Sisters of Night
By: Mark J. Hadley
* * *
“Where is she?” Blossom asked as they searched throughout the entire house. They still couldn’t find Bubbles anywhere. When the two of them awoke in the morning to find her missing, they began their search, but it turned up nothing, not a single clue to where she had gone.
Buttercup emerged from the lab with the professor and called out, “Blossom, she’s not in the lab…”
“I don’t understand it,” Blossom said, shaking her head. “Were could she have gone?”
“Did you find anything upstairs?” the professor asked.
Shaking her head, Blossom answered, “Nothing…but I noticed that her nightgown is missing. Maybe she’s still wearing it, which means she didn’t change into her regular clothes.”
“I’m worried,” the professor said. “She could be in danger. This is exactly why I told you girls never to go off on your own, especially at night like that.”
Blossom started to head for the front door and said, “At least it’s Saturday. We can look for her right away…c’mon!” Buttercup followed her outside, and they began heading towards the city.
“Where do
we even start looking?” Buttercup asked.
“She could be anywhere
out here…”
Blossom peered across the city and
said, “We’ll start at the most obvious places.
Maybe Mojo captured her or something.
I’ll start look in the center of the city, beginning with Mojo, and you
check in with the Mayor to see if he’s seen her, all right?”
“Right!” Buttercup answered, and the
two of them split off in their own directions to carry out their own
tasks. Blossom watched her leave in the
distance before continuing on her way to Mojo’s observatory. Bubbles, she thought, wherever you are, I hope you’re safe…
* * *
The hours passed as they went
through the city, searching everywhere that they possibly could. Once the Mayor had learned of Bubbles’
disappearance, he had the police force aid in the search, but they couldn’t
find any leads. Nobody had seen her
since at least the day before. Their
worry started to turn into panic.
Late afternoon, the police had found
something, and both Blossom and Buttercup were immediately called to the
spot. It was in an alley behind some
buildings. When they arrived, Blossom
saw the police huddled around something…she bit her lip and said, “O-okay…what
did you find?”
They cleared some room for her so
that she could see. She was relieved
that it wasn’t Bubbles, like she thought for a moment it might be. It was something else, though…an indent in
the ground that looked like something had impacted, heavily enough to make the
mark. Next to the indent was a few tiny
drops of blood, and a small, torn piece of cloth. As Blossom landed on the ground next to it to take a better look,
Buttercup asked, “What does this have to do with Bubbles?”
“It looks like there were signs of a
fight,” Blossom pointed out, as she knelt down to pick up the piece of
cloth. She held it up for Buttercup to
see, and added, “Take a look…does the color look familiar?”
“Well, it…is
the right blue color, but that doesn’t mean…” Buttercup said.
“It’s also the right kind of
fabric,” Blossom said. “This is from
Bubbles, I know it is.”
Glancing down at the drops of blood,
Buttercup said, “You don’t think…you don’t think that the blood is her’s too, do you?”
“Maybe,” Blossom answered, now a
little shaken. “But what could be
strong enough to hurt one of us like that?
I don’t know if I want to find out…”
Buttercup frowned, “Well, I do. We’re gonna have to, if we wanna find
Bubbles!”
Getting back to her feet, Blossom nodded,
“You’re right. Let’s try to figure out
where this thing went, all right? Maybe
someone saw something…” With a nod,
Buttercup followed her back out of the alley, and the two of them set out
around the streets, looking for anything similar in other alleys. Signs of struggle, marks of blood, anything…
* * *
Night fell quickly, and the girls
were forced to give up their search for the time being. It was all they had done all day, and they
had gotten tired, and hungry. They
returned home to tell the professor what they found…he hadn’t gotten any solid
leads either. They took a break to eat
something, although as hungry as they were, they couldn’t really focus on
eating. All they could think about was
Bubbles.
“I can’t believe the police can’t find
one person,” Buttercup growled, pounding the table once with her
fist. “Some help they turned out to be.”
“It’s one little girl in an entire
city,” the professor reminded her. “We
don’t even know if she’s still in the city, either.” He glanced down at the ground as he spoke, and they could see
that he was trying not to be completely broken up over this.
Blossom tried to be comforting as
she said, “We’ll find her, she’ll be okay.
Bubbles is tough, you know…she’s a Powerpuff Girl, after all!”
“Yeah…” Buttercup said, settling
down a little. “But still…man…”
Everything fell silent around the
table, as everyone was lost in thought.
The silence hung in the air for a few moments, but it was suddenly
broken by another sound: the sound of the front door slamming shut. The three of them, startled, hopped out of
their seats and ran to the doorway to see what it was.
Bubbles hovered there, still in her
nightgown. Her hair was a little mussed
up, but not too badly. She wore a
frown, and her skin seemed slightly pale, as though she had just been sleeping
in the cold. There was a small tear in
her nightgown up near the arm, obviously where the piece of cloth they had
found had been ripped off. When Blossom
and Buttercup saw her, they both shouted together, “Bubbles!”
“Hi,” Bubbles simply replied.
The professor ran past the other two
and grabbed Bubbles out of the air, hugging her tightly, “Oh, Bubbles…I was so
afraid…you were missing the whole day…I-I didn’t know what to think…” After holding the embrace for another moment
or so, he released her and gave a stern look, “Where have you been, young
lady?”
“Does it matter?” Bubbles
answered. “I’m here now, aren’t I?” She turned away
and started for the stairs.
She didn’t make it far, though,
because Buttercup flew over, blocking her path, “Oh no you don’t! You’re gonna tell us what you were doin’ all
day…now!”
Bubbles stopped and stared her right
in the eyes, saying, “Or what?”
Buttercup stared back, but didn’t have an answer, so Bubbles continued
past her, and went upstairs. Everyone
watched as she disappeared into their room and shut the door behind her.
“Geez, what’s her problem?” Buttercup said, folding her arms.
“I’m going to go talk to her,” the
professor said. “I’ve got to get to the
bottom of this.”
Blossom started for the steps,
saying, “No wait, let me…if anything’s wrong, I’m sure she’d let me know.” The professor hesitated, then nodded, and
Blossom continued the rest of the way upstairs, as the other two waited. She slowly opened the door to the room and
went inside.
Over by one of the windows, Bubbles
was hovering with her hands clasped behind her back, staring out into the
darkness outside. As Blossom
approached, she looked back over her shoulder and said, “What do you want?”
“Listen…Bubbles…” Blossom said,
carefully flying over and landing on the edge of the bed. Bubbles looked back out of the window as she
continued, “We were really worried about you, you know. Gone the whole day without a trace…and then
we found that ripped piece of your nightgown, and some blood…we didn’t know
what happened to you, and we were afraid you’d been hurt…”
Bubbles continued to stare out the
window…unknown to Blossom, she wasn’t looking out at the night, but rather,
across the street, where Ginela was looking back at her from the window. Ginela nodded, and Bubbles smiled
slightly. She finally turned away from
the window and said, “I’m not hurt, and you can see that. So what does it matter where I went?”
“It matters to us!” Blossom
insisted. “You’re our sister…we at least deserve to know what happened.”
“Oh, do you, now…” Bubbles
frowned. “What if I said it’s none of
your business?”
Blossom waited for a moment before
saying, “That’s a lie, and you know it.
You’re hiding something, and I want to know what it is, for your own
good.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” Bubbles
said. She turned to face the window and
pushed it open. “I’m leaving…”
“Wait! Where are you going?” Blossom said, flying up off the bed in
alarm.
Bubbles stopped halfway out the window and said, “I told you…none of your business!” She took off immediately, flying off towards Townsville. Blossom gritted her teeth and flew out the window after her, thinking, That’s it…I’m going to find out what’s going on one way or another…
It wasn’t hard to track Bubbles through the night sky, due to the light trail she was leaving in her wake. She was definitely heading into the city. As Blossom followed, Bubbles glanced behind her for a moment and, realizing that she was being pursued, started descending towards the rooftops. Blossom angled down to follow.
Touching down on the rooftop, Bubbles spun around and shouted, “I said, leave me alone!”
“No!” Blossom called down, just before she landed. She took a few steps across the rooftop towards her and said, “This has gone far enough, Bubbles! I demand to know what happened last night! Where were you?”
Bubbles stared silently back, and finally asked, “You really want to know?” When Blossom nodded, she continued, “Fine…believe it or not, I was planning on telling you anyway…”
“Sure, so what happened?” Blossom asked.
Bubbles walked up to her, placing a hand on Blossom’s shoulder, almost as though in comfort, and said, “Something like this…” She suddenly pulled her fist back and slammed it into her face, sending her tumbling across the rooftop. By the time Blossom came to a stop, near the edge, she sat up, rubbing her head and blinking in surprise as Bubbles slowly walked over, crossing the distance between them.
“Huh? Bubbles, wh-what’s going on?” Blossom demanded, but before she could say another word, Bubbles crossed the rest of the distance in the blink of an eye, grabbing onto her arm and swinging her overhead, slamming her into the ground. Blossom groaned out in pain as she impacted, and shook her head to try to clear it.
Bubbles just folder her arms and said with an evil smile, “Don’t blame me, you asked for it.”
Taking off from the rooftop and hovering in the air, Blossom said through her clenched teeth, “That’s it!” She flew towards her sister, swinging a punch, but Bubbles easily dodged it to one side, without so much as changing her expression. Blossom quickly followed it up with a few more punches, although each one was dodged similarly. Wha? Blossom thought. How did she get so fast?
One of her punches finally connected, but it barely forced Bubbles back a step…she just smiled back as Blossom gaped, then Bubbles swept her feet out from under her in a single quick kick. Blossom landed on her back on the rooftop, cringing from the hit. Before she could try anything else, Bubbles grabbed onto her arm and hoisted her to her feet, spinning her around and grabbing her tightly from behind.
“Stop it!” Blossom cried out as she struggled. “I-I don’t know how you got so strong, b-but…”
“But what?” Bubbles interrupted, looking around from the side so that Blossom could see her. “You wanted to know…so I’m showing you…”
Bubbles smiled wider, and Blossom saw something sticking out of her mouth that wasn’t there before…something that looked like fangs. Blossom stared open-mouthed, and stammered, “Wh…th…B-Bubbles…wh-what…h-happened to…you…?”
“Same thing that’s happening to you…” Bubbles hissed. She moved her head around to the back again, forcing Blossom to tilt her head to the side. Blossom screamed in horror and tried to struggle free, but Bubbles’ grip was far too strong. She couldn’t get free, and in the next moment, Bubbles clamped down, her fangs sinking deeply into her neck. Blossom’s cry was cut short, and she clamped her eyes shut, but her mouth still hung silently open in a silent scream. The only sound now was the soft slurping sound of Bubbles drawing the blood out from Blossom’s body. They stayed locked in that position for almost a whole minute, and Blossom struggled less and less, until eventually she fell limp in Bubbles’ arms.
Pulling free, Bubbles unceremoniously dumped Blossom’s body to the rooftop, wiping her mouth off with the back of her other hand and sighing in contentment. She stared down at her motionless frame, waiting…
Eventually, Blossom stirred…her arm moved slightly, and Bubbles smiled. Blossom pulled both of her arms back, pushing herself up from the roof and slowly lifting her head. Her eyes opened, and she smiled…an evil smile, not unlike the one Bubbles wore…and her smile, like Bubbles’, now contained a small pair of fangs.
“Welcome back, sis,” Bubbles said. “How do you feel?”
Blossom got back to her feet, and looked down at her hands…her skin now had a pallor like Bubbles. “It’s amazing,” she said. “How did you…?”
“Ginela,” Bubbles explained. “When I followed her last night, she showed me her true self…a vampire, a creature of the night. And she passed it on to me, as well…”
“I feel…I feel so much more…powerful…” Blossom said, flexing her arms a little.
“It only gets better,” Bubbles said, circling around in front of her. “Just wait until you learn what it’s like to feed on blood, the pleasure of its taste…there’s nothing like it in the world…”
Blossom looked out over the city, tilting her head slightly and saying, “Show me more…” Bubbles nodded, and lifted off from the roof. Blossom followed close behind, and the two of them headed off deeper into the unknowing city, in search of people to feed on. All became still and quiet as they left.
Only for a moment, though, because from one of the buildings adjacent to the one they were just at, Buttercup peeked over the edge of rooftop. She hadn’t seen much of what happened, only a little at the very end, but she was glad she followed. The two looked like they were up to something. Bubbles was leading Blossom somewhere, and the only thing she had caught with her ultrasonic hearing after she showed up was Blossom going, “Show me more…” What’s the big secret? she thought. Well, that’s it…I’m going to follow you and find out for myself…