The bed should have felt warm with all three of them crowded on it. But, Vince was shivering because Hayden's skin was cold, and Karen's hair kept sprouting vines that brushed against his neck. He lost count of how many times she tore them out, wincing as she tossed them away. The three of them lay with bandage wrappers scattered around them, freshly tidied up wounds still aching.
They were back in the cells of the warehouse. This time, though, they were put in one big cell. The area around them lay in absolute ruins; the ceiling fans hanging off their wires, the ground slowly flooding because of burst pipes, and peculiar plants growing from cracks in the roof. It seemed almost like a scene from a dystopian novel.
After their little scuffle with Maddy, a man had come to meet them. It was the fishing man from Wheat Lake. He introduced himself as Bernard Levesque and informed them that they would notice some changes in their powers. He said that he was just "observing" and not "taking any action" yet. Then, he promptly left, with only Hayden's profanities to escort him out.
Vince did not know how much time passed since then. This cell had no clocks, leaving them with only a dissociative feeling that the hours or minutes or seconds were ticking by.
Karen was the first to break their quiet. "Hayden, who's Maddy?"
"Maddy?" Hayden repeated, his finger that was prodding Vince's pockmarks went still. "She's...Derek's friend from when we used to go to school. I didn't hang out with her all that much, to be honest. She's weird."
'Weird' put it lightly, Vince supposed. The girl had known a bit too much about them for comfort. Who even knew anyone's middle name?
"How come you guys aren't in school right now?" he asked. The question had bothered him a lot, since he and Karen were missing school too, but when it came to the McLeods, some things were better found out rather than asked.
"Why are you both suddenly so curious?" Hayden chuckled. He resumed counting the marks on Vince's face, leaving a cold prickle in his wake. "We stopped going when I was in Grade Nine, so...a year and a half ago? Yeah. It was because Noah...he—"
He cut himself off when sound of footsteps reverberated in the hall. A shadow appeared on the wall across their cell. "Hey, what's up, brats?" Yasha smiled at them. A key ring clinked in his hands as he unlocked their door.
Hayden immediately shot up, dropping his hands down the side of the bed. The water on the floor surged forward and froze into jagged spikes right at Yasha's neck. "Whatever you want to say, say it from there," he practically snarled.
"Okay, chill." Yasha held his hands up. "You're being let out. Kind of."
"What's the catch?" Vince's eyes narrowed.
Yasha's grin widened. "You get to go to a carnival."
"Yippee~!" Karen said dryly.
~🐍~
The carnival grounds were empty when En and Derek arrived. The sun had dropped far into the western horizon, pushed aside by a growing twilight. Some of the attractions were still lit, casting jittering shadows around them. A thick, choking quiet hung in the air as they walked deeper in.
"Why is it closing so early? Don't carnivals usually go on longer?" Derek shivered, zipping his sweater shut.
En shrugged. "Hell, if I know." A mix of fear and frustration bubbled within her. Frustration because she did not know what to expect; was Mr. Hemingway pulling a prank or was he serious? And fear because there was no way to know which one was worse. There was also the added guilt of getting into a fight with Hayden in the first place. They were older now, had they not gotten over their friction?
YOU ARE READING
When the Clouds Fell
Science Fiction"When did the clouds fall?" "The day the sun was blown out of their sky." Karen and Vince always thought they were the strangest people on Earth. She could make plants grow from nothing. He could control the wind. There was no way anything could be...
