SUNNYVALE

(93) DETECTIVE JILLIE AND A HANDFUL NOT-SO-SUBTLE GIRLS

Jill frowns. 

Indeed, ever since her brother died that fateful night, three years ago, she has never been the same. And for cause: the reason of her sorrow, the Queen of Fuckgirls herself, who was messing with her brother's mind at the time, was still as free as air and, although she was Jill's nemesis, Christen's odd behaviour was worrying the blonde: what if she made yet another victim? What if another teenager had committed suicide because Christen promised them things she would never give them? 

The blonde, with her hoodie on, was following Christen through the empty paths made of rocks going through the university's large campus - it was ten minutes before curfew, so when Jill saw her leaving, she had no choice but to follow her, convinced that she was up to no good. 

When Christen abruptly stops right in front of the soccer locker rooms and takes a look behind her before going in, Jill hides behind a tree and prays that the dark-haired hadn't seen her. When the door close with a small noise, Jill urges herself to run toward the lone window from which one could see what was going on inside the locker rooms.

Christen is not alone: in front of her, Crystal Dunn - who she barely even talked to before today, weirdly enough... - and some girl Jill had never seen and who seemed too young to actually be attending classes in university. Because the window is closed, Jill cannot hear a word of what they're saying, but she can sense the tension as the gestures of Christen and the unknown girl try to escalate up to what seems to be a conflict.

Crystal, on the other hand, remains unfazed: she just crosses her arms against her chest, as if she's seen this sort of fight before. 

Suddenly, Christen puts one of her hands in the air, and the whole locker room starts to tremble, as objects start to fly in the air, right at the brunette in front of her. Under Jill's astonished eyes, a pair of wings suddenly appear out of nowhere, protecting the brunette from the projectiles thrown by an invisible force... or maybe... no, impossible... 

"What the Hell..." Jill whispers, out of her mind.

Shocked by the scenes happening before her eyes, Jill takes a step backwards, forgetting that she was on some sort of small step: she twists her ankle as a huge 'crack' resonates, and she falls on the ground, grunting. 

Realising that the muffled voices had just stopped, Jill rolls her eyes at herself: well, fuck me, she thinks to herself, ready to get caught in the most awkward situation ever.

But when Christen, Crystal and their friend appear and look right into her direction, it is like they don't see her.

"I could've sworn I heard something..." Christen lets out, confused.

"Well, if you and Jessie wouldn't have fought like two God-forsaken morons, maybe we could've been sure of that: thankfully, nobody was around, 'cause it could've been disastrous..." Crystal comments, visibly highly annoyed.

The young brunette, called Jessie, smirks before saying:

"Like I said: it is not my problem if Christen has anger issues - and it is not my fault if my memories were erased during the trip up to Earth, okay?"

"I think you're just a lying angel" Christen lets out, setting her jaw.

"Enough, you two!" Crystal orders, as Jill holds her breath, while the girl was staring right her way, as if she's seen through her soul. But she then stares at her two friends, before adding: "We really need to focus on how to get back to Sunnyvale..."

Nodding their heads, the two other girls then part way, while Crystal stays a little bit longer, holding a photograph in between her hands. Jill carefully gets up and, even if she did not understand why nobody could see her, she takes one step at the time, trying to do the less noise as she could with her feet touching the leaves under them: Crystal probably thought it was the sound of the wind brushing the grass or something. 

Jill arrives near Crystal, and when she sees a photograph of her and some unknown girl - a tall, blonde and beautiful girl with the brightest eyes she'd ever seen, visibly very in love with Crystal from the way she was looking at her... What about Julie? Who the Hell is that chick either way? Is Crystal Dunn, the prodigy daughter, cheating on her girlfriend? 

But when Crystal leaves, Jill's first reflex is to go to the school's library, with only one word in head: Sunnyvale...

***

Magda wakes up with the light of day, and she soon realises she isn't in her bed: rather, she recognised a dorm she has spent many sleepovers in - Rosella's. Groaning because of the terrible headache causing her a whole lot of pain, the Swede slowly sits down, looking around: indeed, nobody was there, and when she realises it is already 11 AM and that she's missed three hours of classes already, she makes a weird noise and gets up too quickly.

She finds herself on the ground again, groaning in pain: this headache was like nothing before, and she could barely keep her eyes open. 

"Jävla skit" she groans, hoping that the pain would go away sooner than later (English: fucking shit).

"Ya yasue, ahdim! (يا يسوع ، اهدأ!)" a voice elevates behind her, visibly mocking her (English: Jesus, calm down). Of course Magda knows that voice, and it doesn't take long for its owner to add, more alarmed this time: "And you're on the ground because...?"

Magda sets her jaw, before turning around: when Rosella sees her face, she immediately understands that it is serious and helps her get on the bed again.

Her deep and soft brown eyes were staring at the blonde like many times before.

"I'm fine..." Magda lies, sighing. While Rosella throws her an insistant look, she hesitantly asks: "... well, you know, the other day, when you tried to talk to me about your hands catching fire ? (Rosella nods, lost) Well... something weird happened..."

Just like that, she tells her best friend everything about what felt just like a dream, only more real: she saw dead versions of Leah and Tobin, and that very morning, as Rosella saw them in class, they seemed fine.

One of the sentences dead-Tobin said in her dream plays on and on and on inside Magda's mind: the Leah Williamson and Tobin Heath you know are alive and well - we are other versions of them, and we are currently living in Hell...

What if it all was real...?