The Sleeping Girl

Chapter Six

Peyton, the girl we saw in the mall yesterday is staring at me. The expression on her face is a mixture of awe, confusion, and terror.

This is going to be awkward.

I shoot a pleading look at Ember. What on earth am I supposed to tell Peyton? I am extremely grateful that she was here. After all, she did very possibly save my life. Nonetheless, Peyton is not of our society. She knows not of the existence of magic. Of society. Of anything... abnormal in the world.

There is no way she will take this well.

"You're Keela, the girl Carmi was with in the mall yesterday," Peyton says, sounding far less friendly than she was yesterday. Her words are a statement, not a question. Her bubbly tone is gone, replaced with one that is laced with fear. Fear and... something else.

"I am," I say. I feel equally nervous, although I daresay tis for quite a different reason than her fear. And that strange undertone in her voice is certainly not helping. "And you are Peyton?"

"Yes..." she trails off, her gaze turning slightly off to the distance. The final vampire is gone and Ember is off to the side. She appears to be overlooking her handiwork. Her glamour is reasserted, but unless Peyton was blind, she doubtlessly saw the fire faery without her glamour moments earlier. As though she can sense our gazes, Ember walks over, standing by my side.

"Who's this?" Ember asks, curiously. She looks a little nervous too, although not as much as I would have thought she would be.

Surprisingly, seeing Ember who is still sparking although in a humanoid form, seems to give Peyton a confidence boost.

"I'm Peyton Agee," she says. "And I wanna know who the hell you are. What you are, actually. I was just walking through and I hear screams, see two dead bodies, another two on fire, a pyromaniac woman apparently setting fire... with her freaking body, and a bleeding... friend of one of my close friends looking like she's freaking getting killed. And then turning around and killing that person. Don't mean to be blunt, but I think this situation calls for it. What did I just see?"

This is not good. Really not good. She saw everything. Basically.

"Listen," I say. I reach up and twirl a piece of my hair around my finger like I always do when I'm nervous. "Maybe you could just forget about seeing this? Please? For Carmela's sake?"

Peyton narrows her eyes. "Who are you? Or should I ask, what are you."

"I am... Keela. I am a sixteen year old girl. I am a friend of Carmela. Everything I already told you. Look, can you please just not tell anyone about this?"

She glowers at me. "Why should I?" Her voice is getting shrill, hysterical. Understandable, considering what she has just seen, but not good. "I think you owe me an explanation. That was not normal. Why shouldn't I call the police right now and have you tried for murder?"

I'm not sure what police are, but they seem to suddenly make Ember aware of the situation. She jolts to the present and abruptly stops sparking, turning to look nervously at me.

"I think she's seen too much, Keela," says Ember, her eyes darting nervously between Peyton and me.

"You think so?" I ask dryly, my voice heavy with sarcasm. "Way to state the obvious." Ember rolls her eyes and folds her arms over her chest, although she still looks... wary. Finally, she speaks.

"Look, Keela," says Ember. "Amanda's really not happy with you right now, to say the least. But she's going to be even more upset when she learns that you essentially provoked five vampires while an ignorant girl watched. I think that we need to let her handle this. Unless she promises not to tell?" She eyes Peyton cynically. For some reason this annoys me, although I've been thinking much along the same lines.