#arahgom

“Then what do you do when you have nothing to do? I assume you don’t go looking for prophets every day.”

None of us have a response to that. It’s not something that we’ve had much chance to think about. Most of the day so far has been occupied by supernatural problems, which hasn’t exactly left us with much down time.

“Well, that hasn’t exactly happened yet,” I admit. “It’s been a busy day.”

“We were about to stay and see those fourteen moons earlier,” Claire mentions. “That would have been fun.”

“What are we talking about here, exactly?” asks Stella. “Is that some new band or something? It sounds like a pretty cool band name.”

“Another planet,” I tell her, almost entirely sure she won’t believe me. “The planet had fourteen moons that were supposed to have some kind of alignment a few hours ago. We saw twelve before we were a bit interrupted.”

“You can go to other planets?” Stella asks skeptically.

“Don’t announce it to the whole world,” Claire reminds her.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s see some planets,” Stella says, practically jumping out of her seat.

“Before we get to that,” Katie says, gentling nudging her to sit back down. “There’s something I want to check out. It shouldn’t take long.”

“And what’s that?” I ask.

“A few minor time rifts that have been appearing recently. It shouldn’t be a big problem, but it’s a bit unusual.”

“Rifts in time aren’t a big problem?” I ask her. “Sounds like that kind of thing that means some pretty big issues.”

“Honestly, it sounds more important than it actually is. Sometimes there are vulnerabilities in time and space, maybe connecting different points in time that shouldn’t be connected. The ones I’m talking about probably aren’t nearly that impressive. It’s probably just normal fluctuations, but it’s worth taking a look.”

“Alright then, it’s settled. We’ll take a look at these rifts and then we can get to the planets,” says Bri.

“So where exactly are they?” I ask Katie. I’ve never seen a time rift, and it would probably help to know some more about them before investigating them.

“The closest one happens to be somewhere in Pennsylvania,” Katie answers. “Somewhere near Philadelphia, I think. Suburbs, maybe?”

“We don’t have a car,” says Stella. “That’s at least 100 miles away.”

“We don’t need one,” says Katie. “How do you think  we get to other planets? And don’t say spaceship.”

Yet again, the inevitable nausea comes, and I’m pretty sure we leave behind more than a few confused glances from the Starbucks customers. If we end up on the news in New York, I blame Katie. I glance around and notice we’re standing in the middle of  a suburban street, lined with large houses and perfectly tended gardens.

“It’s like you have a thing for ending up in the middle of the road,” Claire grumbles.

“Yeah, well, you try teleporting and landing on the sidewalk. It’s hard,” Katie retorts.

“So, what are we looking for, then?” I ask. “What exactly does a time rift look like?”

“Usually they’re invisible,” Katie answers. “But sometimes they can actually appear as a physical crack.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, there are cracks everywhere! How are we supposed to know if they’re normal cracks or time cracks?”

“We don’t. This does,” she says, pointing to the charm bracelet on her right hand. She gestures to one charm in particular, a shiny and mostly flat blue circle with an hourglass etched on both sides. It’s pretty, but I’m not sure how it’s supposed to do us much good.

“How?” asks Stella.

“Each of the charms was enchanted to have a special function. This one happens to be able to track fluctuations in time energy. If there’s a disturbance, it’ll glow. The closer we get to the source and the stronger the rift is, the brighter it is.”

“But how do we know it’s even here? You didn’t exactly give us this specific of a location a few minutes ago,” I point out.

Katie shrugs. “It should be close enough.”

She holds the charm, whispers something that I can’t understand, and the charm starts to pulse with a faint blue glow.

We start down the street, and I’m still not entirely sure how the residents of this neighborhood tell their houses apart. Katie insists that the light is getting brighter and that it means we’re going in the right direction.

We haven’t gone very far when we hear a series of loud shrieks piercing the air from somewhere nearby.

“Maybe we should go see what’s going on,” I suggest. “It might be something for us to do.”

“Oh yeah, just run towards the screaming people!” Stella protests.

“You were looking for excitement? No better time than now,” says Katie.

We abandon following the charm and instead run down the street where the screams are coming from. They apparently originate from a tall white building, where people are frantically rushing around. A museum. There shouldn’t be anything particularly dramatic happening there. Fighting against the crowd, the five of us push our way into the building, where we almost instantly notice what the problem is. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that something is very incredibly wrong.

★★★

There’s a monster in the middle of the lobby.

Namely, a monster with nine scaly, dragon-like heads. One that I very clearly recall reading about, but clearly it’s not bothered by the fact that it’s not supposed to exist.

“So, what exactly is that thing?” asks Claire, turning to me.

“It’s called the Hydra. It’s from Greek mythology,” I tell her.

“Oh, that’s fantastic,” she says. “Mythological monsters. That’s new.”

“It gets better,” I say, still staring at it. “It has poisonous breath and if you cut off one of its heads, another two grow back in its place.”

“Right then. Nice to know,” says Claire.

“Wow, Katie, first time out and we’re seeing mythical monsters in the middle of an art exhibition,” Bri comments.

“Yeah, I do tend to have that effect,” Katie muses, as if she’s occupied with something else. “The question is though, how is the Hydra here when it doesn’t even belong in this universe?”

“I was thinking you would be the one answering that for me,” says a girl I hadn’t even noticed was in the building. She walks towards us from an impressionist exhibit in the next room. She walks out carrying a bow and quiver full of arrows, and she doesn’t look anywhere near pleased to be here. She sighs, as if this is just a minor inconvenience. Faster than I thought possible, she shoots one at each of the Hydra’s heads.

“That should do it,” she says, grabbing her arrows from the monster’s necks. “No use wasting arrows,” she says, noticing my slightly appalled expression.

“So what am I missing here?” asks Claire. “And who the hell are you?”

“A prophet? Like...Bible-type prophet?” I ask incredulously. “This has to be some kind of joke.”

“Just wait a second,” Katie says. “I need to figure out what we’re doing.”

I finally open my eyes, doing my best to ignore the brightly-saturated orange sky surrounding us, and the fact that the ground is a muted pink color. I look up at the sky and count the moons - there are exactly twelve visible, almost in a perfect line.

Katie takes a deep breath and pushes a lock of red hair that had managed to break free from her ponytail away from her face.

“Why is this such a big deal?” I ask, as calmly as I can.

She sighs. “The archangels used to protect the prophets from harm. But seeing as the archangels aren’t here, I’m making an executive decision that we’re taking this on as our responsibility.”

“Hold on, since when is there a ‘we’ in this?” asks Claire.

“Since now. If you don’t want to, that’s fine by me. But there are a lot of things out there in this universe, just waiting to be seen. So, your choice. I could take you back home, or we could do something a little more interesting.”

“So why exactly do we need to find this prophet?” I ask Katie.

“We have no idea who else is looking for her. We need to keep her safe. It’s not really much of a choice. There’s no one else to defend her,” Katie says, as if she’s trying to convince herself. Her expression is a dead giveaway that she knows something is very wrong about this.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go find a prophet.”

★★★

Soon, the increasingly-familiar wave of nausea hits, signaling that we’ve arrived somewhere. This time, somewhere happens to be in the middle of a city street, as I barely avoid being flattened by an oncoming car. I practically sprint to the sidewalk, with Claire and Katie following close behind.

“Holy crud, Katie, next time can we try to avoid near death experiences?” asks Claire.

I’m expecting some sarcastic quip or angry response, but Katie looks surprisingly calm. She has a faraway look in her eye, as if she’s a million miles away.

“You okay?” asks Claire, snapping Katie out of her reverie.

“Oh, yeah. Of course. It’s just...I haven’t been here in a long time. And the last time, well…” she falters. “It’s not important. Let’s go find that girl.”

“Where do we start?” I ask, looking around to see if I can identify the city. I turn around and see the Statue of Liberty is behind me, which answers that question.

“Haven’t the faintest idea,” Katie says.

“So you brought us to New York with no idea where to look?”

“If you’d let me finish, I would have told you I know somehow who might have an idea where we should go.”

We end outside what looks like a boutique. It’s hard to avoid staring, with so many decorative lights and reflective surfaces. Katie breezes in, and the bell above the door makes an adorable little sound. I step inside, and I’m hit by a wave of flowery air freshener and cold air. The overall effect is something like an excessively lit dollhouse.

Claire hesitates before stepping inside, and I know it’s probably the last place she wants to be.

“Here we are,” Katie says, the typical brightness back in her tone. “Perfect. Bri!”

A blonde girl comes bouncing out of the back room, a pair of scissors in one hand and a bottle of glitter in the other. I don’t have the slightest intention of coming into contact with either of those things. “Katie! I haven’t seen you in forever.”

She notices me and Claire. “Hi!” she greets us. “Friends of yours, Katie?”

The look on Katie’s face tells me that the word “friend” can indicate a lot of possibilities, including the words “not human”.

“We were supposed to go to that planet with fourteen moons I told you about once,” Katie says.

“Obviously something happened or you wouldn’t be here,” Bri says, giving Katie an almost disapproving expression.

“We’re looking for a prophet.”

“But I thought - ”

“Yes, exactly,” Katie says, before Bri can finish. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Alright. Do you have a name?”

“Stella. Stella Jackson,” Katie says, after thinking about it for a moment.

“I don’t have anything to help you right now, but I know someone who might. He’s...interesting, but he should be able to get you what you need.”

“Alright,” Katie agrees. “Let’s give it a try.”

Bri nods and whips out an iPhone from her pocket. Her fingers practically fly across the screen as she composes a text. She waits for about a minute, before she receives a response and smiles. She picks up a designer purse from a nearby table. “Come on, let’s go,” she says, starting to walk towards the door.

“You’re coming?” asks Katie.

“Of course,” Bri says. “You think I’m just sit around while you lot go running around? I’m not making that mistake again.”

Katie looks slightly taken aback, but doesn’t raise any objection. “Then let’s go.”

I’m relieved to be leaving the stifling atmosphere of the store (and finally breathing unscented air) but anticipating whoever we’re meeting is a bit more intimidating than some fancy lights and excessive cuteness.

“Where are we going to meet this friend of yours, Bri?” asks Claire.

“This way,” Bri says, gesturing vaguely to the left.

“This way?” Claire scoffs.

“Claire,” Katie scolds her. “We do not insult our friends while they’re helping us.”

“Clearly you don’t like following your own rules.”

“Both of you, cut it out,” I demand. “We have a job to do, and bickering is contributing exactly nothing.”

We complete the rest of the trip in a semi-awkward silence. By some miracle, we manage to make it the whole way without any bodily injuries. Bri abruptly stops us in front of an unexceptional door leading into a graffiti-covered building.

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” I ask Bri. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this is not it.

“Don’t judge things by their appearance,” she replies. She reaches into her purse and pulls out an intricately designed silver key. Instead of putting it into the doorknob, she holds it against the wood of the door itself. That should be about as effective as trying to walk through the wall, but the door swings open. I can hear hear pop music blaring from inside that had been completely inaudible just a few seconds earlier.

“Come on,” Bri says, urging us inside. She leads us into the hall, and at the other end I can see the flashing lights of a dance club, where a bunch of teenagers are gathered, most of them looking only vaguely human at best.

“What is this place?” I ask her. “A club for monsters or something?”

“Let’s go with or something,” she answers.

“What are they, then? Ghosts?”  I ask, genuinely curious. Claire always says if it was up to me, we’d be studying monsters instead of hunting them.

Bri ponders the question for a second. “Some of them, maybe. There are also vampires, werewolves, basically everyone.”

“And they’re all just here? No one tries to stop it?” asks Claire.

“Stop what? Music and dancing?” asks Bri. “Has it occurred to you that maybe not everything supernatural is bad?”

Claire glances at Katie, probably a little more obviously than she thought.

“I’m sure they’ll be thrilled about hunters walking in,” Claire mumbles.

“Unless you pull out a weapon or something, no one needs to know,” says Bri, who has already turned her back and is practically sashaying down the dimly lit hall. Katie follows not far behind, and Claire and I exchange reluctant glances before hesitantly following them.

By the time we make it to the end of the hall, the music is so loud the whole building seems to be vibrating, and I’m sure the lighting is going to give me a headache if I stay here too long.

“How are we supposed to hear anything?” I scream at the top of my lungs, just so Bri, who is only a few feet away from me, can hear.

“You’re not,” she replies, at equal volume. “Follow me, this crowd can be a real disaster to navigate.”