Hopeful Eyes

"On long and tired nights.

When the moon illuminates the shore

and waves crash out of sight

and stars cannot be my guiding light

I long for days of yore -

Awaken! Magical Girl Whirlpool!"

Marie Altway, much to her great displeasure, would describe herself as a perfectly ordinary girl peacefully trying to sleep her way through her final year of highschool without doing too much to disappoint her father. Whether she likes it or not she dreams. She hopes. She pushes things aside rather than talk about them because she doesn't know how or with whom she might share her worries. Marie used to dream of being a Magical Girl and fighting evil, just like all of her childhood heroes. What she dreams of now is best not mentioned.

Marie didn't expect all of that to change when a Shoggoth climbs its way out of the sewers and tries to eat her and her friend whole. All that before it runs away with its metaphorical tail between its leg. It just doesn't seem fair to Marie that her dream of being a magical girl comes true only after she's true growing past them - and only when some ancientthingthreatens to swallow the world whole. It especially doesn't seem fair to her that now she has to deal with lunatics, cults, several secret branches of the United States government, and so much more crawling out of the woodwork and taking amuchtoo personal interest in her life.

Questions pile themselves higher the longer it takes Marie to hunt down the Shoggoth. The least of them are about what she, herself, even is.

The lock widens.

The key feels a longing for home it cannot dismiss.

Her father’s lips only seal themselves tighter the more Marie learns.

The stars will soon be right.

And some truths are best left forgotten.