Announcementcontent warning: violence; injury; gore; possible body horror; deathAll our magical transformations lit up the airpne's cramped interior with fshes of coloured light, which didn't go unnoticed by our pilot. Chester demanded over the headsets, "What the hell are you kids doing back there?!"

  "Oh shit!" he yelled a moment ter, as the pne suddenly banked hard to the left.

  A fsh of bright light arced past just outside my window, and for a moment I thought it was lightning. Except it seemed to come up from the ground instead of down from the clouds, and the colour was all wrong in ways I couldn't begin to describe. I didn't have a chance to think about that though, because a moment after the fsh I heard a loud terrible noise behind me. The sound of metal being ripped apart was accompanied by a bst of wind and rain that immediately filled the cabin.

  Looking back over my shoulder I saw a huge ragged hole in the side of the fusege, right next to the green magical girl. Peri's wide eyes met mine for just a moment, and I opened my mouth to tell her to hold on. Before I could make a sound the pne shuddered and she was gone, lost to the howling maelstrom outside.

  I spent the next second or two just staring in shock at the spot where the bored reluctant college student had been sitting for the st three and a half hours. Now there was no trace of her, both she and the chair she'd been strapped to had fallen out the gaping hole. A moment ter my focus shifted from the missing girl to the damaged pne. Looking out through that new opening I could see part of the right-hand wing and tail section were missing, and just like that I knew we were going down.

  "Brace!" I shouted, mostly to Harper and Ellie.

  There was another fsh of light outside, and suddenly I felt almost weightless. Then everything was chaos again, I was being shaken left and right while the sound of grinding metal filled the air. It all came to an abrupt stop a few seconds ter, with a jolt that shook me right down to the bones.

  That was followed by a sudden silence, as if someone had just hit the mute button on life. Over the next few seconds my hearing gradually returned. First I noticed the sound of rain coming down hard. Then something that sounded like distant voices, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. Next came a low groan of someone in pain, and with a jolt of adrenaline I realized we'd just crashed.

  My eyes snapped open and I found myself ying on my side in the cold pouring rain. It was dark enough to be like night-time, which along with the weather made it really hard to see much. The next thing I noticed was while the rain was cold, it actually wasn't as frigid as I'd expected for being this far north. Finally when I tried to get up, I discovered I was still strapped to my seat. It turned out the part of the pne I'd been in had ended up sideways on the ground.

  I felt ok though, and as soon as I unbuckled my belt I sprang to my feet completely healthy and unharmed. Looking around me I saw the pne had broken apart on impact, it now y in several pieces scattered all around. I also saw the other three magical girls, Lily Azura and Violet were all getting to their feet nearby. I wasn't worried about them though, my thoughts were on my friends.

  Ellie's seat had been right in front of mine, but now the only thing in front of me was some jagged rocks. And Harper had been next to me, across the aisle to my left. That part of the pne was further away than it used to be, but my boyfriend was there. His seat was upright and he was still strapped in. He was just starting to move, and to my immense relief he appeared unharmed.

  "Are you ok?!" I gasped as I moved to his side in an instant.

  He nodded as he mumbled, "Yeah. Just a bit dazed."

  "What can I do to help?" I asked.

  Harper slowly shook his head as he unbuckled his seatbelt, "I think I'm ok. What about Ellie? Where is she, is she ok?"

  "I don't know!" I said as I spun around to try and find her. There was a growing sense of panic in me as I frantically scanned the wreckage for any sign of the gorgeous tomboy.

  Then Violet called from off to my right, "Rosa! Over here!"

  The purple magical girl was carefully lifting up part of the pne's right wing, to reveal Ellie ying beneath it. She'd been thrown from her seat, and I was at her side a split second ter. There was blood on her face, a lot of blood, but she was still alive. In fact it looked like she was just starting to wake as I dropped to my knees next to her.

  "Ellie!" I gasped. I gently took one of her hands in mine then shouted over my shoulder, "Harper! Ellie's hurt!"

  "I'll be right there!" my boyfriend shouted back. "Where's the first aid kit?! There should be at least one on the pne, and I've got one in my backpack!"

  Then I felt Ellie's hand give mine a weak squeeze as she mumbled, "Bke?"

  Her eyes opened a bit and she squinted up at me, which finally clued me in that her gsses were missing. At the same time Violet hurried away to help Harper look for the medical stuff.

  I gently squeezed her hand in return as I told her, "I'm here Ellie, I've got you. Harper's here too. How are you doing? Can you tell me where you're hurt?"

  "Head," she groaned as she reached up with her other hand and gently rubbed her forehead. She winced, "It stings. Where's my gsses?"

  I grimaced as I realized she had a nasty gash just over her left eye, but that seemed like the only injury. Or at least the only one I could see. I didn't comment on that though, instead I told her, "I don't know. Try and stay still though, ok? Harper's coming with a first aid kit, he'll patch you up. Then we can look for your gsses ter."

  With almost perfect timing my boyfriend dropped to his knees across from me. He had a battered old metal box in his hands, the exterior was rusted and the paint fking but I could still make out the red cross on the side. And he immediately took charge, talking in a calm reassuring voice as he got Ellie to try and rex while he checked her injuries.

  Up until that point all my attention was on my friends, I'd been almost ignoring the magical girls completely. With Harper looking after Ellie though I took a moment to gnce around the crash site once again, to see what they were up to.

  Lily and Azura were standing a few meters apart near the front of the pne, and both were now armed. The white magical girl held what looked like a medieval knight's longsword, except the bde was made of pure white diamond. The blue magical girl was carrying a heavy-looking two-headed war hammer with a rge head of blue gemstone.

  A moment ter Violet joined the other two, and she already had her two-headed purple amethyst war axe in hand.

  "Rosa!" Lily called out to me. "Arm yourself! If the rift's already open there could be Outsiders nearby!"

  I grimaced but held my left fist up, and my rose-quartz-bded halberd appeared in my hand.

  Then the white magical girl told the others, "Fan out, but stay in sight of each other! We need to get our bearings, we have to figure out where the camp is so we can stop the ritual!"

  She didn't seem to expect me to be part of that, which suited me just fine. My friends were more important to me anyways, so I focused on them again. Harper was just applying a rge folded bandage to Ellie's forehead, while the cute tomboy winced and muttered a few choice swear words due to the pain.

  I grimaced in sympathy as I asked my boyfriend, "Is she going to be ok?"

  He nodded, "Near as I can tell this is the only injury. She really needs stitches though, like real medical attention? The ceration is too deep for just a bandage. This'll do for right now, but we really need to get her to a hospital."

  Even before he'd finished talking Harper and I sort of gnced around at the wreckage of our airpne. Both of us knew we weren't getting Ellie to a hospital any time soon.

  "I'll be fine," my girlfriend insisted. She sounded like she was trying to be brave, but she also sounded like she was in pain. Then she tried to joke, "Honestly a little cut's nothing. I'm more worried about my gsses!"

  "It's not a little cut Ellie," Harper stated. "It goes down to the bone, and I don't know if it's going to heal without stitches. I've done my best to clean it and dress it, but these aren't exactly the best conditions for that."

  Hearing that left me worried for my girlfriend again, but unfortunately we all had even bigger problems to worry about. After a second or two I said, "Harper when you're done with Ellie we have to try and find Chester. I haven't seen him or heard him, but odds are he's going to need help."

  "Right," he nodded as he put the finishing touches on Ellie's bandage.

  She insisted she was ok to sit up, so we moved her over to Harper's seat since it was still upright. Then once we were both satisfied she'd be ok there, the two of us started picking through the wreckage to try and find the cockpit and our pilot.

  The other three magical girls were still in view as well, but all three had spread out pretty far. Lily was more than a dozen meters from what I figured was the front of the crash site, Violet was at least that far off to the left, and Azura was that distance again to the right.

  As I was looking around the white magical girl gnced back in my direction and our eyes met. She looked frustrated and impatient, and she it seemed like she was about to say something when we all heard a distant gunshot ring out through the darkness and rain. Everyone ducked slightly out of reflex, and my heart was pounding yet again.

  It was definitely a gunshot, the sound was unmistakable. It was hard to guess the direction exactly, but it was possibly from somewhere in the distance past where Azura was standing. Before any of us could respond we heard another shot from the same direction, but it didn't seem like they were shooting at us. It had to be my grandmother's people though, her hired goons were probably armed.

  "That way!" Lily pointed. "Let's go!"

  She gnced at me and added, "You too Rosa! We need all hands for this!"

  I hesitated as I looked at my friends again. I didn't want to leave them, especially if there were Outsiders creeping around. I couldn't leave my friends defenceless. And we still hadn't found Chester yet either. I opened my mouth to tell Lily all that, when several things seemed to happen all at once.

  We all heard a blood-curdling roar from somewhere off to the left. A split second ter a bolt of brilliant green light fshed across the crash site like a ser bst from a sci-fi space wizard movie. The bolt came from somewhere behind us and flew in the direction of the roar. It must have hit, because whatever it was let out an angry screech that sent chills straight down my spine. Then a second bolt of green light came from the same spot, and this time the inhuman noise stopped dead.

  "What the fuck was that?" Harper asked nervously.

  "Outsider," announced a soaking wet and very angry looking Peri, as she stalked into the crash site with her green crystalline bow in her left hand.

  Ellie sounded scared as she asked, "Does that mean we're too te? If Outsiders are here then the rift must be open already!"

  "It's open but it won't be stable yet," Lily expined. "Which is why we can't waste any more time! Rosa come on, we've got to go now!"

  The green magical girl looked at me and our eyes met once more. She nodded, "Don't worry Rosa. I'll protect the civilians, that's my job. You go with the others, put an end to this before it's too te."

  I gulped as I gnced at my friends again. Harper looked nervous but after a brief hesitation he nodded. And Ellie didn't hesitate, she gave me a thumbs-up.

  "Ok," I finally sighed. "Be careful. I'll be back as soon as I can!"

  With that I turned and hurried to catch up to Lily and the others, and the four of us set off through the driving rain and howling wind.

  "This weather has to be part of the ritual," Violet commented grimly. "Either a byproduct, or something they're doing intentionally to try and keep us away."

  Lily agreed, "That was no ordinary lightning that brought down the pne. That was dark magic."

  "So what's the pn?" I asked nervously as my hands tightly gripped the shaft of my halberd.

  "Azura and I will take the lead," the white magical girl stated. "Rosa, Violet, you two back us up. If the ritual isn't finished yet then stopping it is our primary goal. You two keep your eyes peeled for Outsiders, and if you see any then start slicing and dicing."

  The purple magical girl added, "Just don't let them touch you. Use the extra reach of your weapon to keep some distance from them."

  I grimaced but nodded, "Got it."

  A moment ter Azura gestured with her big war hammer, "There it is. Camp Hazen."

  The site was barely visible through the rain, just over a hundred meters away from us. I could make out one rger structure, like a quonset hut or something. And next to that a dozen tents of various sizes were scattered in a rough semi-circle. The real action was just to the right of the camp though.

  Despite the darkness and the rain and the distance I recognized the older woman in the centre as Judith Williams. She was wearing long dark robes that rippled in the wind as she moved her arms around, and it looked like she was chanting or something. I also spotted the glint of metal in her right hand, that appeared to be some sort of knife or dagger.

  There was a middle-aged man standing next to Judith, he was also dressed in dark robes. He was holding what looked like a rge heavy book, that my grandmother appeared to be reading from.

  Huddled on the ground a couple meters away from them were two younger figures in white robes, while a third white-robed figure y motionless a couple meters to the other side of my grandmother. And next to that body were two more, dressed in normal clothes.

  Finally, four burly armed men seemed to be standing guard around the others. They were obviously scared though, clutching their hunting rifles as they gnced around nervously.

  "They're not finished yet," Lily stated. "That means we've got a chance to end this right now. Let's go girls!"

  The white magical girl set off in the lead, while the rest of us followed a few paces behind. We were moving quickly but quietly, in hopes of going unnoticed by the men who were supposed to be on guard duty. And luck was with us, since everyone in the camp seemed to be looking the other way. We figured out why just before we reached them.

  One of the students in the white robes let out a terrified scream that brought the four of us to a sudden halt. Then we spotted what everyone else was looking at, but as soon as I saw it I almost wished I hadn't.

  Two Outsiders were approaching my grandmother's people, and just like my aunt said they were an affront to human senses.

  The horrific thing on the left looked like an amalgamation of limbs and appendages from a dozen different unreted creatures. It stood almost three meters tall and walked in a jerky halting motion that seemed slow when it paused but was much too quick when it moved. And its limbs had too many joints, at odd unnatural angles, as though they'd been repeatedly broken. It even had what appeared to be jagged shards of broken bone protruding from its flesh in numerous pces.

  Meanwhile the nightmare fuel on the right oozed forwards as though it didn't have any bones in it at all. Stubby appendages flopped forward or hung limp to either side of its roughly oval-shaped body as it progressed. It was around a meter and a half long and about a meter across, like a wide stubby maggot, and its midnight-bck surface glistened with what I doubted was rain. As it moved countless orifices opened and closed along its upper surface and sides, like mouths gasping for air or empty eye sockets gaping for information.

  The mismatched entities appeared to be heading directly for my grandmother, ignoring the guards and the sacrifices. And while literally everyone else was cowering away from the monstrosities Judith stood tall and proud.

  My grandmother greeted the horrors with open arms. Her voice was loud and fearless as she announced, "I am Judith Williams, granddaughter of Jacob Weimann! I welcome you to our world, and offer you its people in sacrifice. In return I ask only for the power and honour that is my just reward!"

  The two Outsiders stood there silently for a long second. Then the tall one with all the bones thrust one of its appendages forward. With a wet crunching sound it passed straight through Judith's chest, the jagged bony end emerged from her back coated in the dying woman's blood. Then the dagger fell from her grasp as her body seemed to colpse in on itself, like all her insides were being sucked out out through the gaping wound.

  I felt a wave of nausea as the Outsider got a little rger, and a couple new mismatched limbs seemed to sprout from its disgusting body. When it was over all that remained of Judith Williams was some bloody robes and a few scraps of flesh and bone. Everything else had been absorbed into and become part of the horrific thing that ended her.

  PurpleCatGirl