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A Witch hunt went wrong. They retreated too late. One of the friends she had made along the way, a very shy, very dorky Magical Girl, was crushed to death under a giant clock right in front of her eyes. The otherworldly of it all was that her death wasn't even the worst thing that happened that night. Another member of her squad, a fashion-obsessed red hair who made a habit out of invading her house at midnight, was both heavily wounded and traumatized by the black and white movie, the gruesome death of a friend, that all three of them had to watch. Luck would have it that they all were out of Grief Seeds at the time, the Soul Gem kept getting darker, and that going back after the Witch was out of the question (she even had to knock down the fourth member to stop her, who still loathes her to this day). Then, it just happened. And when it happened, Erika was alone. Up until that point, Erika would tell them not to worry about the Soul Gem, that if any of theirs went pitch-black they would just have to wait for the others to get a Grief Seed to clean it- none of them knew any better. And when it happened, when Erika alone saw a Magical Girl turn into a Witch, the cold she felt was almost enough to freeze her up and leave her to die with her last friend- until her little sister crossed her mind.
It took a while for the panic attack to stop. The memories, all too vivid; the colors, the colors of every Witch, all so strong. Emma was already ready to puke yet again, the little tray under her desk already with a supermarket bag crammed inside and stretched. When she was done, she sealed the bag and hid it under another plastic bag, then sealed it again. Like her feelings, they had to be wrapped under plastic again and again; everything depended on it.
Again, someone knocks at the door. And, judging from height, either that someone is crouching or Clara is waiting outside. The smell lingering from her mouth leaves Emma no choice but to pretend not to be there.
It was surprising, in the end, how her own wish turned against her. There was no trick to it, no secret, no lesson to be learned: Emma’s family was as big and happy as she ever wanted it to be. What filled her with despair, what left her crying every night, ever since she had to hunt alone, was the fact that she loved her family so much, and so hard, and so deeply. That she was going to miss out on it all. That she wasn’t going to be there to take Clara to her first day at school, or to go fishing with her uncle Pedro, or go dancing with her aunt Marta, a professional, or get married and have kids herself. It was hurting so bad all the time, so relentlessly, that it was as if every single one of her teeth had gone rotten instantly and at the same time. Erika tried to kill herself once. Nobody else will ever know.
Today, however, is Clara’s birthday. Her friends are coming over. It starts at noon.
>(up next: Jimena!)
