[color=B0C4DE][b]MACKENZIE LI[/b][/color] - Lakewood High
	Monday, 1 October 2029 - 7:30 am[hr]
[i][color=f7941d]“Ah, how the battlefield calls. At ease, peons, for your savior has returned.”[/color][/i]

[color=B0C4DE]“I can’t-- I c-can’t do this.”[/color]

Her sneakers were slapping the concrete towards the gym as soon as her mother’s car disappeared from sight. The girl looked anxious as ever - hair a little messier, eyes a little more sunken in. Every aspect of her appearance seemed designed to slip under the radar with one exception: the obnoxiously bright skateboard sticking out of her backpack. It felt like a demonic ‘KICK ME’ sign.

[i][color=f7941d]“Our inspiring entrance!”[/color][/i] Venga hissed from inside her brain. Which was a thing that happened now, a lot, for some reason. [i][color=f7941d]“What are you doing, child? You mock me with your cowardice.”[/color][/i]

Mackenzie locked the cubicle door and hung her backpack against it. [color=B0C4DE]“I can’t. I can’t, I can’t, I just…”[/color]

It was a mistake coming here so soon after that attack. Aliens- Demons were real, for heck’s sake! Why on earth would anyone be leaving the house after—

It all came back in the flash. The news reports and the memorials and the family discussions and the ‘what comes next’s. The losses mourned; none of them hers though. She knew their names and their faces, shared classes and volleyball games with a few of them, but held no right to memorialise them. Not after cutting all her peers out of her life for a year.

Mackenzie squeezed her eyes shut, cutting off impending tears and catching her breath. The world was a muted red when she finally opened them again.

No. No, no, she couldn't do this again.

[color=B0C4DE]“I…”[/color] It seemed redundant to repeat it. Somewhere within, she heard Venga growl in anticipation.

[i][color=f7941d]“A suitable opponent indeed. Release me, child.”[/color][/i]

Standing on the toilet seat cover, Mackenzie peered out of the overhead window and did just that. Venga’s gargantuan form materialized. The building shuddered as he touched down, dust and metallic creaks emanating above her. She could already feel her heart rate accelerating. 

And as it foretold, a monstrous [b][color=f7941d]"YAHAHAHA!"[/color][/b] echoed through Lakewood High once again.