by Holly Hook
It was a thought that pumped sickness into her stomach.
"Where are we?" Sophia asked, trying to change the subject. "Are you Tempests?" It made sense that Callie's mother would want to send her to be with her own kind.
A flinch from the blond girl answered her question. "How did you know?" she asked.
Sophia pointed to Callie, who had turned away to face the lake. The blond girl nodded, took a deep breath, and waved her towards a camper. "Come on," she said. "We need to get your friend settled in. I'll explain everything to you."
* * * * *
Janelle reached for the aspirin sitting on the tiny counter, which was heaped high with fast food bags, old drink cups, and changes of clothes. Night had fallen, and she'd gotten the poor Allister girl settled in one of the campers with the human girl, Sophia. Sophia somehow gotten dragged here through some bizarre coincidence that she couldn't quite figure out. Couldn't Kenna only take one person at a time when she was fire traveling? She was pretty sure that was the case.
Thankfully, Sophia had been much better than Leslie's mom at listening to the truth. Sophia hadn't yelled, freaked out, or tried to run away or hide. She'd just nodded numbly at the campfire as Janelle told her about Tempests and Outbreakers, along with the nightmare of Andrina hunting them down one by one. Judging from the paleness of her skin and the fact that she kept looking over her shoulder earlier, she had witnessed it up close.
Janelle had left out one thing, though: the fact that Andrina was her biological mother.
Sophia didn't need to know that fact yet, not after what she'd seen at the Allisters' house. Being thrust into a campsite of walking disasters would be frightening enough for a girl like her.
Janelle turned to the window and glanced out at the camper across from hers, where lights shined from inside and a figure walked past the window, casting a shadow. Callie or Sophia. Probably Sophia. Callie probably wouldn't feel like walking around right now. Sadly, there was nothing Janelle could do for her right now except provide a place to sleep. Nothing would bring her parents back. Not in human form, anyway.
She imagined Andrina finding her own father and turning him to mist with the touch of a hand. It was enough to make her eyes water. She'd avoided losing him today, but at what cost? There might not be another way to fight a storm goddess without becoming one. And if she did go through with it, would she want to fight her biological mother?
The ifs were just too much.
"I hate it when you feel like this." Gary appeared at her side, planting a kiss on her cheek. Blunt or not, he always knew when she needed that. No one else, not even her father, could understand so well.
She whirled around and returned his kiss, letting it chase away everything for a moment. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. Even through her stiff business suit, she could feel his heart beating in his chest, sure and strong. Her own beat with it, synchronizing until they became one--
A knock on the camper door made her start. They broke apart, separate beings once again.
"That was close," Gary said.
"Come in," Janelle said, running her hand through her hair.
It squeaked open and Kenna climbed up the stairs. She clearly had something to tell them, judging from the way she marched up the steps.
"What do you think about that Sophia girl?" she asked, leaning against the counter as the camper didn't offer much standing room.
Janelle relaxed. Right now, Kenna was just a normal high school sophomore spreading some gossip. All traces of her jealous, quick-to-anger mother were gone for the time being. It was welcome. This was the Kenna she'd met in Hawaii. Maybe her new status hadn't changed her too much after all.
"I don't know," she said honestly. "She seems okay to me. I think she took my explanation well because she already knew some of it."
Kenna twirled a stray rubber band around the counter, watching it intently as if she were trying to make it burn. Which, Janelle thought, she probably could. "I know she shouldn't have survived the trip through the tunnel. My mother told me I can only take one person at a time, and I have to be holding onto them. I had two people this time, and Callie was holding onto Sophia. It just doesn't work any other way. The time I had to pick Gary up from Midway Island, I had to take you both back one at a time. Remember?"
Gary's face darkened. "Well, maybe your mother was wrong." He shot a glance at Janelle. Change the subject, it meant. He hated going there. Kenna's mom, a certain famous Hawaiian volcano goddess, had nearly had him killed. Even though she'd changed her mind about killing him in the end, he'd still almost died in a lava flow. Janelle knew better than anybody that his manhood was hurt over the whole incident. Her boyfriend had too much pride to admit he'd been kidnapped and rescued.
"She's not. She's, well, been alive about a few thousand more years than me." Kenna smiled. "I think she's probably right on what she said."
Kenna had a point. "Are you sure you weren't actually holding onto Sophia?" Janelle asked.
"Sure. She definitely shouldn't have made it." She punctuated her sentence with a shrug.
Gary opened the fridge and pulled out some milk. "Well, that adds a bit more to everything," he said, pouring a glass. "I think the only thing that could survive a trip through Lava Express without keeping contact with Kenna would be another goddess, right?"
Kenna laughed. The mood in the camper seemed to lighten up a little bit. "Lava Express. I like that. That's the official name from now on."
"But Sophia doesn't seem like one." Janelle faced the camper across from them again. Her father walked past it along with Thomas Curt, who she hoped left tomorrow for Paul and Leslie's sake. There was no need to have him here anymore. First thing in the morning, she'd march down to the camper he was borrowing and order him to get out.
But if Gary was right, could Sophia help them against Andrina? Kenna didn't have the right abilities to, and no Tempest was allowed to take an Outbreaker's breath now.
Well, except for her, and that might worsen the problem.
Sophia was the only lead they had right now, and they had better take it.
"She didn't really tell us all of her story," Gary said, taking a drink and leaving a commercial milk mustache behind. "I think we really need to talk to her tomorrow."
* * * * *
"Oh, no."
Sophia fished a plastic, melted blob from her pocket.
"Is that your phone?" Callie asked from her bunk, speaking for the first time in an hour.
She nodded, fighting a strange urge to laugh. It was a relief hearing her speak and having her back, even through it probably wouldn't last. Her best friend spent most of her time staring into faraway places now. Sophia felt helpless, unable to do anything besides sit next to her and stare at the wall with her.
And now, staring at the blob in her hand, she felt helpless that she couldn't call her grandmother and let her know where she was.
She asked the Other inside of her a quick, angry question: Will you even let me call her?
But it didn't respond. It never gave her answers to her questions, not even its name. It just did what it wanted, when it wanted.
"If you want," Callie said, fishing her own pockets, "you can use my phone to call your grandma." Her eyes flashed to red again, that said, hopeless red that warned of another crying session coming on. Callie had no one to call now, and the phone she was handing to her was a painful reminder.
Sophia felt awful taking it from her. especially since Callie's mom should be here instead of her. She glanced at the deepening night outside as two men walked past the camper.
"Maybe your mom escaped," she said. But, she knew, that the opposite was probably true. As soon as Kenna had pulled them both into the fire, Andrina would have had no other distractions to keep her from going after Callie's mom.
I shouldn't have taken her place, she thought.
Callie slumped lower and stared at the green carpet on the floor. Maybe she knew it already. Things shouldn't
have worked out this way.
"I'll be right back," she said, stepping out into the night to make her call. It would kill Callie to listen to her talk to her grandmother while she had no one. It probably already was.
The night was starting to get chilly. Chillier than what she was used to back home, but nothing like what the Other made her feel when it came out and took over. Sophia ignored the cold breeze on her skin, hoping that the voice inside her wouldn't decide to come back out in the face of it. Thankfully, it didn't.
She didn't know what to say to her grandmother, and she still didn't when she answered on the other end.
"Sophia? Is that you?" she asked, voice all worry and stress. The television wasn't even on in the background. You could always hear the TV on the other end. Her grandmother was the last person on the face of the world to have a land line in the living room. "Where are you? Are you at Shane's? It's late."
"No," she muttered. Then, without even realizing it, she blurted, "Why did my mom leave a few years ago?"
Silence filled the other end for a few seconds, but it felt like a year. She didn't get why she had just asked that question out of nowhere. It had just flown out. Of course she knew why her mother had left. Her boyfriend had taken the Number One slot in her life a long time ago, overtaking watching TV in her room. Her mom hadn't been around that much even before she'd left.
"Sophia, you've asked that so many times before," her grandmother asked at last. "She was mentally unbalanced and knew it wouldn't be good for you. That’s why she had to leave."
And knew it wouldn't be good for you.
The Other had started its invasions after her mother had left. There might be a connection. Her leaving definitely hadn't been good for anyone.
She checked the dirt road up and down for people. There were none. "Good for me? I don't believe that."
"Sophia, you should. Why don't you come home, and we'll talk about it?"
A sudden flare of anger ran through her. If the voice in her had anything to do with her mother leaving, she should have known about it a long time ago.
Then again, she had never told her grandmother about it. It wasn't fair to pin the blame on her when she didn't even know what Sophia was going through. Her grandmother probably thought that nothing was wrong and that Speedy had died of old age and not hypothermia.
"I can't. It's hard to explain," she said. "Look, Grandma, can I ask you a question?"
Her tone grew more demanding on the other end. "Sure. But why can't you come home first?" A crack of thunder came through from the other end, making her shudder.
Sophia scrambled for an excuse that didn't involve being halfway across the country. "I'm stuck at Callie's right now and forgot to take bus money. She said I could spend the night and stay the weekend. I'll take the school bus home on Monday." She was using Callie's phone. The explanation would make sense.
"Why didn't you just say so?" The relief on the other end felt like sunshine in her ears. The excuse had worked. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to last long if she didn't find a way back home soon.
"That's not what I was talking about," Sophia said, bracing herself. But voices approached, along with the crunch of gravel and shoes scraping on dirt.
"The power's flickering over here," her grandmother said. "Hold on. Wait, it's back on." She sighed. "All it's done all day is storm. I don't blame you for not wanting to go back out in this. You know what, Sophia? Definitely stay put."
Sophia felt the tension creeping into her limbs. "Grandma--"
The click on the other end told her that the power had gone out, and it wasn't coming back on for quite a while.
* * * * *
Sophia listened to Callie tossing and turning all night as she settled into her own bunk, dressed in pajamas that the redhead, Leslie, had let her borrow. Once in a while, a car's headlights would bob past the camper as someone went out on a late night beer run. Sometime past midnight, a group of people--humans, Tempests, Outbreakers?--walked past, talking loudly.
Did she belong with any of them?
Callie's form rolled over again on the bunk opposite her. Her friend definitely belonged here, with these refugees that might or might not stay here for very long. It was sad, but at least it was somewhere.
Her best friend groaned. Sophia could imagine her nightmares. Andrina, advancing as Sophia pulled her farther and farther away from her mother that she would never see again. She thought about waking her, but it wouldn't make a difference. What was done was done. Sophia had showed up at her house when she wasn't supposed to. Callie had only been able to take her arm and not her mother's. Kenna hadn't been able to reach Mrs. Allister in time.
But had it even been her fault, or the fault of the Other? It had been in control at that point. Tomorrow, she decided, she would spill everything and find out. From Callie, if she was still willing to listen.
Or maybe she could even talk to Janelle, the mysterious Tempest High Leader. She might be able to give her some answers about the Other, unlike her grandmother trapped behind some failed power grid. Freezing roadways and causing accidents counted as a disaster, didn't it? These people would sympathize at the very least.
When sleep finally came, Sophia plummeted into her own hell, where an insane storm goddess named Andrina scowled at her as she placed her hand on her forehead. She could feel herself breaking apart, dying and dissipating into the air around her as the Other inside her broke free in a storm of ice, laughing and ready to punish the world for its time in its fleshy prison.
Chapter Seven
Breaking the truth wasn't as easy as Sophia thought it would be.
Not only was Janelle in her camper, but so was her boyfriend, Gary. And Leslie, the redheaded girl, stood beside the long-haired guy, Paul. She hadn't expected such a big audience.
"It looks like everyone's here," Callie muttered as she stepped over the threshold behind Sophia. She was speaking a little more this morning, but not much.
Sophia still couldn’t tell if Callie blamed her for anything that had happened yesterday. No doubt she was wondering what that other voice had been coming out of her and why it had asked Andrina for help.
At least Janelle wasn't in a business suit today. She must not have had any official Tempest business or whatever it was that she had to do, because she was wearing jeans and a baggy shirt that probably belonged to Gary. It made Sophia feel a bit less intimidated. She was on more even ground here.
Surprisingly, Callie beat her to it. "Sophia says she has something to tell us." Her voice remained dry of emotion. There was no trace of either friendship or anger. No clue about where Sophia stood. But she had to go on.
"I do," she managed. "I'm…I'm not a regular person, if you know what I mean."
Gary nudged Janelle. "I knew it."
"Knew it?" Sophia squinted at him. She faced Callie, but she shrugged. So Callie hadn't said anything to them about the voice.
Janelle leaned back against the counter, probably hoping she didn't seem too intimidating. "You survived the tunnel Kenna dragged you through. You shouldn't have, since she wasn't the one holding onto you. Only Callie should have lived."
Callie's face seemed to open in horror. "I was the one holding onto her. I dragged her in." She faced Sophia, paling. "I didn't mean to--"
"So, what are you?" Gary asked, getting right to it.
Sophia's skin pricked under five gazes. Did Callie mean that she hadn't meant to drag Sophia with her, or that she hadn’t meant to put her in danger? She prayed for the latter. "I don't know, to be honest. Sorry."
"That's okay," Janelle said, straightening up and taking a step closer. She sat down, which made Sophia feel a bit better. Janelle seemed to know how to talk to people. It must be a skill from leading all of the Tempests. "I was in the same place once. Believe me, it isn't fun."
So Janelle had once not known what she was. How had she taken a bomb like that? Gary shook his head a bit, and that gave her an idea.
"Is this abou
t what you wanted to tell me yesterday?" Callie asked, completely changing the subject.
"Sometimes, when I get upset, things happen," Sophia started. She decided she'd leave the Andrina part out for now and hope Callie didn’t say anything about it. If these people were going to help her, that fact would have to wait. There was no way she was going to go seek out that insane goddess, anyway. "It's like there's another voice in me, and it starts talking mostly about hurting people whenever I get mad or something. Either that, or it talks down to me for not letting it." Warmth bubbled to her cheeks. She'd never even told her grandmother about this, let alone near-strangers that were all walking disasters. "It sounds like an angry old woman. When it gets really bad, I feel icy all over, and then everything around me gets cold and freezes. Literally. I had an incident yesterday--"
Callie slapped her on the shoulder, all surprise. "Was that when the intersection by the school froze over and there were all those accidents? We heard about that on the radio as we were packing up."
Sophia felt about to crumple at the reminder. She'd forgotten about that until now. All she could do was nod.
"Wow," Callie said, taking both her arms. "No wonder I knew I could tell you about what I am. Sophia, I completely understand. What were you upset about before you came over to my house? Something must have made it happen if you're right about what you're talking about."
Callie had backed her into a corner. Sophia scrambled for an excuse. "I think Shane's been trying to follow other girls around," she said truthfully. "That's what upset me. I ran out of the school because the Other--that's what I call it--was about to freeze everything to help me get back at Shane, even though I didn't want it to. The cold can really hurt people if it doesn't come out in a big open space. My pet turtle one time--"
