Chapter Text
“Hurry up, Anne! Marcy’s gonna open your birthday present without us!” Sasha Waybright grabbed her friend’s hand, dragging her through the streets of Los Angeles. Anne Boonchuy was struggling to keep up. She was dragging her feet on purpose, still reluctant about skipping school. The tennis player cringed as she felt her arm ache from the tension. She sighed, before breaking out into a run beside Sasha. Fine, if she was gonna skip, she was gonna have fun about it.
Sasha crashed through the chain gate, the entrance to the park. Anne, who was just behind her, slowed her pace. The brown-skinned girl looked around, searching for Marcy. Her task was interrupted when Sasha grabbed her hand again, gentler. “Marcy said she was behind the unused shed at the back of the park. Said that her gift was ‘not to be seen by innocent eyes’ or whatever.” Sasha rolled her eyes, before snapping them back to look at Anne. “Let’s go!” She once again began to drag her friend behind her, and this time Anne made no fuss. Sasha weaved in and out of the playground equipment, Anne behind her doing said weaving in a far more disjointed fashion. Once past the playground, Sasha strode onto the wet turf. This gave Anne pause, as she didn’t want to ruin her shoes. However, Sasha kept pulling her along. Anne reluctantly stepped into the mud, shivering as she did her best to avoid getting her shoes stuck.
When the two finally made it to the shed, Anne was out of breath. The things she did to keep her shoes looking fresh. This gave her blonde friend no pause, and Sasha continued. Anne edged behind her, cringing on herself as she skirted the edge of the gross shed. Ahead of her, Sasha turned the corner. “Marcy!”
Sitting at a rickety table, a figure ran their hands over an awfully wrapped sword. Marcy Wu sighed as she looked at it. If only the legends were true. If only she and her friends could be teleported to a different place and time, so they could stay together forever. Life was so unfair! She hated her parents. She hated her dad for making the family move. Alas, there was nothing the brave Marcy Wu could do about it. The girl pulled their hoodie tighter around themself, hoping to block out the wind chill. When she had sat down only 15 minutes ago, the sky was clear and sunny with no trace of storm. Now, however, it was obvious a storm was coming on. Just one more thing to add to her no good, very bad day. Marcy sighed in defeat, picking at the garish ribbon wrapped around the handle of the sword.
“Marcy!” The figure at the table jumped. Anne hurriedly rounded the corner, trailing behind Sasha.
“Jesus, Marce! Why would you decide to give me my birthday present behind an old, creepy, moldy shed?” Anne dusted her vest off, swiping off cobwebs with a shudder. Marcy smiled back at her apologetically.
“Sorry, Anne! I thought that this would be the best place, it fits the ambiance.” Marcy scratched at her arm. Sasha sat down at the table with them, ushering Anne over.
“Come on, let’s open this gift that definitely isn’t a sword!” Marcy cringed back a little in embarrassment.
“Sasha!” Anne reprimanded, sitting down next to her. It was obviously a sword of some kind, seeing as the wrapping Marcy did was less than impressive. That made a bit of disappointment stir in Anne. A sword? She hoped this wasn’t a ploy to get her to play a session of that tabletop nerd game her friend was so fond of. However, she pushed her disappointment down. This was a gift from one of her best friends, and it looked expensive from what she could see peeking out from beneath the shoddy wrapping. “Well, let’s get to it!”
Marcy picked up the gift with both hands, bowing and offering it to Anne. “Your 13th birthday present, m’lady.” The girls snickered, and Anne took the sword with a flourish.
“Thank you, royal advisor Mar-Mar.” Anne trilled in a fancy, haughty voice. This resulted in another round of giggling. The Thai girl turned the wrapped sword around in her hands, inspecting. Sasha scooted closer to her and Marcy leaned in from across the table. “Hmm.” The group was tense as Anne stared at the still-wrapped sword for five seconds, seven seconds, until…
“Just unwrap the sword, Anne!” Sasha shouted, leaning closer to her.
“Jesus, ok!” Anne began to tear into the paper, slowly revealing the sword.
When all was said and done, Anne sat with a wooden sword in her large, calloused hands. It was gilded with gold and had raised pictures of what looked like emojis melted onto the hilt. When Anne tilted it in the little light left peeking through the clouds, the gold shimmered, looking more like chrome. The handle was wrapped in what felt like course, white animal hair. Maybe goat? Turning the sword upside down revealed that the handle itself was made out of bone. All in all, it was a pretty rad, albeit heavy, sword. Giving it a swing, Anne looked at Marcy. “Where’d you get this thing anyway?”
“Uhh…” Marcy dragged on, looking anywhere but at Anne. “Istoleit.”
“What?” The other two girls exclaimed. Anne stopped the sword mid-swing to look at Marcy, mouth agape. Sasha leaned toward the Asian girl, smirk on her face.
“Stole it? That’s a pretty big commitment.” Sasha joked.
“It’s not a commitment at all!” Anne argued, joke flying over her head. “Why would you do that?”
“Uh, well. I read… I thought it looked really cool, ok?” Marcy justified, shrinking into herself. “I wanted to get you something nice…”
“Well, why did you steal it?”
“I really didn’t have the money for it! Besides, I’ve been scoping out that thrift shop for weeks, no one’s even looked at it!” Marcy gestured with her hands.
“Ok, ok. We get it. It’s not even that big of a deal.” Sasha didn’t care what sort of illegal activity her friends got into, as long as they stayed safe. Marcy’s shoulders relaxed, and Anne squirmed.
“Well, what am I supposed to do with it?” The curly-haired girl turned the sword in her hands.
“Uh…” Marcy looked away.
“How about you stab it into something?” Marcy cringed away from Sasha's suggestion, muttering under their breath.
“What? What would I even stab?” Anne suppressed a scoff.
“I don’t know,” Sasha expanded. “like, the ground?”
“Why would I stab the ground?” Anne was getting more and more deadpan. She liked this gift, truthfully. But she had no idea what to do with it.
“I don’t know, to feel something? What do you think, Marcy?”
Marcy squirmed in their seat. “I think… I think you should just go for it, Anne.”
“That’s two against one!” Sasha was triumphant, again.
Anne huffed in defeat. “Alright, whatever.” She let the weight of the sword take over, tilting it ‘til it was pointed almost straight at the ground. Using all of her athletic strength, Anne picked up the sword, and finally drove it into the ground.
The world was still.
So incredibly… still.
“So, like…”
Before Sasha could get out another word, an awful sound filled the void of noise. It sounded like the world was imploding on itself, drawn to a singular point. The point of Anne’s new sword stuck firmly in the ground. As soon as the girls realized where the world was sinking, Sasha and Marcy jumped to Anne’s side.
“Anne, get it out!” Sasha grabbed at the hilt of the sword, the other hand gripping Anne’s furthest shoulder, trying with all her strength to pull the sword out. It stayed steadfast.
“I’m… trying!” Anne forced out, using both hands. Her muscles strained beneath her thin shirt. The world continued to fold into itself around them.
Marcy, desperate, grabbed at the blade. It wasn’t sharp at all. She leaned back against Anne, pulling with the little strength her weak nerd arms gave her. They let out a desperate wail. “Anne!”
Then, the air grew quiet once more, just for a second, before the ground began to churn beneath the girls. The sword pulled itself deeper, and the girls collapsed into each other. The air was filled with a great roaring. A beam of multicolored light erupted from the hole in the ground, filling the sky. The girls looked in terror before their field of vision was taken over by chromatic light. The world ceased to exist.
Anne grabbed Sasha and Marcy, holding tight. Slowly, she felt them being ripped from her grasp. She tried to scream. Nothing came out. Her head pounded, her body felt weightless. She felt herself start to fall, despite being sure she was kneeling on solid ground. What little was left of Sasha and Marcy’s weight pulled away from her, and Anne’s ears began to ring. It became louder and louder around her before the great roaring was all she could hear. The chromatic light was all she could see, it was all she could feel. The teen grew light-headed, and the light engulfed her.
The world was silent.
The world was still.