The next morning, Leslie awoke in their own apartment. This was normal, considering they fell asleep in their apartment. What wasn’t normal was the necklace, which they seemed to have forgotten to take off.
“Oh! Silly me!” it chuckled. “Guess I’ll take this off now.”
Leslie attempted to take the necklace off. It did not budge. It tried everything it could think of: using scissors, burning it, yanking it.. but it still didn’t come off.
“That’s strange.” they mumbled to themself. If the necklace didn’t come off for Leslie, chances are it didn’t come off for any of their friends either. One glance at their phone would confirm that. They had over 50 notifications from the night before.
Cherry: this stupid necklace wont come off :/
Nora: wdym it wont come off
Cherry: it won’t come off what more do i need to say
Kalani: mine isnt coming off either 🤼
Juniper: same
Juniper: wonder if it has to do with that magic book we found yesterday
Cherry: i swear if we get cursed by these things im gonna be so mad
Cherry: im trying to get a bachelors degree i dont have time for curses
Leslie yawned, turning their phone off. “Oh, well. Might as well get ready for the day.”
It entered the living room, flipping on the TV as it started preparing breakfast. They usually liked to listen to the news while waking up, so typically their TV was always set on the news.
As Leslie was whisking the eggs (it was making an omelette), the news reporter on the TV started speaking.
“Good morning, Cincinnati! Today we have a peculiar story for you: the disappearance of many citizens. Over the past two days, a few hundred people have gone missing. Investigators have been looking into it, but they haven’t found anything yet.”
Missing people? This piqued Leslie’s interests. They poured the whisked eggs onto the pan as they looked at the TV.
“& it’s not just people, too. Bananas from the local supermarkets have also been reported as stolen. Some people have reported that they’ve seen a couple of the missing people with the bananas, but nobody can be too sure if they’re related or not.”
Bananas being stolen? Now this was just getting confusing to Leslie.
But then it thought back to the day before. Leslie & its friends had gone to that new banana restaurant for breakfast. The restaurant HAD to be related to the banana thefts... probably. Maybe it was all a coincidence, but nonetheless, Leslie was determined to figure it out.
They had to get to class first, though. They were a college student, after all.
-
Leslie walked into the seminar room approximately 15 minutes early. They thought 9 AM was way too early for a class to start, but it’s not like Leslie had any control of that.
Despite only being 15 minutes early, Leslie was one of only two people there. Another girl (who just so happened to sit next to Leslie) was there too. From what Leslie’s overheard from attendance, this girl’s name was Natalie. Leslie & Natalie usually didn’t talk much, for they were too entranced by whatever they were doing in class. They were both in the school play, though, but that’s really the only time they had interacted outside of class.
“Hey.” Natalie said, reaching for her bag.
“Oh, uh.. hi!” Leslie waved.
“Cool necklace.”
“Thanks! I, uh.. got it from a friend.”
“Neat.. Do they come in purple?”
“Uh... I don’t know. I’d.. have to ask.”
“I see.”
Natalie took a book out of her bag & placed it on her desk. Leslie got a look at it. It was the exact same book that they found yesterday.
“Nice scythes, by the way. They look badass.” Natalie grinned.
“You.. saw that?” Leslie asked.
“Uh, of course I did. Why else would I have your book?”
“Why were you even at an abandoned Pizza Hut in the first place?”
“To smoke weed.”
“Ok, fair.”
“Anyways,” Natalie continued. “Let’s cut to the chase. I want to be in your magical girl group.”
“Oh, uh..” Leslie mumbled. “Don’t magical girl groups usually fight evil?”
“As if it’s not painstakingly obvious you all are new to this. Of course you haven’t fought anything yet.”
“Ok, well, um.. once you have a prophetic dream that gives you a necklace like ours, you can join-”
Natalie rolled her eyes. “Well, if that’s how you wanna be, then so be it.” she huffed, crossing her arms. “If you won’t let me be a hero, then I have no choice but to become a villain.”
“I don’t think that’s your only choice-“
“PREPARE for your downfall- what’s your name?”
“Oh! Uh.. Leslie!”
“Thanks. Anyways..”
Natalie cleared her throat.
“PREPARE for your downfall, Leslie!”
“Alright. Whatever you say.” Leslie chuckled.
-
It was around 4 PM, & everyone was done with their classes for the day. The group decided to get some lunch at the mall. It was just your average run-of-the-mill concession food. Nothing worth getting into detail about. They all sat at one of the open tables & started chowing down.
“Damn, I haven’t had mall food in a loooong time!”
“When’s the last time we got this, anyhow?”
“Uh.. two weeks ago.”
“Two weeks is a long time!”
“Not really, but ok.”
“Anyways,” Leslie spoke, taking a bite out of a burger. “Did you guys see the news this morning?”
“No, I was busy sleeping in.”
“Ah.. well, apparently a lot of people have been going missing lately.”
“Huh. Weird.”
“You know what’s even weirder? Bananas are being stolen from stores as well.”
“Bananas?”
“Yeah!”
“What could one person need with so many bananas?”
“One can only wonder. But I have a theory!”
“Oh? Do go on.”
“I believe that this is all related to that banana restaurant that opened up recently!”
“The.. one we went to yesterday?”
“Yup!”
The group kind of looked at each other.
“What makes you think that?”
“C’mon, don’t tell me you don’t see the correlation! BANANAS are going missing? That Pim guy obviously spent all his budget on painting the walls, he’s gotta get ingredients somehow!”
“Ok, that does sound a little reasonable.”
“Yea, so that’s why I’m gonna break into the restaurant later to get some evidence.”
“You’re gonna WHAT?!”
Leslie took another bite out of its burger. “You heard me. I’m breaking into that restaurant!”
“You can’t break into a restaurant! You can barely muster the courage to kill a bug!”
“Well, that’s different. Bugs are living creatures. Restaurants are not.”
“The Mystery Flesh Pit would say otherwise.”
“I don’t think you know what the Mystery Flesh Pit is, Juni.”
“I’ll be fine! Don’t you worry! We still have that.. magic thingy anyway, so-”
“THE BOOK!” Nora slammed her hands on the table. “We left the book at the abandoned Pizza Hut!”
“I knew we forgot something!”
“Well, let’s go back &-”
“Looking for something?”
The group turned around. Natalie was standing there, book in hand.
“Oh.. hey, Natalie!” Leslie chuckled nervously.
“Hey.”
“You know her?”
“She’s in a few of my classes. Also she spied on us yesterday at the abandoned Pizza Hut.”
“..& you didn’t think to TELL US THAT UNTIL NOW?”
“I wasn’t SPYING on you! I was just there to get high!”
“Like.. on weed?”
“Yeah, what else would I be getting high on?”
The group shrugged.
“Whatever. That’s beside the point. Here’s the deal: you let me join your magical girl group & I give you the book back.”
Leslie groaned. “I already told you. If you have a prophetic dream about a shadow creature that gives you a necklace, then you can join.”
“As if they give out prophetic dreams to anybody.”
“Isn’t that the point of prophetic dreams?”
“No???”
“I’ve only gotten 1 prophetic dream in my lifetime, so I assume it’s not just for anyone.”
“You’re getting off-topic. Am I joining the group or not?”
“We don’t even know who you are!”
“Your loss.” Natalie said, walking away.
The group looked at each other.
“Should we go try to snatch the book from her?”
“Count me out. I want to finish my fries.”
“Well, count me in!”
Juniper, Kalani, & Nora hopped out of their seats. “Let’s get ‘er!” Juniper announced as the three of them started rushing after her.
Cherry sighed, looking at Leslie. “Hey, Les?”
“Ya?” Leslie replied, mouth full of burger.
“You think I could help you break into that restaurant? I don’t trust that banana guy myself, honestly. Plus, you don’t have a car.”
Leslie’s face lit up. “Of course!”
“Then let’s do this thing.”