Welcome to Strangely

Abby smiles. "Why be normal when we can be special?"

"I want to be normal," Jenny says softly.

"We can't change destiny," Zara says before she leans her head down to continue reading.

Emily gets up hurriedly from her chair. "You should stop reading that book! It's making you believe we might have special powers. Powers which could unleash all forms of evil."

Zara shakes her head. "Not might have, we are definitely supposed to have powers."

Jenny says, her eyes are filled with a look of fright, "Is this evil going to come looking for us?"

Emily replies with a hint of annoyance in her voice, "Stop! We're not Eudemon. We don't have special powers. What makes you all think the four girls in the book is even us?"

The girls yell as one when there is a sudden loud knock at the door.

Looking at each other, neither one wants to be the one who opens the door.

Emily huffs impatiently and storms toward the door, pulling on the handle to open it. A cold wind rushes in, lifting wisps of her hair away from her face.

"Stephen? What are you doing here?" She asks.

"I've waited a long time for the four of you to come together as it's been foretold," he sneers as his face contorts into a demonic mask.

Quickly Emily pushes both her hands against his chest, catching him off guard. She exerts enough force to push him backwards and away from her until he falls backwards, landing on the ground on his back. She turns quickly, back into the crooked house, slamming the door shut and yelling at the top of her voice. "Jenny! Check the windows! Abby, Zara, did the book say how to get rid of a... Demon?"

Jenny rushes to the window and pulls aside the red chequered curtains. "The windows don't open."

"Check the ones in the rooms too," Emily suggests with an urgent tone.

Zara frantically turns the pages in the ancient book, searching for something which might help them. "I can't find anything," she chokes out, terror making her voice quake.

"Let me in, ladies," Stephen taunts from the other side of the door.

"Put as many things against the door as you can!" Emily instructs them while keeping her bodyweight wedged against the door.

The sound of moving furniture scraping along the wooden flooring, makes Stephen laugh. "You can't keep me out, ladies," his voice mocks them. "My powers are stronger than yours."

"What do we do?" Jenny wails. "We're trapped!"

"Come on, we'll face him together," Abby says with confidence.

"I've found something," Zara says in a rush, as she leans forward over the big book. "Say it with me."

They chant together, the sound of Zara's voice a little ahead of the rest, "If demons threaten to take my soul, fight with earth, air, fire, and water. Banish their souls through time and space, to The OtherWorld whence they came."

The sound of the wind above the house start to whisper faster and faster.

Flashes of light pulse quicker and quicker in the room. Bright. Dim. Bright. Dim.

The crooked door rattles in its hinges, louder and louder.

Outside, they can hear Stephen scream in pain, until the sound is choked off mid moan.

Then, just as sudden as the noise started, it is quiet.

Unable to say a word, they stand in a circle facing each other with bewildered and surprised expressions on their faces.

Abby yelps when there is another knock at the door.

Jenny shakes her head and mouths, "Don't you dare open that door."

"Abby?" The voice on the other side of the door asks, "I can hear you in there. What's going on?"

Emily sighs with relief. "It's just Chris."

They pull the items of furniture they had pushed against the door away to let him in.

"Hey," he greets them when he steps into the house.

Abby wraps her arms around him tightly. "I am so, so happy to see you."

"I feel really guilty about not seeing you all day," he says, as he holds her close to his chest.

Jenny and Zara move away from the door to go and sit down by the fire, followed by Emily.

Zara says, in a soft whisper so it is only Jenny and Emily who can hear her, "What a strange day."

Emily agrees, "I cannot believe how in mere seconds our lives became a lot more complicated."

Deep in thought, Jenny looks back over her shoulder to where Chris and Abby are still standing in a loving embrace beside the closed front door. She asks, "Do you think a Eudemon can date?"

"Believe me, everything will be different now," Emily says. "I still can't believe it really, really happened."

Zara laughs. "Well, at least we won't be bored."

"This is going to be interesting."