by Holly Hook
Sophia started to follow Kenna and Callie to the still-scorched main doors of the factory.
Hyrokkin was Andrina's enemy now. That was a good thing, even if they had to share the same body for the rest of her life.
Could she and Sophia become allies?
It hadn't seemed possible only twenty minutes ago, but things had flipped over and changed the moment they had both learned the truth about Janelle, the truth she had left out of her whole explanation of her past.
Sophia had just started for the door when she heard the noise.
The whistling. The roaring.
It grew louder by the second, almost shaking the ground, like a gigantic freight train ready to run the factory over and crush them to death. Kenna and Callie stopped in the doorway, frozen, staring at the horizon in front of them. Callie started to back away, almost tripping over her own feet.
All at once, Sophia understood what it meant. Andrina's sly smile. The rain ending. The freight train sound she'd only heard stories about up until now…
And Hyrokkin wasn't here to protect her.
She opened her mouth and screamed, and she knew that if the demon was able, she would be right there screaming with her. Maybe she was, and she just couldn't hear it over the growl that was covering every inch of the old factory.
A window at the front of the building shattered, exploding glass into the room. A billboard smashed through as if shoved by the hand of an angry giant, missing Kenna by feet. A cloud of shards flew through the air, barely missing Sophia as the lights went out.
The darkness wasn't enough for her to miss the roof beginning to rise, or the blackish, angry funnel of debris and dust above it that seemed to extend forever into the sky. It advanced slowly, spinning and ripping the ground itself up into it like a hungry beast.
Never before had she seen anything this monstrous, and it was coming straight for them.
Hyrokkin managed only a cold breeze through her, and two words: Get down.
Sophia did, catching only a glimpse of the frozen Andrina out of the corner of her vision. She was still smiling. Conscious, no doubt, ready to watch the destruction of the demon who had tried to harm her daughter.
She hit the floor.
Closed her eyes.
Saw her grandmother sitting on her couch, welcoming her home. Callie, laughing and blaring punk as they cracked dirty jokes to each other. Shane leaning in for their last kiss in the school library. That was the day before she'd seen the video that had changed everything.
None of that would ever be again.
Something crashed nearby. Landed on her leg.
Sophia prayed she'd black out and not be here the moment the tornado reached her. It was close. Wind snapped against her, threatening to pick her up at any moment. She felt as if a million people were throwing rocks at her, battering every inch of her body in rage. What was hitting her? Glass? Boards? Pieces of the factory? It was all coming apart around her.
A body fell over her, and then another.
Kenna and Callie. The volcano goddess and the Tempest. The two people the tornado couldn't harm. The goddess that Hyrokkin had cast into the lake was lying here and trying to protect her.
They don’t hate me, she thought as she felt her body come off the floor. They don't…
Awareness escaped her, and Sophia flew up into the darkness behind her eyelids and remembered no more.
Chapter Twenty
Janelle couldn't stop the tears.
Neither could Paul. It was almost as painful watching him lose it than it was seeing Leslie on the floor, unconscious. Her chest rose and fell, making it appear as if she were only having a peaceful nap.
The siren wailing outside told a different story. The sound was agonizing as it filled the air. Paul held his hands over his ears, trying to tune it out. The noise was no doubt more horrifying for him than it was for her.
Gary held her from the side, hugging her close as Paul stood. She watched as he faced the center of the living room, where Thomas Curt lay under the splintered coffee table, unmoving.
Shortly after Leslie had passed out, Paul had taken it and swung at him. This was the result. He probably didn't even remember doing it. Janelle barely even processed that it had happened.
"Why did you need her?" he roared at the former Mobley mayor, enough to make Mel back into the kitchen. He gripped the couch as if he wanted to bash the table over him again. And again. "Why couldn't you have used any other Outbreaker?" He must not have realized that the man was probably dead. "Why did you force me to turn her?"
Janelle tried to blink her tears away as she leaned against Gary's shoulder. Paul turned away from the mayor and leaned against the wall. He buried his face against the crook of his arm, but not fast enough for Janelle to miss what was really on his face.
Self-loathing.
She clutched her dolphin necklace and watched Leslie breathe in and out. The siren outside ebbed away, leaving quiet in its place. The sun started to come out, but it was everything but cheerful. It felt like a spotlight focusing down on all their deeds. Their kills.
Janelle closed her eyes.
This had to end. All this Tempest and Outbreaker stuff had to end, and not in the way that Andrina wanted.
If all Tempests and Outbreakers had been made from human beings, maybe they could be unmade. There had to be a way to do it. Something that Paul could really promise to Leslie.
Paul's shoes appeared next to her at last.
"We should move Leslie," he said at last, voice flat and lifeless as the drone of the most boring teacher in the world. "I don't want her to see the body."
Paul knew what he'd done. Janelle couldn't blame him for this. Thomas Curt might have been coerced into doing this by Andrina, but he had been the reason Paul had been forced to turn Leslie. He hadn't cared if thousands of people died in that arena. He might have even been the one to try to kill Paul's uncle. At the very least, he had ordered it.
It still didn't dispel the sick feeling inside her.
They dragged Leslie out the front door and towards the car as she began to groan and stir.
* * * * *
"Sophia."
Someone shook her as she climbed the stairs back into consciousness.
It wasn't Hyrokkin. There was no trace of the demon in the back of her thoughts.
"Sophia! Are you okay?"
It was Kenna. That was why.
Two sets of hands shook her. She turned over. Groaned. There was a dull throbbing in her back and a queasy feeling in her gut as if she was motion sick. Sophia curled into a ball and held herself tight until the sickness passed. She only dared to open her eyes when it was completely gone.
"I don't know if she is," Callie said from somewhere nearby.
Sophia opened her eyes. The sun was out. Steamy clouds cleared overhead. Her best friend stared down at her with the same fear she'd shown back at her house right before her father had been released.
"I think I'm okay," Sophia said.
Callie deflated with relief, letting out all her breath. "I thought you might be--" she didn't finish her sentence, but instead looked around her.
The factory was gone, obliterated from the face of the earth. It was easy to see even with Kenna standing right in front of her. Only a massive parking lot of concrete remained, sprinkled with bits of paper, trash, metal, and twisted blobs that might have once been pieces of equipment. It looked as if a giant hand had simply come down and swept it all away.
And Sophia was lying in the middle of it all.
It was quiet. No cars rushed past the now-nonexistent fence. A piece of the chain-link metal was lying not too far from Sophia's head. Beyond the lot, power lines leaned over the road. Fences bent over. Rooftops had lost sections, revealing their wooden skeletons underneath. But it was nothing like the destruction the three of them stood in the middle of. The factory was ground zero.
"Huh?" she asked, blinking, waiting for a bit of Hyrokkin's input on this. But it did
n't come. The demon had long been chased away by the presence of Kenna.
Right now, she almost missed her.
Sophia let out a breath, facing the concrete. They were stuck together now. She prayed that Hyrokkin was just as willing to make the best of it that she was. At least now they both had a purpose they could agree on: fighting Andrina. The demon had an outlet now that didn't involve hurting those she loved. Maybe, just maybe, this could actually work.
Where was Andrina, anyway?
Sophia managed to stand, no easy feat as her leg was still sore. She must have twisted her ankle. It was likely going to hurt somewhere between Yikes and Make It Stop tomorrow.
She glanced around the former factory turned vacant lot. Andrina was nowhere to be found, frozen or otherwise. The storm goddess had disappeared in the sunlight, or been swept away by the--
"Tornado," she managed as she turned to face Kenna and Callie. "Was that really--"
It was the Stupid Question of the Year.
Of course it had been. She'd seen it. Nothing else but a tornado--a very strong one--could destroy a building like this. Andrina must have summoned it to make sure she finished off Hyrokkin for good. The storm goddess had really wanted to make sure she eliminated the threat to her daughter.
Sophia fell to her knees. Callie and Kenna watched on in the same shock she must be feeling. Neither of them were talking.
The three of them had survived a direct hit by a monster tornado. There wasn't much to say about that at the moment.
Sophia swore she would never be able to ride out a thunderstorm without panic again.
The ground took up her view for a long time. "How?" she managed as she stood again, holding Callie's arm to keep her balance.
"Well," Kenna said, letting out a deep breath. Her voice was shaking. The experience had rattled even her. "When Janelle's dad went into the airport to look around, the two of us saw you get onto a bus."
"I took the car and drove." Callie looked like she'd walked out of a war zone as she spoke. Her highlights were everywhere but her bangs right now. "We left him there, I guess."
Sophia blinked. Her jumbled thoughts were starting to come back together. They must have seen her getting off here in this part of town.
Kenna glanced at the destruction again, then blinked and got back on task, taking a menacing step closer. "When I saw Andrina attack you, I knew she didn't exactly want to join forces with you. I told you she's a big liar. Why didn't you believe me?" Her voice rose with the horror of what they had gone through. She was talking to Hyrokkin, not Sophia.
She kept her cool as much as she wanted to join in on an argument. "She does now," Sophia answered, hoping it was the truth.
"And what was Andrina's big motive now?" For the first time, confusion came over Kenna's features. She whirled in a circle, feet slapping, taking in the destruction around them. "It's not like her to just want to murder people like us. But it sure looks like that to me."
The words felt heavy as they came out. If it hadn't been for Callie and Kenna, she would be lying here among the wreckage, just as twisted and broken as the metal equipment around her. "This was because Hyrokkin almost killed Janelle back at the library."
Callie smoothed down her bangs and wrapped her in a hug. She was still shaking, Sophia noticed, and her pulse was beating like the drums of a Fall Out Boy album. "So she told you the truth. I would have said so, Sophia, but Janelle told me to keep quiet. It's not something she's proud of."
Sophia struggled to breathe. "It's not that I blame Janelle for not saying so." She realized that if Janelle had told the truth, Hyrokkin wouldn't have tried to hurt her, and Andrina would've been more than happy to release her. Janelle's lie had probably saved the world.
"Come on," Callie said, releasing her and pointing to the littered street. "We need to get out of this lot before all the emergency people at the airport figure out that they've also got to be over here."
* * * * *
Janelle watched as Leslie opened her eyes. She and Paul were in the middle of getting her into the car, situated on the back seat. Her head hit the seat and her lids came up all the way, revealing the brown and black inside them that seemed unchanged despite what had happened.
Janelle wasn't sure what to say. Leslie had been gone about ten minutes. It was more than enough time for something terrible to have happened. The terrible thing must have happened.
"You're okay now," she managed at last. But Janelle knew this was far from okay. It was far from right. Tempests' transformations were one thing. They were a necessary evil to keep the world's weather in balance. But there were no words here to make Leslie feel better about what had happened. Why were Outbreakers even here? There was no explanation that made sense.
Leslie closed her eyes again, even though Janelle knew she was more than capable of keeping them open now. She was trying to shut out what had happened. Trying to forget. Her best friend trembled like a freezing puppy as she forced herself to sit up and lean against the car window. Nearby, Paul shuffled his feet. He wouldn't look directly at Leslie yet. His shoulders slumped with the weight of something. A promise. One that he hadn't been able to keep.
Janelle sat on the edge of the car seat and kicked at the gravel of Leslie's driveway. She had a sudden urge to get up and strangle Paul. He had been the one to turn Leslie, after all. She'd made peace with him in the past couple of weeks, and now it threatened to blow away again.
But the man who was really responsible for all this was lying dead in Leslie's living room. She couldn't go inside and strangle him now. Besides, she had already tried. Why had Janelle even let him stay at the campsite? It hadn't even been her idea to have him show up there in the first place. She'd let the desperation of their situation take over and forgotten all about the threat of Thomas Curt when everything else happened. Some of the blame could go on her, not Paul.
Leslie said nothing. Neither did Paul or Gary, who waited at the side of the car. A van rolled past, not even slowing to look at them.
“Let's go,” Janelle said at last.
Mel started the car and turned off the radio. She let Paul climb in beside Leslie and snuggle close to her. Neither of them said a thing. Leslie opened her eyes once more, but they weren't red. She seemed stony and determined not to show anything.
She suspected Paul had something to do with that.
Janelle closed the door as Gary climbed into the seat in front of her. Thankfully, there was enough room in the car for them all. Paul and Gary hadn't brought another one. The two of them must have bummed a ride off someone. Paid them, maybe. She had given Gary a hundred dollar bill for emergencies last week.
“Leslie said it wasn't that bad,” Janelle told Paul as they pulled out of the driveway. It was a lie. Leslie hadn't said anything at all. But nobody refuted her.
In fact, nobody said anything until they got back to the campsite, when Janelle's phone rang.
She made sure she was out of earshot and behind her own camper before she answered it.
* * * * *
"In case you were wondering, we're all fine." Sophia watched as Kenna spoke into her cell phone, doing a slow, nervous tap dance on the sidewalk. There was still a bit of a tremor to her voice as she scanned the expanse where the factory had once stood. "We have Sophia. She's only hurt a little. Some scratches, mostly. Did you hear about the tornado?"
Even from feet away, Sophia could hear something high and emotional come from Janelle from the other side of the phone. Something agonizing.
A cry. The girl definitely didn't seem like the type to break down like this. It would take something major. Something awful happening to Gary or her best friend, for instance.
Sophia's heart clenched as she realized.
Leslie.
It couldn't have been anything else.
The seconds stretched out seemingly into minutes as silence ruled the other end of the phone. Finally, Janelle spoke again--
* * * * *
--as she
sucked down the tears that were coming out. "How many do you think are dead?" she asked, curling down and sitting against the camper. She hoped her dad was home and could come out here and give her a hug. This was something no one should have to deal with. "I have to prepare Leslie for this. We'll need to keep a close eye on her. Get back here as soon as you can. Bring Sophia if she's still with you."
The last two sentences were distractions. Janelle couldn't care less about Sophia at the moment. She might know how to deal with that, at least. Leslie was another story. This was a moment she and Paul both agreed that they'd both never wanted to face.
* * * * *
Sophia watched as Kenna looked around again, slowly turning in a circle as she took in the destruction. The flattened factory. The buildings down the street with sections of roof missing. Leaning telephone poles. People were starting to come out of buildings now, gaping at the destruction. Kenna paled a shade as the trembling returned to her knees. "Leslie?"
Janelle said something again on the other end.
Kenna shook her head as if she were trying to get rid of the word. "Well, the abandoned factory we found Sophia in is completely gone," she said. "Other than that--"
* * * * *
"--It looks like the factory's really all the tornado hit head on. I can see houses still standing behind it. There's some damage, but not like it is right here. If this is all that happened, I have feeling maybe nobody died after all."
Janelle wanted desperately to believe those words for Leslie's sake. She'd lied in the car. Why wouldn't Kenna? But she clung on, praying it was true.
But Andrina would have wanted Leslie to kill as many people as possible, wouldn't she? It didn't make any sense that one abandoned factory would be the only target. That Sophia would be her only target. But--
"Wasn't Hyrokkin going to join forces with Andrina?"
"There was a change of heart," Kenna said in a tone that said she didn't know the whole story. "We'll tell you later."
