*Heather*

There has to be something evil in this damned bright city, I thought, walking down the street. I'd been out here for over an hour and still, nothing. Nothing evil, nothing cruel, nothing. Everything was weird though. From the bartender who tried to flirt with me to the kids running around throwing fireworks out of their fingers.

Weird.

The fact that this place was an underground cavern for criminals lit entirely by bright, multicolored lights. The fact that the queen of magic had the mentality of seven year old and, instead of letting people die, put herself in danger to save their lives. That Commander Zeeli's little brother was a magician.

Weird. Unnatural and weird. I didn't get anything in this city none of it made any sense. And not just the city, the world anymore. Everything was lopsided and crooked and backwards and everyone was treating it like it was nothing. Even Commander Zeeli was slowly getting used to it. Hatchet's always been easy to trick, but the commander too? I just don't-

"Oof," I fell back, hitting the ground.

"I'm so sorry!" A female voice yelled.

I looked up to see a woman in her mid-fourties looking down at me.. She was holding two full paper bags in her arms. They looked like they were filled with groceries.

"Are you okay?" She asked, concerned.

She leaned forward to give me a hand, but ended up pouring out most of what was in the bag. Mostly vegetables.

"Oh, jeez," she said, "really, I'm sorry, I'm such a klutz. Umm-"

I stood up, taking a plastic bag filled with vegetables with me.

"Here, let me help." I took one of the paper bags from her.

"No, really. You don't have to."

"It's fine. I have nothing better to do anyways."

She nodded. "Thanks. My apartment's just a few blocks away. My name's Mary, by the way."

"Mary," I repeated as we started walking. "I'm Heather."

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

---

Her apartment was on the second floor of the complex. She took out her keys and started sorting through them with one hand. She unlocked the house and let me in.

"Can you just set those on the kitchen table? I'll fix you up some tea."

I nodded, setting the bag down on the table in the center of the kitchen.

The apartment was decently small, but nice. The living room, which was a couch and a small T.V. was connected to the kitchen. There was a small table in the middle with four chairs around it.

"You live alone?" I asked, when she came back with a steaming cup of tea.

"No, but my son's off working. He turned eighteen last month and decided he wanted to help out."

"I'm new here, so sorry if this sounds weird, but is it really that great here?"

She smiled. "Of course it is." She sipped the steaming drink. "My son's a wizard, you see. Not me though. If it weren't for this place, both of us would've been in one of those awful labor camps. Or dead. Not only that, but the people here are so amazing. We only got here a few months ago and we're already doing great. Honestly, I get more out of this city than I'll ever need."

"Do you mind if I ask how you ended up here?"

"Not at all. My son and I are from Roanoke. We had a small apartment there, and I was barely making enough to feed us. Almost had to sell the house. He was seventeen then, and a good kid. Sill is. Oh, sorry, I'm getting off track." She took another sip. "One day, while we were out shopping, someone was giving me a hard time, I don't remember what for.

"Anyways, I was content with letting him yell at me, and being done with it. My boy wasn't. He stood up and started arguing. I tried to calm him down, and that's when it happened. He was so mad, and then the air felt so thick. Then, there in front of us, the man was frozen solid in a block of ice. I grabbed his hand and started running. The Black Hand were on us pretty fast.

"We were corner and I thought that would be the end, but it wasn't. A few other magicians stepped in a saved us. They brought us here, got us this place, and now everything's better. Honestly, I don't know if we still would've been alive if it weren't for this city. And Hecate especially. I've never met her, but I heard she's...amazing. Like no one you've ever met before."

I couldn't help but let out a short laugh. "You could say that again."

"Have you met her?"

I nodded. "She's the one who brought us here, actually."

The woman, Mary, was looking at me with wide eyes. "What's she like?"

"Not like you'd think. She's actually...crazy. If I had to use any word to describe her, it would be crazy."

I was waiting for the mother to reprimand me for insulting her hero, tell me I had to be wrong.

She didn't. Instead, she let out a loud, full laugh. She held her stomach towards the end.

When she caught my wide eyed stare, she said, "Sorry, sorry. It's just, I guess that really wasn't what I was expecting. But, crazy huh? I guess that's just what people need. Someone different. Someone extreme."

I took another sip of the tea, finishing the last of it, and looked up at her. "Thanks a lot for the tea, but I'd better be on my way."

She smiled. "Of course. Feel free to visit anytime."

She saw me out the door, waving goodbye when I left.

This city was crazy, I though, walking in the direction I knew Black Hat was in. And that was a good thing. If this city wasn't crazy, Mary wouldn't have been with her kid. There wouldn't have been a weird bartender to flirt with me and there wouldn't have been kids running around the streets making fireworks with their fingers.

It was a good thing that Hecate was crazy and weird and nice. She was what people like them needed. They needed someone nice and someone to help them. They needed someone who could be crazy with them.

There was nothing evil or cruel in this city. Of course there wouldn't be. This was a city for people who couldn't make it in the real world because of some dumbasses rules.

This city was weird and unnatural and that was completely normal. Everything about this city was weird and that was normal.

People needed Hecate and Hecate needed people.

I wanted to help people with Hecate.

No, that wasn't it.

I wanted to help people.

-Authors Note-

Sorry for the really rushed and short chapter.

I want to take a minute to recommend Ember by which is an amazing and adorable story.