September 9, 2015 – Wednesday, Early Morning – Sunny

As Lydia walked into the school building, she saw a trio of girls walking down the hall towards her, each of them holding a stack of flyers. Their outfits gave off a retro '50s vibe to her, with the polo shirts and the long skirts. The girl in the middle caught her eye and stopped to talk to her.

"Good morning! Have you heard about Meet You at the Flag?" She was a pale-skinned blonde with blue-gray eyes as clear as a river and a look of sincerity that told Lydia she was about to be advertised to.

"No, I haven't. What is it?" The girl on the blonde's right, a brunette with waist-length hair, handed Lydia one of the flyers. The blonde began to explain what was written on the flyer as Lydia read it to herself.

"Every year, Christian students all over the country gather together under their schools' flagpoles to pray in the morning. It's a great way to meet new people that share your faith!" The flyer had the date listed as September 23, two weeks from now. It was meant to occur about forty-five minutes before school actually began.

Well, this is awkward. They assume everyone that goes to this school is Christian, or religious enough to want to take part in something like this. Then again, I guess there's no way of telling who isn't religious at a glance. In any case...

"I... see. That's really nice, but I'm not Christian." Her words shot through the sincere smile of the blonde-haired girl like a bullet through glass, turning it into an awkward, embarrassed expression. The girls beside her had a different reaction entirely, looking offended that Lydia had said that.

"Really? Has no one ever told you about Jesus Christ?" The girl on the left spoke. She was tall with ginger hair, and had freckles all over her face.

"We'll be more than happy to tell you all about the Gospel!" The girl on the right said. The blonde girl between them sighed.

"Bethany, Joyce, it's alright. Let's just keep going."

"Victoria, it's our duty as Christians to spread the Good News to everybody! Especially people who don't even know about it. What's your name?" Bethany, the girl on Lydia's left, asked her.

"I'm Lydia. Um, I need to get to class. I don't want to be late." Joyce looked at her watch and saw that it was fifteen minutes until class started.

"We won't make you late. Just give us a few minutes, that's all we'll need." She said, showing Lydia the time on her watch. Victoria was looking increasingly stressed from the actions of the girls beside her, a reaction that was not ignored by Lydia.

"I know I have an extra Bible in my backpack somewhere..." Bethany had put the flyers down and was now rummaging through her backpack for a Bible.

"Come on, you two... we haven't even finished posting all our flyers yet." Victoria said, trying to get the other two girls to move along. Joyce gave her a puzzled look.

"The flyers can wait. This is more important." Bethany managed to find an extra Bible in her backpack, and presented it to Lydia. The Bible already had multiple bookmarks inserted in at various places, as if Bethany had expected to give it away sooner or later and prepared it for such an occasion.

"Start with the pink bookmark. There's also an insert in there for how to go about reading it, since there's a lot to look at." Bethany began to talk about how to navigate through it when Victoria pushed the Bible away from Lydia and put her stack on flyers on top of Bethany's hands.

"We need to go, Bethany. Lydia, I'm sorry about this. We won't hold you up any longer. You have a nice day, okay?" Lydia nodded and immediately scooted past the girls, quickly walking away from them.

"Hey, what was that for?" She heard Bethany's voice from behind her.

"Yeah, why did you just let her go like that?" Joyce asked. Lydia looked back for a moment to see Victoria walk off down the hall, with the other two hurrying to catch up to her.

She got into Mr. Marshall's classroom and saw that her friends were already there. She sat down next to Allie, who noticed the flyer that she was holding.

"Oh, you got one of those too?" Allie asked. Lydia looked at the flyer and folded it up, putting it away inside her backpack.

"Yeah. I told those girls that I wasn't interested because I'm not Christian, which flipped a switch in two of them. They were about to do a whole proselytizing act, but the blonde girl stopped them and let me get away." Damien raised his eyebrows at that; he and Allie had run into the trio of girls on their way to class, but they hadn't really said anything to them – just a couple of words of thanks.

"Oh, man. You got unlucky there. I've seen those girls around before. They're pretty serious about trying to convert people, so they'll take any chance they get. You said there was a blonde one that let you go?" He asked.

"Uh huh. Her name was Victoria. She looked downright embarrassed by what her friends had tried to do. I'm glad someone realizes that people don't really want to be preached to out of nowhere."

"Were they mean about it?" Allie asked. Lydia shook her head, noticing that Mr. Marshall had just walked into the room. Class was a few minutes from starting, as the warning bell indicated.

"No, not really... just pushy. I almost got a Bible full of bookmarks and instructions handed to me."

"Victoria. A blonde named Victoria. Yeah, I know who that is now. I have her in one of my classes – the one I don't have with either of you, Algebra II. She's a junior like us. Doesn't say much, dresses like the 1950s are in vogue again. I've never really talked to her." Damien said, putting his hands behind his head. A thought came to Lydia regarding the money her friends had taken from the selling of the Shadow fragments, it being a question she forgot to ask the other day.

"Hey, have you guys bought any new clothes yet?" She asked them.

"We were going to go tomorrow night. Are you going to be able to go with us then?" Allie asked.

"Yeah. Sounds good."

September 11, 2015 – Friday, Early Morning – Sunny

Last night's trip to the mall had yielded QIB one new outfit each: for Lydia, a flowery red-and-orange shirt that had long, flowing sleeves and a pair of slim-fitting white jeans; for Damien, a gray graphic t-shirt with a giant robot on it and a pair of regular fit blue jeans; and for Allie, a jean jacket with a light pink knee-length skirt.

Lydia looked at the door to the Velvet Room and knew their new clothes were safe inside. Being infused with Senri's power had given all the clothes persistent health regeneration, in addition to the usual offensive and defensive power boosts. There was still some money left over after the enchantments, which would go towards the next round of clothes and enchantments.

The first home game's today. The dance team will probably get some time after school to go eat, and then I'll have to be back an hour before the game starts. That's not too bad. Everybody I know will be there – my parents, Gerald, Damien, and Allie. Well, everyone I know that's capable of showing up there. If electronics worked on the other side, I'd show F.Z. the footage of the dancing, but I guess one of these days I'll just show my part of the routine to her.

Friday, Evening – Clear

Lydia arrived on the school grounds a little before an hour to game time, already wearing her dance uniform and having put on her makeup. She got to the practice room a little ahead of the other girls, and saw Carla and her lieutenants beginning to stretch alongside Dawn.

"Good, you're here early. Start warming up, Lydia." Carla said, and Lydia took her place in the formation and began to stretch. The other girls arrived and the next hour was spent preparing for the game.

"Alright, ladies, it's time to go!" Coach Carter called out to the dance team, leading them out to the football field where all the people had gathered. There was still some time before the game began, which was the time the squad would use to perform their first routine. Lydia looked around her, noticing the visiting team's dancers, cheerleaders, and football players, all decked out in an arrangement of white and purple. At home, the Ruby J. Fulton Falcons would wear red and blue jerseys, making it very easy to tell who was who on the field.

Scanning the stands allowed Lydia to find her family, who was situated somewhere in the middle section amongst the several hundred people that had shown up. Her mother had obtained a red-and-blue pinwheel from somewhere and was waving it back and forth, with Gerald holding two of those pinwheels and moving them robotically like he was trying to emulate a routine of his own. Her father merely stood beside her mother, watching with a smile on his face as he held a video camera in his hands.

The speakers then broadcast the voice of a husky man to everyone in a half-mile radius; it was the voice of the game's announcer, Lydia deduced.

"Before we begin, let us all take a moment to remember those who lost their lives in the tragedy that took place on September 11, 2001." Lydia didn't really have any memories from that day, being only two years old at the time. Her parents had told her what they were doing the day the World Trade Center was attacked: her mother was at home taking care of her and Gerald, and was the first in the family to see the news. Her father learned about it by lunchtime that day, and had come home and very emotionally told his family about how they would always stick together no matter what happened, and that he loved them all very much.

The moment of silence passed and the chatter started up again.

"So, new blood, are you ready for this?" Dawn said from beside Lydia. They had been arranged to be next to each other in the opening formation. Dawn's normally piercing gaze was amplified by the field's lighting and her makeup, which would have intimidated Lydia had she not already dealt with things that had attempted to kill her.

"Yes, of course. Are you?" Dawn closed her eyes and chuckled, briefly crossing her arms.

"Do you even have to ask? I'll show everyone just how good I really am." They both turned to face forward once again as another announcer's voice, one that sounded like young adult male's, boomed over the speakers.

"Now, then! Let's get hyped up for this game with the dancing skills of our very own Falconettes!" That was their cue to go, and the girls stepped out onto the field, facing the home crowd with the lights bearing down on them. Lydia quickly scanned the stands, trying to find her friends amongst the hundreds of people. The music started before she was able to pinpoint them.

Having practiced the steps of the routine many, many times in the last several weeks, Lydia felt almost like a machine acting out its programming as she went through the 105-second routine without any problems. Having been noted as someone with previous dancing experience by Carla and Coach Carter meant that she was more-or-less in the middle of the skill hierarchy, which allowed them to give her more complicated moves to execute.

The music stopped as every girl struck a pose. The sound of the music was replaced by the sound of the crowd cheering, and after a moment the Falconettes walked off of the field to let the football players begin the game. There wouldn't be another routine until halftime, and until then Lydia could pretty much go wherever she wanted as long as she didn't wander too far away. She walked around to the east entrance to the stands where the band was situated and was greeted by Damien and Allie standing just out of sight from the field.

"Hey, Lydia! That was pretty good out there!" Damien said. Allie had been looking at her phone and closed it when she heard Damien mention Lydia.

"You definitely looked like someone who'd been doing it for years." Allie said, glancing at the football game.

"Thanks. It was alright. The coach and Carla had been drilling the steps into us every day they could, to the point where I was sure I could do the routine in my sleep. Where were you two in the stands? I wasn't able to find you two in the crowd."

"We got here a little late. Had to stop by to eat something before the game. Do you want to sit down somewhere? Maybe somewhere away from the band?" Damien walked over to see where there was open space in the stands that they wouldn't have to shout over the sound of the marching band.

"Sure!"

The first quarter of the game was, in Lydia's opinion, an example of how both teams had terrible defense. The Falcons had scored the first touchdown within minutes, and then a few minutes later gave up a touchdown to the other team, who was exploiting the defensive line's inability to keep the quarterback from safely making passes that spanned ten to twenty yards every time. At the end of the first quarter, both teams were equal at 14-14. Allie had shown little interest in the game, often getting up to walk around.

"Pretty sloppy from both teams. But hey, I think I'd rather have a high-scoring game than a 0-0 deadlock." Damien commented as Allie came back with some candy.

"Lydia, Damien, do you want some?" She asked, offering them some sugar coated licorice. They both took a piece from her. Lydia chewed off a piece and watched as the teams took the field again to begin the second quarter. The other team kicked the ball to the Falcons' quarterback, who was able to take it thirty-five yards before being tackled.

All three of them watched as the next play unfolded: the quarterback received the ball and was looking for an opportunity to pass. There seemed to be an opening on his left side, but suddenly a white jersey broke through the line of red-and-blue ones and tackled him, long before the rest of the other opposing team members could get close. Lydia could hear an audible groan from some of the people in the stands, and heard the husky-voiced announcer call the yardage lost on the play.

"Ouch. What happened with that?" Damien remarked. Lydia watched as one of the Falcons shook his head, some of the other players tapping his helmet as if to tell him to clear his head. The number on his jersey was 41, and had the name "Young" written on the back.

Young. As in Nathan Young. He was the football player that gave that folder to Coach Carter the other week.

Being the only player she actually knew from them all, she decided to watch him in particular throughout the rest of the quarter. It was apparent as the minutes ticked by that something was getting to him, as the same fault that had occurred at the beginning at the quarter had occurred on three other occasions, each of them forcing the Falcons to give up the ball to the other team due to their lack of yardage over the first three downs of each drive. The rest of the defense had not improved a bit since the beginning of the game, which meant that at the end of the second quarter the other team was now up by two whole touchdowns without the Falcons getting a single point in edgewise.

Allie had disappeared from the stands, and many of the people in the home crowd were beginning to feel restless as their team was crumbling before them. Lydia knew that she had to be back with the rest of the squad soon, and told Damien that she was going to leave the stands in a moment.

"Got it. I guess I'll go stretch my legs a bit and find Allie. But damn, though. We are really sucking right now. I hope the defense gets it together for the second half. They should bench that Young guy. He's become nothing but a liability to the team." Damien got up from his seat and left the stands. Lydia went to where the dance team was gathering for their routine, which would start off the halftime performances.

Damien's right. Nathan has been doing really poorly this game, and the football coach is almost certainly going to put him on the bench for the rest of it just to try and make sure we don't give up any more points. I don't know what's going on with him, but I hope he snaps out of it soon.

The dance team walked onto the field, heralded by the younger announcer's enthusiastic voice. The crowd was definitely in poorer spirits than they were at the beginning of the game, and Lydia wasn't sure that a well-executed dance routine would perk them up too much. She'd always felt that the marching band was actually the most effective at getting football crowds excited, since their organizational skills inevitably resulted in them making various shapes with their members that was the easiest to comprehend in terms of detail.

The music began, a different mix of songs playing over the speakers this time. This routine was 107 seconds long, and was slightly more difficult than the routine they'd practiced for the beginning of the game. Nevertheless, Lydia felt that the motions were as natural and as fluid as running water, and finished off the routine by striking a pose where her hand was on her hip and her other hand was pointing to the poses of Carla and the lieutenants in the center, who had just finished doing a series of flips and twirls. The crowd's reaction was only slightly positive, which Lydia felt was reasonable given the state of the game so far.

"I'd be offended at the lack of reaction to our routine, but... considering how much the team caved last quarter, I don't blame the crowd. Not that much, anyway." Carla remarked as the dancers left the field. Lydia stood by the entrance to the stands Damien had used to leave and look for Allie, watching the marching band arrange themselves to begin their performance. She'd never really considered playing an instrument while growing up. At the most, she would sing to herself, which would occasionally annoy Gerald since they lived in the same room and cause him to sing something back loudly and out of tune.

Damien and Allie arrived as the Falcons band finished their performance, which had helped stir the home crowd back up near their energy levels from the start of the game. Now it was time for the visiting team's band and dance team to perform.

"Hey. Good work out there." Damien said to Lydia.

"We were watching from the sides. I don't know if you could see us, but we saw your dancing." Allie said, drinking from a bottle of cold water.

"Thanks. I'm pretty sure the band had more of an effect than we did, though. It's harder to appreciate a good dance routine, I think."

"Yeah, I'd agree. Hey, think of it this way – you got them all warmed up for the band. They owe part of their success in revitalizing the crowd to you guys." Damien twisted open the cap on his bottled cola and took a swig from it. Seeing both of her friends with drinks in their hands reminded Lydia that she hadn't had any thirst-quenching nourishment in hours.

"I just realized that I haven't had anything to drink since the game started. I need to go get some water. There's actually bottled water reserved specifically for the dance team, so that everybody gets at least one bottle. I'll be right back." She went back to where the coolers were on the side of the football team's benches and opened the blue one, pulling out a bottle from the half-melted slush of water and ice. She opened it and took huge gulps from it before shivering from the sudden infusion of cold into her head.

The Falcons had begun to trickle back in from the locker room, and were talking amongst themselves as they gathered around the benches. After a few minutes, Coach Hudson brought up the rear, took a quick look at the players, and then opened his binder, looking through what was most likely the team's playbook. He then blew his whistle, gathering all the football players together to go over plays. Lydia stood there holding her water bottle as murmurs from the players apparently set off something in their coach, as he narrowed his eyes and did a quick counting motion before closing his binder in frustration and holding it closed with both hands.

"So... you're telling me Young just went AWOL on us? Up and disappeared to who-knows-where?" He said, trying to keep his composure. Lydia was too far away to have heard this, but the quarterback's loud voice was something she could hear easily.

"I swear, Coach, he was there a minute ago, washing his face in the mirror. I knew he was taking a long time, and I told him to get out of la-la-land, but he wouldn't listen. Then I leave him for a minute to grab my helmet and put it on, and when I go back to yell at him, suddenly he isn't there any more!" Coach Hudson considered the quarterback's words for a moment before shaking his head in disapproval. Lydia drew in a sharp breath at the quarterback's description of what had happened.

A mirror... he was washing his face in front of one, and then he suddenly vanishes? Does that mean he was taken to the other side?

"It doesn't matter, anyway. I was going to put in someone else regardless. Jamison!" The coach's attention turned towards a blonde-haired player with his helmet off.

"Go back to the locker room and see if you can't find Young. If he's not there, look around the rest of the building. If you still can't find him, come back and let me know."

"Okay!" Jamison nodded, running back towards the locker rooms. Lydia quickly walked back to where Damien and Allie were standing.

"Guys, we have a problem."

"What is it? You look like you heard something terrible. What, is Coach Hudson cursing out the team for sucking so bad, or something?" Damien said, drinking some more of his cola.

"No. Listen, we need to go somewhere we won't be heard. Come on!" Lydia walked past them and left the stands, and decided that the top of a hill several yards away from the back of the stands was a good enough place. They followed her to where she had walked, confused.

"What's going on, Lydia?" Allie asked.

"Nathan Young just went missing during halftime. I heard it from the players down on the field; he was apparently washing his face in front of a mirror and then up and vanished when the quarterback went to go yell at him for taking too long." Damien looked over towards the locker rooms and sighed, a sinking feeling coming upon him at the news.

"Damn it. Seriously? Did somebody actually see him vanish?"

"I don't think so. From what the quarterback said, it sounded like he was the last one in there." Damien took another swig from his cola and let out a breath.

"So... what are you saying? We're going into the valley right now?" Allie asked. She did have her mirror with her, but Damien's was in his car and she had no idea where Lydia's was.

"Yeah. My mirror's in my bag, which is in the dancers' changing room. There are mirrors literally everywhere in our practice room – we can use those to get to and from the other side without being seen since nobody's back there right now. The third quarter's about to start, which means if this goes like it has been the past several times, we should be back before the quarter even ends. The only problem is that we'll probably be exhausted afterwards... but it's not like any of us have to be there for the rest of the game. If we need to, we can rest in the practice room and get back before the game ends."

"Alright. Sounds like a plan. If he really is over there, it'll be obvious the moment we step inside. If he's not, we'll come right back." Damien said.

"Yes. It's possible he might not be over there, but we won't take that chance. Damien, your mirror is still in your car, right?" Allie looked towards the parking lot.

"Yeah. I gotta go get it. I also don't really know where the dancers' practice room is, so... mind waiting for me here?"

"No problem. We'll all go together." Lydia said, and watched as Damien ran off down the hill towards the parking lot. She looked up at the sky and saw the moon had only a sliver of visible light left. The powerful stadium lights ensured that any of the less visible stars were impossible to see, even though the sky was completely clear.

"You know, back in my hometown... late at night, if you went out a little past the city limits, you could actually see all the stars." Lydia said, drinking some more of her water. Allie looked up at the night sky.

"Crystal Rapids, right? I can only imagine how beautiful that must look. I've lived here all my life, and considering we're between two of the most visited places in Texas, I've never had the opportunity to see the sky without all the light from civilization getting in the way. I'm sure I could look up photographs of it online, but... it wouldn't be the same as actually getting to see it in person."

"I wish I could show it to you. My family has a telescope at home, but we haven't really used it since we moved in. I don't think that thing will see any real use, though. You could probably still see an okay amount from a dark spot around here, but it'd pale in comparison to the skies around Crystal Rapids." Allie looked around at the stars she could see; there were a few dots scattered here and there, mostly the bright stars that likely anyone not directly living in a big city could see. The moon was almost new, meaning that the conditions for stargazing would almost be as good as they were going to get.

The two girls waited around until Damien came back, running towards them with his mirror in hand.

"Alright. Let's get going." The noise from the crowd behind them signaled the start of the third quarter. Lydia led her friends away from the football field and back to the building where the dance team practiced. As she had predicted, no one was inside, and the three of them stepped into a darkened practice room.

"Where is that light?" Lydia said, looking around for the light switch. She felt along the walls near the door until she found it, and then flicked it on. All the mirrors set along one of the walls made the room look twice as big as it really was. Every movement they made was copied by their images across the mirrors.

"I'll be right back." Lydia went back into the changing room, leaving Damien and Allie alone with the mirrors.

"Sheesh. Can you imagine what would happen if somebody's Idol decided to pop up in one of these things? What if it happened during one of Lydia's dance practices? There's no way that wouldn't make national news." Damien said, imagining one of the girls randomly stopping during a routine to stare at herself and then disappearing into the valley.

"Well, there's already been a whole string of disappearances that no one can explain. We know how it happens, kind of... but we don't know why it happens. You're right about one thing, though. If someone's Idol were to manifest in this room and other people were present, they would almost certainly see it happening." Allie said, waving her arms in front of the mirrors and watching her reflection copy her actions. Lydia came out from the changing room with her mirror and stood beside her friends.

"Okay. Are you ready?" She asked.

"Let's get this done." Damien said, looking at his mirror.

"Yeah. We can save him, no problem."

The three of them calmed themselves and gazed into their own reflections in the mirror, watching as each of their images began to change into silhouettes with moving zebra stripes.

I hadn't expected to go and save someone in the middle of a football game like this. If it wasn't for me standing there and overhearing the football team's conversation, we wouldn't have known someone was missing until tomorrow. We don't even know how long people last in there before they meet with their Idols. If time seems to flow more quickly on the other side, it wouldn't take very long... but that doesn't matter right now. We will save Nathan from himself.