I sat on the bench on the boardwalk, staring out to sea and thinking about last night with a stupid grin on my face. Amy kissed me. Amy kissed me! After all this time of struggling with having feelings for a girl I'd never met as myself, she actually kissed me. And then she asked if I had a friend named Emma and died laughing when I said yes. Don't worry, I used mouth-to-mouth to resuscitate her.
The whole bizarre love triangle (ok fine, it wasn't a triangle, but I really like that song) had been so confusing and frustrating! I'd wondered when I would ever find someone of my own and how it would work with having feelings for someone I only knew as my alter ego… but now Amy knew me in both forms and was interested in getting to know me better! Happiness bubbled up in my chest, and it felt like this wonderful, giddy feeling would never go away.
A girl in a green trench coat and fedora sat down next to me. "Freak," she said in greeting.
"Aaaaand it's gone. What do you want, Madison?"
"Mother has instructed me to 'make amends' to various people, and for some reason, you're one of them."
She held a closed fist in my direction, knuckles up, and waited. After a moment, I placed my hand below it, and she opened her fist, dropping a tagged key into my hand. I took a look and saw the name of a storage facility and a unit number on the tag.
"What's this?"
"A key to a storage unit full of roadkill."
"You shouldn't have," I said flatly.
"Well, if you don't want it.." Madison said, reaching for the key.
I quickly closed my hand around it. "No, I'll take it." There was no way I was passing up compensation from the Simurgh sight unseen.
"Whatever you're into," Madison said with a shrug, then started to rise. "I doubt we'll meet again, Freak."
"Where are you going from here, Madison? What are you planning to do?"
"Besides carrying out Mother's wishes?" She adjusted her fedora, giving it a stylish tilt. "I'm considering traveling the world, stealing monuments and artifacts, and leaving clues designed to lure people to horrible ends." She shrugged again. "Or maybe Mother will have me join her so we can be one big, happy family."
She quickly glanced behind me, and I turned to see what she was looking at. When I turned back, she was gone. Well, I guess that settled the question of whether I should try to stop her or not… I looked down at the key in my hand.
I cautiously opened the door to the storage unit and peered in as the light came on. It was a pretty big unit, but the only thing inside was some sort of tinker-tech device. I walked over to the large cylinder lying on the floor and looked down, studying it. Half of the top was frosted-over glass, and there was a panel of controls and blinking green lights on the side.
Frowning, I took the sleeve of my shirt and wiped at the frost, clearing a hole in it after a bit of effort. I could see there was definitely something inside but couldn't make out any details, so I pulled out my phone and aimed its flashlight beam through the hole I'd made. Staring inside, I felt my chest clench, and my phone shook in my hand.
"M-mom?"