“Fallen angels at my feet, whispered voices at my ear, death before my eyes, lying next to me I fear, she beckons me, shall I give in? Upon my end, shall I begin? Forsaking all I've fallen for, I rise to meet the end.” “Whisper,” Evanescence

“Reality is such a lie,” Sascha said. Her best friend Selene looked up from her book and raised an eyebrow.

“Why would you think that?” Selene asked, closing the book. The two friends were spending their weekend afternoon as they always did: just hanging out together, reading, writing, laughing, watching movies. Typical activities for eighteen year olds. Every now and then they got serious and discussed things, and that was when they knew they really were best friends. No matter what, each could go to the other with whatever problem they had.

“I don’t know, everything in life just seems so fake and superficial,” Sascha complained. “Why do we do anything? There’s always an ulterior motive to everything. We work to get money. We go to school not to learn but to have the credentials to get good jobs. We spend all of our lives doing things aimed at achieving something else. It’s not fair.”

“I don’t see how that makes reality a lie, hun,” Selene smirked. “I do know what you mean though. But that’s life and there’s nothing you can do about it except keep jumping through the hoops.”

“I’m not athletic, and neither are you,” Sascha grinned. “It’s just fun to think about this stuff. I mean, people are so far immersed in their little societal bubbles, and then you and I are here complaining about reality.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re the one complaining. I’m just listening.”

“This is true, Selene, but you know you agree with me. Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to ‘jump through the hoops,’ as you put it?” Sascha asked. Selene nodded.

“Yes. It would. But that is impossible. Real life isn’t like movies and television and anime,” Selene said, sighing at the sad truth of her statement. The girls were obsessed with good movies and anime, though not so much television.

The old woman who had heard this conversation, held on Sascha’s front porch, smiled to herself. She had known from the moment she saw Sascha and Selene that they were the two girls perfect for her plan, and had been spying on them ever since. She wanted to make sure, and her conviction to use the two had only strengthened as she found out more about them.

Sascha was the younger of the friends, but only by a few months. Her father had died when she was young and Sascha had only recently realized how much that event had shaped who she was. She was still dealing with that, but the woman saw in Sascha a spiritual strength unmatched in any other individual she had considered for her plan. It more than made up for Sascha’s lack of physical strength. The girl was small. Sickly as a child, Sascha was very petite, only five feet tall. She wasn’t scrawny, but she didn’t have much muscle to her. Sascha was an intense girl with a lot of passion she let out through the arts rather than sports.

That was why her best friend was Selene. Selene was also very artistic, perhaps even more so than Sascha. Her home life seemed normal enough: mother, father, brother, but Selene had also suffered because of her family. This was partly why the woman wanted them. Neither girl felt much allegiance to anything except each other. Selene was taller than her friend, five foot seven. She was stronger physically, though not athletically so. Her spirit was free. Intense when she wanted to be, and definitely strong in character, Selene was the water to Sascha’s fire.

They were the perfect best friends almost out of necessity. Neither girl was very popular with anyone else they knew. This had made them bitter to a point, but since they had each other they usually just pitied the masses who had once made them miserable.

“Speaking of movies and anime, have you seen ‘Millennium Actress’ yet?” Selene asked suddenly. Sascha shook her head. “It’s about this guy who-“

“Don’t tell me! I’ll watch it myself,” Sascha interrupted. Selene grinned.

“You’d better; it’s really good,” Selene said. The girls got into a discussion of anime, one of their favourite topics besides their favourite writers, completely unaware of the woman reflecting on them a few feet away.

“Reality, eh?” The woman asked out loud. Her plan would definitely alter their idea of reality, although from the sound of their conversation, the two girls would not mind all that much. It would take some getting used to, the woman knew, but she also knew they would handle it just fine and make sure her plan was executed. The old woman had a lot riding on it, and once the girls got involved, so would they. She briefly pondered when to reveal herself to the girls. She would not have to set her plan into motion just by talking to them, and she thought maybe talking to them without arousing suspicion first would make them more open to the plan and make the transition easier.

The old woman checked her appearance. She was wrinkly from age but had a regal air about her from years of graceful leadership. She had been tall, but health problems were starting to affect her. She was not stooped, and did not look like a hag, but one could say that she would eventually look like one. She had no warts or other identifiable marks; her light blue eyes were crystalline and belied her age. Her hair had since turned grey and she wore it in a bun with a few loose tendrils. She was wearing loose plum slacks and a light weight, grey sweater. A plum, grey, and rose scarf around her neck and sturdy black shoes made the old woman look like she worked at an office somewhere, when in fact the old woman had no occupation.

Smoothing the lines on her sweater, the woman walked around the back of Sascha’s house and quietly through the yard. She slipped onto the sidewalk, as Sascha lived on a corner, and proceeded to walk up the street to the opposite corner and turn so that if she started walking she would walk past the front of Sascha’s house now. She headed for the girls on the porch, trying not to look like a cat eying mice.

“Excuse me, girls, I’m sorry to interrupt you,” the old woman said, her voice rich and cultured. Selene glanced at Sascha sideways.

“Hi, what can we do for you?” Selene asked. The woman smiled.

“I just moved in yesterday a few blocks down and happened to see you two. I was wondering if you had some free time, if you wouldn’t mind helping me with the boxes? Unpacking and disposing of the cardboard? I’m an old woman and it’s a lot to do by myself. I would pay you both, of course,” she explained.

“Give us a minute,” Selene said, smiling, and turned to her friend. “We have nothing else to do.”

“We do need money, and hey, if she’s going to sort of be my neighbor, it’d be nice of us. You practically live here anyway so she’d be your neighbor, too. Let’s do it,” Sascha said. Selene grinned and they turned back to the woman. “We’ll do it.”

“I’m Selene, and that’s Sascha, by the way. She lives here, and I just visit a lot,” Selene explained. The woman shook hands with each of them.

“I am Aubrey Morrigan, and thank you both so much for helping me,” the woman said. Sascha stuck her head in the house and yelled to her mother what she was doing, then the girls got down from the porch and started walking down the street with the woman. “I don’t expect to get very much done today, since it’s so late already, but you can at least see the house and make sure you still want to help me.” Aubrey laughed.

Aubrey lived in a house that Sascha was only vaguely familiar with. The previous owners had been a very private middle-aged couple with no children or pets. It was rather large, with a basement, first floor, second floor, and a spacious attic. It had murky brown siding and black shutters, and a wrap-around porch. It resembled Sascha’s own house for the most part, except hers was white with blue shutters.

The inside had a lot of boxes scattered throughout it; the old woman had a lot of stuff collected up over the years. The furniture was in place for the most part, but the first thing Aubrey had the girls do was fix the arrangement of the living room. That was the first room Aubrey wanted done because it was the first room people saw once they got past the foyer. While Aubrey hung her beige, lace curtains, Sascha and Selene unpacked knick knacks and put them on display, then carefully folded up the boxes and stacked them neatly in a pile.

Aubrey offered the girls dinner, but they were both tired and figured they would head home. Selene’s mom was making them lasagna and was a notoriously good cook. They agreed to come back soon and do more work though.

“Well, what do you think?” Selene asked as she and Sascha walked past Sascha’s house, heading for her own. Sascha shrugged.

“She seems nice enough, and she’s better than that couple. They were so grouchy, remember? Besides, she’s going to pay us to help her out, and we need the money. It’s not like it’s hard labor or anything,” she replied.

“Yah. I wonder what her story is,” Selene said. “She was dressed awfully nicely for unpacking boxes and hanging curtains.”

“Maybe she just doesn’t like to wear scummy clothes in front of people she just met? Good impression for the new neighbors or something,” Sascha offered.

“Could be. Or maybe she had somewhere important to be before she found us and didn’t have time to change or something.”

They reached Selene’s house and managed to score large helpings of lasagna, which was quite an accomplishment considering the way her brother ate. It was delicious and they each had a second helping. After dinner, they decided to watch a movie as a way to procrastinate doing their science homework. The choice was, of course, the epic ‘Lord of the Rings,’ not just because they were in love with Orlando Bloom, but because it was three hours long.

Aubrey Morrigan sighed as she went into her back room and locked the door behind her. This was the only room in the house unpacked in its entirety, and no bigger than a closet. She had set it up herself when she moved in the day before. It had a cherry oak wood table with a bowl of deep crimson liquid in it, incense, candles, a bookshelf already full of books, and a painting. The only thing that didn’t actually belong there was the painting, and the most important thing in the tiny room was the liquid in the bowl.

The painting was there because it was instrumental to Aubrey’s plan. It was how she planned on getting Sascha and Selene home with her. She knew the words by heart for the spell she needed to cast on the painting, but she got the book down anyway and looked it up. She hated referring to it as a ‘spell,’ that implied she was a witch or sorceress, which she was not. Where she was from, her own world, using words to manipulate matter was common, though she was better at it than most, and not just from more practice. Some people just had a knack for it.

The liquid in the bowl could have been mistaken for blood, such was its colour and consistency. It was actually a drink from Aubrey’s home world, a sort of liquid ambrosia. Aubrey fought the temptation to gulp it down and instead turned her attention to the painting. She would enchant it to become a portal to her world, and seal it by spreading the back of the painting with the drink. Aubrey began her preparations on the painting.

‘Home world,’ she thought to herself bitterly. ‘Makes me sound like some kind of alien.’ She thought again of her spell, and her mind continued, ‘A common witch or sorceress? Me? That’s a laughable assumption. Of course, so is an alien. I am a mere human, sad to say, who stumbled upon an alternate reality. One with promising occupants, I must add. There is hope yet for my world. This one seems so primitive and barbaric compared to the things that exist in mine, yet this one is so peaceful. It makes sense, I suppose, and yet… Sascha and Selene are my last hope. My only hope.’

Aubrey recited the words now, and then carefully spread the drink, known as ruad, over the back side of the painting, watching as it was absorbed into the canvas without ruining the paint. She waved her hand in front of the painting and could feel the pull of her home. Aubrey smiled in satisfaction. The next time the girls came over, they would not be leaving.

“Would you please take your seat? I’d like to begin class now.” The irate voice of her English teacher caused Selene to jump and, sending a grin at the boy she’d been talking to, return to her seat next to Sascha, who rolled her eyes.

“You know better than to try that in this class, that woman is a hawk, not a person,” Sascha chastised her friend, who just kept smiling.

“Whatever. He told me to call him,” Selene said in a sing-song voice. Sascha physically turned in her seat to gape at her friend.

“Oh, you lucky bitch,” Sascha muttered without real envy. Neither had a boyfriend, and neither was actively looking for one, but eye candy that wanted to be called was always a good thing. They might not have been popular, but people did at least talk to the girls. While some outcasts were such because they had the appearances of geeks or just unattractiveness, neither girl was of either inclination.

Selene Tryphonikos was very evidently Greek. She was tall and curvy, and could eat as much as any football player. She had dark red hair with a multitude of high and low lights, some natural, others not. No one quite knew where the hair colour came from, though there were whispers of an Irishman a few generations back. The red hair was thick and straight, with a bit of a curl under, hitting her shoulders. Her eyes were a rich brown colour that darkened so much when she was angry they appeared to be black. Her skin had an olive tone and she was very pretty. Selene dressed however she wanted to- sometimes it was a matter of what was clean, but usually the girl just went with whatever was comfortable and looked at least half decent. Because of her frame, there were few things she couldn’t pull off, she just chose not to wear most of it.

Sascha Geninov, on the other hand, was Russian, with some Italian thrown in. At five foot tall, she had the overall build of a pixie: very tiny. She was not so much curvy as spritely. Her jet black hair fell halfway down her back, and she had a light fringe of bangs covering her peridot eyes. Her dark hair created a dramatic contrast against her pale skin, but Sascha refused to tan. She was striking but not overly so. Sascha liked high fashion, though she couldn’t afford it. She wasn’t trendy, but she did dress well and had a penchant for girly outfits, though as a general rule she despised ruffles. Despite being so small, she managed to make it look good without appearing to be six years old.

The English class today was dealing with their reading of Sophocles’s Oedipus the King. Both Sascha and Selene loved literature, so they actually paid attention. It was the only class that managed to hold their attention. Sascha was the better student, but both girls did reasonably well. After English class was lunch, and the cafeteria was serving all purpose patties disguised as veal and rice with sauce.

“Ew, what is this stuff and why am I going to eat it?” Sascha asked, sitting down across from Selene.

“The usual crap, and because you are ravenously hungry and it’s the only thing being served?” Selene laughed. Sascha made a disgusted face then tried her food.

“You know, if you cover it in the sauce it’s not quite so bad,” she said. The girls at the end of the table opposite them glared and picked at their salads while the friends dug into their own food.

“Okay, so English class boy, spill,” Sascha said after swallowing a mouthful of rice. Selene wriggled her eyebrows at her friend.

“His name is Max and there’s not much to tell. He’s sat there all year, in case you haven’t noticed. I started talking to him a few weeks ago when you were absent and I had nothing to before class. He reads! He actually reads!” Selene exclaimed.

“Wow. I am impressed, Selene. He’s cute enough, I guess, but just because he reads doesn’t make him perfect. Only near perfect,” Sascha laughed.

“Oh, you laugh, but I did get his number, and he does want me to call him. He seems really cool, anyway, so maybe we’ll hang out sometime,” Selene pouted.

“Go for it. Any possibilities there?” Sascha asked.

“Sascha! I can’t believe you sometimes!” Selene said, exasperated. “You know I don’t want a boyfriend right now.”

“Famous last words there,” Sascha retorted. “But seriously, I’m only teasing you. I know you’ve got a lot going on school-wise. Why complicate things even more with the b-word?”

“Exactly. Now finish your rice, damn it, we have shit to do,” Selene said.