𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣

If we knew what we were getting ourselves into, I don't think we would have fought in the Second Great War. We would have found some way to rid the Originals of our bodies and we could have gone about our normal lives.

We wouldn't have lost all that we did: Our families were torn apart by the damage. Lovers were stuck on two different sides of the Second Great War. Fatalities on both sides. The wall was torn down by a mixture of uncontrolled powers. Friendships ruined. Lives taken that can never be replaced.

We could have continued on our separate paths not knowing what the other side of Snoh looked like. I would have given up seeing the Morningstar side just to know that my friends was safe. I would have given up Nicoy to see my father's safety.

We didn't want to fight in the war. They made us soldiers in a war that was present before Earth was. They gave us powers and delusions of grandeur. They made us believe that we would be able to stop the Chaotic Trio and the end of the world.

But instead, we did nothing more than play into the hands of the Titans and the vicious cycle will continue. A war that is only a temporary one, until they get bored again.

The second cycle started with the rain.

On the Salem side, we fear the rain. It leaks through our buildings and clean-up takes days. Especially at the high school. We stop classes and we patch it up the best we can so that it doesn't leak the next time.

It always does though.

Morningstar Academy doesn't have these problems. They don't fear rain but they rejoice when it comes. They get the funding and the money in Snoh. Their school and homes are beautiful, something I didn't get to see until the wall went down. Salem however is left with none.

Our roads are shitty. Our buildings leak. The children get things through stealing and most of us have been in jail once or twice. Our parties consist of stealing both snacks and kisses in the dark.

And that day, the rain came full force.

The old mustang I drove that day was getting beat up by the rain. She was my mother's car, long before she was mine.

From both sides of the car, freshmen and seniors alike ran throughout the parking lot, trying to avoid getting soaked before first period. Umbrellas here are expensive, especially when it barely rains, but hell comes with rain.

The few umbrellas that could be seen in the parking lot were most likely stolen, especially the good ones. I owned one myself, stolen from the corner store down the street when I was just a bright eyes newbie in my freshman year.

Four years later, and this school stayed the same as always- crappy- and as a senior, I was no longer bright-eyed.

This was the last normal day all of us had. We were no longer simple students just trying to make it to graduation.

The Originals must have found that day to be perfect, to use the rain as a cover to enter our bodies. Because as soon as they entered our bodies, wreaking havoc internally, the rain left like it didn't exist to begin with.

That morning after running through the pouring rain, pre-calculus seemed even more boring than usual. The teacher droned on and on about equations that I would never memorize.

"Mr. Z, can I go to the bathroom?" I asked, sticking my hand up in the air. Before he could give an answer, I already had my bag on my back. He eyed the bag, resulting in a quick response, "Lady problems." He gave me a careless look but a nod all the less.

There was no way I was staying in that room anymore, or even in that school. I was restless, the rain always seemed to do that to me. I grabbed my keys as soon as I got into the deserted hallway.

"Ori. Let's go for food." A voice called out down the hallway. I knew that voice like it was the back of my hand.

"Nini. How is it that you find your way out of class just when I'm about to leave."

"Call it my best friend intuition. I'm feeling some milkshakes and fries from Lily and Rose's Cafe?" She suggested with a smirk. Of course, she would suggest the cafe, knowing it was our favorite place to spend time.

Nina was my best friend from long before I could even remember. I can't recall any memories where we weren't together. Some even mistaken us for sisters the way we were so close. However, we didn't look anything the same. She was a smaller senior with curly hair that rested just above her chin. A pretty little Hispanic girl who was best friends with the half-breed that I was.

But she was more than a best friend to me. She was a sister by choice. Nina had been there for me when my father and I lost my mother, an airplane crash in the heatstroke of the summer. She laid in bed with me while I cried for days and refused to leave my side. We had been through heartbreaks and heartbreaking together. If she wasn't at my dinner table, then I was at hers. Seventeen years of friendship. There had been a whole bunch of milkshakes, closet raiding, and sleepovers. I would do anything to protect her, and I know she felt the same way about me.

She even wore the clothes that I designed and sewed in the comfort in my room, usually with her lying on the bed reading through teen magazines. Today, she wore the purple tank top with the yellow butterfly- that took me a couple of hours to hand sew because my machine broke down - in the middle. She wore jeans that we hand tore and bleached one summer afternoon. It wasn't exactly rain weather clothes but Nina could care less about the weather.

And on top of everything, she must have known that at that exact moment, I could no longer stay in the dripping school.

We ran through the hallways, avoiding the hall monitors and any prying teachers that weren't in their classroom. Successfully, we made it through the school and out the door that led us to the parking lot. I threw open the umbrella so that we wouldn't get wet and as we raced through the rows of cars, we tried to refrain from kicking up too much standing water.

The two of us flung the doors open, tossing our bags into the backseat and filled the air around us with sweet laughter. "Off to Lily and Rose's," I called out joyfully, starting the car. We wasted no time falling into routine. Nina plugged her phone into the aux cord that I had bought from the ninety-nine cent store and play whatever music matched our mood while I maneuvered through the lanes of the neighborhood until we made it out into the open.

Lily and Rose's Cafe was a busy cafe. It was built when we were just children so everyone hung out there. Run by our lesbian queens of color, Lily- a Polynesian native who left to escape an abusive father- and Rose - a dark-skin with an afro larger than life itself- the cafe had brought joy to Snoh. The cafe rested in the middle of both Salem and Morningstar, but it was rare to see any Morning Star Academy kids skipping to indulge themselves in milkshakes and fries. However, there were many Salem upperclassmen filling in the booths, just like we were about to.

This cafe was ran on time. Salem students had access to it from early in the morning ( 7 am) to the time Morningstar got out ( usually 2 pm ). After that, it was Morningstar's territory until closing (which depending on the day was around 10 or 11 pm ). It just worked that way. We stayed out of their way and they didn't both getting in ours.

Nina and I ran up to the doors, trying to avoid the rain that was getting harder by the second. "Morning girls. I would say it's a surprise seeing you but the two of you are always up here." Rose expressed, handing us two menus as we walked past the checkout that also served as the only entrance into the kitchen, "The same as always, or do the two of you finally want to try something else?"

This was the usual interaction and following our usual dialogue, the two of us shook our heads. "Two milkshakes, one vanilla, one chocolate, hold the whipped cream. And a larger than large stack of curly fries." The three of us said in unison, laughing together. It was the only thing we ordered, for the two of us thought the combo was the best item on the menu without contest.

Rose left us to walk into the kitchen and we walked through the tables to our usual booth. Walking towards the back, we passed a few Salem occupants that we knew.

There was Rania, a sophomore hijabi who was known for fighting more than she was in class, sitting with Vivian, a girl in our grade with curls bigger than she was. Nina and her occasionally exchanged some words in Spanish anytime they crossed paths during school. We gave both of them some waves and smiles.

Aiko sat alone at a table for two, sipping on a smoothie as she held a book in her other hand. Her bangs made it nearly impossible to see her eyes but they also gave her identity away. She was never with anyone, enjoying the company of whatever book she was currently reading.

Nick, one of our friends who had had dreads for the last twelve years of his life, stared off into nothing. It was very likely that he had just smoked a whole bunch and dragged along Aku, who had just gotten his license a couple of months ago, because he had the munchies. At least Nick was responsible about it.

Poppy and Clementine, adopted siblings who were almost never seen without each other, took a table themselves, staring at the menu. They must have just arrived. Clementine looked a little pale but her smile covered up anything that could have been wrong with her.

Nina and I took our seats in the back, a booth with the small lamp illuminating it lightly. There were the usual rips in the cushions and indents in the table of names and initials in hearts.

"So guess what happened today." Nina started, putting her elbows on the recently cleaned table, and then she used her hands to hold up her face.

Out of interest, I did the same, using one arm to hold up my head instead, "Another daydream? About which boy on your infamous list?"

She started explaining the reverie that she had conjured up as she had gotten ready that morning. For years, Nina had been able to come up with these stories just by letting her mind go. She was also a great storyteller but she was often distracted; the stories could go on for hours if I didn't make a conscious effort to keep her on track.

"You'll never believe what I saw though. It wasn't for me though Ori, it was you and a boy."

"As if, when have you ever seen me successful in a relationship? There's always something wrong with him as if fate doesn't want me to be with anyone." I sighed, fake pouting.

The longest relationship I had ever been in lasted a mere three months, the next longest was an outrageous five weeks.

Relationships were never something that I forced, though it would be nice to have a date to senior prom. I had no problems going by myself, but it was obvious that Nina would be asked and I would be third-wheeling.

I loved my girl but I was not going to third wheel at our prom.

"Oh Ori, you should have seen the two of you. It was perfect. You should have seen the way he looked at you. Like he wouldn't let anyone hurt you. And he had the most gorgeous freckles. If he exists, I might have to snatch him away from you." She teased, a smile creeping up her face.

"You never know, I might just let you. Besides, there's absolutely no way he exists. It's just another one of your daydreams."

"Until it happens."

"They never do."

The two of us chuckled some. While some of Nina's daydreams could have been logically possible, a bunch of them were out of the box and we rarely took them seriously. They did, however, take us out of the shithole that we called home.

Here, half of our graduating class weren't excepted to go to college. The other half that did would drop out before getting a degree. Eventually, Salem children returned to Salem. There was no escape out of this hell hole no matter how hard you tried. We called it the Salem curse and all who were born here were to fall under its powers.

We didn't have the credentials, the experience, and the title of 'inmate' - no matter the time we served- was slapped across our foreheads. So we drowned in self-doubt and played to the usual stereotype of not being anything.

It was rough, but we did what we could.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Lily maneuvering through the tables and chairs with a basket full of hot curly fries and two glasses of creamy milk.

"The usual for my two favorite girls. Shouldn't you be in class though?" She asked us, setting the fries in between the two of us. Because she wasn't born here, she didn't believe in the curse of being Salem-born. Outside of our parents, Lily was the only one who believed in us, occasionally checking up on our grades and our future plans.

Sometimes, she managed to get Rose to join in. But it was rare because even Rose had tried to leave Salem to expand her culinary teachings and fell captive to the curse, returning just four years after.

"I wasn't really feeling lessons today Lily, I'll try to stay in class for the rest of the week though." I offered, knowing that I would have to follow that promise I had made to her. Nina nodded her head as if she was in agreement but she didn't say anything.

"He kotiro atamai, a smart girl. The two of you will be out of this town before you know it." She rested her hand on the top of our heads gently, gave a smile, and returned to the kitchen.

Taking a fry into her hand, Nina offered her usual slick smile. "I hate you," I mumbled to her, rolling my eyes. I didn't even get to taste the sweet chocolate of my milkshake before a shard of pain flashed through my body, starting in my brain all the way through my torso.

I felt like crying, screaming, and curling up into a little ball all at the same time. Hazily, I tried to look over at Nina only to see that she was suffering the same fate that I was.

There was no moving. There was no reaching for my best friend in hopes that we could overcome this pain. We both fell on our sides, laying on the torn cushions weakly.

"Damn rain.." I mumbled, closing my eyes and wishing that the pain would go away as quickly as it came.

The last thing I remember was seeing her sweet face on the other side of the booth until the world was enveloped into a black that was darker than any black my bare eye had seen before.