Ever since Kylie Perkins had disappeared, former residents(And a few carpetbaggers) had reluctantly started moving back to Glendale.
It was slow at first.
A person here. A person there.
These pinoneers, these diaspora, quickly realized that they weren't alone and started meeting up with each other. They all realized that others like them existed too, and after pooling their resources, they tried to encourage others to come back to settle in Glendale. To not let evil win.
Gradually, bars started opening again. Then restaurants and other businesses.
Then families with small children began moving back in.
Soon, reality began to return to a semblance of normal.
People were starting to realize that it may finally be over.
That the evil sorceress was really gone and she wasn't going to terrify anyone anymore.
By November of 2022, it appeared like the formerly bustling small California town might have a chance of recovering.
It wasn't anywhere near its pre-Kylie population, but it had a chance.
Which is why Tom Winters had moved back to Glendale earlier this year.
One of the only benefits to come from this disaster was that real estate in Glendale was dirt cheap now, allowing Tom to buy a far nicer house than he could ever afford to rent, let alone own, on his own meager income.
Tom, who had just gotten off work doing construction, had been there at Ground Zero back during Halloween 2011, where this shit had all started.
He had been there because he had been Jennifer Smith's boyfriend at the time.
Jen, who had been throwing a huge holiday bash for her high school, mostly for the Senior Class, but some underclassmen had been invited too, had welcomed the green eyed witch into her parents's home, unaware of what was to come.
Both he and Jen had been among the very first ones cursed by Kylie.
In retrospect, Tom realized that they both had gotten off really lucky.
All Kylie had done to Tom and Jen was basically hypnotize them into being in love with themselves, like the myth of Narcissus.
Whenever either of them glanced upon a mirror now, or saw their reflection in a spoon, the world fell away, replaced by Kylie's magic words, and suddenly all they could think about was themselves. A spell came upon their minds, informing them of how beautiful and awesome and perfect and above everyone else they were. How they were so perfect and sexy and lovely that they should masturbate to the very thought of themselves!
This exercise in vanity and self gratification lasted about hour or two, but like clockwork, the spell eventually broke and Tom and Jen suddenly returned to their normal selves, humiliated and embarrassed by what they had done.
Kylie had viewed Tom and Jen as the school's power couple, the most popular kids in town, and through her resentment, she had turned Tom and Jen into caricatures of what she had hated most about them.
As Tom stopped at a local watering hole after work to drink, he thought, making sure not to stare at himself in the mirror, "Hey, at least I'm not Ken Nolan or Laura Miller."
Ken Nolan, who went by Kat now, had been a classmate of Tom's. He, now she, had been transformed into a half human, half feline hybrid. Yellow fur covered most of her body, along with a tail, and cat ears, and three pairs of tits, and the strange desire to want to only eat fish.
Kat effectively was a circus freak now, and anytime she saw a rat or a mouse scurry by, she had the overwhelming drive to try and hunt it down.
She had been the first person Kylie had transformed.
Laura Miller, the debate captain of their high school, had been transformed into a half human, half donkey hybrid by Kylie. The transformation had destroyed Laura mentally, and she basically never left her house anymore.
As Tom drank, lost in thought, a woman entered the bar and sat down a few stools from him.
She was Middle Eastern and extremely hot. Way too hot for this dive, Tom thought. What was she doing here?
But he decided not to say anything.
Tom, who had been something of a ladies man in high school, had been thoroughly humbled by what Kylie had done to him.
No matter how strong and tough he though he was, there was always someone better out there, and you never know who they were going to be.
Best to just keep your head down and try and be nice to everyone, Tom thought.
He thought about why he was drinking today. It wasn't Friday, it was only Tuesday, and he didn't have any of his buddies along with him to celebrate.
Tom realized that he was drinking today because he was really worried about Jen.
This stuff about the Kind Lady going around helping people had really triggered her PTSD. She had called Tom yesterday, in tears about the news floating all over social media, her breathing rapid and shallow.
On second thought, Tom thought, Jennifer might have actually been Kylie The Sorceress's biggest victim.
Not physically, obviously, but emotionally and mentally.
In the years since Kylie's rise, Jennifer had blamed herself for everything that had happened that night.
The former cheerleader had believed for a long long time that all of this: the monsters, the bombs, the martial law, all of it was actually her fault, because if she had never thrown that Halloween party, if she hadn't been such a bitch to people in high school, maybe none of this nightmare ever would have ever happened.
Maybe the witch would have left them all alone if Jennifer had been nicer to people.
Tom had wanted to give Jennifer a big hug, and let her know that none of this terror was her fault. He wanted Jennifer to know that although she was far from perfect, she wasn't responsible at all for what some psycho with magic powers did.
How could Jennifer have *ever* prepared for something like that?
But Tom couldn't hug Jennifer Smith because Jennifer Smith hadn't lived in Glendale for years now.
Her family had moved up north in the weeks following Kylie's takeover of Glendale, and had stayed put ever since.
Tom had tried moving up there for a while, but things hadn't worked out.
Tom reminded her of the terrror. Of the feeling of total helplessness.
Inevitably, the two high school sweethearts had grown apart.
Tom was heartbroken, but he tried his best to comfort her wherever he could.
He had to move on. He had to.
"So what's your story?" Tom asked the engimatic woman.