Some Thing Called Myself (Complete)

XL: Something Dangerous (Part One)

Ch. 40: Something Dangerous (Part One)

They stared at each other. Bernardo's face morphed from surprised to carefully blank, and so did Mara's.

"What is it, Beh?" Jano asked.

Something cold swirled in Mara's stomach. She didn't expect any help from him—not if it meant lying to his dad—so her fingers curled into claws, drenched in the shadows beneath the window. What would she do with that? How far was she willing to go to keep hidden?

Finally, after what felt like a small eternity, Bernardo's face hardened. Then, he closed the window with a hard bang. From inside, his voice shaped the words,

"One of the bats knocked down a display case. That's all."

Mara breathed out and let her forehead rest on the cold marble of the cathedral.

Numa wasn't there. Mara raised her chin. Still, she couldn't give up. She had failed way too many people—she wouldn't fail Kiki too.

Mara got up and sneaked back towards Mimi and Godo. They were hiding again. Unlike Mimi's, Godo's face was flushed with what looked like the deepest shade of anger that red can paint.

"What the fuck is Beh doing there?" Godo growled.

Mimi rubbed her face. "There must be an explanation."

"Yeah, and I'm sure we'll hear it...but let's get the fuck out of here first," Mara said—more as an order than a suggestion.

The other two didn't complain; they backed away from the cathedral in silence, and then, they ran.

***

Mara pushed the wall at the end of the tunnel with all her might. The hunger and anger she had left pumped into her muscles to force the delicate mechanism hidden inside the slab of cement. Godo tried to help—he stepped forward and lifted his hands to place them on the wall, but when he was about to touch it, a loud crack echoed in the tunnel. The hidden door swung outside and hit the concrete beside it with a bang. Mara lost her balance and tumbled forward with the momentum, stopping only when she gripped the railing skirting the corridor of the sixth floor.

The three of them panted, still in the same deep silence they'd shared inside the cave.

"Not another one," Mimi grumbled.

With a frown, Mara raised her head. "Another what?"

She didn't need an answer. With a rumble of rock, the entire building started to quake. From the patio came the muffled sound of awakening sprouts; everything glass broke, and everything metal either dropped or bounced on the floor.

There were already massive, dark stains on the concrete walls, so when the second earthquake hit, water ran through the forming cracks and pooled in the corridor.

"Oh, this looks bad," Mara mumbled. Her knees finally lost force when a softer wave of tremors put an end to the second earthquake. She rose and looked around. "Shit."

Rivulets of water trickled from the cracked plumbing on the upper floors, falling over the edge of the corridors and forming small waterfalls across the HQ. The water gathered on the patio, and the whole place threatened to become a hazard when the first power lines started to snap.

"We need to turn the electricity off," Mimi said. "And quick, before anyone ends up in the infirmary—or worse."

Somewhere nearby, a guitar crashed on the floor, drawing Mara's attention to the couple behind them. The two women slept together, leaning on the wall behind them even while dust and small bits of cement fell from the cracked ceiling.