CHaPTeR IV - A SeRieS OF UNuSuaL CiRCuMSTaNCeS

Early the next morning, the daylight started to shine through the thin tent wall. With no rooms quite ready for guests, the three girls simply just camped in the back yard with Alex's family tent.

To her surprise, Alex had slept without any recollections of strange dreams. And none quite as vivid as the dream she had witnessed about the world's creation. Usually she would get a jumbled mess of a dream after any epileptic episodes during the previous day.

Alex's eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the pale light. She grunted then sat up in her sleeping bag, stretching her arms above her head. Her hair wild like a bird's nest. The sleeping bag fell to her middle to show the shirt she was wearing. A pale blue t-shirt with an image of Eeyore the donkey in the centre. "You look like your hair was on fire," Rachael mumbled to her, one eye open as she mustered the strength to wake up.

Alex looked down and smirked at her, dropping her arms, "Yeah? Yours doesn't look any better."

Rachael yawned as she sat up as well, rubbing her eyes, "sleep okay?"

"Surprisingly yes," Alex took a big sigh, "no weird dreams or anything. I was kind of expecting one after yesterday."

Rachael found her glasses by her side and put them on. "Ah. You think that's a good sign?"

"I dunno," Alex shrugged, barely thinking too much of it. "After an episode they usually do. They've always been inconsistent though."

Rachael studied Alex for a moment, an expression between guilt and worry was written across her face. "I wasn't, you know...I didn't tease you too much did I?"

"What? No!" Alex waved Rachael's concern aside. "Don't you worry, I've been stuck with you guys for over ten years I think you know whether or not I'm really upset, ha, ha."

Rachael smiled, her pretty blue eyes lighting up with relief, "okay. Thank goodness." She looked over at Jennifer who was still fast asleep, "How should we wake her up?"

"Bro," Alex laughed quietly. "Do you ever not prank anyone?"

"As you said, we've known each other ten years, what do you think the answer to that is?" Rachael replied, giggling.

Fzzzt

Alex and Rachael both turned to the direction of the unexpected sound. A brisk buzzing whisked by the tent like a large insect had flown by. "What the heck was that?" Alex asked. Rachael just replied with a shrug.

KAAAA!

This time both of them jumped so hard that they flung off their sleeping bags, "What the...AND that!" Alex's heart pounded against her chest. The screeching noise they had heard was sharp and high pitched.

Rachael took a shaky breath, "It legit just sounded like a woman screaming."

"Don't say that," Alex whimpered nervously, cuddling up to Rachael. After a brief moment, rustling sounded outside the tent and a silhouette of an animal stopped just outside. It seemed to be facing to the side, looking past the tent.

Rachael gasped, "Is that a fox?" she whispered excitedly. "Awesome!"

The small silhouette of the canine whipped its head towards them as if it had heard her. It then dashed back through the foliage, away from the tent. "The fox," Alex said absentmindedly. "They make noises like that, right? Screaming noises?"

"Oh yeah!" Rachael exclaimed in realisation. "You are right. You could say that that's what the fox says."

Alex glared at her, "No. Don't you dare start singing that song. But thank the cosmos it was the fox making that noise and not a person." She breathed a sigh of relief. "I wonder if it was that same fox I saw a month ago."

"Could have been," Rachael looked over at Jennifer, her eyes still closed, softly snoring. Rachael then looked at Alex, "Anyway...where's your vacuum cleaner?"

"Huh?"

Shortly afterwards, Jennifer sat at the kitchen table after being woken up from the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner being pressed against her mouth. Rachael and Alex finding it hilarious could barely contain themselves. Jennifer, still with her eyes half open and her hair unbrushed just stared daggers at both of them, "You guys are the reason for my trust issues, you know that right?"

Both girls cracked up laughing.

"And that video you took never goes on social media," Jennifer demanded, laying down the rules. She took a sip of her morning coffee, still glaring at them both.

There was a sudden thump and running of footsteps upstairs. All three girls looked towards the ceiling. Shaun stumbled down the stairs and then into the kitchen, looking like he had been shocked by a taser. "ALEX! Alex!" he then calmed down as soon as he saw her, already out of breath.

Alex turned to him, confused by the unusual outburst, "What?! What's wrong? Morning to you too!"

Shaun steadied his breathing and straightened his glasses, trying to compose himself, "Ah. Yes morning. And morning ladies," he gave Jennifer and Rachael a wave. He looked back at Alex, "Sorry I...are you okay?"

"Are you?" Alex replied.

"Yes!" Shaun grinned, though a little forcefully, "Just ah...um, what did you girls have planned for today then?"

"Um, well we were gonna go swimming and maybe the mall and the movies," Alex explained, still suspicious of him, "Why? What's going on?"

"No nothing!" Shaun assured her, "Just had a bit of a weird sleep. That's all."

"O...kay," Alex said slowly, narrowing her eyes. "Um...so are you okay to drop us into town after breakfast?"

"Of course!" Shaun said eagerly, "But don't...!"

All three girls jumped as he shouted.

"Don't...come home before five," Shaun put both his hands on Alex's shoulders, "Promise me, okay? This is serious."

Alex shook her head in disbelief, "Dad...what are you talking about. Seriously, what is wrong with you?"

"You look really pale," Rachael said, worryingly. "Like you've seen a ghost or something."

"No, no," Shaun reassured them all. "Just. Um...there was something I forgot to prepare and um...it's a surprise. So Alex...girls, do NOT come home before 5pm, okay? You should be fine walking back on your own right?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Alex said. "We just wanted a morning trip to save time, that's all."

"Good," Shaun took a sigh of relief, "Okay. Uh, yeah so finish up eating and everything, I'll take you into town." Shaun turned on his heel and powerwalked out of the kitchen, then rushing up the stairs skipping a step at a time.

Alex turned towards her friends, the look on her face making them both laugh, "What in the world was that about?"

"That's not normal?" Jennifer asked.

"No!" Alex scoffed, reaching for the spoon for her cereal. "Must be off his meds."

D

After going swimming at the indoor pool they all had lunch at the local mall just before the movie started. After the movie had finished and when the girls were about to leave the cinema, the three of them considered going to karaoke together to wait out until 5pm. Alex paused, "wait, I need to use the restroom. I think I drank too much during the film."

Jennifer turned towards her with a laugh, "Yeah! Sure! We'll just wait for you."

"Aw we might miss the game store closing," Rachael stated in disappointment. "I think it shuts any time now."

"Oh that's okay," Alex responded, "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up."

"Really?" Rachael's eyes lit up.

"Go ahead!" Alex insisted, "It'll be closed by the time we finish arguing. Just go!"

Rachael grabbed Jennifer by the arm and rushed towards the exit, wasting as little time as she could. As she was a collector of older games, she was desperate to browse what the game shop had for sale. "Okay! See you in a minute!"

Alex laughed lightly to herself then went to the restroom. After she finished and was washing her hands, she looked up and glanced at herself in the mirror. Her hair was still a little cold and dark from when she had gone swimming. Her eyes drifted upwards to look at the hair standing up in the middle of her head. She huffed and tried to press it down with her hand. As usual, it drifted up into an arch again, "Why do you never go down?" she quietly asked herself out loud. Thankfully on a still Sunsday afternoon, the bathroom was empty. No risk of embarrassment talking to herself.

Alex

Alex flinched as she heard her name and turned around. "Who? What? Jenny? Rayray?" Behind her were nothing but empty cubicles. She turned back to look at the mirror. In the reflection stood the silhouette of a tall dark figure looming in the corner of the bathroom.

Whatever happens, Alex. You MUST follow the fox. Your life is in his hands. I CANNOT stress this enough. You MUST follow him

Alex blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of the mysterious stranger. But before her vision could make sense of what she saw, the figure was gone. With her heart pounding, her eyes wide, she shook her head and left the bathroom with her hands raised to both sides of her head, "Nope. Absolutely hands all the way up nope. Nuh uh. Just seeing things. It's just a...just another episode."

When Alex exited the cinema doors, to her surprise she saw the magician from yesterday briskly walk by holding a large carboard box in his arms and still wearing the exact same outfit as before. Alex was taken aback, shocked that she would see him randomly twice in one weekend. She lifted her hand to wave and greet him but he was way too absorbed in thought to even notice her. He raced in a straight line as if he was on a mission.

There was a clatter on the floor when he went by. Paying no attention, he carried on going. Alex looked down and saw an object that she thought at first was a light bulb. At closer inspection, she realised it was a doorknob with a crystal-looking patterned glass ball as the handle.

Alex knelt down and picked it up. She turned it over in her hand having a closer look at the design. It was like the beautiful diamond-like patterns you would see in a kaleidoscope, "Um..." she glanced up at the magician who was almost out of sight. "Oh damn it. Hey! Um, you dropped your weird...doorknob?"

Felix was long out of earshot. He dipped between two buildings down a small alleyway. Alex exhaled in defeat, even though the correct thing to do was to go and return it. She followed the magician and entered the alleyway which he had disappeared.

It wasn't too far into the alley that Alex started to hear voices. And not the one that kept appearing in her head. She had to quietly clamber over some debris from a broken wall behind the building. But the next few moments were something she never thought she would ever have to witness.

"And I told you not to talk, ya half wit!" Felix snapped.

"So you keep saying, bucko" the other voice mocked. "But how to you expect me not to when you're talking at me? Want me not to respond?"

"Precisely! Just shut up and shove all that in the hat. Can't believe it's taken this long to get all the props through." Felix rustled some paper and sighed in exhaustion.

"Why couldn't we have done it earlier?"

"Because humans are dumb and afraid of everything," Felix explained. "If they see us both trying to fit all that through a magic hat in broad daylight, someone's gonna ask questions. Earth is a...let's just say Regina said it's an unpredictable place. When humans figure out what we are, we'll get captured and tortured and who knows what."

"Ugh, fine," the other voice moaned, "why are you even reading that paper thingy anyway? Neither of us can read that language!"

Felix sniffed uppishly, "It's interesting."

"Interesting?!" The other voice laughed at him. "You can't even understand it, genius!"

"And funny how you won't shut it. I can't understand that either!"

There was a long pause, "I'll give you that, that was a gud'n."

Felix smirked, "I was actually pretty proud of that one."

The voice from behind the box finished throwing props into Felix's upside down hat. The hat was sitting on an old broken table just behind some large dumpsters. Felix sat on a small rickety folding chair with his feet up against a wooden crate, attempting to read a newspaper that happened to be upside down.

An animal clambered out of the cardboard box and landed on the table next to the hat. The weasel folded its paws against its chest, standing on its hind legs, "You better be making more cookies when we get back."

"I'm sure Kami will have some in the oven as we speak," Felix assured him, still inspecting the newspaper.

"Oh, she'd better! Well then...this has been an absolute hoot," the weasel huffed, his accent sounded Southern English. "Any chance you can put that paper full of nonsense down and we can be on our way? I fought we were on a tight schedule or somefin'."

"Brian," Felix groaned in defeat, "I know it's hard for you. But please, I implore you. For the last time, you CANNOT talk!"

"Well then this is the worst holiday ever. This place sucks."

"Because you're not supposed to talk?" Felix laughed, "You're the one who was begging to come along in the first place!"

The weasel jumped up to the rim of the upside down hat, "yap, yap, yap."

Felix lowered his newspaper with a flap. "Me? Me yap, yap, yap?!" he put a hand to his chest, insulted.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Now then with your doorknob used up and everything, we need to get back to the Place of Power. I think I've overstayed my welcome. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to..." Brian froze, his black eyes wide as marbles. His posture stuck in the position of his paws pointing behind him, but he was staring directly ahead and past Felix, into the alleyway.

From their point of view, they could just barely see over the large dumpsters. But behind those dumpsters and the derelict brick wall was Alex. She was standing by the corner of the building leading out onto the main street.

Felix glanced over as well, also noticing Alex for the first time. He looked at her and had to do a double take. He held his breath as his green eyes bugged out of his head.

Alex continued to stare, all three of them still as statues. The silence was deafening. In the next moment, the silence was broken. Brian laughed nervously and grinned with closed eyes, "Uh...so sorry! Me no speaka Earthish!"

"BRIAN!" Felix yelled.

Alex slumped to the floor unconscious, the doorknob in her hands rolled out onto the concrete floor. Felix shot to his feet, "Brian I told you it's not a language thing, it's a SPEAKING thing!"

"I panicked!"

"You're not the only one who's panicking! I swear if you have messed this up-"

"Hang about guv," Brian interrupted, "That's your doorknob. Did you drop that?"

Felix peered over at the doorknob on the floor and then to Alex, still unconscious. He then closed his eyes and put a hand on his hip. He used his other hand to press his fingers between his eyes and he breathed in through his teeth.

Brian stood there on the table with his small shoulders hunched forward. He slowly blinked with his eyes half closed, "you messed-"

"I messed up." Felix agreed.

"Well done, genius," Brian clapped slowly, "fumble of the century right there, ya muppet."

"Alright, enough!" Felix blurted out in frustration. "Just lemme think! I have to...there HAS to be a way to set this on the right path again."

Alex suddenly stirred and started to regain consciousness.

Felix recoiled and stared at Alex, unsure of what to do. He sneaked a quick glance back at the weasel.

Brian just held up two digits against his tiny fuzzy chest, "peace out, dingbat." He then just fell backwards into the hat and vanished.

Before Alex could wake up and ask questions, Felix hastily grabbed his hat and scooped up the doorknob. He tipped his hat to the mumbling Alex on the floor, "Much obliged."

Felix then stuffed the doorknob underneath his hat and scampered out of the alleyway, holding his hat against his head as he ran. When he emerged out onto the main street he screeched to a halt as he spotted Rachael and Jennifer across the road. He debated for a split second in his head whether or not he should call out to them about Alex. Though with Alex already regaining her senses, he felt it best to just let her take care of herself and just get out of there. Felix turned again and legged it down the road, turning the corner and out of sight.

Jennifer looked across the quiet road to see Alex stumble out of the alleyway. She grabbed Rachael by the shoulder, "Is that Alex?"

Rachael looked up from packing her bag, money well spent on the game she had just bought, "Huh? Where?"

Alex leaned with her back against the wall, clutching her head. A bad feeling started to rise in Jennifer's chest, scared that Alex had been hurt. "Come on." Jennifer quickly looked both ways before running across the road towards Alex.

"Alex!" Jennifer hollered, shuffling to a stop right in front of her, Rachael close behind. "Alex what happened, where were you?"

Alex looked up, one hand against her forehead, her eyes half closed. "Where is he?"

"Where's who?" Rachael demanded. "I swear if someone did something to you-" she rolled up the sleeves on her hoody.

"No," Alex breathed heavily, "Ow, my head. The magician. Where'd he go?!"

Her two friends just glanced at each other in bewilderment, "F-Felix?" Rachael recalled his name. "From yesterday?"

"Yeah!" Alex stammered, "You didn't see him?"

"No, Alex," Jennifer responded, still trying to get a hold of the whole affair. "Alex, tell us what happened."

"Y-you wouldn't believe me."

"We'll try," Jennifer assured her. "Just tell us!"

Alex took a deep breath and started to tell her story, walking slowly down the road as she did. Jennifer and Rachael listened the best they could, despite how bizarre the whole situation was.

"Are you sure you weren't...you know, dreaming? Or daydreaming?" Rachael suggested.

"Said you wouldn't believe me," Alex winced, rubbing her elbow that she had fallen on when she hit the floor. "Even if it was a dream...it has never been this real before."

"Well I'd like to believe you," Jennifer tried to be understanding. "My mom's a priestess after all. I believe in gods and djinns...a little talking weasel isn't so far fetched."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Alex remembered. "Maybe it was real. But if it was then what in the heck was their problem?!"

"I couldn't tell you, Alex," Jennifer said apprehensively. "Do you feel okay?"

"Not sure. My head feels like it's gonna split open. But apart from that then...ah I've got some painkillers. Backups for sitches like this."

Rachael brushed some hair from her face and straightened her hat that Alex had bought for her yesterday. She gazed at Alex as she swallowed some tablets with her water bottle. Rachael's eyebrows furrowed. "Alex, you don't need an ambulance do you?"

"No! No I'm fine," Alex reassured her, "Honestly I'll be okay after these. But I'm mentally exhausted."

Jennifer put an arm around her, "maybe we'll do karaoke tomorrow night instead? Getcha home? Think you might need to rest for a while."

"I think so," Alex agreed, "Sorry guys."

"No, no, no need to say that!" Rachael comforted her, "your health matters more. How long does it take to walk from here?"

"Um...I think it's like twenty minutes to half an hour or something."

Jennifer checked her phone, "And it is...wow, exactly half four right now. Your dad said don't arrive before five, right? If we go slow, take our time, we should be okay. Even one minute after five counts."

Alex let out a small chuckle, "Yeah I guess so."

D

By the time the three girls had made it to the bottom of the road where Alex's house was situated, the sky had become white with cloud cover. A slight fog had began to descend to the ground, almost covering the tops of the trees.

"How are you holding up?" Rachael asked Alex.

"Yeah, good. I think. The pain's gone at least."

"Good," Jennifer gave her a reassuring smile, "almost home."

"WHAT...OW!" something collided with Rachael in the shin as it ran past, making her lose her footing. She tripped as she tried to dodge, her foot bending in an awful direction. She took a tumble onto the gravel, twisting her ankle as she went down. Rachael cried out in pain, clutching her leg, "OWWUH! My a-ankle!" she shouted, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Rachael!" Jennifer and Alex both screeched.

With Rachael cradling her ankle on the floor, Jennifer attempted to kneel down to try and comfort her. Though the thing that had barged into Rachael so forcefully was still stood directly in front of them. A red fox obstructed their way, facing towards them, growling with a wrinkled snout. Its front legs far apart and its tail in the air. Jennifer took a step back, "Ah! A fox? Wait, please n-not rabies?"

"W-whoa!" Alex gasped in surprise. She instantly noticed the fox had bright green eyes. It was the same one she had seen when her family moved in weeks ago. "Wait...this is the fox from-"

"Guys, step back!" Jennifer insisted, trying to drag Rachael out of the way, "I really think it's got rabies!"

"LEAVE!" The fox commanded.

All three girl's jaws dropped.

"Super rabies," Rachael whispered, her eyes widening.

"H-huh?" Alex squeaked, stood staring at the fox, utterly paralyzed in confusion.

At that moment a loud buzzing noise emitted from the forest. Over the trees in the distance an extensive amount of dark insects swarming like locusts moved their way towards the houses. The creatures were too far away to tell exactly what they were. But at that moment one of them landed next to the fox and stood upright, cocking its head from side to side. It was a very large dark green praying mantis, probably about the size of a rat.

With no hesitation, the fox whipped around and seized the mantis in his jaws, chewing down on it and tearing it apart. After the mantis was dead, the fox turned towards the girls again who were all staring in silence.

The fox rolled his eyes and leaped up against Alex, stealing her phone from her hands, grabbing it with his mouth. "What...h-hey!" the rudeness of her phone being stolen snapped her out of her trance.

The fox turned towards the forest and bolted.

"Hey STOP!" Alex reached out towards the small red canine and started to run after it.

"Alex!" Jennifer called after her in desperation. She could barely keep up with this amount of absurdity.

"I'm okay!" Rachael breathed heavily. "Go after her, yeah? Don't let her get hurt!"

"Y-yeah," Jennifer looked down at Rachael then back towards the forest, "okay...this must...darn, I must be dreaming too..." she then dropped her backpack next to Rachael and ran after Alex.

Pushing through roots, branches and undergrowth, Alex was determined to retrieve her phone from the thieving fox. Jennifer was close behind her trying to keep up.

"Stop!" Alex yelled again, trying to push some branches out of her way.

"Alex wait!" Jennifer called out warningly.

When Alex pushed through the next bush there was a short drop on the embankment. Alex very clumsily fell into a small clearing in the forest with one lone oak tree at its centre. Jennifer carefully jumped down next to her, "Alex don't run off like that!" Jennifer huffed trying to catch her breath.

"I have to find out..." Alex strained, brushing herself off from the fall. "This thing talked just like that weasel. You heard it too right?! I wasn't dreaming! This is real!"

Jennifer very much shaken hesitated before nodding her head, "y-yeah."

"I don't know what's going on," Alex told her. "But I think my dreams aren't just stories after all. And I have to find out for real."

The fox's footsteps crunched as it padded through the dry fallen leaves. It dropped Alex's phone on the ground and walked towards the huge oak tree in the middle of the clearing. Beneath the ancient oak tree its gnarled, twisted roots split in the middle. There was a huge boulder as if the tree had laid an egg and was incubating it.

The fox slowly placed its paw on the cold hard surface of the boulder. To Alex and Jennifer's amazement, the centre of the rock crumbled and fell away as light shone through the scar-shaped opening. The hole stretched to the height of a person, revealing a curtain of solid light, shimmering and humming with power.

The fox slowly turned towards the two baffled girls, "you're right, Alex. But you won't find you answers stood there. Don't falter. We need you." The fox turned back to the boulder and leapt into the light.

Alex slowly knelt down and picked up her phone, ignoring the fox slobber, she placed it in her pocket. Her eyes still glued to the light like a moth to a flame.

"Alex," Jennifer breathed shakily, "There's no way you're going in there, right?"

Alex took a step towards the light in the boulder so that she was an arm's distance away.

"Alex!" Jennifer begged her, tears started to well up in her eyes, clearly terrified. "Please! You don't know what that is!"

Remember, the disembodied voice in Alex's head said again.

Alex reached her arm slowly towards the light, her fingers almost touching the rays.

Jennifer, scared out of her mind touched Alex's arm in an attempt to stop her.

KERBOOOOOOOM!

At that moment a colossal explosion sounded throughout the forest, birds flying up in a fright. In the distance, a giant fiery mushroom cloud rose above the trees, throwing a wave of heat in their direction. The sudden noise made both the girls shriek in terror. As she jumped, Alex touched the light.

The moment the light touched her skin, her hand was pulled in. With Jennifer still holding onto her arm, she went with her, the light absorbing them both...straight into the unknown.