More months slowly passed, almost a year since Alia returned. She was better, but not much. She and everyone who tried to get close to her knew she'd never be as well as she'd been the hours leading up to that awful moment, when she was taken, snatched on her way home from class.

Had one been behind the school, past the fence, into the woods, they would have seen the clay girl, wearing a white shirt, dark jeans and her ivory sneakers, making small, gray golems, tearing off a little piece of her arm, perhaps a leg, every now and again, forming it into a shape, occasionally squishing or squashing it when it came out incorrectly according to her.

Doing this was an attempt at a coping method, the girl trying to distract herself from her memories. Sometimes, like now, it helped. But, more often than not, it didn't.

As she worked, a couple of mini boxers with gloves, a few tiny tiki-head masks with legs and several toy soldiers with knives found their way in front of her, lined up like a strange army, seeming to be ready for war but most likely not, some seeming to fight with each other.

The forest was barely a block-and-a-half in size, part of the sprawling, nine-block park that bordered the school and several other buildings.

It smelled of sap, decaying leaves and rain, birds singing as they flew out as they perched, waiting, the barks of foxes, chitter of squirrels and many more animal sounds accompanying the winged chorus, though from far deeper in the woods.

A strange yet familiar voice drifted to meet Alia's ears. “Oooo, that’s cool...”

Apparently someone was there, when the humanoid thought she was alone.

“Who’s th-”

A small giggle met the jumpy girl’s ears. “Right here silly... or at least my spirit is...”

Alia stared, warily, at the small orb of light that lowered itself to be eye-level with the golem girl.

“Weird, isn’t it..?”

No reply from the clay ninth-grader.

“The teacher probably doesn’t even know I’m gone... not unless he decides to peer behind the book my body is hidden behind... though it’ll just look like I’m sleeping... with little or no breathing...” Chuckling slightly, the orb started to circle some of the foot-tall creations only to shriek and float upwards as one of the soldiers brandished its knife at the ball of light.

After several long moments of silence, a nervous giggle was heard, coming from the sphere. “I can’t actually be hurt by anything physical like this but... it took me by surprise...”

Alia finally spoke, a grimace on her face. “Are you... a victim..? Or a... natural..?”

The orbiting light slowed to the flying equivalent of a crawl before stopping altogether, mere inches away from Alia, in front of her face. “A... victim... but it's not good to talk about something so awful.”

“And yet you’re so freaking cheery...” She sighed. “How the heck is that even possible?”

“I choose to be. Or, at the very least, I do my best to stay positive.”

Alia once more sighed, though a little quieter this time, leaning against a tree, her back’s shape changing to match the curve of the rough trunk.

“Oh... you're a victim too... I was thinking natural...” The orb dimmed slightly, as if showing it was sadder. “I can't believe I didn't realize... you were even in some of my classes in that year... and you were taken in the same... batch... as I was...”

Alia turned her head to peer away from the light, expression melancholy. “I don't want to talk about it... ever...” As she sighed again, curling up just slightly, her form began turning dark gray, only for the fade to stop and revert as a look of concentration came over her face.

The orb floated down, once more at the golem's eye-level. “Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about you...”

As Alia sighed again, the ball of greenish-blue light seemed to have had a thought. “Shouldn't you be in class too..?”

The humanoid frowned slightly. “Last class... is online work anyway so what I miss... I can easily make up... not that I really want to...” She stared up at the sky, doing her best to ignore the sight of an orb of light that floated just within her peripheral vision. “Why are you here anyway..? What about your class..?”

The orb once more was circling her, or, rather, the trunk, leaving a bit of a streak behind it. “I already told you.”

The golem crossed her arms, sliding downward slightly, leaving a small trail of clay in the grooves of the bark. “No, you didn't. Not really...”

The ball of light slowed slightly, now bouncing back and forth within a foot, right in front of the other mutant, as if pacing. “I'm a sophomore... and I have study hall for seventh.”

“A year above me,” Alia mused quietly, silent for a moment as she thought. “You're not... Serena Williams... are you..?”

This time, the light stopped, just hovering there, inches from the golem. “How did you-”

“Black hair with hot pink and neon green stripes... in love with ‘80s hippie clothing...” A slight grimace came over her face at the description. “How could I not remember you..?”

The light seemed to shrink slightly. “That... definitely wasn't my best year...”

“It wasn't any of ours...” Alia's clay structure was sliding downward, forming a bit of a blobby shape, clothes melding as well, like they did when she lost concentration, gray trails forming in the grooved and bumpy bark. “You were the first taken into the back to be mutated... and when you came back... I just saw you laying there, as if... as if dead... I was scared... just... extremely... terribly... fearful... anxious... and... worried...” Her form began quivering.

“I... wasn't... not exactly... my spirit and my body... were separate... and yet still one. My soul... couldn't leave... but I couldn't access my body. I was between the two... unable to move as either.” After a moment of strained silence, the orb spoke again. “School... will be out soon... I... I should get back to my body...”

“Bye,” the golem mumbled, falling into the endless pit that was her nightmarish thoughts and memories.

“See you later, Alia.” The light blinked out, or perhaps it flew too fast to see, or maybe it was just invisible, and returned to the school.

That very night, another flashback, the first in quite a while, hit.

Alia awoke to a strange feeling, one she would never be able to truly describe , no matter how much she would wind up feeling it, each and every day of the rest of her life. Wha... what’s... go... going... on..? She could tell she was on something hard and cold, with grooves, but the way she felt it... was strange, like she was feeling too much at once.

An echoey voice was heard calling out, hardly processed by the girl’s woozy brain. “Ah, you’re awake... good...” Another barely-registered sound was heard, the snap of rubber gloves after one pulls them on.

The girl attempted to look at the man but her body seemed not to respond, her vision still vastly faded out, her body still feeling foreign to her, like it wasn’t actually hers.

“I see you’re having trouble focusing...” His voice seemed louder but it could have been a trick of Alia's fuzzy mind.

The golem attempted to speak but only a muffled, inaudible series of noises could be heard, no mouth currently visible.

“You need to reconstruct yourself first.” The voice.

It was then that the girl slowly began to realize that she was a pile of... something... on the floor. Several hours later, she looked less like a glob but her form still was not solid, constantly trying to fall back into the blobby shape, Alia requiring intense focus to even look semi-human, her whole body wobbly and quivering, the girl barely able to keep her form and almost losing the appearance of wearing the same dress as before.

The man, having left during those long hours, returned shortly after the girl had, mostly, reformed, a camera likely within. He still had on the lab coat, or at least a lab coat, but this time over black slacks and a gray shirt. Her mutation is certainly interesting...

“What... did... you... do... to... me..?” Her voice was shaky and rough, almost as if she’d forgotten how to speak properly.

“I’ve evolved you.” He turned around, smiling a little, wearing surgeon’s gloves, a small knife in his left hand. “Now... I just need to do a couple more tests and you can go back to your room...” His smile grew a bit as he softly grasped her arm at the elbow before slowly pushing the knife into her skin, peeling it like a banana or an orange.

Alia had expected it to hurt; she even flinched at just the thought, but there was nothing. She could feel it, but there was no pain. And, as the man carefully cut out a piece of her arm, her only expression was a mix of fearful confusion and surprise, unable to comprehend what was going on.

As he finished, his smile grew slightly, and even more so as the small hole in the child's arm began healing of its own accord. “Now... let's get you back to your room... and then I'll process your skin sample...”

Alia was guided down the hall and, both her and the man pausing every so often as her form tried to give way into that of a blob or pile of clay.

After what seemed like three hundred times of falling apart to Alia, the man spoke up. “You'll be used to it... in time... until then... that certainly will happen a lot...”

The silent Alia's face scrunched up slightly, both in concentration and sadness, her body quivering every now and again, not only due to her barely-held form but also because of the poor girl’s dry sobbing, tears no longer able to form.

Alia was shaking once more, much like the memory of her had been, once more dry sobbing.

“What's wrong right now..?”

The girl almost shrieked as a softly glowing orb flew through the window pane, the blinds and into her room.

“Sorry about that...” The light had the appearance of shrinking slightly. “Didn't mean to scare you...” It hovered closer to Alia now. “I just was going through the neighborhood like every night and felt distress with your own little flare to it...”

“What the heck does that mean..?” She once more had the appearance of wearing the same nightgown she did every night.

“I'm not sure why but, like this, I can feel others emotions. Each person has a certain... spice... to them that mixes with their feelings. It's an odd skill to say the least.”

Alia sighed, staring up at the ceiling, Serena's spirit visible in her peripheral vision.

“Something's bothering you... is it The Kidna-”

Alia scowled. “What else could it be?” Then sighed, curling up again as she rolled onto her left side, facing the wall, nose mere inches from the painted plaster. “I'm plagued by nightmares from that time... I'm sure if you slept... you'd be too...”

The light seemed to flicker slightly, dimming momentarily. “I guess I could be considered lucky... if only in that sense...” A soft sigh was heard from the orb. “I do miss the dreams I used to have though...”

Alia didn't respond, too deep in her own dreary thoughts.

The light floated downwards, closer to her. “You're not very social...”

“I doubt you are either... much...” Alia glaced at the spirit momentarily. “It looks to me like you prefer floating around in your own little reality...” She sighed a little. “You also seem to enjoy bothering me...”

A small, nervous chuckle was heard from the orb. “I didn't realize I annoyed you...”

“Well I'm not exactly happy that this is the second time a blue-ish green sphere of light has decided that my business is, apparently, their business...” Her skin was fading to gray, the girl not even bothering to revert the change, thoughts slowly wandering.

“I guess that, to be simple, you’re interesting...”

The sentient golem scoffed slightly. “I’d much rather be boring...”

“You would..?”

“Of course...” Alia, with a small groan of annoyance, rolled onto her back, staring up at the orb. “I never asked for this... never wanted this...” She grimaced. “And, even if I had wanted to be a mutant... I wouldn’t have chosen this power...” She yanked off her left hand, squeezing it in her right, before smushing it back onto the stub of her wrist, the glob slowly reforming into a fist. “It’s useless, for anything...”

After a moment of silence, the orb spoke again. “No it isn’t... I’ve seen you making things from it before, remember..?”

“Yeah, itty-bitty golems that could barely hurt a fly...”

“They’re sentient it seems so they could improvise. And then there's bwhat you just did to your hand - you’re invulnerable.”

Jerking into a sitting position, at eye-level with the light, face inches from it, Alia opened her mouth.  “I can’t feel pain,” she wanted to yell but knew it had to be whispered. “A tie to being human... severed.” She flopped back down onto her bed. “I can’t trust anyone... I’m scared to... and just going outside...” She curled up again, shuddering slightly. “I can’t stand being around people... can’t stand knowing they will hate me... if they knew what I was... I can’t stop my fear... I can face it... but never end it...”

“That’s not true.” The ball of light moved closer to her, slightly flickering. “You can work to end it.”

Alia glanced up and over at the orb, scoffing lightly. “Oh really?” She sighed, turning her gaze to the aged wall once again. “And how in freaking h*ll might I do that?”

Serena backed up slightly, never having been one to swear much. “Become a hero, help the town, show the people that mutants aren’t as bad as everyone thinks they are.”

The golem groaned slightly, pulling her pillow over her head, her words coming out a bit muffled. “Why can’t you..?”

The orb flew down to where it could see her again. “The best I could do is... possess... one person and guide them to the police station. I couldn’t actually be known.”

Alia jerked her head to the right, turning to look at the orb in shock and surprise. “Wait... you can possess people..?”

The light bobbed lower for a moment, slightly sinking through the bed, before raising up, back to where’d it’d been, though a bit dimmer. “I... I  learned that, if my body is disturbed, my spirit flies right back to it. But it has a chance of... missing.” It dimmed even further, if just for a moment. “My mother’s soul was pushed out, hovering just above her head, and I... took a bit to get out, like her body held a spirit magnet, trying to force me to stay.” The orb seemed to shake a little.

It took several minutes for Alia to reply, though she had no idea what she should actually say, sticking with a simple, “oh”.

After quite a while of silence, the spirit spoke again. “Back to the topic... I'm sure you'd make a great hero... especially if you practice with your golems.”

The clay girl grimaced a little. “I could be considered a golem...”

The orb backed up slightly. “I wasn't-”

“I know...” Alia sighed, silent for a few moments before rolling onto her other side to stare at her black clock with glowing, red, digital numbers for a moment before turning back over to gaze at the wall. “It's well past midnight... I should try and sleep again...”

The sphere of light flew closer to her, brightening just slightly. “You want me to stay..?”

“For what..?” Alia gave it a look, one that seemed to show that she thought the other was an idiot for saying that.

“Comfort..?”

The expression deepened before, a few moments later, she scoffed a little. “Just go.” And then closed her eyes, hoping for no more nightmares, feeling a change in the room as the soul left.