The Prophet

Chapter 89: Meanwhile in the Bunker

Cinders and AJ had been left in charge of the room with the phones. Cinders was doing research for hunters who needed help and AJ was speaking to a cop, pretending to be an FBI agent. She was better at that than Cinders. AJ used all these FBI words she learned from TV, and she knew a lot more about the American legal system.

Plus, phone calls were one of those human things Cinders hadn't quite gotten the hang of yet. She was okay at it, but not good enough to where she could pass off as a normal American human yet, and certainly not well enough to fool a cop she was FBI. She was having trouble with a lot of things like that really. Being human was difficult. There were all these rules but no one really told you the rules until after you broke them. Like apparently it was okay to eat cupcakes with your hands, but not a slice of cake. Or you could write notes in a book of lore, that was okay, but if you ripped it out to keep track of it, Sam freaked out.

It was the little things.

She wished Mikey would come back. AJ was okay, but they didn't really talk much. They kind of just coexisted in The Bunker. Mikey was her best friend.

Still, this wasn't so bad. At least Cinders was good at research. She texted the file on Vampires to the hunter in Oregon. The lights flickered. Which was weird. No one knew exactly where the power in the Bunker came from, but no one had had to do much as change a lightbulb yet.

"Should we check on the-" Cinders had glanced over at AJ, who was curled in a ball holding her hands over her ears. "What's wrong?" Cinders asked.

"The screaming," said AJ.

Cinders listened hard. "AJ, there is no screaming." She was worried. This couldn't be normal.

"Angel radio," AJ explained through gritted teeth.

Cinders didn't know much about angel radio. Other people in the Bunker had only tailles about it in vague terms, always past tense.

Then the door burst open. Lucy rushed in.

"Joeypassedoutandthekitchenisonfire!" Lucy shouted.

"What?" asked Cinders, very distracted.

"The kitchen is on fire!" Lucy wailed. "Help me!"

"How'd the kitchen catch on fire?"

"Joey was making toast!"

"The toaster caught on fire?"

"No the knife caught on fire! It doesn't matter! We have to move Joey away from the fire!"

"Joey's still in the kitchen?"

"Yes!"

"Go," said AJ.

Cinders ran downstairs.

:::Minutes earlier:::

Lucy was a simple girl with simple needs. And those needs consisted of toast. That was it. That was all she needed in life. Lightly crisped slices of bread.

The only problem was she couldn't reach the toaster. That's why Marcey made Lucy toast.  She helped Lucy spread butter on the toast. She even got a plate down for her. Because Marcey was all nice and responsible and really cool and tall enough to reach things.

But Charlie had come in and said something Lucy wasn't paying attention to, and Marcey told Joey he was in charge of Lucy, and Marcey just left them. Alone.

Joey meanwhile, started telling Lucy things.

"I mean I didn't even want to be in the beauty pageant. I knew they were all hotter than me. Just because my sister was Miss America doesn't mean I have to be! I don't care about world peace, Luce."