"Mommy, are the scary witches coming back?" Paloma asked her mother Millie, some fear in her voice as Millie put the finishing dressing on Paloma's cute little ladybug costume. Millie herself was dressed in a Cinderella costume.
Millie paused.
She didn't know.
She honestly didn't know.
Reality didn't make any sense anymore. Seemingly anything was possible now.
Between the Fimbulwinter earlier this year, the Transform Or Dare virus from a few years back, and reports of visitors from other realities coming through portals, daily life was beginning to take on a twinge of unreality to it.
As bad as the Fimbulwinter had been, though, it paled in comparison to the gut punch of finding out that her friend and co-worker Regina Chung had been hiding a secret life.
That was some type of sorceress.
Last month, Regina and her partner had apparently gone through some massive falling out, causing the two new women to fall into a magic battle that had raged across the entire planet, ending right here in the middle of town, the two women throwing lightning bolts at the other.
The property damage had been extensive.
Paloma, who had wanted to be a witch for Halloween before she saw two real ones behaving so awfully towards each other, had cowered behind Millie and Juliana.
"No matter what happens honey, both of your mommies will keep you safe" Millie said, hugging her daughter.
**
"It seems like our plan worked, darling" Katerina said over dinner with Savannah. "The portals are finally all gone. Reality is sealed tight against intruders, as it should be."
"For now" Savannah said.
Katerina smiled.
"Sorceresses Supreme. What a joke. So powerful with magic, but so weak against psychological warfare. So easy to turn them against each other. So easy to convince Kylie Perkins to end her life."
"Well, their loss is everyone else's gain" Savannah said optimistically, sipping her wine.
"They wouldn't have made it a month in Russia. You Americans are too soft."
"Well, most of us" Savannah said through green eyes, reflecting Katerina's fireplace.