Mrs McClain's green eyes dimmed, the familiar glimmer of warmth was replaced by a cold, collected stillness of a commander shifting into mission mode. She stepped out of the house and into the doorway, shutting the door behind her softly, her body blocking Lisa and Reggie from seeing inside the house.
"Yes," she said flatly, turning to Lisa. "She's alright, but Jeremy isn't."
At the sound of that, Lisa and Reggie gasped. That could only mean one thing and they caught on real quick.
Lisa tilted her head, trying to look into the house. "Is Juniper in here?" She asked, her voice shaking. "Can we see her—"
"No."
Lisa blinked, not noticing the change in the atmosphere that Reggie had noticed a minute ago.
She tried to insist. "But—"
"I need you both to listen to me very carefully," Mrs McClain interrupted, her tone more serious and void of feeling than before, stopping Lisa from saying any further.
She raised her hand slowly and placed two fingers on Lisa's head. Reggie stepped back instinctively, attempting to run away, but Mrs McClain caught him with a quick flash of her other hand. Her eyes began to glow green, and her fingers started to glow a faint reddish blue, threads of light energy swirled lightly around the two teenagers like ink in water.
"Shh, this won't hurt a bit," she whispered with a smile as she watched Lisa whimper and Reggie shake out of fear. "I'm just going to take the memory you don't need to have. No human should know about Juniper's powers, not even her friends."
"Wait—what do you mean—?" Reggie's eyes widened with excitement and panic when he realised at that very moment that Juniper was not human.
But it was too late. Lisa and Reggie's eyes were briefly engulfed with a green glow and then the glow disappeared, along with everything else that followed Mrs McClain's touch. They blinked as if waking up from a dream, calming down quickly and looking confused as they stared at each other and then at Mrs McClain.
"Where, how?" Reggie looked around with confusion on his face.
"How did we get here?" Lisa asked, "thought we were in school?"
Mrs McClain lowered her hands and clapped lightly, pretending nothing strange had happened at all.
"There now," she said, finally smiling again. "You two just came to drop Juniper off after she said she wasn't feeling alright and fortunately for all of you, you weren't present during the school shooting. You were just asking me if she'll be alright?"
Reggie rubbed the back of his neck, still confused. "Uh, yeah, I guess so."
"Oh don't worry, she'll be alright…she just needs rest."
Lisa exhaled. "Cool, we'll come over later then Mrs M," she said, then she turned her attention to the driveway. "Uh, dude, where'd you put your car?"
"Huh,"'Reggie replied as they walked away. "I think we left it in school, I can't remember."
Lisa scoffed,. folding her arms and shaking her head. "You're too young to have dementia."
"I don't have dementia, dumbass."
They began arguing, walking onto the pavement and waving Mrs McClain bye. As soon as they walked past the hedges and down the street, their pace light and casual, Mrs McClain turned and opened the door, walking in and watching Rafa and the others emerge from their hiding place and stand before her.
"Will they be alright," Sabrina asked.
"Oh don't worry, they'll be fine. I just hid the memory of Juniper using her powers deep inside their subconscious…even if they remember, they'd think it's a dream."
Amron exhaled with relief. "That's good. I thought we were going to have to kill them."
"Amron!" They all exclaimed with a frown, making Mrs McClain chuckle a little.
Esmeralda and Sarafina exhaled, shaking their heads.
"What now, my lady?" Rafa asked, folding his arms.
Mrs McClain exhaled, walking over to the living room where Juniper laid.
"We wait," she replied. "Until the Princess wakes up. The spaceship will not awaken without her subconscious permission. Until she wakes up, no one is going anywhere."
"I guess we also have to prepare for the Ice Fairies' return too?" Sarafina asked.
Sarafina nodded. "Yes. Lord Orpheus and his family are the keepers of Adonis' map…if they don't bring it for Princess Juniper to unlock, we won't be able to find the King."
"Thank you, Sabrina," Mrs McClain smiled, watching her nod with pride. Then Mrs McClain turned to Rafa. "Send word to your parents and theirs…tell them the time draws near to depart and they should return before summer."
"As you wish, my lady," he bowed in reply. Then, like a ninja, he vanished from before her within the blink of an eye. Immediately, the others bowed their head slightly before Mrs McClain and they too vanished from before her eyes.
"They can use teleportation now?" She exhaled, placing a hand on her waist. She turned, looking at Juniper, then she smiled. "Everyone's growing up so fast."
News of the school shooting spread around the state and many news stations carried the news far and wide. Not long afterwards, the town had a mass funeral for all those who had died during the shooting. Parents and siblings wailed before the graves of their loved ones, and almost everyone in town came to the funeral.
The absence of Juniper made everyone think she was killed in the shooting…but Mrs McClain lied that she was with her aunt and uncle in New York for a program, quickly ending the rising commotion that was about to go off.
Two months later, on the tenth of May, 2046, Castle town was reborn. The town healed in silence, sweeping pain under the rug with roadworks, mayoral elections, and school renovations. Scarlett High reopened with new gates, security scanners, and walls that still felt like they remembered the blood.
The damaged part of the school was completely reconstructed and redesigned…with a state of the art security system installed everywhere. School activities were set to resume soon, and Lisa and Reggie waited at the bus stop for the return of Juniper, who at that point, was finally waking up from her deep slumber.