Star

Choir Fest Part 4

The seer watched through a mirror as the shade boy held Sunny. Emma and Lilly were unconscious, unmoving.

"Noah, what did he do to you?" she asked softly. The seer turned away from her mirror and looked at her final few potions. She didn't have a potion like the one she had given the five girls, but maybe this wouldn't require something quite as drastic. She used her mirror to look around the school. There had to be someone she could use... she lingered a bit on Hannah, but she knew that the more she called upon a girl, the more likely she would remember, and it was already a problem that three of the five girls had solid memories. She couldn't deal with another one. So, she would have to choose someone new, but someone who still had a connection to Star. She scanned the group of girls. None of the girls from Rosemount would do; they were too occupied with other things. Woodcrest... she smiled. She'd chosen. The seer created a portal and dove through it.

The seer leapt out of the portal and landed next to Alli, a girl from Woodcrest. She took the girl's hand, and Alli immediately turned to face her, eyes widening. "Who are you?"

"My name is Amy." the seer said. "I'm also known as the seer. I need your help."

"Wait, a seer?" Alli asked. "I read a story with someone like you in it... Emma wrote it. Are you saying that it is true?"

"Yes." the seer said. "But just call me seer. I need your help." She handed Alli a small vial. "In this is a potion that will give you the ability to control the earth, but only for an hour. Afterward, you will forget everything, including what I am telling you now. Do you accept it? The girls need your help."

Alli immediately swallowed the potion, and the seer pulled her through a portal.

Emma heard a voice calling her. "Emma. Emma, wake up!" Emma slowly opened her eyes and found herself staring at the face of a girl she recognized but didn't really know.

"Who are you?" Emma asked groggily.

"I'm Alli." the girl said. "The seer gave me abilities for an hour to help you. Where did the shade go? And where's Sunny?"

Emma sat up and frantically looked around. Sunny, Lilly, and the shade were nowhere to be seen. "Oh no!" Emma said. "Where did they go?" She closed her eyes, reaching out with her mental abilities.

"What are you doing?" Alli wondered.

"I'm using my magic to find them," Emma said. "Wait, what can you do?"

"I can control the earth."

"Ahh, Becca's abilities." Emma closed her eyes again and quickly found Lilly. The girl was still in the building. Emma broke into a sprint, and Alli quickly followed her.

Emma opened a classroom door to see Lilly and Sunny tied back-to-back by dark ropes. Sunny's eyes were once again clear, but both girls had dark bands around their mouths. Emma heard Alli gasp behind her. Emma frowned. This wasn't what the shades did. They killed their prey. What was this? She slowly approached Lilly and Sunny and touched the ropes around them. She immediately pulled back. The ropes seemed to suck the energy right out of her. She studied Lilly and Sunny. Both girls looked like they were about to pass out. Lilly tried to talk, but she couldn't. Emma dove into Lilly's mind.

"What?" she asked in Lilly's mind.

"The shade is taking our abilities." Lilly thought. "He couldn't kill us for some reason. It was almost like he was trying but just couldn't bring himself to hurt Sunny."

"Where is the shade now?" Emma asked.

"I'm right here," a voice announced, and Emma pulled herself out of Lilly's head and turned to face the front of the room. The shade boy was sitting on the desk.

"I'm forced to do this," he stated. "I'm so sorry, Sunny."

"What is this?" Emma asked.

Alli looked at him. "You... you know Sunny from somewhere, don't you?"

The shade nodded. "I don't know where, though. But I just can't hurt her. My father said I had to make sure you were destroyed, but I couldn't just kill her."

Emma glanced at the ropes. "We are our magic," she explained. "By draining out Sunny's magic, you're just killing her slowly. Lilly too. Our magic has become a part of us; if you take it away from us, we die."

Alli scanned the room quickly. The shade boy was sitting in the front of the room. She noticed that he was messing with a chain around his neck. A dark orb was hanging from the chain, and as he messed with it, Alli could see the ropes around the girls moving. There had to be some connection. Emma couldn't break the ropes, so that was clearly something only he could do.

Alli stomped her foot on the ground, and the earth below the shade collapsed, sending him falling to the ground. As soon as he was neck deep, Alli snapped her fingers, and the earth closed around him, trapping his body up to the neck. She quickly lunged for the boy, her fingers wrapping around the orb and pulling it off the chain. The boy screamed, and the earth around him exploded.

Alli leapt back, throwing up a wall between the two of them. He smashed it, but Emma was ready. An explosion of mental energy sent the shade flying backward, and Alli smashed the orb under her foot. There was a screeching sound as a large cloud of black energy emerged from the orb. The ropes pulled themselves away from Lilly and Sunny, and Emma and Alli ran to help them.

Emma pulled Lilly up and grabbed her hand, trying to push some of her energy into the other girl as she almost collapsed on top of Emma. Emma held her up, half carrying her. Alli held Sunny up as well, but all four girls were startled by a loud crash. Emma whirled around to see the black energy surrounding the boy. A dark portal opened, and he was yanked backward into it.

Sunny stared after the shade boy as he disappeared into the portal. He met Sunny's eyes with a sad smile as he disappeared through the portal, and Sunny felt a twinge of sadness. He was clearly just a puppet in a much bigger plan, and he hadn't wanted to hurt her. She looked at Alli in surprise. "You... you have abilities?"

Alli sighed. "Just for a few more minutes. The hour is almost up. Then I will forget everything again."

"You saved us," Emma said to Alli. "I hope that we'll work together again one day, either in normal life or our 'fantasy' life."

Alli smiled. "I hope so too."

As the girls stood there, the destruction around them began to reverse, and everything soon was completely back to normal. A small portal opened, and the seer stepped out. She looked at the four girls.

"Thank you, once again. It was an honor to work with you all. I've missed you so much," she said, looking at Sunny and Emma.

Emma frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Never mind. It's a confusing situation." She took Alli's hand, and the girl collapsed. Emma quickly caught her, lifting the smaller girl up.

"I'll make sure she's back where she belongs," Emma promised, looking at Alli. "I almost wish she had remembered."

"The world would descend into chaos." The seer said. She looked at Emma, Lilly, and Sunny. "But the rest of you can remember. It's a waste of my abilities to constantly re-wipe your memories. I'll have to save it until the shade king is taken care of. Then all of you will return to your normal lives, as well as Stella and Becca." The seer bowed to the girls. "You should get back to your practice," she said, disappearing through her portal.