The Haunted One

Chapter one

~the week before~
"Kana! Kana, wake up!" Juno was peering over the railing of the stairs that led to Kana's bedroom. "The lunar eclipse is about to happen! Get out here!"
"Just a little -- wait, really?" Kana sat up and looked around at her dimly lit room. Then she hopped up onto the windowsill of the huge semicircle slab of glass in her wall. The view was spectacular!
Every lunar eclipse, the whole town would turn off all the lights and gather outside. The bright stars pierced the aching black night sky, and she marveled at the beauty of the world she lived in. People of all different backgrounds came to the merchant village of Macji, which made it all the better! Some would stay, some would leave. But everyone who came and went left their mark on the village. This celebration was one of them!
Jamie yelled up the stairs, "get your fiery hair out here! You're going to miss the best part!"
"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" Kana slipped off the windowsill, threw on a vest over her cream colored button-up shirt, and slid down the railing, landing face first on the soft rug at the bottom. Jamie chuckled.
"C'mon, let's get some pie." He smiled to himself.
"As long as I get the piece with most filling!"
"Not if I get there first!" Juno bounced past the two of them and booked it out the door and toward the bakery stands. Kana and Jamie followed suit, but had a hard time hopping over familiars, potions, and spell books.
"Y'know, I know this place'll always be covered in you and your mom's magic stuff, but I never get used to it," Jamie thought aloud.
"Hehe, yeah... My mom just loves her work... But who can blame her? She is one of the most talented druids in the whole region...." Her voice trailed off as they continued.
"I just wish you guys could clean up one in a while, y'know." He tried to sound light-hearted, but there was a noticable trace of annoyance in his voice. Kana thought nothing of it, though. They did try to clean! It just... Didn't ever stay clean.
"Lucky Juno, she's able to slip past anything! I wish I were a water elemental!"
"Wait a minute, can't you do that too? Can't fire elementals just... Float or something?"
Kana shot him a sharp glance. "You overestimate my powers, Jamie."
That wasn't very true. Kana was powerful, but taught not to overuse it. Abusing her powers would only bring mayhem... At least, that's what she was told.
When they reached the doorway, Juno had already bought three whole pies and sat on the grass to gaze at the stars. Her eyes were filled with wonder and excitement, like she had seen the most entrancing jellyfish in all the oceans.
"You gonna save any for us?" Jamie laughed. Juno had already switched attention and was making her way through the first pie, but slid the other two toward them. She said through a mouth full of cooked berries and crust,
"I got these two for you guys. But the pearlpea pie is miiiiiiiiiine!" She curled into a ball and slurped more pie.
"Aww, but pearlpea is the best kind!"
"I knooooooow~" Juno had a devilish smile on her face, and a lot of berries... "Look! It's about to happen!" She set (or threw, depending on how you looked at it) the pie down and flopped over, staring at the sky. The moon was directly overhead, and almost fully crimson. It was a creepy sight, but no one else seemed to think that. They all thought it was magical.
The three of them sat there for an hour, talking about random things like what the meaning of life was, or what they were going to eat for breakfast in the morning, until Jamie was too drowsy to say anything else. Kana and Juno got him back to his place, then she walked Juno home. There was something in the air that she didn't trust.

She was right not to trust it.

After an hour or so, Kana woke up to the sound of breaking glass, but dismissed it as a dropped potion.
Then there was increasing movement. What was going on down there?
A minute passed. Swearing. But it wasn't her mom's voice. Was there a new scent too? She couldn't distinguish it! That was it, she was going to see what was happening.

Then she saw her.

On the floor.

That's when Kana blacked out.