Keeya’s rollerblades snapped shut with a resolute clap, the straps so tight that they felt at one with her feet.

“Keeya, I’ve been calling for you! What are you doing out here?” her mom scolded her from atop the steps outside their house.

Keeya hunched her back, as if shielding her from her mom’s suffocating concern. She leveled her rollerblades and rolled them back and forth on the weed infested sidewalk.

“Keeya?” her mom warned.

Keeya slowly looked around and up at her mom, who was mostly belly thanks to her due date being so close. The mood in the house got more and more unbearable the closer her brothers arrival came. Since her mom could no longer move as quickly as she used to, she felt Keeya would get hurt as soon as she was outside her reach.

“I’m going to school, Mom. They haven’t canceled it yet, despite the border moving closer,” Keeya said, her brow furrowing with frustration.

If I was one of them the border wouldn’t be an issue at all. I’d kill every one of them, she thought bitterly to herself. The anger fueled her resolve, and she got up, almost too quickly and jerked her backpack on to cover her regaining balance.

She blew out a hot breath and tried for a reassuring smile.

Her Mom didn’t look too impressed or reassured.

“Text me as soon as you get there, don’t forget your emergency beacon,” Her mom finally said tapping her chest where her matching emergency beacon hung under her shirt.

Keeya lifted the cord to show that she was wearing hers too and waved goodbye.

“See you soon, Mom.”

“Love you!” she added after a few strokes of her blades. She turned around and waved, watching her mom wave back and yelling something she couldn’t quite make out. Keeya chose to ignore it and just shouted “Okay”. It was too late now, her mom couldn’t stop her and she could finally breath again.

“Little brother, please come soon,” Keeya pleaded to the heavens.

Her wheels crunched over cracks and old fallen leaves.

Past the dilapidated corner grocery store, and the overgrown mailboxes that contrasted with the shiny, new security cameras that covered every block, she skidded to a halt at a flimsy prefabricated police barrier.

WARNING PETRIFICATION ZONE AHEAD. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

“Well, I’m of age so I could be authorized personnel theoretically” Keeya mumbled to herself as she quickly looked around before ducking under some caution tape.

The sound of her heartbeat could have given her away in the sudden desaturated silence. Once warm brick homes suddenly became sad sentinels of the latest part of the Petrification Zone.

Adrenaline electrified each grainy stroke of her wheels. Her brain screamed at her to turn around, that she was going to get in so much trouble.

No… trouble was when her mom grounded her after finding her makeshift magical wands, full of glitter and thumbtacks.

No, this was something she hadn’t really felt before. She was in danger.

This was the PZ for magics’ sake! One of them could come out from the shadows at any moment and get her. One bite is all it would take, and her shaking limbs would turn to stone.

“Hey kid!”

Keeya felt her soul leave her body but then just as quickly return in time to feel the pain from her knees slamming on the pavement.

“Ow!” she cried checking the damage, making sure no broken glass or other debris cut her.

Blinking away tears she saw a large hairy hand come into focus.

She looked up and saw a heavy-set, sweaty guard in a pale blue button-down shirt and black pants leaning over her.

“Thanks, I’m fine,” she said forcing a smile as she slowly got up.

The guard cleared his throat and straightened his cap and looked behind her.

“Guess you’re the first to arrive. Must have gotten the time wrong, I thought your team wasn’t going to be here,” he paused checking his watch “another four hours?” He scratched his head and then glared at Keeya as if interrupting his long, boring shift sitting in a hot popup stand was a huge inconvenience.

“No, wait let me guess, you’re part of the warehouse division? Ugh, you people really need to call ahead.”

“Um-“ Keeya said lifting her hand up in a placating gesture which apparently the guard used as an opportunity to complain some more.

“I mean it’s not your fault, you’re just a kid. Sure, you guys are the only ones able to do the job but it’s us grown-ups that keep things running. And just how hard is it to send a text or use the radio?”

He waved his arm and walked on, continuing to vent.

Should she follow him? He seemed so certain that she felt bad not to. Yeah, she’ll follow him to the warehouse then quietly slip out after he left her there.

She followed behind the guard, listening to him go on and on about how different the world has been since the Eclipse seven years ago.

Keeya was five when it happened. She didn’t have a lot of memories of that day, just lots of screaming and running and golden light everywhere. A light that was later called Dawns Light.

The birth of real magic in the world!

No one knew where it came from, but after the eclipse and the discovery of magic, all children aged five to sixteen had the potential to wield superhuman powers. A lot of them got their powers during the eclipse when a magical staff appeared in front of them. Some were strong, others could create earthquakes with the sound of their voice or dance steps, and others had the rare power to heal the injured.

“So, are you new? I haven’t seen you before. What agency are you with?” The guard asked, apparently now off his soap box.

“Yeah, was chosen not too long ago. Warehouse division for… the Smiths” Keeya said, her voice dropping lower with every word. She hated lying, but what else was she supposed to do? Maybe she wasn’t chosen yet because she has never encountered one of them yet? Maybe she needed this.

Jumping around her room in her leotard or patrolling the neighborhood wasn’t going to cut it anymore. She had to be a Magical Girl. She wanted it so bad!

A shadow passed over them as they approached a large old factory building.

“Here it is, all the local ones were captured by the National Guard and other contractors this week and placed here.” He grabbed his badge and scanned it next to a door. The air inside was cold and felt like even the life from the very air was drained.

“How many are there?” Keeya said gasping from the atmosphere.

To answer the guard pulled a red lever. Keeya turned as a row of lights chased away the dark, revealing a huge warehouse full of clear glass containers smothered in bright yellow warning labels. In the light the inside of the containers swirled and erupted in hissing. The crate closest to Keeya seemed the most agitated and for the first time in seven years Keeya got a close up look at the invading creatures.

Snakes. Dark as a black hole with eyes that glowed red. Their fangs a shiny black oil color in their cotton white mouths. A few days after the eclipse they swarmed cites and densely populated areas, biting only humans and somehow turning them to stone. Only the golden light given to magical kids could destroy them completely.

“It’s getting really bad again,” the guard said his face sickly pale. “We had to move the border rather suddenly this time. A horde of these snake creatures came out of nowhere and wiped out all the Zookeepers in the area. We can’t even get close enough to retrieve their petrified remains. These snakes are only the outlying wave and there are hundreds of them.”

“What?” Keeya shouted. She hadn’t heard this; Zookeepers are the best of the best. Rather than go into warehouses of restrained snakes, they charge into the borders and purify the Petrification Zones of all the snakes.

The guard looked paler by the minute but at her outburst his lips thinned and he looked down on her with suspicion.

“You should have been briefed on that before coming here. Who are you really?” His large hands grabbed her by the shoulders and the snakes erupted in more violent thrashing in the crates behind her.

The sudden outburst startled the guard and Keeya used the opportunity to duck under his grasp. And she pivoted toward the other end of the building.

“Hey! Wait!” the guard shouted as he tried and failed to grab her. But her roller blades and small size gave her an advantage.

Deeper and deeper she went, the shouting of the guard drowning in the hissing that followed Keeya. The concrete floor made for smooth sailing, and she quickly lost track of the exit.

She skidded to a stop, gulping deep breaths of the weird stagnant air.

She bent over, clutching her backpack closer, craving it’s familiarity.

“Crap, crap, crap, crap! Where is the exit?” She hissed through her teeth.

She breathed in deeply and straightened to find herself face to face with a large black snake.

“EEP!” she screamed and lost her balance, falling hard on her butt.

But the snake didn’t get closer, and she realized it too was trapped behind the thick glass of one of the containers.

“Ha, ha looks like we’re both stuck,” she laughed nervously, feeling a confidence miraculously well up inside her core.

She examined the snake closer, using this rare opportunity to study her enemy. It was as thick as a tree, with a head as big as her torso. Unlike the others it didn’t violently thrash in its cage but studied her in return.

“Why are you bigger and calmer than the others?”

The snake chose not to reply, not like anyone had ever heard them talk anyway. From all the years of study they acted just like snakes… rabid snakes determined to turn all humans to stone.

She clenched her fists, hot tears burning her eyes.  

“I’m right here magic! Dawns Light or whatever you are! Look! If you could give me magic, I could purify this whole warehouse! I could help the Zookeepers! I’m strong I promise, please…please choose me.” She curled up into a ball and started weeping.

Suddenly she felt a warmth spread over her, like when her mom put a blanket over her. Hissing grew louder and even more frantic. Even the largest snake grew restless and began to bang against it’s cage.

“What’s happening?” Keeya got up and felt her whole body vibrate with warmth.

CRASH the thick glass shattered and she looked up just in time to see the large gaping jaws of the snake lunge toward her.

There was no time to run, no time to even think before a golden light erupted like a supernova in front of her. All the snakes immediately dissolved into ashes, and blowing everything away from her as if she was the epicenter of a nuclear bomb.

But, she alone remained unscathed. In fact, she had never felt stronger in her life. Here eyes as wide as dinner plates she stared at the object in front of her. For so long she had dreamed of this day, had drawn so many pictures of what her unique staff would look like.

Hovering in front of her was a staff, about three feet long, robin egg blue and a huge, mother of pearl star bordered by a ring the same color as the staff.

Gentle light dried her tears, and she felt a laugh erupt from the small fire of hope that had been burning since she was five.

She reached out and grabbed the staff with a vice grip and instantly the light died, leaving her in the dark with her newest prized possession.