(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: anxiety, self-hatred)
-Ranya-
My heart pounded as my gut clenched. I tried to fast-walk down the hall, but spun to the floor. How was I supposed to get Isabelle to someplace safe? I could hardly stand, even when I wasn't trying to go this fast! And Pitch could track her, so I couldn't teleport her away. But who knew how long until the "Guardians" made a move against her—or Pitch and his other people against my family? The "Guardians" had been mostly passive and indirect so far. Why? What was their greater, murkier plan?
"I really need help," I mumbled. "But if Pitch replaced the Guardians, he could've replaced their helpers or whatever too. So I can't ask them. Which leaves Mother Nature and a few others. I do know where she lives, but…" I tried to picture it in my head—the chaos of shifting earth and grass and streams, the trees stretching over the forest, and the spinning mist—but when I pressed the button on my teleporter, nothing happened. The books hadn't given me enough details. I realized I'd also probably have to be more specific about where in her empire I would appear, but it shifted constantly.
I thought of the next place: the Lunar Lamadary, where men dedicated to the study of the Moon lived. Their palace's cool, glistening lapis lazuli and opal mosaics climbing up every surface. Its mountains sheeted in thick white snow. The expansive sky. I didn't know if the Lunar Lamas would help me without a sign from the Man in the Moon, but it was worth a test.
Except when I pressed the button, the same thing happened. The descriptions in the book hadn't been enough. Even when I tried to picture more specific locations, I still didn't have enough details. I clenched my jaw as my head ached. The books didn't have details about every single object in a room. They had some pictures in them, but they were in black and white, and I needed colors. Then neither the Lunar Lamadary nor Mother Nature's domain appeared in the movies, so I couldn't go off of that.
Still, I went back and forth trying to teleport to either of those places, trying to picture what specific areas might look like. But nothing.
I realized, You know, I've been here alone awhile and the white mist hasn't come after me. I stopped and listened to the noises of the school. Dakota was probably gone or at least far enough away, because I couldn't hear footsteps anymore.
Abandoning me.
I held the teleporter to my lips and whispered, "Pendant, please help. I don't know how I can save my family!"
Nothing.
But something thumped hard nearby. Then footsteps. They were too large to be human. Bunny. They realized I'm gone.
I tightened my grip on my teleporter. I couldn't go home yet, and most stores still weren't open.
I pictured the cafeteria on the other side of the school and pressed the button.
Something gripped the neck of my shirt as soon as the world cleared of stars in the empty room.
"Found you," came Bunny's voice. How did he know where I would appear? And how did he get here so quickly? "Now come on. We need to get you home." He dropped me on the ground, where I collapsed, spinning and swerving. I tightened my grip on my teleporter and made to press the button.
Bunny snatched my hand and knocked it from my grip.
"Ranya." He bore his teeth. "I don't know what that is, but…"
The reaction was too aggressive for the real Bunny. He was easily annoyed, and distrustful sometimes, but not violent.
He knows I know.
I tried to yank my hand from his grip, but he snatched the neck of my shirt again. He pulled me into him. I smelled a familiar distinct, sharp smell that made my hair stand on end. A creation of the Watcher.
I fought my hardest, tearing at his fur and kicking his body. But he kept a strong grasp and held me far enough away that I couldn't reach much. He thumped his foot on the gym floor, and hauled me into the hole in the ground that fell open when he did.
Still struggling, I slid wildly through the tunnel—nearly getting kicked in the head when I tried to stop in front of Bunny—and flew out onto the living room carpet. It took a few seconds to reorient myself and the flashing colors as he landed on his feet beside me. North stared out the dining room window. Clouds too dark to be natural formed overhead. Was that the right color? My hallucinations were never black.
"A Terror Storm is coming," he said, his voice monotone. No mention of fleeing out of its range.
My heart beat quicker. My idea was to just take Isabelle and run. But as Bunny disappeared back into the hole, and I spotted the other "Guardians" standing motionless around the living room, I couldn't see Isabelle.
I barely managed to stand, and held onto the stiff arm of the couch that flashed bright blue. "Where's my sister?"
"With Dakota," Sandy said, and I nearly startled at hearing his deep voice. "They believe they're hiding."
**Isabelle**
When the Time Rift fizzled out, Bunny, half-hidden behind dark leaves and bright blooms streaked with gold, glanced back at me, and then his gaze snapped toward Ranya's bed. "She's gone again? Sandy, Jack, stay here." Bunny thumped his foot (paw?) on the ground and leaped into the hole that opened. It closed behind him.
Something downstairs thudded, and I startled. It was too loud and sharp to be normal house sounds. Was it Ranya? The Watcher?
The remaining Guardians didn't seem to notice. Sandy and Jack finally managed to shake North and Tooth awake.
"Did any of you hear that?" I asked.
The Guardians shook their heads, nearly simultaneously. "I didn't hear anything," said Jack.
"Could one of you please go look to make certain nothing's downstairs?" I asked.
North shook himself and stood. "I'll check."
"Thank you."
North marched downstairs.
I wrapped my arms around my body and then stood frozen. North thudded around on the ground floor, but no other sounds rang out.
He came back up. "No one."
So my eyes begged me to sleep. My head thudded and swirled. But I couldn't rest when I was in danger. All I wanted was to finally be safe.
But the Guardians went downstairs, so I followed them.
North had already turned the lights on. The Guardians spread around the area with its dark red walls and sharp glass table.
After I grabbed a sleeve of Poptarts from the pantry, I tried sitting at the table, but not standing made me feel trapped, like I wouldn't be able to run in time if attacked, so I stood and paced in front of the door to the backyard, one arm still wrapped around my stomach, as I nibbled on my breakfast.
Then something thumped and rattled in the front lawn. Fear Angels! I screamed and spun to dash away as the Guardians rushed to the front door. Something grabbed me from behind, a hand tight over my mouth. I tried to shriek, but the Guardians didn't hear as I was pulled out the back door into the cold, thick fog.
My captor spun me to face them.
"Sorry, Isabelle. I didn't know any other way to get you out of the house."
Dakota stood there, dark brown eyes bright with tears, colorful braids scattered across her blue coat. She released the hold on my mouth and shut the back door.
"We need to leave before the 'Guardians' come for you," she said. "I threw bones from my house as a distraction, but it won't last for long."
My stomach grew cold. "What?"
"I'll tell you on the way." Dakota pulled on my wrist as she dashed off, and I followed. Because if what she said was true…
Snow made my feet ache through skin and bone, and icy wind jabbed at the rest of my body. I shivered hard.
Shouting rang from within my house, and the back door swung open with a thud. I couldn't see it through the thick fog.
"We have to get close…" Dakota panted.
A block away, we reached her smooth white car. Guardians hollered behind us. A pile of books sat in the back seat. I scrambled onto them as Dakota slid into the front of the car. As soon as I'd buckled my seatbelt, she sped down the road at a pace that seemed too fast for how little we could see. The Poptart jumped from my grasp as she turned a corner particularly hard.
"The people at your house aren't the real Guardians," Dakota said as she turned onto the next road, hardly slowing. "I only figured it out a few minutes ago because of something Ranya said. I sensed they had lost their centers. But I can't sense anything dark in them, either, so they were created by the Stalker, not Pitch."
Dakota's reveal sent my fear wild. Searching for a way out, I asked, "Are you certain?"
"Yeah. They've done risky things before, but they've been worse lately."
That was true. They hadn't been acting like the heroic Guardians Ranya loved recently. And Lotus had seemed… wary of them in the last Time Rift. "The Guardians will find me. The Watcher's working with Pitch, and he always knows where I am."
Dakota shook her head. "I can't sense any dark branding on you. So there's either someone spying, or they're tracking you through your light powers. And hopefully we're moving too fast for anyone to follow."
We careened onto the main street running through Windshallow. I didn't know its name. Narrow grass fields stretched on either side before dark neighborhoods.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Somewhere your powers will be drowned out—it's hard to sense weaker powers within a stronger one of the same type."
"Huh?"
"Did you know that the Windshallow schools really are cursed? By light."
"Light can curse?"
"Any power can curse."
We sped into the high school's parking lot, and Dakota slammed on the brakes, barely stopping within a spot. She turned off the car and jumped out. "Come on. We're going to the epicenter."
I followed her. But instead of going inside the school like I'd expected, we ran around to the thick forest behind it. Scattered branches and pine needles cut my feet.
We made it to a small clearing with an old, sad-looking house. Dakota took me through the back door. Inside, the floor whined and sank with every step I took. Everything else—little trinkets, dusty tables, slanting shelves—was either breaking or broken, too.
It was a little warmer inside, but I still quaked. Dakota shucked her coat and handed it to me.
"Thank you," I said.
"You're welcome."
I wrapped the coat around myself and my dress. I had never changed into pajamas last night. My feet and legs still ached, but I didn't feel safe sitting and tucking them beneath me.
Dakota met my gaze for a minute and opened her mouth, but then she suddenly furrowed her brows and closed her eyes. My fear compelled me to recall Ranya's story of the high school attack, and Dakota's role in it.
"Do you… sense someone coming after us?" I asked.
Opening her eyes, Dakota shook her head.
"You… sense someone going away?" I questioned.
She nodded. She pressed her lips into a thin line and stayed like that for a minute before opening her mouth again, sighing. "I guess it's safer if you know. Your sister left."
I started. "You can sense her? She has powers?"
"I can sense her, but she doesn't have powers."
"Then how…?"
"I was going to ask. There's something I've wanted to tell you. But do you promise not to tell Ranya?"
I shook my head rapidly. "If something's wrong, she needs to know."
"It's safer for us if she doesn't."
What did that mean? My heart pounded harder.
Dakota suddenly approached the window, her eyes narrowing. I followed her gaze and trembled harder.
Terror Storms hadn't been in my direct thoughts lately, but I hadn't forgotten.
Black clouds churned in the sky. It was like tiny needles coursed through my body, torturous terror. They swept away all possible embarrassment. "We have to get out of here! Are you certain you can't leave Windshallow?"
Dakota looked back at me and put her hands on my shoulders. "Sorry, but we can't go. The fake Guardians will find you if we do."
"We'll find you either way," came a low voice behind me. I screamed, and Dakota and I spun to face "Bunny." His green eyes were dull, his face slack. Dakota picked up a table missing a leg and charged him while I tried to bolt out the door, but he caught the table, threw it back toward Dakota, and snatched the neck of my shirt, yanking me into a hole.
It closed above me, and Dakota shouted as I skidded down the tunnel. I soon shot out of it and collapsed in a painful heap on the thin, scratchy carpet of the living room.
Ranya stood near where I'd emerged. One glance at her face told me she also knew the truth about the "Guardians." But Dakota had made it seem like she wasn't trustworthy… But she had never hurt me…
Torrents of purple rain gushed from the sky, and lightning struck ten feet from our house. The meager light passing through the clouds glowed red.
I trembled. Ranya's eyes narrowed and darted around, and her hands squeezed into tight fists. The Guardians watched us, their faces blank. Would they attack us if we tried to run? What was scarier—the Watcher's creations or the Terror Storm?
The wind didn't howl; it sang with a two-toned chord. The rain pounding on the roof sounded like murmurs. Thunder high like a shriek.
Then I screamed as my head filled with whispers. They spoke a language I didn't understand. I smelled a pungent, rotting scent.
The air began to shift and shimmer around me. I spun and dashed upstairs as the wavering spots formed shadow and bone. Blobs of darkness with two hands and no feet, but had copious claws sticking from their skin like spines. Their faces were featureless. They floated through the couch and railing, making them collapse into thin slivers, and then looked toward me. The ground turned spongey and sticky, grasping my shoes and pulling my feet into the floor.
I couldn't move.
-Ranya-
I tripped upstairs as fast as I could after Isabelle, my legs weak. What did she see?
I had to be quick. My hallucinations would probably appear any minute.
Rain pounded against the roof and slammed into the walls like a thousand-soldier army, and lightning cracked every few seconds.
Bunny sped past me and drove his head into a pillow in Zachary's room like he was trying to shut out a noise. The other "Guardians" shrieked and dashed around, too. Were they faking? They hadn't expressed any emotions since revealing themselves. Had the Watcher allowed them to feel no real emotion but fear? Would Pitch hurt people on his side like this? How is he treating my family and the real Guardians, then? I stumbled to the ground and crawled the rest of the way up the stairs. Lightning struck so close the ground shook.
Isabelle stood frozen at the top of the stairs, her shining eyes as wide as clocks and darting around. She shook pale and violently, her arms pinned against her chest. She let out a harrowing scream that burst in my ears.
"What do you see?" I shouted. Several shrieks came from the first floor. My sister didn't respond. "Isabelle, what do you see?" I punched the space before her in case that would do anything.
"Help me! Please!" she shouted. "Don't let them kill me! Get me out!"
"Are they near the ground?" I asked.
"They're floating!" she replied. "They're coming—" Her shriek pierced my soul.
I grabbed her leg and dragged her down the stairs. She screamed, throwing her body against me, and tried to pry off my fingers with her nails. Her eyes were blank, though not glazed over; she didn't seem to understand what was happening. Was the hallucination affecting her sense of movement?
"I'm helping you, Isabelle!" I tried, though I knew it would do nothing. Her screams made me want to stop, but I didn't have a choice if I wanted to protect her. I shifted my grip to her arm and held as tightly as I could. She—her strength doubled with terror—plucked all my fingers off, but I wrapped another hand around her arm. I pulled her into the garage, snatching the van keys off a hook on the wall.
This was a very stupid idea. I could begin hallucinating from the storm at any minute.
"We're gonna drive away from them, okay?" I pulled myself up with the black van door handle and hefted Isabelle into the passenger's seat. Closing the door, I crawled to the driver's seat and pushed the button on the van's ceiling that opened the garage. I started the engine as that door groaned. Isabelle had reverted to curling in on herself stock still. Screams rang from houses on either side of us—harrowing, desperate, agonizing.
Did I have time to put on seatbelts? Maybe not. I pulled the van out of the garage and sped down the road hopefully quick enough to keep Isabelle away from her hallucinations. The storm had darkened the morning fog to where I could only see outside because of the flashing colors. My windshield wipers couldn't slice through the torrents of rain.
Isabelle shrieked again, and I accelerated. I had no way of seeing if those things caught up to her.
Lightning lit the town red. I took the chance to go a little faster for a second. Then a new sound joined the screaming and rain murmuring—wingbeats. Fear Angels.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I shouted as one dropped in front of the van. I barely saw it in time to swerve into the grass and cursed myself.
Isabelle shrieked again. I sped back onto the road as the Fear Angel turned toward us, and I pushed the gas pedal harder. Faster. Away as the creature chased us. I braked hard to turn a corner safely. I wished we'd worn our seatbelts, but I had no time to put them on now.
We made it onto the main Windshallow road. I wove back and forth between the lanes, the spinning world distorting my perception of where I was going. As lightning lit the sky again, three shadows hulked in front of me, and I veered into the opposite lane of traffic. A car tore past me at 30 miles per hour over the speed limit. It didn't even honk.
Another cry from Isabelle. "Behind us!"
I glanced in the mirror, though I didn't expect to see anything, but five more Fear Angels sprinted after our van at full height. The van was faster, but Isabelle and I weren't.
I sped into the high school parking lot and jerked to a stop right outside the front door. It was already open. Had Bunny left it like that?
"Come on!" I pulled my sister out of the van with me, and we ran inside the school, me using her weight to keep me steady. I glanced over my shoulder. We'd gotten some distance from the Fear Angels, but they were catching up quickly. Isabelle tore through the front hall, and as I tried to follow her, I collapsed.
"To the gym!" I shouted to her as she ran ahead, looking once back at me. "First door on the left!" I crawled as fast as I could. Isabelle darted into the gym door.
Fear Angels burst through the entrance behind me, and I managed to get to my feet. My sprint lasted for two seconds before I swerved to the floor again.
"Bring me the coin thing!" I called to Isabelle. I struggled to get the world to stop spinning enough to bear run.
I was close enough to see Isabelle had grabbed the teleport from the middle of the floor and was on her way back, but then a Fear Angel passed me and charged her. She screamed. She threw the teleporter, and I barely caught it.
The coin was cold against my fingers. I teleported to Isabelle, grabbed her, and thought of the first place that came to mind where we would be safe.
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