ILLUSION, ELI HALE

twenty-three | miss ordinary

"I really should be taking you home, Nadia," Lydia said as she frantically parked in one of the spots at the front of the stadium doors, ignoring the fact that this was a fire lane. "If our predictions are true, the Nogitsune is very dangerous."

Nadia shrugged. She was already here now. To her, staying alive seemed like the easiest part of the plan. Lydia was a Banshee. Jackson was...well, he hadn't told her yet, but she was sure he was something cool. If something dangerous came at her, she was sure these thirty-year-olds would protect her. "Well, then I'll make sure to stick close to the both of you."

"To be clear, I never signed up to babysit this child." Jackson hopped out of the front seat, still eyeing the girl like she hadn't been hanging out with him for the past two hours. "Just to let you know."

"Thank you, Jackson. Love you too." Nadia responded, sarcasm dripping in her tone. She was the first to leave the car, damn near sprinting into the stadium. Both adults were following right on her tail.

Nadia didn't know where she was going. They didn't agree on a plan when they got there. Lydia called Malia and Parrish and let them know about their theory, but that's all it was. A theory. For all they knew—the burned trees, the Oni, the disappearance of their friends, it could be unrelated. There were vastly low odds that it could, but still. They needed to be open to all options. And wary of their surroundings. Any second, an Oni could pop out from behind inside one of the stadium vendors and slice the three of them into dust.

But Nadia was holding on to hope. Generally, she was the pessimist, but she was missing her optimistic other half right now. And she was willing to do whatever it took to get him back. So, if that meant running headfirst into the unknown, so be it. Eli meant more to her than anyone she'd ever encountered in this world. If there was even a slight chance that he was still alive, she was going to take it. Sadly, it took him vanishing in a cloud of black smoke to notice, but he was truly her world.

The Brunette picked up her pace as they passed a vendor selling hot dogs. The two adults plus Nadia made their way to the bottom floor of the stadium. The sounds of cheering and whistles began to flood her ears. God, there must be thousands of people there to watch the game.

Oh, how Eli wished he could have played in a game like this.

Nadia raced to the opening, seeing dots of red BHHS lax bros playing on the green field directly in front of her. She was midway into the stadium, scanning the crowd for any Oni or a Nogitsune (which at that moment she realized she didn't know what the hell a Nogitsune looked like), when she didn't hear either adult's footsteps following her.

She turned to see that Lydia and Jackson were still at the opening, standing there like there was a barrier preventing them from walking any farther into the stadium. What the hell was wrong with them now?

"There's always something," Nadia muttered to herself before turning and speed-walking back to the opening. "What's going on?" She asked the adults, looking at Lydia warily as the ginger crouched to the ground.

Lydia's hand had been hovering over a substance on the ground, something Nadia hadn't noticed when she raced into the stadium. It looked like dust, something straight from a forest fire. She didn't need to be told that this was Mountain Ash. The grim look on Lydia's face only confirmed Nadia's suspicions.

"Mountain Ash?"

Lydia nodded as she got to her feet. A look of fear washed over her. "It's happening now. The Mountain Ash is more than a barrier. It's a gateway between his world and ours."

"Oh, I really hate when you say shit like that." Jackson huffed. "Maybe you're being a little too dramatic. Isn't it just ash?"

He tried walking to the other side where Nadia was standing, and the girl watched in both shock and amazement as how the dust particles collected themself from the air and went back into a straight line. And there he stood, stuck on the other side like a gate.