~~~@Mr Allen J@Polyphemus~~~

Bae

Cedar gave up on convincing Miles that anything needed to be done. “Miles Wellington the... umm… Sixteenhundreth!” She let out a long growling sigh. “Of course you don’t care. You are the 1%!” Cedar put her hands on her hips. “If anything goes down you and your family will buy your way out? Is that the plan? Well you can’t buy your way out of that, man.” She pointed to the strangely illuminated sky.

Bae was impressed by Cedars bite. Cedar was brave and liked to speak out, but, rarely had the opportunity to do so in person. Her enemies were painted with a wide brush: the system, expectations, the patriarchy, the media, things like that. She pointed to the sky. “You can’t buy your way out of whatever’s coming after this. Come on, Bae. Let’s go.”

Cedar and Bae went back down to the beach. They wanted to see if there was any evidence. Perhaps debris that fell from the sky. Perhaps they would see another reverse-shooting-star. Surely the police and such would come to investigate, they wanted to see anything important that might happen next.

Cedar and Bae were chatting back and forth. Kicking around the sand, using phone screens to light up and inspect rocks they overturned. They chatted back and forth about their theories, what they were finding, and what they were not finding. There was more noise as Bae would pick up and put down her bag every so often to keep it close to their search. The contents of the bag were disorganized, and clanked against one another.

Cedar and Bae did not notice Jasmine at all until she spoke.
"You," Bae turned, and saw a long finger pointed toward her. "You're the girl with that weird name. Bae. Yeah, Bae. Did your parents know of that slang, or were they trying to be cute?"

Bae’s spine stiffened. She recognized the face, Jasmine. A sporty type from school.

She frowned, her stomach wrenched a bit at the mention of her parents. Parents she never knew. It didn't show. That whole orphan thing was a fact she had her whole life to get used to and come to terms with. My parents didn’t stick around long enough to give me a name. She thought with a small degree of angst.

Bae was perhaps inspired by Cedar, or the lights, or was just god dam tired of her name being made fun of.

“Original.” Bae’s voice was quiet but it was direct, and cut through the seaside air towards Jasmine. “Ignorant-Koreans-accidentally-name-child-American-teen-slang.” She clenched her fists that hung at her side, the herb was wearing off and the anxiety was building back. “No one has ever pointed that out to me before. When dearest leader takes over the country, I shall ask him to consider sparing you for your intelligence.”

Cedar whipped around, and dropped a rock that she was holding. Too engrossed in her search for answers to notice the conflict. “How did I not THINK of that yet!” She was speaking much louder than Bae. “This could be a terrorist attack! OR an invasion by North Korea or-or-anyone!” She peered into the sky. “I wonder if homeland security will fly in! Helicopters or something!”

Bae’s face soured at Cedar. Then she looked back to Jasmine.

Bae's thoughts started racing. She was thinking a lot about the lights and what they might mean. "Didn't you see the lights? Just leave us alone if your going to... We have to figure out what is going on... We have to... Or else... ” Bae’s face crunched up again. She was thinking that everyone was being so unreasonably loud.

“Cedar, be… Be quiet. Your being so loud!” Bae didn’t ever tell Cedar what to do, but, she couldn’t help thinking it needed to be done! She wanted to explain why they had to be quite, and quickly came up withe some rather paranoid notions. “What if… What if… Someone… Someone hears us and… I don’t know. It might be the police coming to see the lights, but it might be someone dangerous also… Even if it is the police what if we can't trust them? They might think we had something to do with this...”

"That's right." Cedar put her hands over her mouth. "That's just what I was thinking." She sat down in the sand, looking uneasy.

She turned back to Jasmine, wanting to finish her original train of thought but was having trouble finding it..."Look... If you got into a college I'm sure there will be lots foreigners and names for you to make fun of, but high shcool is over and..."

“The end of high school? WHAT IF THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD?” Cedar was panicking now. She, perhaps, had laced her herbs.

@Mr Allen J@Gisk@Polyphemus

This was really starting to max out her brain, it all just seemed too..realistically improbable? Something like that. There was simply no way that she had burned the girl with her hand. Besides, Zoey had been touching her not a moment before and nothing happened to her.It was obvious she was far more drained by her trip than she thought "Yes...something clearly is going on...or I am still feeling the after effects of--" Maren let out a little cough. Thinking that admitting to having been in the woods the whole weekend decompressing from LSD was not something to admit in the middle of a public cafe "...Anyway, I am going to go with that. So...you just...have fun and I am...a... going to go home," Maren used the entrance of the new girl as a distraction to slip out. She made a point to not look at the sky as she left.

The cool air felt nice on her face and at once, she started to feel a lot more exhausted. Although the night was young by her normal standards, it was just one of those nights where bed was the best course of action.

She didn't make it far when she came across Mr. Miles himself as well as Bae and...Tree-Sapling or something. While she didn't mind hearing what the girls had to say...usually, and they occasional good points, she didn't really have the energy to be told she was a horrible person for something she did and didn't know it was wrong. It was only after the two had wandered off that she approached the rich boy.

"Hey Trouble, the Social Justice Warriors give you smack again for your rich white male privilege?" To be honest, if it weren't for her parents, she probably wouldn't have much to do with Miles. But he wasn't that bad he.... Well, he had some good points.

Usually, when they hung out it was a mix of him talking and Maren kinda listening... But he liked to go fast and had the best toys. He was a danger to himself and others... And Maren...liked that about him. She also liked to hang out with him to see how much she could get him to spend in one go. It was a bit of a game she liked to play.



His dad wasn't home yet. While inconvenient, it wasn't unusual for his dad to get home from fishing at midnight or one depending on how far he had drifted during the day. It was a lot scary when he was younger and worse during the winter when it was cold. But it was just a part of being a fisherman...or so his dad said. Fishing never took half as long when Rhys went along.

After waiting about an hour, Rhys finally got hungry enough to head up to the cafe. He used to hide out there when it was winter and his dad was late. Now that he had more money, he was actually able to afford to buy a cup now and again.

The lights shot across the sky just as Rhys was approaching the cafe, he stood there staring at them for a few minutes before reaching to open the door. And the handle...well, crumbled was the only way to describe what happened. Like it had rusted through. Holding the the remnants of the handle, a very confused Rhys chose to ...knock at the door.

Kassidy took a step towards Zoey and peered a little closer at the cash register. It did looked fried. She sighed as she looked at Zoey, Audrey, Maren then back at Zoey. She shrugged. "I'll tell mom about it tomorrow. Don't worry about it." She said. She looked at Audrey's leather jacket with the subtle hand shaped mark. "Weird." She mumbled to herself just as another girl from school came in. Mary something. She was never good at remembering last names.

She watched Maren slip out just as Mary walked in and started talking about the lights. "That bright light that shot up into the air... I didn't get to see what it was but it shot straight up and just... Disappeared." She contributed before she remembered that she has yet to prepare Sam's order. She excused herself and went to the kitchen.

"Something with less sugar..." She said to herself. Diet cola would be less sweet but to her, it was still sweet all the same. "Iced Tea with a bit of honey then..." Kassidy grabbed an iced mug from the freezer, drizzled a little honey on the sides and then began filling it with home brewed lemon tea. As the mug filled, her mind shifted back to the lights. To that falling star that strangely fell upwards. And as she did, her heart beat quickened its pace. The thought of anything uncertain made her feel unsettled, nervous. She gripped the mug handle a little tighter and the glass crumbled in her hands, some of it cutting into her skin.

There was a loud crash as the handle-less mug fell on the floor, the glass shattering and the tea splashing everywhere. "Damn it!" She immediately opened her hand and what was left of the mug handle fell on the floor along with the rest of the shattered glass. She crossed over to the sink, turned on the tap and stuck her bleeding hand under the running water. The wound wasn't deep but it was bleeding. She picked out the smaller shards still stuck to her hand as she let the water run. As soon as she was sure that there were no more glass shards embedded in her skin, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it tightly around her wet bleeding hand. What the hell is happening tonight? The lights turn up again and everything's just going... Crazy.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before she started cleaning the mess she had made.

@SouffleGirl123 @Mr Allen J @Kyrisse

Audrey nodded at Kassidy. "Yeah, I saw that much, he- it came from the beach, I was down there when it happened. I lost sight of it when it passed by the Cafe."

She looked at Mary as Kassidy went to take care of some service industry related business, "Did you see where it went after that?"

~~~

The mystery light in question had flown out, away from the sea and over toward the next town, keeping low the entire time. But now, as Mary and Audrey discussed it, it had doubled back and, unseen by those in the cafe, was flying over the beach, back and forth. Every turn was jerky, as if it were having a difficult time making the curves. Every once in a while, it turned sideways and made a wider streak as it rolled across the sky.

---

"$60 ice cream 20 mins"

"60?!?!"

"u wanna party or not?"

"...cu there"

"<3 u liz"

James smiled, sliding his phone into the pocket of his dark blue skinny jeans. He leaned back, reaching into the back seat of his car where a backpack laid, brimming with papers and notebooks. Pushing past the crumpled papers, James fumbled around the inside of the bag with shaky fingers, before finding the treasure for which he searched. A white paper bag came out, along with a few loose papers caught on James' obnoxiously large red watch. A sigh hissed from James' lips as he shook the papers loose, and removed a pill bottle labelled morphine that very clearly did not contain morphine.

Slipping a few of the colorful tablets from the bottle to a small plastic baggie, chuckling as he sealed it. He always was a sucker for the cheesy shit like these little baggies. He wondered for a moment if they were even still relevant before pushing the thought away -he was still going to use them for the novelty whether or not people still used them. Chuckling a bit more, he stuffed the ziploc into the same pocket as his phone, and exited his car, breathing in the relatively fresh air. He took in a deep whiff, before looking back to his car, and reaching back inside the backpack as he remembered something. Once he was satisfied he had everything he needed, he locked up his car and looked out at the playful blue and pink sign that marked the ice cream store, by which he was parked.

"Lovely day to be up to no good." He thought to himself, hands propped up at his hips in a somewhat unimpressive imitation of the classic Superman pose. He looked down at the massive face of his bright red watch, gauging how much time he had until Lizzie showed up. Giving himself a reassuring nod, he strutted away from his car, a short beep punctuating his exit. He gave a bright smile as he walked up to the small locally owned ice cream shop.

"Hey there! What can I do for you?" Came a peppy young voice from behind the counter. A pair of dim green eyes perked up when they recognized James' face, pearly white smile doubling in size. "The usual?" The young girl asked, already stuffing two scoops of butterscotch into a cone.

"Absolutely. That's why you're my favorite, H." James said, idly resting a hand on his wallet chain -a trend he adamantly swore he would bring back. He slid a five across the counter, along with a small baggie of almost oddly green grass, giving the girl behind the counter a quick wink as he took his ice cream. The two chatted about nothing for a good while, until James heard the low rumble of an engine pulling up to the small store. He looked out the window, recognizing the vehicle that pulled up. He gave a sly smile to no one in particular, before looking back down to his quickly shrinking pile of ice cream.

A short blonde walked into the shop, dressed in gaudy amounts of pink. James gave her a sideways glance, before looking back to the girl behind the counter and rolling his eyes. From a sparkly pink wallet money flowed -20, 40, 60, James counted before the bills hit the counter. He raised his eyebrows, sliding the twenties into his hand before counting them once more. He nodded solemnly, fishing his wallet from his back pocket. He gently placed the money into place, scrubbing creases away before storing them. After the $60 were safely away, he pulled out a surprisingly crisp ten, which he handed to Liz alongside the small baggie of pills.

Liz's eyebrows raised, seemingly questioning the money. James gave her a wide grin, raising his arms. "No lie, I didn't think you'd have the cash. Mad props, sweet cheeks." He chuckled, pushing the bill closer to her. Liz giggled, softly punching James in the shoulder.

"Asshole." She muttered, putting away her new goodies. "Bee tee dub, Harry said he was gonna see if he can get a 'teenth while you're out and about?" She said illiciting a cringe from James with her 2009-style texting slang. She pulled out her phone and gave James an expectant look. He sighed, looking down at his watch. He tilted his head side to side, rolling thoughts around in his head like a child might with candy in his mouth.

"Fuck it. I'm walking down to the beach in 10, tell him I'll hook him up if he can catch me before I get there." He sighed, not looking forward to speaking with Harry. James honestly couldn't think of any word better to describe Harry other than 'asshole'. After finishing his butterscotch ice cream, James left the girls with a quick adieu, heading to his car where he picked up the drop for Harry. He began walking down to the Cliffside Cafe, whipping out his phone as he walked.



He frowned as he looked down at his phone screen, which was tinted a strange tone of red. He tapped the screen confusedly for a moment, before realizing it was a reflection, and looked up. The strange lights splayed across the sky unnerved James for some strange reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. Even stranger was a flash of white that caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He slid his large plastic shades from his head, staring awestruck up at the sky.

"I was having a good goddamn day, don't you fall down on me yet." James scolded, pointing an accusatory finger up at the sky. Though he turned back to his route, seemingly unnerved, he picked up his pace from a leisurely stroll to a power walk. Through rapidly shifting eyes, James spied Harry walking towards him on the sidewalk, eyes deep in his phone. Just as James opened his mouth to call out to Harry, his phone buzzed.

"bro where u at?" Came the text from Harry. James rolled his eyes as he closed in on Harry.

"Eyes up here, asshole." He said, his tone joking in spite of his intentions. Harry didn't so much as flinch, looking down intently at his phone. James raised an eyebrow, walking backwards alongside Harry. "Buddy. Right here, you can put the phone down." James said, more serious this time. Harry continued to ignore him, eyes glued staring at his glowing screen. A frown crossed James' face as he lashed out, grabbing a hold of Harry's wrist and shoving it downwards so his eyesight was forced away from the phone. Harry started, looking James in the eye.

"Holy shi- Hey, James! There you are my man. Yo bro, you scared me, haha." Harry said nervously. "So you got the shit?" He asked expectantly, his bright sparkly puppy dog eyes opening wide. James returned the grin with a very unamused frown.

"Don't waste my time, and maybe I'll hook you up next time, asshole." James said forcefully, shoving Harry to the side. He grumbled as he continued on his way, ignoring the disgruntled murmuring of Harry. "I need some caffeine. Today's getting to me." He thought, futeily attempting to rub the red glare from his vision. Turning on his heel, he made a route towards the Cliffside Cafe, picking up the pace even more as he looked back over his shoulder and saw a bright white light arcing through the sky over the beach.

James entered the cafe, his wide smile shaking slightly at the side -he was still rather perturbed by the events of just the last few minutes. Why the fuck would Harry ask for a hookup, then ignore him? Were those lights in the sky the same shit he heard about happening so many years ago? Did he forget to pick up his change from the ice cream shop? He tried his best to shrug these questions off, as he entered the cafe. He noticed a small group forming up by the register -not quite as organized as a line of people waiting to pay, so he figured they were mostly chatting. He certainly recognized a few of the faces from around town, but none he knew extremely well. As he approached, he overheard the last bit of conversation -something about the bright lights.

"Did you see where it went after that?"

"You mean that bright-ass white light? Last I saw it's still buzzing around out there -anyone know what's up with that?" James piped up, to a choir of crickets. No one so much as looked up at his comment, seemingly ignoring him. "Really? Why the f-" He muttered, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Gah, that is just so frustrating." He said in a low voice. He reached out to the nearest person -Audrey, and put his hand on her shoulder in what he assumed would be a futile attempt to get her attention. "Hey, what gives? Is everybody in this town deaf now, or is 'Ignore James' the new hit game?" He asked in a voice just short of a shout. He was admittedly overreacting just a bit -but it usually wasn't this difficult for him to center a spotlight on himself, and he wasn't a fan of it.

^@Gisk

@NightmareInd @Ellion @Gisk @R31GN

After several tries at making the iced tea and either spilling the tea or breaking glasses again, Kassidy finally managed it. She looked at the mess she made on the floor. Frustrating, to say the least. What the hell was happening to the cafe? Termites, a fried cash register, damned fragile mugs... "Maybe we should stop putting the mugs in the freezer. Extreme cold probably made them easy to break." She muttered another explanation to herself. She could feel her mood plummeting as she mopped the floor for the nth time. Mom will get frustrated by all this broken stuff. When she was done, she wiped off the tea from the counter, gently took the mug by it's handle, her wrapped hand under the mug to make sure it doesn't fall to the floor again. She pushed the kitchen door with her shoulder and blinked when she had to strain to get it open.

Huffing, she made her way back to Sam's table and gently placed the mug in front of him. "Sorry it took a while. I had a bit of a problem in the kitchen." She held up a hand and gave Sam a sheepish grin. "Anyway, enjoy. If you want anything else, call my attention." She said as she moved away and noticed someone knocking on the door. Is the friggin' door broken now too? The amount of disturbances is both disturbing and depressing her. She sighed and looked at the people in the cafe. At least there's a lot more people than expected tonight. She consoled herself.

She walked over towards the door and bumped into James. She blinked as she stumbled back, the collision, while it wasn't hard, almost knocked her off her feet. She reached out and grabbed Audrey's arm to steady herself. "Oh, sorry, sorry. I didn't see you there." She turned to Audrey. "Uh, sorry, sorry." She apologized again and gave them a small smile before she excused herself and continued on her way to the door.

She reached out and opened the door with a little difficulty. Ugh. Need to oil the hinges. She thought. Before she could welcome Rhys in, her eyes fell on the door handle. Or what was left of it. "What happened?" She asked. "Did the handle fall off or something?" She looked a little closer at the rusted remains.

---

_@Eyeris

---

---

The Bae girl ranted and raved, and Jasmine was just about ready to punch this annoying girl in the mouth just to get her to shut up. Yeah, I get it. You get that joke a lot. Jasmine thought to herself as her eyes rolled up into her head far as they could go - she could almost look at her own damn brain at this point. Worst of all, she was being so damn loud. Oooooh, this girl was going to get it. When Bae was just about finished, Jasmine raised her finger to Bae's lips.

"This is why you gotta surround yourself with a bunch of nobodies," Jasmine hissed at Bae. "You got a personality so annoying that only the fattest, ugliest, neckbeard will want you."

She narrowed her eyes as she stepped up to the girl.

"One, do not get smart with me girl," Jasmine got right in Bae's face, and spoke every word with venom. "And two, lower your damn voice or we're going to have a problem, sweetheart."

She grinned a little.

"And I'm sure you don't know how to solve it."

What interrupted their confrontation was the red light returning, and Jasmine could only stare at the blinding light dancing in the sky with her eyes wide. "There, there it is..." Jasmine mused, then the noises got "even worse." She had to grab her ears because it was smashing her ear drums. Bae's idiot friends are screaming like maniacs, and she's just starting to get a little pissed off. She turned towards Cedar.

"For the love of God, will you shut up?!" Jasmine screamed at the man, before she was hurt by her own damn voice and ended up dropping to her knees. Clenching her eardrums tightly.

@Kyrisse@Mr Allen J@R31GN@SouffleGirl123

Audrey practically jumped out of her skin when James grabbed her. She moved quickly, like one who is used to having to fend off unwanted touching, and had his hand in a death grip for just a moment, before she realized who he was and let go.

"James. Shit, where did you come from?"

Meanwhile, she couldn't help but notice all the weirdness. The entire cafe seemed to be falling apart, and Kassidy didn't seem to see James either, just completely missed him and ran right into him. She stumbled backward and knocked into Audrey.

A new pain blossomed in her hand, much like the one in her foot, and she looked down and saw that she was bleeding from it.

"Ach!" she exclaimed, and pressed her palm into her shirt to try to staunch it.

---

Feeling someone bump into him from the side, James didn't think to bother turning to say something -odds are they would just ignore him like everybody else, anyways. He was surprised to hear her say something to him -"Oh, sorry, sorry. I didn't see you there. Uh, sorry, sorry." Came the string of apologies. He considered stopping her to talk, but by the time he opened his mouth, she had excused herself to run off to the door.

At the same time, caught just a bit off guard by the death grip, James stumbled back just a bit as soon as he was let go. In a mock gesture of surrender, he raised his hands above his head.

"Hey now, I'm just- hey wait a minute, Aud? Holy shit, it's been awhile. Good to see you, and glad you can actually see me. I swear to god I must be invisible." He said, giving a glance to the girl at the rapidly decaying door. He looked back to Audrey, raising an eyebrow when she exclaimed in pain. "Woah, you okay? He said, voice tinged with concern for the blood he saw. He looked up to Zoey, behind the counter.

"Yo, you got a bandaid or something back there?" He questioned, looking pointedly at the blue haired girl. He was not entirely sure if that would be enough to staunch the wound on Audrey's hand, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

---

_{@Ellion@Gisk@Kyrisse@R31GN}

---

---

A sigh of relief came from Zoey when Little Baby MacGrath told her that everything was cool. Now, all Zoey has to do is- she doesn't fuckin' know at this point. A lot of different shit happened at once. First, Mary came in, and asked about the lights... Zoey stayed out of that one because, quite frankly, she was done giving a shit about the lights. Then this weirdo comes in and breaks the door! The whole damn thing rusted off. Now, Zoey just knew that was recent. Then... Okay.

Everything was getting overwhelming because there was so much going on in one night. All starting with the lights... what are they? Was the light the cause of this lunacy? Well, Zoey's going to need weed, beer, and some sex if she's going to keep putting up with this shit! A part of her just wanted to take the rest of the night off, but she needed the money.

Then some dude just appeared out of nowhere in front of her. Literally nowhere! Zoey wasn't paying attention, so she just brushed it off as just being tired and weirded out for the night. "Oh shit!" Zoey said as she jumped up. "Yo, where the fresh hell did you come from? It was almost like you appeared outta nowhere - damn!" Zoey said... unprofessionally as possible.

Well, she kind of recognized him... she thinks he's one of the dealers around Greenbriar, she had no idea. He was asking for a band-aid, and Zoey has no reason not to. "Daaamn, why is err'body needing Ms. Gray to be their nurse?" She playfully asked. "Should I put on one of those sexy nurse costumes that show part of my ass and all my tits now?" She laughed as she went into the back and retrieved the medkit, holding it tightly with both hands. She opened it up, and began shifting through it.

Though, she looked at Kass, who was perplexed as she was about the door, and grinned.

"Yo, Kass!" Zoey called out to her boss' daughter. "I should get a bonus for all this nurse-work! Get to it!"

But, she also just had to comment on the door.

"First the cash register, now the door?" Zoey started off. "What's next? The whole damn building burns down?! I hope not, Greenbiar ain't kind to NEETS. Ha!" She laughed.

After she was done talking, she handed James a band-aid.

"Here you go, sweetheart," Zoey said with a wink. "Now, do you need me to kiss your bo-bo?" She started laughing.

@Mr Allen J@R31GN@Kyrisse@SouffleGirl123

"Thanks," Audrey cut in, as Zoey was about to give the bandage to the wrong person. "Uh, some gauze and maybe an alcohol pad?" When Zoey turned them over Audrey started cleaning her hand, and then bandaged one of the cuts. She needed another and when she asked for it, Zoey turned it over easily enough.

She was looking around, not, trying to see what she might have cut herself on, but she hadn't even been touching anything. There was no blood on anything other than herself and the used gauze. She lifted and dropped her hand in a gesture of surrender. "I don't know what even cut me." She looked at Kassidy, who had touched her just before it happened, "You didn't, like, cut me just now, did you?" She spoke more meekly than usual, but she was completely at a loss here.

Kassidy took a deep breath and stared at the door knob as if it would fix itself if she kept staring at it. The depressed mood she had been sinking into turned into irritation. Termites, mopping up blood, fried cash register, several mugs broken, spilled tea, a very very sticky kitchen floor, cut on her hand, a rusted out door handle... This night just keeps getting better and better. She heard Zoey's voice call out to her and it snapped her out her reverie. She forced a small smile onto her lips as she walked back to the counter. "No, no, let's not have the whole place going up in flames, please. I'd like it all to be in one peace when mom comes back. And if you want that bonus, you better be a nurse to me too. I've got a cut of my own." She held up her still wrapped hand, the towel she had used to wrap it tinged red with her blood.

She parked herself beside Audrey just as she addressed her. "No, how would I be able to cut you. I'm not even carrying anything sharp enough to cut. Why, what hap---" She stopped short when her eyes fell on Audrey's hand. "That's strange. Same hand, same crescent shaped cut. Yours cut is a little smaller than mine though. But still a weird coincidence." She said as she slowly unwrapped the towel from her injured hand. "Look, same shape, s---" Kassidy's brow furrowed when she looked at her palm and found smooth, unbroken skin. She looked back at Audrey's hand then back to hers in confusion. "What...? How did it...?"

@Mr Allen J

Bae

Bae felt a little disoriented. She heard each of Jasmine's cruel words. Bae had been bullied before, and thought she had a thick skin for it, but tonight she found Jasmine's words reverberating around in her mind.

... I'm so annoying... Only the fattest ugliest neckbeard will want me... I've got a problem and I don't know how to solve it... She was thinking about how pathetic she was, her self esteem ached, wounded by these thoughts.

"For the love of God, will you shut up?!" Jasmine finished by screamed at Cedar and dropped covering her ears.

Bae scrambled over to Cedar. "Did you lace it with something?" She found herself thinking that the most efficient way to shut Cedar up would be to beat Cedar up. Bae never thought violence was the answer to anything... Not until tonight... She did not try to beat up Cedar, but did shake her shoulder harder than was necessary. She stammered. "Just b-be quiet for... Just for a bit... I can't think... I can't think clearly with all this noise..."

Cedar sniffled, she had begun crying but hushed up. She tilted her head toward the sky, her blue eye seeing something new. She opened her mouth to speak---

--- Bae clasped her hand over Cedar's mouth.

Cedar simply pointed and made a sound "mmmmmm!"

Bae looked, and saw the reverse-shooting star. The silver streak had vanished from sight earlier, and apparently had decided to return...

'What kind of meteor just comes and goes? What is that thing really? Is it one of the lights? Is it an alien? Is it the government?'

@Kyrisse@Mr Allen J@R31GN@SouffleGirl123@NightmareInd@Ellion

"Is it?" Audrey asked, wishing she could compare the shapes of their cuts, but sadly there was only one cut now. Or had there only ever been one? "That's not possible," she murmured to herself, trailing off. Then she turned to Zoey behind the counter.

"Wait, who else did you play nurse for? Was it her?" she pointed toward the door and searched for a name, "Maren? Wait."

She bent down and quickly undid the laces on her boots, then ripped off first boot then blood-soaked sock and put her heel up on the counter. "Was it her foot, did it look like this?"

@Mr Allen J

Bae

Cedar was alarmed by Jasmine's collapsing and yelling. The sight of the streak in the sky. Bae was even acting weird.

"Bae! What do we do?"

"Go away your so l--" Bae snapped, every time Cedar spoke she was flooded with angry thoughts about how loud the girl was and how much she should just go away already and... and... and...

Cedar brightened. "Yeah. I'll go see if anyone else is coming, or... Or I'll see if someone can help her." She gestured to the fallen Jasmine.

Cedar ran up the beach, nearly looking her hat. She went up the steps and toward the Cafe... If she saw police officers she would certainly not go to them for help. Certainly they might be behind all this... She noticed the cafe had a large crowd in it.

Meanwhile, Bae was now alone on the beach with Jasmine under the lights of the sky.

Bae wasn't speaking. She found herself annoyed even with the sound of her own breath! She watched Jasmine through, where she collapsed, wondering what the girl was going through. Bae began to start thinking that she was glad for the quiet... Then she looked to the sky, toward the lights.

What the hell is going on? The lights are back, but what does that mean? She looked toward Jasmine. She is so mean, but, I hope she is okay. What happened to her? The way she is acting is so strange...

---

_{@Eyeris@Gisk@Kyrisse@R31GN}

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Right when Zoey was about to kiss Kass' bo-bo, Audrey came over and showed Zoey her foot. She had the same exact injury that Audrey had, except far less pretty. Jesus, Audrey needs to get out of those butch-girl boots, and slip them into some flip-flops or something. "... First, that is an ugly foot." Zoey just couldn't resist saying. "And yeah... it looked just like that. Were you skinny dipping on the same damn beach, and cut yourself on the same damn glass?" She just couldn't resist quipping - then, the girl wiped that smile off her face when she thought about it.

"But, in all seriousness..." Zoey started off. "... Some really weird shit goin' on here."

That's when some girl just came chargin' into the cafe! Okay, Zoey was already prepared for more of the Twilight Zone-level weirdness. Maybe she'll come in and spider legs will burst out of her back, or she'll breath fire, or some shit. Though, she had a scared look on her face that made Zoey worried.

"Yo, girl!" Zoey said, waving her hand. "What's the haps? Look like you've seen a ghost!"

@Gisk @Mr Allen J @Ellion @R31GN

Kassidy peered at Audrey's foot the same time Zoey did. She blinked, trying to make sense of what was happening. How is it possible that my hand just magically healed when it was just bleeding a few minutes ago?. She looked at her now unmarked hand, running her fingers on where the cut had been only a few minutes ago. And then her eyes shifted to Audrey's hand. How was it that she has the same exact injury as I did? A little smaller but I'm sure it's the same location and same shape and--- was it because I bumped into her? Is this my fault? Did I somehow pass it onto her? Her heart began thudding loudly in her chest, fear and uncertainty crashing through her. Her mind shifted back to the strange lights that lit up the sky. Audrey was outside when the lights reappeared. Did she expose herself to something that caused her to sponge off peoples' injuries? She tried to put things together. But it didn't make sense. How could some lights in the sky do that to someone?

She thought back to how she had been so clumsy the whole night. It all started when the lights appeared too. What if...? She thought about the splintered table and the broken glasses and then shook her head. She almost laughed. It was stupid to think that the lights somehow made her clumsy. They were only light, after all.

Or are they?

Cedar

Cedar tried to communicate but she had to catch her breath after running through sand then running up the stairs in the cliff-side...

"On the beach something weird is happening. There are the lights and... That girl um... Jasmine. There is something wrong with Jasmine! She came over to us, like, freaking out! She was yelling and then she like, collapsed on the beach. Bae is with her now..." Cedar looked uneasy, Bae had been acting really weird to, but Cedar didn't want to talk about it. "I dunno if she broke down because of the lights or something? Or is on a bad trip or if something is really really wrong..." Cedar shuddered a bit, jittery, she felt like she was interrupting something important in the cafe. Usually people in the cafe were clustered in small groups minding their own business, in the Cafe now everyone was talking together. "Can anyone help? Like... Can we her off the beach at least before the tide comes in."