My ears popped as the aircraft lifted off the tarmac of the Australian airport.
AJ had squeezed his eyes shut the moment the plane had started to move. He had found me near a small settlement in the deserts of west Australia. I’d crash landed there after falling back to Earth. He’d informed me that five months had passed since I’d left them. I knew it had taken me a month to find Quinn, but after that I had no clue how much of that time had been spent inside the Lacuna and how much of it had been spent wallowing in that cave.
AJ couldn’t have found me on his own. I eyed the former Director of H.E.S.P. who was conversing with a soldier at the front of the private jet. The Director had a nasty scar on their neck and shoulder. It looked like they had been mauled by a wild animal.
I shut my eyes and felt the bright presence of the two soldiers behind me, at the back of the plane. More so, I felt the millions of tiny lights of the Australian ecosystem rushing past below us.
My sixth sense had been overwhelming at first. A constant pressure of sensation that I couldn’t attribute to any muscle or organ within my body. I could feel AJ’s breathing, his heartbeat, and I knew that I could influence it just by reaching out to touch him with my mind.
The plane ride was hours long and we passed many population centers in crisis. I could feel the cries of pain from the people suffering under the onslaught of the Lacuna of Rage. The people’s loss resonated with the Lacuna I was irrevocably linked to. I could feel the presence of Nell’s Lacuna always, it burned like a sun in my mind, full of frightening potential. I hadn’t dared try to tap into that yet, fearing that I would rouse the Flower-Heads to start to fall once more. They had stopped dropping after Nell’s passing, as if they too were processing the loss.
Kay seemed content to stay dispersed for the ride, covering a good third of the plane’s interior with her butterflies, idle patterns rippling across their surface like she was daydreaming.
I couldn’t distract myself from it. Humanity was in agony. Many places were already lost, overwhelmed by the tide of hate-borne monsters that poured down from the heavens every six hours, heralded by the toll of an instrument not heard but felt.
I detected a star approaching me with my sixth sense and opened my eyes. The Director gave me their customary warm smile, as if nothing had changed in the time since H.E.S.P. fell apart. They sat down across from me.
“It took us a great deal of effort and connections to track you down. But I’m glad it paid off in the end. Of course, Tom and AJ were invaluable in the search. They never lost hope.”
I stared at them, seeing past their skin, feeling through their tissues and veins. They held my gaze unflinchingly, even through the discomfort I was inflicting.
I spoke, “I will always help my friends, but you? I don’t think I owe you anything. Don’t try and make me a pawn in whatever what’s left of the government is trying to pull.”
The Director nodded. “Of course. I’m not here to give orders. Only to put my support behind whatever course you and your friends think is best. If you don’t know, we’ve already lost control. The western side of Canada has gone dark. The new flora that grows there has made it impassable for humans. We’ve had no communication from the west coast for weeks.”
They continued, “Elsewhere in the world isn’t faring better. Russia bombed itself, preferring to go down swinging even if it meant harming its own civilians. There is a giant in the Gulf of Aden that is slowly poisoning everything it touches. A powerful Witch in Argentina has laid claim to a large swath of land, declaring it a sanctuary for only Shapers to weather the storm. He’s killed many people, as if competing with the spawn.”
They sighed. “There’s no telling which of these events are from the Lacunae’s influence and which are simply the acceleration of the phenomena known as Shaping. Its effects grow more strange and powerful, straying further from recognizable humanity with each passing day. At this point, no one believes we will ever get back to what we used to call normal. So it’s time for us to lay our future at the feet of those who can still shape it.”
I took that in.
“Your wounds…”
The Director bent their neck to the side to show their jagged scars, pain flickering on their face. “Inflicted by Lacuna spawn. I’m lucky to still have my head.”
“Was it the Lacuna of Hatred? Or…”
“Was it Nell’s?” the Director finished my question. “What do you call it? The Lacuna of Loss? Of Grief? It hardly matters. Humans have hurt each other for all of our existence. Nothing new on that front. It seems that despite all of this radical evolution, we remain flawed at our cores. I’m left to wonder, what meaning can we gain from this? What can we learn, so that history does not repeat itself?”
I looked out the window. “You act like history will have a chance to repeat itself.”
The Director smiled again. “I do think so. Despite everything that has happened, every outcome still seems feasible to me. And you’ve become something special, a Witch and a Wolf in one. I hope you get to see that I’m right. I know you’ll keep fighting,” they gestured at AJ who seemed to have fallen into a fitful sleep. “For your friends.”
Will I?
I met their gaze again, wondering if they could truly understand what I felt. Of course, I could show them. All it would take was a little gift of my flesh and their mind would be exposed to mine.
My friends were everything to me. There was no doubt I would fight for their futures. But I was also fighting for mine. A hope that one day, I could be me. I longed for a place where I wouldn’t have to fight, where I could rest and heal and find out what it meant to live without Nell.
I sat back in my chair, thinking about Nell’s last request. Don’t bring me back.
Suddenly, my ears started to ring. My breath hitched as I quickly leaned over AJ to press my face against the window. He woke up, eyes flashing with fear. “What’s happening?”
The fitful scream of rage that had been ever-present had gone silent.
Outside, amongst the clouds, the spawn of rage were slowly floating upwards, returning to the place of their birth, swallowed up by the blood drop hanging in the sky. I could feel a heaviness on my sixth sense. Something immense was drawing near. I could feel my body’s visceral reaction, like the warm breath of some terrible beast had just wafted across my neck.
It could only mean one thing.
“She’s coming,” I whispered.
—
I’d gotten used to how Kay’s butterflies felt on my skin. Now it was comforting, knowing that someone was with me as I walked through unfamiliar streets. The Lacuna of Hate hung over this city that it had chosen as the epicenter. Every few minutes there was an earth-shaking noise like thunder, like ice cracking deep within a glacier.
“This is it,” AJ said, stopping and putting a hand on a large warehouse door. “Everyone is waiting for us.”
AJ’s muscles bulged as he hauled the door open. He’d gotten taller, stronger in the time I’d been gone. Harder too, a kind of steely resolve had set into his expression, even when he was resting.
“AJ, is your mom okay?” I asked as I followed him inside.
“She’s safe. The Director connected us to a prepper. He was so high on being right that he accepted a whole group of survivors into his bunker.”
We came into the main space of the warehouse, where a large group of people had gathered. I kept my eyes on the floor, but I examined them all closely with my sixth sense as we walked through. Casts with Shapes molded by battle, strengthened by hardship. Witches who emanated power. They were slippery, but not untouchable to me. Wolves who burned with conviction, each with their own reasons for being here, each with the will to fight against all odds. A part of me ached to know each person’s thoughts, to know their stories. The urge was something between curiosity and hunger.
We passed through a set of open doors and I saw my friends gathered around some couches and a table that had a map of the city spread across it. Graham was pacing fretfully to one side. Tom was standing next to the couch, looking somber and pensive, pouring over the map. He’d let his hair grow out and it hung over his eyes. Zola leaned against the back wall, talking on a phone. Neve held Daria’s hand, who lay on the couch, stained with sweat and blood. Daria was missing an arm from the elbow down, the stump bleeding into the fabric of the couch. Heavy shadows ran under her half-closed eyes and she stared into empty space.
“Daria, please,” Neve said softly. She pressed a bag of blood into Daria’s hand. “You need to heal.”
Tom raised his head. The moment that we locked eyes, he flinched and swayed on the spot, holding a hand to his head like he’d been struck.
“Ah…” he muttered and wiped his eyes. “Fuck. So it’s like that.”
The rest of the room became aware of our presence. Butterflies rushed together, forming a puddle that rose into a column and materialized into Kay.
“Welcome back, Kay,” Tom said, walking towards her with arms spread wide. “I knew you’d beat Charon’s ass and come back.”
Kay hugged him, patting his back as his shoulders shook. “I think he just doesn’t like bugs,” she murmured.
Daria’s expression remained blank. Then it seemed to dawn on her what she was looking at. There was a flicker of passion in her gaze. She roused herself, grabbing the blood bag and squeezing the contents over her head where the fluid blended in with her fiery hair.
Tom looked up at me with misty eyes. “I don’t know the details, but Nell passed. And you took a part of her with you.”
I nodded, biting my lip to stop myself from starting a rambling explanation I wouldn’t be able to stop.
“It’s what she wanted,” Tom said, expression serious.
“Yes.”
“Well then,” Tom said, spinning around and striding back to the couch. He jumped onto the armrest.
At the same moment, Daria stood abruptly. Tom’s weight on one end of the couch tipped it and sent him tumbling onto the ground.
Daria raised her mutilated arm and the flesh whipped together like reversed footage. She held her regenerated fist high into the air as blood dripped down her face.
“We’re gonna win,” she said quietly.
I suddenly realized that the entire warehouse of people was paying attention. Daria was an intuitive leader, full of wild life and charisma. It was only natural that these people would rally around her.
“WE’RE GONNA WIN!” she yelled, voice rumbling the walls of the building.
The response was a deafening cheer. AJ whooped. Neve grabbed Graham and raised his arms. Tom kicked his feet in the air. Everyone let out their warcry, a defiant rallying defiance against the presence over our heads.
Daria held out her newly healed hand and I took it.
“What do I call you?” she asked, the fire reignited in her eyes.
“Sage.”
“Come on, Sage. It’s time we show God who they’re messing with.”