CHAPTER 24

The First Stone

Mars felt peculiar in a way she couldn't place.

The same way she had felt the night of the party at Danny's. Airy, not all there, not quite in the way drugs made her feel… it was more like a void… like she didn't quite have control.

She was aware that she was moving, but not of much else; her ears rang. She was hot all over.

"Mars! Babe, hey." Don caught up to the girl wandering aimlessly, looking rather lost. He stood in front of her now. "Are you okay?" He stroked her cheek with his thumb as she closed her eyes, a graceful smile passing her features.

Ethereal. That was it. That was how she felt. Ethereal.

Her response to Don was noticeably delayed. "Fine." She kissed him, a small sort of giggle accompanied it. "Come with me." She held his hand. In her mind, she was floating just above the ground.

"Uh." He hesitated and looked back at his mom pushing his dad in his chair down the hall. "Yeah, come on." He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the nearest classroom, Mars pushed her lips to his. Don was sure she was wrecked, but he didn't object.

As they kissed, and Mars floated farther and farther from reality, voices could be heard on the other side of the classroom wall. Mars away and approached the door, not opening it yet, just listening.

"A truancy officer, Mary!" Sayid bellowed. "You work at the fucking school! How do you let this happen?"

"At least I speak to her! When is the last time you did anything as a father?! Huh?"

"How is she failing YOUR class?!" Sayid shifted back to the subject of school. "Please tell me how that is?"

"Because she doesn't fucking show up! I'm not going to pass her just because she is my kid!" Mary shouted, drawing more attention. "She has to earn things, a lesson you never let her learn! You think you can buy her? Seriously?"

Sayid glanced around at the bystanders, embarrassment swelling in his chest before walking away from his wife. Mars slipped out of the classroom, and stood at the foot of the crowd directly in the path of her father.

Color drained from Sayid's face when he saw her, but she stood to the side, allowing him to pass wordlessly.

Don kissed the top of her head and rubbed her shoulder. "I gotta go," she whispered. If he'd known she was going off on her own, he'd never have let her go. She was too out of it. And he did care.

She followed her father's path, so no one stopped her.

Once she was outside, Mars branched out towards the preserve. Something pulled her to it. It was that ethereal feeling, whatever it was. Like some sort of divine presence had possessed her, was influencing her. Beaconing her to follow the subconscious lull, that gut feeling.

Then, when her bare foot touched the mossy preserve, everything went black. As it was entirely too often.

"Thank you John. It was here that sometime in the last 48 hours an unfortunate jogger met his grim end. Now, again, we don't yet have all the details, but from what I understand this was no cougar attack, it shared that very same ferocity with a much smaller bite. Beacon Hills may be rid of a killer mountain lion, but has it been replaced with a murderer that walks among us?" "Stay tuned to channel 3 for your first looks into the lakeside killer case! Back to you John."

"Bunch of bullshit is what that is." Ahmir turned off the television. "It's all about the rating game. We all know it was probably just a cub from the same family tree as the dead one, but America wants to be scared. They want a story." Mars looked at Ahmir, feigning interest.

"What the fuck are you saying you pretentious son of a bitch." She blinked, she just came back to check on Aje, then she was out of here.

He pushed his sister a little. "I'm just saying, they don't even know if it was a person that killed the guy and they already gave the killer a name? Load of bollocks if you ask me."

"Well no one asked you." She rolled her eyes.

"What's with the attitude?

Mar stretched. "You didn't tell me."

"Tell you?"

"About Dad and that nurse." Mars couldn't quite place the look that passed over his features. "We're supposed to tell each other everything." She sighed.

"Are you going to tell Mum?" Was the first thing that escaped his mouth even though it wasn't the best thing to say.

"Maybe. I'm not sure yet."

"Please don't." He pleaded and reached for her hand, she let him take it. "Mar, I don't want them to split, Ness would say the same thing, I know it." He sighed. "I don't want things to change right before I go to college, it's supposed to be the most important time of my life." Mars pulled her brother into a hug.

"Okay."

"Okay?" He asked pulling away.

"Okay."