As students lined up for the buses, one drew many gazes; a teenage girl with deep green skin, rich with chlorophyll, and gentle layers of birch-like bark that covered her exposed arms and part of her neck. Instead of hair she had strands of lavender flowers falling down onto her shoulders.
She was used to strangers staring at her, she’d learned to carry herself with confidence ever since her powers had awakened, transforming her into what she liked to call a Dryad.
“Name?” A security guard asked.
“Thea Winters,” she gave him her papers.
“Winters?”
“I know, plant, winters, it’s ironic or something.” If she could she would have rolled her eyes, but they were now a solid black.
“Bus two.”
She went there, dragging her suitcase, climbing onto the bus, and looking around. A kid, perhaps two or three years younger, drew her attention. They were tall and lanky, dark-skinned with a huge cloud of pastel pink afro hair that fell past their shoulders. They wore overalls made of many kinds of different colored jeans with colorful patches sewn in and mismatched clasps over what looked to be at least two shirts, the top shirt a knit sweater with smiley face patches on the elbows. They had a Hello Kitty bandaid on their chin and a couple of clips with clay animals in their hair, she liked their sense of color and style.
“Is this seat taken?” She asked.
The kid looked up, a little wide and bright-eyed at her, and then smiled wide and bright, a gap between their teeth.
“No, go ahead!” The kid said, speaking in a British accent. Their voice was high pitched, Thea wasn’t sure what to peg them as in terms of gender, being so strongly androgynous.
Thea sat down and offered a hand. “I’m Thea.”
“I’m Riley!”
They took her hand, and then whispered something to themself, patting the air above their shoulder. Thea raised a brow but didn’t inquire.
“Pleased to meet you, I love your hair,” Thea said.
“Thanks! I like the hair, uh, flowers? Very pretty.”
“Thanks, I felt like Lavender this morning. What’s your favorite flower?”
“I love red spider lilies! But all flowers are pretty in their own way I think.”
An uncommon answer, but still Thea put a hand to her forehead and focused on her powers, commanding her arboreal flesh to change its shape. She took it away and a red spider lily had grown. “Like this?”
Riley clapped, “Amazing! Is that what your powers are? Can you make any plants?”
“Something like that, a bit of shapeshifting into anything in the kingdom of plants,” Thea explained. “I meticulously crafted my new body to suit me.”
“Crafting your own body sounds like a dream come true!”
She took a moment to gauge Riley further. Perhaps they were trans.
“Tell me about it,” she smirked, “it’s kind of how I became a mutant, although, between you and I, boobs are very difficult.” Some paramorphs were ashamed or distressed about their transformation but for Thea, it has been a liberation, a rebirth from the prison of flesh she’d been born in.
Riley snorts out a pure sounding laugh, “oh! Would you like a cookie?” A vortex of swirling darkness appeared next to them and they stuck a hand into it, emerging with a Tupperware tub filled with homemade cookies. “Chocolate chips? I have other kinds too!”
“I don’t eat human food anymore,” Thea answered, “But thanks for the offer.”
“Aw okay,” Riley put the tub back from where it had come from.
“That is a cool power, what else do you have in there?”
“All sorts of things! And I can use them to teleport too.”
“That is pretty cool,” Thea paused, “If you can teleport, why do you need to take the bus then?”
Riley pursed their lips, evidently not having thought of that. “I… guess I don’t need to…. but if I didn’t take the bus I couldn’t have met you!”
“Fair enough.” Thea took a metal thermos out from her bag. “Birch syrup, I don’t think you’d like a try?”
“What’s it taste like?”
“Pure sugar,” She took a sip through the built-in straw. “I get my other nutrients from the air and soil, but I need sugars from food and drinks.”
Riley nodded but did not ask to try.
“I like your clothes, did you make them yourself?” Thea asked, she knew they were obviously homemade.
“Yep! Most of my clothes are either made by me or at least altered by me.”
“Okay, that is pretty cool, do you have a sewing machine in there?”
“I have two! One of them is kinda broken tho.”
“How much do you carry in there?” Thea asked, “I wish I could carry a whole wardrobe with me.”
“Most of my stuff is ‘in there!’”
“Where exactly is ‘in there?”
“A little private corner of hell!” Riley said their tone as cheerful as usual.
Thea blinked. “Hell? Like that town in Michigan?”
“Hell-hell!”
Was this kid serious? They had to be mistaken, hell wasn’t real, no matter what her mom and preacher liked to guilt her over… Right?
“Like Bible hell? Dante’s with the nine layers and all that?”
“I suppose? Hell’s hell isn’t it?”
“Right.” Riley was one of those who believed their powers came from magic or other supernatural nonsense. Which was silly, mutant superpowers had a scientific explanation; it was the Aldaar’s interference with the human genome or something.
“I’m not lying…” Riley bemoaned, seeing Thea’s disbelief.
“I’m not saying you are, but it’s a bit of a long one to buy?” Thea answered, after all, there was an infinite variety of other dimensions, Riley was surely just accessing one of those? “Are you sure it’s hell-hell and not just a place that looks like it?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s hell-hell there are a whole bunch of demons there… Like Peanut! she’s my friend!”
Demons? “What’s a peanut?”
Riley conjured another portal and reached into it with both hands, this time emerging with a thing that could only be described as a demonic puppy; dark maroon in color with a mane of fire, and glowing eyes and mouth!
Thea stared wide eyes at the thing. Surely there was a scientific explanation for this, yes.
“People can never see my friends. Teddy has been on my shoulder hissing out at you the whole time and you didn’t see him so maybe you can’t see Peanut either.”
“Ugh, that’s a dog on fire…” Thea babbled.
“Oh! So it’s just Teddy people can’t see!” They look to their shoulder, “why is that?”
“You tell me?”
Riley shrugged, clearly not seeing the weirdness of the situation, “Wanna hold Peanut? she’s very sweet.” Riley kissed the dog-thing’s head, only for it to roll out a terrifying spiked tongue.
“She doesn’t burn? I may be slightly flammable.”
“She’s just warm.”
Thea very hesitantly reached out and picked the devil dog, thankfully not immediately combusting into flames.
“Okay, yeah…”
‘Peanut’ sat down giving puppy-eyes to Thea who very carefully ran a hand over its back.
“She’s a very good… hell puppy?” Thea said. “Today has been so weird…”
“Well, we are on our way to Ravenhold. I’m sure “weird and new things are on the schedule every day for the next few weeks.” Riley said with a big smile.
“Yeah, but I thought maybe dipping my toes, this is diving right into maximum weird.”
“Too much?” Riley asked nervously, a frown coming over their expression. They reached to take Peanut.
“Well, I’m already neck-deep in it,” Thea shrugged and very cautiously gave Peanut a scratch, “And I guess I’m going to church first thing this Sunday,” it had been a few years since her last visit, but for the first time Thea was feeling very worried about the prospect of hell being very real…
“I think demons get a bad rap. They didn’t choose where they were born any more than we did,” Riley whispered, recalling Peanut who crawled back to their lap.
“I admit I kind of zoned out a lot during Sunday school, but something about turning against God and being cast out?”
Riley cuddled Peanut and rubbed their face against her head, “But Peanut is such a good girl.” Riley devolved into baby talk about how good a puppy Peanut was.
“Right.” Thea sat there for a moment re-evaluating everything in her life, perhaps going through the slightest crisis of faith.
“Do you have any pets?” Riley asked.
“Not exactly, but I was always a friend to the local stray cats, gave them water and food when I could?”
Thea’s mother didn’t like animals, even if they had been able to afford one. So Thea would give them water and table scraps to the strays around the trailer park she called home.
“That’s sweet.”
“I guess, I mean they didn’t choose to become strays, someone has to love them.”.
“I agree!”
Riley and Thea kept talking, Riley excitedly jumping from one topic to the next, ever so full of energy; pets, clothing, music, hobbies. And for a moment it helped Thea stay distracted from the talk of hell and religion…
She’d been certain about things just a few hours ago, but now nothing seemed so certain…
Ravenhold Academy 
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