Carina and Jon: Rule Never Changes

by Josh Crapo

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad, Changelings, Original Character, Mystery, Tragedy, Queen Chrysalis, Human
Length: 6142

One night, Carina doesn't return home after a visit to Headrest Center, making it very hard for investigation around the mall, as she wakes up in some far away crazy land with a structure that seems alive.

When Jon least expects it, his original prediction has potentially come true as one night, Carina doesn't return from Headrest Centre. And without Carina, police can't investigate the mall for any evidence. But maybe Jon's Kima AV Blade 5 could help him find out what happened. Meanwhile, a starving Carina has found herself in some weird structure that somehow closes and opens holes on its own, like it's alive.

Published 2016-12-13 13:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-12-13 13:50:01 UTC

Carina and Jon: Rule Never Changes

It’s been a while hasn’t it? Father’s Day is still coming up, but now it’s only two weeks away, since it’s the seventh today. Carina has been doing so well; her wings are completely whole now instead of transparent. She still teleports to the Headrest Centre every day.

Now with near full knowledge of Carina, I have to look up everything about every place I want to explore to see if it’s safe for Carina to go. For most cases, it’s practically her poison. But every so often there’ll be a motel, complex or some other jazz that has some good reception as abandoned places. When I do find one, it’s pretty far out of the way.

Since we moved, it’s become routine for me to find Carina home after coming back. Speaking of coming back, I am one hundred percent sure now that Chrysalis won’t return. I have no idea what I was thinking when I originally predicted that she’d return. All I know is that Carina and I are living happy lives.

As for me and Carina’s usual routine:

Carina wakes up early and waits for me. When I wake up, I meet her in the living room and we make our good-byes after I have breakfast. Carina teleports to Headrest Centre while I do some urbex, bringing along my Kima AV Blaze 5. When I get home, she’s usually home before me unless I get home early. After that, I connect the controller to the computer and put my video onto the internet.

It may seem boring at first, but for now, it’s different from how it used to be. I mean, honestly, I was starting to get tired of finding nothing but near demo sites before I went to Headrest Centre for the first time.

Tomorrow, I’m going to shake things up a bit with a two day revisit, so I’ll see how well Carina fares spending the night alone. I haven’t done it before, but one night without her probably won’t be so bad. I trust her. Her experience in Headrest Centre is enough to assure me of that.

So, before I go to bed, I tell Carina about my plan for the next two days. So, she decides to have me show her where I’ll revisit and give her a glimpse of what it’s like. Finally, Carina gives a pass on going with me.

Well, this is it. The location I’ve been wanting to revisit for a while now. Rolling Acres Mall.

So, a bit of history first. During my last visit, Rolling Acres was still open, which was about eight months ago. When I first looked at it, I was practically free to film wherever I pleased because of the general lack of people. By this time, I’d say the mall was only a tenth occupied. There were a few holes in the ceiling and some water damage. But I didn’t smell any mold. Most of the time, I saw lost tenants like Sydney Ryan, MasterCuts and City Blue, but to my surprise, a few were still around like Claire’s and Dollar General. And since I had money leftover from travelling to Rolling Acres, I decided to get a quick drink over at Picnic Place. By that time, I finished filming and was ready to head out.

Then that Halloween, I got home, getting on my computer only for me to find a video on Rolling Acres Mall that was posted just that day. In the description, it said that that day, it was supposed to have power cut to the building.

Today, it’s been over seven months since it closed.

So, I start by using my remote control to get the camera at a good view of the roof. And we’re already off to a great start. A couple of panes from the skylights are missing. I don’t know what happened, but it could possibly add obstacles to my exploration. After a minute of aerial footage, I control the helicopter to come back and stop recording before I go anywhere else.

I go around back and find a nifty entrance near where Dillard’s used to be. Over there, I start recording. As I walk around with the helicopter, I notice that the mall still resembles just that, a mall, just with the lights turned off.

When walking, I come across the former fountain. Around it are four lamp-like structures, four elbow benches and a tree starting to grow out of the floor.

As I arrive, I take a look around and slowly spin the copter next to me two hundred and seventy degrees to the left and back. I decide to go straight, seeing the main entrance.

Shortly after, I decide to go back, but turn left afterwards at the fountain. On the way over, I look to my right and see the former Victoria’s Secret. To my left, I see the former Claire’s and Sydney Ryan. Then, I arrive at the JCPenney Outlet court, where the escalators and elevator are located. Both were closed when I was last here, and it looks like nothing has changed. Even the floors don’t look that bad at all in the area. Most of the plant life on this floor so far are dead with the exception of the tree near the fountain.

Then I turn to the right and head for the only open staircase in the entire mall, which leads to Picnic Place.

Picnic Place doesn’t look that bad right now, sans all the vacant eateries. But then, I decide to turn to my right, heading towards the old Macy’s. Afterwards, I stop recording before I make for the exit to my right, the exit underneath the sign that says “Rolling Acres Cinema”.

Going out to the front, I get back into my car, turn it on, and quickly head home.

It’s about seven in the evening when I return home. As it turns out, I guess I’m early as Carina’s not home yet from Headrest Centre. So, I pass the time editing my videos, and putting them onto the internet. Afterwards, I patiently wait while I reflect on how the video turned out.

Then, I start yawning like crazy. So, I decide to turn in early tonight.

After getting into bed, I check the time. 8:35. A little late for Carina to come home. But I’m faithful that she knows what she’s doing.

Throughout the night, I have a dream unlike any that I’ve had in my life. I relive exploring Headrest Centre, the day I found Carina. As with any reliving, everything is going as they had when it actually happened. The meteor like appearance, me notifying Roman, and driving out to the field.

Then, everything changes when I find Carina. Instead of her being unconscious like how it really happened, she is fully awake with panic in her eyes.

“JON!!! HELP!!!”

And the dream ends there. I wake up with a racing heart and a pair of rapidly moving lungs. When I look at the time, it’s almost four in the morning. I use a flashlight to help me look for Carina to see if she was here when I was asleep. However, I don’t find her or any trace of her after an hour straight of looking. Something is definitely wrong. I hope she’s only missing.

I wake up to a brand new location, feeling as if I haven’t shared love since I was an infant. Everything looks like marble, or something, but I don’t kn-

Wait, did that hole in the wall just fill itself?

And, what’s that hole doing above me? That wasn’t there when I woke up. This... is so confusing.

Then it’s as if I see myself in some weird mirror, only with the wings I used to have instead of the ones I have now. Suddenly, I see my wings stuck out below me so they won’t get crushed. And they’re the same as this lookalike’s. I shriek as I realize that my wings aren’t whole anymore.

“Oh good; you’re up!”

“Whe... where am I? Where’s Jon?!? Where’s Headrest Centre?!?”

“Don’t worry about them, Areola. You’re home, now!”

“One, this is not my home. Two, it’s Carina.”

“But of course this is your home. Home is your natural habitat!”

“I can agree on that, but my natural habitat is Headrest Centre and Jon’s new house.”

“Areola, if you stay here long enough, we could possibly convince you that this is your home.”

“What do you mean ‘we’?”

Suddenly, I see a huge amount of lookalikes coming from behind the one in front of me, walking at any slope.

“Oh. And you say you all can have stay here? You have twenty seconds to give me a good reason to stay here before I teleport home.”

The front lookalike ponders before I interrupt him.

“Twenty.”

“Uh-”

“Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen.”

“A-”

“Sixteen. Fifteen.”

“Are-”

“Fourteen. Thirteen.”

“Well, might as well try her OTHER name.”

“Ten.”

“CARINA!!! Listen to me!!! Nothing other than native changeling magic works here!!!”

“Changeling magic?!? Have you lost your mind?!? Don’t tell me we’re a bunch of earthbound creatures that feed on the love of human infants’ mothers! As for magic, from what I can tell, this world has no magic!”

“Hey, look who’s talking, amnesiac! No one knows what a human is!”

Suddenly, one of the lookalikes butts in.

“One of us actually do-”

“Shut up, Thorax!”

“Brand, I was only trying to be honest!”

Brand hisses at Thorax, who quivers in response.

“That’s it. Thorax, do you want to come with me?”

So, Thorax decides to come with me as I start up my horn. However, I can’t get it to do a single thing. Not even levitation.

“AH! Come on horn!! Work!!”

Suddenly, an uproar of laughter comes from most of the lookalikes. Not Thorax though. He acts as if he’s in pain, like how I should be acting if I’m so hungry.

“Uh, Thorax, are you okay?”

“Wha- oh. I’m sorry. I almost failed at preventing my own response. But I felt so bad for you.”

“Oh. For a second there, I thought you were in pain.”

“No, I wasn’t. But I can ta-”

“If you ever think of teleporting yourself and Areola over to-”

“No, Cervix!! Her name’s not Areola! Areola... is gone! And I think we should be helping this lost one of our kind find her way home! How would any of you feel if you were separated from a place you’ve lived in all your lives?!?”

Thorax turns around.

“Come on, Carina. Let’s take you home.”

So, Thorax starts up his horn and teleports us to the front yard of Jon’s old house.

“I know I might get in trouble for doing this, but-”

Then, suddenly, Thorax disappears. So, now that I’m alone, I have to find things out myself. So, I start by going into the house and looking for an object to levitate. What results is that I still can’t use my horn. Great. That place I was in must’ve been really powerful if I can’t even levitate anything outside of it.

I know what this means. I have to go all the way home without using my horn. Hopefully I can fly.

So, I start buzzing my wings as I usually do. However, I don’t take off from the ground.

Oh you’ve got to be joking! Flight too? I was always able to fly! Well, here goes walking home.

After a few more hours of looking for her, I decide to go to town hall, and report Carina as missing.

Then, I head to the police department, and tell police that Carina’s gone missing.

“We can’t do much about that, Jon. We blocked off Headrest Centre so that Carina has a source of love that has to be untouched. We’re sorry. We wish we could help you.”

Great, so that means police can’t investigate because Carina isn’t there to teleport them.

So, I leave to the outskirts of Headrest Centre.

“Carina, wherever you are, I hope you’ll be back home soon.”

Then, I gasp as an idea pops into my head. Maybe I could fly my helicopter the mall. So, heading home and back, I get my helicopter and fly it overhead Headrest Centre. As I look at the screen on the remote, there’s a big indent, which wasn’t there before, that takes up half the parking lot. Tilting the camera up reveals that the main entrance doors are completely gone. All that remains is the frames to the left and right parts of the entrance.

How did that happen?!? Some people really have some disrespect for such a beautiful- wait. That indent in the parking lot: it looks familiar. That can’t be good.

On my way home, I’m greeted by human children who think that I’m a pet of some kind depending on the child. Most if not all were with adults. I get called a cat, dog, bear, and a “horsey”, which I can’t help but crack up to. But quickly as they come, that smile fades away when some of the adults call me a changeling, which I know I’m not.

Then, I walk by a playground when a child shouts to the others that I’m here.

“Look! It’s the one that got into Headrest Centre!”

And just like that, many of the children in the playground race to me, cheering in the process. It becomes quite the situation as I can’t walk forward because of the crowding younglings. All of them start asking me some questions, most of which are related to Headrest Centre.

“Sorry. I’d like to answer whatever questions you have, but I’m trying to get back home as I simply don’t have the time. If a few of you would like to talk to me, that’d be fine. I just hope you know your way back to your homes.”

“It could talk?!?”

One of the children pets my back.

“Don’t worry about us. We have our parents to take us home after we’re done on the playground.”

Hm. Something about this child seems to stick out compared to the rest. Possibly because of how I was starting to stop feeling so famished as he comforted me.

Suddenly, five adults come to separate the crowd of younglings. Nearly all of them disperse except for the comforting child and one of the adults.

“Uh oh.”

“What’s this creature you found?”

“Mom, this is Carina! She’s the one who went to Headrest Centre!”

“Uh huh. And I’m an urban explorer who uploads videos about long abandoned dangerous places. Come on Tim, I think you’ve had enough fun on the slides.”

“Looks like I’ll have to see you later! Bye, Carina!”

Tim and I wave goodbye to each other as he gets carried by his mother. I start to tear up, but I kick up some dust from the sidewalk before I continue walking just to move on.

I get home and look up “headrest crash”. When searching, only one thing comes up on the third link. As I click, I see a huge title bolded “Possible Meteor Crash Next to Headrest Centre”.

Apparently, chopper riders had reported that some strange sort of meteor crashed onto the parking lot and was living. It was like a holed large unicorn with a mane and tail fully dyed blue. Finally, what this holed “unicorn” apparently did was blast the front entrance open and that the police will remove the seal-off within the next week in order to make repairs to both the parking lot and the mall.

Uh oh. I might know what happened.

And now that the entrance has been blown open, the mall is exposed to the elements.

If I’m right, Carina might be in Queen Chrysalis’ hive.

Carina would never survive a single hour over there.

I call Roman to let him know what’s going on.

“Hello?”

“Roman, I have to tell you something extremely important.”

“Wait; don’t tell me. Is it this Chrysalis character that Carina told off?”

“If I’m right, then yes. Last night, Carina went missing and I haven’t seen her since. Not only did that happen, not only did I spot some evidence, but chopper riders may’ve seen Queen Chrysalis crash land in the parking lot and blast her way into Headrest Centre through the main entrance.”

“Are you saying that Queen Chrysalis had taken Carina?!?”

“Yeah, that’s what I think happened. I don’t know many details, but I have a good idea of where Carina might be.”

“Queen Chrysalis’ home?”

“Yeah. To be more accurate, her hive.”

“Is there any way to get there?”

“Only by drones that’ve been there. And to my knowledge, there are none.”

“Oh. So, we’re probably not going to get Carina back?”

I sigh with a heavy heart.

“No. We might not.”

“What do we do?!?”

“Nothing possible. But, enough speculation. All we can do is wait for Carina to find her way home. I just thought I would let you know what i think has happened. I think I’m just going to go for a long walk now.”

I finally get home by the time the sun sets. In between the playground incident and now, I get noticed a few more times by children and adolescents but are quickly dragged away by their parents.

But instead of going inside, I try to get to Headrest Centre.

I started feeling better after Tim left as he’d given me the most love out of all of the children.

But I’m not sure about something. That thing being if I could fly or use my horn again.

I try to teleport, but that doesn’t work.

I look into a small field of grass. I try to take out a blade via levitation, and that works. So, why am I not able to teleport?

Wait a minute. I couldn’t levitate at this “natural habitat” as the lookalikes called it. And now, I feel better and can levitate. After a bit of pondering, I realize what happened and gasp.

“They lied to me?!? If I was once part of this ‘natural habitat’, why would my own kind lie to me?!? Why didn’t they simply say, ‘Carina, you are hungry’?!? It would’ve shed a lot of needed light on my condition!”

Well, no chance going back to the natural habitat unless Thorax or another of the lookalikes came here or if I went to Headrest Centre. But I can’t go there now.

Hey. I saw a few of my kind actually act as if the ceiling or wall was the floor. Maybe I could climb over the wall. I’ve never done this before, but I hope I can do it.

So, I look at the entire wall and head towards it before jumping. Landing my hooves onto the wall, I find out that the wall is surprisingly stable. Yeah, it sways on impact, but it quickly slows down. As I walk on the wall, each step makes the wall sway slightly. When I make it to the top, I put my hooves, onto the top of the wall, causing me to dangle. Finally, I move my forehooves up and turn myself in order to get to the other side of the wall. Unfortunately, while it isn’t anything major, I fall chest first into the grass, and close my eyes in reaction.

As I reopen my eyes, I notice that most of the actual entrance to Headrest Centre is gone and that there’s a huge indent on the parking lot. Whoever had me end up in my original “natural habitat” really had no regard for others’ belongings.

At the very least, there’s a wide open entrance.

However, all hope changes when I feel something missing when I’m in the mall, or at least like there’s a shortage of something. After about an hour, I still feel hungry.

Uh oh. Love is leaving Headrest Centre. Could that be because of the missing entrance? Oh, yeah it is. I have to tell Jon.

So, when I arrive home, I open the door to no response inside.

“Jon?!?”

As I look, there’s no sign of him, even going upstairs.

“Jon!”

After a good search, I still can’t find him.

“Ugh! Where is he?!?”

Then, I notice some toy of some sort. It has a remote to it, so it has to be able to do something. I think Jon called it a key-ma AV blade five, whatever that is. I never saw him leave without it before. I might as well wait for him.

An onslaught of yawns starts to shower over me after walking around town for a while. When I look at the time on my phone, it says 10:12, so I decide to head home and hit the hay.

However, all that changes when I arrive. Turning on the light, I see none other than Carina home. At first glance, it’s like a dream come true. She’s finally home. Something about her wings are off though. They’re not whole anymore. They look how they use to when I first found her. Suddenly, her eyes open. However, it’s not in the way they usually open. Instead of smooth, welcoming and comforting, the way she opens them is jerky, tear-filled and unsettling.

“Hey, Carina. It’s great see you back here.”

“Two... hours.”

“What?”

“I’ve waited two... hours for you to get home.”

“Carina, what’s going on?”

Carina turns her head to me.

“It’s no use.”

“What’re you talking about?”

Then, she jumps onto my shoulder, getting me to hold her there as she starts sobbing.

“IT’S NO USE GOING TO HEADREST CENTRE ANYMORE!!! IT’S BEEN DRAINED OF ALL OF ITS LOVE!!!”

“Oh NO! That’s terrible!”

“TEN HOURS OF WALKING... WASTED!!!”

“There there, Carina. Remember when we tried going to that complex thirty minutes away from my old home?”

“Uh huh.”

“I first felt the same way you feel now when I broke my camera. But I never held it for long.”

“But that was because I fell ill in front of you.”

Carina sniffles.

“I never showed the emotion for long not just because you fell ill, but because you are more important to me than a simple camera. I’ll always supply you with love. Leftover emotion in any building is always finite. You’re my little Carina, and you always will be.”

After a tear filled pause, Carina headbuts my shoulder.

“Thank you, Jon. I never realized how much I needed to hear that.”

“It’s no trouble.”

For a while I hold Carina, and rub her back. Afterwards, it looks like her wings are whole again.

“Thanks for your love, Jon.”

“Hey... you took ten hours out of your time to find your way home. I’m proud of how persistent you’ve become. It’s the least I could do.”

After a minute of back rubbing, I set Carina down.

“We’ve been through a lot today. Why don’t we take a rest.”

As I get upstairs, Carina follows suit. After getting into bed, she joins me and sleeps next to my side. However, hours pass and I can’t get to sleep. I still can’t stop thinking of Queen Chrysalis being back.

I get woken up by Jon, being tapped on the back.

“Jon?”

“I can’t sleep.”

“But why?”

“I keep thinking of Queen Chrysalis. She still might be here.”

“Wait. She’s here? Around town?”

“Last I remember, yes.”

“But why would she be here?”

“To repeat what happened to you.”

“What would she do to me? She just called me a traitor and left.”

“She wants revenge on you for not accepting her offer to take you to her hive. Where were you when you went missing?”

“All I remember was that I was in my kind’s ‘natural habitat’. I remember a few names from there. Cervix, Brand, Thorax...“

“Wait. Those three were part of Chrysalis’ top five ‘drones’. What else happened?”

“Thorax took me to your old house. Then, in the middle of speaking, he disappeared just like that.”

“What was he doing taking you home?”

“My guess would be that he was fed up with depriving me of love when I needed it most and decided to teleport me to your old place. Basically, all of those lookalikes had lied to me that my famished state was because ‘nothing but our magic works here’.”

“That’s an easily refutable excuse. What does magic have to do with hunger?”

“That’s what I thought when I found out that they lied. I was convinced until I found that I was still crippled of my wings and horn even at your old house. Then, I was completely convinced when deliberating after encountering a bunch of children on a playground.”

“What happened at the playground?”

“I got crowded, but one of the kids went to pet and comfort me. I think his name was Tim or something like that. After the kids dispersed with their parents, I didn’t feel as hungry as I was before walking by the playground.”

“Oh. I’m not going to say my speculation out loud, but I do have one of just what happened that cause all those events to transpire. Can someone of your kind locate the queen, of the hive they’re a part of, using their horn?”

“I’m actually not sure. But I could try it out now. Dawn’s beginning anyway.”

“Wait. Dawn? It’s already dawn?!?”

“Yeah. So, were you up worrying about Queen Chrysalis this whole time?”

“I guess so.”

“Hm. I didn’t notice.”

As I look out a window, there’s some light starting to sprout out of the horizon.

I decide to get out of bed since I don’t need much more sleep and could possibly make it until sundown.

As I get downstairs, I use my horn to track down Chrysalis. Surprisingly, she’s not too far from me. I stop my horn and wait for Jon.

After a few hours, Jon finally comes downstairs, yawning like I’ve never seen.

“Ready?”

“For what?”

“Apparently, I can track down Queen Chrysalis by using my horn!”

“Wait, what?”

“And she’s not that far from here! Come on!”

I head out the door to where my horn detects Queen Chrysalis. But Jon is having some trouble keeping up.

“You having trouble there?”

“Nah. You go on ahead. I’ll most likely see you from the car.”

So, I go ahead and follow the roads that will lead up to Queen Chrysalis’ location at the moment. Then, I hear Jon’s car coming toward me quickly. It’s time to lead.

After a few blocks, I see Queen Chrysalis just standing on the road. Why she’s doing that, I’ll never know. Then, I realize that Jon’s going to ram her if he doesn’t see her.

“JON!! Stop the car!!”

Suddenly, the car continues to come to a stop for a few seconds before parking just in front of Queen Chrysalis. Finally, I come down to the ground to give my wings a small rest. Then, Jon comes out of the car as Chrysalis gasps.

“What is the meaning of this? How did you reunite?!?”

“The better question is, why would you take Carina?!?”

“For the last time, her name is Areola!”

“Not according to one of your ‘top drones’.”

“Who is this top drone you speak of, Areola?”

I image myself just with the wings I had during my first days with Jon. Than I change my voice to match what I remember hearing.

“Her name’s not Areola! Areola... is gone!”

Then, I uncover my whole wings.

“What?!? Thorax said that?!? And those were his exact words?!? But you’re not gone! You’re standing in front of me as we speak! I’m going to have to have a word with him!”

“You know what I think Thorax meant by that? I think he meant that if Carina hadn’t lost her memory, she would’ve acted entirely different from how she has been acting. In any case, offering to take her to your hive without my consent is one thing, but taking her by force along with property damage is where I draw the line! Either you leave or you will see us in court.”

“Whatever it takes to get Areola back.”

Well, looks like I got a court to go to. So, by locating Areola, I’m able to find my way to my destination.

Upon arrival, I see Areola and Jon turn around to face me. Jon has a glare where had I been any other species, I would never notice how he really feels. It feels a little nauseating, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.

“Hm. You came. Good to see you.”

“Just watch what you’re doing, Jon.”

Areola comes to me, with a glare similar but more tame compared to Jon’s.

“Chrysalis, if you just left us as was after you offered to take me to your hive, we wouldn’t have to do this.”

“Silence, Areola!”

Jon raises a finger at me with a new glare that causes me to stagger a bit.

“Hey. You left me no choice but to sue you. Don’t push it further.”

And like that, Jon continues what he had been doing previously before he noticed me. A few moments later, Jon makes a sigh of relief and completion.

“Finally.”

After a while of waiting, someone comes into the room.

“Ah! Jonathan Vibe! Fancy meeting you here. And I see everyone we need is here. I’m Judge Thelma and I’ll be handling your case.”

So, we walk into an empty room where there are two stands and one nearly walled in area. While the new human takes a seat in the nearly walled in area, Jon directs me to the left stand as he and Areola take up the right.

“So, permission to start the case of Vibe v. Chrysalis?”

Jon and Areola nod. Then, I follow suit.

“Yes. Proceed.”

“Okay. So, let’s start with plaintiff Jon Vibe. You filed a complaint that expresses how Chrysalis had repeatedly intervened with your relationship with Carina, or as Chrysalis calls her ‘Areola’. Is that all of the situation or a bulk of the situation.”

“It’s a bulk of the situation, your honor.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Queen Chrysalis first came by to take Carina to her hive. However, she never requested my consent to give Carina the opportunity in the first place. If she’d done only that, I would’ve understood and never bothered with filing a complaint. But she made things worse upon her return. Not only did Queen Chrysalis take Carina by force, but she went the extra mile of property damage, causing Carina’s main source of food to wither away from Headrest Centre.”

“Well. This is serious. And what is this source of food that this mall once had?”

“Love.”

“Love? No. Really. Love?”

“Did you read an online headline that Carina was featured in?”

“I do believe so. Wasn’t that headline titled ‘Food Court Takes Over Forgotten Mall’?”

“That’s the one I was thinking of.”

“So Carina, can you describe what you experienced the night you went missing?”

“Um, from what I remember, I was at Headrest Centre when I heard two crashes. After the second, I felt a large breeze. Then, instead of the love that Headrest Centre provided, I felt a replacement of emotion that not only was filled with anger, but the anger felt magnified. After a few seconds, I ended up fainting.”

Oh no. She didn’t. She couldn’t have felt that emotions were amplified. Changelings normally only feel emotion, not whether or not it’s amplified. Then, I remember what I did. I look down onto the floor as tears start rolling down my cheeks.

“Thanks. That’s just what I needed. So now, let’s look at Chrysalis’ side of things. Chrysalis, can you describe exactly what you did to cause all of this to happen?”

“I-I-I can’t.”

“But of course you-”

Jon interrupts Thelma.

“Hold on. I know this moment. Let her think.”

So, after a minute of silence, I have no choice other than to tell Thelma what happened.

“Okay. I’m ready.”

“Then proceed with telling us what you did.”

“I planned to only take Areola back to my hive. But I had to have some sort of stealth so that things could go according to plan. So, I landed into the lot and made a permanent entrance to speed up the process. Then, I casted Amplio Motus on myself to elevate my emotional radiation, which contained my anger for Areola’s rebellion against me. When I had the perfect opportunity, I relocated myself and Areola back to my hive.”

“Okay. So Jon, Carina, are there any questions you’d like to ask Chrysalis?”

“I have one. When I woke up in Chrysalis’ hive, why did my wings look how they did when Jon found me?”

“That was from the emotion emitted by the help of the Amplio Motus casted.”

“And what happened to Thorax when he disappeared, snap, just like that?!?”

“That must’ve been when I sensed a teleportation spell of two changelings. But anywho, after summoning Thorax back to the hive, I warned him never to teleport out of the hive again unless he wanted his status to be replaced.”

“Carina, is Thorax the ‘changeling’, as Chrysalis calls your species, that teleported you back home?”

“Well, back to Jon’s old house, yes.”

“And what was his motive for starting your journey home?”

“I believe i have the answer, your honor.”

“Then, answer it, Mr. Vibe.”

“Thorax understood the exact situation that was going on; therefore, he couldn’t just let Carina stay potentially thousands of miles away from her home.”

“I agree with Jon. I mean compare what Brand said (Hey, look who’s talking, amnesiac! No one knows what a human is!) to what Thorax said (Her name’s not Areola! Areola... is gone! And I think we should be helping this lost one of our kind find her way home! How would any of you feel if you were separated from a place you’ve lived in all your lives?!?)”

“Thank you very much, Carina, for your additional information. Chrysalis, the choice is yours. You can go back now to your hive without seeing her again, or Carina can visit you while you help rebuild the entrance doors to Headrest Centre.”

Is it even worth seeing Areola if Thelma’s on Jon’s side? Will it be worth the reparations I’ll have to make if I stay to see Areola again, especially considering how she picked Jon instead of me? What if my hive needs me within the next few sundowns? I have only one choice left. It will hurt initially, but it has to be done.

“I will depart for my hive once the trial is over. I am aware that I will not see Areola again. But she will be better off in a place that she is comfortable with. She is most likely safe under Jon’s care. Jonathan Vibe, take good care of her.”

“I will.”

Everything about what happened in court, I knew would happen. I knew that Queen Chrysalis would act the way she did. I knew she would accept giving up Carina. It only made sense. But she went through everything on her own. Even though she meant well by taking her back to her hive, the cons had far outweighed any pros it would’ve had.

Now, I’m finally certain that Queen Chrysalis will have nothing of interest here anymore.

Tomorrow’s Friday the twelfth, and I think I’ve had enough adventure for one week. So, I’ll be taking a three day weekend to spend some time with Carina. All I plan for the next three days is just to have fun with her.

I still can’t believe it’s been a month since I first found Carina. But today, I became her forever caretaker, and Carina got her forever home. I don’t think I’ll be moving again. Yes, Headrest Centre has lost the love that once resided in it, but I’ll provide Carina with that love whenever she needs it.

So, after the trial, Queen Chrysalis is a lot calmer than I’ve ever seen her.

“So, will there be anything before I go?”

“No, Carina and I will be fine.”

And with that, Queen Chrysalis walks out the door and takes flight into the sky as Carina and I wave goodbye.

“So, what do we do now, Jon?”

“I guess we go home. There’s nothing left to do now. But I do have a three day weekend planned starting tomorrow.”

“Ooh. That sounds fun.”

“I only plan on it being fun for the both of us.”

So, Carina and I get into our car as I begin driving away from the court.