Somewhere in the darkness, sadness stirred. Not the commonplace sadness that tickles the heart from time to time, but the breed that stings the eyes and rusts the soul. The weight of the rust on her corroded spirit began to weigh her down, progressing with heavy, deliberate movements as she neared a clearing in the dark woods.

Just beyond lay a lake, reflecting the moon almost perfectly except for the gentle ripples that split the celestial body into fragmented pieces on the water's surface. Beside the lake crouched a figure, thin arms partially submerged in the water as they braced themselves on the bank, hunched over the water's edge. Their hair was long, obscuring the face of the figure as the dark tresses fell limp down into the lake. As she approached, she noticed beneath the surface that the hair from the figure seemed to lose all form, billowing outward like a dark cloud within the mirror of the lake and spreading further still.

She watched wordlessly with bated breath as the dark cloud spilled further and further across the lake until it had reached the opposite bank. With a sticky smack, a solitary hand broke through the water out from the darkness and gripped the grass between long, thin fingers. Another arm shot through the black and grabbed hold of shore, the ripples across the moon distorting its image even further.

The forest was entirely silent aside from the sloshing of water and something, someone, pulled themselves up from the water. The arms braced themselves against the ground, a head with pink hair breaking through the murk, then a body, then legs that found footing on the water-slicked grass. She held her breath as the newcomer turned slowly towards her, the rust on her soul spreading an iron grip to her lungs, her heart. The newcomer reached up to push away its pink hair, slowly unsticking it from its face.

The moment she saw its face she let out an anguished cry, even while the sadness choked hair from her lungs.


Sofía awoke with a start, sitting upright and peeling her sweat dappled skin from the bed sheets. Where was she? A quick scan of the room revealed two large dressers, an old wooden desk laden with presumably decades worth of mystery stains, a mirror propped up against the wall that reflected the girl's wide-eyed expression, and finally a single mass beneath the blankets beside her whose breathing was slow and steady, unaffected by the drumming of Sofía's heart which surely must have been audible for how it thudded like a war drum in her own ears. The darkness of sleep subsided slowly, the light of an early morning sun bringing some semblance of clarity to her surroundings. She was home.

"Bing?"

If the sudden jolt awake wasn't enough to stir Sofía's sleeping bedmate, the clammy, sweaty hand on her shoulder was. Bing let out a low groan, two hands slipping out from beneath her pillow and wrapping the blanket around her head.

"Bing, where is Fay?" Sofía shook the hidden mass insistently. Begrudgingly Bing rolled to face her girlfriend with only bleary, sleep fraught eyes peeking out from the striped duvet.

"Wh...what time...is it?"

Sofía reached over her partner, laying across her side to the nightstand where her phone charged, tapping a button to light the screen. Flinching away from the sudden brightness, she dropped the phone back on the table and clamored back over Bing.

"It's 6:13."

Bing closed her eyes slowly, narrowing her blanket porthole to trap more of her warm breath beneath the covers. "She's probably just at training then."

"Oh...you're right," Sofía mumbled, her panic slowly starting to fade as she ran her hands over the duvet uncertainly. "I just had the weirdest dream…"

"Mm?" Bing kept her eyes closed, unable to manage anything more than a noncommittal grunt in response.

"Yeah…" Sofía locked eyes with her reflection in the mirror once more. "I was lost in this forest...and there was a lake with this person there. At least I think it was a person, and they had really long hair and it turned into smoke or something in the water and someone started coming out of it and I just had this feeling...like someone was wringing out my organs. And the person coming out of the water...looked just like Countess. I wonder if she was trying to tell me something, you know? Like...is her spirit reaching out to me? And if it is...what do I do? Do you think we did the right thing back then?" Finally breaking eye contact with her reflection, she cast her fretful hazel gaze down at her girlfriend, who was once again completely engulfed by the blankets. "Bing, are you listening to me?"

Silence.

"Did you fall asleep during my heart to heart with you?!" she cried in dismay, pulling the pillow out from underneath the mass and letting her girlfriend's head plop down onto the mattress.

"My first class isn't until 10 today, let me sleep! There will be plenty of time for heart to hearts later at a normal hour!" A foot snaked towards Sofía under the covers, slowly pushing her to the far end of the bed. "Go find Fay if you need to talk right now."

"Maybe I will!" Sofía huffed, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and marching indignantly towards the closet.


The air had just begun to lose the warm weight of summer, taking on a crisp, nippy chill in the early morning. Sofía trudged down the sidewalk to Illumine's campus, keeping an ear out for the sound of the cadets out on their morning run, surely the only ones crazy enough to be out and about at this time of day. Briefly she lamented the choice of socks instead of tights as a gentle breeze ruffled through her skirt and across her bare legs, and she pulled up the zipper on her jacket to protect what she could.

Reaching Illumine University's borders, Sofía overheard the rhythmic pattering of a herd of runners in the distance. Taking a seat on a nearby bench that immediately gave her goosebumps, she waited for the crowd of ROTC cadets to run by, spotting the other member of their triad amongst them, her ponytail bobbing from side to side as the group jogged by. It appeared Fay's blue eyes caught sight of Sofía as well, but her face didn't show it as the group plodded past, maintaining a steely focus.

Just as it was occurring to Sofía that she should have brought a book or something to maintain her interest while she waited, the sweet floral scent of Fay's perfume wafted by on the crisp fall air, and the girl sat down beside her with a smile much too sunny for the time of day.

"Come out to watch us run? I don't think I've ever seen you awake this early!" Fay chortled, reaching up to untie her blonde hair and letting it fall down past her chest.

Sofía snorted, shaking her head, "I had a bad dream, and Bing was being unsupportive." Her bitterness made Fay giggle quietly to herself, shaking her head.

"Neither of you seem to enjoy getting up early, I'm just glad you're both heavy sleepers so I don't wake you up when I leave," she teased, "I'm pretty sure you two could sleep through the end of the world."

"Heyyy," Sofía whined, though she too cracked a smile. "If it's the end of the world you bet I'm gonna be there, it's our job." She faltered slightly. "I would prefer it not be in the middle of the night though, if given the choice. I feel like death itself right now."

Fay raised her brows. "Death itself, hmm? I've never met 'em."


It didn't take much to convince Fay to head to the coffee shop on campus so Sofía could get her caffeine fix. With a giant steaming hot cup of tea before her, and a modest hot chocolate before Fay, the two absent-mindedly people watched out the window as they talked.

"So what's your schedule look like today?" Sofía asked, blowing gently on her drink before raising the cup to her lips.

"Class from 8 until noon, then I have a shift at the bookstore from 1 to 3, and band practice from 3 to 6. I might run to the gym for a bit, but I'll definitely be home for dinner," Fay chirped, taking a sip of her own drink and getting a healthy dollop of whipped cream on the end of her nose. Sofía smiled wryly and passed her girlfriend a napkin, which she accepted graciously. "Do you have work today?"

Sofía shook her head, "The shelter doesn't need me today, so I'll probably just work on the Cure book while you guys are in class. Maybe that'll help me sort out whatever that dream was about."

"Has writing been giving you trouble?" Fay asked, "Maybe the dream was just a result of your stress over getting the story down."

The thought hadn't struck Sofía before, but it seemed plausible. "That could be it. You'd think fighting monsters would be harder than writing about it, not the other way around. Sometimes I wish we could just go back to bring Pretty Cure instead of boring adults."

"It's true!"

A voice caught the attention of the two girls, a student on the other side of the coffee shop dragging her confused boyfriend by the wrist over to their table. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear, you two are really the Pretty Cure? I heard rumors you might go here but I didn't think it was true. Evan these are those warrior girls who fly around and beat up monsters!"

The boy blinked in surprise. "Really? I'd believe the blonde could beat up a monster but her?" he tilted his head towards Sofía, who immediately puffed up in irritation.

"I'm the leader of the Spooky Cures, thank you very much!" she replied indignantly. "Just because the other two are both bigger and more muscular than me doesn't mean I can't kick ass!"

"Would you mind taking a picture with us?" the girl asked, facing Fay who nodded good naturedly, standing up from her seat. "Hey could you take the photo?" she asked, handing Sofía her phone. Sofía's face immediately turned beet red, Fay's brows furrowing apologetically as the smaller girl snatched up the phone. "Alright, everyone flex!"

Sofía snapped a few photos, passing the phone back to the couple and taking her seat again without a word, looking pointedly down at her drink.

"Wow, her arms have better definition than yours," the girl commented to her boyfriend whose face flushed slightly.

"Well I don't get to fight monsters or anything…"

"We actually haven't fought anything in a couple years," Fay admitted with a sweet smile, "But I exercise a lot with the ROTC."

"What do you study here?" the boy asked curiously, "Maybe we'll have a class together sometime!"

"Mechanical engineering, if you're ever in the engineering complex maybe I'll see you around!"

"What about you?" the girl asked, turning to Sofía now.

Sofía took her time with a long sip from her cup, avoiding eye contact momentarily. "I don't study anything, I'm not in school. I work at the women's shelter and I'm writing a book about being a Cure."

"Oh." The girl deflated slightly. "Does the other one go here, the orange one?"

Fay nodded, "She does, she's in the English Lit department and plays volleyball for the university, you might be able to catch her at a game."

"We'll have to check it out, it was great meeting you!" the girl gushed, hooking her arm with her boyfriend's and heading for the door. "Let's go find out where we can get volleyball tickets."

Slowly Fay leaned across the table, giving a pouting Sofía a small kiss on the forehead. "Even if you're not their favorite, you're still the one who brought us all together as a team," she reminded gently. "And I think that's pretty special."


Bing strode across campus with her hands tucked into the pockets of her pants to brace against the fall chill. Perhaps she should have left her hair long until spring rolled back around, she mused, as her current shoulder length bob didn't do much to protect her from the cold. It could be worse, she acknowledged, as Sofía had cut her own hair in a funky asymmetrical style that left one side of her head exposed to the elements.

Old stone buildings dappled the campus' tree-lined sidewalks, leaves beginning to change color and drift down to coat the ground. They crunched underfoot as she walked, crisp in the drying air. The ponds throughout the grounds were also covered in floating discarded leaves, but it was something a little more unusual that caught the prince's eye as she walked to class.

Checking her watch to ensure she had ample time for a detour, she paused and looked more intently at the pond to her right. It sat situated amongst the foliage of bushes and trees just down a shallow embankment from the sidewalk, the water completely still. Yet, somehow, it appeared to Bing that the leaves were moving across the surface despite the stillness of the air. Bracing her hand against a tree as she stepped carefully down the embankment she peered closer still.

The leaves seemed to only be moving in one particular spot in the water, moving outward from a central point while all the other leaves remained undisturbed. As though that were not unusual enough, it looked as though something large was floating just beneath the water's surface, creating a dark shadow underneath the parting leaves. Bing looked behind her to see if anyone was watching her unusual behavior, which thankfully no one appeared to be, and she grabbed a tight hold of a branch as she leaned out over the water to get a better look.

Beneath the surface was a pair of hands pressed upward, as though the water were really a sheet of glass that whatever lie beneath was trying to escape. Glassy pink eyes stared up at her wide-eyed and the being's white fanged mouth hung agape in a silent scream. The sight made Bing's muscles contract immediately in surprise, but the sudden movement shifted the soggy earth underfoot and it gave way quickly sending her tumbling into the frigid water.

Now chilled both inside and out, Bing dared to open her eyes a peek while submerged, but despite it all saw absolutely nothing in the pond with her. Bursting through the surface she clamored for the sidewalk, garnering more than a few odd looks as she strode quickly down the pavement and left a trail of wet footprints and drips behind her. Thankfully, a sympathetic professor agreed that he would not count her absence against her, and she rushed home immediately to change.


"You saw her too, then?" Sofía asked in awe, placing a warm bowl of soup in front of her girlfriend who had changed and wrapped herself in the throw blanket from their couch.

Bing nodded slowly, "She was underneath the water, so I couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like her." Sofía narrowed her eyes, sitting down at the table and shutting her laptop.

"Something is definitely going on, then."

"Well what are we supposed to do about it?" Bing asked, sipping a spoonful of soup. "It's not like we can tell people we're seeing dead a pretty cure." The word hit Sofía with surprising poignancy, and she flinched inwardly at its finality. Dead. "I mean no one else even knew about Countess."

Sofía shook her head. "There's at least one more person outside of us three who did. Maybe we need to talk to Cerberus."

Bing frowned, looking down into her bowl. "Do you think it's Frighton again? They did say that they let all the Frighton refugees know it was safe to go back after Lady Baphomet was gone…"

The prospect hurt Sofía's heart to think about. Would the people of Frighton really go back to tormenting them after they had worked so hard to save their home?

"I guess there's only one way to find out."