Now, at her twenty-fifth year, the smoky-eyed beauty with just a hint of mischief in her soul, danced around once more. Daringly she whispered the enchantment, feeling the magic course through and around her like electricity filling the air.

“Kimiko, can you see it, can you feel it?” She called giddily, her mind spinning much like the merry-go-round of her childhood.

“The magic runs through us with flashes of color …. blue, violet, red.” Kimiko circled around gazing with amazement as the magic poured forth from her sister’s slender form surrounding her like a cloud.

Yuki grinned as she focused her will, drawing on the power, her heart racing as she raised her eyes to the heavens. She was blessed with the magic that had been renewed in her spirit, bringing together her life force with her ancestors of old.

Dottie

******

It wasn’t that she failed, exactly. Not quite. It was just… well really, it was just an aberration…
Oh, bloody bells, she had failed. A simple transfiguration spell, and she failed. Ended up a bullet shaped ornament, as useful as modern art and about as pretty. Not anywhere near the crystal ball she was aiming for.
“Jan! Jan, what happened? You ok?”
She didn’t bother replying to her brother. It was his idiotic idea that got them here in the first place anyways.
“I knew this was stupid! Just like all your idiotic schemes! I swear, Jan…”
All for such a simple trick. Just a few gigs, a few well-paying customers–
“Hey! Answer me!”
–just turn into a crystal ball, utter a few mumbo-jumbo nonsense phrases to any fool fool enough to go to a fortune teller, and…
“Jan! I’ll tell the Lord Wizard!”
Dammit, they could have been rich.
“January, I’m leaving– NOW!”
“Aw, shuddup. I’m working on it,” she finally answered. “Leave me alone.”
“No! I told you we should have gone to him on this one! You never listen to me,” Tommy said.
“Such a momma’s boy, always running and crying to the Lord Wizard, and yet we always do just fine on our own.”
“Yeah? Can you get back on your own?”
She hesitated.
“That’s it– I’m going to go get him,” Tommy said.
“No!”
“Why not?” he demanded.
“Yes, petite, why not?” another voice added.
Jan stared in horror at the Lord Wizard advanced into the room, amusement and resignation flickering across his thin face.
“Oh, mes enfants, what mischief have you been up to now?”

His voice whispered in my ear, sweet words I tried to ignore.

“Take it,” he crooned. “Take it and fame, fortune, mates are yours.”

My eyes swerved to the red glowing pen he held.

“Everything you’ve ever wanted can be yours. All you have to do is take it.”

My eyes froze, caught in his golden gaze. And still I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think.

“You want riches? Adoring fans? Write it.”

I found my voice. “I just want to write books,” I mumbled.

He laughed, eyes crinkling in amusement.

“Ah, you humans. Never fail to amuse me.” He raised the pen to eyelevel. “Whatever you write will happen. Want to be a famous novelist? Take the pen, and write it.”

“I’m already writing,” I feebly protested, not trusting the demon’s offer.

He flicked his wrist and my eyes widened as I recognized my work. He chuckled indulgently.

“Is this the best you can do? Inspired by what? A woman eaten by a wall? A dirty car? Green slime? Losing memories?” He shook his head, and my work went up in flames.

“You can do so much better,” he whispered, offering the pen.

My mouth opened, but no words came. My hand trembled as I reached towards the pen, full of indecision. Could I? Should I?

Numerous warnings to be cautious went unheeded. She had survived for five years already. There was nothing out here she couldn’t withstand. Cold, heat, barren lands, and asteroid belts were of little importance. They couldn’t take her down. She felt invincible.

So when she spotted the void twisting and reaching with greedy black fingers through a dusky cosmos, her heart pounded a frantic rhythm in her chest. She had to see it. This was her chance to touch the dark and make her mark on history. Devon’s warning not to go went unheeded as she stepped into her space suit. Excitement made her deaf to everything but the siren song of the black hole.

Myana couldn’t swim fast enough towards it. It gently tugged at her the closer she got, enticing her forward. She was intoxicated by the thrill.

Almost there.

She felt herself stretching as she approached the void- it wasn’t entirely unpleasant as the black hole embraced her as it’s own. She smiled. Devon would be panicking right now; but she couldn’t bring herself to care about anything else as she was pulled apart and into the abyss.

He would know what is happening. My sweet, sweet, beloved husband, darling man: where have you gone? Why have you left me in this place, this soulless place, all alone? I wanted your children, I did, but then you left and I was all alone in this warped place and I don’t understand anything anymore.

I wanted children; I always had. I could feel the baby in my arms when I stood at the alter with you. He was so close to my heart and he didn’t even exist. My heart pounded under the white satin of my mother’s wedding dress and I dreamed of our children. I loved you, but you left me all alone.

There was a baby and then another, but they liked to grow cold in my arms and they never stayed. You left me all alone with cold babies. You were gone and there were no more babies to hold. I decided to leave you too.

I waded out into the river in my wedding dress. It was very cold.

There were children. They were not mine and they did not mean to stay in the river but I kept them. I wanted them and now they will be with me always.

Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the dimness, and she blinked again. No, there was no trick, the wall was a sheet of wet darkness, as if someone spilled a bottle of ink from the ceiling. Instead, this darkness pulsed with a subtle rhythm that almost matched her heart, until she gasped. Now she could visualize texture to the darkness, as if it was a chain-link fence.

“Kurayami no kusari” murmured Sensei, “you would say, the chains of darkness.” Tomoe felt it pulling her nearer, and she paused a step to look at Sensei. “I believe it to be what you seek, and what seeks you,” he said sadly.

She turned to face the darkness, and could make out her reflection, but it was not quite her, it looked older and more determined. The pull was stronger now, physical, and she reached her hand to touch it, expecting an oiliness, but instead, she felt herself pulled through. She spun and recoiled, but it pulled her back into a hollow embrace, into inescapable darkness. She saw Sensei’s eyes, wet and mournful, as she was enveloped. “Have care, musume” were the last words she heard.

Her eyes widened. Daughter? How could he leave me in here?