occurred was in Jasmine’s case, after Connor shoved her in my direction, saying that she had something she wanted to say to me.

“So… I assume that this is your secret?” Jasmine fingered her sleeve, like she didn’t really want to make eye contact with me. “Sorry… about being so bitter to you. I’m too quick to jump to conclusions.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m sorry too, for deceiving you guys all this time. You probably deserved to know sooner.”

“Well, if you’re willing to believe this, you being some kind of magic-human isn’t really the worst thing you could have been hiding.” She smiled to herself. “It would explain a lot of what made you seem strange to me at first, what with your whole sudden appearance. And, one way or another, you’ve earned my trust. A truly bad person wouldn’t risk blowing their cover just to get some irrelevant humans to safety, nor would they stay back to fend for the civilians that couldn’t fight back.”

“Right. Thanks for that,” I said, before extending a hand out towards her. “Then, are we good?”

“I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of that attitude you’ve got going, but I don’t have any reason to hold anything against you anymore.” Giving me an apologetic glance, Jasmine shook my hand, if not carrying just the slightest trace of reluctance. “Thanks… for saving us, by the way.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

After getting the three of them to swear not to tell anyone, life slowly went back to normal. As the initial shock had passed, Connor transitioned into the same stage Martha had gone through, wanting to hear everything and anything I knew about magic. During the first day we returned, Martha came down with a high fever and decided to take the day off, so I had to fill her in on what happened in the mall with Kin and I once we got back from work at the Oasis.

There was only one major change in my daily life, and that was the addition of magic into the lives of the others. As expected, they all requested that I teach them magic like I did with Martha, so I had to periodically take time off during break hours to teach them. Chris and Jasmine got the hang of it relatively quickly, but it took Connor a little longer. Maybe it was that, like Martha, his fervent passion for magic actually had an opposite effect on his learning, as it was harder for him to concentrate. Kin was also pleased in finding out that he now had more companions to chat with, though the conversations he had with them were still pretty one-sided. Since it was only group four that knew of magic’s existence, Kin’s appearance also had to be limited to our little section.

“Anyway, what’s with you?” I dried my hands on my work apron, and faced Kin. “Have you regained all your former strength yet?”

“Your Spiritsbane stunt blew all my Manalite reserves into nonexistence. It’s hard to restock all my power from scratch, you know,” Kin bobbed lazily in the air. “The winter festival was a nice place to absorb a lot of life force at once, but I still prefer this form.”

“Well, that’s nice, but what are you still doing here?” Turning back to my work, I turned the knob on the faucet. “Wouldn’t malls and other crowded public places be a better place to absorb energy than a restaurant?”

“Forget that. The life force that reeks from those exhausted citizens is always stale. I much prefer the fresh energy of small restaurants like these.” Kin waggled his ears. “And, what’s wrong with me being here? Aren’t we all officially friends now?”

“I’m pretty sure that feeling is one-sided.”

“Harsh as ever. Even after I went and fought all those robbers for you,” he grumbled, smacking me on the back of my head with a paw.

“Hey, ow! That burns!” Rubbing my singed hairs, I turned back to the stack of greasy plates. “Can’t you just let me do my job? Go find some poor animal to drain of energy or something.”

“Oh. That reminds me.” My comment seemed to cause Kin to remember something. “Yeah, there’s something I’ve been meaning to say to you.”

I glanced up irritably. “Can’t it wait until I’m done here?”

“Sure, sure. Your wish is my command, after all.” With an apathetic yawn, Kin floating down to my eye level. Then, with a curious expression, he watched me wipe down the dishes for a while, before he cracked a thin smile. “You seem quite settled into this world, mister high-leveled magic caster.”

“Don’t make it sound like I revel in doing the dishes.” Pulling a clean plate from the sink, I waved it at him, and he moved to dodge the sudsy droplets. “It’s just the fact that I’m enjoying this little stretch of peace while it lasts.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just that… well, I’ve been faced with near daily turmoil my whole life. Running away from the government, beating off bandits, that kind of thing.” With a sigh, I moved on to the next plate. “And after all these years, even if it is a little dull, I’ve finally managed to get some calmness in my life. Above all, Chris is about to help me with my idea to boost up my Manalite necklace, so with any luck I’ll be on my way back in a few weeks. And it’s not that I dislike life back there, but… I guess savoring the mundane peace here isn’t so bad either.”

Kin only stared at me, so I gave him a little shrug. “Of course, this is all complicated human stuff. I wouldn’t expect an egotistical little spirit like you to understand.”

“No, I…” Kin blinked once, before shaking his head. “I think I understand just fine.”

“Yeah, of course you do.” With a sarcastic nod, I looked back up at Kin, before setting down the last clean plate. “Anyway, wasn’t there something you were gonna tell me?”

“Ah… don’t worry about it.” With a knowing chuckle, Kin turned away, patting me on the head one more time.

“Ow! I told you that hurts, you damn fox!”

###

The fact that magic was now exposed to the others made the situation with the lightning rod a lot simpler. Martha and I quickly dropped that ‘passion project’ crap we made up on the fly, and just explained the whole situation to Chris. He seemed a little confused at first, but looked like he got the basic premise.

“The walls and roof here don’t conduct electricity,” he said, rapping his knuckles on the wall of the Oasis’ little backyard shed, “and the metal door is a safe distance away from the back of the shed. We basically just use it to store random junk we have piled up, so I could help set it up for you guys in here, if you want.”

Even though I had seen Chris work on other things before, this was the first time I had really witnessed his work in action. I was fascinated at how quickly he managed to set everything up, and the lengths he went to in order to complete the project.

“Hey, you need a hand?” I called from the ground. “Our night shifts are over, so Martha and I are going home.”

Chris pushed up the visor on his head, and set down the drill in his hand. “You two go on ahead. I’m almost done with the work on the roof, so I’ll just hang around for a little longer.”

“Uh…” Scratching the back of my neck, I stared up at him. “How are you planning on getting down?”

“Oh! Sorry about that,” Chris laughed, gesturing down at the bottom of the shed. “I think the ladder I was using fell down. Could you get that for me?”

“Sure.” Quickly locating the ladder on the ground, I heaved it up and pressed it against the wall of the shed. “How’s this?”

But Chris was already so focused on his work again, I didn’t think that he could hear me. Sweat dripped from his bulky forearms, as tiny golden sparks illuminated a look of sheer concentration on his face.

“Ah, whatever.” I turned back with a smile, over the sound of whirring drills.

Another great thing about having Chris work on the project for us was that none of the other staff really questioned his actions, as they were basically the same things that he did every day. In just a few days, the lightning rod went from a jumble of assorted materials to a fully-fledged contraption, built up within the dark little space.

“How do you like it?” Proudly placing his arms on his hips, Chris pat the long rod sticking through the roof of the shed. “For someone who’s never put a lightning rod together, I’d say it doesn’t look too shabby!”

“I don’t give out compliments much,” I nodded, “but this seems deserving of my praise.”

“It’s a lightning rod, all right,” Martha smiled in satisfaction, kneeling near the base. “Woah. You even safe-proofed the ceiling and all.”

“Hey, what’s this thing?” I noticed a metallic bulge near the bottom. The rod drove straight into the dirt below, but there was a kind of clamp attached to the rod.

“You need the energy to direct to your crystal, right? Let me see that for a sec,” Chris said, and I handed over the Manalite necklace. Unscrewing the clamp, he fastened the crystal in between the metal. “See? It fits into here when you need to use the lightning rod.”

“The lightning rod probably isn’t going to be needed for a while, though,” Martha said. “Rain barely occurs around here, let alone thunderstorms. We’re going to have to wait.”

And wait we did. For a while, all I could do every morning was switch on Martha’s little television and go straight to the weather report. However, it seemed like the predictions were the same each day; either cloudy or sunny, and nothing else. This went on for two weeks, and it almost felt futile pressing the remote to check. I guess this was to be expected, since through the entire time I had been transported to this world I had only seen rain twice, and in both cases the rain was pretty light.

As time passed, one thing that seemed to come up more and more often was the subject of the Oasis’ Christmas dance. The poster containing its details had been moved to the center of the bulletin board, and I could often hear fragments of conversation about it floating around at work.

“Hey, Martha, you planning on going to this dance?” I asked.

“It depends, I’d say.” Walking closer to the poster, she examined it. “It’s true that I’m excited about the event itself, but that’s just in terms of getting everything set up. I don’t know about actually attending.”

“Setting up?” I gave her a questioning glance. “You mean, all those Christmas trinkets you bought while dragging me around the mall were for this event?”

“That’s right.” She nodded, tapping on the poster. “The Oasis itself doesn’t put up much decorations, so I usually task myself with spicing these events up.”

“Wait, so let me get this straight. You’re spending all this money on decorations for the event, but you might not even attend it yourself?”

“Well, I’m not really much of a party girl,” Martha shrugged. “Besides, I’ve got something I need to do scheduled for that weekend. So, unless I can find a way to change the date, it’s still a maybe.”

I glanced at her. “Is that really okay for you?”

“Yeah, like I said, I’m more interested in getting everything ready than going to the event itself,” she said, turning away from the board. “That’s just how things are. The others are probably going for sure though, if you’re interested in attending.”

“Please,” I scoffed. “I’d rather be caught dead than show up at some lame dance party.

Martha was silent for a moment, before looking up and smirking at me. “I’m sure you would.”

Ah, whoops. Forgot the fact that she’s coordinating this event. “No offense to the effort you put into organizing it, of course,” I quickly added in order to satiate her.

“None taken.” Martha pat me on the shoulder. “What would an alien criminal wizard want to do with something like this? Our senses of entertainment are entirely different.”

“Well, glad you understand,” I said, not completely sure if she was being sincere or not with that sentence.

I didn’t see Chris or Connor planning anything in particular for the dance, but I did once notice Jasmine hanging around the board after work, gazing at the poster.

At the time, it didn’t look like Jasmine had seen me yet, so I tapped her on the shoulder. “What’re you doing here?”

Hearing me, Jasmine flinched and tensed up her body, before she saw who I was and relaxed her posture. “Oh, it’s just you.”

“What’s ‘just you’ supposed to mean? I thought you were supposed to be nicer to me now,” I sighed.

“Just a habit, I guess.” Her eyes wavered back to the poster. “I’m not really doing anything. Just hanging around here, I suppose.”

After appraising her for a few seconds, I stepped to the poster. Previously, I hadn’t really given it any notice, so this was my first time actually reading what was written there. Oasis Christmas Dance, December 25… Couples only, bring a partner. My eyebrows went up. Ah, I understand now.

“So, the princess is worried that as the date of the dance creeps closer and closer, her sandy-haired prince might not ever show up for her? As a result, she stands worriedly in front of the poster, hoping that he’ll somehow make the first move in time,” I said, nodding solemnly. “Oh, what a predicament indeed.”

“What are you –” The tips of her ears immediately began to burn a bright red. “That’s not what I’m doing at all! And, I’m not waiting for anyone, much less Connor!”

“Funny he’s the first person that would come to your mind.”

“W-What’s that supposed to mean?” The redness had already spread to Jasmine’s face. “I don’t… I don’t like him, or anything like that! Well, it’s not that I don’t like him, of course, just not in that way. You know?”

“Your words are getting jumbled. But I digress,” I said, pointing a finger at her. “Rhetorically speaking, if that’s what you’re expecting, then you should give it up.”

Jasmine stopped, and slowly looked up at me. “What do you mean by that?”

“It might be true that you’ve known him longer than I have.” Lowering my finger, I continued. “And I know it might not seem like it, given the way he acts normally, but I know that he’s too shy to actually do anything like ask you to be his partner.”

Though she didn’t say another word, Jasmine’s fist grasped a bit of her shirt that she had bunched up, and she played with it in silence.

“What I’m trying to say is, if you really want to go with him to this dance, you’re going to have to drop this whole like-him-don’t-like-him act. It’s never going to work.”

“What are you, stupid? I can’t just go out and confess to him.” Jasmine scoffed. “If I drop my pride and admit anything to that guy, it’d just boost his already super-inflated ego even further. You understand? I’d be a laughingstock.”

“Yeah.” I answered. “Yeah, you would.”

She frowned. “Well, if you get that, then why –”

“Sure, he might laugh and joke around at the start, but you’d ultimately still end up with him, right?” I said, raising an eyebrow at her. “I’m sure a few days of teasing would definitely be worth the end result, compared to if you don’t do anything and end up with nothing at all.”

At that, for a second, Jasmine quickly looked up at me, before turning her head back down. Releasing the fabric in her hand, she gently smoothed out the wrinkled area. “Well, I guess so.”

“Then, what’s the problem? There’s no point in trying to hide the way you feel about him if it’s only going to work against what you both want as an outcome.” I stuck my hands into my pockets, heading back to regroup with Martha. “Connor may be too much of a wuss to make a move; that much I understand. But if you’re the one who goes up and asks him, there’s no way in hell he’d ever refuse you. If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that.”

“Is that… so.” Taking a breath, Jasmine seemed to regain a little of her composure. “Hey, Don. Just so we’re clear, we’re still speaking rhetorically, right?”

Unconsciously, a little smile appeared on my face. “Yeah. Of course.”

###

Then, one day, I awoke to the sound of rain and thunder. Throwing open the curtains, I saw that the sky was darker than usual, tiny beads of water clinging to the window.

Forcing open the battered window, I slumped down on the windowsill and stuck my arm outside. It was met with a gust of chilling wind, as droplets of rain fell against my bare skin. Glancing at the dark clouds, I realized that the sun had barely emerged out of the sky. It’s still pretty early…

Pulling my arm back inside, I wiped the wetness off onto the drawn-back curtains. As I did so, another booming crash of thunder echoed across the sky, and the implications of that sound finally registered in my mind.

Oh, lucky me. Thunderstorm on the first try. I could probably afford to wait the few hours it took for Martha to naturally wake up and head to the Oasis together, but I figured I should probably try to set up the lightning rod beforehand. The sooner I get this to work, the quicker I can find a way back home.

“I thought I heard you rustling around in here. Did the thunder wake you up too?” Martha’s head appeared in the hallway of the living room, and she rubbed her eyes. “Man, it’s really too loud outside.”

“Who cares whether it’s loud or not?” I tapped the glass of the window, before dangling my Manalite necklace in front of her. “It’s raining! And it’s a thunderstorm, no less.”

“Oh, right!” Her eyes snapped open.

I turned the knob on the door, and threw it open. “Come on. We’re not getting anywhere just standing around.”

“Wait, now? I haven’t even changed yet!” Martha frowned. “And don’t tell me you’re just planning on walking out like that.”

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

“I hear words coming out of your mouth, yet I still find myself doubting you have a brain of any kind.” She sighed, pulling something out from her closet and thrusting it into my arms. “Have you seen the rain outside? You’re not going anywhere until you put a jacket over that flimsy little T-shirt of yours.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’d make a great mother,” I muttered, pulling the jacket over my body and zipping it up.

Five agonizingly long minutes later, Martha emerged into the living room for the second time, and we were finally ready to leave. Sprinting the little distance between Martha’s apartment and the Oasis, I ran ahead at full speed through filthy puddles as Martha struggled to keep up in the pouring rain. The Oasis technically hadn’t opened up for the day yet, but we ran out into the main street and turned the corner into the street in front of the Oasis’ open area. Standing on my tiptoes and reaching through the gap in the rusted metal fence, I managed to unlock the gate from the outside.

“What’s with the rush?” Martha panted, barely able to hold up her umbrella. “I almost fell, like, four separate times.”

“Sooner the better. I’d rather we do this now than when the Oasis is full of people.” Wiping the rain from my face, I made my way over to the dingy little shed. My shoes squelched through the muddy grass-filled area, which the rain had reduced to a boggy, marsh-like state. Pushing open the door, I felt around the shed for a flashlight. The dirt underneath the shed was still dry, and I pushed around a few metallic cylinders until I found the flashlight lying in the corner. Flicking it on, the beam of light revealed the lightning rod in all its glory. As I approached it, I saw that the metal rod was still perfectly uniform in its sheen. Doesn’t look like lightning has struck it yet.

I loosened the metal clamp on the base of the rod, pulling the Manalite necklace over my neck and securing it in place. Screwing the clamp tightly over the crimson crystal, I put my hands on my hips. As I poked around the clamp, trying to find the optimal position for the crystal to fit in, the dull crash of thunder echoed once more over my head.

“You idiot!” I felt my jacket jerk back, and I was pulled backwards by Martha, as she looked into my eyes angrily. “What are you doing, lingering around that rod? If lightning had struck right then, you would have been electrocuted!”

Oh, right. Sitting up, I dusted the dirt from my pants. Propping open the shed’s door, I stood a small distance outside it. From there, the beam of light emitting from the flashlight was still enough to illuminate the inside of the dark shed. “This should be a safe distance, right?”

Martha sighed, folding her arms. “Well, at least it’s better than –”

In a flash of light, my eyes were filled with a harsh whiteness. Stumbling back, I realized in shock that the lightning strike had already occurred in front of me. As the brightness started to fade, I could just manage to make out a tiny pinpoint of glowing ruby within the shed, at the base of the rod. Thought it was small, its luster was pulsing with such brilliance that it seemed to drown everything else out. The crystal! It’s really working!

In this microscopic amount of time between the lightning strike and the crystal starting to glow, I began to see other small sparks of light appear in the shed. Unlike the blazing red of the Manalite crystal, they were much dimmer, and were more of a white-orange color. I squinted at the interior of the shed, trying to get a clearer look. What are those sparks? Are they supposed to be –

Before I could even complete my thought, the entire shed erupted into a compact explosion, an enormous fireball spreading towards the sky. In that instant, a wave of heated wind expanded outwards, which plastered both Martha and I against the cool, sticky mud while baking our skin simultaneously. The resounding rumble of the explosion mixed in with the crashing thunder in the sky, the fireball vaporizing the incoming rain as it slowly dissipated.

For a few seconds, neither I nor Martha could compel our bodies to move. We lay sprawled above the mud in total awe, the heavy rain falling continuously onto our clothes, trying to comprehend what had just occurred. Then, I felt my heart seem to stop, and I sat up with a jolt, muddy sludge dripping from my arms. The Manalite crystal!

Getting up onto my knees, I sloshed through the now-scorched grass, and came across what was left of the shed. Heaving away the pieces of concrete and wooden planks that had collapsed inwards, I cleared the area of the largest pieces of rubble. Swatting away the plumes of black smoke that were still rising, I scraped at the rapidly wetting dirt, searching for the one thing guaranteeing my escape from this world.

Where is it? Where is it? As panic began to set in, my movements grew frantic, and I began swatting away large piles of rubble in a frenzied confusion. And then my fingers wrapped around something small and warm, pulsing with energy, and a wave of relief swept across the entirety of my body. My breathing and heart rate gradually went back to normal, as I clutched the Manalite crystal to my chest. Holding the crystal out in front of me, I inspected it. The knotted black rope that had been used to secure it around my neck had been burned off, and the surface of the crystal was slightly scratched, but it was somehow still intact. I let out a gasp of air, my fingers tightening around the crystal. This is fine. This is okay. It doesn’t have to work out on the first try. As long as I still have the Manalite crystal, I can still try again, as many times as I need to.

“Don!” Martha came running over, and knelt down next to me. “What happened? Is the crystal alright?”

I held the crystal out for her to see. “I have it here, it still looks okay.” As I stood up, I came across the blackened, twisted lightning rod scattered among the other rubble. “Doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to use that anymore, though.”

“We might not need to.” Martha pointed towards the shard of Manalite in my hand. “The lightning still struck the rod before it exploded, right? It could have already absorbed all the energy it needed.”

“Oh, you’re right!” Placing the crystal in the center of my palm, I spoke. “Detect!”

At that, the words and numbers appeared in my mind once more. 0.5 grams of semi-saturated, unrefined Manalite. Enough to roughly provide enough magic for a Tier 5 spell.

I closed my fist in mild disappointment. “It went up, but it’s still not enough. Since there was that huge explosion, most of the energy probably went somewhere else, though that’s alright. As long as the crystal itself is still unharmed, I can try as many times as I need to give it the remaining energy.”

“You still have some time left on this world, then?” Martha ran her fingers through her drenched hair, trying to squeeze some of the moisture out, before she looked down. “Well, I know this might sound contrary to your goal, but I’m kind of glad that’s how things worked out. At this point, I… don’t really know how I would feel if you left back to your old world, right this instant.”

After a brief pause, I nodded, slowly. “Right. I hate to admit it, but I feel I’ve grown attached to this world too, in the slightest bit. Spending a little more time here might not be so bad.”

“That’s what I was thinking. If you’re basically free to leave at any time, why not stay here a bit longer?” Martha smiled. “Or, something along those lines.”

I couldn’t really find a way to follow that up, so we both just stood there staring at the smoking rubble, the sound of rain like a constant tune in the background. Something suddenly came to mind, so I quickly said it aloud in an attempt to fill the empty conversation. “I wonder why the lightning rod exploded, though?”

“Huh. Good question.” Martha rubbed her chin. “If I remember correctly, Chris had already made sure that nothing in the shed was conductive so that something like this wouldn’t happen.”

“That’s what I wanted to ask as well,” a voice asked from behind.

I whirled back, only to find a tall figure completely doused with rain. “Chris! When did you get here?”

“I came running here the second I heard thunder, figuring that you guys would probably show up. Though, I never would have thought…” He gestured helplessly at the mangled remains of the shed. “I ran over as quickly as possible after I heard the explosion.”

Sifting through the debris, something caught Martha’s eye. Quickly, she lugged it out from underneath the rest of the assorted junk. It was what looked like the top half of a large metal cylinder, which had apparently been blown in half. “This is… a flammable gas tank, I think! There’s probably more of them, underneath the rest of the wreckage.”

“Ah, you mean for the Oasis’ kitchen? Do you reckon someone brought the tanks in and tried to store them here in the shed overnight?” Chris massaged his temples, and sighed. “Well, in any case, that would help to explain things a bit.”

I kicked some of the loose rubble together into a pile. “So, where do we go from here?”

“It would probably be a good idea to clean up the mess here before the Oasis opens up,” Chris said, giving a slight nudge in the direction of the wreckage. “But I take it you’re probably going to want a new way to power your magic crystal?”

I turned to Chris hopefully. “Wait, do you actually have another option I could use?”

“It actually just came to me right now, after seeing that the lightning rod didn’t work properly.” Chris held the bent, misshapen lightning rod in his right arm, and tossed it aside. “I have a few solar panels stored in my garage that I’m not really using at the moment. If you want, I could hook them up for you.”

“Oh! That sounds a lot safer than a lightning rod,” Martha said. “More orthodox, too. Why didn’t we just go with that in the first place?”

“Well, for starters, solar panels give off much less energy than literal lightning bolts. And by the time I found out about all this magic stuff, we’d already got together the materials for a lightning rod.” Plucking the Manalite crystal out of my palm, Chris inspected it closely. “But it seems that you’ve already filled this little thing with a whole lot of energy. Solar panels should be enough to give this crystal the little extra it needs to make the cut.”

As he said that, I saw through the back door that the lights in the Oasis had suddenly turned on.

“Oh, we haven’t even cleaned up yet!” Martha flinched back. “Hurry, hurry! I don’t want to have to explain this to the other staff members!”

Nodding in agreement, Chris and I both got to work piling up all the rubble into a corner of the backyard, where it hopefully wouldn’t raise enough attention to garner suspicion from anyone else.

“I think that’s probably good enough,” I said, throwing the lightning rod against the metal fence along with the rest of the debris, before shivering. “Ah, whatever. I just want to head inside already. It’s too cold out here anyway.”

“And you were about to run here in a T-shirt,” Martha said, heading into the warmth of the Oasis with a smirk.

I cracked open the door to Martha’s dim apartment, and switched the lights on. She had recently entrusted me with her spare key that enabled me to enter her house alone, which was a rare freedom that I cherished. As I glanced at the clock hanging from the wall, I realized that it had already gotten quite late. Martha said she had some business to attend to, and said that I could come home by myself. Should probably just go to sleep. Though, looking around the empty room, it still felt a bit weird to be in there by myself, even though she was the one that told me to head back first. Guess I’m not really used to being here without her.

Walking over to the couch, I brushed away Chestnut with my arm. “Shoo. Get off my bed.”

With a hiss, the orange cat awoke from its light sleep, scurrying under the table before glaring at me with its wicked little eyes. Breathing out heavily, I sank into the depths of the couch, throwing my legs up and resting them on top of it. As I closed my eyes, I felt the little droplets of water clinging to my coat slide off and roll onto the couch, making little dark circles wherever they soaked into the cushions.

Ah. I lazily opened up my eyes again, too sleepy to even think in complete sentences. I should probably put the coat back before sleeping. Apathetically pushing myself back to my feet, I unzipped the jacket, flapping it around a bit to get it relatively dry. My legs hurt. I shouldn’t have sat down. Uh, where was the closet again?

As I wandered into the narrow hallway, I saw that there were two doors embedded into the walls. I pulled the first one open, and looked inside it. Is it this one? The little space was littered with an assortment of what looked to be random junk, so I closed it and moved on to the second door. Oh, this is it. Pulling one of the clothes hangers from the rack, I inserted it into the jacket I was holding and zipped the jacket all the way up, before returning it next to the rest of them.

As I closed the door of the closet, I heard a dull thud from behind the other door. Did I make something fall? I should probably put it back. Opening the first door again, I saw that a small plastic container had apparently fallen from the top of the space and was leaning against the back of the door, its contents spilling out. I frowned, kneeling down. Oh, this is a mess. What even are these, anyway? Magazines?

Picking up a few of the pieces of paper to stack them back into the box, my eyes ran over what was written on them. Then in an instant I was completely awake, and my blood ran cold as the papers slowly slipped from within my hands to the floor.

What?

What am I looking at?