listen closely

10

{Lizzie}

I walk up the steps slowly, my marks on my cheeks getting brighter with every step. I take a deep breath and knock on the door.
"Coming!" A man opens the door, the exact marks on my cheeks glow on his. He stares at me for a minute and shakes his head. "This is a mistake, you have the wrong house-"
"My name is Elizabeth, I'm a shadow nymph," I say, "I'm here to find you."

"You can't be here." The man says, "I broke the rules, you can't be here."
"You aren't even supposed to be in this world," I say, "And I did it too." He stops.
"You?" I nod, "And a human?" I nod again. "Why are you here?"
"I needed to find you," I say, "Our world is at war and we just lost an important person that will help us win, so I came here."
"That's not my world anymore," He says, "Look, kid, I'm not your father. I never was. I made a mistake and then you existed. I have a family now, I can't be your father."
"I'm a mistake now?"
"No, Elizabeth-"
"Lizzie."
"I didn't mean it like that," He says, "You have a family, you don't need me-"
"The rest of my world needs you which means I need you," I say
"Look, kid, I can't help you," He says, "I'm sorry."

I wave my hand over the map, Peach Town disappears. I pull up pictures from Peach Town on the big screen and stare at them.
"It's all gone," Scott says
"You saved hundreds of people," I say, "I wasn't even in this world."
"Where were you?" He asks
"Finding my father," I say
"What?"
"I'm half-human," I say, "I get my magic from my father who broke the rules. I was raised human."
"You were?" I nod.
"Only Em knows that," I say, "She knows all of our weaknesses, and now she's fighting against us." The alarm starts going off. "That's another attack." I look at the blinking light on the map. "And that's Em."
"What do we do?" Shelby appears followed by Will, Liam, and Callum.
"If anything comes in contact with Em," I say, "Take her down and bring her in immediately." I look at Shelby, "Em is now our biggest threat."

"You should probably sleep," Scott says
"I can't."
"Have you tried?" I shake my head.
"I know I can't," I say, "This happens every year."
"Yeah, I've been here for less than I year and I have no idea what you're talking about." I search the map desperately.
"She's not on here," I say, "None of them are."
"They've never been on there," He says, "Come on, you need to relax a little."
"We're at war Scott," I say, "I can't."
"Has anyone even officially declared war?"
"You of all people should be worried right now," I say, "You have a giant target painted on your back and everyone is willing to hit it."
"I know," He says, "I'm always gonna have that target. You can't control everything."
"Well, I need to."
"You're gonna die before you even come close."
"Then let me die," I say, "I need to control everything."
"Have fun with that." He says, "You're gonna destroy yourself." I look back at the map and study it carefully.
"Em can still reach us," I say, "She can still read our minds if she's close enough and for her to be useful she needs to read our minds." A red circle appears in around our point. "Can you mark every dark base within this circle?" Scott stands up and looks at the map.
"There's only a few..." He marks a few places on the map, "This one is a prison building, all powers are deactivated." He wipes that mark off the map. "These two are labs, she wouldn't be there..." He stops, "She could be in the royal building..." He marks another place on the map outside of the circle.
"But she could reach us from there," I say
"If she still had light magic," He says, "The royal building makes dark magic stronger and light magic weaker, so if she was there then she'd reach out to here." He marks a circle around the base that just barely reaches where we are. "The royal building has some of the highest security and it's where the important people, like the royal family and their most dangerous friends stay. If she's anywhere in dark territory, she's there." I nod.
"Do you know your way around there?"
"I lived there most of my life." He says
"Then you will be our tour guide," I say, "We're getting Em back."
"No."
"What? Scott-"
"If I step foot in that building, I'm dead," He says, "I was accused of a lot of things and I would've been killed if I wasn't the prince. If my magic signature comes even close to there, I will be destroyed in seconds."
"Can you guide us from here?" I ask
"I... uh... no." He says, "Even if our powers or communication things weren't affected by the block, I wouldn't be able to effectively guide you through there."
"But you said you lived there most of your life." He nods.
"There are a lot of things I've blocked out that I'm not willing to let back in just for this," I say, "I can tell you what I know now, but that's all I can do."