"First thing's first, we need to recruit some extra muscle, because, no offense, but neither of you strike me as the 'manpower' type."

I shrugged and Logan just pouted.

We followed Circe through the city, trying to blend in as best we could.

I had painted Logan to look like an electrocuted zombie, and had decorated myself to resemble some sort of glowing, paranormal skeleton. To add to the look, I let the green tips of my hair glow brightly. Circe hadn't even questioned that part, which made me wonder if she knew something about my mood hair.

But anyway, we soon came to a large office building, complete with rickety, rusty fire escapes and cracking, crumbling foundation. In other words, if some sort of natural disaster occurred, this thing was coming down. Which was one of the many reasons why I was more than a little hesitant to go in. But Circe just waltzed on in, so I had no choice but to follow her and Logan into the should've-been-condemned building.

Once inside, there was a cramped waiting room filled past its capacity with all sorts of gruesome individuals. One had an axe planted deeply in his skull, one was twitching uncontrollably as she held a sparking toaster, and another even had his head shrunken to the size of a baseball. It was all extremely unnerving, but I masked my discomfort well. Logan, however, didn't. As soon as he saw a bug crawl out of a dude's empty eye socket, I swear he turned more green than my hair and his body paint combined. He held up a hand to his mouth as he made gagging noises.

"Dude, I think I'm gonna hurl...."

I quickly shushed him, avoiding eye contact with any of the waiting room's inhabitants who were now undoubtedly staring at us. "Logan! Get it together! One of them could've heard you!" I whispered-shouted.

Circe whipped around and glared at the both of us. "Shut up!" she hissed.

Logan and I went silent as we followed her up to a counter. A sign above it read "Department of Hauntings and Recently Deceased". A little sign on the window at the counter simply said: "Welcome new arrivals!"

The window had blinds drawn in it, so we couldn't see inside. Circe knocked on the Plexiglass. Getting no response, she dinged the bell. A few seconds later, a green-skinned, red-haired woman drew back the blinds, looking a little annoyed. She was wearing a tight red dress and a sash that said "Miss Argentina" in big, bold letters. When she saw Circe, she sighed tiredly.

"What do you want, chica?"

"Good to see you, too, Tina," she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I need to talk to Melody. It's urgent."

"Alright, alright. One second."

She closed the blinds again and we heard her heels clicking on the floor as she went in search of whoever this "Melody" person was.

I was about to ask Circe what exactly we were doing here, but the receptionist - Tina, I think Circe called her - opened a door to the left of the front desk.

"Melody's in the back." She motioned for Circe to follow.

"Come on, guys," the demon girl said to Logan and me, and we followed her.

Tina arched an eyebrow at the two of us. "Friends of yours?"

"Uh, more like acquaintances," Circe replied, shrugging.

"Right," she said in return, not really even questioning any of this.

I guess she was kind of used to Circe's shenanigans.

We walked back through a bunch of offices and cubicles, filled with all sorts of people who met some sort of grisly or unfortunate fate. I tried to keep my eyes in front of me to blend in, but I felt like a fish out of water, to be honest. I could tell Logan was a tiny bit more relaxed, but I could also tell he was still a little weirded out about this whole situation.

We finally got to the back where there were two large offices. One had "JUNO" on the frosted glass in the door, and the other had "ASSISTANT BRANCH MANAGER". (I swear when I wrote this I wasn't even thinking about the office but now it's a million times funnier to me.) Tina the receptionist stopped in front of the latter office, turning to us.

"Well, she's in there. You're on your own, now, chica."

And with that, her heels were briskly clicking back toward the front desk.

Circe sighed before lightly knocking on the office door.

"Coming!" a light, breathy voice called.

The door opened and standing there was a tall woman with blonde hair tucked up in to a messy bun. She didn't have a nose, but had light pink skin and what looked to be ink splotches all over her. I noticed a scar around her neck. She smiled at Circe.

"Circe! It's good to see you!" Her gaze drifted over to Logan and me. "Uh, who are....?"

"Oh, this is help." Circe glanced back at us. "...Sort of."

"Oh. Well, come in," the woman said as she stood out of the way, still a little confused.

She shut the door behind us, then turned back to Circe.

"Melody, this is Ean and Logan."

She perked up. "Last names?"

"McBride."

"Uh, (Y/L/N)."

She lit up.

"Oh, honey! I didn't even recognize you!" All of a sudden I was trapped in a bone-crushing hug. "It's so good to finally see you, again!"

I gave Logan a wide-eyed "what the heck is going on???" look but he just shrugged, obviously as confused as I was.

"Um, Melody?" came Circe's voice.

"Hm?"

"(Y/N) never told him. About any of it."

The woman instantly let me go and stared at Circe. "You're kidding." She shook her head. "You're serious?"

"Dead."

Logan chuckled. I just stared at Circe and the woman I was guessing was Melody.

"Okay, what is going on??"

"Oh. Right. Your mom and I are good friends."

I threw up my hands in frustration.

"Was my mom friends with all dead people or something?? And this is how I find out? I'm drug here against my will and am told that unless I lay low and blend in, there's a chance I'll never go back home!"

I was breathing heavily and the whole room was silent. Melody was staring at me with a concerned, sad look on her face.

"Ean, hon...." She placed a wary hand on my shoulder gently. I just focused on calming down. "I'm sure your mom wanted to tell you, but I can also understand why she didn't. It's dangerous, down here. She didn't want to drag you into all this mess."

I just looked down at my sneakers, not really knowing exactly what to say.

"But I guess you're here now," she continued, giving my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "And I'm glad." I looked up at her, and she was giving me a knowing, encouraging smile. I sighed and gave her a small smile back. "So." She turned back around to the demon standing in the corner. "Circe, you came to ask about extra manpower, right?"

The girl nodded.

"Well, I've been searching like crazy, but I haven't been able to-"

She was cut off when we heard the frantic clicking of Tina's heels on the tile fast approaching. I noticed there were other footsteps, as well.

"Is that Tina coming back?" Melody asked in confusion, her brow furrowed.

"Sounds like it..." came Circe's reply.

A split second later, Tina came bursting through the office door, her eyes wide and hair a bit disheveled.

"Melody? We have a situation."

Melody's brow furrowed again, this time in worry. "What's wrong?"

"This!" she said, stepping aside to reveal freaking June and Sofia behind her.

Logan and I flipped. Out.

"June?? Sofia???"

"What the heck are you two doing here?? How did you-"

"Ean? Is that you?" June asked me, squinting.

"Yeah, it's me, but how did you-"

I was cut off when June ran up and just tackled me in a hug. I laughed awkwardly and hugged her back, smiling to myself. June abruptly pulled away before punching me in the arm. Hard.

"Ow! What the heck??"

"Don't you ever do that again!!"

Sofia was softly laughing in the background.

"Do you know how worried I was when Sofia and I couldn't find you two??"

"Hey! It's not my fault! Circe brought us here!"

"Who's Circe??"

I pointed to the demon standing nonchalantly in the corner, examining her sharp nails boredly.

June shouldered an axe that I hadn't noticed she had before and went to approach Circe. My eyes widened as Logan and I rushed in between the two of them.

"I oughta-" June growled through gritted teeth.

"Whoah! June! Chill, okay? You need to calm down."

June lowered her axe but her glowering glare never left Circe.

"We all have to work together, okay?"

"What?? This thing just straight-up kidnapped you and Logan, and you just expect me to not bat an eye??"

Circe crossed her arms. "I'm not a 'thing'."

"Look, she needs our help. Please, June."

Her eyes finally shifted over to mine. The expression on her face softened as the ghost of a smile graced her pink lips. "Okay. For you."

I was fighting to keep my hair a neon green shade, but I had no idea why. Why did June have this effect on my emotions? Any time she was around, they went haywire. She was like my sister. That would be really weird.

"Well, this should be entertaining," I heard Circe mutter.

Logan and I were forced in between the demon and axe-wielding girl, once more.

We had our work cut out for us.