My Love Has Come Along

01

Ally had reassured Lauren, who was very distinctly panicking, that they would never hurt her. A year later and that promise still holds true. Lauren doesn't know where she'd be without Ally and Normani.

"Yo!" Dinah barks as she bursts into the store. "Where's my favorite witch?"

Lauren's scalp tingles and her stomach turns as Dinah speaks so casually and loudly. Her body stiffens and it doesn't go unnoticed.

"You know Lauren doesn't like when you say it," Normani shakes her head at Dinah.

"Sorry, Lauser," Dinah says, actually looking sorry. "Just tryna get you used to the word."

"I'm quite used to it," Lauren mutters, keeping her eyes on the ground. "That's what happens when you grow up in a family of witches."

Dinah hums and clicks her tongue at that. The others know better than to push Lauren about her past. Dinah moves to the back and throws her apron on, immediately chattering about her first day of classes at the college just down the road.

"There's a girl in my music theory class," Dinah says, hopping up on the counter. "Real cute 'n shit. She was pretty funny, too, in a weird way."

"So you made a new friend?" Ally asks excitedly.

"Yes, Mom," Dinah sasses, rolling her eyes.

"Must be a miracle," Lauren mutters quietly to herself. Obviously not quietly enough, based on the way Normani laughs and Dinah glares at both of them.

"Whatever, Ralph, just because you stay huddled up in the Lair all the time doesn't mean we all have to be antisocial," Dinah snaps.

"It's not called the Lair," Lauren argues weakly, even though she knows she's lost the battle. The tension behind her eyes suddenly spikes into pain and she drops the broom to press her hands to her eyes. It's an odd feeling, if faintly familiar, and Lauren staggers back against the counter.

"Lauren?" Ally's voice is concerned and right by Lauren, but Lauren feels the pain thunder and crash in her head.

She hasn't had a pain so severe since she was sixteen. She very rarely got visions, and they were often painful, unhelpful, and confusing. There was nothing good about them in Lauren's opinion.

The pain subsides for a brief second and Lauren takes the opportunity to lie herself down. She was going to pass out in a few seconds anyway, and she remembers the time she was twelve and how she busted her head open on a coffee table as she fell during a vision.

She opens her eyes to take in her friends one last time and they all reel back as her eyes glow brightly. Dinah grabs at her shirt like she's going to haul Lauren back up, but then everything fades.

She's in a field. It looks familiar, like something she's seen in a dream, or a memory from when she was young.

There are little wildflowers all around her, just starting to fade like summer is ending and the fall is just beginning. The world moves like it's fast forwarding around Lauren, slowing as it reaches the middle of autumn.

"Hi."

Lauren whips around, spinning in a circle to identify the voice. No one else is there.

"I'm looking for... something. Someone, I mean."

The voice is female, definitely. It's gentle and alluring in an odd way. Lauren could listen to it forever.

But the voice doesn't speak again.

The weather gets colder and she shivers. The grass around her wilts and the snow falls around her, leaving her untouched. She rubs her arms, watching her breath cloud in front of her. Something starts to peek out from under the snow.