Mallory Fitch Saves the World

Heating Up

"Okay, let me just see if I've got this right. Whoever it was that broke into my house, has powers too, kidnapped Oliver, started walking around looking like him, then kidnapped you and a few other random people?" I stop pacing and turn to look at Mia for validation on my last statement.

"Well, yes. That's pretty much it."

I laugh, looking over at Fin. "Remember when that would've sounded crazy?" His eyes widen, looking at the ground, as he just nods his head.

"This does sound crazy. Even for us. I mean I've heard of something like this being a possibility, sure, but I've never actually seen it happen. Or known anyone who has. I have no idea what this is or who could possibly be behind 'the mask,' so to speak," Mia says.

"Haven't we been talking about this evil Thorn girl for the past few months? Didn't you say she could make people think she looks like someone else? If something bad is happening, my money's on her. Let's just find her, before she completes her villainy prophecy," Fin replies.

I scoff and plop down onto the couch by him. "Yeah because that's been easy for us so far."

"I've also never heard of any prophecy," Mia adds.

"Yeah, Fin thinks this is a T.V. show."

"Look, the point is that we need to find this psycho before anyone gets hurt!" Fin exclaims.

Mia nods and stands to face the both of us. "I don't know where to start. As far as I knew, you could only take on the face of someone near you. Clearly Oliver hasn't been anywhere near her and she's been talking to you as him. Which means she's stronger than I thought. So, we not only have no idea what she herself looks like, but she's right under our noses sneaking around stealing our best friend's identities. Now, she could literally be-"

"Anyone," I finish for her. "Right. So? Any ideas?" We all look back and forth between each other in silence. Yeah. Figured.

"Can I have that drink now?" Fin asks, already making his way to the kitchen.

I flip onto my back, taking up the majority of the couch, and just stare at the ceiling. Maybe that will spark something. I just look at the vast white space above me, picking out the tiniest little marks to focus on. For the most part, it's just a smooth wall. But, if you know its secrets, it's more than that.

Mia slides down to the floor and leans against the couch near my feet. I hear Finley re-enter the room, then see his face hover over mine. "Whatcha looking at?"

"The ceiling."

"Ah," he says. He lays on the floor right by the couch and looks up as well. "Anything interesting up there?"

"See that little red stain?" I ask, pointing towards the minuscule dot.

"Yeah." He squints and studies it for a second before realizing what it's from. "Wait! I did that!"

Mia turns to give us a puzzled look. I can't help but laugh along with Fin, as I sit up to tell her the story. "When I first moved in here I had Jamie and Fin over here helping me with furniture. Emma and Townes came too, but they're never much help. I sent them into the kitchen to make spaghetti for dinner. They decided to start a little food fight. Townes threw a meatball at Emma, missed, and hit Finley in the head so hard it bounced off and hit the ceiling. I still can't get that stain out."

"Yeah, and I got a concussion from a meatball. I swear, girl throws harder than half the NFL."

"Well, if its any consolation, I wouldn't have noticed the stain if you hadn't pointed it out," Mia tells me.

"How is that supposed to make me feel better?" Fin whines.

I can't help but laugh at his pouty face. "Yeah, there are a few little spots up there you can't really notice. Theres three tiny little holes from where Fin and Townes were throwing pencils," I point to the area when I tell the story. "Then there's a small dent from a baseball, right next to the meatball stain. Honestly, I don't know how things keep hitting the ceiling, I mean it's kind of getting ridiculous."

"But, now you have all these fun little secret stories about your best friend and siblings all hidden in your ceiling. I'm sure no one else has been concussed by a meatball."

I shake my head at Fin's comment and look back to the ceiling. I guess they're both right. If I didn't know the spots were there, I wouldn't even know to look for them. That's when it hits me. I jolt upright and hover right over Fin with a splitting smile. "That's it! Finley, you're a genius!"

"That's what I've been saying! Wait, what did I do?" He asks inquisitively.

"The ceiling! You said it has these hidden secrets, that only we know to look for. Right?" He nods. "That's it. That's how we find Oliver."

"I'm sorry, I'm not quite following you here. I don't understand how a meatball and a ceiling have anything to do with this," Mia states.

I hop up from the couch and walk in front of my increasingly confused friends. "We know that Belladonna Thorn can steal people's faces. We know that she had to be the one to take Oliver a couple weeks ago. We also know exactly when it happened. She, however, has no idea that we know any of this."

"Okay, and?" She questions.

"And, we're in on the secret. Knowing what we know now, I can just time hop back to that night. I'll just make sure Oliver and I don't go back into the house. She'll be expecting us to come back, so we won't. Or, knowing that she'll be in there somewhere, when me and Oliver were supposed to split up to search the house, we just won't. If we stick together she can't just take one of us, right?"

Mia looks at me blankly for a moment. "Okay, that plan seems reckless and entirely circumstantial. I can't let you do that."

"Why not?"

"Well, one, it's dangerous any way you look at it. Two, if you time hop back two weeks you can't move back to present time. You're stuck there. Which also means, that in order to not mess up the space-time continuum you have to do everything exactly the way you did down to the exact mili-second you did it for two weeks straight. Not to mention that you have no idea how to control it, so you might not even hit your mark. You could go back a day, a month, even a year back in time. Your emotions are a strong factor in time hopping and if you're as upset or excited or whatever you are right now, it is highly unlikely you'll go to the right date. But, let's say you do get to the intended night. You're just guessing that it was Belladonna who was in the house. It could be someone even more dangerous. Or, it could be her, and you have no plan to apprehend her. Or she finds out that you're planning to stay away from the house and she takes one or both of you anyway. Or-"

I cut her off before she can continue her rambling list of complaints and negativity. "Why are you so against this, Mia? If you've got a better plan then I'm all ears! Go ahead, tell me!" I can't help but start to raise my voice.

"I'm against this because it's stupid, and dangerous! Right now, you have no idea how to control your stronger powers. She can! How can you fight someone who can figure your every move before you even think of it? You have no idea what you'd be getting yourself into, Mallory! That's even thinking that you'd make it to the right date, which I highly doubt."

"Oh yeah? Watch me," I challenge. Oh dear Lord, please let this go right.