“We’re okay, '' I said, wondering how true the statement was. I wanted to be home right this minute but realized how much longer I had to go until then. I couldn’t just leave. There would be cops, hospitals, phone calls, and who knew what.
I turned towards Caspian and saw Pollux still ducked down behind him, his hat tipped so far down only the tiniest red from his eyes peeked out. I wasdone. The urge to cry squeezed my throat.
“How sad,poor Ava wants to cry. I do love your tears,” the voice taunted in my head, deeply humored with my emotions. I swallowed down the budding tears.
My first reaction was to keep ignoring the voice. It would be the same willing ignorance I’d allowed to rule my life up to this point. I gritted my teeth and didn’t do that. I wouldn’t, not anymore.
There were a couple possibilities here. One, the trauma and exhaustion were making me go a little insane. Two, Makwa was literally talking to me.
“I like the last option,” the voice in my head said. There hadn’t been time to discuss what I’d agreed to in the cave. I wasn’t sure what was really happening. My thoughts and feelings were sometimes strange and the sound of Makwa’s voice in my head was more than a little concerning.
There was a sensation of something shifting in my stomach again. It made me suddenly bow over and gag. I gripped my stomach as I dry heaved towards the forest floor.
“Ava,” Caspian said but Pollux gripped his arm tightly, not letting him move. If Mothman was seen, it would be bad. Brandon stepped up next to me instead.
“Shit, are you okay?” He asked, not touching me but looking on in concern as I groaned.
“Goodness, come on. Let’s go to my van,” Ben said, gripping Brandon’s arm and beginning to tug him. Brandon looked down at the hand with a curled lip of disgust.
“No one wants to get in the back of your fucking pedo van,” Brandon snapped, jerking from his grip. Ben’s eyes widened and he pulled his hands up, holding them up in surrender.
“Okay, no one is forcing anyone. Look, my family owns a park with cabins nearby. That’s where I was when I heard there was a fire. I came right away, worried about Ava.” We all stood there quietly looking at one another. There was a little something Ben was not mentioning. Namely, the bodies, the violence, the massacre. All he mentioned was the fire.
“What about—” Brandon started and Caspian kicked him in the back of the knee, making him fall to the ground. “Fuck!” He barked as he went down.
“Uh, okay,” Ben said awkwardly after watching that display. “Let’s go talk to the rangers. The fire was just put out so everyone is still around.”
There was a dramatic line in the forest. Black trees were to our left, the forest burnt up. To the right was majestic unspoiled forest. We clung to that line, following it as Ben led us to the rangers.
We weren’t all that close to the campground. The fire had clearly spread. Up ahead a collection of firefighters, rangers, and volunteers came into view. There was also a news crew. They noticed us coming and startled into action, rushing over.
“Holy shit it’s Nix,” someone mumbled. They rushed forward more animated, practically tripping over tired firefighters to bum rush Caspian and Brandon.
“Look it’s that sister too,” someone mumbled and my face heated. I looked at Caspian and there was a moment of hesitated processing before a fake smile slid on his face, looking perfectly friendly.
“Fuck me,” Brandon mumbled under his breath. Ben watched all this, eyes shifting back and forth. He must have noticed we did not want to deal with this because he smoothly glided between the cameras and us.
“Alright, alright,” he started but didn’t seem to know where to go from there other than holding his hands up like he had some magic ability to stop the frantic bum rush.
“Caspian! Were you in the fire?” Someone barked out. Caspian’s smile became a strained brittle thing that looked a moment away from cracking. Pollux hunched behind him, looking like he was two seconds from running. Brandon covered his mouth with one hand. I noticed all the rings he had on his fingers and the bulky quality of his knuckles that seemed fitting for a drummer.
“Tell us what happened! Where is the rest of Nix?”
“Alright, alright,” Ben repeated, giving a nervous chuckle. Why was Ben so dirty with soot? Even the firefighters didn’t look that dirty.
I was tired. No, I wasexhaustedand I was also feeling testy with all these bumbling bodies around snapping like alligators after a hunk of flesh. I wanted them gone. I wanted to rest. I wanted to lay in bed with arms surrounding me, comforting me…
“Fucking you?” The voice in my head asked. Yeah actually, that sounded nice. “Then tell them to fucking leave,” the voice said. I looked at Caspian’s cracking smile, Mothman eyeing the woods like he was going to fly away, Brandon’s expression turning from irritation to shell shock as he thought about the answers to the questions flying around.
“Leave us the fuckalone!” I snapped, practically snarling. My lips were peeled back from my teeth, a furious grimace shot at the media. Ben cleared his throat and my guys all looked at me like I was unhinged. I wasn’t acting normal, was I? Could they tell? Did they realize something had changed?
In the silence that followed, I felt the rage leaking from my body—the tension escaping my muscles until I was standing there with big eyes, wondering if everyone could tell I’d changed. Ben cleared his throat and the news people started up again.
“How did the fire start?”
“Are you two in a relationship?
“Is the tour really canceled?”
