Chapter 15                  

          I look at her mismatched eyes. I think to all the times I've seen her at school. I look at the fire all around us and somehow it all makes sense. Of course. Who else would be able to conjure fire and wield it with such devastating force other than Lizzy. Her eyes narrow at us in a suspicious manner. I try to think of something to say. Favio pulls out one of his scanning devices. Lizzy steps closer and Favio backs away a little. I can't blame him. She walks right up to me and starts looking me up and down. "No no no this is all wrong. Pumas are supposed to run away from fire. And they shouldn't stand on two feet like that." ... wait. What? Lizzy passes out. "We should probably get her out of here before people start coming." I nod dumbly. Favio picks her up grunting a little and together we carry her back to the car he hot-wired. As we get to his house I stare. I hadn't had time to look at it when we dropped of Myra before. It's really big but not fancy by any stretch of the imagination. Though it's not run down either. There are about ten cars in the enormous driveway. I help him carry Lizzy inside we set her down in the room next to the one Myra's in. All the rooms I've seen so far have been small and tidy other than the main rooms which are all enormous. The place has a strange feel to it like an orphanage trying to be a normal townhouse. "Sooo interesting place." I offer, somehow not being able to just throw off a comment the way I normally do. His expression chances sort of somber and tired and he nods. "It's really big. Do you have a lot of family?" I ask trying to get more out of him. Everyone knows Favios weird hobbies and habits but I've never heard anything about his home life or his family. He walks over to the kitchen and starts to make tea. For a while I think he won't say anything. "The place kind of has to be big to fit all my half-siblings and all my dad's ex-wife's." "Oh yeah. Wait. All of your dad's ex wife's live together here?" he nods again "As well as all of us kids. There are usually more cars here but most of the parents are away on business trips or something and a lot of the older kids just left for college." "oh... How many siblings do you have?" "... I'm the only kid from my mom but I have forty-eight half-siblings. There are thirteen moms." "I'm sorry. Wow that must be really stressful." he shrugs "It's not too bad for me. I manage to stay out of most of the drama and since I'm self-sufficient I'm basically ignored most of the time. Besides it's not like there's that much drama around the house. All the moms get along in some strange way." I nod and seeing he doesn't want to talk about it anymore I change the subject. "So why did Lizzy just faint like that. She was kind of delirious beforehand too." "From what I can tell she just overused her abilities. I think she should just get better on her own. I don't think Myra's as bad so we might be able to find out more about it from her... I don't suppose you've ever overused your ability then?" " No I don't think so I mean I got pretty tired after using it for a bit back when I was a kid but I never used it that much." Favio looks like he's gone to another place thinking. "Hmm. well I guess we can't do anything till they wake up. Go ahead and make yourself at home I'll be in my lab. I think I almost have that scanner done." Samantha nodded not sure what to make of everything she'd just been told. She walked out onto the back porch looking down at her hands. In a daze she started pulling at the energy. Feeling it flow trying to clear her thoughts. Bit by bit she put all her scattered thoughts back in place... and everything made sense. She had done this when her brother died too it hadn't fixed anything. She had still felt the void where he used to be but at least she could understand that he wasn't coming back and it had lessened the pain at least a little bit. But she didn't actually do this too much. Forcing herself to understand things and move on...it made her feel like a computer. "Oh don't give your powers so much credit! You were always heartless." said a sweet voice that seemed to come from all around her. Samantha's heart stopped. She froze all the energy she had used to clear her mind scattered and everything tangled again in an instant. No not here. Not now. She closed her eyes tight trying to ignore it. Ignore her. "You can't get rid of me dear! I thought we had established that a while ago?" the voice said again. "Shut up. You're not real I don't have to listen to you." Samantha tried to keep her voice calm. The voice scoffed at that. "Sure sweetie keep telling yourself that. Regardless you're thinking of the wrong thing. It's not important if little Favio had a rough childhood, almost everyone does. You should be thinking of the streets going up in flames, of that thing that everyone was screaming about and how you can use it to get us out of here." anger began to climb up to the surface. She glared at the disembodied voice. "It's not your concern when I leave. I'm not taking you with me." "Oh it's cute that you think that honey! But honestly how do you plan to get rid of me?" Sam tried to think of something to spit back at her. How could she get rid of her? Sam had already tried everything she could think of. Her gaze dropped to her feet frustrated. It sighed. It always got that pitiful tone whenever Sam became speechless. Sam took a breath she didn't want to hear it try to reason with her, as long as it was here she might as well try to get some use out of it. "If you want out of here too and I can't get rid of you then do you have any advice?" She had never asked it anything before other than why it wouldn't leave her alone. "Things are only going to get worse. There will be a LOT more attacks and people will die. You need to make it look like you're one of them. Hide all the things you need in the cemetery at the edge of town. You don't want to have to head back to the house." "You want me to fake my death!?" "No one will even think to look for you if they don't know you're gone. Sneak into the hospital and start drawing some of your blood every night, maybe even get a body from the morgue. I think there were a few victims that were burned beyond recognition last week. Find one about your height and hide it somewhere you can easily get to." "I'm not going to steal a corpse!" "... Well I guess there will plenty of dead bodies you can use when you escape." "You're insane! How do you even know that there's going to be another attack like this?" as soon as the words left my mouth I regretted asking it that. The air got cold and dark in a way that made my stomach crawl into my throat. "Are you sure you even want to know that? I'm not sure you could handle the truth yet if you wouldn't even be able to steal a corpse." It's voice was sweet, melodious, dark and taunting. I could feel the blood draining from my face. I had to get away from it now. "What's wrong? Don't want to talk anymore Samy dear?" I should have known better than to talk to it.