"We'd like to introduce our new member, Grace Wendershelt!"

My heart sank hearing those words. Grace. Grace of all people, had joined their ranks? It seemed impossible, I wished it was impossible.

          While it was true that she had been expulsed from the Society,  was she really that heartbroken that she joined the Circus just to have a place to go? Had it been something I had done? Or was it not on her decision at all? While I wished it was the latter of the three,  I didn't know for sure.

        "What are we going to do?" I whispered in Sasha's ear.

          Sasha seemed to be still processing everything.  "I have no clue, not even the slightest idea." She muttered.

         Then, Kinoko spoke up. " We're going in there"

          "That'd probably be the LAST thing Allister would want us to do, yknow. " Maggie said, crossing her arms.

           "I think we need to go home. " Sasha gave her two sense. "It's to dangerous to get her now. We need to go home and report what's happened. "

          Biting my lip, I had to admit that I agreed with Maggie and Sasha, as their idea was probably the best.

          Kinoko however,  got stubborn.  "Are you guys chickening out?! My best friend is in there,  possibly against her will, and you want to go HOME! ?"

           Sasha snapped back. " We need to report the death of Samuel, and treat Maggie's wounds! Your injured to, we can't go on like this!"

          I turned my head to the circus tent, hoping that the noise coming out of it masked our arguing. "Guys, we need to quiet down." I whispered, well, it was barely a whisper.

          Maggie started walking off . "I'm heading out, you guys can then decide to follow me."

           I begun to go with her,  Sasha following. Kinoko remained where she stood for a few moments, before running after us to catch up. The gates weren't far away, so in a few short minutes we were home free.

         Maggie recognized this part of town, we were just by Downtown Richmond. Getting to the base by foot would take an hour, an hour we didn't want to waste.

          Let's just say the taxi driver looked very confused when he pulled up to us. We had to pay him extra to keep it a secret. There goes a quarter of my rent.

           We stopped a couple minutes walk from the base, paid the driver, before going to an all out sprint. No one knew what lurked in these streets at night, and I didn't want to get kidnapped again, no one did.

           It wasn't a surprise that we got a fair share of odd looks when we walked in the base. However, mostly everyone was relieved.

Until they noticed that we were lacking a certain S Rank, and a certain B Rank.

"Ah! Oh my gosh! Sasha! Kinoko! Maggie! Everyone's going to so glad your back! What happened back there!? What did they do to you!? .....Where's Grace and Samuel?" Said a red headed summoner that was walking out of the Silver Arena, you could see the expression on their face morph from shock to relief to concern.

"Samuel's dead, and Grace joined the enemy forces. So everything's just dandy, Claire." Maggie said, the tone of her voice harsh and blunt. "Both very hard to believe statements, but none the less both very true."

The C Rank's face grew into shock once again, and now everyone's eyes were plastered to us. It wasn't a good feeling.

"Samuel's dead!? How is that possible?"

"I never knew Grace would join Meichi's side..."

"There must've been mind control! Manipulation!"

The main corridor of the Richmond base buzzed as summoners exchanged words of fear, disbelief and confusion. A nurse led Kinoko and Maggie to an infirmary to treat their wounds, while Sasha and I were bombarded with questions.

"Do you know why Grace left us?"

"How did Samuel die?"

"Where were you?"

"Do you know what's going to happen next?"

We tried to answer the best we could, but when one of us finished one reply, two more questions were fired at us. It was incredibly overwhelming.

After a few moments, I was even more exhausted then after the couple hours I spent awake in the Circus. After all those 'interviews' , I just felt ready to pass out. I glanced at the clock. 8 PM. The sun was starting to set earlier, which normally I would welcome it, as before now the night was my friend, but now the darkness was only a source of fear and confusion of what lie ahead.

I sighed, and told everyone I was going home and heading to bed, where then I was met with panic.

"Oooooh no you're not!" Sasha said, grabbing my wrist. "Not only did we just get out of captivity that we could've left as corpses, but these streets are dangerous to walk on at night."

I mentally slapped myself in the face. This was a large city, not the tiny suburb I was used too. A world full of muggers, murderers, and worse. A chill shot through my spine just thinking about it. Perhaps it was better to go somewhere closer to the base with the others. But where? As far as my knowledge stretched, there were no inns or hotels as close to the base as would be desired. And hotels are expensive, and I had already bribed the taxi driver.

Sasha moved her hand to her chin and thought for a while before finally sighing . "Well...there ARE the IT dormitories on the upper floors, but for some reason local summoners and trainees aren't allowed in there without special permission in all continents except Australia I believe.." Sasha said, shoulders slumping.

The C Rank from earlier, the one Maggie had addressed as Claire, interrupted our conversation. "Well, as of right now, we have no S Rank to say that's still in place." she said.

"She has a point." I added.

Sasha bit her lip, eyebrows knitting. "I'd guess so... but it is something that most S Ranks have agreed on..."

As Maggie and Kinoko walked back in, Claire looked at them and asked what they thought about the situation, after explaining it to them, that is.

"It's an individual S Rank's decision. And since we have none, LET HER EAT CAKE!" Maggie said, adding an attempt at a joke to lighten the mood. As the chuckles she was trying to garner never arrived, she coughed before adding "...or, er, yknow, sleep in the dorm."

"She can sleep in my dorm ." I hadn't heard from Kinoko since we had decided to leave the circus while we could. Her voice seemed to hold a weight it never had before, emotionless and drained of all the energy it used to have. "I accidentally was assigned one with two beds."

Maggie, Sasha , and Claire stared at her, just as surprised as I to see the sudden shift in personality.

The room sat in uncomfortable silence for moments that seemed to drag on like hours, maybe longer. Sasha finally broke the silence by uttering "Alrighty then, guess that's settled. Kinoko can lead you there-" she couldn't even finish her sentence before Kinoko walked off, lifeless, much more like a zombie than anything human, and certainly out of her element. I went to follow her, keeping my distance, but having to rush when she entered the elevator so I could make it in time.

The dorms were on the 3rd floor of the 4 story main building, and the dorm itself was the first one to the left of the elevator. Kinoko's things were already spread across everything, rather neatly, quite surprisingly. Without another word, Kinoko flopped on one bed and fell asleep. Not knowing what else to do, I laid down on the other and closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep myself, but the events of today kept flashing through my head, the past several days, actually.

The was a 13 year old trying to kill me

I was a magical girl that could summon otherworldly beings to my assistance whenever I wanted.

2 people had died already, people I just met, but felt like I had known forever.

Another person I had just met betrayed me without a trace.

It was a fact that more people were to meet the similiar fates.

And I felt like there was nothing I could do to change it.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUP9J5JNH6i