The Mark of the Moon

11 | The Desolation of Rouges

"She will be okay, Krian. She's one tough woman." He squeezed my hand.

"Let's go." Dad ordered the large man and the man gave me a look before he opened the door wider for us to pass. Sirens came disturbing the once peaceful community of the Upper East Side. Everyone ducked while we escaped, the crowd starting to make it easier to blend.

"Why are we escaping? Shouldn't they understand what happened?" I signed to dad who was now on the lookout while the other men were trying to find a way without the police blocking the roads.

"If I were in their shoes, I would have thought you tried to burn the library too, Kree. No one will believe that you three didn't do it. What happened there anyway?"

"She just went on fire." I tried to explain in the simplest manner and he raised a brow at me.

"What do you mean she went on fire? She set herself on fire?" I shook my head.

"No dad. More like she exploded and convulsed. Fire came out of her." I tried my best to act the way fire exploded out of her and he laughed at me. I huffed out my frustration.

"Okay okay. So she's one of you?"

"Well... she has a mark..." I scratched the back of my neck, unsure where things would go now that there was someone who bears the mark of the moon in our midst.

"Are you sure?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Taylor came to our conversation, still clutching on Solstice who seemed to have been drained from her recent outburst. Literal outburst.

"Did she really go on fire? Like burst into flames? Fire fire?" He asked Taylor, still in disbelief at what was going on.

"Yes! She just burst into flames. Okay we gotta go. People are starting to look. Follow Lucas!" Taylor gestured at his friend who was now waving at us at the corner of the street.

"Let's go." We rushed to where Lucas was, his friends keeping watch while others pointed to the right to follow a tall muscular woman who was already waving for us to follow her. Her chocolate skin glistened with sweat, her orange tank top flailing from the wind as we ran. I heard people behind us beginning to shout and dad cursed beside me. He grabbed my arm tight, making me wince and he began pulling me to run faster.

"Wait... What's going on?!" I heard Solstice's voice on my left and Taylor tried to calm her down while he continued to run while carrying her. She thrashed, trying to get away from my brother.

"Get away from me!"

"No! You need to listen to me, Solstice. You just burned the library. They will take you away if we don't go hide now!" My brother struggled to calm her down and she continued to grab him by his shirt and shake him.

"Let me go!" She screamed.

"There they are! NYPD! Stop and put your hands in the air!" I heard a man order and I whimpered, my heart racing in panic. Are we going to jail?

"Run faster, Kree. Come on." Dad huffed out, his breaths labored but he's trying to keep up the pace the insane woman in front of us has set. She ran like there's no tomorrow. Her limbs stretched and her feet landed loudly against the paved road. We zoomed past the unsuspecting people who could only shout and squeak the moment we passed by them.

"D-d-d..." I wanted to talk to dad as my throat itched, pushing me to have the urge to say something. Deep inside me, I felt the need to talk.

Can I talk? The ground rumbled and the pebbles on the ground began to rattle. People began to scream in panic.