Master of the Storm

Chapter One: Message

"She sounds kinda manipulative," Olivia said in an apologetic tone. I felt a ripple of annoyance go through me, which I couldn't explain. Why did hearing her say that upset me? She was right, after all. Beatrix was manipulative.

"I mean, yeah," I said. "But she was put in situations where she had to be. She's never really come out of survival mode."

Olivia shrugged. "You know her better then I do."

We walked down the stairs, and slipped out the back door of the motel, and into the street. The clouds were covering the sun, and I felt a breeze in the air. It would rain heavily tonight, you could feel it in the air. There was a market happening so the street was busy, and there were people bustling around everywhere we turned, so it was easy for us to blend into the crowd. Olivia grabbed my hand, pulling me through the market, until we saw the black van parked behind an apartment building. Evianna stuck her head out of the window of the passenger seat.

"Did you find anything in there?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Barely. It's been emptied."

"I'm sorry," Olivia said, looking sympathetic.

I shrugged. "It's no big deal. Most of it was Beatrix's stuff, anyways."

We opened the doors to the car and hopped inside, laying our bags by our feet. "Can I drive?" Olivia asked hopefully.

"Never," Pluto responded from the front seat.

Olivia sighed dramatically and settled back in her seat. Evianna turned around in her seat and looked at me. "So, remind me of the plan again?"

"We're gonna drive out of the city, and onto the open road. Once we get far enough, you guys are gonna drop me off, and meet me in the same spot tomorrow at around one in the afternoon"

"Wait, why do you need a day to do this?" Olivia asked. I had already told her this earlier, but I wasn't entirely sure she had been listening. But I didn't mind explaining again.

"Well, it might take me a few hours to find her if she's not where I think she is. And it'll take me longer to convince her to tell me what she knows, and give me that memory stick. And by then it will probably be dark, and if you drive out here you might not be able to find me anyway."

"Where will you sleep then?" Pluto asked, as they started up the car.

"I'll figure it out," I replied.

As we drove down the busy road, I stared out the window. I watched the colourful market outside, and wished we could just call off the whole thing and hangout instead. But I had more important things to deal with. I didn't have time to be sixteen right now.

I pulled the journal out of my jacket pocket, and looked through it once again. There wasn't really anything helpful in it, just a bunch of sciency things and coded messages I didn't understand, or just more of Thomas's mad ravings. I just wished everything would have been explained in the journal, then I wouldn't have to chase Beatrix to figure out more. I felt my stomach twist with anxiety, but also a bit of strange excitement at the thought of seeing her again, even as it came with a foreboding sense.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of the car radio, that had been on since we started driving. It seemed Evianna had turned it up. Pluto reached to turn it down again. "Wait, don't," Olivia said.

"Yeah, I wanna hear this," Evianna agreed.

We listened as the people on the radio explained that a fire had burned down an apartment building only a few streets away from the motel where I had lived. "The police are still investigating the cause of the fire, but arson is rumoured to be suspected."

"Holy shit you guys, that's so close to us." Olivia said.

"I bet it was arson." Pluto said. "I swear, sometimes it feels like everyone in this neighbourhood is insane."

As the three of them started talking about arson, I settled back in my seat, and went through my bag, making sure I hadn't forgotten anything. I had packed an extra shirt and shoes just in case, some packaged food, some money in a plastic bag, and toiletries. And at the bottom of the bag, I had put the gun I had stolen when I was underground. I didn't know how many bullets were in it, and I had never used a gun before, so I didn't know how to check. I also didn't really need it, considering I was perfectly capable of defending myself, but I brought it anyway. I couldn't just leave it on the road somewhere for someone else to pick up. Sure, it was almost that easy already for just anyone to get their hands on firearms, but I wasn't going to contribute to that. I put the journal in my bag as well. I had to force it in, as there was barely enough room left. Then I zipped it shut.

I watched as the landscape outside changed, and we left the city. As it thinned out, miles of nothingness stretched out in front of us.

"Are you sure you wanna do this alone?" Evianna asked me.

I nodded. "I have to. I don't wanna scare her off by bringing a crowd. And I think this is something I need to do on my own."

After having driven for another fifteen minutes, I decided we had gotten far enough, and asked to be dropped off. Pluto stopped the car in the middle of the road as there was no other people in sight, and I picked up my bag and opened the door. We had stopped beside a large, twisted tree. It was skinny and dying, but it was noticeable from farther away.

"So, we'll meet by this tree at one tomorrow?" I asked, and they all nodded.

Olivia leaned over and gave me a quick hug before I hopped out of the car. "Be safe," She told me. "Don't get kidnapped again."

"I won't," I promised, before I closed the door behind me. Then I watched the car turn around and drive away.

I started walking down the road, pulling off my denim jacket and tying it around my waist. I was assuming Beatrix was in the abandoned house that we had stopped at on our way to the city. After all, that was the place where we had said the words "I need you" to each other, the same words she had circled in the journal.

At first I had thought she was just being sentimental. But after I had stayed up all night, on a mattress in the basement of Pluto's house, re-reading the journal, I had started to think it was a message. Hinting where she was. As I saw the building I was going to come into sight up ahead, I felt worried. What if it hadn't been meant that way? And she wasn't there? Then I was all alone in the middle of nowhere until the next day. But at least I had food and a place to sleep.

I felt a chill go through the air, and I untied my jacket and put it back on. I pulled out my phone to look at the time, four-twenty in the afternoon. Wherever Beatrix was, she was probably stoned already.

Now that I was close to the house, I figured it would be a good time to try and call Beatrix, so I opened her contact, and called her.I held the phone to my ear and listened to it ring and I neared the house. I squinted as I thought I saw movement through the window. It wasn't an actual window, since the glass was almost entirely gone, more of a hole in the wall. Was there someone in there?

Then, she picked up. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you again so soon," she said.

"I wasn't expecting to call you again. Then I saw the little message you left me in the journal. I'm guessing you have the memory stick?"

"I'm guessing you want it?"

I ignored her question. "Are you in the abandoned house? The one we slept in on our way to the city?"

She paused. "Does it matter?"

"Well, yeah it kinda does, since I'm outside it." I was now standing approximately seven meters in front of the window, and I stopped there. Then, I saw her appear in it, also holding her phone to her ear.