Tom had just finished his Underwordly duties for the day, and was ready to kick back and relax as he strode up to the door of his room in Castle Lucitor. Putting his key in the lock, he heard unusual sounds coming from inside. Pressing his ear up to the door, Tom was sure he heard voices in his room. Ones that didn't sound like the usual tortured screams of the damned. Wondering if the castle maids might be inside, and not wanting to startle them, he turned the key and knocked, opening the door slowly. "Hello?"

As he cracked the door open, he found an unrecognized but vaguely familiar figure sitting on his couch, leaned back and watching a movie. "Oh, hey Tom." Janna grabbed the nearby remote, pressing the mute button for the TV. "What are you doing here?"

"ME?" Tom took the remaining stairs down to his room in a single bound, landing near the couch and pointing a finger at the intruder. "What are YOU doing here!?"

Janna smiled, wagging a single finger at Tom. "I asked you first."

Under normal circumstances, Tom would have been beyond furious at finding an uninvited guest in his bedroom, but her sheer lack of chalantness left him mostly just confused. He could swear he recognized the girl from somewhere, but he couldn't quite place her. "It's... it's MY room."

"Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Love the decor." Janna looked around the room, gesturing toward furniture covered in spikes, torture racks, and molten lava flowing from the mouths of monstrous skulls. "Plus I found this little guy!" Janna lifted the blanket next to her on the couch.

Tom gasped as he saw his pet bunny poke his head out from under the cover. "AHHHHHH! Marshmallow!" Tom formed a fireball in his hand, ready to fight for his pet's life. "Don't you lay a FINGER on him!"

Janna looked offended at the mere suggestion as Marshmallow crawled out from underneath the blanket, looking up at her. "Your frilly little pink bunny? No way! He's cool." Janna held out a fist to Marshmallow, who bumped it with his tiny paw.

Tom let the demonic fire fade from his grasp as he saw that the animal was in no danger. He squinted and stepped in for a closer look at Janna as gears started to turn in his head. "Wait a minute. I know you... You were at Star's Stump Day party." Tom snapped his fingers as the memory rose to the surface of his mind. "That's it! Janna! Marco warned me about you."

Some part of Tom's sentence got Janna's attention. "Yeah?" She rose from her seat, slowly approaching Tom. "He was right."

Tom couldn't believe his eyes, ears, or any of his other senses as she stepped closer to him. "Wha- how did you get in my room? How did you get past the castle guards? How did you even get to this DIMENSION?"

Janna leaned in close to Tom's face, forcing him to back up as she winked at him. "Trade secret."

Tom put his hands on Janna's shoulders and gently pushed her away. "Unless you want me to personally, LITERALLY throw you out of the castle, you better tell me what this is really about."

Janna backed up and returned to her seat on the couch next to Marshmallow, appearing confused by the question. "What do you mean? I was bored, and all the stuff Star told me about the Underworld sounded pretty metal, so I decided to come here."

"Here. My room." Janna gave an unenthusiastic shrug in response. Tom rubbed his temples, trying to make sense of the strange individual currently occupying his couch, until a thought struck him. "Hold on. Did Brian put you up to this?"

Janna raised an eyebrow, a look of confusion on her face. "Who?"

Tom finally had an idea of what Janna was up to. This had to be a test set up by his life coach. Brian said he'd been improving lately, so maybe this was something harder. Tom quickly resolved to keep himself calm. "This is an anger management thing, isn't it? He's probably watching us right now, just waiting to see if I snap." Tom's eyes began scanning the room, looking for anywhere Brian might be hiding.

Janna laid down and stretched out on the couch, stroking Marshmallow's fur gently as he laid next to her. "If you say so."

"Alright. I like a challenge." Tom took a calming breath, attempting to come up with solution to his Janna problem. For starters, he decided to try the direct approach. "Let's try this again. Janna? Will you leave my room?"

Janna gave Tom a wicked grin. "What's the magic word?"

Tom groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, but kept his cool, unwilling to let Janna get the best of him. "Oh for the love of... fine. Janna, will you PLEASE leave my room?"

Janna sucked air across her teeth, shaking her head. "Ooh... sorry. Didn't you get the memo? They changed the magic word last week. Now it's chickenbutt."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Tom could feel his skin beginning to smolder as his eyes went blank. He ran to the couch and grabbed his bunny, cradling the creature in his arms and beginning to pet his soft fur.

Janna could feel the heat from his body as he approached her, reaching out for the rabbit as Tom snatched it away. "Careful, you're gonna toast Marshmallow!"

Tom was briefly surprised by Janna's lack of fear for herself or her own safety, but the thought was quickly pushed out by his rage. He began pacing his bedroom with his pet curled up against him, circling and muttering to himself as he attempted to quell his emotions. "Go to your calm place... pet out the anger... think happy thoughts..."

Janna watched Tom's steps burn scorch marks up and down the floor, until his feet eventually stopped leaving tracks as his body cooled. "Geez, you weren't kidding about anger management. Dude, relax! Marco never set himself on fire when I broke into his house."

Broke into his house. He didn't know how she'd done it, but he knew she'd done it. Tom didn't even want to know how or why anymore, he just wanted her gone. He practically spat his words at her through clenched teeth. "Then why don't you go bother MARCO?"

Janna stopped cold as she heard the question. She scooted back against the arm of the couch and drew her legs up close to her body, wrapping her arms tight around them. "Marco's no fun anymore. Ever since he started dating Star they've been too busy trying suck each other's faces off." There was just a tinge of envy in her voice.

Tom's rage finally died down as he realized he might have some real ammunition again Janna. He was still going to throw her out, but getting in a parting shot couldn't hurt. After being on the ropes on his own turf, Tom decided he might actually enjoy being able to fight back. "Oh really?" He turned his head toward her with a smirk. "Jealous much?"

Tom thought he saw Janna flinch, but it was so slight that he wondered if it had been his imagination. "Pfft. Project much?"

The accusation seemed so ridiculous to Tom that he couldn't even bring himself to be mad about it. "HAH! You think I'M jealous of THEM? You really are nuts." As Tom regained control of himself, he felt the crisis was over and put Marshmallow back in his cage, then returned to stand at the opposite end of the couch to Janna.

Janna looked at Tom curiously, tilting her head. "You sure? The way I heard it, you and Marco had a pretty serious bromance going on."

"IT WASN'T A BROMANCE!" Tom felt his anger beginning to rise again. Perhaps he'd let Marshmallow go too soon. "I'M NOT JEALOUS BECAUSE OF MARCO! I'M JEALOUS BECAUSE OF-... because of..." As he thought about what he'd almost said, Tom's rage faded as fast as it had begun. He shook his head and balled his hands into tight fists, contorting his face in frustration as he turned away from Janna. "Ugh... nothing. Just forget it."

Tom's outburst provoked a look of genuine sympathy from Janna, who took her feet off the couch as she turned her body toward Tom, watching him with concern. "Woah. Are you okay?"

Tom was, to say the least, surprised by the reaction. Janna had seemed completely indifferent to his anger, possibly even enjoying it, but his sadness appeared to strike a chord. He sighed as he took a seat on the couch opposite to Janna. "Man, I don't even know." He leaned over in his seat and buried his head in his hands momentarily, rubbing his face before taking them away. Tom slumped back into the couch, not even looking at Janna. "It's just... I worked so hard trying to get Star to like me, and she still broke up with me. Twice. The guy she's dating now was already her best friend a week after they met. Come on! It's like, what do I have to do to impress her?"

"Psh, story of my-" Janna stopped short and cleared her throat for several seconds, almost sounding like she was choking. "I mean... whatever, I guess."

"Heh. Sorry. Guess I should save this for therapy." Tom ran his fingers through his hair nervously, wondering if it was really wise to tell Janna about, well, anything.

"Well... don't worry about it. Everybody needs to vent sometimes, right?" Janna looked around the room nervously, then gestured toward the muted TV. "Hey, uh, do you wanna watch the rest of this movie with me?"

Tom had almost forgotten that the TV was still on until Janna pointed it out. He HAD been planning to relax in his room, and it was starting to look like this was as close as he would get today. "Huh. I don't think I've seen this one before."

"It's actually not too bad." Janna raised a hand and pointed to the screen. "See the squid lady there? Turn's out she's actually the hero's mom."

"OH, SPOILER ALERT!" Tom threw his hands up in the air in exasperation.

Janna snickered as she watched Tom's reaction. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! That one wasn't even real." To Tom's amazement, it seemed even Janna had SOME standards. "You did pick a really bad time to come in though. It's just about over."

"Gee, sorry about being late for a surprise movie screening in my own room." Tom rolled his eyes, putting up the recliner on his side of the couch.

Janna flashed a smile as she grabbed the remote, unmuting the volume. "It's cool. Just don't let it happen again."

Tom grumbled quietly, turning his attention toward the TV and trying to focus on the movie.

A few minutes into the viewing, Tom spoke up, trying to catch up with the story after coming in so late. "So, wait, I'm totally lost. Why does the squid lady have to leave this guy again?"

Janna muted the TV, scratching her head as she tried to think of the best way to explain the plot thread. "Well, like she said, people wouldn't understand. They're not even from the same world. They're just... too different." Her tone sounded almost sympathetic.

Tom shrugged dismissively, unconvinced by the reasoning. "So? Who cares what other people think? Who cares if you're different? If I liked a girl, I wouldn't let anything stop me."

Janna's finger rested on the mute toggle button, ready to resume the movie, but something held her back. After hesitating for a moment, she turned toward Tom, her voice unusually quiet. "... even her?"

Tom sighed and leaned the couch recliner as far back as it would go, staring up at the ceiling. "Huh. I used to think that wouldn't stop me. Like if you just try hard enough, they'll eventually fall for you."

Janna leaned back in her seat and watched the ceiling right along with him. "And yet here we are."

"Yeah." The movie was all but forgotten as they both gazed up at the ceiling, as though they would catch something moving if they watched it long enough. After nearly a full minute, it was Tom who finally broke the silence with a soft but drawn out sigh. "I don't know... maybe you just get to a point where it's time for something new."

Janna watched Tom out of the corner of her eye for a long moment as he leaned forward to view the TV. "Something new, huh?" She pulled a small spiral notebook and pen from her jacket and began to scribble something on it.

As Tom heard the paper rustle, he turned and leaned in to look, not quite able to see it from his present position. "What are you writing?"

Janna didn't even look up at Tom from the notebook, turning so the front of it was facing directly away from him. "Oh, this? I'm writing none of your dang business."

"Is that my evaluation for Brian?" Tom tried to find an angle where he could get a look at the paper, but it was no use. There was no way he could see anything from where he was.

After a few more seconds of drawing on the pad of paper, Janna tore the piece away. She folded it and put the sheet, pad and pen back in her pockets before unmuting the TV. "Still don't know who that is."

"Fine. Be that way." Tom pulled away, leaning back in his seat and returning his attention to the movie.

After a few more minutes of watching, Tom made peace with the fact that he had come in too late to really follow the plot of the movie, and instead found himself lost in thought as the final scenes played. The more he considered his present situation, the stranger it seemed. Brian had asked him to do some unusual things as part of his therapy, but he'd never done anything without explaining it first. Even when he was forced to spend the day with Marco, Brian had given him fair warning and clear expectations. This just wasn't his style. As the credits began to roll, he wondered if Janna might actually be telling the truth. "Hey Janna. Brian, my life coach... he really didn't send you, did he?"

Janna's eyes stayed fix on the screen as she responded. "Nope."

"You just decided to show up at my place. Even though we barely know each other." Tom still couldn't begin to understand how, or more importantly, why.

"Yep." Janna remained completely expressionless.

Although, Tom thought, if even half the stories Marco had told him were true... "Okay."

Janna stood up from the couch, stretching, and Tom stood up along with her, the pair facing each other. "I should probably get going though. Can't waste the whole day messing around here. I've got a life." As she brushed past Tom on the way to the bedroom door, she reached out and gave his butt a firm smack.

"Hey, watch it!" Tom's entire body jerked in shock as he turned toward Janna, blushing as he tried to process what had just happened.

Janna turned her head and gave Tom a sly grin as she headed toward the door. "See you around, hot stuff."

Tom blinked as he watched Janna leave. He wasn't sure whether to take her words as a goodbye or a threat. "You think so?"

As Janna reached the top of the stairs leading out of Tom's room, she twisted her body around toward him. "Oh, I think we'll be seeing each other again. That is... unless you're letting me keep this." Janna reached into the inner pocket of her jacket, producing a worn leather wallet covered in eldritch runes.

"What the- " Tom began frantically checking his clothes for his wallet. When he reached the back pocket where it should have been, he found only a small, folded piece of paper that he was sure hadn't been there before. As he began to pull it out to look at it, he heard his bedroom door slam. He ran up the stairs as fast as he could, yelling after her. "Janna! Get back here with my-" As he flung the door open, he was surprised to find that she had seemingly vanished into thin air. Even though he couldn't think of any way she could have made it out of sight on the long, straight staircase leading up to the rest of the castle, there was no sign of her.

As he wondered where Janna could have disappeared to so fast, Tom realized he was still holding the unread paper in his hand. He unfolded it slowly, not sure what to expect, but finding it covered with hand drawn skulls and pentagrams. His expression went blank as he looked over two lines written in careful lettering. "... huh." He stepped back into him room and closed the door behind him, walking over to his pet cage and addressing its fuzzy occupant. "Y'know Marshmallow, I think I still sort of want to kill her, and she's definitely a little crazy." A small smile started to form on Tom's face as he returned his attention to the paper. "But then again..."

626-555-1475
Call me! - Janna

"... I like a challenge."