by Holly Hook
"Okay," she said.
* * * * *
It was worse than Kenna expected.
"Four," she breathed as a bout of dizziness came over her. She grabbed the side of the computer terminal, crowding Paul out of the way. She felt as if her head was about to float off her shoulders and fly away through the ceiling. "All four of them are blowing up?" It took everything she had not to run away.
"It looks like it," Leslie said, squinting at the screen. She traced her finger along the live volcano map on the screen, over all four of the cones that were flashing red in a line. "I'm so sorry to tell you this. They're all blowing up. There's the one near Mexico City with that name I can't pronounce." Leslie moved her finger down the screen, across three other flashing cones and drawing closer to Cancun. "I think we were just barely seeing the ash from this last one. El Chichon or something. It's the closest."
It must have been a very big ash cloud if Paul and Leslie had seen it from the beach. Gigantic. Something that the world couldn't possibly ignore.
And something that Andrina wouldn't miss.
"If I could throw up, I would," Kenna said, turning away. The hotel hallway stretched an infinite distance away from her. The exit seemed so far away. How many people had to be evacuated because of this? Had anyone died? "Please, turn it off. I think we know all we need to."
The only good part was that Gary hadn't returned when they got back to Janelle's room. Kenna didn't want to face him right now. He'd probably say something tactless like How many people do you think those eruptions killed? Or how many towns got buried under mudslides? If he said anything to her like that, she'd kill him…
Kenna shook her head. She was letting her anger take over again.
Janelle and Sophia were each sitting on a bed. From the way they shifted when Kenna walked in, they must have been having a conversation. The television was on, too, with the volume so low that she could only hear the whine of the TV. It didn't matter. Kenna didn't know any Spanish.
Both of the girls sighed. "We have another problem," Janelle said, nodding at the TV screen.
Another problem. It was the last thing they needed.
Janelle and Sophia had turned it on to what looked like the Spanish version of the Weather Channel, because Kenna couldn't understand the text on the bottom of the screen. She didn't want to. If it was anything about death tolls from eruptions, she wasn't sure she could stand it.
But it wasn't. That was obvious from the orange and yellow swirling on the screen not too far from the edge of the Yucatan.
"She knows we're here," Janelle muttered. Her eyes were growing redder, the skin under them darker and baggier. It was as if a spell of aging had come over the Tempest High Leader within seconds. The girl sitting on the bed looked like an old woman who had tried every measure of plastic surgery known to man.
Kenna blinked at the television, trying to focus. It was getting hard to do that. The room was spinning. Panic was taking hold like the jaws of an angry dog. The color swirling over the ocean was a tropical storm. The guy pointing at it looked serious. He drew his hand across the ocean and right onto Cancun. A red cone appeared. The storm path.
Gary was right. She should have done more to divert around the volcanoes. The four volcanoes might as well be a giant arrow pointing at Cancun.
"Do you think she knows exactly what we're trying to do?" Leslie asked, staying in the doorway.
"I wouldn't be surprised." Janelle sank farther into the bed, like she was turning to iron and wanted to sink to the bottom of the earth. "I wonder if that's Mel."
Kenna's stomach lurched again. The tropical storm swirled tighter and tighter onscreen as the radar looped, no doubt growing stronger and bringing Andrina along with it. It wasn't just a storm, but a watery chariot.
And it probably was Mel.
Did he even remember his past life? Judging from the look on Janelle's face at the moment, the answer was likely no. Or yes, but he can't help what he's doing. Kenna wasn't sure which possibility was worse.
"Sorry," she stammered, sliding down the wall until she hit the floor.
She'd ruined everything. If they couldn't wake up Huracan tomorrow, Andrina would come for all of them.
Chapter Seven
Janelle sat up straight.
This had to stop.
She fished in her pocket for her cell phone. "We can't wait until tomorrow to go to Chichen Itza," she said, blinking the hopeless tears from her eyes. "I'm calling Manuel right now and having him drive us there. Tonight. I don't care if it's closed until morning."
Kenna lifted her face from her forearms, but she didn't get up from the floor. Leslie and Paul stayed near the door. Sophia faced her from the other bed. Janelle wished that Gary was here, but she couldn't wait for him. He'd come back when he got over his hissy fit and his hurt pride.
"Tonight?" Leslie echoed.
Janelle faced the TV again. The tropical storm--whatever its name was--was still onscreen, slowly swirling closer to Cancun. The edges might arrive tomorrow at the earliest. Even a light rain would be enough to allow Andrina to appear.
It wasn't so much the storm itself that she was worried about. Tempests couldn't be hurt by tropical storms or hurricanes. But water was definitely bad for Kenna's health. And for some reason, Andrina wanted to murder Sophia and Hyrokkin. And the Outbreakers--
"There's a possibility you can have Outbreaks if that gets here," she told Leslie, pointing at the screen. "Tornadoes do happen within hurricanes. That's why we need to go tonight."
Leslie bit her lip and shrank back into Paul, who put his arm around her. He glared at Janelle for a split second.
Janelle didn't care. She needed everyone on the same page, including Leslie. The incident back in Flint was still hurting in her and probably would for years to come. Her best friend didn't need another thing to torment her and neither did Paul, even if he had been the one to turn her.
Being blunt like Gary was better than seeing her go through another Outbreak and really telling Andrina where they all were.
Where was he, anyway?
Everyone went very still as she dialed Manuel's number. He sounded groggy as he answered.
"This is Janelle," she said, hoping her voice was clear of any emotion like it needed to be right now. "We need to get to Chichen Itza tonight. If you want to know why, turn on the weather."
* * * * *
Panic had just started to set in when Janelle spotted Gary standing outside the hotel, watching cars roll past in the night and the drunk people walking up and down the sidewalk.
He turned as she opened the door, face unreadable. Janelle should have come down here sooner to find him.
Gary nodded. He said nothing, but his gaze rolled down to the concrete and then over to the water fountain as Kenna emerged from the hotel behind her. It was the closest thing to an apology he'd get to tonight, at least until things cooled down further.
"We’re going right now," she told him. One part of her wanted to snuggle up to him, but another, louder part still wanted him to feel like dirt. It probably wasn't fair to feel that way towards him. These were extraordinary events. The stress level they were all dealing with was something no one should have to go through.
"Why?" Gary's eyes widened as he faced her so fast that one of his locks flew out of his face. The mole on his nose looked dark in the light from the hotel. "Oh, great. She found out where we are, didn't she?"
"Is it that obvious?" He could always read her face like a movie poster.
"I'm really nervous about this, guys." Sophia dug the toe of her shoe into the concrete nearby and stared hard at the fountain.
"We'll think of something to get in," Janelle said. She had no idea what that something could even be. Chichen Itza would likely be guarded this time of night. The Mexican government would want those ancient monuments protected from graffiti and vandalism.
"Getting in isn't what I'm worried about." Sophia met her gaze. Her eyes were cold, as if Hyrokki
n were coming to the surface.
"Oh." Janelle felt her palms tingle with nerves. Of course confronting Huracan would be the scarier part. Huracan, at least, wanted Tempests and Outbreakers to have human forms. He of all people wasn't likely to want to disintegrate them all and boss them around.
Sophia kept her voice low as she spoke. "I don't think he wants to be woken up. Hyrokkin didn't want to stick around to see it. And you know it's got to be bad if she didn't want to stay."
"She's probably nervous after her fight with Andrina. I know that I would be if I was her." Janelle hoped that was the truth and all of the truth. Most of her still wanted to run back into the hotel and hide. "Why did she want to kill Hyrokkin, anyway? That's one thing I don't understand."
Sophia picked at a blackened, squashed piece of gum on the pavement with great interest. "Well, because--"
A honk from a nearby car made Janelle jump nearly two feet off the pavement.
"He's here," Leslie said in a voice that betrayed the fact that she wasn't glad about that at all. "He brought a van."
Manuel had parked up by the curb, right behind a cab that was letting out a couple that must have come back from a late night party on the beach, judging from the bathing suit and the swim trunks.
"Coming?" he asked in a reluctant tone that matched Leslie's. The bags under his eyes showed all too well the fact that Janelle had woken him up out of a good sleep.
She dug in her pockets for a couple of bills that would make this worth his while. The man probably had a good reason not to go to Chichen Itza.
But her legs still carried her to the van. Footsteps told her that everyone else was following her lead. She might be leading them into a slaughter.
"I'm coming with you no matter what," Gary said by her side. "I'll do anything so you don't have to become like Andrina."
So I don’t lose you. That was what he was really saying.
Bolstered by Gary, Janelle was the first to climb up into the van.
"Thank you," she said, slipping Manuel a couple of hundred dollar bills. For a moment, she felt like Mel was back, but the feeling was gone a second later, replaced by a hole inside and a fierce need to give Andrina just what she deserved. "Let's go."
* * * * *
Paul held Leslie close to him as they left the lights of Cancun behind. In front of them, Gary did the same with Janelle. On the other side of Leslie, Sophia let her head fall against the window like she was absorbing the night outside.
"I wonder if we're going to feel all uneasy when we get there," Paul said, letting his head touch the side of hers as a car passed on the opposite side of the road. "You know, like the Tempests."
"I don't see why we wouldn't." Her voice was heavy like she was half-asleep. Paul glanced at the digital clock at the front of the van. It was almost three in the morning. She wasn't used to traveling so late at night like this. This wasn't an everyday thing for most people. His years on the road with his dad had leeched that knowledge from him.
"So how are we supposed to wake Huracan up?" he asked, hoping he wasn't annoying her. It was a good question, an unspoken one that had been floating in the van since they'd left the hotel behind them.
"Go up to the cenote and yell?" Sophia asked. "I don't know. It felt like he almost woke up when Hyrokkin and I were there. We were out of body, though. Things might be just a tad different now that we're, you know, flesh and blood."
Kenna shifted right in front of Paul. "You never know. I might be able to help."
"You're our backup," Janelle said. "You know, in case he isn't too happy."
"If it's even him on the bottom of it," Gary added.
"It sounds like it probably is," Paul said. "I'm no expert on mythology, even if my dad did tell me the story about how Outbreakers were made when I was a little kid. I always thought someone made it up somewhere down the line, because I never believed it."
Leslie shifted closer to him. "I remember when you told me that on the way to the concert. You believed it later that night."
It was true. He did. Watching Andrina turn storm goddess and start vaporizing Tempests and Outbreakers had proven the old legend right there. A big part of Paul wanted to shove Huracan back into the realm of metal lyrics and comic books where he belonged. It was safer there. But an even bigger part, one that was growing all the time, wanted just the opposite. Huracan was Leslie's last hope.
It still didn't stop the uneasy feeling creeping into him with each passing mile, like some giant was watching him from miles and miles away out in the darkness. Paul glanced out the window as they drove, but only the dark shapes of trees drifted past the window. Stars were bright overhead. The tropical storm he didn't yet know the name of hadn't reached the coast yet, but it wouldn't take long.
It's the fact that Andrina's getting closer, he thought.
Manuel looked back from his driving, the first time he'd done so since they left Cancun. "Anyone else starting to feel that yet?"
Janelle learned forward in the seat in front of him. "I think I can. It's like something's sensing us from far away." She didn’t sound too enthused about the new developments.
"Me, too," Leslie said into his hair. Her breath sent a tingle down his spine that had nothing to do with old legends.
"So it looks like Outbreakers can feel it as well." Manuel's words were stretched and tense. "I thought they would. We're about fifteen miles away right now. Trust me, it will not get any better."
Paul was afraid of that.
"Fifteen miles?" Gary exploded. "How bad is it supposed to get when we actually get there?"
Paul rubbed his hand down the back of his neck as Leslie stared at him. The ominous watching feeling was still slight, but it seemed to be getting just a hair stronger with every clunk of the road and every clump of plants that went by.
But he had to go through with this.
"If it feels this bad, Manuel, how come no Tempests have searched here for Huracan before?" Janelle asked. "It seems like it should be obvious."
"They have," he said. "Not many, but they have. They always checked the temples. Never the cenote as far as I am concerned. Maybe it is so bad that none of them ever went there."
"Great," Gary said.
"I think I feel it, too." Kenna hugged herself and turned in her seat to face the rest of them. "It's like a bunch of weird pulses going through me. I'm not getting the watching feeling, but maybe that's because I'm not a Tempest or Outbreaker." She craned her neck. "Sophia?"
The girl nodded and leaned forward, casting her gaze at the floor of the van. "I really wish we would go back."
"So do I," Janelle said. "But if we do that, everybody, we'll have Andrina to contend with for the rest of our lives, which might not end up being that long."
Sophia cringed. Paul felt bad for her. Janelle's last words were for her only. Andrina wasn't actually going to murder anyone else in the van.
If Janelle was sorry, she didn't show it as she turned to face the road in front of them again. Paul had never seen her this bossy. Well, she'd been bad the time she'd tried to attack him back in Mobley, which made him respect her at all times. Now wasn't the time to get another argument going.
"We'll be fine," Paul said to her.
The creepy feeling was turning from a distant peak into a growing mountain. Paul had seen some of them once when his father had driven him through Colorado. They didn't look too big from far away, maybe a few hundred feet high. But then you got close to them, and you couldn't believe just how high they towered into the clouds. This sense of being watched was the same. They were approaching something huge. How could people come to this place every day on tour buses and casually snap pictures?
"Paul, I don't like this."
Leslie sat up straight next to him, refusing to look outside in case something leapt at the window from the darkness.
"I don't, either." He hugged her close. There was a promise to keep. If Leslie had another Outbreak, it could kill a lot of people. She was too p
owerful…like his mother had been. Like his dead mother had been. "If you want, you can wait here in the van while I go in with the others."
"No," she said. "I don't care what's in there. I'm going in with you."
* * * * *
It was clear to Paul that Leslie meant it when she unbuckled her seat belt and let it slip behind her with a determined slap.
The gate to Chichen Itza was closed ahead of them, barely visible in the darkness. Manuel had turned off his headlights. Light shined behind the gate, though he couldn't see the source from this far away. Pavement stretched behind the gate. The parking lot. Beyond it would be the ancient city.
He wasn't sure that he wanted to see it. The watching feeling was almost overpowering now. It felt as if an invisible hand was on the outside of the van, ready to push it back if it went any farther. Next to him, Leslie said nothing. She only went silent when she was worried, terrified, or both.
"You can stay here," he said again. It must be the tenth time he said that.
Leslie said nothing as she started to pull the van door open. She moved slowly, taking her time, even though her strength was more than enough to take that door off its track.
She wasn't the only one dragging her feet on this. Janelle hadn't even removed her seat belt yet. The Tempest High Leader was scratching at her knee, making her jeans wrinkle. Gary sat stiff in his seat, gripping the sides. Sophia actually put her legs on the chair and hugged her knees. Even Kenna, the only one in the van capable of surviving Huracan if he turned on them, had folded her arms over her chest like she was protecting it. It seemed that all of them could feel that something wasn't right in this place.
"This is why I never went past the visitor center," Manuel said. He kept his hand on the ignition of the van, ready to crank it back on and hit reverse at any second. "Are you sure you want to go in?"
