Hey, thanks for the favorites and follows and stuff! I was… kind of expecting everyone to hate this. Strange. But thank you very much! :D

Thanks for reading!

The Dusty Flashmatic

On a dull, wintry Saturday evening, Mary slammed her car door with a yawn. Snowflakes were starting to spin in the cold air. She stretched her arms up to the sky and reached on her tip toes. Satisfied, she slung her canvas bag over her shoulder and made her way across the gravel drive to the house she grew up in.

The screen door creaked on its hinges as Mary struggled to open the second door. With a huff, she kicked the screen door back and forced the knob, successfully stumbling into her front hall with the doors crashing behind her. A few peaceful seconds ticked by before yowling and howling and squeaking rounded the corner, and Mary was met by her excitable pug Wendy.

"Down! Down, Wendy!" Mary said, kicking off her boots and hanging up her coat.

Wendy wasn't deterred by this rude greeting, stretching her paws up and clawing at Mary's khaki pants. Mary greeted her in turn, fondly ruffling her ears.

"Hello!" Her mother's voice called from the kitchen.

Mary shrugged off her ugly purple polo shirt and shook out her long hair. "Hi!"

"Hello," her Nana smiled as Mary dodged Wendy circling her feet to get to the kitchen where her grandmother sat. She twiddled her fingers for a girlish wave. "How was your day?"

"Eh," Mary answered, slouching her shoulders. She blew the bangs from her eyes. "Is Evie here yet?"

"No, should we be looking out for her?" Mary's mother craned her neck in question, stirring some browning meat on the stove. "I didn't know she was coming."

"Whoops," Mary said. "Well, she said she was going to be here about a half hour ago, so… we've got about two hours until she's here."

Mary's mother smiled, rolling her eyes. They always liked to tease Evalyn for her lack of punctuality. "Well, we're having tacos tonight!"

"Super!" Mary shouted back, already pounding up the stairs to her room.

"Always in a hurry!" Her Nana chided as Mary's mother shook her head in good humor.

Mary opened the only closed door in the hall, taking a moment to look across where her sister's empty room was. She shut the door behind her, already changing clothes where she was standing. Pulling on blue plaid pajama bottoms, Mary straightened her white undershirt and decided on a quick snack. Her chocolate stash was looking low, but she had some cherry cordials left – her favorite.

Mary nearly tripped over a plastic bag sitting by her dresser. A cordial still sticking out of her mouth, Mary looked curiously down at it. Kneeling, she opened the bag and found different Christmas ornaments and decorations found on their tree.

"Nana…" Mary rolled her eyes. Her Nana was becoming more forgetful with every passing day. The family would find all sorts of different things in strange places, from M&M's in the vacuum closet to sandwiches in coat pockets. It was an everyday occurrence, some days more fun than others.

Picking up the bag, Mary exited her room and went straight across the hall to her Nana's. It was a master bedroom with a very large window over-looking the roof of their porch and the rest of their backyard. It was a nice view, especially for sunsets, and Mary would often crawl out through the window to sit on the roof and watch the sky turn to night.

Mary wasn't sure where to put her grandmother's bag of knickknacks and decided on the bed where her Nana would be sure to see it. She popped another cherry cordial in her mouth that was slightly melted from the warmth of her hand. Suddenly curious, Mary turned to her Nana's long-forgotten vanity.

The mirror was huge, reflecting the entirety of Mary and the room behind her in excess. The blonde hair that reached down the middle of her back was looking particularly frayed from the wind outside and the polo shirt going over her head with strands sticking out from the static. Ignoring this, Mary turned her attention to a drawer that was slightly ajar. No one used the vanity anymore, not even her Nana. The top was dusted over with disuse, and most of the drawers were stuck closed from the wood bowing. It was a relic. So why would one of the drawers be left open?

Kneeling, Mary swallowed her chocolate and wiped her sugar-coated hands on her pants. She tested the handle first, noting it was very loosely connected and not much use anymore. She carefully inched her fingers into the small crack, pulling and tugging to test its strength. The drawer seemed pretty sturdy and stubbornly stuck. Setting her jaw, Mary grabbed the top of the drawer with both hands. She gave it a firm yank and it jerked open, sending Mary back on her butt.

What in the world…? Mary held the long bangs out of her face as she righted herself, peering into the dark drawer's contents.

A single, thick red binder was next to some sort of… hair dryer? Pistol? Garden hose. Yes, it definitely looked like the nozzle of a garden hose.

Wrinkling her nose in confusion, Mary's eyes went to the nozzle first. The winter's static electricity still pulsing on her clothes gave her a zap when she tried to touch it. She squeaked in surprise and retracted her hand, sucking the finger that had met the flash of blue prickling light. Frowning harder, she tried again and found she could lift it without further surprise. It was made of solid, cool metal. The green tint was covered in dust. The front end looked like a flashlight of some sort, and much like a pistol, had a red trigger button. There was a back panel full of buttons with different kinds of numbers and commands like a remote control. Faded gold print on the side read Zenith and underneath, barley legible: Flash-Matic.

Mary ignored the binder, thinking it was nothing of interest. She replaced the hose nozzle in the drawer and did her best to shut it, but it stuck worse and refused to close more than halfway. Grumbling, Mary stood and hurried to her computer to look up what on Earth the Zenith company was.

Not long after Mary opened up her laptop, Wendy started furiously barking again. Crawling across her bed, Mary peered out the window and saw headlights in the growing darkness. Her friend wasn't so late after all. "Evie!"

Mary excitedly pounded down the stairs, acting much like her screaming dog. She ran through the living room and to the door, pushing Wendy out of the way to open it. Wendy squeezed by and propped her stubby legs up on the bottom glass of the screen door to see out. She squeaked and her curly tail spun when she saw who it was, a regular to the Porter home.

"Hey, Evie!" Mary called, opening the storm door. Wendy raced out into the cold, greeting her friend much like she was a member of the family.

Evie struggled to carry her pack, sleeping bag, and pillow as she fought off Wendy and tried to close her car door at the same time. When she got close enough, she breathed out a tired: "Hi!"

Mary took the sleeping bag from her with a bit of a fight on Evie's part, letting her into the house. Wendy scurried inside first, her brown fur clinging to Evie's pants already. "Dinner should be ready – you hungry?"

"Sure!" Evie nodded, dumping her stuff to take off her sneakers. She was finally able to give Wendy some attention, and the happy pug was glad to nuzzle into her scratching hands.

"Hi, Evie!" Mary's mother called. At the sound of her voice, Wendy took off like a bullet for the kitchen.

"Hi!" Evie said again. Clumsily dragging her things into the kitchen, she sent Mary's Nana a shy wave.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Mary urged, tugging on her friend's arm to get her to the stairs. "I'm starving!"

"I'm coming, jeez!" Evie whined at being manhandled.

The mysterious Flashmatic went forgotten until later that night after food and reunions. Since Evie was home for her winter break from college, they would finally get to catch up and hang out like they usually did all summer. Mary should have been in school, too, the same year as Evie, but she had dropped out due to a mixture of motives - financial incapability and general hatred of the school system being part of it. Also, a good dose of immaturity and a strong will to break from the norm didn't hurt her decision to leave either.

Mary sat on her bed, a red lollipop in her mouth. Melvin, her pink stuffed monkey, was in her arms as she snuggled cross-legged in her blankets.

"So which one are we doing this time?" Evie asked, indicating the DVD menu lighting up the small television found in Mary's room.

"Fruits Basket!" Mary exclaimed. "It's a lot like that other show I made you watch, but it actually has a plot. Well… a better plot, anyways. I just like the characters from Ouran so much, I had to show you that one first. Besides, I just got Fruits Basket, so… party time!"

Evie curiously picked up the brand new box set and looked over the cover art. This new show looked innocent enough - Evie had heard Mary talk about it before. It was a classic she was willing to look into. After all, if Mary was so in love with it, she'd probably like it, too, since she wound up liking the other show so much. Their preferences were conveniently very similar despite their glaringly dissimilar personalities.

Mary was still prattling on about the next ten-plus hour marathon they were about to push through. "You're totally going to love Tohru. She's such a great person; I want to try to be more like her. Even though that sounds pretty silly…"

"Nah…" Evie shook her head, snuggling with her orange stuffed cat. She was feeling really warm in Mary's stuffy room, but she didn't want to take her socks off. Evie almost never took her socks off. She could be surprisingly stubborn about it.

"Oh! And you can't like the character I don't like – I don't know how I'll be able to talk to you," Mary warned, though it sounded dreadfully serious. Her expression wavered as her eyes rolled, like she was trying to picture a scene, and it was making her mad in the present. "He just… no! He just can't compared to – ah! Not telling you! You have to find out."

"Okay, okay… let's start already!" Evie cheered, flopping onto her sleeping bag. Her brown hair frizzed in her face, so she shook it out like a dog to right the problem, only tangling the mess further. She coughed.

Mary laughed at her friend, opening up her laptop to quickly check her e-mails before they started the emotional roller coaster of a new show. She was still waiting to her back on a job application, so her mind was preoccupied with her inbox lately. But when her laptop opened, Google was already up with the letter 'Z' plugged into the search box.

"What's the matter?" Evie asked, seeing Mary's face screwed up in bewilderment.

"I was looking something up before, but I can't remember what it was… Doesn't that drive you crazy?" Mary mumbled, resting her chin in her palm as she put the lollipop back in her mouth to think it over.

"When I was at school this one time, I was doing the same thing when my roommate Casey interrupted me, and I couldn't remember," Evie nodded in agreement. She frowned. "I still can't! And now I'm reminded how angry I am about it!"

Mary's eyes lit up, looking over at her bedroom door. The lollipop flew out of her mouth in a flash, raised victoriously over her head. "Aha! I remember!"

"Lucky you," Evie mumbled, watching as Mary ran like a maniac out of her room. She waited a few seconds in silence before wandering up with her cat tucked close. Looking through the dark hallway, she could make out the vague figure of her friend in a room she had never entered before. "Maaary?"

"Evie, come look at this," Mary commanded in the dark. She was kneeling in the thick white shag carpet in front of some sort of massive dresser.

Evie carefully made her way through the room in the dark, not knowing where a light was or if there was one. The shadow in front of her gave her a start before she realized she was standing in front of a large mirror. She stood over her friend and looked down at the open drawer. "I can't see a thing."

Mary rolled her eyes, standing up and nearly cracking her friend in the jaw with her skull. She tapped a light switch which illuminated the lights surrounding the vanity mirror. The glow wasn't much help, but it was better than nothing. Now both girls were visible in the reflection of what appeared to be Mary's Nana's room.

Trying again and feeling like she was going to get in trouble for snooping in someone else's room, Evie hesitantly looked back at the drawer. A wrinkle formed on her brow as she stared at the strange-looking hair dryer. "What is it?"

"I don't know – what do you think it is?" Mary asked, picking it up and handing the Flashmatic over to her. The memory of getting shocked by it tingled in her fingers. "I was going to Google it, but I forgot."

"Kind of looks like a hair dryer," Evie said, inspecting the device. She noted the front end, pointing it at herself with her cat tucked safely under her arm. "But this kind of looks like a flash light, doesn't it? It's probably a flash light. What's the book?"

Mary had forgotten about the binder. Picking it up, it was formidably heavy. She opened the top, the plastic crackling. "It's just a paper with a bunch of numbers on it?"

"Numbers?" Evie asked curiously. She knelt down by Mary, suddenly engulfed in what looked to be a puzzle of some kind. And if there was one thing Evie was very good at, it was solving puzzles.

"There are dozens of them," Mary flipped through the yellow pages with little to no interest and at a speed which annoyed Evie who couldn't study them as they quickly passed by. Numbers were not Mary's thing. What sparked her interest though were the titles of these pages. "Casablanca? Top Hat? Rear Window? All in the Family? These are all movie titles! And TV shows… what is this?!"

Evie shrugged, making a sound like she didn't know. She spotted a page left underneath the book alone in the drawer. It was white notebook paper, and compared to the others, it looked impossibly new. "Hey, you forgot one."

Mary watched as Evie lifted the paper, reading over the numbers on it. It didn't have a title. Mary inspected the writing in the binder a bit closer, realizing that the numbers seemed to be some sort of strange type face, while the titles at the tops were distinctly in her Nana's hand-writing. Mary picked up the Flashmatic, noting the name before setting it back down.

"I'll go Google it!" Mary declared. She jumped up and ran back to her room for the laptop.

Evie picked up the Flashmatic again, still absorbed in the loose leaf paper of codes. Codes! They were sequenced together. Eyeing the Flashmatic, she found the button panel on the back. Accidentally pulling the trigger, a flash of light hit the vanity chair for a split second.

Evie jumped back in surprise. Mostly surprised that the flashbulb inside still seemed to work despite its obvious age. "It still works!"

"What's the name on it again?" Mary called back.

"Zenith!" Evie shouted. She read further, squinting. "Flashmatic?"

"Thanks!" Mary echoed.

Evie studied the paper, looking back at the Flashmatic in her other hand. The first code string was 95320. She carefully punched the numbers in and intuition told her to pull the trigger.

The Flashmatic sprung to life as expected, a bright light hitting the wall next to the vanity. But when the trigger was released, the light didn't disappear. Evie blinked in shock, unsure of what to do as the Flastmatic slipped from her fingers to the floor. Had she broken it? Already?!

Standing, Evie circled the Flashmatic. She was so surprised that she had dropped it in her haste, but it appeared innocently lifeless despite the unnatural occurrence. Looking back and forth between them, the wall was still lit up, but the bulb of the Flashmatic was dark.

"Where's the light coming from?" Evie wondered aloud. She waved her hand in front of the Flashmatic to test it. Nothing happened. Was she just seeing things? Was it heat? Was it permanent?

Evie wandered up to the light still on the wall, a large oval like that of a flashlight beamed at the blank space. It was rather glaring in the dim room. But she had seen herself that the Flashmatic wasn't on anymore. Evie put her hand over the space of the wall, wondering if she had accidentally blinded herself with the stupid flashbulb and this was all in her head. But when she placed her hand on the light, a strange force tickled through her arm.

…before she was sucked in completely.

Evie didn't have time to let out a shriek of surprise before her entire body was pulled into the light. The oval closed behind her like a blinking door, going out like a candle. A light trail of smoke exited the wall where Evie and the door had been moments before, but it too faded fast.

"It's just a remote!" Mary announced, cheerily re-entering the room. "All that fuss over a silly TV remote made in the 50s for those ancient… Evie?"