Legacy

Chapter One

I've never understood why people on the run hide in small towns.

In small towns, everyone knows everyone else's business. If they've inter-married enough over the centuries, they're probably all related in one way or another. Gross, but true, and it means news travels fast over kitchen tables and via landlines, cos all small towns have shitty wifi service. Trust me on this. I know.

Bottom line: They talk. 

Add that to the cumulative problems of zip to do, nowhere to go, and nothing much going on, and any newcomers who blow into town instantly become a hot topic of conversation. Frankly I was surprised we hadn't made the front page of a few local papers in some of the towns we briefly called home over the years.

Big cities. Those were the places to get lost. People rarely knew the names of all their neighbors along one hall of an apartment block, let alone anyone on the thirty or sixty floors above or below them. You could walk the streets in broad daylight in complete anonymity. Famous people did it all the time. They ignored new faces in the city. They didn't ask a million and one questions about who you were and where you were from when you went to the market to buy a quart of milk.

But would my Guardian listen to me when I pointed that out?

At least this time she'd chosen somewhere in what she referred to as the Goldilocks Zone. Not too many people, not too few. Just under ten thousand at last count according to Google. The most we'd seen in a while, not that we made direct eye contact with anyone if we could avoid it.

Gig Harbor wasn't the worst place we'd lived. But it wasn't New York or Chicago or San Francisco or any of the other places I'd been desperate to visit since forever.

"Lina, you're going to be late."

"Not gonna be late," I mumbled in reply. "I'm never late."

Late kids got noticed when they walked into homeroom after everyone was seated and silenced. Even if they'd already attended the school for a whole four months. And since my lifelong goal was not to get noticed...

"Don't forget your lunch."

I shook my head. Seriously? How many million times had we done this? It was the same thing every morning. Word for word. Different towns and places but the same thing over and over and over and -

"There's little point thinking sullen thoughts when I can feel what you're feeling from the other room," Diana calmly stated as she walked into the kitchen and ruffled my hair on her way to the coffee pot. "Have a good day, kid."

I aimed a sideways glare at her as I flattened my hair and stuffed the last books into the satchel sitting on the table. I hated having my hair ruffled like I was a six year old and I hated being called kid. But most of all I hated that there wasn't a single thing I could say about how I felt that she didn't already know.

Guardian's carried a little slither of their charge's soul inside them. Literally. Meaning she was connected to me and could feel what I felt every hour of every day, no matter how far apart we were. If I needed anything, she would provide it. If I was frightened, she would be there. As in poof! and she appeared out of nowhere. Reassuring if I ever got into any real trouble. But at the same time annoying as hell. Cos I couldn't hide anything from her.

Tossing the satchel over one shoulder, I grabbed my keys off the hall table and yelled the obligatory 'see you later' as I stepped through the front door. 

The short drive to and from school was my favorite part of the day. Partly because of the pretty views of the harbor. Mostly because of my car. The Honda was far from new, it had a few scratches and the odd hint of rust on its faded silver paintwork, but it was mine.