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"Who\'s Ash?" spoke that haughty, cocky, better-than-thou tone that felt so much like home. "Who\'s Sera? What\'s this about hearing your voice? Who\'d want to hear your voice? I\'m bleeding from my ears right now because of it." 

"Good," I sniped back. "Stay bleeding." 

"Yeah, I will. I\'m strong like that. Unlike you."

"That\'s rude." 

"You\'re rude."

Ahh, now it truly does feel like home.

"Umm, let me refresh my memory here…" I plopped onto the foot of my bed, rummaging through the deepest darkest recesses of my thoughts. "The last time you gave me a call was - ah yeah - when Cathy came over to our house to play video games."

"Yep."

"Two years ago, right? You keep insisting to put her on the phone, remember that?"

"Well and clear."

"And after like the twentieth time within the hour, I finally caved in?" 

"You\'re weak like that." 

"Guess so…" I said, sighing deeply. "Y\'know, you still never told me what exactly you said to her to make her suddenly up and leave like that." 

"And I\'m perfectly happy keeping things that way." 

"Y\'know she still has my number blocked to this day?"

"Good," She said with genuine relish and satisfaction. "God knows she deserves better, don\'t you agree? Like, imagine if she wound up marrying you? Poor girl."

"You\'re right," I said, nodding profoundly. "Having a sister-in-law like you? Yeah, she dodged that bullet, alright."

"Oh, ha, ha…" 

Well, catching up was all well and good and all, but right now I was really starting to wonder here…

"So yeah, two years since your last call, thought you hated phone calls, right?" She made a vagueish yes-ish sort of noise in affirmation to that statement, prompting me to continue on. "And since you aren\'t messaging me like you usually do…" I lowered my voice, making sure she heard my concern clearly and plainly. "What\'s going on over there, Sammy? Something happened? Mom?" 

"No, what, Mom\'s fine! Dad too. We\'re all good," She immediately assured me and from the lack of sarcasm in her voice, I could tell she wasn\'t lying. "There\'s nothing happening here. Nothing to worry about." 

And yet, I couldn\'t help but keep my suspicions.

"So why are you calling?" 

"No, nothing, nothing," Sammy said casually, only the thing was that she didn\'t know that she was almost as bad a liar as I was. "I just thought you should know, right - my, uh, my semester break is going to be starting soon." 

I sat there blinking, trying my damnedest in my silence trying to make that piece of info relevant to anything at all, and when I found that I couldn\'t, spoke again.

"Okay, um, good for you, I guess."

"Yeah," She replied, a little feeble, not sounding as enthused as the prospect of a school break should bring to a high-schooler like her. "It\'s pretty great." 

"Right," I probed further. "I\'m sure you got plenty of things planned for it already, right?"

"Ah, yeah..." She said, growing tenser by the syllable. "Here\'s the thing, right? The first few days of break I\'m sorta lacking things to do, so I won\'t be doing anything. I\'ll be kinda bored."

"Well, you have your phone, you have acres of open field, I\'m sure Dad wouldn\'t mind you taking the horse for a ride. I\'m sure you\'ll think of something."

"Actually, I have already thought of something," She said so hurriedly I barely even understood it all. "I talked with Mom about it, Dad said it\'s alright too… but they said I should consult you first before I do anything… so yeah… here\'s me, uh, consulting, I guess…"

Okay, I think I\'m picking up what she\'s putting down, and if I was hearing right, then I suppose I better be getting a refill for that imaginary highlighter in my head.

"You wanna come over," I said, stamping and breaking all the smoke and mirrors she\'s placed around her words. "You wanna visit me in the city."

From the other end, silence again… then faintly, meekly, I heard a quiet, "Yes."

"Hello?" I spoke loudly and suddenly into the receiver, causing her to squeak a little \'eep\'. "Is this still my little sister, Sammy speaking? Are you an impostor? A fake? How the hell did you get this number?"

"What?" Sammy suddenly piped up, her voice squeaking high-pitch the same way it does when she gets flustered. "You\'re acting like it\'s unheard of or something! What kind of sister doesn\'t visit her brother every once in a while?!"

"You, you\'re kind, you\'re one of a kind!" I answer back, a surge of energy within me launching me off my bed and pacing me about the room. "You have better things to do, don\'t you?" 

"I just told you I don\'t!" 

"Then you\'ll usually find better things! I thought you thought yourself better than that! Where\'s your pride? Your dignity? Why would you visit me?" 

"Now you\'re just insulting yourself."

"Tell me I\'m wrong, then!" I challenged her. "Do it. Say you\'re willingly, eagerly, dying to come see your big brother. C\'mon! Admit it! Say it to the world!"

A challenge she immediately conceded to. "Fine, yes, you\'re right! I do have better things! For once, in your lifetime, you got something right, bravo! Pat yourself on the back, big bro, you deserve this." 

"So, then!" I sat back down, my veins still surging with energy. "What\'s this really about, Sammy? What\'s really going on?"

"It\'s, it\'s… we..." She took a moment to breathe, all her stamina and all her strength seemingly leaving with that sigh, as she finished. "We need to talk." 

It was probably the first time I ever heard her sound so distressed. The Sammy I knew was this bold, daring young lady who acted more rashly than she thought more rationally - pretty much the polar opposite of me.

She was always the more daring one, the more fearless one… but all the same, she was also always the more emotional one.

"Talk?" I made sure that I was hearing her right, that what I was hearing now was really what I was hearing now. "Talk about what, Sammy?"

And apparently, I really was. "You know what." 

Yeah, I did… magic, myth, the things we previously thought impossible, unfeasible. But if she just wanted to do that, then why couldn\'t we do it now?

"Well," I urged her on. "Talk."

"Not on the phone, I don\'t want to talk like this." 

"Can\'t shoot me a text?" I suggested. "That\'s what you usually do."

"Yeah, usually," She said, a little annoyed now. "Does this sound usual to you?"

"Fair enough," I replied, racking my brain for what\'s spurring all this, and when once again I failed to do so, I asked, "It must be pretty serious if you\'re going out of your way to actually come visit me." 

"Actually, it might not be, after all," She sighed again, and from the little creak I heard in the background, she must have slammed herself into her bed. "It could just be me worrying over nothing. But I just want to see, want to clarify for myself, y\'know?" 

Okay, now she\'s got me shrouded in smoke and mirrors all over again. "What are you talking about, Sammy?"

"Remember, I messaged you a couple of days back?" 

"Talked about spoons, likely girlfriends, you accidentally setting the fields on fire, and then also accidentally freezing it all over." I scoffed, slamming my bedroom door shut with another flourishing wave. "How could I forget?"

She skimmed past the obvious envy in my voice, instead keeping the topic to the troubles that plagued her so. "I thought about mentioning it to you then. But I decided against it. It didn\'t feel… it just didn\'t feel right, I guess." 

Seriously, this girl\'s riddles and mysteries were going to be the death of me. "What didn\'t feel right?" 

"Look, if you really wanna know that bad, then just say yes so I can give Mom the all-clear already!" She paused to grumble. "Y\'know, she\'s been buzzing me all day since yesterday about it!" 

Now that she\'s riled me up like that, got me freaking squirming here with an insatiable curiosity, how the hell am I supposed to turn her down? 

Trick question, I couldn\'t.

"Fine!" I heaved, conceding. "Go pack your bags, go tell Mom, I\'ll get the guest room cleaned up - you can come over!" Then realizing I almost forgot a vital detail, added hastily, "But just so you\'re aware, it\'s not just me in here. You\'ll be sharing the roof with other people - you\'re fine with that?"

"Yeah, I know. Mom already told me, and I watched the video, remember? I saw them already," She said, then with a little edge to her tone, muttered. "All girls too." 

I caught that blunt edge. "That a problem with you?"

"Not a problem. In fact, I might still be able to try and save them."

My eyes nearly rolled off my sockets. "So, when do you think I can be expecting you?"

"Uh, let\'s see…" Another creak squeaking had her jumping, and a little thud echoing had her landing, then a quiet ruffle of pages had her flipping the little calendar of appointments she\'s always kept pinned on her wall. 

After a moment, the background noises ceased their spree on my eardrums, and I heard her voice, speaking out a sentence I\'ve hurriedly grown completely weary of hearing.

"In the coming week."