Ashlan knocked on the door to her room with two of the most unlikely people standing beside her. Thoughts raced in her head over the absurdity of the situation, and when the Tessellation Twins answered it, they wrinkled their faces like they ingested a jar of raw prunes. “What are ‘zey doing over here,” Laetitia demanded, pointing at May and Janus with accusation.

“The cadaver and the kumquat?” Marie asked but May pushed them aside with her Magi-chair.

“I’m not afraid of you,” May said, huffing and puffing. “Not when Mena’s in worse danger.”

“Zee rainborn is in danger?” the silver haired Laetitia questioned May with the tilt of her head.

“If we don’t do anything,” Janus added, making her way into the room with her bones rattling. “She’ll be pushing up daisies in an unnatural way.”

“What is going on?” both of the elves demanded, and Ashlan quickly put on a polite face in order to explain herself. Ever since Mena had moved, Ashlan had to bunk with her friends in order to free up her two-person room for the new Groundborns coming in. It was quite the hassle sometimes even if Marie and Laetitia were her friends.

“Come on, guys,” the lioness said, “You know I wouldn’t invite them over if something serious wasn’t going on.”

“Why eez it any matter to you?” Laetitia asked.

Ashlan’s face turned pale. There was no way out. She’d have to admit something she really didn’t want to since she first signed up for that accursed WCAL contest.

The blond-haired lioness put her hands behind her back and swayed from side to side. “Because…I still care about Rainy.”

“You what?!” Everyone from May to the Tessellations exclaimed and took a step back, (Though Janus smiled sweetly and remarked “I knew it.”)

“Eez that why you went on zat ridiculous adventure last semester and signed up for that stupid WCAL challenge?” Marie demanded. “To save those wretched Groundborns?”

Ashlan turned bright pink and covered her face. Her head pivoted from May and Janus to the Tessellations to the ground to the Tessellation’s again. Admitting something like that was truly dizzying. “I signed up for that rescue because I wanted to get close to her again, okay? And I knew that would make her happy.”

Rather than a look of sympathy, the Tessellations held their hands to their faces and giggled mischievously.

“Oi,” Laetitia laughed. “Poor Ashlan is a groundlover.”

“We can’t come to your wedding, Ash,” Marie chuckled. “We’re allergic to zee ground.”

Ashlan’s color changed from a light pink to a boiled tomato. She let out a terrifying roar befitting of a lioness. “LEEEEEAAAAVVVEEEE”

The elves turned paler than they already were and bolted for the door.

Once they were gone, Ashlan turned around, slapped her paws together and smiled, “That takes care of them. Now let’s save Rainy.”

“Hold on,” May glared at Ashlan, once it was clear the Tessellation Twins were gone. “So, you’ve still cared about Mena this whole time after all you put her through last semester?”

“And if you tell anybody about this,” Ashlan growled with her fangs barred. “You’ll be this lion’s lunch.”

“Sorry,” May said, raising her hand in front of Ashlan in a mocking gesture. “Your brother already had me for dinner.”

Ashlan turned bright pink and growled under her breath as Janus went “ohhhhh.” May licked her finger and placed it on her rear, making a “sssssss” noise.

“Now now,” Janus said, extending her skeletal hands between them. “That burn may have been worthy of the seventh level of hell, but let’s not get carried around here. Perhaps we should let Miss Snooty Lion McGoo know how we know that’s not Mena.”

“Right,” May nodded and she whipped out her notebook. “The night Mena and I had a fight and she ran to the bathroom, I followed her in there. I thought she was acting strange and I was right. She was talking to that magical book.”

Ashlan widened her eyes as May recounted what she heard. It had been such a shock to her to hear what Mena had been up to since they parted ways last semester.

“Fabias, or ‘Fabias’” May began, making finger quotations “Promised her she could be perfect forever as long as nobody found out her secret of perfection.”

“What is her secret of perfection?” Ashlan questioned May.

“I don’t know…” May responded and she shuddered. “All I know it comes from that book. And when she tried to resist him, he said he would knock her back to ugly and she fell for it.”

Ashlan gasped and put her paws to her face. “He’s clearly manipulating her. She’s not ugly at all. She’s a lot worse looking now.”

Janus put her hand forward. “Anyone in favor of forming the Mena Intervention & Liberation Front?”

“MILF?” May and Ashlan asked. “What’s that mean?”

“I dunno,” Janus said with a shrug of her shoulders. “But that’s what my Uncle Denny Bones said I’ll be when I’m older.

“And he was right,” May exclaimed, raising a fist in the air. “We will indeed intervene and liberate Mena!”

As the trio approached tunnel leading to the dining hall, ominous chanting echoed through it. “There’s no such thing as perfection except you,” a crowd of people repeated in mindless unison. Ashlan shivered, she knew exactly who they were referring to.

The three reached the end of the tunnel, and a terrifying sight awaited them. Nearly everyone in the whole school, including Gemini and the Dubois family, all stood empty eyed, in front of the new Mena. All their voices melded together, coming from teachers, staff and students alike in praise of their new goddess. Mena looked less like herself than ever before. Her long hair was unbraided, glowing, and flowing with an angelic hue. Her eyes, fully white and pupilless, narrowed with cruelty. And she laughed in a voice that was much older and deeper at her handiwork. “Yes, pray to me. You cannot achieve perfection, but you can pray that some of mine rubs off on you.”

“Yesssss mistress,” the people all moaned.

“If taking over the school doesn’t work out for her,” Janus said with her typical wryness. “Mena could always try her hand as a necromancer. She’s good.”

“This is no time for joking, Janus,” May responded, puffing up her cheeks as she usually did when angry. “We gotta get that book away from her. That’s the source of her ‘perfection’.”

The book floated beside Mena in a golden aura. Fabias beamed from the cover having accomplished his mission. “How do we do that?” May asked scratching her head.

Ashlan observed the zombies. Mena paid less attention to them, seemingly absorbed in her own gloating. “I’ve got an idea,” Ashlan said, her brilliant emerald eyes gleaming. “And it involves Miss Cadaver here. Hope you guys are good at acting.”

“Now its time for the anointing,” Mena said, her deepening voice laughing with cruellty. “Line up.”

Proceeding in a single file fashion, the zombie’s line up in front of Mena; Ashlan, May and Janus used it as an opportunity to line up too, moaning with their eyes rolled back. Janus remained in front as the trio watched the anointing session take place.

A student lined up in front of Mena.

“Close your eyes, inferior creature,” Mena said, “And hold out your hands.”

The girl followed suit and cupped her hands. The following action made the trio of non-zombies gasp. Mena spewed jet black ink from her mouth, and it splashed all over the girls faces. The girl seemed to enjoy it, happily moaning before lumbering away. “That’s right,” Mena said as the remainder of ink dripped from my mouth, “Bathe in my perfection. That’s the ink it takes to write a perfect character. This is as close as you’ll get to being like me.”

Each person took their turn getting spewed with ink. At last, Ashlan nudged the pixie reaper, and Janus approached Mena. “Uhhh…uhhhh….” Janus moaned with her hands up in the air. Mena surveyed her with her featureless eyes.

“What do you want, zombie?” Mena demanded.

Janus moved closer and closer to Mena with her arms outstretch. “Stand still and let me douse you with ink.”

Janus outstretched her bony hands and grasped Love Across Dimensions. “What are you doing?” Mena cried. “You weren’t really a zombie after all.”

“Yep,” Janus said with a wink. “I only play one in theatre productions.”

“Inferior creatures,” Mena snapped. “Get her!”

“May, go long!” Janus cried and chucked the book right before she was tackled by zombies

May caught it as more zombies converged on her. “Ashlan, the rest is up to you.” She hurled the book like she was a star in a game of mind ball and Ashlan caught it. Ashlan took one last tentative glance at the dining hall before running up a nearby staircase. What could she possibly do with the book?

The zombies gave chase stomping up the stairwell. Ashlan’s heart thundered in its chest. Where can I go? What can I possibly do?

Ashlan ran to the end of the corridor and entered the final room. It took her to the dream sorting chamber—a place which was quite familiar to Ashlan, having witnessed a dramatic fight between Mena and Laetitia Tessellation and then later escaped a group of troll moms last semester. Everything was the same since she was last there. The crates of dreams glowed brightly, and the enormous Dream Deposit was still open. Surprisingly so because Mena, Janus and herself had taken a tumble down it during the fight.

Ashlan quickly paged through Love Across Dimensions, but before she could get very far, zombies filed into the room. They blocked the exit. A callous laugh echoed through the chamber. “Pitiful lioness, there is no escape for you.”

Right before her eyes, Mena materialized in front of Ashlan. A look of cruelty flashed on her face. “You will end up like everyone else,” Mena gloated, and Ashlan gasped.

Along with the other zombies, May and Janus stood beside them, dripping with black ink. “Seemed some renegades needed more convincing,” Mena responded in triumph. “But once they got a taste of my perfection, they could not resist becoming Mena fans.”

Ashlan took a step back as Mena hovered closer to her. “You will too. You will adore me, like everyone else!”

Ashlan paged through the book frantically, looking for the source of Mena’s power. “You will give me that book back,” Mena demanded, and shot a blast of ink from her mouth.

Ashlan ducked it, and started to run around the room, while observing each page. They all seemed to be romance novel rubbish, nothing that would reveal the source of her power. As blasts of ink shot from Mena’s mouth, the zombies closed in all sides. “There is no escape,” Mena laughed with her hands up in the air. “Give the book to me.”

Ashlan backed away towards the large Dream Deposit. “Any last words before you submit to me and my perfection?”

“One word,” Ashlan said with a bold look of defiance in her eyes. “Geronimo.”

The lioness took a leap down the dream deposit, hoping desperately she’d find an answer or at least a reprieve at the bottom.