"Aaaaarrrriiiaaaannnnnaaa!" a voice screeched from behind me just moments before a tall mass chillingly cold
collided into my back. "Ariana Ariana Ariana!"

"Holy crap, Juliet! You scared the crud outta me!" I laughed as I tried not to fall over from the momentum.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were shopping with Rayne." I quickly lead us out of the blazing summer sun
towards a shady outdoor cafe and plopped down on a wrought iron chair, setting down my grocery bag on the ground
beside me. She not-so-delicately flopped down across the table from me, her dark hair mussed by the soft breeze and
hanging in her shady emerald eyes. She took a long swig from her Rockstar energy drink before answering me.

"Yeah, we were. Then Rayne's 'rents came by and abducted her; dragged her back screaming to the mother ship."
she sighed, watching an elderly couple stroll along the sidewalk past us, arm in arm. Dusty flowers on the woman's
hat looked phantasmal in the hazy heatwaves that radiated off of the concrete.

I raised an eyebrow at her while fighting back a fit of giggles. "Now now, Jules. I know that we don't
exactly get along with Rayne's parents-"

"Because they're aliens." she put in stubbornly, her words garbled through another long pull of her drink.

I settled back in my chair with a sigh. We'd been over this numerous times, but we could still find almost
nothing to like about Rayne's parents. Not that I was one to talk when it comes to having issues with parents.
But still. Her dad was an executive for some schmancy buisness and also the pastor of her church. Her mother was a
cosmetic consultant and housewife, though what she did around the house I couldn't guess, since they had a maid and
she couldn't bake worth a darn. Heck, I doubted that she even knew what Pilsbury or Betty Crocker was.

At that moment I decided to look at my watch. Ah crap. I was gonna be late for dinner. I wiped the back of
my hand across my sweat-coated forehead. Mom was gonna kill me. "Well this was great," I said, cutting Juliet off
halfway through a story she'd been telling about her family reunion that I'd only been half-listening to. "But I
need to go."

She smirked and swiped her hair out of her eyes only to shake her head, causing it to fall back into its
old position. "You still workin' at that craft store?"

I stood up, bag in hand, and mustered a false apologetic smile to plaster across my face. "Yeah. See you
tomorrow?"

She shook her head, laughing. " Little working fiend!" she shouted after me as I retreated along the shadows.
When I passed around the corner, out of her line of vision, I turned right at the next junction and kept following the flow
of traffic until I reached it. The town's central cemetary. The old rusty gate groaned in welcome as I shoved at it with my
boot and scooted inside and headed to the gravestone on the hill, right under the gigantic oak tree.

I took a quick look around for any signs of the caretaker or his one-eyed Persian cat, Mirana. Finding none,
I smiled at the monument of my mother. "Hey Mom. Sorry I'm late. I got a bit caught up with Juliet."

Beneath the thick leather soles of my combat boots the earth began to quake. My mom's marble effigy opened
its eyes, light streaming from the retinas the light liquified into luminescent golden rivulets that poured until it coated the entire
statue. The blinding light faded with the setting sun, and as the moon began its ascent, the lifesize statue looked down at me
and smiled.

"Hello sweetie." Mom greeted me warmly in her familiar voice, enveloping me in a literally bone-crushing hug.
"How was your day today?"

"Today was okay. Hot, but okay." I didn't ask her how her day was. She was dead, sort of dead anyway.
You see, there are four levels to existence: Higher Up, Mortal, Lower Down, and Dead, or the Demon level. That's where
the stuff of nightmares dwelled, like zombies, werewolves, reapers, banshees, and Faerie Folk dwelled. Mom was a Lower
Down. So she was dead, but her love for me kept her here, away from what happens After. You know, After Life. We
didn't really know what happens then, and Mom didn't like discussing it. Truth be told, neither did I.

Mom was about to say something, but the crunch of a fell twig underfoot from behind stopped her words, and
she went motionless, like she had been before her soul had possessed her statue. I whirled around and squinted into the
shady night that surrounded the base of the hill. "Who's there?" I called out into the darkness.

A growling sillhouette emerged from the murky shadows and stalked towards me. I cursed under my breath
as a pair of luminous red eyes met mine. A werewolf probably. Definitely Demon level. I slowly backed up until my spine
made hard contact with the unyeilding marble of my mother's shrine. Mom couldn't interfere with the Dead level, only
Mortals and Lower Downs by law and powerful magicks. I was on my own. The werewolf grinned at me and i watched
as it bunched its muscels up and sprung at me. Everything went fast forward, to where I saw everything frame-by-frame.
The werewolf was flying through the air, its coat matted, yellow drool and spittle streaming form blood- stained teeth.
It got close. I dodged it, throwing myself to the left and rolling in the mud and dead grass. It crushed against Mom,
busting its leg, and howled with pain and rage. It went berserk with blood lust and flung itself at me, nasty teeth snapping
in my face. I gagged at the foul stench of its breath. Oh my gods it reeked! I thrashed around as it went for my throat.

All of a sudden, it yipped as it was thrown away from me, crashing into the giant guardian oak with enough
force to snap its spine. A pleasant rumble of laughter like thunder resonated behind me, strong arms enveloping and lifting
me as the night enveloped me like warm wings.