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"The Man in the Moon is supposed to be comforting." Isabel leaned back; the TV's off-colors made her green sweatshirt look grey. "And instead, that thing is a monster."
"Did you really believe in the Man in the Moon?" Owen recited along with Maddy. "A being hanging in the sky with a face made of food singing with kids?"
They kept the volume on low, crouched close to the television. Though their father wouldn't be back for hours, Owen had long memorized the unpredictable routines. Some days, Dad came home early. Then Owen would face that stare. It smoldered him piece by piece.
"Who doesn't want to believe that when they're a kid?" Isabel pulled the beanie lower over her forehead. "Magic is supposed to be sparkle-safey, not...."
"Scary?" Tara finished in sync with Owen.
The Moon leered, craters under each cheek; Mr. Melancholy had awakened. He always stared at the Pink Opaque, the two girls charged with a destiny.
This episode was about the girls trying to figure out why the Man in the Moon hadn't granted wishes recently. Kids always made wishes. So why hadn't they faced a monster, let alone Marco and Polo? Was he possibly weakened? Plotting another way to steal hearts? Some other foe entering the picture?
Owen understood. The hopes getting raised that maybe this time, this day, it would be easier. That Isabel could enjoy one normal day without carrying an axe or stocking up on extra bleach to get bloodstains out of her clothes. She wanted to enjoy prom night and show off the new dress she and Tara had found belonging to a ghostly duchess in her town. The hottest boy in town had noticed when she tried out for the swim team.
Mr. Melancholy had been planning something long-term. Isabel and Tara figure it out right before they have to meet their prom dates in their schools, and they hate it. The duchess's cabin has a telescope that could give Mr. Melancholy a temporary body on Earth. And the monster? The duchess's old tamed bobcat, raised from the dead and hackles staring at them. Some kid must have heard the story and wished for that cat. But Mr. Melancholy had delayed the wish, wanting to use it to defend this plot.
"I hate this," Isabel says she buries the remains of the cat. It didn't ask to be brought back. "Why can't someone else do our job for once?"
"There is no one else," Tara responded. "It's us, the Pink Opaque, and just us."
Isabel groans. Tara reminds her that prom is still going on, and they can catch the end of it. Though Isabel's date ghosts her, talking to another girl, she dances with Tara's projection. They waltz together.
"I'm never going to leave you," Tara promises. "Ordinary girls or Pink Opaque, we are together."
"You're the only one who understands me," Isabel replies. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
They hold each other tight, and to the other promgoers, it looks like Isabel is dancing alone. The teens look at her with pity, admiring her dress. Yet she also looks regal, shining under the lights before the credits roll.
Owen pressed their head to the screen. They also wanted normal, no drama, Maddy to hang out with again, a calm workday at the theater, warm hands to reassure them while dancing together. But normal would happen when they no longer had to face their father. When Owen would have the courage to walk out of the house and never return one day.
If only Owen had a dress like that. And a destiny.