“Hi Dad.”

The Mayor looks at me in shock. “Savannah! I’ve been looking all over for you!”

I doubt it, but I force a smile. “Um, yeah. I just decided to stay here for a while…”

He tries to give me a hug. “I was so worried! What happened? Did he do anything to you?”

“No! Of course not!” I yell, making him jump. “I came up here on my own. Well, actually, this girl dared me to come here, and the Maestro pulled me in, but I fell in love with him and decided to stay.”

My dad stares at me in shock. I stamp the toe of my shoe, rubbing it in the dusty wood floor, trying to look as innocent and angelic as possible. He just keeps staring at me.

“Why… How could you possibly…”

Even the people in the mob behind him look confused, or they’re shaking their heads in disbelief. A few of the kids are giggling. “Stop it!” I scream, and they go all serious.

“Savannah, sweetheart, are you sure you’re okay?” My dad asks, looking more and more worried. “You’re only fifteen, and the Maestro is…”

“I probably have Stockholm syndrome.” I admit. “But I still love him.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s cute.”

Someone snorts in the back--but a few of the housewives in front are nodding their heads in agreement. That is beyond creepy, but whatever.

“Honey, you can’t say you’re in love with someone just because of how they look.”

“I don’t care. He understands me. Unlike you.” I feel my anger starting to bubble over. “You never even tried to understand me. You just wanted to be normal and boring, like everybody else!”

“Savannah Chastity Cook,” he says my full name, straightening, “you hurt people. You’re violent and loud and obnoxious. That’s why you don’t have any friends. That’s why people don’t understand you. They can’t understand a sociopath!” He looks genuinely tired, hurt, and upset. “Why do you think I devoted so much time to trying to make things normal? Because of you, Savannah. Because you need help. You can’t live your life like this. It’s not right.”

I’m so mad, I feel like my head is going to explode. Instead, I burst into tears and run further into the house. The mob starts following me, encouraged by the Mayor. I run and run, until I throw open the nearest door and discover the room happens to be occupied by Maestro, who I slam into, knocking him down.

The crowd reaches us, and a few of the kids start cheering. Maestro looks at me murderously, only to see the Mayor’s angry face and scramble to his feet. Since I’m clinging to his shoulders, he drags me up with him.

“So,” the Mayor growls, “we meet again, Maestro.”

Maestro makes a face that looks like a cross between a nervous grin and a grimace of disgust. I’m too busy trying to find his heartbeat to calm me down to care. “So we do.”

“Well, freaky-boy, do you have anything to say about all this?” He gestures at the house.

“Uh…” Maestro looks up, then down, then left to right. I can tell by his eyes that he’s realizing he can’t risk telling the truth, for his dead girlfriend’s sake, and has to play along. “...No, I’m afraid not.” As an afterthought, he awkwardly returns my embrace. I squeal a little.

The Mayor shakes his head. “I was hoping this would all turn out to be some sort of misunderstanding. A shame.” He looks back at the townspeople. “Looks like we’re gonna have to hurt you.”

“Now, let’s not be too hasty.” Maestro says quickly, holding up one hand. He takes a precautionary step back anyway. “I’m sure we can come to an agreement here. After all, your daughter really just doesn’t like you, specifically. That’s why she refuses to go home.”

“Why would she refuse to come home, anyway?” The Mayor pauses, his expression incredulous. “I have all her crap there. This place doesn’t even have running water. I had them cut it off three weeks ago!”

“Wait--that was your fault?” Maestro asks. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m an asshole.” The Mayor chuckles. “Anyway, I’m still working on getting this place torn down. Probably with you inside it. You wouldn’t want that, would you, Savannah?”

“The board wouldn’t let you tear Someplace Else down!” I screech.

“Would they? After all, I’m the Mayor.” He flashes a toothy smile.

I stamp my foot. “No! You can’t do that!”

My eyes start glowing. Wind swirls around the room from nowhere. Maestro lets go of me and ducks behind an old sofa as I raise my arms, preparing to summon the dark forces.

“Leave… me… ALONE!” I scream, as the windows smash and people start getting blown away like that one scene in Mary Poppins. The Mayor fights hardest of all, grabbing onto the edge of the doorway. For some reason, the song “Leave Me Alone” from Bad starts playing, even though it technically shouldn’t exist in this universe.

“Savannah! Stop!” My dad shouts over the wind. “STTOOOOOOOOOPPPPP!”

He tries to reenact the scene from the first movie, and winds up throwing his arms back--losing his grip and going tumbling through the glass of a window I left untouched just so I could smash him through it.

Then, everything stops: the wind, the glowing eyes, everything.

Maestro slowly raises his head. “Whoa. You didn’t kill him, right?”

“No. But he’s probably a paraplegic.” I don’t feel so good. “Maestro, quick… catch me!”

I fall in a faint. He doesn’t so much as move to break my fall, and I groan, landing on my back wrong. “Ow.” I say, then looks up at him pitifully. “Maestro, I’m… dyyiiingggg.”

I stretch the word out, warbling. He stares at me. “You’re kidding.”

“No, for real.” I lay the back of my hand over my forehead dramatically. “The strain… was too much…” All the color starts draining out my face, making me all pretty and ghost-white. I reach for him. “Kiss me one last time, my love…”

“We never kissed before.” He says, leaning against the old couch. His mouth keeps trying to twist into a smile of pure delight as I lay dying on the floor, though he tries to hide it. “No thanks, kid. You’re too young for me.”

With a sigh, I breathe my last breath, eyes fluttering closed as I float off into oblivion.

***

A few minutes later, Wendy opened the door. It was loose on the hinges after the windstorm, and she had to hoist it back into place. Then, she turned around and saw the lifeless body of Savannah sprawled across the floor.

“Damn.” She said. “That was one wacky adventure.”

She met Maestro’s eyes. The two stared at each other for a while, each fighting the urge to break into hysterical laughter, until Wendy reached out, scream-singing, “Ding dong, the witch is dead!”

And the two of them locked arms and danced around singing together beside the corpse, until Katherine walked in. “Don’t you two think this is all a little… insensitive?”

“To who?” Maestro asked, laughing. “All she caused was trouble. Now, she won’t ever bother us again!”

They went on cavorting until, breathless, they each sank down on a chair.

“Y’know, I do feel kind of bad about the Mayor. Paraplegia doesn’t sound fun, not to mention losing your daughter on top of that.” Maestro murmured.

“She wasn’t his real daughter.” Wendy pointed out. “Her mother was a witch from another dimension who sent her to Earth for no specific reason. Was somebody chasing them? Who? Why? How did they get here? Why does it take them 15-20 years just to find them, when it’s pretty obvious, since Earth is the only other place in the universe that they know of with the means to sustain life? Even if there were more planets, wouldn’t they have started with the one they knew the least about, since that would be the most likely place to hide fugitives? And if her friend or stepmother or whoever was really one of the bad guys spying on them, why did they wait for so long to capture them? Why do they want to capture/kill a helpless baby anyway? Does it have some sort of power that only shows up when they reach maturity? If so, why? How do they know they even have the power? Can they sense it, like the Force or something? How would killing them/their mother work in their favor? How do they know killing the mother won’t cause the kid to become evil and turn on them? What if killing them is the only way to keep a bunch of innocent people from dying? Why would you send them to Earth to lead humanity, but if you didn’t send them in the first place, they wouldn’t need to be protected or whatever in the first place? Why do these stories have to be so convoluted, contrived, and complicated?”

Maestro and Katherine stared at her, completely lost. She shook her head. “I should just make my own damned fanfic…”

THE END.