Alex pads down the stairs barefoot, headed for a midnight snack, a nightly routine to combat her insomnia for the past 3 and a half months.

  She heads to the kitchen and peers into the fridge, head snapping back out when Jo suddenly appears at the entrance to the kitchen barefoot as well, clad in her Wreck-it-Ralph pajamas.

  “Oi! You should be asleep, young lady.” Alex scolds softly.

  Alex strides to the bleary eyed child and scoops her up.

  “I'm hungry.” Jo declares, half asleep on Alex's shoulder.

  “A glass of milk then bed, deal?” Alex asks, and the child nods in agreement.

  Alex and Jo are reclined on the sofa, some nonsense children's show playing on the TV in mute.

  Alex pops a cookie into her mouth and turns to her companion, who has succumbed to sleep, neck craned uncomfortably. She removes the nearly empty cup of milk from Jo's sleepy grasp before it can spill, - Jo insisting on the grown up cup, instead of the sippy one - and drinks what is left of it, washing down the dry biscuits.

  After tidying up the detritus of their midnight sojourn, and wiping down the sink, she heads back into the living room to turn the TV off and scoop up the child. Barely reaching the stairs when the front door is suddenly ripped off it's hinges.

  Jo rouses with a jolt, eyes alert as she takes in their levitating intruder, hair standing on end like a character out of a Harry Potter movie.

  The witch - for lack of better term - points a crooked stick - seriously? Harry Potter! - at them, and Alex is thrown backwards into the opposite wall, body angled mid air to take the brunt and cushion Jo.

  The witch starts chanting and Alex has had enough. Making sure Josephine is safely tucked behind a chair, she lurches at their attacker. Grabbing her by her hair, Alex slams her into a glass table, the witch howling at the prickling glass shards embedded in her skin.

  She says something and a glowing red whip encircles Alex's left arm. Her right fist going up to quickly grip the witch by the throat before she can capture the other arm. The chokehold halts her chants, and the first whip vanishes.

  Jo bolts from her hiding place and clings to Alex, the action distracting her just enough for the witch to break free, and dive for her - wand? - stick again.

  A short recitation and the stick transforms into a rather sharp dagger that is quickly coming down on Alex, she grabs at the child clinging to her and hauls her around, so her back is to the woman, and closes her eyes.

  The stab of the knife never comes and her eyes open, eyes widening at the surprisingly motionless woman before darting to-- Akio at the top of the stairs, hands alight in a purple glow.

  “Sometime today, Alex!” He strains with the effort.

  Alex plucks the dagger from her frozen hand, and launches her into the wall. The dagger following right after, embedding itself in her abdomen and effectively pinning her in place, feet dangling uselessly.

  The witch cries out a second before Alex paces forward and knocks her out cold.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Again! Again! Again!” Jo bounces happily and Alex quickly drops to check her for injuries.

  Akio and Chris bolt down the stairs. Akio mostly ambling as fast as he physically can, with Chris surprisingly spry for a man his age, and with a barely awake 2-year-old in hand.

  “Oh my God!” Chris exclaims. Handing a dozing Ginger to Alex before kneeling to check Jo himself, “Are you alright?” He asks cradling her little face in his hands.

  “Bubba did you see! Alex made her fly!” Jo screeches in elation, and Chris can't help but cringe at the pitch. Akio finally joins them, squatting to give Jo his own once over.

  Chris stands, eyes darting about the living room, eyebrows furrowed furiously, he walks up to the unconscious woman pinned to the wall and frowns, before undauntedly turning to Alex, face red.

  “What did I do?!” Alex protests.

  Chris moves quickly, stopping in front of her. He looks like he's about to pull his hair or something equally plebeian, before deciding against it and letting the frustration out through his nose.

  “I don't know. But she's currently unavailable for me to yell at.” He gestures to the woman on their wall.

  “Akio! Akio!" Jo tugs on Akio's pajama pants, “I wanna learn to Airbend like Alex!”

  Akio turns to look at them in exhausted resignation, while Chris' eyes narrow into angry slits.

  “Took some work, but I finally got her to sleep. Wouldn't shut up about an Avatar.” Chris announces on his way down the stairs.

  The front door has been haphazardly welded to it's hinges sometime since the attack, Alex currently sweeping the glass shards of what was once an antique table.

  “The.” Akio corrects from his languorous sprawl on the only couch not currently sporting tiny glass shards.

  “What?”

  “The Avatar, master of all four elements? There's only one at a time.”

  Alex peeks up from her sweeping “This is a real thing?”

  “Of course not.” Akio says, “It's a cartoon.”

  Alex huffs and returns to sweeping. Chris shoves Akio's feet off the couch before taking a seat.

  “So, what are we going to do about that?” he gestures to the still unconscious woman by the corner, now painfully tied up with twisted metal rods, duct tape over her mouth.

  “We could go to sleep and pick this up tomorrow.” Alex offers.

  “Sleep?” Chris spits incredulously, “With Bellatrix Lestrange right under the same roof?”

  Alex snaps her fingers. “Exactly! As soon as she twirled that stick at me, I went Harry Potter.”

  “The Victorian goth aesthetic doesn't help her case.” Chris adds.

  “How is it that you both have seen Harry Potter, but not The Last Airbender?” Akio asks.

  “How have you not seen Harry Potter?” Alex abandons her broom, and joins them on the couch. “It should fit right in with your whole magic motif.”

  “That is not magick.” Akio sniffs, “That is the offensive ramblings of an author who has no idea what they're talking about. There are no invisibility cloaks, or dancing trees. Real magick doesn't perform that way.”

  “So you have seen Harry Potter.” Chris says.

  “But be honest Akio, there are tiny similarities between--”

  “It is not the same thing.” Akio interrupts.

  A beat.

  “I mean there was a stick.” Alex says.

  “And some chanting.” Chris adds.

  “We were taking suggestions on what to do with the uninvited guest?” Akio prompts testily, and that is definitely cue to change the conversation.

  “Right.” Alex lifts off the couch again to grab the broom, “You can toss her in the garage. Those rods will hold her until morning. Till the year runs out if you want.” She grabs the dustpan filled with the swept up glass shards and heads into the kitchen.

  “I am honestly surprised Ginger wasn't spooked.” Akio says.

  “You know, even with all the racket, she was still asleep when I got to her room. In fact, I think picking her up was what woke her.” Chris muses.

  “And then there's Jo--”

  “God help us all.”

  Alex returns from the kitchen, neck angling left then right, sighing satisfactorily at the cricks being loosened.

  "Go to bed.” She instructs, before levitating the witch with a flick of her wrist. “I'll stash Glinda somewhere secure, and turn in for the night as well.” She stalks back towards the kitchen, the unconscious body floating after her.

  Chris takes a look around. “I need to call renovation."

  “It's 3 am.” Akio notes.

  “Well it's day time in some country somewhere.“ Chris says, already halfway up the stairs. He peeks down at Akio. “You coming?”

  “I cannot begin to fathom climbing up those stairs right now.” Akio rearranges himself on the full length of the couch. “Just leave me here, fingers crossed another witch doesn't attack while I sleep.”

  “Just don't forget to 'Expelliarmus' if someone else does break in.” He says before rushing up the stairs, dodging the throw pillow Akio hurls at his head.