Lost Spirits

Denial Pt 2

A/N: Starts with Nicole's POV. As you were

They were crazy, right? I mean I'm not... They're not... It can't be... Nicole thought as she rushed towards her house. Maybe if she got home, she would wake up, and the last several days would have been a bad dream and she would go to school and meet with her two human friends.

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" She called out as she opened the door. The house was strangely quiet. "I'm sorry for worrying the two of you." Maybe her parents were in the living room. On the table was her mother's phone. Oh, Mom must have left her phone home.

There was a large circular mirror in the hallway. Normally, Nicole wouldn't have paid much attention to it, but this time it drew her to it. She had no idea why. Her eyes were the same, a strange violet that occasionally made it hard to make friends. Her hair too, long and dark brown with long bangs to frame her face. Her simple pearl earrings that her mother had gotten Nicole for her birthday the previous year. The same clothes she had put on two days before.

But things had changed. The bandages wrapped around her wrist said that much. And of course, the wings she couldn't unsee that were shaped like a butterfly's. They were gorgeous, purple and gold and pink and orange. On any other person, or on a real fairy, they would have been a sight to behold. But... There's absolutely no way. I'd know if I was a fairy, right? Nicole took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and put them back on. No change.

What if I tried to touch them? It was the only way she could be completely sure that it was just a hallucination. Closing her eyes, Nicole reached over her shoulder and tried to feel for the wings. Her hand ran into something firm. As she ran her hand along the firm spot, she noticed it got softer and softer. At about the limit her hand could keep following, Nicole felt the cloth bandage that she had seen earlier. Opening her eyes, she saw that her hand had been running along the edge of the wing.

That settled it then. It wasn't just a hallucination. Maybe her parents could explain it. Nicole walked into the living room, expecting to see them sitting in front of the TV, maybe having one of their annoying sappy moments. There was no one there. Same with her room, the bathroom, the den, and the basement. Where could they be? Nicole thought as she searched the last place she thought they could be, their bedroom.

The place was trashed. Books were all over the place and the lamp was on the floor. The comforter was all torn up and stuffing was everywhere. Someone or something had opened the closet and clothes were strewn all across the destruction. But the most disturbing thing was the claw marks on the walls.

She had seen a couple similar scratches throughout the house, Nicole realized. She had just been ignoring them. Maybe it wasn't what she thought. Maybe whatever had done this kind of damage had come around while her parents weren't home and they had yet to come back. I'll use Mom's phone to call Dad. Mine's broken anyways.

Nicole returned to the kitchen and dialed her Dad's number. "You've reached Eric Auroa. I can't come to the phone right now, so please leave a message." That was strange. No matter how busy he was, his phone rarely went to voicemail when his family was calling.

"Hey Dad, it's Coco." It wasn't her favorite nickname and her parents were the only ones that used it, but right now she wanted the comfort of hearing it. "I'm calling from Mom's phone because mine broke. I just wanted to know where you are, and when you're coming back." If they were coming back. "Please call me back as soon as you get this."

It was an act of futility and she knew it. Whatever had trashed her house, it had likely also attacked her parents. They weren't dead, she had to believe that or she'd go insane, but they weren't safe either. Everything Nicole had been denying since she woke up, that was all she had to go on. Which meant...

Nicole dialed another number. Thankfully, she picked up fast. "Mellie?"