The Vanishing

With enough force to rattle every platter on the cafeteria table, Robin slammed down a newspaper. "You guys have to watch this." She said to Talia and Sandra, who sat together over a book on Magic Princess Twilight had sent them last week. "This is totally a case for us."

"Ugh, seriously Robin", Rebecca complained as she started to wipe up some of her spilled coffee. "Would it hurt to act with a little more grace?"

Both, Talia and Sandra looked up from their book and read the headline. "Girl vanished in forest after inexplicable lightshow", Talia read aloud. Getting curious, she picked up the newspaper and flicked through the article. Which in her case meant that she read it three times in a time normal would need for the first paragraph.

"How often do I have to tell you Robin, we don't take cases. We have the police already breathing down our necks and we don't want even more attention to ourselves." Sandra sighted. "In case you forgot; I'm an alien and you six are powerful wizards in training. If it weren't for Principal Calida and Vice-Principal Selena we would be already sitting in an police office and talking about our future carriers as government property." Sandra said and took the paper from Talia, crumpled it into a ball and threw it in the trashcan at the end of their table.

"So you're telling me that we have this awesome powers, that you're trying to teach us how to use, so we don't use them?" Robin argued back.

"Becca", Sunset pleaded. "Please be the voice of reason."

"Well..." The girl sighted and looked at her hand stitched napkin, which was drowning in coffee. "You both are right."

"See Robin, I told... What?"

"Rebecca is right", Talia agreed with her friend. "You teach us how to control our powers, but for what purpose." On cue, the crumbled paper floated back out of the trashcan with in a lavender hue and right into Talias hand. "Also, this really looks like something we should look at. Read the last part", she added and gave Sandra the paper. She unfolded it to the best of her abilities and started to read:

And this isn't by far the first missing person who vanished inside the nearby forest. Over the last twentyone years twenty five cases were reported where a person vanished in these woods. So far, not one of them was found. The local orphanage is doing daily tracks to look for their missing friend, but the moral is low.

Sandra looked at the taken picture for the article. At first glance, it could be a picture of just any forest in the world. The only indication that it was the sign towards the city. But that wasn't what made her hold her breath. There, in the bottom left corner was a flower. A flower with blue petals. Sandra was pretty sure that this earth had no poison joke. "OK, maybe this something we should look it."

"Yes!" Robin cried out, high fiving an unprepared Talia.

"While the missing girl is tragic, that not why I agree." Sandra laid the paper down and pointed at the flower. "That is something that doesn't belong here at all."