Oleander: One of Us Series

by Faulks, Kim

  But no more.

  Now he was free.

  I climbed the stairs with the weight of his books in my arms and his death on my soul.

  We made our way through the house and out of the front door. The two choppers were silent, their bones picked clean.

  Sixth dropped weapons, wallets, and anything he could grab from the bodies into a pile on the ground. I didn’t want to look as I neared them, but I needed to make sure.

  Cog lay half out of the first helicopter with half his head gone. The pilot slumped in his chair beside him. One perfectly aimed bullet hole right where the middle of his chest had been.

  I glanced to the second helicopter, and the speckled grey hair on the back of a man’s head. I took a step closer, drawn by the memory of the past. I had to make sure he was gone…he was finally gone.

  “Oleander, don’t…” Sixth warned as I stepped closer.

  I glanced into the belly of the helicopter and thought of that man in the diner all those years ago.

  They’d both wanted me…for different reasons. But they didn’t understand what I was. Shadow stepped closer and reached out, a tentative touch on my arm. “Let me load those into the car, okay babe?”

  I flinched, and then nodded, letting him take the journals from my hands.

  “We need to get out of here.” Sixth stowed the wallets, and the phones into his pack before he grabbed the rest of the guns. “There’ll be more coming.”

  But there was something stopping me.

  Something incomplete.

  Are you my friend? Those words echoed from all those years ago. “Wait,” I called and then turned to Sixth. “I need to do something. I need to…I need to leave them a message.”

  His brow furrowed. “Leave who a message, Purple?”

  “Them…the others…girls…girls like me.”

  “Others?” Shadow murmured. “Girls…and boys.”

  “Like us,” Tex broke in. “Others like us.”

  I glanced at Sixth’s pack. “Do you have something I can use?”

  “Yes, just wait a second.” He swung the straps from his shoulder and delved inside, pulling out a can of black spray paint.

  I turned, scanned the house and the barn beside me.

  That field called me now. I had a new purpose…no, we had a new purpose.

  And in that moment, it consumed me.

  I glanced at the silver glint in Sixth’s eye, and then to the dark mist dancing around Shadow’s outstretched hand as Tex strode toward me, like a God who carried fire in the palm of his hand.

  He nodded to me—urging me to do what needed to be done.

  I lifted the spray can and stepped closer to the outside of the barn. If they were looking…if they were searching like us, they would find this place…

  They needed to understand.

  We weren’t beasts…we weren’t monsters.

  We were a new blood falling into one hollow heart…

  Pulsing with the beat of that open field.

  Black paint shot from the nozzle as I carved the air.

  If you’re reading this. If you can hear the call. If you’re not one of them.

  Then you could be one of us.

  We’ll be waiting in that open field.

  We will fight. We will survive. Together.

  Find us.

  I stepped backwards, staring at the black paint as it ran.

  “It’s perfect.” Sixth stepped closer and held out his hand. “If they find it, they’ll know what to do.”

  I thought of all the boys and girls in that place, before I settled on that one girl.

  The one who held lightning in her eyes.

  I prayed she’d find it. I prayed she’d find me.

  But most of all…I prayed the ticking in her head never ended.

  For all of our sakes…

  The End.

  Spark

  She’s a good woman. She’s a quiet happy woman. But there’s a side to her that no one sees…a side that is terrifying. A side that leaves nothing behind—nothing but scorch marks in the earth.

  The hum of power so loud it rattles your bones. Ozone so thick it is choking…like a rag down your throat.

  I’m helpless around her…lost…untethered…unearthed, and I want to breathe her in…all the way in…until I’m just a neon white flicker in the sky.

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