Chapter 6 – Earthquakes!

"Sandra!" Kathy called as she walked through the door. She dropped her keys on the kitchen counter.

"Are you home?" Kathy shakes off the rain from her coat before shuffling it onto the back of the chair.

The kitchen's light shone harshly on her black hair, her eyes searching the dull white walls and checkered floor, for signs of someone being home, but the kitchen was empty.

She grabbed a cup from the cupboard and put the tea kettle on the stove. She smelled her teabag before dropping it into the mug.

"Maybe Sandra went out with friends?" Kathy suggested to herself, taking out her phone, checking for any messages, but there were none. "It's not like Sandra, not to call." Worryness set in her voice.

The clock over the stove fell as another earthquake erupted under Kathy's feet. She stumbled to the ground as glass flew from her cupboards, smashing all around her. Her teapot bounced and hopped until it took a nose dive to the floor, spilling lukewarm water at Kathy's feet.

Kathy screamed as she backed up into a corner and shoved her head between her legs and her arms over her head, trying to shield herself from all the glass. She's lucky; no glass made its way into her skin.

Two minutes later, the kitchen stopped shaking, and Kathy slowly got up onto her feet.

"That's three in one day, what's going on?" Kathy grumbled as she skipped over broken glass and made her way to the living room to see another mess.

All her books spewed all over the floor, and her coffee table broken by her 'War and Peace' book.

Rumbling from above drew Kathy's eyes to the ceiling, listening to the footsteps pattering across the floor in rapid concessions.

"Sandra!" Kathy called, "Why won't you answer me, young lady!"

Kathy raced to the stairs, shooting up them two at a time before heading to her daughter's room. She shoved open the door to see her daughter Sandra on the floor with all her stuffed animals surrounding her, and she was playing.

"I thought you said you were too old for your stuffed animals," Kathy sighed, glad her daughter was safe.

Sandra ignored her and continued to play with her stuffed bunny, singing lowly as her blue bunny, guided by her hands, is flying through the air.

"Sandra, talk to me!" Kathy stomped her foot. It's not like her thirteen-year-old not to talk. Sandra had always been a mile-a-minute talker; sometimes, you couldn't get a word in edgewise.

Kathy stepped into her room, her eyes on Sandra's back the whole time. Sandra's honeycomb hair matted with knots, which struck Kathy as odd since she brushed Sandra's hair that morning.

As Kathy stepped closer, she sees red stained Sandra's beautiful orange dress. The red dripped down her back as if her hair was crying.

Kathy realized that it was blood on her daughter.

"Oh no, did something hit you?" Kathy rushed to her daughter, got on her knees, grabbing Sandra's shoulders and turned her around.

What she saw made her choke on her words. She wanted to scream but couldn't.

Sandra no longer had a right eye, just an empty socket, with maggots pooling around the hole. Her mouth cut down the middle, exposing her teeth and muscles. Kathy could see bones jutting out of Sandra's cheeks.

"Oh my god!" Kathy choked out, frozen in fear. "What happened?"

Finally, Sandra met her mother's brown eyes, "I'm going to make you pretty too." She sang in a singsong voice as she put down her bunny.

The child picked up a long slender knife that laid beside her and pounced on her mother.

Kathy wailed as her daughter pinned her arms with her legs.

"You're going to be the prettiest lady ever," Sandra sang again, black ooze dripping out of her right ear as she gave her mother a makeover with the knife.

"Love you, mommy."

0000000000000000000000000000

Sere, Serena, the girls and the boys are at HQ underneath the Crown arcade.

Rei waltzed over to the control panel and started to push buttons, waking the monitor in the process.

"And you say this Rowena can get you back to your world?" Rei asked, without looking over her shoulder.

"Yes, but I can't contact her for two days. We have to wait for the moon to be full," Dean relayed Rowena's words. Dean's amazed at the advance technology in the room. He was right behind Rei, watching her work.

Sam, still recovering from his wounds, was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, and Sere was by his side.

"But what do we do with them in the meantime?" Mina said, pointing to both Serenas. "They can't walk around together. Everyone knows Serena isn't a twin."

Mina, Ami, Lita, Serena, and Darien stood at the other end of the control room, watching Rei work.

"Ami, come over and give me a hand," Rei commanded, and Ami was quick to assist.

"Let's wait for Luna to see what she has to say," Ami commented.

They had sent Rini to retrieve the cats, but it feels like it's taking forever for them to get here.

"But these earthquakes are not natural," Ami fiddled with the buttons on the panel. "They're all over Japan, and I cannot pinpoint its origins.

"Do you think it has something to do with having two moon princesses in our world. Maybe having two crystals is upsetting the balance of time," Darien suggested.

"You could be right," Sere nodded.

Having two Serenas must be taking its toll on the earth.

"We're here!" Rini's singing voice broke the tension in the room.

Rini danced down the stairs, her pink hair in odongo, her red eyes shooting between the two Serenas making Rini wonder which one was her mother.

A black and white cat followed behind, they had two crescent moon bald spots on her foreheads, their eyes widened at seeing two Serenas and strangers in HQ.

"You have some explaining to do," Luna piped up.

Dean jerked his head around at the unfamiliar voice, but he only saw two cats, strutting into the room with Rini.

Dean's green eyes gazed at Sam, who stood rigid; his mouth opened wide, his eyes bulged out of his socket as if he'd seen a ghost.

"You can talk?" Sam gushed out, amazed.

"Of course," Artemis chimed in.

"Holy hell, a talking cat!" Dean jumped, his butt landing on the panel.

"Dean, get off the controls!" Rei hollered as the screen went black, "Thanks a lot. Now we have to reboot the system."

Dean gave a sheepish sorry with his green eyes and slowly got off the panel.

"Who are these men? And why are there two Serenas?" Luna demanded answers.

"This is Sam and Dean, they're from another world," Mina introduced the boys to Luna and Artemis.

Artemis slinks over to Mina, jumping in her arms. "Why are there two Serenas?"

He didn't care about the boys, but having two Serenas was worrying.

"Call me Sere, as I have instructed the girls, as not to confuse us," Sere cut in, she bit her bottom lip. Her right hand grasped onto Sam's arm for support.

Luna padded over to Sere, sniffing her leg, her red eyes boring into Sere.

"This is not possible. You're the moon princess," Luna scampered away to her Serena, hopping into her arms, sniffing her.

"Queen Serenity only had one child; how can this be?" Luna's eyes teared up, "I didn't protect you, princess."

Serena snuggled her cat and rubbed her ears, "I'm alright."

"I am not supposed to be here," Sere started, "but God separated me from Serena, sending her back to her world, and me to purgatory," she shuddered at her words. "Dean saved us, now we are trying to get back to our world, but we need help from a witch named Rowena, who will contact us in two days when the moon is full."

"What do you mean, separate?" Artemis chimed in.

All the girls started talking at once, trying to answer their questions, but Sere quieted them with her loud voice before retelling the whole story from the beginning.

Luna was impressed by the story, and even more impressed with Sere. She had the makings of a Queen; she reminded the cat of Princess Serenity back in the day, but with a harder heart.

"And the crystal?" Luna questioned, "It's not a clone, is it?"

Those words stung Sere's ears; she's not a clone, "No, they split into two."

"What the real question is, how are we going to hide two grown men and an extra Serena from the world! They can't stay here!" Rini cut in.

The room grew silent, all eyes on the floor. It's true, with two Serenas walking around, it will confuse a lot of people.

"They can stay at my apartment, and I can bunk with Mina," Lita offered. "There's food, and I don't get many visitors.

Sere was about to reject Lita's offer when the monitor came back on, and the news interrupted their conversation.

"Top Story tonight, a mother and daughter brutally murdered in their home, their faces mangled by the perpetrator," The reporter announced. "No new leads at this time.

The reporter continues, "In other news, kids have been going missing around the Azabu Juban area. Police are looking into the disappearance. Also, they are petitioning for a curfew for any child under the age of twelve.

"This doesn't sound good," Dean eyed Sam, giving him the 'oh-shit there's trouble look.'

"Did anything else come with you through the vortex?" Dean asked, fearing that he didn't bring Sam and Serena back alone.

"I don't think so. I killed most of the monsters in there," Sere paused in thought. "I was fighting Eve…" she swallowed her words. "You don't think…"

"That's not possible," Sam jumped in, "She would have landed on the roof with the rest of us."

"Possible or not, I smell a hunt. We should check this out," Dean huffed, fearing the worst.

"I'll go with you," Sere said, "you need someone who knows the city and can hunt."

Dean nodded.

"Me too," Sam gave a weak smile

"There can't be two Serenas walking around," Rei interjected.

"Rei, you never have faith in me," Sere chuckled, "Serena, Luna pen, please."

Serena clicked her tongue as she retrieved her pen from her space pocket and tossed it to Sere.

"See, I have everything I need," Sere gloated, spinning the pen between her fingers. "Let's go."

000000000000000000000000000000

Sere had transformed herself into a private eye and commanded the Luna pen into making fake police badges for the boys.

Sere dipped under the yellow police tape and made her way into the house. Her eyes are darting to every broken object, knowing the earthquake and not an intruder caused it.

"Check the locks to see if they've been picked," Sere asked Dean.

He nodded, his sea-green eyes sizing up the door, "Not picked."

Sere nodded, taking careful steps, with the boys behind her as they trodded through the mess. Slowly the trio made their way upstairs and into the little girl's room where the bodies were discovered.

Sere swallowed a hard lump in her throat, looking at the stuffed animals all over the room. There on the floor, two outlines of the bodies in chalk. Plus, a knife that had carved up the mother and daughter.

Sere picked up a blue bunny, now painted in dry blood and held it close to her chest.

"Poor child," Sere whispered, "who could do such a thing?"

"Serena, don't move," Dean said, refusing to call her by Sere.

"What?"

"On your arm, there's a… there's something wiggling," Dean slowly took two steps close to Sere and closed his hands over Sere's left arm.

"Glass," Dean ordered.

Sam raced from the room but came back a couple of minutes later with a glass-cup from the kitchen.

He handed it to Dean, and Dean placed the black worm in the cup, covering it with his hand.

"Yuck, what is that?" Serena questioned, looking at the worm.

"Don't know," Dean said, "maybe just a regular bug."

"Give it to me, I'll have Ami look into it, her visor has the best technology in the world," Sere confirmed.