Blackout

Prologue

Claire Carter | After

"I'm going to kill them." Mae sunk deeper in her seat, her small features contorted in anger.

"Your parents?" I asked doubtfully.

"Yes!" Mae exploded, bursting upright in her seat. "And I'm going to kill Sophie Kim, and Ms. Palmer, and the entire bloody school!"

"Should I be scared?" I responded, trying to keep my voice calm. I knew that Mae was my friend, but my heart still pounded in fear from sitting next to her. I couldn't tell what made me more nauseous, the lurching movements of the bus we were on or what she was capable of.

"Claire, drop it," Mae grumbled.

"No," I argued. "You're talking about killing your parents, and I'm concerned."

"Whatever." Mae huffed, turning her body to the window.

I turned to the other side of the aisle, where my older sister Brianna was carefully watching our exchange, Alex sitting by her side.

"No puedo hacer nada." I told her, defeated.

Brianna shook her head. "Otra vez." She motioned me forward, asking me to try again. I sighed.

"What were they saying?" Darren asked loudly from the back of the bus.

Before I could respond, Hannah got up from her seat and plopped herself next to him, her dark eyes silently warning him to shut his mouth.

With a shaking hand, I pulled a small game piece out of my pocket. A king chess piece. The paint on it was chipped, but I knew that it wouldn't matter. I tapped Mae's shoulder gently and placed it in her hand.

"Where did you get that?" Mae asked. Now her voice was softer, more pensive, as she felt along the familiar ends of the wooden piece.

"I saw it in your bag. I figured you brought it along for good luck, so I grabbed it when..." My voice trailed off when I couldn't find the words to explain what just happened.

Mae's fist closed around the chess piece, her knuckles turning white. For a moment, I got scared that blades would pop out of them like Wolverine, but Mae's grip loosened and the piece fell to the floor. The bus made a sharp turn, sending the piece cascading to Brianna, who quickly scooped it off the floor and placed it in her pocket.

Mae's head leaned back against her seat as she closed her eyes. "I'm sorry." The words came out in a whisper, but I nodded.

"We're gonna be okay." When Mae didn't open her eyes, I realized that she had fallen asleep. I didn't blame her.

"Vamos a estar bien, sí?" I asked Brianna, my voice shaking.

"Yeah. Just fine." Brianna answered.

"Where the hell are we going?" Darren interrupted.

"I said ask, not shout." Hannah's voice muttered from her seat next to him.

I swallowed nervously. "No idea." I glanced back at Mae, still asleep and oddly peaceful. Perfectly harmless. The girl I knew before the world went sideways.

"This is all her fault," said Darren, standing in his seat so he could glare down at her. The bus made another turn, almost making him lose his balance. Instant karma.

"He's kind of right," Hannah confessed, shocking me. "She's the reason we're fugitives, and stuck on a bus going who-knows-where."

"How could you say that?" I hissed at Hannah.

"I'm just being honest," said Hannah, shrugging.

"Listen-"

"Not you too," I begged, looking at Brianna.

"I'm not here to talk against Mae, I know she was in a bad situation. But our old lives are gone, and the only person who can put everything back the way it was got taken. We need to figure out what to do next, because there's no going back."

At Brianna's words, I could feel the morale dip dangerously low.

"I'm gonna ask the driver where they're taking us," I announced, getting up. I had to hold on to the tops of the seats to keep my balance as the bus rocketed forward. I could hear Alex get up too, walking right behind me. "Sit back down, I'm fine," I warned him.

"I want to know where we're going as much as you do." He insisted.

"Tell Brianna I don't need a babysitter," I replied, carefully turning so I could glare at my sister and Alex at the same time.

"Are you gonna ask where we're going or not?" Alex asked.

"Fine." I turned around so I could keep going.

When I made it to the front of the bus, everything was closed off by a black screen. I knocked on it as if it were a door, the mesh screen silently bending to my motions. "Hello?" I called to what I assumed was the driver's seat.

I tugged against the mesh a few times, but Alex knelt next to me, releasing it from a hook on the floor of the bus. The screen flew up, revealing a black column where the steering wheel was supposed to be and the glass doors that revealed the highway whizzing past us.

"Hello?" I called. I knocked against the black column, my wrist colliding with metal.

"I don't think anyone's driving this bus," Alex confessed.

"You think?" I asked sarcastically.

"What should we tell them?" Alex asked.

I wasn't looking at my friends sitting behind me, but at the bus doors leading right to a random highway. I couldn't identify the generic asphalt and field beyond it, but maybe being out there was better than being here.

"Hey Claire, maybe we should-"

Before Alex could stop me, I ran full speed into the doors, hoping to force the two glass panels apart. I fell back onto the bus, the doors glowing with a white lattice I knew all too well. I bashed my fist against the glass, the lattice reappearing at the points of impact. Magic.

"We're trapped." I realized.