PINESMASHER

Just because one villain is dead, doesn't mean they all are.

PINESMASHER

Pinesmasher didn't live in what we would call a “normal” neighborhood. In fact, it was difficult to find a “normal” person on her street at all. Closing in on Pinesmasher's own family, everyone was different in some way or another. Her dad, for instance, is a wizard. That is, used to be a wizard. When Pinesmasher was 9 years old, her dad, Zander, was murdered by one of his friends. This friend was an alien named Dven, who didn't last very long after Zander's death. After he died, Zander came back and continued to live with his family as a ghost. Pinesmasher's mother, Pam, had the ability to manipulate gravity. Pinesmasher inherited her father's abilities, but she received her fitting nickname because she had a tendency to punch trees when she became angry.

Pinesmasher was now 16 and in high school. Life had been good to her in the last 7 years. She had made friends, she had done well in her classes. She had a future.

One day, the last day of her junior year to be exact, Pinesmasher sat on the stone steps of her school. She wore a yellow baggy top, an indigo skirt, a blocky pair of brown sandals, and a brown cape. She had a silk scarf wrapped around her neck, despite the heat, and a narrow witches hat atop her head. Suddenly a familiar face ran towards her. Her friend, Cloud Bow, a freshman, had received his nickname because of his skill with his bow that had the ability to shoot lightning. He must have been running for quite some time, because when he reached Pinesmasher, he doubled over completely out of breath. Cloud Bow wore a dark blue and gray pinstripe suit and ascot tie.

“Maybe you shouldn't have worn a suit to school.” Pinesmasher snickered.

“Eh. It was the last day of school, I wanted to look professional.” Cloud Bow panted. He stood a minute longer, catching his breath, until he finally sat beside her. “Whoo. So let's see it.” Cloud Bow breathed excitedly.

“Oh.” Pinesmasher said, digging through her bag and delicately pulling out what she needed. She had recently received a new wand from her parents. It was a lightly colored, roughly carved yew wand with a core of dryad hair. It was around 11.25 inches long and was told to be very swishy. Cloud Bow marveled at the magic item.

“How do you do it?” Cloud Bow wondered.

“Do what?” Pinesmasher asked.

“Magic.” Cloud Bow said, waving his hands. Pinesmasher snickered.

“You just have to focus really hard on what you want to happen. Once you have a good, clear image of what you want to happen, you just project it into the world. Like so.” Pinesmasher twirled her wand and brought it down quick and a bouquet of pink flowers sprouted from her new wand. She plucked them and handed them to Cloud Bow, and he studied the flowers as if he had never seen them before.

The next day was Pinesmasher's birthday. She loved her birthday, but she never liked birthday parties. She had a hard time accepting gifts. But, of course, at least one of her friends had to give her something. Pinesmasher woke up and the first thing she saw was the sunrise. Curly Dawn was her friend that was in charge of painting the sky. She smiled at the pink and orange colors until she saw something different than usual. In neon pink, Curly had written “OPEN YOUR DOOR PINE”. Pinesmasher groaned as she opened her front door and found Curly Dawn already standing at the door. In one hand, she held a rectangular triple-tier cake with colors similar to a blossoming cherry tree. In the other, she held a turquoise box with a gray bow on top.

“Thank god, you're up. I don't think I've ever met such a heavy sleeper.” Curly moaned, walking into Pinesmasher's house. Pinesmasher looked at her with an upset expression. “Pine, if you're not going to celebrate your own birthday, at least celebrate Mulberry's death.” Curly reasoned, setting the cake and present on the kitchen table. When Pinesmasher's parents were only babies, the world was run by a man named Mulberry Weaver. Mulberry was a wizard who took control over everyone's lives using dark magic. He had managed to gather a group of followers who helped him out from time to time. One day, a man named Ikki Mori created a device called the “Glopribux” that deflected all the dark magic Mulberry would put on him. Ikki had this device surgically implanted in his skull. One day, Ikki purposefully disobeyed Mulberry and Mulberry tried to curse him. Of course, the curse rebounded an hit Mulberry instead. Mulberry became very sick and eventually died due to the curse he had inflicted on himself. That day was June 16. Years later, on this same day, Pinesmasher was born.

“Fine.” Pinesmasher sighed. “Could you just give me a minute to get dressed?”

“Sure.” Curly smiled. Pinesmasher went into her room and came back out wearing a green blouse, dark pink pants, tennis shoes, a silk scarf and a single earring. As soon as Pinesmasher came out into the kitchen, Curly thrust the turquoise box into Pinesmasher's arms. After a hesitant pause, Pinesmasher took the top off of the box and took the object out of it. In her hands, Pinesmasher held a ticking clock made of granite. “Turn it over.” Curly suggested. Pinesmasher did and found a list of names carved into the back.

“ALDEN HURLEY

ASHLYN SOLOMON

REESE SHEPHERD

AVA BRASS

MILLER PHILIPS

ADRIENNE ROSALES

WHEELER GRIMSBY

MISTCRACKER” the names read.

“Who are they?” Pinesmasher asked.

“Everyone who's ever owned this clock. You should add your name.” Curly answered, bumping Pinesmasher with her shoulder. Slowly, Pinesmasher picked up her wand off the table and magically carved the word “PINESMASHER” into the back of the clock below Mistcracker. “You know what's really cool about this clock?” Curly asked. She pointed at a draw string at the very top of the clock. “It doubles as a bomb. Pull that string and BOOM!” Curly yelled making an explosion gesture. Suddenly Pam hurried out of the bathroom in her nurse's uniform. It looked more like a sailor suit to Pinesmasher, but Pam insisted it was a nurse's outfit. It was designed in vivid magenta, yellow and gray. The collar was made of delicate lace. Pam wore knee-high heeled boots and wrist-length gloves, although she said these just went with the outfit and “made her feel pretty”.

“Oh! Hello girls. I'm sorry, Pine, I have to get to the hospital. They just brought in a man with 8 stab wounds in his chest.” Pam informed hurriedly.

“God, mom! You didn't need to give me a reason.” Pinesmasher flinched in disgust. Pam kissed her daughter's forehead.

“Happy birthday sweetie.” Pam whispered before running out the door. Curly looked at Pinesmasher questioningly, but Pinesmasher only shrugged.

Pinesmasher was woken up the next morning by her cell phone ringing. When she checked the caller ID, she saw it was her mother.

“What?” Pinesmasher answered.

“Pine, I need you to come to the hospital immediately. It's Curly.” Pam rushed. At once, Pinesmasher was on her feet. Not bothering to get dressed, Pinesmasher teleported to the town hospital. She ran inside hearing nothing but her bare feet hitting the pavement and soon the tiled floor of the hospital. At the door stood a very short, narrow built nurse with dark skin, mid-length graying maroon hair and large lime green eyes. This nurse stopped Pinesmasher.

“Are you...Pinemasher?” the nurse asked.

“Pinesmasher.” Pinesmasher corrected urgently.

“Come with me.” the nurse directed, walking down a hallway. Pinesmasher followed her into a room where Curly lay unconscious in a bed and Pinesmasher's mother sat anxiously beside her. Pinesmasher walked in silently and stared intently at Curly. Everyone watched as Pinesmasher slowly walked across the room to Curly's bedside. She fought tears as she looked at her.

“What happened?” Pinesmasher asked quietly.

“She said when she was walking home last night, someone grabbed her. It was foggy, so she didn't see who it was. They stabbed her in the chest. 8 times.” Pam answered slowly. Pinesmasher began trembling with anger. Her hands rolled into fists. “Pine, no!” Pam shouted, but she was too late. Pinesmasher had teleported to the woods behind the hospital. Pinesmasher began viciously punching the trunk of a tree, denting it just a bit each time, but not hurting herself at all. Halfway through the trunk, she heard a voice behind her. Cloud Bow had found her.

“Pine!” Cloud shouted. She ignored him and continued assaulting the tree.

“PINE!” Cloud screamed. She still ignored him.

“Emiko, stop!” Cloud screamed, grabbing her from behind. She finally stopped. Nobody ever called her by her real name.

“No! NO!” Pinesmasher screamed in agony. She struggled to get away from Cloud Bow, but he was too strong and his grip too tight. Pinesmasher finally fell limp against Cloud, sobbing loudly. Cloud embraced Pinesmasher as she cried.

After a few minutes, Pinesmasher had stopped crying, but Cloud hadn't let go of her. Pinesmasher gazed up at the sky. Instead of the light blue it would have normally been, it was a solid dark gray. Curly wasn't around to paint it. “She's going to die. Isn't she?” Pinesmasher said softly.

“No one's going to die.” Cloud assured.

“You can't promise that.” Pinesmasher pointed out.

“No.” Cloud admitted after a pause. “But I can promise that I won't leave you.”

Cloud Bow and Pinesmasher slept in Curly's hospital room that night. Pinesmasher dreamt of the party Curly had thrown for her. No one noticed, but she also cried in her sleep that same night.

Suddenly, there was a flash of bright light outside. Pinesmasher woke up, startled by the light and nearly fell out of her chair. She looked around, still a bit jumpy from being woken so suddenly and saw that Cloud Bow was gone. There was shuffling in the hallway as nurses and doctors rushed someone in. Pinesmasher ran out to find Cloud Bow on a stretcher...with stab wounds all throughout his chest. Pinesmasher fell against the wall in despair. Why did he leave? What was the bright light? Maybe a shot from his bow? But then who was he shooting at? How could she stop this person? Among all these questions came one answer. The clock. The granite clock that Curly had given her for her birthday. In her head, Pinesmasher heard Curly yelling “BOOM”. That was how she would stop this person. She quickly hid back in Curly's hospital room. With a roll of her wrist, gray smoke surrounded her hand. When it cleared, the granite clock lay in Pinesmasher's hand.

“Just pull the string.” Pinesmasher repeated. Gripping tightly to the clock, Pinesmasher teleported outside so no one would see her leave. When she got outside, she could barely see in front of her. The entire landscape was coated with a thick, white mist. The only thing she heard was the ticking of the clock. She stood a few minutes along until she could hear the faint sound of boots on pavement. “Hello?” Pinesmasher called out, knowing there was a killer somewhere around her.

“Hello.” the voice called back, kindly enough. It was definitely a woman's voice.

“Who are you?” Pinesmasher called back, taking a few steps into the street.

“My name is Mistcracker. I control the mist.” the woman answered. Mistcracker? Why did that sound familiar? Pinesmasher turned the clock over in her hands and found the woman's name written directly above hers.

“Did you hurt my friends?” Pinesmasher asked. There was a pause of silence, other than the clock.

“Yes.” the woman answered sweetly. That was all that Pinesmasher needed. With that answer, she pulled the string from the back of the clock and a click sounded. A bright green hand on the clock's face started moving steadily from one to two. As quietly as she could, Pinesmasher set the clock down on the pavement.

“Why?” Pinesmasher asked as the hand moved from five to six. She didn't even need an answer. Just needed to draw Mistcracker towards the clock. It worked, too. Mistcracker's footsteps became nearer by the second, while Pinesmasher became farther. Mistcracker hunted the ticking of the clock while Pinesmasher silently walked away.

“Just following in my dad's footsteps. He was a great leader, you know. I bet you've heard of him. Mulberry Weaver. Ring any...bells?” BOOM. The clock exploded and shards of glass and granite flew in all directions. Pinesmasher huddled down and covered her head as tiny pebbles hit her hands. When all was silent, Pinesmasher stood up and followed a trail of sharp stones. The rocks grew larger as Pinesmasher grew closer. Finally, she could just make out the toes of a high-heeled boot. With just a few more steps, Pinesmasher was able to have a full view of Mistcracker. She was about her mother's age with purple hair tied in pigtails. Her eyes were the color of the mist she took control of and her face was cut and bloody and Pinesmasher could see where the shards of granite hit her. Kneeling down, she closed Mistcracker's foggy eyes. Mulberry was dead. And now his daughter was, too.

EPILOGUE

Emiko stood before a white table on her front lawn. On this table was a double layer cake with dark orange, yellow, and vivid turquoise frosting. Atop this cake were 26 candles.

“1...2...3!” everyone counted down. Emiko blew out her candles and everyone ran to hug her.

“Happy birthday, sweetie.” Emiko's husband grinned. They embraced and she smiled. Above this party was the sky that would remain gray for the rest of Emiko's life.

THE END