Katherine opened her eyes and sat up with a groan.

“Finally awake, are we?”

A woman’s voice? Who was speaking. She remembered the woman that had slain that—that thing!

Katherine glanced around. Where was it? Was it still—

“Calm yourself, child. The creature is gone. It has been dispatched. You are safe now.”

The woman showed no expression as she stepped to Katherine. “My name is Demitria Fall. You can call me Demi.”

“D-Demi,” Katherine said slowly, as if she was a child learning math for the first time. It was all so… bewildering. She just sat there, wide-eyed and perplexed as she stared into the distance. Still, the thing had been killed, right? So at least part of her was relieved, even though another part was vindicated and terrified because… “I-it’s true. Monsters exist.”

Her face was blank for a long moment, until she blinked back to reality as she remembered her friends. “Where are the others?” She didn’t see them and panicked.

“Back on Earth.”

“What?” Katherine said with a start. “What are you talking about? We’re…,” she began, realizing that wherever this was wasn’t where they were before. “What’s going on?” She felt her heartbeat pick up again.

“Your friends are alive, and you are fine,” Demi said. She then leaned down to Katherine, leveling her eyes on the girl. “The question is, what are you doing here?”

Katherine leaned back, regaining her composure, an agitation rising at this weird questioning as she blinked. “You tell me, lady. I have no freaking clue.”

“Hmm,” Demi said, standing and rubbing her chin. “Well, I suppose we should return.”

“Return?” Katherine stammered, looking around in a confused manner. Where the heck are we?”

“An alternative dimension, a temporal shit of sorts. Another place and time. Proximal. It’s a place we can fight Corrupted.”

“Yeah, okay lady. Stop joking around and tell me the truth.” She finally processed the words that had just been said. “W-wait, that thing was called a…. Corrupted?”

Demi nodded.

“So, they’re real,” Katherine said under her breath. “Okay, that’s not okay.” She chuckled that kind of chuckle when one isn’t sure of the difference between reality and a dream. She felt like she was losing her mind. “Everything’s fine,” she told herself. “This is just a dream, and I’m going to wake up and be back with my friends and everything will be okay.” She closed her eyes, curled into a ball, and rocked herself back and forth with a desire to wake up. After a moment, she opened one eye, then freaked out. “What the heck is going on?”

Demi watched her with a tilt of her head, curious at this girl’s outburst.

“This is fine, everything’s fine,” Katherine said, straightening the skirt of her uniform. So, what happened to her mother wasn’t a delusion. Vindication flooded her, along with a swirling, surreal, sinking feeling.

She swallowed. “So it’s true then? All of it?”

Demi gave it a moment, then simply said “yes” as if she knew exactly what the girl was talking about. “What is your name, child?”

Katherine didn’t like being called child, but there were just too many things happening right now so she wasn’t going to tell this woman that. She certainly didn’t want to upset her, or maybe she’d fry Katherine with that crazy lightning spear thingy she had a moment ago. “Katherine. M-my name’s Katherine King.”

“Katherine King?” A flicker of something crossed the woman’s face, like recognition. Did this woman know her?

Katherine nodded, watching the woman and wondering what that flash on her face meant. “Uh-huh?”

“You are an Abeyant.”  

Katherine blinked. “What’d you call me?” She felt as if she had just been insulted, then slowed herself because this was a lot to process. “W-what the heck is an… Abeyant?”

“A human with latent supernatural abilities, a physical vessel that can take on the powers of a Switch Guardianship.”

“Wait, hold on a minute,” Katherine said, wanting to forget all of this as her breathing began to become irregular. A mixture of relief and tension filled her. “How can you even know that I’m an Abe-yant thingy?” She struggled saying the word, not sure what it was or meant.

“Because,” the Demi woman said, her eyes unwavering as they stared into Katherine’s soul. “You would have remained with your friends instead of being transformed into my Limit Barrier. Only one who is an Abeyant can do this. Plus, I can sense it in your being, I can feel it pulsating from you and through you.”

“Okay,” Katherine said with a flush as she felt that this Demi woman was looking a bit too intensely at her, and covered herself as if naked. “I don’t even know what you’re saying.” All of it came flooding of her, and she felt dizzy for a moment, as if she would pass out. But it was undeniable as she had seen it unfold in front of her eyes. Unless this was all a dream like she had when she fell asleep at Pho King. But it had to be real, just like back then. She gulped, remembering the thing that had killed her mother and how it was just like this… Corrupted.

Christ, save me.

“I am going to provide you with a choice,” Demi said. “It is up to you whether or not you wish to take it upon yourself.”

“What are you talking about?” Katherine asked, her worry intensify.

“If you wish,” Demi said, holding her piercing blue eyes on Katherine as if probing into her soul. “You can become my disciple, and with the proper training you will take my place as the next Switch Guardian and have the tools to battle the Corrupted and keep the world in balance while keeping your loved ones safe.”

While Katherine listened to Demi, her eyes went wide and she shook her head, but as she continued speaking, she wondered. What if she had been strong enough to have saved her mother? Strong enough to protect Abigail? It was crazy, all of this, but it had to be real. She didn’t know what else to do, so she leaned back and laughed with incredulousness.

“Our time has reached its end,” Demi said, peering at her hand as if she was checking a watch. “But if you wish to have any questions answered, meet me at the center of Aurora Park where benches and lamp posts look out over a walkway that wraps around the water in a weeks’ time at 10 in the evening. If you do not wish to pursue this prospect, do nothing, and continue your life.” The woman frowned at Katherine, a darkness to it as she finished. “If you do show up, come ready. I dislike wasting time.”

Demi turned on her heel and began to walk away.

Katherine reached a hand out to her. “What about my friends? They’re injured, and…” She felt a sadness fall over her at the image of Kyle getting slashed and the others experiencing harm and emotional trauma and how it had felt for her. How it still felt. She placed a hand against her chest as the sinking feeling fell over her.

“I cannot mend another’s physical injuries,” Demi said, continuing to move from Katherine. “But rest assured, while some of their wounds were serious, none were fatal.” She stopped for a moment before leaving. “As for their minds, I shall wipe their memories so they do not remember the truth.”

“Wait,” Katherine said with a curious turn of her head. “You can do that?” She thought about her father in that instant, wondering if perhaps some sort of selective mind wipe was used on him. It was crazy, asinine, yet… why? She had seen monsters, known they were real, verified it, and yet a selective mind wipe was weird for her now?

Sheesh.

“I can do many things,” Demi said with a smirk in her voice. “I will show you some of those things if you choose the path. For now, tend to your friends.”

And then the Demi woman was gone, the place breaking apart like glass being broken and turning back as the Limit Barrier shattered. Katherine shifted back to where Kyle and Mayline and William were. She returned to the unfolding chaos, minus the monster. Thank God.

Katherine stood and stared in the direction the Demi woman went, solid as a statue as everything returned to what it was.

“Did you see that?” The sharp voice of Willaim shocked Katherine back to reality. “It was a pack of dogs or something, and…” a pause for a moment, and he looked around, puzzled. “Where’d they go?” He let out a sigh of relief. “Well, I’m glad they’re gone. Are you okay?”

Katherine blinked, and nodded. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. How are you?”

William wasn’t far from her, hovering over his wounded brother and Maylin. “I’m okay.” He looked rattled but steady and alert as he had ripped pieces of his shirt and expertly wrapped them around his wound to stop the bleeding. Smart and quick thinking. Or perhaps practiced in situations that led to the drawing of blood?

Kyle, on the other hand, was a different story. Demi had said that none of the wounds were fatal. How could she know?

William stepped to Kyle who lay on the ground, groaning, several slash marks across his oozing chest. “I called 911; they’re on their way.” William tore more clothing off and went to work on putting pressure on Kyle’s wound.

Katherine knelt next to Maylin as she woke up, placing a hand against her shoulder.

“Wh-what happened?” Maylin groaned in a dazed voice before suddenly sitting up in a panic, her speech racing as she said something strange. “Where’d that thing go?”

Why would she say that? Katherine wondered but didn’t want to ask, at least not in this moment. Hadn’t that Demi woman wiped their memories?

“What?” Katherine said, shaking it off and chalking it up to her delirious state, thinking that perhaps Maylin was just slurring her words or something. “Everything’s fine,” Katherine said in a reassuring tone. “T-the dogs,” she said, feeling weird lying but went with what William had said. “Are gone.”

“Dogs?” Maylin said, blinking with a blank and confused stare, scrunching her nose as if smelling something bad. “You mean that huge werewolf-looking thing? It wasn’t dogs.” The way she stared reminded Katherine how she looked when she saw the monster that killed their mother so long ago.

She chuckled, catching herself, and looking like she made a mistake. And perhaps she had, because it wasn’t a wolf, or a werewolf, or whatever she thought she saw. It was just some rabid dogs, and her mind had embellished and exaggerated from the traumatic event, right? “Oh, yeah. The dogs…” She let out a shuddering sigh. “I’m just a bit rattled and spouting weird stuff is all.” She looked around, worried. Yeah, it had to be that, just dogs. Granted, they were mean dogs, foaming at the mouth and—she had seen a werewolf, hadn’t she? No, it couldn’t be. Monsters didn’t exist. Neither did werewolves. Just creatures of folklore and legend.

Sirens blared in the distance, eventually revealing two police vehicles and an ambulance following behind. The paramedics got Kyle on a gurney, sedated him, stopped the bleeding, bandaged him up, and lifted him to the ambulance.

The others were all checked out to ensure they were fine, given the recommendation to go to the hospital if needed.

William jumped into the ambulance with Kyle, waving to the two of them before the ambulance door shut and it drove off, luckily with no flashing lights or sirens, so that was a good sign.

After satisfying the round of questions from the police officers, they left after letting them know they may be in touch if anything new came up. When they were gone, Maylin and Katherine hugged.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Maylin said. “You still want to sleep over?” She tilted her head in a cute manner.

Katherine nodded. “Of course.” She was still rattled from it all and didn’t want to go home. She also wanted to check up on Abigail. She was so glad that Abigail hadn’t witnessed all this.

Part of Katherine wanted to ask Maylin about that look she had. The look of complete fear on her face, that familiar look that Katherine had had in the past and today. It was the exact same, so she knew Maylin had seen something different and wondered why the others were convinced there were dogs but Maylin was not. She had mentioned seeing a werewolf, so if she decided to meet Demi, she’d had to ask her about it. She didn’t know what to do.

One thing was for sure: the supernatural world was real, so what else was possible? If a selective memory wipe happened, which was so crazy to think about, could mistakes happen? Could things be missed in that regard? Could slip-ups occur? Could a mind be strong against that? How did all this stuff work? Katherine didn’t want to worry too much about it, so she thought it a good idea to just drop it. Not that that ever worked for her.