Fire lilies

Chapter 1: Julia

"Come on, Julia!" a semi-deep voice called out, waking the girl from her sleep. Julia sat up in bed, feeling confused "Sorry Hayden, slept a little longer than usual!"  Julia called out. "Yeah, yeah, get a move on! We're going to be late!" As Julia rushes down the stairs she sees Hayden eating a Pop Tart, "You know that we're going to get something to eat right?" "I mean, yeah, but you were taking too long so I got a snack."Hayden shrugs.  Julia then grabs a cereal bar and a Pepsi and puts them in her bag, as they walk outside they stop in front of a beat-up gray pickup truck " No way in Hell we're taking that thing." Hayden exclaims, but his friend ignores him and hops in the driver's seat. Julia and Hayden arrive at an ancient library called "Untold Stories".  As soon as they get there, Hayden jumps out of the truck in a hurry, while Julia giggles and says, "That wasn't so bad. I didn't even hit the curb this time," as she tries to catch her breath from laughing. But her friend's face keeps her going. 

Another woman exits the library, wearing a pink shirt with red hearts and jeans splattered with pink paint. "Hey, guys! You're a bit late." The woman says while hugging Hayden, "That's Hell on Wheels fault over there," the man says, draping an arm over his girlfriend. "Whatever. Hi Liv, sorry we're late," Julia apologizes as the group enters the library.  "Hey guys, you're adorable, but we have a business to run!" Julia says to her friends while taking stock of the newer books. She puts them on a cart and asks her taller friend, Hayden, to put them up on the old shelves. "Hayden, please put these books on the shelves when you get the chance," she says. Julia continues to check the books and slowly goes into a trance, "Jules." Liv calls for her friend who's stuck in a trance of some sort as she keeps going, "Jules." Liv calls again to no avail, "Julia!" That gets her friend's attention, "Sorry Livie!" Her friend apologizes before walking back towards the younger woman, "What do you need?" Liv doesn't respond. Instead, she shows an article on her phone with a vague headline in bold. "A wave of depression swept across the world. Could it be an economic phenomenon or something more sinister?" 

The girls furrowed their brows in concern. "Something strange and dangerous is happening," Liv said darkly. Hayden approached her from behind and wrapped his arms around her waist. "You worry too much, maybe it's just humans messing around again." Julia glares at her taller friend, "Shhh, you'll get us caught!" Liv hushes. "What? I just think you gals are overreacting a little." Hayden says sheepishly making both girls look at him annoyed, Liv clicks her tongue and walks towards a desk area to clean, Julia shakes her head and gets behind the counter with her usual smile growing on her face. Hayden kisses Liv on the cheek as he passes by to finish stocking books on the shelves. Meanwhile, Julia ensures that the register is working properly. As the front doorbell rings, a man walks in, "Welcome to Untold Stories! We have a wide collection of books, so if you need any help finding something, just let me know and I'll be happy to assist you," said Julia with a welcoming smile. The man listened and a huge smile grew on his face before he nodded and walked to a corner of the store. 

Hayden approached Julia and looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face."What?" Julia looked at him confused before realizing what she had done, "Oh..." Hayden looked at her with his forehead in his hand before two customers walked in,  Julia silenced him with a look before introducing the duo to the store, the same way she did the first man.  The duo smiles at her with an even bigger grin before going to a different corner of the library, "You're doing it again, Jules. I thought you said you had it under control," Liv said worried. Julia muttered, "I'm trying to control it, but something is wrong..." Her best friend looks at her before opening his mouth. "Well, stop it! You know you're not supposed to use your power on humans!" Hayden says in a hushed voice. 

"I guess neither of us is doing what we're supposed to!" Julia snapped back. "You guys are acting like children! You both need to be quiet, people are starting to stare!" Liv gestured towards two people who were looking at them with puzzled expressions. "Look, I'm sorry, but you need to get it under control before we get in trouble," Hayden apologized to his friend who nodded, apologized back, and then turned away to take a few deep breaths. Upon turning around again, she saw a familiar face.  "Penny! What brings you here?" Julia greets her old friend, Penny, with a warm smile. However, she quickly notices that Penny has a troubled expression on her face. "What's wrong?" Penny leaned closer to her friend and looked away as the question hit her ears. "It's Dahlia." The name causes Julia's eyes to widen, "You mean... Is she back?" Penny nods, her usual smile replaced by a grim expression. "Is she the cause of the economic depression?" Julia formed the sentence like a question, hoping it wasn't true. But to her disappointment, it was. "We have to stop her," Penny says. "How? We have no idea where she is, and we're supposed to be laying low," Julie whisper-yelled back. 

Hearing the commotion, Hayden and Liv walked over to Julia and Penny. "Penny, what are you doing here?" Hayden asked, the girls looked at him before Julia pointed at the newspaper headline that Liv was talking about moments before. "I thought we established that it's a coincidence." Hayden's skepticism causes Julia to shake her head, "It's not. It's her." Penny speaks up from beside the man, who goes to laugh but seeing both of the sweet smiles wiped from his friend's faces he stops, "You're being serious. Dahlia is doing this?" Liv walks up to her boyfriend but stops when she sees everyone's faces, "I was right, wasn't I? It's her, isn't it?" Hayden sighed at Liv's words, giving her the answer she needed. "We'll talk about this later. AFTER work." Julia says and the other three nods at her words before Penny walks back outside to the now crumbling world. 

About three hours passed without so much as a word spoken by the trio, not to each other at least, of course, they spoke to the customers who frequented their little library but other than that the small business was consumed by silence.