An actress in our midst! (web version)

“Ughhh…” Jessica groaned as her body shook.

“There, there… it’s over… you did well…” Flame murmured as she gently rubbed Jessica’s back.

Frost was holding her hair and the other two magical girls stood behind her outside of the toilet stall, looking at her with complicated expressions.

“I can’t believe you just talked a demon general into not just sparing you but also switching sides,” Spark grumbled.

“You’ve been dealing with a lot, huh…?” Bloom couldn’t help but note.

“I… I thought I was gonna f-fucking die!” Jessica whimpered with a shaky voice and tears in her eyes, before lurching forward into the toilet bowl and emptying the rest of her stomach’s contents.

Flame sighed as she continued to whisper reassurances in a soft voice.

“Well… I’m glad you held off your panic attack till now, at least…” Spark admitted. “But what now? We’re not out of the woods yet.”

“I think… We should wait for the black ops to return,” Frost added.

The others hummed in agreement.

After a good while, Jessica managed to finally calm down and stood up on her shaky legs.

“I can’t believe just how cool and confident you were before, and now…” Spark trailed off.

“Fuck off…” Jessica murmured as she pushed her way outside of the stall and stumbled to the mirrors.

Frost, the dear, flushed the toilet behind her.

As Jessica rinsed her mouth and washed her face while periodically stopping to take deep breaths, the others began discussing their next move.

“So… If the demon lord isn’t amenable, what’s our plan B?”

Flame hummed to Spark’s question as her eyebrows creased. “I guess we have to try kidnapping Trish again…? I don’t know…”

“We could… try sneaking in somehow? My demonic sword is strong enough to bust through the walls, so maybe we could sneak around the outside and then bust straight into where Trish is,” Frost suggested.

“That sounds dangerous for Trish herself, though… What if she gets caught in the blast?” Flame argued.

“We’ll just be careful. Or we’ll enter the demon lord’s office first…?”

Spark hummed. “But even if we somehow manage to kidnap her, what do we do then? There’s no way we’re just gonna let Jessica sacrifice herself. There has to be something else we can do.”

“No…” Jessica interrupted them as she wiped her mouth with a paper towel. “If we can get to Trish, I’ll just do it.”

“Wha…?! But –”

“No buts,” Jessica cut Flame off. “I may have been acting, but I wasn’t lying. I’m fine with being temporarily sacrificed for now. Trish will probably be able to figure out a permanent solution after she’s up.”

“But what if she won’t?!” Flame shouted in horror. “What if… you’ll just… stay like that. In a permanent coma?”

“And even if it’s not permanent, it might take years to wake you up then!” Frost added.

Jessica took a deep breath as her eyes narrowed… and then let out a big, exhausted sigh.

“Then so be it.”

“Wha –?! No! Jessica! You can’t –”

“Shut up!”

The sheer aggression in Jessica’s voice made everyone go silent as they stared at her, eyes wide.

Jessica still shook, rubbing her face.

“Just… shut up…” she groaned, as more tears began to flow again. “I’m tired… exhausted. I’ve been juggling so much crap for so long… pretending, acting, constantly putting on a mask everywhere…” She finally looked up at the magical girls, her eyes red with tears. “Just… let me take a nap for a bit… please. Who cares if it takes years to wake up from it?”

The four stared at her in utter disbelief. Jessica unironically saying the word please? Crying and shaking? They couldn’t recall ever seeing Jessica like this. She had always been a carefree actress with no respect for anyone.

Flame realized that all of that had been a mask… and with the mask shattered, this was what was hiding behind it.

A teenager with way too much piled onto her shoulders. Somehow even more than themselves, the magical girls.

“Okay…” Spark muttered.

“Wha–?! But–!” Flame began to protest, but Frost’s hand on her shoulder cut her off.

“It’s fine,” she said, looking at Jessica. “We’ll get you back afterwards, right?”

Jessica gave a tired nod.

“More importantly…” she rasped before clearing her throat and trying again. “More importantly, we’ll need to find a way to appease the demonic spirits. If an all out war breaks out, then my sacrifice will be pointless.”

“Right…” Spark gave her a serious nod and followed after her as she stumbled out of the bathroom.

Spark felt determined, Frost resigned, and Flame and Bloom were still internally struggling to accept how things were going.

All in all, as Spark had said before, they were not out of the woods yet.

“So it was all an act…” A cold menacing voice kicked them all out of their thoughts as they left the bathroom.

Heads spun to look at the newcomer and Spark couldn’t help but curse under her breath. How come nobody had sensed her?

The magical girls wasted no time in surrounding Jessica in a defensive formation as she froze and her eyes met Salem’s, who was leaning on the wall with her arms crossed.

Cody, Rick, and a few other club members stood a bit further back, their eyes wide in panic.

Jessica opened her mouth, her expression starting to warp into her usual confident one… but then it fell again as she let out a resigned sigh.

“I thought you were staying in the clubroom…” she admitted.

“I was…” Salem confirmed, her eyes still pinning Jessica. “But you forgot one thing, Tepes.”

Jessica lifted her eyes in askance.

“We spent a lot of time in each other’s presence. That means you knew me well enough to manipulate me.”

Jessica stiffened… before letting out a carefree hum, still trying to somewhat pretend.

“But it also means that I

know you well enough to be aware of what you’re doing.”

Jessica kept staring for a moment before looking down again. “Right…” She swallowed. “So, you’re gonna kill me in the end anyway then?”

Salem scoffed.

“No.”

Surprised, Jessica met her eyes once again. “... no?”

“Of course, not, you idiot.” She scoffed again. “Like you said, you may have been acting, but you clearly weren’t lying.” She gestured at the bathroom door behind them. “You didn’t just say it to get me off your back, you’re committed to it.”

“I am,” the former general confirmed after swallowing again.

“Then, as you said, killing you would just be counterproductive.” She pushed herself off the wall and took a step in their direction. “Your job is to wake Trish up. Everything else? The common demons? The rogues? Waking you up?” She swept her eyes over the magical girls and gave a nod. “That will be our job.”

The girls blinked, astonished at the unexpected turn of events.

Even knowing Jessica had just been putting on airs and acting tough, she had still more or less declared them each other’s allies.

“Right…” Jessica rasped. “I –”

“Jessica!” another voice broke into their conversation as four masked figures appeared in the corridor, each gripping their weapon.

“Wha–”

“Stay away from my sister, you sicko!” Zero shouted as Snake let out a barrage of arrows in Salem’s direction.

“Iceberg shell!”

Suddenly, Pretty Frost stood in front of Salem, blocking the incoming projectiles with a wall of ice.

“Wha –?! What are you doing?!” Zero shouted in outrage as she readied her sword.

“Ol’, stop!” Jessica shouted back as she stood in front of the wall. “She’s on our side!”

The four newcomers stopped in their tracks and stared.

“Huh? What? But… Hecate said…” Zero looked back and forth between Jessica and Salem in confusion.

“Wasn’t she going to kill you…?” Eye finished for her.

“I was,” Salem confirmed, eyeing the group with amusement.

“Then…!”

“Tepes talked me out of it, though.” She shrugged.

A moment of silence.

“Huh…”

The ice wall dissipated and Salem stepped forward before placing a hand on Jessica’s shoulder. The girl tensed but otherwise didn’t do anything.

“We have our deal. If you’re done having your panic attack, let’s go plan out our next move,” the general said before turning around and walking off, presumably back to the clubroom.

Everyone stared at the back of the woman who was supposed to be their enemy as it disappeared behind the corner. Then all eight sets of eyes turned to the half-slumped Jessica.

“So… uh, what happened while we were gone…?” Zero asked.

“It’s a long story…” Jessica replied while letting a sigh and rubbing her forehead.