“Damn it!” Jakob shouted. “It went out again. How the hell did the god-damned cavemen do this?” He hurled his lighter across the grass. It skipped once, twice, then jumped gracefully into its demise in the pond. “God damn it!”

At least a thousand. Roses, that is. That was my estimate to how many it took to cover my lawn with them this morning. Or last night. Whenever it was that the creep had come in and set them all up. There were also plenty of petals scattered on the porch, so if anything I was guessing under.

For eons, the Great Old One slumbered. Deep beneath the seas, in a prison folded from space and time. It was supposed to hold for eternity. But there were those who knew of it. Encompassed by a blissful madness, they worked for centuries to see its release. Arcane rituals were written and performed, failing time and again. Until, finally, one succeeded. In the dark heart of a nameless forest, the madness finally yielded fruit.

“I don't know why I'm cryin',” Susie said. “I got no good reason.” She used another tissue and threw into onto the rapidly growing pile.

“Now don't say that,” Jen said. “You just had your whole world turned upside-down. That's as good a reason for cryin' as any I care to think of.”

Fedlir took a long, rattling breath and lifted his face from the grass. He was back. His mind had made it back home. It was impossible to gauge how long he had been gone, yet... without even opening his eyes, he could sense that the eclipse was just passing overhead. The locusts chattered their morning song, confused for a few moments, before falling silent again.

Fedlir looked over his notes for the third time in the last ten minutes. At least, he pretended to. He wasn't really absorbing anything anymore. His mind was filled with too many thoughts. Tomorrow was everything. The outcome would change his entire life.

“The best laid plans of –” Kei began.

“You call this planning?” Surina said.

“Lollipops? Seriously?”

“Yep. Here, look.”

“Where the hell did you find lollipops?”

“And you know what they said next?” Aurora said, laughing. “It's not just...” She stopped, noticing that Isabella was looking away, down the boardwalk. When Aurora reached out to touch Isabella's arm, she flinched away. “Sweetie. Is something wrong?”

“What do you see, Aurora?” Tass asked. They were standing in a desert. Somewhere on Earth, but he hadn't told her where. Aurora wasn't so conversant with deserts she could tell on sight.

“Sand,” Aurora replied. “Shrubs.” She squinted at the horizon. “Maybe a cactus?”

“I ain't sure about this, man,” Trever said. He and Sergen were creeping up along-side the building now. There wasn't a single sound but the faint whisper of wind in the trees.

“Well,” Sergen said. “You better get sure. In about thirty seconds we're goin' through that door and all hell's gonna break loose.”

Sick. Fevered. Living on ice cream and popsicles. Not exactly the ideal state to be writing in. But here I am. I also don't want to just spend five minutes whining about the normal human experience of illness. I guess I'll just ramble a while.

“So what do I do now?” Aurora asked. “Are we some sort of government? Are we superheroes, solving all the worlds' worst problems? Ooh, is there some ancient adversary we need to constantly be on guard against?”

For a moment, peace. A silence and calm Aurora had never experienced before.

But then, the Watchers came. From all sides, the whispers turned to shrieks. A thousand different voices speaking at her, into her. It was past the point of noise. The sounds echoed inside her mind, inside her brain, until there was no more thought. Just sound, then pain.

And then silence, again.

Aurora gazed out at the landscape, presently drifting over the wilds of Africa. The windows of the causeways always amazed her. Presenting a viewpoint hundreds to thousands of feet in the air over the planet, they were a good way to become rapidly acquainted with a world's features, climate, and habitation. Yet with all the worlds she had seen, she still came back to spy on primitive, little Earth. She would never forget the day she saw the Pyramids from so far above.

“Purple,” Aurora said. “I can't help but notice that everything you're giving me to wear is purple.” She looked over the pile of tights, robes, jewelry, along with a few unidentifiable bits. They weren't all quite the same shade, but all undeniably purple.

“Home again, love?” Audrey asked. She had just walked through the door from the garage to see Mark lying on the couch. “Are you alright?”

Mark started to speak, coughed for ten seconds, then managed to force something out. “Had worse,” he said.