Chapter 3.8 - Welcome to Midnight Hollow!

“What do you think?”

Madeline looked around nervously. “The house is lovely, but don’t you think it’s a little… dark?”

Alaric shrugged. “I’m told our eyes will adjust. It’s just the climate here.”

Madeline thought that explanation was a little strange, but she was willing to accept it. Another member of the household, though, felt the need to speak his mind.

“This place is creepy.”

“Jonah! I’m sure we’ll get used to it.”

“I won’t! Honestly, haven’t you ever seen a horror movie? This is how they start! Next thing we know, Amanda’s terrifying little doll is going to come to life and kill us all in horrible, gruesome ways!”

Madeline paused, not entirely sure how to respond to that. Then she realized something. “Jonah, who’s been showing you horror movies?”

He looked guilty. “Grandma says you’re never too young for a good scare.”

Alaric sighed. “I told you we shouldn’t have let your mother watch the kids.”

Madeline just nodded.

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The next day, after they’d shuttled Jonah and Amanda off to school and daycare, respectively, Alaric and Madeline both went out. Alaric was going to meet his new coworkers before his official first day of work, but Madeline was going out to do something she’d always wanted to do.

She was going to get a job teaching figure skating at the local ice rink. 

It was almost entirely empty when she got there, but she’d been expecting that. A town this size didn’t have any major sports teams, and the rec league only met on Saturdays, so most of the rink’s regular traffic would come from kids,who were all in school right now.

Still, there was someone there to meet her. “You must be Madeline! I’m Lucy. Lucy Lau.”

Madeline smiled at the woman. “Yes, I’m Madeline Doe. It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too. We’ll be doing a lot of work together in the future, so I really hope we can become friends. When did you get into town?”

“Yesterday, but I couldn’t make it out here until the kids got out of the house. On the plus side, we’re almost done unpacking.”

“You have kids? How many? How old are they? Feel free to tell me if I’m being too nosy, by the  way.”

“I have two kids. Jonah and Amanda are seven and two, respectively, and we’re hoping to have another on the way soon. We’ll want to get settled in first, of course, but we both want a big family.”

“What does your husband do?”

“Alaric’s a politician. He has a lot of big goals, and I will always support him one hundred percent.” She flashed her politician’s-wife smile, and Lucy gave her a strange look.

“Ohh… kay… where did you move from? Bridgeport, Dragon Valley, Hidden Springs, Moonlight Falls?”

“Sunset Valley, actually.”

Lucy seemed shocked. “Sunset Valley? Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Why is that so shocking? It’s certainly a big change as far as the weather goes, but I’d think you’d get a good number of imports from that area.”

“Not really, no.” Lucy seemed to have regained her composure, but she was still sneaking Madeline slightly nervous looks. “What made you want to move here?”

“You know, I’m not entirely sure. I think my husband found a flyer or something, and he decided that we’d move here based on that.”

“In Sunset Valley?”

“Yes. Where else?”

“And you and your husband were both born and raised there?”

“Yes. We’ve known each other since we were children.”

“That’s… nice.”

The rest of the conversation felt quite awkward, and by the time Madeline went home, she was sure she was missing something. What was so strange about being from Sunset Valley?

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Meanwhile, Alaric was having a much better time charming his coworkers. It turned out that the mayor, a man a few years older than himself, was named John Doe, which succeeded quite well at breaking the ice, both with him and with the two women in the room.

The younger one smirked and drawled, “That’s hilarious. You two should be running mates just for the slogan possibilities.”

The older one then smiled like a shark and started listing off possible slogans, and within minutes they were all laughing.

When that cleared up, the older woman nodded at Alaric and introduced herself as “Marina Rosa Vasquez, Local Representative.”

The younger one, still smirking, looked him over, something assessing in her gaze. “Odessa Winchester. I’m your competition.”

“Are you?” Alaric hadn’t had any sort of good competition in years, but he felt the old fire heating back up at the prospect.

“Definitely.” When she said that, he saw his own drive mirrored in her eyes, and he smiled. This would be fun.

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That evening…

“I hereby call this meeting of the Midnight Hollow Supernatural Council to order.”

The punk-rock woman at the table sighed. “Finally. Now can you tell us why we’re here? You know the pack doesn’t like being away from me this close to the full moon.”

The woman who’d called the meeting nodded. “I understand, Nadia, but this is important. I imagine you’ve all noticed that we have newcomers in town.”

“The husband is a politician. I met him today.”

“That’s all well and good, but why do we have to have a meeting about them? Annie?”

The first woman, Annie Lau, leaned forward a little bit. “I’ll tell you why: because they moved here from Sunset Valley.”

Everyone gasped. “You mean… they know nothing about us?”

“My sister spoke to the wife and length, and she confirmed. They are completely oblivious to all supernaturals. I’m still not sure how they even found out about the town, but we’re reviewing our magical defenses as we speak.”

The winged woman at the table seemed confused. “But… aren’t most of the mortals in town human? Why does it matter if some more moved in?”

Annie sighed, used to this sort of line of inquiry from their resident fairy. “Conrad? Want to handle this one?”

The vampire nodded. “Kara, all the other humans in the town know about us, but these new humans don’t. By law, we’re not allowed to intentionally expose ourselves to humans who don’t already know we exist.”

Kara scowled. “I don’t recognize your petty spellcasters’ laws. I do what I like.”

Surprisingly, it was Nadia, the youngest of them, who came to the rescue with a solution. “Think of it as a challenge. You’re testing yourself to see how long you can hide your wings.” She turned to Annie. “I suppose you want me to make sure the boys and I are well secured in the house at full moon?”

“That would be ideal. Jay?”

“I’ll talk to Tatiana, but I don’t think it should be too hard to make sure they don’t see us.”

“Great.” Annie sighed again. “Hopefully this won’t be as impossible as it seems.”

Author's Note: Sorry for the short break, I neglected to bring my notes with me on vacation. But now I'm back at home, so I should be back on my semi-regular posting schedule!

I did not mean for this chapter to be as long as it got. It was just supposed to be a brief introduction to the major players, but it ended up extremely picture heavy. That said, I'm thrilled to finally be introducing supernaturals into the main legacy! These guys will get an entry on the lore page and will be back in a few chapters, and they aren't the only supernaturals in town...

Madeline's rolled career is Professional Sports, so that puts the rolls at:
Family Structure: Step Children
Number of Children: 5
Primary Career: Politics
Secondary Career: Professional Sports
Generational Goal: Perfect Careers
Miscellaneous Fun: Live Your Trait

Next chapter: Jonah makes a friend, Alaric makes a bad decision, and we meet the next baby!