Shattering Crystals

"Next location?"

I pull out my lucky map from under my seat, even though I already know the answer. I run my fingers over the map of North America and find the magic spot.

"Canada," I answer, folding the paper back up. I stick it in the pocket of the seat in front of me.

"We'll have to get past security," Lorraine sighs in my ear. In a louder voice she says, "Guess we'll need those passports then."

"Good thing I got them, then," Lynda's voice says from somewhere behind my seat.

"The problem is that we have to get passports for whoever is in Canada. How many people are there total, anyways?" Lorraine asks quietly.

I just shake my head. "I don't know. Marigold doesn't either... she hasn't been talking to me much anyways." I stifle a yawn. Getting up at six AM certainly has its effects.

"Is that... bad?"

"I would think so."

We don't speak as the flight attendants demonstrate proper safety precautions. Then I look out the window, watching the lush landscape become a blur. The nose of the plane tips upwards as we leave our island paradise. Such a beautiful place will never feel the same again.

"Don't worry," Connor says, squeezing my hand, "we're leaving." I don't know how he can hold it together like he is. These are not his problems. He’s not bound to us, and he could leave at any time, as long as he holds our secrets. Yet he's always been an optimist.

As for me, I don't know what I am. Surely not an optimist, but not a pessimist either. A realist, maybe.

But at this point, I don't want to accept the reality. The reality of the nightmares that plague us all. Fading on some nights and returning full blast on others. We've all become accustomed to each other waking up shivering at night. Sometimes someone screams. These nightmares won't ever really fade.

The terrors don't stop when the sun rises, when we open our eyes. Because any one of us could be next. There's no telling what is to come.

For the next five hours of our flight, no one really says anything. Struggling to stay awake, terrified to fall asleep. The other passengers wouldn't appreciate our screams.

Periodically, Ashlee gets up to check on Elise, who had offered to take the stray seat in the back of the plane. I had thought that Dean would volunteer for the job, but he just sits at his window seat across the aisle, staring out at the clouds and pink skies.

I rest my head on Connor's small shoulder, closing my eyes. Whenever I drift too far into unconsciousness, he shakes me awake. Maybe it would have bothered me some other time, in the past. But not today, never today.

"Lynda," I say, eyes still closed, "how long are we gonna be at your house?"

"Not too long," Lynda says. "We have to leave before the first day of school. And I need to get money, in cash, cause I can't use my credit card anymore. Too risky. Could be tracked."

"Oh, okay," I murmur, a wave of sleepiness rolling over me. "We'll have to be quick, then."

The rest of the flight goes back to the way it was, everyone unspeaking, Sarah fidgeting in her seat as we get farther away from her tropical home. The return trip to Lynda's huge house is all a blur, like the landscape of Hawaii. But I don't know why it was so blurry anyways...

I stumble out of the yellow car and onto the driveway, the world spinning around me. "Help me," I plead, but the words come out in a garbled rush. Someone's hand grabs me by the arm and gently leads me through the door. Whoever it is guides me to a soft surface and makes sure I lie down.

"Go to sleep, Dana," the deep voice says. It is not the voice I expected to hear, but I can't tell who it is. "You need to sleep."

But I obey the voice, and drift into a peaceful sleep. This time, the nightmares don't wake me.

----

"Canada really isn't that different, now is it?" Ashlee says. And she's right. "Some of my family is Canadian... so I've been here a few times. I just hope no one recognizes me. That would be bad."

"Blah, blah," Sarah says, tossing her wavy blonde hair. "I think we should just go where ever we're going." Nobody replies to her. Her attitude towards our whole mission doesn't get her any friends either. But for now, we brush it off as her way of expressing homesickness.

"This way," Lorraine says, pointing to a small neighborhood. Usually we have Aaron to help us. But not now and never again. It seems like we're more alone than we ever were, though our head count remains the same.

Sarah isn't a replacement of him. Her magic is uncontrollable, threatening to escape her body at the worst times. Flames fall from her lips sometimes, when she speaks. The most dangerous out of all her magical flaws. Though they do not burn her, they will burn other people and singe her clothes.

And worst of all, her heat based magic is a constant reminder of that flaming bird we used to have.

We trudge on, exhaustion overwhelming our bodies. I take this time to observe everyone. Everything's so different.

Lorraine and Cody are still walking side-by-side, but they don't joke. They would have been flirting it up, teasing each other about temperatures and weather. I miss that.

Elise walks at the back of the group, her hands in her pockets. Though the weather is mild, she wears a heavy jacket. Trying to replace the warmth that had been stolen away from her.

Lynda and Wessley don't walk hand in hand. Lynda's hands are occupied, protecting the purse that holds the majority of the cash that she had taken from her father's bank account. Without it... we wouldn't be able to survive. Will it be enough to support us all?

Ashlee is quiet. But Dean isn't. He isn't necessarily loud, either. But he voices his opinion more often, and walks in the front of the group, not the back. Maybe he's ready to take his role as one of the leaders.

We walk and we walk, the tingling sensation barely registering in my hands anymore. I'm too used to it to notice, and too bothered to care. But Lorraine, as always, can focus. No matter what happens.

"Stop here," she says, in front of a gray house. “This is the one."

I sigh. "It's gonna be okay," Dean assures me. "We've done this before."

"I know," I reply. But that's just it. Is my life bound to be a tape on replay, again and again? Are we doomed to live this way forever? If so, it won't be long until I watch my friends drop dead all around me.