I behaved like a hermit for a few weeks. Skipping my cooking lessons, making excuses to not go out with Jacob and April. I basically either sat in my room staring at a wall or slept in the hay loft. I could not deal with other human beings. I wanted so much to just not exist anymore, and I just couldn't make it happen. The minute I couldn't breathe I'd panic. It took me back to my old body and my brain just could not function in that state. My body took over and I did whatever I could to get air back in my lungs. Emma must have gotten worried. Because one morning she knocked on my door and opened it without asking permission. I was laying in my bed staring at my dead tablet. I had been watching a YouTube channel about different types of insects. The playlist was hours long and I just sat there staring at it my body unwilling to move. I didn't even know what day it was at that point and I didn't care.

"Amber, you need to get out of bed. And you need a shower. You stink."

I groaned and put my tablet on my nightstand.

"And brush your teeth. I can smell your breath from here."

"I rolled over and stood up."

"You're coming to Metropolis today I have an ultrasound, so I took the day off and made you an appointment with a therapist. And we need to do some shopping for you, you're outgrowing your clothes and don't think I haven't noticed you refuse to wear a bra, that won't fly at school. Make sure you put one on today. You're getting to big to go out in public without one."

I sighed and nodded.

"Yes mom."

"Don't sound so excited."

She sighed. I could tell she was mad at herself for being so forceful. I was growing used to my new parent's mannerisms and body language. She wasn't mad she was just worried and the giving me distance thing obviously hadn't been working.

"And maybe call your friends sometime hmm? April actually came by while you were hiding at Mom's farm and asked me if I had grounded you again."

I nodded and silently went into the bathroom. I heard her sigh again as I was closing the door. I got in the shower and I realized I hadn't had a shower in a couple of weeks. I turned on the hot water and as usual now I could feel the warmth, but it didn't scald me or even cause any pain. There was no chance it would, it's not like it was three thousand Fahrenheit. I bushed my teeth and used some mouth wash. I wasn't enjoying this routine as much as I used too. It seemed like a chore, a waste of time. Lately I had done nothing with my time so what did it matter I wondered. I brushed my wet hair out and pulled into a bun. And tied it off, it would take forever to dry but I did not particularly care I just wanted it out of my way. Some of my hair had grown to an odd length and hung down beside my ears.

The only injuries on my body that hadn't healed were earring holes I'd had since I was two. A month and a half I had actively spent not looking after myself and my face still looked perfect. I hissed at the reflection I saw in the mirror. The perfection there mocked me. As the months had passed my hair had lightened from a dirty blonde to an almost platinum blonde. The turquoise in my eyes had deepened and now looked like the water on a tropical beach. April and Jacob had both told me I was beautiful. If they knew who I really was they might not say so. I hadn't gained any weight in my laziness either. Just muscle tone. It didn't matter what I did my body forced this perfection me. I hated it. I hated my perfect hair, my perfect face, my perfect hands. They should be misshapen and twisted. Not these long slender things. My voice, oh my prefect voice. At first, I exalted in our music teacher showing praise to it, now I just hate every sound I made. Every word was a reminder that I was a pretender in this fake body. Even my breasts were perfectly symmetrical. I had read that they are never perfectly symmetrical but mine wore. It was like someone edited my DNA by hand. Stronger, faster, impossible to kill, perfect dimensions, perfect hair, perfect eyes. Its too bad the brain they chose was so flawed. I hung my towel over the mirror. I didn't want to see my face.

I put on my bra and it was so tight it pinched in places, it wasn't comfortable, but pain had long since failed to elicit much response from me. I pulled on my shorts and looked at the shirt Emma had selected; It was the old black and silver superman shirt. It was just a reminder of how pathetic I was. I didn't deserve to wear a symbol of hope. I threw it at the wall and screamed. I dug through my drawers and found something else to wear. Emma came in my room as I was pulling on my shirt.

"What's the matter?"

"Sorry, stubbed my toe."

Emma nodded but looked skeptical. She picked up my old superman shirt and looked at me with the saddest eyes.

"This used to be your favorite."

"I don't deserve to wear it."

She blinked at me in disbelief, without meaning to I had snapped at her in anger. She picked up the shirt and folded it. Wrapping her arms around it and hugging it to her chest. I was so angry with myself I didn't realize I should have been apologizing. My attitude was damaging my relationship with Emma and I had no idea.

"I'll just put it somewhere safe until you feel like you do."

She left the room. And I felt tears dripping down my cheeks. The realization of my unwarranted anger towards here hit me hard. I wiped my tears away and I walked down to the front door. I was pulling on my running shoes when Emma followed. She already had her shoes on and went out to her silver SUV. She had rolled down the windows and had it started when I got there. It was an extremely hot and humid August day. I barely noticed. Extreme heat and cold did not seem to faze me anymore. My body just didn't react. I got into the passenger side and closed my door. She sat there for a few minutes and then looked at me directly.

"Seatbelt."

I nodded and pulled it on. I personally didn't see the point. Its not like a car accident would kill me at this point I doubted it would even hurt me. I hadn't had a bruise or cut in a couple weeks and I was constantly running into stuff that should have bruised me. I barely felt it anymore. She closed the windows, and the air conditioner got the SUV to a reasonable temperature. She pulled out of the driveway and head to Metropolis. She didn't say another word the whole way to Metropolis. We went to her ultrasound appointment first. It was in the same building as Dr Balissi. When we got to the office I stood near the waiting area as Emma started going into the back she stopped and looked at me.

"Are you coming Amber?"

I blinked. I hadn't expected her to want me there, I hurried after her. She took my hand, and we watched the ultrasound screen together. The tech showed us the heartbeat and the arms and legs. Emma cried a bit, I did too. She smiled so widely when the tech said the baby looked healthy and on track for the due date already predicted. Seeing new life growing dragged me away from my own melancholy. When we were leaving the office, I looked at Emma.

"Thank you for letting me come in."

She didn't say anything she just reached out and squeezed my hand tightly. The ride to my therapy appointment was also quiet. The office was minimalist. The receptionist was dressed in a very stuffy looking suit. Emma and I sat down and waited. It only took a few minutes for a woman dressed in something that looked ridiculously expensive to walk out. She had more diamonds a jewelry store hanging off her. I looked at Emma I whispered to her.

"This looks really expensive mom, are you sure this is the right place?"

She nodded.

"Mom said he was good, and she took care of everything for us."

I shifted in my chair; I wasn't comfortable with them spending this much money on me. The receptionist motioned for me to enter. I walked in. The doctor was wearing a suit. I could tell it was expensive just based on previous shopping trips with Heather when she bought Henry a suit. I sat down in the one of the chairs in front of his desk. He sat on the other side. He had a few shelves full of books several with his name on them. There were pictures of him beside some daytime talk show hosts. I took an immediate dislike to him. He looked over at his computer screen. Then back to me.

"Amber."

I didn't respond.

"I see here you have been suffering from a bit of depression and had a violent episode last month."

Again, I didn't respond I just looked at him. He made hmm sound.

"You're here because your family is worried about you. So, lets make an effort to work together."

I didn't respond I just stared at him. I didn't feel safe enough to say hi, let alone tell this man my deepest darkest secrets.

"Look its me or an institution, do you want that?"

I quirked an eyebrow.

"I'm not one of your diamond encrusted bimbo clients. You can't threaten me with public embarrassment to get me to blather on about myself. I already went viral beating up my town's entire police force. And there is no way my family will put me in an institution and my mother is a federal prosecutor, I wouldn't want to be you if you tried to force the issue. Do you want to try again?"

He looked a bit surprised. I was in no mood to chat with anyone about my problems, especially not him. He sat silently for a few minutes.

"Perhaps we should start with an assessment."

He pulled a tablet out of one of his glass drawers and slid it over to me. I looked at it. What he didn't realize is that I spent the first week after trying to kill myself trying to self-diagnose by reading several psychiatric textbooks and I had taken these all before. I knew exactly what was wrong with me. I don't know if it was my inability to end the risk I posed to the people I loved, or just that my hormones were a bit crazy but I decided to answer his test so I'd show as being a sociopathic psychopathic narcissistic schizophrenic with homicidal tendencies, with a dash of bio-polar. I did the tests and handed them back to him. He looked over the results and back to me. I smiled at him.

"Very amusing."

I shrugged and leaned back in my chair.

"You're very knowledgeable about these tests for a twelve-year-old girl."

"I have a photographic memory. I've already read the textbooks and I know you can't help me. I don't need medication. And it's not wanted."

"I doubt you understood a quarter of what you read."

"Oh?"

"I know that you're a narcissist who thrives on his fame. You have two shelves of books. I count. Forty-six books. A quarter of those were written by you. I know that's all the ones you've published because you want to show them off to your famous clients. It makes you feel powerful that these celebrities and these CEOS come to you with their problems. The funny thing is they think you can help them. What they don't know is that you're a fraud. You push pills at them to let them sleep at night, make them think happy thoughts, but you aren't making them better. You're just getting them addicted to pharmaceutical company's snake oil. You are a glorified drug dealer who gets off on talking out your ass on television. I bet you even have a YouTube channel. Probably high production value, low quality content. I can see right through you Dr. Damian Conrad."

He looked like I had just slapped him. Then he looked insulted and he stood up and he shouted at me. For the first time in my life I felt truly alive. Sure, I'd just abused several unearned gifts doing it, but it felt good.

"Get out! I refuse to have you as a patient."

"Promise?"

He came around and physically grabbed my arm and threw me out of his office I ended up sprawled on the ground. The receptionist gasped. Emma had her phone out and was making a call.

"You just assaulted my daughter. I'm calling the police."

He came to his senses and started trying to placate my mother.

"I'm sorry, we can discuss this like civil adults yes?"

"Adults don't throw children to the ground. I can't believe my mother trusted you."

I could hear her phone starting to ring. I got up and took my mothers arm and pressed the disconnect button.

"Mom, let's not make a big deal out of this. I'm sure he'll just forget about the bill for the time I spent in there and we'll all go our separate ways."

She looked at me like I was crazy he took the bait I threw out.

"Yes, yes of course. I just don't think I'm the right person to work with your daughter."

"He's always on tv, people should know what kind of man he is."

"We all make mistakes, why ruin his life over one small one, I'm not even hurt."

I showed her my knees and arms. I did my best to usher my mother out of the office. He was so pale before I had disconnected the call, I thought he was going to faint. It was great to see him squirm. I didn't really want to get involved in a police call over it though. I was starting to realize that my new brain though full of terrible thoughts was a power all on it's own. It made connections that it shouldn't for a now fourteen-year-old who was physically twelve. I had no trouble understanding the university psychology books I had read. With my photographic memory it was like a supercomputer. I was faster than a computer most times when it came to math calculations now. Could do them in my head.

Emma realized what I'd done and stopped and looked at me.

"Why did you stop me?"

"I have enough drama in my life do I really need a famous psychiatrist on trial for throwing me a few feet?"

"But its child abuse."

"Well I'll be honest; He had a right to be mad."

"At a twelve-year-old girl? What did you say to him?"

As we rode the elevator down, I repeated what I said word for word, matching my tone. She looked at me. I had grown so much in the last several months I was the same height as her now. Her mouth was agape.

"Amber Elaine Morris, how dare you?"

I blushed.

"I'm sorry mom."

She stopped and pulled me to face her. She looked me in the eyes.

"Amber I know you're brilliant. I've seen how fast you caught up in school. You can read books that I can't understand half of and you're only twelve. But that does not make it alright to treat anyone like that, even you don't like them. That man up there took you on as a patient as a favor to your grandmother, you know the nice one, that teaches you cooking lessons? You just embarrassed her and yourself. If he hadn't thrown out of his office I'd demand you go back up there and apologize. But right now we'll just cut our losses. No wonder you didn't want me to call the police."

The look of disappointment in her eyes cut me to the core. I couldn't meet her gaze after that. She was right of course. I had been thinking of myself and not Heather. I felt a few tears falling down my cheeks.

"We all make mistakes. Like you said. We just need to learn from them and not repeat them."

I nodded. I just kept making it worse. I really was a tornado in the lives of everyone around me I started sobbing as we drove towards the mall. She let me cry it out and offered me a tissue after she parked the car. Her phone began to ring. She looked at it and frowned. She picked it up and I could tell she was trying to sound upbeat.

"Hi Mom, what's up?"

She paused as Heather spoke for several minutes.

"Mom, he physically threw her out of his office, she fell on the floor. He's not a good man, let alone doctor."

She paused again Heather sounded angry rather than annoyed now.

"No mom, no, its okay, he's not going to bill us for the time and we're going to leave it at that."

Heather spoke again for a few more minutes.

"She basically said he was a narcissistic fraud who was a glorified drug dealer for the big pharma."

Heather responded and Emma pulled her sunglasses off and put them on her dashboard. She rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"No mom, I don't know where she learned that stuff, I assume the internet. She said she had a bad feeling about him, that's good enough for me."

Heather spoke again for a few more minutes.

"Yes mom, I know it is out of character for her. She is usually much nicer but she's going through a lot and she's nearly a teenager, you know what teenage girls are like. Next thing she'll be saying she hates me because I broke an egg wrong."

Heather interrupted Emma, who interrupted her right back while making a stopping gesture with her hand.

"Just…just stop mom. I know she needs a therapist, how about I try and find one for her who isn't a child abuser?"

Heather disconnected the call and Emma put her phone back in her purse. She wasn't speaking directly at me when she spoke after a few minutes.

"Well that could have gone better."

"I'm sorry mom."

"No, no, I'm sorry, I should have taken charge I'm your mother. I should be the one finding you a therapist who you can work with. Just next time if you don't like the therapist just politely tell them you don't feel comfortable and that we're going to go elsewhere instead of psychoanalyzing them into physically throwing you out of their office. Please?"

"Okay Mom."

She took a deep breath. She looked at me and started saying something about lunch when her work phone rang. She held up her hand and picked it up.

"This better be important, I'm on my day off."

She paused and listened.

"Where's the chief?"

She paused.

"Why didn't you call me sooner then? Never mind I'm on my way."

She hung up the phone and her pressed her head against the steering wheel.

"Damn it. Sorry Hon, I need to be in court in half an hour. I'm afraid lunch and shopping have to wait and you're going to have to sit in."

I nodded. I might be in a foul mood, but I understood her work was important. She put the car into gear and backed out of her spot and rushed to the Metropolis Federal Court building. She left me holding her briefcase and her purse while she changed into her suit. She passed me her court go bag and took her briefcase but left me with her purse when we entered the courtroom.

I took a seat at he back. She went to one of the desks near the front of the court. I did not have much an understanding of United States law at the time. In fact, any law proceedings. I watched them bring in a man I recognized as one of the gang members I had assaulted. He pointed at me and started yelling in Spanish. It was a language I had no comprehension of, but he looked either mad or really scared I'm not sure which. I saw a few scary looking men on the other side of the aisle, and they started looking at me intently one of them pointed a finger gun at me and made a shooting motion. I wasn't so much intimidated as worried Emma would realize what is going on.

Emma stood up and spoke.

"Your honor I request a side bar."

The judge looked annoyed.

"Why?"

"It is something that should not be mentioned in open court."

"Fine but if you're wasting my time, I won't be happy. I have a golf game in an hour."

They approached I could not quite catch what they were saying but the defendant's lawyer looked a bit freaked out. The judge looked angry. The judge was waving his gavel at the defendant's lawyer angrily and waved them back to their tables.

"Bail is rescinded the defendant is remanded in custody and denied visitation except his counsel."

The judge pointed his gavel at the lawyer for the defendant one last time.

"Remember what I said, counsellor, your client is on thin ice."

The lawyer tugged at his collar after nodding. He leaned down and spoke to his client who looked back at me. He looked angry. I had no idea what was going on, but Emma rushed us out of the courthouse. She didn't stop to change, or even to put her seat belt on. She started driving towards home.

"What's wrong mom?"

"I don't know how he knew but he must have known you were my daughter. He was saying he was going to kill you over and over again. It sounded like he killed you, but I think he was just really upset and was mixing up his words."

I blushed and put my face in my hand.

"I'm sorry mom."

"No, I'm sorry. There was no way I should have had you there. I'm sorry but I'm going to have to keep you in the house for a while okay?"

"Its okay mom. I understand."

She looked at me and seemed surprised.

"Look mom, if you think its safe for me to be at home then that's where I'll stay, I mean its not like it's much of a change right?"

She nodded. She pulled into our driveway. I'd like to say the look of fear on her face faded, but it hadn't. Just after we arrived a couple of the sheriff's deputies arrived in a cruiser and had parked by the time we were getting out of the car. I recognized one immediately, he was the one who had seen us in the market.

"Hey Emma. We got a call from Metropolis PD asking us to post a couple of deputies here twenty-four seven…is something wrong?"

Emma turned and approached him.

"I'm sorry Hank. Ya, I'm prosecuting a member of the Siervos de la muerte cartel threatened Amber's life. It's just a precaution."

At the mention of the name he went pale.

"Jesus. You're prosecuting one of them?"

"A lieutenant he was here from Mexico to arrange some business and we scooped him. He's one of the FBI's most wanted."

"We'll make sure you're safe."

I swallowed hard. After we went inside you can guess exactly what I did. I was a teenager with unfettered internet access and a tablet. I looked up the cartel of course. Roughly translated they called themselves the servants of death. Not a very pleasant name. Nor a very pleasant group of people. They were responsible for thousands of deaths in Mexico, and hundreds here in the US. Not including any deaths their drugs had caused. They had a habit of going after prosecutors and their families. I will admit my hands began to shake as I read the litany of their crimes. Of all the random people I could have kicked the crap out to try and commit suicide I had to pick one of the most dangerous cartels in the world. I didn't realize it then, but I had set into motion a series of events that would eventually make it very clear my only real weakness was the people I loved. My hand was still shaking when I put it down. I realized I wasn't scared of them. Afterall I had been trying to find away to die for weeks, I was scared of what they might do to Emma, Sarah, Henry, Heather and Edna. I couldn't let them get hurt. I was crying by this point.

I hadn't heard her, but Emma had been standing at the threshold of my room watching me. She must have seen what I was looking at. She was holding herself up with the doorframe and she looked like she was about to throw up. She had tears coming down her cheeks she opened her mouth to speak a few times but closed it and then she took a deep breath and let it out and spoke.

"I'm sorry my job is putting you in danger."

"It's my fault."

She looked at me.

"No, it's not. It is not your fault. How could it be your fault, I took you to Metropolis today, I took you to the court."

"No, mom, its my fault. I beat one of them up."

"You what?"

I scrambled to cover up my real transgression at that point. My words came out in a jumble. I curled my knees to my chest and hugged them. She came in and sat on the bed putting her hands on my knees.

"There was drug dealer near the school, and he was trying pushing one of the kids around trying to get him to sell so I beat him up."

"How?"

"I just knew how. I kicked his knee out and then kicked him in the ribs until he crawled away. I didn't know they were so dangerous. He wasn't much older than me."

"Oh, Amber. Oh Amber. That was so dangerous, what if he had a gun."

I buried my face in my knees and rocked.

"He did, and a knife."

I felt her arms wrap around me and I could feel her kissing me on the top of my head.

"I didn't think mom, I just did it. I'm sorry."

"You should have called the police."

"I know, I know."

She continued to hug me tightly squeezed me tightly while I cried into my lap. When I looked up I could see true fear in her eyes, but it wasn't for herself, it was for me. Six weeks I'd spent trying to devise how to die and here she was worried about my safety. My mind kept rejecting the concern. It kept telling me if she knew the truth, she'd throw me to the cartel gladly. The difference this time is I questioned the voices. How could she care about me so much if I was so worthless? I've had years of therapy, but I have never gotten rid of the feeling at the edge of my mind that I was a plague on this world. This was the first time since the change I had acknowledged to myself that maybe I wasn't so irredeemable. I took a deep breath.

"Mom, I tried to kill myself, I stole some pills from him."

I'd like to say she looked shocked. She didn't. She wasn't mad either. She hugged me again.

"I'm glad you didn't go through with it."

She hugged me tightly.

"Where are the pills now?"

"I flushed them."

"Good. Good. We're going to sort this cartel thing out then we're going to find someone you feel safe talking to. Why do you feel like you need to commit suicide? Are you depressed?"

"No, mom, yes, but I might not remember much but I remember enough from the nightmares that I was the reason my family died. I'm doing it again. This is my fault."

"Just because you survived it doesn't make it your fault."

I just couldn't explain it without being fully truthful and I had no idea how. She hugged me again.

"Come downstairs we're going to do a girls Disney movie afternoon. Let's go be princesses okay?"

I nodded. Sarah was already downstairs wearing her Elsa dress and kicking her legs she was sitting in the middle of the couch. I sat down and we wasted the afternoon eating popcorn and watching Disney animated movies. Mom hated the live action ones. It was a distraction. Especially with Sarah, she was five now and had only ever seen Frozen she was on the edge of her seat for most of the two movies and so very worried for the characters. Henry came out of his office and sat down for the third. My hearing was superior then most people at this point, so I heard gravel cracking under the tires of a car. I heard someone talking, couldn't make out the words but the tone was pretty heightened. I grabbed Sarah and Emma and pulled them down covering them. I tried to warn Henry but it was too late I saw blood spray from the direction of his chair. The bullets I felt a couple hit me in the back they hurt, but they didn't burn like the last time I was shot. I looked and Sarah and Emma were unharmed. Emma was panicking, Sarah was crying. The shooting stopped and I heard the car ripping back up the driveway. I let go of Sarah and Emma. Emma rushed to Henry. Sarah was crying and trying not to let me go. I hugged her and kissed her on the head.

"It's okay Sarah, you're okay. Just go hide in your closet. Go."

She nodded and ran off. I could see the blood splatter from her father all over her Elsa dress. Emma was not good in a crisis. I couldn't help Henry beyond calling emergency services, so I pulled out my phone to try it had a bullet in it I threw it down and went for the house phone and called 911. I looked out the window I saw both Deputies were on the ground.

"911 what is your emergency?"

"There was a shooting at 88132 Country road 6. Two deputies are down I'm not sure if they are okay and my dad was shot. The people who did it drove away towards Metropolis."

"Please stay on the line we'll have paramedics and police there soon."

"I'm giving you to my mom."

I passed the phone to Emma whose hands were covered in blood. I couldn't look at Henry. I didn't want to know.

"Mom I have 911 on the line I need to go check on the Grandmas."

She nodded. I had no intention of going to the farm I was out for blood. Again, I was a teenage girl and was feeling a bit angry and I had the power to do something about it. I knew I could catch the car. I ran outside and kept going up the road. It was early evening, and the roads weren't busy going towards metropolis. I passed several cars. The one I was looking for was obvious I'd seen the men before. I wasn't sure exactly how I'd stop them so I just shoulder checked the car like I'd seen in sports. It was going 70 mph and I went flying one way it went flying the other. I landed on my butt and it rolled several times coming to rest in a farmers field. I could see them trying to get out. I wasn't thinking straight. I just wanted to hurt them. Normal clear-thinking me would never give into the urge to do so much harm to someone else. This was a new level angry for me. I wanted them to hurt. I could feel the heat welling up inside me and it didn't feel bad now, it felt right. I didn't hold it back I didn't resist it. I wanted them to burn and as I walked across the highway a field glowing energy surrounded me and where my path left slagged rock and blacktop behind me. The ground melted and instead of catching fire the crops around me vaporized. I had never felt so right before. I screamed a first one I saw. He tried to run, the beams of pure plasma from my hands incinerated him and slagged the one side of the car. The steel around it caught fire. I could see someone in the car trapped struggling to get out I blasted him right through the melted door the person escaping behind him fell as his legs melted underneath him. I kicked the half-melted wreckage after the two that escaped it landed on one of him and I paid him no more mind. The other was trying to escape he was limping he fired a full magazine at his gun and the bullets melted in midair when they reached got close the me. He tripped over himself he was blathering in Spanish. I raised my hands to finish him. But then I realized I couldn't find out where the rest were if I killed him.

I forced the heat back inside I thought I'd be naked but I wasn't I had a silvery film over my body. I was barefoot though. I approached him and I had never seen anyone so terrified in my life. He had taken the time I'd given him with my approach to reload his gun. Every bullet hurt but none pierced my flesh. I reached down and pulled the assault rifle out of his hand and broke it in half after ramming the butt into his hand that had held it.

"Who sent you?"

He kept speaking in Spanish.

"English!"

He shook his head and kept babbling. I saw a moist streak run down his pants and liquid fall to the ground. He struggled with his good hand and pulled out a phone, the screen was cracked. I could see my reflection in the silver of the back of it. I didn't look normal my eyes were glowing, they looked like two miniature suns and my hair had been replaced by glowing strands of light. He unlocked the phone and offered it to me he still sounded like he was pleading with me for his life. But had he bothered to consider Sarah, Emma, or Henry. I threw him with all my strength towards the remains of the SUV.

I looked at the phone. And saw several numbers. There were names. One I recognized as a nickname mentioned in court I dialed it and put it on speaker. Someone answered in spanish. Then kept repeating a name. I spoke into the phone.

"Hello Juan. I thought you weren't supposed to be out on bail. That will make things easier."

There was a long pause.

"You're the crazy bitch that attacked us."

"I would have killed you all if I'd realized who you were."

"You don't know who you're messing with."

I live streamed a video feed of the wreckage I had left behind. Careful not to show my face.

"No, I think you don't know who you're messing with Juan. Leave Emma Morris and her family alone or this is what will happen to your entire cartel. And don't worry about that very long prison sentence you got coming. I have a really strong feeling you won't see the inside of a prison cell ever again."

I wiped the phone down with the cartel member's shirt. I ran back the hide-away and put on my new spare set of clothes. It took a lot of focus, but I eventually got rid of the glowing hair and eyes. The silver bodysuit on the other hand would not go away and it was like it was part of my skin, a second layer. I could feel through it like I could feel on my own skin. It was hard and soft at the same time and obviously immune to extreme temperatures. I pulled on a hoodie and a pair of long paints along with shoes. I'd picked them all up at the thrift store. Once I was sure you couldn't see any trace of the silver body suit or flaming hair I went to the door of my Grandmother's place and knocked. Heather answered.

"Amber, we heard sirens is everyone alright?"

I shook my head.

"Dad was shot, Sarah and Mom are fine. I came to make sure you were okay. I'm going to get Sarah and bring her over here okay?"

"Of course."

Heather nodded. Edna was coming out of the cellar looking extremely worried. I ran, at a normal human speed back to my house and saw several a state trooper's cars pulling in. I saw ambulances pulling in. The sheriff and all the deputies were already there. I was stopped by the State trooper, but the Sheriff waved me through. He rushed over to me. I could see them loading Henry into an Ambulance, Emma was getting in with him. He had an oxygen mask on. I knew that was at least a sign he was alive. The Sheriff shook me by the shoulders as I stared after the ambulance.

"Amber, where's your sister?"

"She's hiding in her bedroom I told her to go hide there when I went to check on my grandmothers."

"Good girl. Are you hurt?"

He looked me up and down.

"No."

"Was Sarah hurt?"

"No, I was on top of her the whole time."

He looked relieved.

"I came back to get Sarah to take her to our Grandmother's place. Can I go get her? She must be so scared."

"Yes go, quickly."

I nodded and rushed inside. I found Sarah crying and curled up in a ball in her closet. I scooped her up and she wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Is daddy okay?"

"He will be."

"I saw blood."

"The doctors are going to make him all better. But we need to go see Grandma Heather and Enda okay? They are going to look after us. We can't stay here."

She nodded and buried her face in my shoulder. The sheriff was waiting for us outside. Two black SUV's had joined the already growing number of vehicles on the scene. I saw a woman in a grey skirt and a suit jacket arguing with the Sheriff. She moved to stop me from leaving.

"You can't leave the scene. We need to ask questions."

The sheriff who had moved here from Texas a few year ago spoke in his typical southern drawl.

"Look, Emma's a Federal prosecutor so I let you come in here out of a curtesy, we have no idea if it was related to any of her cases. This young lady here and her sister just watched this all happen, and I know Amber will answer any questions you got with a guardian present. She'll be able to tell you a lot she's got a photographic memory. Her Grandmother brags about it all the time. But she needs to have a guardian present legally speaking. And right now, that would be Edna Kent. So, what's say we let her take her sister over to her Grandmother's house and y'all sit down at there at the table and have that conversation? If you're worried send an agent with her and I'll send a deputy and then we know they got there safe."

The agent looked a bit annoyed and paused for a few seconds and nodded.

"Now Amber, why don't you take your sister over to Deputy Steven's car he'll give y'all a ride to Edna's farm."

I nodded and got in the back seat with Sarah still on my lap she was refusing to let go. Another female agent got into the front seat and Deputy Stevens drove us to the Kent farm. It was a quiet ride and because of the way the roads were around the farms it took about fifteen minutes. Which is funny because it can be done in ten minutes on foot if you don't waste time. The deputy opened the door for me. Sarah was asleep. She always fell asleep in the car. It was good she was sleeping on me instead of a car seat it would be easier to keep her that way. I took her upstairs to Edna's old bedroom and put her down on the spare bed. Heather curled up on the bed beside her and I went back down to the kitchen. Deputy Stevens, Edna and the agent were already sitting at the table.

"Hello Amber, I'm Agent Brown. I just want to ask you some questions."

She pulled out a handheld device and slide into a holder. I could tell she was doing a video recording.

"Tell me what happened from beginning."

I took a deep breath.

"I heard a car come into a driveway. I heard the Deputy's arguing with someone. I realized it could be the guys from court today, so I grabbed my mother and sister and protected them with my body. I tried to tell my dad to get down, but it was too late the shooting had started."

I paused in case she wanted to ask for clarification, but she just let me keep going so I did.

"I made sure Sarah and mom were okay. Mom ran to dad. I told Sarah to run upstairs and hide in her closet. She ran upstairs. I tried to call 911 on my phone but it had been hit by a bullet, so I used our house phone. I looked outside and saw the deputies were down and told them I saw a car that was leaving our driveway heading towards Metropolis. I gave mom the phone and told her I was going to check on Grandma Heather and Edna and came over here. And that's what I did. Once I.."

She interrupted me at that point.

"Just a clarification on that last point, you said you came over here, did you come right over here, or did you do something else first?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, your Grandmother tells me it takes about ten minutes to get over here if someone's in a hurry and you arrived here seventeen minutes after you pass the phone to your mother, according to your grandmother's account so, I'm wondering why did it take so long?"

She was a perceptive one, Agent Brown. Enda looked like she was going to say something, so I beat her to it.

"I ran into something I have a severe allergic reaction to and almost didn't make it. I was cutting across a spot I usually don't go through. The field is lousy with the stuff. I usually try to come along a predictable path to avoid it but I was trying to save time."

Edna nodded.

"Ya we're trying to find it all, even called the EPA in they must have missed in their superfund cleanup."

The agent looked suspicious but motioned for me to continue.

"Please continue Amber."

"Once I saw they were alright I went back across to get Sarah so I could bring her here and get her away from the chaos."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Could you please take us back to court today?"

"I was in Metropolis with mom for her ultrasound and I had a doctor's appointment. She got a call, we went to the federal courthouse. The defendant she was trying started shouting at me in Spanish I didn't understand a word of it but this is exactly what he said."

I repeated his words exactly as I recalled him saying them. I knew they would have a recording from the court. I did it more to prove my photographic memory existed so they wouldn't question my version of events. Agent Brown blinked a few times then motioned for me to continue.

"There were other big scary guys there who pointed finger guns at me and made shooting motions. Mom freaked out asked for something called a side bar, then the judge denied bail and mom rushed us home. We watched Disney movies all afternoon and ate popcorn. I think she was trying to take my mind off the court thing. I could tell you what movies we watched, give you a complete repeat of all of the dialogue if you want."

I sounded a bit sarcastic with the last thing, but I was growing weary of the questioning and wanted to go to the hospital. Edna gave me a look. I looked down at the table and nodded.

"I'm sorry Agent Brown my granddaughter is usually more polite then that."

I nodded.

"I'm sorry, ma'am."

Agent Brown nodded.

"I only have one more question for now, why you don't have any blood on you. Your mother and sister were covered in it."

I knew that was coming.

"I don't know ma'am, I wasn't looking behind me I was more worried about Sarah and my mom then myself."

She frowned and picked up her recording device.

"That's all for now. Deputy could I get a ride back to the crime scene please?"

He nodded and stood up. He put his hat back on after sparing Edna a glance. Edna nodded to him. Agent Brown's phone rang, and she answered it. She hung up and looked back from the doorway.

"Amber what kind of car did you say it was?"

"I didn't, I don't know cars very well. But it was black."

"Did you see a license plate?"

"No sorry it wasn't visible from the window."

"Thank you."

She walked out and Deputy Stevens closed the door gently. I stood up and started towards the door.

"Come on Grandma lets get to the hospital I want to check on Mom and Dad."

Edna's phone vibrated as she was getting ready to follow me. She picked it up and watched it for several seconds and then looked at me. I was already out the door and halfway down the stairs. She grabbed my arm a firmness that surprised me.

"Not yet, we need to talk."