Amazingly, I had slept that night. No dreams. At least none that I was able to remember. When I woke up, I was greeted by a mouse face. "Oh, Mistwolf. Wake up!" Mousey yelled. "Gah!" I sat up and she jumped off of my nose. "What is it?" I asked. "Devilgirl needs to talk to you when you're ready." Mousey said. "Alright. Just let me take a shower first." I groaned, rubbing my eyes.
I got the water starting and quickly got in. About half way through my shower, I felt something on my back. Two somethings. I reached back and felt something jutting out near both by shoulder blades. "What the hell?" I muttered. I quickly finished and got out of the shower. I backed up to a mirror and looked. There was definitely something jutting out of my back. 'I'll have Sarah look at this once I have the time' I thought. I dried off and got clothes on, and quickly ran downstairs. The mansion seemed oddly empty without seeing ghosts everywhere.
I walked into the kitchen to be welcomed by the smell of eggs, bacon, toast, and sausage. Alicia turned away from the stove and hugged my tightly. "I'm glad you're O.k." she said. "Me too." I said, hugging her back. I sniffed the air. "Um...Alicia? Eggs. Burning." I said, pointing to the stove. "Oh! Sorry." she quickly went back to the stove and put the eggs on a plate.
"You. Details." I said, pointing at Devilgirl, who was drinking a glass of orange juice. "About what?" she asked teasingly. "Where have you been? We all thought you were dead!" I said, sitting down across from her. "Well, you know I went out to explore more of Home." That was right. We only really knew about the surrounding woods and such, not much outside of that. We just figured it was all Shadow Creature territory. "I uh...kinda found this big black castle. It's where the Shadow Creatures are coming from. There's someone creating them. There's a woman, a uh...witch going by the name of Monique. I uh..kind of got captured and locked in her dungeon. It took a while to escape because she has some kind of spell over her castle that drains all powers except for Shadow powers." Devilgirl said. "Oh, my God!" Tiger said, taking the seat next to me. There was a clatter from behind me. I turned around to see Alicia frozen in front of the stove. "Monique?" she said in a hushed voice. "Yeah. Why?" Devilgirl asked. "I thought we'd destroyed her..." she turned around. "What's the deal with this Monique woman?" I asked. Alicia sighed. "She's my sister." she said. "What?" Raven looked dumbfounded as she took the other seat next to me. "Monique wanted power. She knew that there was a great power in the mansion. She wanted to turn the ghosts into powerful Shadow Demons." Alicia said, sitting down in the chair next to Tiger. "What's a Shadow Demon, and why have I never heard of it?" I asked. "Shadow Demons are like Shadow Creatures, except their humanoid, and they're harder to kill. They don't have weak spots, it takes very powerful magic to destroy them. I never told you because I didn't think we'd ever have to deal with them again. When Monique unleashed an army of them I had no choice but to destroy her." Alicia said. "Or at least think you did." Tiger said. "Why didn't you tell us this before?" I asked. "To protect you. But now that we know Monique is alive, I think it's time." Alicia said. "For what?" I asked. "For you all to unleash you powers."
