The results were as horrible as I feared. Tabitha, Luke, and Asher lay on the ground, stiff and lifeless. My blood froze inside my veins at the sight, and my heart thudded inside my chest.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness! What happened? Why are they frozen like that on the ground?" Matilda wrung her hands together. "Oh, dear, how are we going to explain this?"

She has a point. How are we going to explain this? Is this reversible? Are they dead?

"Wh-what did you do to them? You didn't kill them, did you? What did I just witness?"

Keefe had calmed himself down before further damage could be done. "That's why I ran away. I'm a danger, Lexi. I can hurt people! I've gotten better control, but when I get really agitated, I lose control over my emotions. Even my empathy's messed up! I can feel human emotions still, but not as strongly as before. I don't even know if I can feel elven emotions any more. It's like you've gotten stripped of your identity. I had to run away. I hurt my friends. The guilt's just too much to bear." He bit back a cry of desperation.

"We're getting you a Squishmallow. An emotional support Squishmallow," Matilda declared after a long pause.

"I have an emotional support stuffed animal already," he whispered. "Even though I'm sixteen, I can't leave her behind."

"Rule Number One: you can never have enough stuffies." I nodded solemnly. "Matilda, let's get this boy his much-needed giant snuggle buddy after we solve this crisis." I held out my hand.

"Deal." Matilda shook my outstretched hand.

"Uh...what's a Squishmallow, besides some type of plush?" Keefe sounded confused.

"You'll see," we said in unison.

"Can you, like, undo whatever you did? I don't think anyone's gonna doubt you any more, plus I spy people walking over." She glanced toward the sidewalk.

He followed her gaze. "Oh, yeah. That could be a problem." He inhaled deeply before yelling a reversed version of his previous command.

Tabitha, Luke, and Asher slowly revived.

"I've got a few questions." Asher raised his hand.

Keefe acknowledged him. I braced myself for the barrage that was sure to follow.

"What happened? How'd you knock us out? How do you have superpowers?" Asher blurted.

"And why did you knock us out?" Tabitha's gray eyes flashed with rightful indignation.

"I can answer that question." I stared right into her eyes. "You drove him to the edge when you refused to believe him. This kid has been through enough trauma to last your entire lifetime, and he probably has undiagnosed PTSD. He wasn't even born with the ability to do what he just did. That was a recent development! And what do you guys do? You tell him that he's lying! Sometimes, reality can be stranger than fiction! And why would he come up with some outlandish cover story if he really was lying? If I were in his shoes, I'd make up some tragic backstory, or not even mention that I ran away. Instead, he resisted the urge to trauma-dump. For being the mom friend, Tabitha Martin, you sure acted callously!" My hands were balled into fists, and I practically screamed the last bit. "You brushed off my sighting so long ago! And yeah, Keefe here? He's the boy I saw when I fell."

Man, I never thought I'd be defending the boy I wanted to punch or give a piece of my mind to so long ago. This is character development, for sure. But oh no, I just revealed that tidbit I've been hiding. Gee, what am I even thinking? I buried my face in my hands.

Matilda wrapped her arm around me. "It's okay, Lexi. It's okay."

Keefe took yet another deep breath. "Oh, boy. Here we go again." He explained everything he'd explained to me in our one-on-one chats.

"So. Now we've gotta deal with some creepy rebel organization that may or may not try to capture us and torture us, depending on whether or not they know about us. Oh, and you have like three powers or abilities or whatever. Lexi, I get you hate adventures, but I think you're gonna be another Bilbo Baggins," Luke said. "You're gonna burst out the door yelling, 'I'm going on an adventure!' We're getting thrust into a whole different world. A world where people can sense emotions, control fire, manipulate shadows, and speak different languages just by hearing them for the first time. This is straight out of a fantasy book, and it's one thrilling adventure. Keefe, I'm sorry for doubting you. It just seemed so outlandish. I should've just taken you at your word, like Lexi did. Can we still be friends?"

"It's all good, Luke. And yeah, we can still be friends. I appreciate the soccer tips." Keefe flashed his signature smirk.

Tabitha sighed. "Luke pretty much summarized everything, so I'll just say the same thing. I'm sorry, Keefe. That was incredibly selfish of me."

"Like I told Luke, all good. Honestly, you guys have been an amazing friend group, just absorbing me into the Playground Gang. I never knew how fun it was to horse around on equipment designed for five- to ten-year-olds."

We all laughed at that last remark. It was true.

"Speaking of football, wanna hold a match? The girls can join in so we can have teams."

"Nah." Luke shook his head. "You seem like a prankster, Keefe. Care to tell me about some of your greatest escapades? I could need some pointers. For using on siblings, of course," he clarified after receiving a glare from Tabitha.

"Well, I thought you'd never ask. I'm a pro at this." He looked thrilled to pass on his expertise.

"Tell me, too!" Asher added. "I need more ways of annoying Ella-Rose."

Ella-Rose was Asher's little sister. They looked totally different, with Ella-Rose having long black hair and big blue eyes versus her brother's brown hair and eyes. But they were biological siblings.

I snorted. "As if she isn't already annoyed by your existence. She's Asher's kid sister, by the way."

"So, let me get this straight. You're looking for more ways to bug your siblings?" Keefe wanted to know.

"Yup!" Asher gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"While I don't have siblings, I've got friends who do. Why don't you boys settle down, and I'll tell you about some of my greatest pranks that are applicable to sibling-annoyance."

"While the boys plot their poor siblings' doom, why don't we all talk over this crazy afternoon?" Tabitha proposed. "Maybe even discuss what tea Lexi managed to glean from Keefe about his crush?"

She didn't even need to ask twice. We ladies gratefully distanced ourselves from the boys and headed over to a picnic bench.

"So, how much did you know beforehand, Lexi?" Matilda plopped herself down next to me.

"Okay, so I knew he had those powers. Well, technically, abilities, but whatever. Potato, potahto. I also learned how he did the whole disappearing into thin air thingamabob. You weren't there, Matilda. The only other person who witnessed the event was Asher's cousin, Macie. Her testimony saved me from getting sent to the nuthouse. Today, he told me about elven history and the amount of fantasy stuff humans have gotten wrong. And yeah, I did receive the trauma dump today."

Both girls looked at me with awe. I'm pretty sure both were wondering how I managed to keep a grip on my sanity.

Honestly, I don't know either.

"But did you get tea?" Matilda's expression turned sly.

"A little. He's smitten with a girl named Sophie, whom he's nicknamed Foster. She apparently doesn't like him back—yet. When Keefe left, she was dating another guy. But things change. She could've broken up with this other guy and come to her senses. Anyway, Keefe's still in denial. He's in the Adrien Agreste stage—we're just 'friends.'"

"Gotcha. That's all you learned?" Tabitha seemed mildly disappointed.

"Unfortunately, yes. I can bug him for more, though. As his honorary little sister, it is my duty to annoy him about his crush. Or just annoy him in general."

"Please do! I wanna learn more about this Sophie Foster girl. I bet she's cool if he likes her." Matilda gave me puppy-dog eyes.

"Okay, Matilda. I'll drag it out of him. I promise. Now, let's discuss everything. Oh, Tabitha? We're planning on getting him a Squishmallow. Wanna join in the noble cause?"

She gave her approval, promising to drag him along to pick it out. We then recapped all the madness that occurred. I explained elven history, although not nearly as well as Keefe. Also, I told the girls that I'd demanded art. Art needed to vary from paintings of key elven locations to Keefe and his friends. Apparently, elves didn't believe in cameras or phones, which I thought was interesting and very high fantasy-like. Finally, I warned them about the Neverseen.

"If they find out, they can use us as bait to get him to reveal himself and fulfill whatever messed-up legacy his evil mom has for him. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not end up getting captured and tortured."

Matilda turned pale. "C-captured and tortured?! What type of psychos are these people?"

"Think Sauron or any other classic, irredeemable villain." I shivered at the thought.

Both girls vowed never to let the secret outside of the Playground Gang. If Jonas and Macie turned up again, Keefe could give them the talk so long as they were sworn to secrecy. I sincerely hoped, though, that we'd never have to face the Neverseen. Those guys were the stuff of nightmares.

"So, now that we've discussed enough, why don't we check up on the boys before they plot to blow up the universe?" I suggested. "If they're done, we can go take Keefe Squishmallow shopping."

"And clothes shopping," Tabitha jutted in. "I think he only has two t-shirts and one pair of jeans. Boys don't seem to think we notice, but we do."

We giggled. This was probably going to be torture for the poor guy, but we seriously didn't care. It was going to be awesome.

We all headed over together, still giggling. Shopping would be so much fun!

"You've returned." Luke didn't seem too thrilled. "We were about to hear about this super-cool prank called The Great Gulon Incident."

"That I totally didn't have anything to do with," Keefe clarified.

"Well, it's time for us to kidnap you on a shopping spree. We're getting you your emotional support Squishmallow, and then some new clothes. You didn't think we'd notice, but we did."

Keefe look unimpressed, but he didn't really have a choice. He could either go or go. We wouldn't leave him alone if he refused.

"There's a store nearby, right? I've gotta head home soon, or else my parents are gonna start to worry," Matilda said.

"Actually, there is a slight catch. There isn't a store nearby. There's one nearby my house, though. I could drive us there." Tabitha was the only girl with a drivers' license.

I checked my watch. "It is getting a bit late, but I can just text my parents that I'm going shopping and will be back later. I can do the same for you, Matilda."

She smiled. "No, thanks. I'd rather head home. I need some time to process everything."

I sure don't blame ya, Matilda. At least you're not traumatized.

Tabitha smiled graciously. "That is perfectly okay, Matilda. I guess shopping can wait until tomorrow?"

"Absolutely," I agreed. "You good with that, Keefe?"

He looked relieved and gave his approval for a shopping day tomorrow.

"Well, be ready at nine o'clock sharp tomorrow morning. We'll be expecting you."