“What are you thinking?”

Trill was lounging on the couch and staring up at the ceiling. Where he had gone out of his way to be either creepy or mythical during their previous encounters, he had become rather lethargic. Julia was feeling the same. The lights were too bright, the bruising on her hands had become worse, and thinking about Kara’s egg made her feel sick to her stomach. Currently, Kara was hidden away in a box underneath her bed.

“I don’t know Mackenzie, but I couldn’t name half the class if I wanted to.”

Julia had always gotten good grades, but she had never challenged herself with her classes. Merely getting through was enough for her. There weren’t any big plans for college, aside from moving to Portland. Socializing or joining clubs was never on the agenda.

Trill rotated along the couch so that he was hanging over the back of it. This enabled him to stare at her while she paced back and forth across the hallway. “This is a conflict of interests for me.”

“Which means you’re useless. That hasn’t changed anything,” she spat back. The doorbell rang. “That’s Mio. Are you going to…” All that remained on the couch was a swirl of ash.

Julia shook her head and answered the door. What greeted her was a surprising sight. Mio had dressed up in a tight dress, but she had a loose blouse over the top and thick leggings on the bottom. Her hair had been dyed lilac, and she was wearing colorful makeup. The shy girl in oversized clothing was absolutely gone.

“I brought soup.” Mio held up a takeout back. “You said you weren’t feeling well, and-”

“What the fuck happened to you?”

“Oh, right!” Mio walked past her and made her way to the kitchen. Despite never being here before, she was moving like she owned the place. “It was the weirdest thing. When I got home from Britney’s my entire wardrobe was replaced with these expensive clothes, but my parents didn’t seem to notice at all. They didn’t even complain when my hair changed color either.”

Julia followed her into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. “That stupid demon hasn’t been bothering you with fashion advice, has he?”

The statement gave Mio pause. “No?” She found the bowls and dropped a grilled cheese sandwich on the bottom of each. This was topped with a tomato based vegetable soup. “I did make sure to post about his ritual online the moment it was over. The only time I saw him was when we summoned him. You… You haven’t been seeing him, have you?”

“... No.”

At that moment, a spinning of ash behind Mio formed into Trill. He was looking over her shoulder, examining the food she was preparing. When she turned around, Trill vanished into dust, all without Mio noticing him at all.

Mio frowned to herself and walked over to Julia. She lifted up her hands and began to examine the injuries on them. “What happened here?”

“I-I have, uh… Lupus.” Julia had seen that on a show her mom liked to watch. “It creates bruising like this, and I have off days. Thanks for coming over and bringing food.”

Mio put a hand to her mouth. “Oh god, I’m sorry that I didn’t realize sooner! I’ll be sure to bring over more food for you to eat.”

“... That really isn’t necessary.”

“Well… We’re friends, right? I mean, I know that we aren’t traditional friends or anything, but uhm… Well, I thought we were? Was that not right?”

“I uh, thank you.” Julia took the bowl of food that Mio forced into her hands. “I wanted to talk to you about someone who was or is in AP club with you. The picture I saw of her was from last year, so I don’t know if she’s still in the club or not.”

Once more did Julia’s statement confuse Mio. “Really don’t know who, sorry. I’m the only girl in AP club.”

“So Mackenzie Foster isn’t a member anymore?”

Mio’s brows furrowed at the thought. “Mackenzie? … Hrm. Mackenzie, Mackenzie… Oh right! She moved away during the Christmas break. I don’t remember being all that close to her at all. Uhm… Maybe she kept to herself a lot. AP club was supposed to be a study group, but I only joined because it was supposed to look good on college applications.”

Julia stared down at her soup bowl for a moment. She walked over to the dining table and set it down. “... I see.”

Mio joined her and sat down, waiting politely for Julia to also sit before taking a bite of her food. “She had something to do with your sister, right? I don’t think you would be talking to me if it didn’t have anything to do with the ritual or Kara.”

“Yeah… Someone was threatening Kara before she died, and I know they were saying that they were going to do the same thing to her as they did Mackenzie. I was wondering if you had known if something happened to her or if she was still at school.” She watched as Mio pulled out her phone. “Do you have her number?”

“I was just going to Google her,” replied Mio.

… Oh, right. There may have been a social media post that she could find, or a news article if something terrible happened. Julia also pulled out her phone and began to look her up as well.

“I found an obituary,” muttered Julia.

“I found the same,” replied Mio. She set her phone down and began to eat her food.

Mackenzie died a few days before Christmas, right after the winter break started. She was involved in a car crash. Her vehicle had swerved off a mountain road during bad weather, but there hadn’t been a mention of it at school. There was a memorial service for Kara. That might have been because she was more popular, but that didn’t seem right.

Julia glanced over to Mio, who was calmly eating. “You’re not even bothered by it?”

“Malorie and I were never that close. It’s hard for me to feel bad about someone’s death if I barely even knew them.” Or remember their name.

Julia found herself pondering if there were adverse effects to Mio’s newfound confidence. “I believe she was murdered by the same person who killed Kara.” All she got from Mio was a nod of . “Which means that there’s a serial killer at our school.”

Mio stared at her for a moment. Her face became troubled, then she began to look down at the table between them. “Were you the one that hurt that guy who got taken away in an ambulance?”

“Ah? Well, uhm... “ Julia couldn’t think of a response.

“I heard a rumor that he woke up screaming in the hospital. Something about Kara’s ghost wanting revenge. At least, that’s what the kids at school are saying.” Mio’s hands twisted together nervously. “I know you were somehow involved, but I don’t think you would’ve almost killed him if you didn’t have a reason.”

Julia tensed up in her seat. “Well, I-I…” Her jaw clenched and unclenched. “I don’t really know… I do know that he did something terrible and that someone needed to- I don’t know, Mio. I got mad, and I don’t know if what I did was right or wrong anymore, but whoever this person is may have killed both Mackenzie and Kara. They do deserve it.”

Mio took a moment to consider it before she looked up again. “Then why not join AP club with me? You can say you need help with your SATs, but there would be a file on the teacher’s computer about that dead girl. You could see what college she was trying to get into and any extracurricular activities she was doing.”

That was nice and all, but Julia would rather have mystic help just so she could get it all over and done with. “I’ll consider it…”

“Even if it isn’t part of some murder plan, it would be nice to have you there,” whispered Mio. All Julia could say as a response was a faint mutter of agreement.

Mio spent another hour over before going home. Julia went up to her room to mope afterward. Her dad didn’t get home till late some days, and today wouldn’t be an exception either. At least she had a decent sort of meal for once. It made concentrating on her homework easier.

Occasionally she would glance over to Trill, who was working on his own project while sitting on Kara’s bed. He had a journal open and was writing within it with a long owl feather. As long as he wasn’t talking, it didn’t bother Julia much.

“Hrm...” And of course, he would ruin Julia’s blessed silence right when she had noticed it. He began to grumble to himself while making loud strikes to the page with his quill.

“When are you going to deal with someone else’s requests?”

“I only answer those who need my interference in order to accomplish their desires.”

Because Mio absolutely needed magic to deal with her self-esteem issues and Britney’s mother was a true horror. Julia shook her head and went back to typing up her report. Another loud sigh from Trill made her entire body tense up.

“But why are you still here?”

“Because you will no doubt need me when your newfound powers overwhelm you.” He blew on his journal for a moment before standing up. This was held out for Julia to take. “I have written down any issues you may come across.”

Suspicious, Julia took the journal and flipped through it. Everything was written in cuneiform. She looked up with a glare before tossing the journal into the corner of her desk, where it would no doubt be forgotten and left to collect dust for all eternity.

Trill’s tail swished back and forth with agitation behind him. He then tilted his head, and the ears of his mask faintly twitched. “My mission calls. I will return shortly.” His body dissipated into a mist.

Or he could not come back at all. Julia shook her head and put a show on her second monitor. It “helped” her study, or at least gave the occasional distraction when she wasn’t feeling like concentrating on her homework.

Anything she typed, she got a glance at her hands. People didn’t pay attention to her, but they would no doubt be whispering behind her back tomorrow. Kara’s ghost attacking the guy she cheated on her boyfriend with, Julia being absent the day afterward, and then her showing up with horrific bruises on her hands. What sort of rumors was that going to bring up?

She got up and began to go through her sister’s closet. There was a pair of blue winter gloves that she had gotten for Christmas. Kara never wore them, even though their mom insisted that they were expensive and looked nice. Julia slipped them onto her hands for a moment to check the fit.

Wearing something of Kara’s didn’t feel right. It felt… Empty. Even if Kara didn’t like them, they still were hers. She’d yell at Julia for trying them on if she was still around, or throw something at her, or yell at their parents that Julia was ruining everything again…

… Maybe Kara was a terrible sister. If she had something to do with Mackenzie’s death, then she didn’t deserve to be avenged either. But… Julia was still going to find out the truth. Kara deserved to have the truth be revealed, whether or not it painted her as a good person.