Chapter 1- One Half of the Beginning
Natalie-
There are four things you should probably know about me.
One: My name is Natalie Grey.
Two: I’m also known as Prisoner 152.
Three: I am sixteen years old.
Four: I am different.
I was from Sacramento, California. Back then, I was normal- normal and plain. I went to school, came back home, did some reading and homework, got good grades, and slept at a normal time. Trust me, I have longed for that so, so much, especially now.
But the best part about it, the part I miss the most? I had a family. I had a ordinary family… an ordinary family that loved me.
But it wasn’t for long.
When I was thirteen, I was kidnapped by strong, burly men. Shoved into a car for hours until we had reached a secret location- the Lab. They brought me into their white tiled rooms, and it was there I was tested on by scientists. My DNA, my genes, pretty much everything in me experimented on.
And I went through so much pain there. So much pain that at times I was surprised that I hadn’t died and gone to heaven yet.
But I survived.
I had survived that pain, that suffering. And I was cursed. Or blessed, whatever your opinion is about this.
I got these... powers. I could have fire roar from my hands; have lighting bolt out of my palms; run faster than the eye could follow. I could make the ground shake whenever I wanted too, I could have a wall of earth raise to defend myself. I could control metal- twist it, bend it, do whatever I wanted to do with it. I could pull up a force field- protect people from any harm.
These powers terrified me at first. I mean, if you could light someone on fire just by thinking about it, wouldn’t that terrify you too?
It wasn’t cool at all. Besides, the price for these powers was way to high for anyone to pay.
I had been condemned to hell.
---
Eventually, I escaped. I hid myself in a garbage can and had them drag me out and throw me away. I knew it wasn’t going to be long before they found me, so I went home.
It was selfish of me. So selfish.
My father... he had yelled at me for leaving. He was scared. He couldn’t help it. I had been gone for a year. I should have thought about their pain and not even gone back. But I couldn’t help it- I needed my family more than anything. I was so scared.
And so was my father. And when my father got scared, he got angry.
So I got angry too. And we started to fight.
I tried to walk out of the house before I could lose my control. I mean, I didn’t know at the time that they had inserted a chip in my brain that allowed them to access my brain. I lost control for a second, just one second. That was all they needed.
They had caught me.
The flames came out and in mere seconds I burned my house down with us inside of it. My parents weren’t killed, but only seriously burned. I hope. I only visited them once, terrified that I would be their killer. And killers don’t deserve the comfort their victims.
And do you know what’s the worst part of all that? I couldn’t take it.
So I ran. Ran as far as I could, but the Lab had still caught me.
They tortured me as punishment for getting away, making me watch the video of the burning of the only family I had known for thirteen years over and over- making me listen to their screams on a constant loop.
And every time I watched that video, they killed me just a little more. They would laugh at me. Laugh at me for being upset. Laugh at the pain and agony that was racing through me.
Every time I had let loose an electric spark, they tortured me even more, taunting me about how I had hurt my family, how it was all my fault.
I would lose control sometimes and scream foul things at them. Of course, that only made them laugh harder. Isn’t that the point? To see me try to fight back and then fail?
They would throw buckets of freezing water on me and laugh as I shocked myself and screamed out because I couldn’t control my electric powers. Put my hands in ice and drained my energy until I could see death coming for me.
And every time they flashed that video, I would just scream in my head, If I ever get out of here, I will make each and every one of you here pay for making me hurt my family.
---
They had sent me to training after punishing me, realizing I could be a valuable weapon since they could control me. All they would have to do was trigger that little thing in me that wanted to kill. The thing they inserted into me; the little chip into my brain that was easily accessible by a small remote.
Oh my god, it sucked. Ha, that sounds lame, doesn’t it? But it did suck. Every day, training with fighting tutors, being forced to let the scientists allow me to kill these robots that looked just like people… you have no idea about how that messed me up.
---
But then I met a friend.
They finally allowed me to mingle with other prisoners, generously allowing me to stay in a cell with a little girl with the name of Trixie.
She was little, only eight years old. Her parents had given her to the Lab themselves. Sold their own child for a half a million dollars. How could someone- anyone- do that? She had rich mocha skin with eyes of an impossibly richer color than her skin, and, for some sick reason, little tan cat ears.
And you guys thought your lives are bad? Hardly.
For all of her physical weirdness, Trixie is the sweetest person I have ever met. She may be only ten years old now, but she knows more about computers and technological stuff than every engineering college graduates and their professors combined, and then some. She had a small plant in the dark prison cell when we first met. She even had a silly name for it- Liber, or something.
I’ll always remember what we had said to each other.
“Uh,” I had said, entering the small cell by being kindly shoved in by the guard. There was dry soil in a clay pot that held a wilting plant, with Trixie sitting on her bed, looking down at the plant. “Hey. I’m Natalie. I guess I’m your new cellmate.” Nice to meet you, I added silently to myself, unable to make myself say the words out loud, I apologize for being so damn socially awkward.
“Hi,” Trixie had said, turning to look at me. She looked to tired to be a kid, her eyes to wary about a world that she hadn’t really experienced. “I’m Trixie.” She wasn’t staring at her plant anymore; instead she was staring wistfully at the only thing of light in the entire cell- the window.
What are you looking at?” I had asked her, looking at the trail of light as well. It beamed down gently on the plant, but it still looked like it wanted to die.
“My plant isn’t growing,” She muttered. “That sucks.” Her arms were around her knees, hugging herself tightly, as if to remind herself that she was still there. Still alive.
My heart leapt out. “It’ll bloom sometime,” I reassured her, “Don’t worry.” She looked at me for a second, a little startled look in her eyes. Her mouth suddenly broke out into a wide smile. I think a grin overcame my face too.
Then the plant had bloomed. It bloomed into a small apple tree sprout in a matter of seconds.
“Well,” I said, the grin on my face almost as wide as hers, “Looks like it grew, eh Trixie?”
Trixie laughed once, but tears brimmed in her eyes. She suddenly ran to me and buried herself in my arms and started sobbing.
“I just-” She sobbed, those warm tears soaking into my clothing- “I just needed something lighter. Just for once.”
I had rubbed her cat ears (yes, she has cat ears and human ears; suck it up, it happens) and her sobs started to slow. “I know,” I muttered, hugging her tightly. Everyone here needed it, needed some crumb of human closeness that told them they weren’t gone yet.
“Prisoner 152 and Prisoner 179!” I hear a guard bark from the outside. “Out in the courtyard! March!”
“Let’s go,” I whispered to her. “Before Mr. I’m-a-cranky-guard-who’s-a-total-jerk comes back.”
I was relieved when Trixie cracks a smile. “Okay.” She clutched my arm tightly while wiping her tears away with her free hand. “Let’s go.”
And that was how I met Trixie, the girl who is practically my little sister.
---
Then I was assigned to be a combat teacher to the other kids.
I had learned how to fight- or should I say, how to kill- from dozens of instructors. The higher ups thought I would be a perfect candidate to teach the others to become fighters. There were tons of kids at the lab, maybe over a thousand for all I knew. I had trained them as little as I could, just teaching them mild defense.
For the special ones, the head scientist- Dr. Sanders- had personally asked me to teach them everything I knew.
I hated it. I hated teaching them to go for the kill- to show no mercy. That wasn’t who I was at all.
Life went on like this for a while.
---
It was two years later when we escaped. I was sixteen, and Trixie was ten. It was a warm spring evening, and I was determined to get out. Nothing could keep me in that hellhole for a second more.
I ran out with Trixie on my back when a prison riot started in the main courtyard. Everything looked beautiful and picturesque for a moment: Trixie and I were going to get out of here and never look back. We would be free. I was so enchanted with the idea and could almost feel a smile breaking out on my face.
Then I nearly ran into a girl going at full speed.
“Oi! Watch it!” I barked at her, stopping slowly. Trixie fell off my back, and then she just stared, horrified, at the girl.
Said girl had fire red hair and was wearing a black sweatshirt, dark jeans, and black converse. She had cold blue eyes and she didn’t look particularly happy that I had bumped into her. They let us wear our own outfits in the Lab, so I was wearing a long sleeved button up red flannel shirt they had made me and a pair of jeans with worn out sneakers, while Trixie was wearing a green t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts with a pair of brown flip-flops.
I groaned, “Oh, great! Are you one of those security guards? Does that mean that I have to take you out? Because let me tell you, that is an huge inconvenience!” Trixie hid behind me but looked at the girl curiously.
The girl rolled her eyes and informed me dryly, “I’m running away too, you know. You’re not the only one who hates this hellhole!”
I said back, voice thick with sarcasm, “Sure, whatever floats your boat, Princess.” She glared at me with a look so icy it nearly drove me to burn down the entire forest we were in. Then I realized- she was literally making it cold. Well, cold doesn’t really fit how it felt, so let’s make it more like, ‘Oh-my-God-it-is-so-cold-I-feel-like-I-am-in-Antarctica-and-need-five-thousand-layers’, or something along the lines of- ‘someone-light-a-fire-or-something-before-I-get-freaking-hypothermia’, or ‘gah-it-is-so-cold-my-brain-is-numbing-help!’, or maybe all of the above. Yeah.
By now I had learned that my body hated the cold. So, what do I do? My fingers caught on fire without me prompting them to so.
She groaned as she looked at my flaming hand, “They got you too?”
I snapped, “Yes, Princess. They got us too. So why don’t we get our butts out of here while there’s still a freaking riot?! Or do you want to stay there?” I was just assuming she was a prisoner like me. Why else would a girl just say ‘they got you too’ instead of screaming like she was being murdered? I mean, that would be the normal reaction of a normal person who saw an abnormal person lighting their hand on fire.
She, again, gave me the icy glare when Trixie suddenly stuttered, “Hey- hey Natalie?”
I waved my hand, the fire extinguishing, and snapped, “Not now, Trixie! I’m a little busy ticking off Princess!” The girl did not look happy when I called her that, which made me grin widely.
Then Trixie screamed suddenly, “Get down!” I instantly got down and ducked, and Trixie dropped so fast that she would be picking out gravel for a long time.
Sure enough, a huge, red laser beam erupted just above us and set a tree on fire. The three of us just looked at each other, and it was like we just knew what to do. We started running together. Then again, that’s the normal reaction of a person who doesn’t feel like getting blown to smithereens, but you get what I mean. We had a moment.
“Hey, Brett!” The girl taunted behind her as we started running, them as fast as they could, and me at a pretty slow run (well, at least for me. My slow is their super fast). “You know, setting trees on fire is bad for the environment! You and your Freak Team should stop!” I snickered at the girl’s remark. I think I could actually get along with Princess.
“So, if we’re escaping together,” I said to the girl, “Then my name is Natalie!”
Trixie pants, “I’m Trixie!”
The girl huffed back, “Kat!”
I shout back, “Nice to know, Princess! Okay, where too? Got a place we can get away from these freaks?”
Kat thought for a few minutes as we ran, and eventually shouted, “The river is our best shot- and then I’ll show you the true meaning of annoying, hothead!”
I yelled at her, “Annoying? Okay Princess, if we survive this, annoying will be the nicest word you can think of to describe me!”
“Do you honestly think everything revolves around you?” Kat shot back at me, her eyes narrowed and her arms crossed as we stopped. “And don’t you ever, ever call me Princess!” I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was serious. Jeez, since when did princesses have anger issues?
“Okay, girls! Let’s get back to running for our lives!” Trixie interjected and rolled her eyes. She said, more to herself this time, “Besides, everyone knows that fire and ice never get along.” The corners of Kat’s mouth had gotten tighter- probably because she was pissed off by guess who. Ten points to you if you guessed me!
“Look out, Nat!” Trixie suddenly yells at me as someone shot another round of lasers. From their EYEBALLS! Fear their all-powerful, all-destroying EYEBALLS!
Kat stops suddenly, but when I begin to go back for her, she gives me a glare and shouts, “I’ll hold ‘em off! You get Trixie out of here!”
I yelled back, “That’s suicide! You’ll just get captured!”
She mutters loudly enough for me to hear, “If you can get away, then it’s worth it.”
“Bull- we got out- we’re going to stay that way!” I shouted at her. Fury surged in me, filling me with energy. I ran as fast as I could to where the Freak Team (or so at least Kat calls them) were charging to where Kat and Trixie were.
I run around them, shouting as I punched each one of them, “DON’T YOU EVER TOUCH THEM!” They end up all on the ground, knocked out cold.
Then I collapsed, exhausted. I was surprised to find that there were arms behind me, propping me up.
“You know, hothead, that wasn’t so bad,” Kat’s voice said to me, clearly not wanting to admit she was impressed. Go figure.
I muttered, “If I’m the hothead, then you’re the ice princess.”
She grimaces when I look up at her, looking away as she mutters, “Let’s go before they come back.”
I stutter, my hands shaking, “Yeah le- let’s go.” Kat nods towards the falls. I shake my head adamantly as I understood. “No way!” Fear is evident in my voice; my body shakes with terror.
She raises her eyebrows at me and said smugly, “Oh, does someone have a fear of heights? Oh, you poor baby!”
I opened my mouth to yell at her that it wasn’t really the height (although that wasn’t exactly reassuring either), but instead the water itself. Not water. Not ever again… I shut my mouth with snap as she smirks at me.
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” She says and cracks up as she walks past me with a flip of her flame red hair. I feel my fingers light up with blue bolts of electricity, but force it- with maximum effort- to shut it off. I bring up the earth just the slightest, and she trips a little when she stumbles over a bit of raised earth. She growls at me after she gets up.
I crack up, and she gives me the coldest glare that someone could give. I feel a shiver run down my spine. Ugh, what an evil princess.
To my everlasting surprise, the river on my left began to bubble and boil. From the look she’s given me, I think she’s controlling it somehow.
Well, if I can control fire plus a ton of other elements, I guess it makes sense that someone can control water and, you know, other elements. I guess, anyway. I mean, my life is certifiably crazy enough, so…
It also makes sense that she hates me. Because, as I heard Trixie say before, I’m fire and the ice princess is- well- ice/water.
It’s certainly nice to know that it wasn’t just me who disliked her. It was just my abilities! Though I don’t think that it’s just the power thing- I think I just genuinely want to strangle her. I swear, she just gets on my nerves. Speaking of said person, she grabbed my arm, jolting me out of my thoughts, and pushed me toward the water. I looked back at her and she pointed to the water like a mother would do to a naughty kid she’s sending to their room.
“No way in hell am I going in there!” I shouted, my voice cracking with desperation. I can’t go in there. I can’t. Just the sound of the rushing water makes me shiver with dread, fearing the cold, deathlike water. Having my energy drained would not be good if I may have to fight some idiotic morons.
She shoves me into the water nonetheless, and it wasn’t kind how she shoved me in. The first second I touch the water, I just think blankly, I’m going to drown. And I was also so close to freedom.
God damnit.
Then I sank into the water, feeling like I had ran a mile. Exhausted, useless. My least favorite feelings.
With what felt like too much energy, I made a force field around myself, expelling the water around me as I rose out of the water. I was shivering, frozen to the bone. I made the force field like a bowl, and lit myself on fire.
The heat felt good. My clothes weren’t burned to a crisp; lab people had made clothes for me that were inflammable. I guess evil scientists can occasionally be useful. The warm fire surrounding me reassured me that I was still living, that I hadn’t drowned yet. It was very comforting to know these things.
I hear laughter from behind me and when I turn around, I see Kat literally walking on water with Trixie on her back. What the hell?! Is she Jesus or something? God, I hate her.
I have the force field become a slide, and go down to where they are on the water. I then have the force field become a little disk and float on it, levitating just a few feet over the rapidly rushing water.
“I am going to kill you, Kat!” I shouted at her, anger burning within me. Luckily, no fire escaped out of me.
She calls back mockingly, “Yeah, whatever!” She turns around and gives me an innocent and fake smile. I grit my teeth, and ward off the thoughts of electrocuting the water beneath her.
I called down to her, struggling to make my tone even, “We need to sleep soon. Should we camp somewhere or something?”
“I know a place, but there’s one condition to going there.”
This’ll be great. “What’s the condition?”
“You have to shut up for once!” She laughs, and I hear her crack up and Trixie laugh a little.
I grit my teeth tightly, the thoughts of electrocuting her coming back into my head and sounding even better than before.
Then I breathe deeply, seeing that my hands have caught on fire again.
Shut it off, shut it off, I kept thinking to myself, and eventually the fire dies down.
Kat eventually gets off the water, and gets on solid ground. I land, grateful for the ground. I had to restrain myself from kissing the it. I mean, I was considering it for a second just to piss her off, but I decided against it.
“See, that wasn’t so bad, now was it Natalie?” Kat said to me, giving me a satisfied smirk.
That did it.
I pull out knife of iron from the ground and pounce on her, putting the knife to her throat none too gently. She yelps a little, not expecting my furious reaction.
I snarl at her, my eyes flashing dangerously, “If you ever push me into water again, I will kill you. Got it?” And I’m not bluffing, I think to myself grimly, my eyes holding hers unflinchingly.
Kat nods silently, and I get off of her, landing in a crouch. We get up and start walking to the safe house that Kat knew.
After a few minutes of Trixie, Kat, and I walking through the woods, Kat finally speaks.
“Okay fine, I’m sorry about, you know, pushing you into the water,” Kat mutters, not looking at me and rubbed the spot on her throat that I had put the knife too.
“Sorry for trying kill you.” Not. You had it coming.
“So, do you have hydrophobia or something?” She asked, giving me a look like she already knew the answer. Assuming jerk.
I glared at her, but then repent a little bit. She wouldn’t know what they had done to me. I can’t hate her for that. So I explained quietly, “It was a form of torture they used against me at the Lab.” That was all I was willing to say.
“Oh. Sorry about it then. Do you even take showers?” She asked, giving me a sly smile.
“Yeah.” I shoot her a little glare when I say that. “But I don’t like to go in a shower that often. I mean, if it’s hot then it’s fine. Otherwise I start feeling like I’m about to die.” That sure as hell shut her up. I shudder a little while thinking about the times in the Lab that they would dump ice-cold water on me. At first, before they tested on me, it felt fine. The cold had stung, but I could deal with it.
But now it felt like acid every time I went in it. You couldn’t offer me freedom from the Lab to get me in a cold bath. It was too terrifying. I never want to go through that again. Ever.
Then I cleared my throat, stuck my hands in my pockets, and asked her roughly, “So if I’m unable to go into water, what can’t you go in?” She turned away, giving me the notion that she doesn’t want to talk about it. But I had had my turn; now she has hers.
“So what can’t you go in?” I pressed on, frustrated that she’s so silent about it. I mean, come on, really? What’s so bad that she can’t tell me? Probably a lot considering her silence. Then again, it’s not like we didn’t meet a few hours ago.
Finally she looks at me, her face expressionless as she says, “Let’s just say that I don’t like going on subways or having bonfires or campfires.” Instead of having her voice flat like I would’ve expected, her tone was icy and resentful, like there was something more she wasn’t telling. Something deep that seemed to haunt her, given the way she turned away again and holds her necklace in her hand.
Jeez, and I thought I had deep rooted issues. And saying that Kat was more messed up then I am is really saying something.
I get a good look at her necklace. The necklace has a odd silver dragon like pendent, but that’s all I can see before she puts the necklace under her shirt again. And I do not want to look down there, or I would probably be turned into an origami by Princess.
I give her a suspicious look. “Anything else?” I ask, trying not to pry too much, knowing that she would either give me the silent treatment or punch me in the face. She just gives me a look like she has nothing to hide. And believe me, we both knew that isn’t true.
After I continue to patiently wait for an answer, she eventually spits at me, “It’s none of your concern. And if I were you, I would be careful about what I’m curious about because curiosity killed the cat. Or let’s just say, will kill the Nat!” And with that she walked away, leaving a cold atmosphere behind her. She grasped Trixie’s hand and started walking away.
I stop for a minute, frowning with thoughtful consideration of her words. Sheesh, talk about bad comebacks. Is that her catch phrase?
“You know, you are seriously messed up,” I called to her eventually. Kat let go of Trixie’s hand, Trixie looking wide eyed at me.
Kat spins around, and puts out her hand, palm facing me.
Something in the air- almost like an invisible fist- smacks me in the chest and knocks me down.
“Well, I’ll give you maybe six points for effort,” I huffed. Then I winked at her and sank deep into the ground. I can feel her moving around, looking for me. Then she jumps, and I can’t feel her at all. I wait for her to land, but she doesn’t. I have a bad feeling that…well, let’s just say there is a 99.98% chance that she’s somehow above ground. Crap. This is going to get ugly. Like really ugly.
I take my chances and move above ground again. She’s nowhere in sight. I see only Trixie, sitting on the ground, gazing at me with a funny look, like something’s up.
“Where are you?” I mutter softly as I look around, but nothing moves except Trixie, who’s picking her nose. Lovely. Wait a minute- I can hear something coming… oh, great.
“Hey, looking for me, hothead?!” A voice yells at me from above. When I look up, my mouth can’t help but open.
Kat’s fifty feet up in the air, flapping her angel white wings.
Her wings?! Oh, God.
Well, I guess the wings make sense. I mean, kind of.
Well, who am I kidding- what the hell?!
Then I feel that little feeling in my head. That trigger to kill. My vision is flickering with red, and I can hear my heart pounding in my head.
“Uh, Kat?” I called up to her.
Too late.
She gave me a hard uppercut to the jaw, forcing me backward. I feel it again- the Trigger. A little buzz in the back of my head.
“Kat- stop!” I yell at her, trying to focus on the itching of my hands. Trying to calm it. Taking deep breaths, I yelled, “Kat- stop! I’m starting to lose control!”
Trixie shouts at Kat, “Oh, my god! Look at her eyes!” Kat looks at my eyes.
“Why are they pitch black?!” Trixie shouts, scared. I can’t see my reflection anywhere, so I ignore Trixie’s comment, even if it bothers me a little.
Kat mutters, “Aw crap.” She does something unexpected- she freezes my hands into ice blocks. They drag me down to the ground and they’re too heavy for me to lift. No matter how hard I try, they won’t budge. Kat landed lightly beside me and smirks with satisfaction.
“Now who’s messed up?” She says with a laugh as she picks Trixie up into a piggyback. I try to pick the blocks up off the ground but they stay where they are.
Only then did I realize- they were starting to sap my energy.
Stars start appearing in my eyes. “Kat, you have to take these off,” I whispered. “They are going to kill me.”
My head starts to whirl. My mind flashes back to the Lab, and my chest begins to heave as I become more and more breathless. I’m scared… I shake my head. I can’t afford to think about that right now. I can’t afford to have a panic attack right now!
“They’re not going to kill you, you big baby!” Kat says while rolling her eyes, not realizing what she was doing to me, “They’re just draining your energy so you can’t go all pyro maniac on us. For a while, at least. And I like this look on you. I thought you needed to cool it down a notch.”
I glare at her and, as I glare with a fury that could kill millions, the ground below her begins to shake.
Then a wall of earth traps her into a very, very tiny cube, and pushes Trixie off her back. Trixie is thrown to the ground, her eyes blank and confused.
Kat pounds at the walls while I have the earth pound at the ice blocks, eventually breaking them. Luckily, not one sharp sliver pierces my skin.
“Compromise- you don’t try and kill me and I ditto, capice?” I say softly, not letting any of my bitter hate show, and tap on the cube only to hear her stone cold voice shoot back at me like an arrow.
“Go die in a hole!” She hisses as she pounds on the cube again and again.
I chuckled, “You know, I think I know your weakness now.”
She sneers, “And what’s that, maestro?”
I smirked. “Being claustrophobic.” There’s silence for a moment and then I hear something like a whisper from inside the compressed cube.
“How long have you known?” She asks, her voice hesitant.
I said honestly, “Well, you’re water, right? Water needs to flow, to be free. So, how about that compromise anyway?” Silence again and for this time, it seems to last forever.
“I’ll agree, but only if you agree to my three conditions,” She says finally, her voice firm. Okay wait a minute- aren’t I the one who has the key to opening the tiny cube? So why am I listening to her rules? Whatever. I guess I’ll just deal with it. We do need to get going.
“Depends on what they are.”
“Well, the first one is that you don’t breathe a word about my claustrophobia,” She threatened.
I nodded in agreement. “Ditto about the ice and hydrophobia. Also neither of us triggers the weakness unless asked.”
“Sure,” She says, probably rolling her eyes, “And the second is that you stay out of my personal business!”
I shake my head a little, and said to her softly, “If that business gets me or Trixie hurt, then no. Later you tell me the story and then I’ll get out of your business.”
“Whatever,” She says dismissively, “And the third is the same one as going to the safe haven!”
“Remind me of that one again.” I roll my eyes again.
“You have to shut up!” She shouts, her voice icy. Jeez. Is she incapable of having a sense of humor?
I laughed at her, “No can do. But let’s get our sorry butts out of here.” I make a downward motion with my hand, and the cube collapses. The minute she gets out she punches me, lightly (for the first time) for her, in the face. Wow. And also, ow. Jeez, that hurts!
“Fine. Let’s get out of here then!” She tossed behind her, starting to walk to the safe house.
We start walking, but we only cover a short amount of distance in a few minutes time. Ah, screw this. “How far is the safe house?”
“Maybe an hour on foot,” She sighed. “Just straight ahead and-” Then she gives me the glare, and demands, pissed off, “Wait a minute, why are you talking? I thought the agreement was you couldn’t talk!”
I reply curtly, “Screw you. This is going to slow for my taste.” I bend down, and make a nice rock sled.
“What?”
I asked Trixie, “Could you make me a vine rope?” Trixie nods, and a plant sprouted from the ground. It, thankfully, is a vine plant.
“Can you make a ice path?” I ask Kat. She nods with a questioning look in her eyes. They slowly get in, Kat giving me a distrustful look. God, am I that bad? Eh, probably.
I yank one of the vines, said to Kat and Trixie, “Get in, and keep your arms and legs in the vehicle at all times-” tie the vine to the sled, and grin as I say to Kat as she starts to speak- “shut the hell up, make sure your mouth is closed, and enjoy your ride!” I look back for a minute, and take a deep breath.
“What?!”
Then I take off, running as fast as I could.
I hear Trixie shouting, “Whoa! Slow down! Eww! I think I just swallowed a bug! Gross!” I can’t look at Kat’s face, but I’m picturing it to look white, her lips tight as she makes the ice path. Or at least I hope so. It wouldn’t hurt to instill some healthy fear into her, and I was more than happy to be that person. I wish I could see her face, but I can’t exactly look back or I’ll probably crash or trip or something. Which, obviously, wouldn’t be fun for any parties involved.
A few minutes later I slowly come to a stop. Trixie wobbly gets out, looks thoughtful for a moment, and then throws up into some nearby bushes. Kat gets out too, looking like the color of snow, which is pretty white for her usual fair skin. She steps closely to me and hisses, “What. the. HELL?!”
I shrugged my shoulders with mock-innocence, and ask smugly, “Hey Princess, would you have wanted to walk?”
Trixie, who is done puking, says wobbly, “I have to agree with Natalie about this for once- beats walking a few miles.”
Kat rolls her eyes, and says, “Well, the safe house is over there. We should get moving.”
I feel my eyes starting to drop, and said sleepily, “Yeah, about that. Can I just run ahead?” Kat replied simply in a cold, cross voice.
“No.”
I said irritably, “Screw you.” She ignored me, and then starts walking in the direction of the safe house.
Trixie and I follow.