“What the hell are you thinking?!” Callista was on top of my back, holding me down with the help of Thad, her voice hissing into my ear.
“Stop fighting!” she told me.
Without command, my claws and scales appeared again. I swung my arms wildly, the back of my hand catching Callista and throwing her off me like springs tossing her onto the beach. I pushed up from the ground and reached for the air but her hand caught my foot, slamming me onto the ground again. I hit my back hard, and Callista and Thad were suddenly on top of me again.
“Put the claws away!” Callista commanded me, her face pressed close to mine, red with rage. Her claws were out too, burying into the sand like bars in front of my face. I swung again to be free of her, instinctively slashing to punch Thad, though again forgetting my claws. With lightning-fast motions, he caught the blades with the back of his hand, the scales clashing against them like metal on metal. The rattling force jolted me back to my senses.
So I obeyed, and my claws slid across the sand as they went back inside, leaving long marks. Callista and Thad lifted from me slightly, breathing heavy with exertion.
“The hell you’re going back home,” Callista said between breaths. “Do you have any idea how much we’ve both sacrificed for you to even think about going home?!”
Thad had already gotten off of me, but she remained pressed on my other side.
“My family’s still there!” I protested, wincing. She ground her teeth together.
“Well I’m sorry to hear that,” she hissed. “But for now, if you try to run off, I’m bringing you right back down again.”
She gave me a hard push when she got to her feet, rolling me over. I stood without hesitation, eye to eye with her.
“That’s my family!” I said. “I can’t just leave them there!”
“And if you go back, they’ll follow you there, kill them anyway, and us too,” she told me, but this time she didn’t yell. It was more of a fact that she was merely broadcasting, something that hung over all of us like a tent blocking the sunlight.
I let my breath out, looking from her to Thad for support. His eyes turned away from mine, and I knew that if I couldn’t get him on my side, then there was no use in fighting. Inside, I knew Callista was right. If I went back home, who knew what would follow me there.
I spun my back on them with discontent, walking away toward the beach. Neither of them chased me this time.
I didn’t speak to them, even when the beach became darker and the lights from the police cars and the receding fire become the only colors we could see nearby. I found a spot and sat there, staring at the water that came closer to my feet with every wave. My arms remained crossed, as if by keeping my hands out of view I wouldn’t think of the silver that hid beneath my skin. I couldn’t make the feeling of the ring disappear, though. It was impossible to escape the reminders of what I’d become.
When we heard a helicopter flying our way, Callista and Thad came to get me, and we flew into the sky without saying anything. This time, flying was no joy. Already it had devolved into a simple method of transportation, a way for us to leave the beach and head for the mountains, a way that drove me further from Arleta. They tried to hide it, but I could tell that Callista and Thad were taking turns flanking me to make sure I didn’t run off.
When we landed, we were back on the cliff where Thad had taken me. The first thing Thad did was break the watch off his wrist and fling it over the edge; it didn’t even make a sound as it fell.
“Don’t be down,” he told me, where Callista couldn’t hear. “Tomorrow is your birthday, and we’ll figure things out then. Nothing’s worse than being dead, and you’re not that, right?”
He’d meant it to console me but I was far past words. I walked away from him and stopped when I got to the end of the cliff. The sun cast a tall, inhuman shadow onto the rocks beside me, appearing almost as if a monster was creeping up behind me.
I looked out over the Valley. I could see far—maybe further if not for the sun reflecting on the fog. My mom was probably already out pestering the police to find me, and they were likely sighing and insisting to her that this was simply another one of my misadventures. Officers would take a report but toss it into a pile on someone’s desk. That’s the kid who drove his car over the cliff, they’d say to each other with knowing grins. My friends would think I’d just disappeared on a job. Nobody would even worry for days.
I heard Thad and Callista whispering to each other but I didn’t care enough to hear what they were saying. I sat with my feet hanging over the edge of the cliff and tried to find Arleta in the horizon. The ever-darkening clouds made that impossible.
Another dreamless night, another morning for me to awaken in a place that wasn’t home. This time it wasn’t nightmares that broke me from sleep, or that awful rain I could still taste in the back of my throat. The sun was up, warm rays gently rousing me, light spread over the precipice.
Drowsy and exhausted as I was, I could smell trees and rocks and damp ground, reminding me of the few times I’d gone camping with my family in parks near Arleta. I soaked in the silence, all the echoes of the cars and people hardly reaching this high. I didn’t want to get up. I felt sore, like the morning after a lot of swimming.
But at least I wasn’t running from assassins for five whole minutes.
When I tried to lift my arm, I realized that I was in a black sleeping bag, zipped up to my shoulders. I pulled at it and managed to get my arms free. I didn’t remember getting into a sleeping bag… maybe I’d been too tired to notice much after the sun had set. I rolled over.
There were two other new sleeping bags arranged on the flat rock, and plastic bags in the corner of our camp. Someone must have left and bought them after I’d fallen asleep. With what money, I wondered? Again, I couldn’t complain. I’d probably be in a lot more miserable position if I’d slept only on rocks all night.
One of the sleeping bags was empty but Callista was in the one closest to me. She was lying on her back, staring awake at the sky above us. It was hard to tell if she was ignoring me or if she hadn’t realized I was awake too. I followed her gaze up and saw that the rainclouds from the day before had now been replaced with puffy white shapes drifting across the blue.
“I’ve decided I don’t have to hate you,” she said without warning. I cleared my throat.
“Is that…an improvement?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said bluntly. “Until ten minutes ago, I hated you. Now I don’t.”
She sighed and rolled over onto her stomach, flinging her hair back behind her neck. I tried to keep from studying her, but every time I took my eyes away I only found them glancing back at her again.
“Did I do something ten minutes ago that changed things?” I pressed, hoping to keep this conversation going but also fearful that my insistence might convince her I was worthy of being hated again. She still didn’t meet my gaze.
“It’s more of what you didn’t do,” she replied. “You didn’t run off last night. I was certain you were going to disappear and run screaming to the police, and sit there waiting for a Guardian to show up to shoot you in the head.”
“You think I’m that stupid?” I was almost insulted. Few people had ever spoken to me that way.
She shrugged. “You haven’t done much to convince me otherwise.”
This was not going nicely at all. Had I lost all of my powers of persuasion that had helped me with my clients? Or maybe this girl was simply invincible to my attempts at lightening the air.
“I’ve stayed alive this long,” I tried.
“I know, it’s shocking,” she said. “You’re arrogant. Selfish. Overconfident. You have no respect for how much danger you put other people in. You think of yourself more than anyone.”