"Hey sis," I greeted Amelia as I walked into the living-room.

  She was rexed on the sofa watching TV, but did a double-take when I came into the room. Then she smiled, "Hi Bke. It's going to take me a bit to get used to you looking like that."

  "Sorry," I grimaced.

  Amelia shook her head, "It's fine."

  "Wait a minute," she added as she frowned at me. "Where'd you get those jeans? You didn't sneak them out of my closet did you?"

  "No!" I insisted. Then my cheeks coloured as I added. "They're Ellie's. She gave me some of her older clothes, stuff she outgrew. I'll probably have to do more shopping though, I've only got a couple outfits right now."

  That put a smile on my sister's face. She responded in a teasing tone, "That's a good idea. I'll look through my stuff too and see if I have anything I can hand down to my baby sister."

  I rolled my eyes as my blush got a bit brighter, but before I could respond mom called from the kitchen.

  "Bke is that you? Can you please come here?" she asked.

  "Sounds like you're in trouble," Amelia smirked as her attention turned back to the TV again.

  Meanwhile I headed into the kitchen. Mom was sitting at the table with her ptop, it looked like she was working on her home study course again. Except she was looking at me as I stepped through the doorway.

  "I thought you said you weren't going to use that ring again?" she asked with a frown. "You said you'd wait until Wednesday. How much longer until you change back this time?"

  I sighed as I slumped into one of the chairs across from her, then set my backpack on the chair next to me. There was another cold weight forming in my gut as I braced myself for the impending conversation, since I knew she'd want to know what happened at work this afternoon.

  "You're right," I mumbled. "I wasn't pnning on using it until after school was over. But then there was an emergency at work this afternoon, and I didn't have any choice."

  Mom's her frown got a little deeper. She sounded kind of skeptical as she asked, "What's that supposed to mean? What kind of emergency required you to turn into a magical girl at a gas station?"

  My voice was soft and dull and almost monotone as I told her the story, "Two men jumped me at work. They were hired by someone to get the ring off me. They beat me up and dragged me into the alley behind the store, then they broke my finger trying to get the ring off it. One guy wanted to kill me, but the other one was just going to cut off my finger with bolt cutters. Except he said if I kept struggling he'd cut off my whole hand. Luckily Harper came by just then, and he knocked the two guys off me. One of them started punching Harper, and that's when I activated the ring..."

  My voice trailed off there, but it seemed like mom had already heard enough. She looked completely horrified, her face was white as a sheet and she held one of her hands over her mouth which was hanging open. Her eyes were wide, and there were tears in them. She was even breathing fast, like her heart was probably pounding just from hearing what happened to me, and what almost happened if Harper hadn't showed up.

  A few seconds ter she got to her feet and stumbled around the table then pulled me into a hug as she whispered, "Oh Bke honey I'm so sorry! Are you sure you're ok? You don't need a doctor or anything? What about Harper, is he ok?"

  I reached up to hug her back as I shook my head and mumbled, "I'm fine, I don't need a doctor. Using the ring healed me when I transformed. And Harper seemed to be ok? He's got a nasty bruise on his cheek but that's all."

  Mom kept holding me, and after another few seconds she finally asked "What did you tell the police?"

  That cold weight in my stomach got a bit heavier as I slowly shook my head again, "Nothing. We didn't call them."

  "What?" mom frowned. She kept her arms around me but she moved back slightly so she could look down at me, "Why not? What did you do?"

  My voice was still quiet as I admitted, "I kicked the guy who was punching Harper. Um, I kicked him in the groin? That's all it took to stop him. The one who was going to cut off my finger tried to escape on his motorcycle, but I threw a bottle of brake fluid at him and he crashed. Then me and Harper and Ellie all took off. We were scared and freaking out and I didn't know if there were more of them... I guess I panicked a bit?"

  Mom was pale again, but this time she looked uneasy rather than scared. She asked, "Where did you go? What have you been up to since then?"

  "First we just went back to the school," I told her. "We stayed around the back, talking and stuff as we tried to calm down? Then we went down to Dundalk and got something to eat. And after that we headed over to Ellie's pce and hung out. Why?"

  My mom sighed and shook her head, "The main intersection was closed for two hours Bke, and the whole eastern side of the vilge had no power for three hours. The motorcycle accident... It was fatal. The driver died."

  "Oh no," I whispered as my blood went cold.

  Except I already sort of suspected that. I saw the guy crash, I saw the utility pole fall down and I saw all the sparks and stuff. Plus the guy wasn't even wearing his helmet when he took off, and he was definitely speeding. But I'd let myself overlook all that stuff. I put it out of my mind, I didn't think about the consequences. Only now I couldn't ignore or avoid it, and it left me feeling nauseous again.

  I remembered the stuff Harper said, those guys were evil and that guy especially was literally going to cut off my finger if not my whole hand. And they probably did that sort of thing to other people in the past, they were hired to do that. It was their job. If I let him get away, he might have done it again to other folks in the future. So I tried to convince myself that I was just looking after myself and my friends, that I was the victim.

  Instead I found myself thinking about the biker guy's voice, how it was kind of nice, calm and calming. He sounded like someone's chill uncle, and I could imagine him sharing stories in the evening over a few drinks. He was probably really fun to listen to, at least as long as he didn't talk about his work.

  It took me a few seconds to realize mom was hugging me tightly again. She whispered, "Bke I'm sorry. All this is my fault. You never should have been dragged into this."

  "Are you going to be ok? Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked a moment ter.

  I hugged her back, but it was another half minute or so before I could talk again. Then I just shook my head and mumbled, "It's ok. I think I'm just going to get ready for bed though? It's been a really exhausting day."

  "Ok hon," she replied as she finally let go. Then as she stepped back she asked, "What about school tomorrow? Do you think you'll feel up for going in?"

  I grimaced then shook my head, "Probably not. Um, assuming Ellie's theory stuff is right I'm probably not going to turn back to my guy-shape until between ten in the morning and two in the afternoon. And I can't really go in looking like this."

  "Oh," mom's eyes widened again as that sank in.

  "Yeah," I nodded as I got to my feet.

  I picked up my backpack, then quietly shuffled out of the kitchen. I made my way up the stairs to my room, then just flopped onto my bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. Talking to mom, telling her about the attack and everything brought all that back to the front of my mind again. Only it was even worse this time, now that I knew about the biker's fate.

  My emotions continued to churn until it felt like they were going to boil over, and I finally rolled over and buried my face in my pillow as I started to cry. That sted for a good five minutes, but it actually seemed to help. It left me exhausted though, and I ended up just ying there as the day's events kept pying out in my mind.

  Eventually I pulled out my phone, and found myself searching for any mention of the events from this afternoon. There used to be a local newspaper, although nowadays it was just a website. And sure enough it had a couple new articles from this evening.

  The first one confirmed everything mom said. It also mentioned that the police had issued a statement, that the victim not wearing a helmet and said that speed was definitely a factor. It sounded like they'd already decided it was just a tragic accident and nothing more.

  There was another little blurb about a mystery at Crawford's, it said that emergency services were called to investigate after an injured man was found behind the building. According to the news site, the guy was taken to hospital with 'serious but not life threatening' injuries. It also noted that Crawford's was closed because of the power failure, but oddly it didn't say anything about me disappearing during my shift.

  My gut lurched as it finally dawned on me, the cops would have asked my boss for the security camera footage. The two cameras outside at the pumps were both fake, so there'd be no record of me getting punched or the two guys dragging me around into the alley. The camera inside the shop was real though, and that one definitely would have captured me exiting the store with the van guy just a minute or two before all the power went out. I knew Mr. Crawford would tell the cops who I was, and they'd probably show up here tomorrow wanting to know what happened.

  I must have stared at the article for at least five minutes as I thought about what might happen if the cops came for guy-me, but found girl-me here instead. I doubted that would help any, since they'd know this was the right address and everything.

  After a few minutes I finally texted the second news link to Ellie and added, "Idk what to do? I figure the cops will want to talk to me."

  About a minute ter Ellie texted back with a very short message, "I'm calling you."

  Sure enough it was only a few seconds before my phone rang. I was still ying on my bed staring at the ceiling as I answered, "Hey Ellie."

  She replied, "Hi Bke. First up, don't panic ok? Now why don't you talk me through what's got you so worried? Because I don't see any reason why the cops should hassle you about this."

  "The cops would have asked for the security camera footage right?" I replied quietly. "They'll see me leaving the shop with the guy a couple minutes before the power cut out. They'll know I was like, the st one to talk to him or something?"

  Ellie replied, "Alright I forgot about the cameras. But that means they'll also see the two guys jumping you, and dragging you around back. Then - oh crap..."

  "That also means they'll have your magical-girl form on camera too right?" she sighed. "They'll see you throwing something at the biker as he fled."

  I shook my head, "The cameras out front are fakes. I'm uh, not supposed to tell anyone that? But Crawford's too cheap to have proper cameras everywhere. Only the one inside the store is real."

  "And the guy lured me out of the store before they jumped me," I added. "The cube van blocked the view from the road so people driving by wouldn't see anything. Then they dragged me around back so anyone who pulled in wouldn't see anything either."

  My best friend was silent for a couple seconds, probably thinking all that through. Then she asked, "So you think they guy lured you out of the store, away from the real camera, before they got violent?"

  "Yeah," I replied with a shrug. "Otherwise why not just jump me in the store? The guy tried twice to get me outside, compining about the pumps not working."

  "So how did they know the outside cameras were fake?" she asked, and I could almost picture the frown on her face.

  It was a good question too, and I started to wonder if they'd checked the pce out ahead of time or something. Maybe they were pros at this sort of thing, maybe they could recognize a decoy camera or whatever.

  "Hey Bke? Did your boss call you this afternoon, or this evening?" she asked. "I don't remember hearing your phone ring at all while you were with me and Harper."

  I shook my head, "Nope. I haven't heard from him since I started my shift. Why?"

  Ellie sighed again, "Just a hunch. But what if they knew the cameras were fake because your boss told them? What if he didn't bother calling you because he knew something happened to you? If he's involved he might not be so quick to tell the cops anything."

  "Damn," I mumbled as my eyes widened.

  I knew Mr. Crawford was a bit of a jerk, but I wasn't sure he'd be that much of a creep. On the other hand my best friend made some really good points.

  "Be careful Bke," she added after a few seconds. "It feels like this thing keeps getting bigger, and whoever wants that ring is probably going to keep trying."

  That just made me more anxious again, but I nodded. "Yeah, I get it. You be careful too, ok? Folks know we're friends. I'm going to text Harper too, to warn him."

  "Good idea," Ellie replied. "We should all keep in touch, with texts and stuff. Anyways I have to get going now. Have a good night."

  I nodded, "Thanks Ellie. You have a good night too."

  PurpleCatGirl