listen closely

11

{Callum}

"Take a left up here," Scott says, "Shoot, turn that corner there!" We duck down a dark hall just as someone walks past. "Ok, keep going." We walk down the hall quietly and up the stairs. "Ok, second floor, turn right." We turn right and duck down another hall.
"Scott? Where do we go now?" Lizzie asks, "Scott?"
"What was that?"
"Shoot, get out of here!" Liam says quietly. Lizzie grabs my hand and pulls me into a teleport. We land and roll down a hill.
"Ow..." I groan.
"I did not see that coming..." Lizzie gets up and brushes herself up. "You ok?"
"Yup." I get up and look around. "Where are we?"
"I-I don't know..."
"I know I've never teleported myself," I say, "But I think the point of teleport is knowing where you're going."
"Oh, you try navigating this place." She says, "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"
"I think it's jammed." I get pulled into another teleport. I hit the ground and cough.
"Are you ok?" Lizzie calls from a tree.
"Yup..." I groan, "Can we please walk next time? Or at least fly?"
"That's probably best." Lizzie falls down and groans.
"Are you ok?" She gets up.
"Yup, let's go." I try to shift but nothing happens.
"Lizzie..."
"Yeah?"
"My powers aren't working either." She sighs.
"I guess we're walking then." She says, "We should get started."

Lizzie and I appear and look around.
"Nope." I say, "Are you sure you can keep doing this?" Lizzie nods.
"I'll be good for a few more teleports." She grabs my hand and teleports again.
"Uh... Wait, I know this!" I say, "Here." We weave through the trees into a clearing.
"Where are we?" Lizzie looks around.
"This is where I would play when I was younger." I climb up a tree into my old treehouse, Lizzie climbs up after me.
"Callie's treehouse?"
"I haven't been here in a while." I fix the sign with a piece of chalk.
"Oh sorry."
"Whatever." I look around the treehouse. "It's a lot smaller than I remember." Lizzie nods.
"Now what do we do?" She asks
"Well, my town is close if this is my treehouse," I say, "But the gates are closed at night and the sun is setting."
"So we stay here for the night and head to your town tomorrow." Lizzie says, "I just wish we had some blankets."
"I have fire." I snap, my fingers ignited.
"Callum... we're surrounded by wood."
"I can control my fires," I say, "They only spread if I want them to." She shakes her head.
"It's warm out, this is in the summer sector," She says, "Let's avoid forest fires." I nod.
"That's probably smart."

Lizzie and I stop in front of what's left of the town.
"Oh my god," Lizzie says, "What happened?" I walk into the center of the destroyed town and look around.
"Central Crystal, rise." Nothing happens.
"Is something supposed to happen?" Lizzie asks
"Give me a minute," I say, "It only works in the language of shapeshifters, it's been a while." I twist my tongue for a second.
"Are you gonna do something?"
"This is ridiculous," I sigh, "Central crystal, rise!" A crystal rises from the ground and lights up. "Show me the list of the living." A short list of names appears in front of me.
"Woah..." I search the list and sigh.
"Show me the list of the deceased." A much longer list appears. "No..." I sort through the list until I get to the K's.
Katie Knight. I stare at the name for a second.
"Show me what happened here." Projections of buildings appear on top of the destruction. Project people run past us screaming and collapsing. I watch everything happen for a few seconds.
"Callum-" I look around, Lizzie is gone.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" A person asks.
"Uh... my name's Callum Knight, I used to live here, we're just passing through," I say
"Callum Knight?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Oh, ok..." They appear in front of me and punch me in the face.
"Ow," I say, "What was that for?"
"When your town calls for you, you're supposed to come." They say
"And when the townspeople tell you to leave because you're misusing 'the gift you've been giving' or whatever that was, you stay as far away from the town as possible," I say
"I want to punch you again."
"Please don't."
"Our town was under attack."
"You probably should've included that in the call," I say, "I might've actually considered coming."
"I'm gonna punch you," They say, "You are really punchable." I grab their wrist as they swing, their hand stops right in front of my face.
"Please don't." They snap, Lizzie stumbles out of a portal and looks around.
"You know how they killed them all off?" They say, "There's toxic poison in the air that-"
"Attacks the shapeshifting gene? Yeah, sure." I say, "If that were true, how are you here?"
"I'm a dud," They say, "I don't shift."
"Callum," Lizzie says, "They're right, we need to get out of here."