Chapter Text
Ring. Ring. Ring.
"C'mon, Hannah, pick up!"
The call went to voicemail. Again.
Not a very reassuring sign.
Sophia was sending a message out through her Manual. I still didn't fully understand how that thing worked. But whatever. Either it would or it wouldn't; nothing I could do about it. I punched in Hannah's phone number again.
Ring. Ring. Click. "Hello?"
It sounded like Rachel's voice. "Is that Rachel?" I asked. "Why do you have Hannah's phone? Is Hannah there? I think she's in trouble!"
"Who is this and why do you keep calling? I am trying to watch cartoons and my sister's ringtone is super annoying, so stop calling please. Goodbye."
"Wait, don't—"
She hung up. I groaned and dialed the number again.
Rachel picked up again. "I said stop calling! Hannah's not here."
"Well, where is she?"
"Are you even a real person? Why are you just meowing? Did someone give a phone to a cat? Who gives a phone to a cat? Say normal English words!"
Okay, so maybe I'm a fool. I sighed. "By my true self, transform," I said, speaking the words to turn back into a human.
Nothing happened.
"By my true self, transform," I said again, more firmly. And again—nothing.
"I'm just going to put this thing on silent," Rachel said on the other end. And she hung up.
"By power and grace, transform!" I said, increasingly frantic. Nothing happened. "Argh!"
Sophia turned back in my direction. "What's wrong? No luck on the phones?"
"No. She's not there, according to her sister. And I can't transform! I don't know why!"
"You can't transform? Are you out of range?"
"I don't know!" I paused, and processed what she had just said. "Oh. Yes. I guess that's why. The perks I get for being a familiar only work while Mal and I are within 1 mile of each other. Bleuuugh. I'm not thinking straight."
Well, okay, new plan. I dialed Grace's number. This time, she picked up. "Mal?"
"No, it's Katelyn," I said, my voice quavering slightly.
"Katelyn? Is everything okay?"
"No," I managed. "No, there's a problem. Are you at home right now? Is anyone with you?"
"Yeah, I'm here, and both my dads are in the other room. You're scaring me, Kate. What's wrong?"
I took a deep breath. "Mal's been kidnapped by a secret government organization called OSC. They found out that she's magic and they took her. They might have taken Hannah too, I don't know, I tried to call her and I can't reach her, but the same suspicious van was parked near both our houses—Grace, is there a suspicious van on your street?"
No response.
"Grace?"
"Sorry. Still here. Um. That's a lot. Let me check while I process the horrifying things you've just told me."
She went quiet again, and I could feel my heartbeat pounding in my chest as I waited for her to speak. And then, finally: "Okay. No suspicious vans on my street that I can see. What should I do?"
"I don't know! I'm just over here panicking!" I tried to center myself. "Our local Advisory is here with me, trying to figure out what reinforcements she can muster. Meanwhile I'm all kinds of fucked up right now because soulbond pairs aren't supposed to be this far away from each other and it sucks and I hate it and I just want my sister back!"
"Okay. Um. Okay. Uh…can you sense her at all?"
"Just a vague sense of the direction she's in, but it's not very strong."
"Do you want me to come over and, like…fly you in that direction, until we find her?"
Yes, I wanted to scream. Yes, that's what I want! But I swallowed the instinct and forced myself to think it through. Was that actually a good plan?
I don't know. I wasn't in peak mental condition. It was a plan. It was definitely one of the plans of all time. And I needed to do something before I had a physical and/or mental breakdown.
"I don't know," I said. "Maybe!"
"I'll be right there."