Over the next two months, I followed Shadowmist's YouTube channel and watched as more and more of Alex's music appeared on there. They were on a roll! And the more music they posted, the more positive attention they received.

Not long after the night of the concert, Alex and Andrew had called me to enthusiastically break the news that Amy Lee had subscribed to their channel.

"Holy shit, guys, that's awesome!" I exclaimed.

"I know, right?!" Andrew was ecstatic, "and our channel's exploding! You should see our subscriber count now!"

"I have, trust me," I was grinning from ear to ear throughout the rest of the conversation. I was truly thrilled that my friends were being recognized for the amazing talent that they had, not just by Amy, but by everyone who had listened to their material and subscribed for more.

Alex had been learning to control her powers over the same two months, and they had even evolved a considerable amount. She could now move most objects with her mind whenever she wished without straining herself, and she was also able to keep it from happening at random. Abigail had helped her achieve that, of course, which I think Alex was more than grateful for.

Alex also discovered she had a few other powers as well—namely, the ability to duplicate items perfectly (though there were obvious limitations; she couldn't duplicate money, for instance--it simply wouldn't work). She put it to good use when it came to giving Andrew and the others copies of song lyrics, that was for sure, and—though they didn't notice—when any of our friends needed something she had in her possession, like a pencil or a blank sheet of paper.

She and I decided to head over to the park near her apartment building one night at around 9:30 PM. She wanted to show me something awesome she could do with her powers without anyone else seeing, so I agreed to meet her there.

"Hey," I greeted her when I arrived, "What did you want to show me?"

Alex was seated on the bench close to the water, dressed in black jeans and a dark purple hoodie under a leather jacket, now that the weather had been steadily growing colder. On her feet were black leather boots, and around her neck was a black wool scarf with sequins woven into it in various places so that they resembled little stars. Fingerless gloves covered her hands so that her purple-blue nail polish could be seen—if not for the dark.

She smiled at me. "Look," she said, and raised both of her arms purposefully. All around her, objects of all sizes began to rise up. I noticed she didn't include anything too large, so as not to draw suspicion, but it was still really cool to see. As she began to make the objects fly at a controlled speed around us, I couldn't help but match her enthusiastic grin with one of my own.

I had to admit, it was an amazing sight, and the fact that it made her this happy only added to the experience for me. She was one of my best friends, after all, and I was glad to see more and more things could bring her happiness these days. The last three years had not been easy for her and, probably without meaning to, she had started closing off from everyone, even us to a certain extent, and her emotions showed less and less. Now she was becoming so much happier again, finally opening back up and allowing herself to fully heal, and for that I think we were all glad.

"It's wonderful, Alex," I said, as she slowly lowered her arms and let everything resume its original position on the ground. "Really, it is."

"Thanks, Lana," Alex replied, pulling me into a friendly hug. As she did so, her phone vibrated. As she checked to see who had texted her, the look on her face indicated that she wanted nothing more in that moment than to squeal—or maybe sing—with joy. "Lana, look!"

"What is it?" I asked as she handed her phone over to me.

"Just look!"

The moment I read the text displayed on the screen, I understood why she was so excited.

Scott: Hey, Lex, awesome news. Andrew got us a gig at this festival that'll be happening here in the spring!

"Do me a favour," Alex continued, "Pinch me so I know I'm awake."

I laughed, knowing she wasn't serious. "Nah, I don't feel like it. But I will say that this is freaking awesome! You have no idea how happy I am for you guys."

"Thanks!" Alex was the most enthusiastic I'd seen her in a long time, even more than a couple of months ago at the Evanescence concert. As she and I walked back to her apartment building, we talked about the festival more, as well as what school might be like tomorrow. Despite saying that Alex, Jessie and I would pay for making her hurt herself, she never did anything worse than she usually did, nor did any of her little friends. I suspected she had a worse plan than simply upping their game, but Alex thought I was being paranoid.

Finally, we reached her building. "Guess I'd better get inside," said Alex, "Goodnight, Lana," she added as she hugged me again.

"Night," I replied, hugging her back. As we parted ways and she went inside, I pulled my jacket tighter around myself to keep the cold at bay and began to walk home as well, interested to find out what tomorrow might bring.