by Holly Hook
"Speedy? This thing killed Speedy?"
Sophia nodded, hoping it was an apology for the truth she didn't want Callie to know. "And yesterday it tried to kill Shane. If I would have stayed inside the school, it could have."
The camper went quiet for a bit. Gary shifted. "You're lucky. That's mild."
Callie released Sophia's arms and went quiet.
He didn't elaborate, but he didn't have to. He and Janelle faced the floor at the same time, as if they were sharing the same thought. Sophia shuddered. The two of them had almost definitely killed people before in hurricane form, and the same thing was probably waiting for Callie, whenever it was her turn. Her problem looked tiny in comparison. And the other couple, the Outbreakers--Paul and Leslie--had they ever killed anyone? She didn't want to ask.
"Do you have any idea what this Other is?" Janelle asked. She lifted her gaze from the floor, but she couldn't quite hide the pain within.
Sophia shook her head. "It's female. Bored, I think, like it's trapped in me. It has to do with cold and winter." And it wants Andrina to release her, she almost said. "That's all I know. It's been there for about six years now."
Leslie spoke for the first time since she and Callie had entered the camper. "Hey, Sophia. Maybe we can help you. You know, find out the identity of whatever's sharing your body with you. It sounds like it hasn't been there all your life, so it must have jumped to you a few years ago. You remember anything that could have caused something like that?"
The Leslie girl could talk when given a chance.
Sophia shook her head, embarrassed at her inability to speak at the moment. Her mother had left, but she didn't want to share that yet. "I suppose I can take you up on that," she said. "What are you thinking?"
"We could hit up the library, since we don't have any Internet here." Leslie's face wrinkled. "Well, Janelle can pick it up on her phone out here, but the reception's not very good. Doing research on a screen less the size of a drink coaster isn't going to be real productive."
Sophia forced a smile. The Internet on her phone had been about that size before it had turned into a melted blob in the lava tunnel. The tunnel she shouldn't have survived, that was. Had the Other saved her life?
Just maybe, maybe, she could belong here for a little while.
"Sure," she said, thinking of her grandmother still behind that power outage back on the coast. How long would the power be out over there? Since Andrina had been the cause, it might take a while for the crews to get it back on.
And after that presence inside her had asked Andrina for help, she wasn't sure that this could wait much longer.
"Hold on," Janelle said, pulling out her phone. "Before any of us goes to the library, I need to check the weather for today."
"Good idea," Leslie said, hugging Paul from the side. "We need to make sure Andrina can't appear on us while we're out. That wouldn't be good, right?"
But the tone of her voice told Sophia that there was another reason for that, and she didn't want to talk about it in front of her.
* * * * *
Since Janelle said there were no meetings she had to do or be at until later, she came along to the library with them.
Sophia sat in the backseat, next to Leslie and Paul. She hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Paul much, but he seemed to be in his own world whenever anyone besides Leslie was around him. Sad, almost.
There didn't seem to be too much happiness in the Walking Disasters Club.
Janelle sat right in front of her, and an older man named Mel drove. The new car smell around her told Sophia that the car might be a rental. If Janelle and her people were on the run like this, it made sense. They wouldn't want to keep the same cars with Andrina stalking them.
Thankfully, the sky was clear today except for a few wispy clouds. Janelle had explained to her that Andrina couldn't appear in direct sunlight, kind of like a vampire. Well, one that didn't glitter, anyway. Callie loved those books.
It sucked that she hadn't been able to come along. The car didn't have enough room. Callie probably wanted some time alone, though. She hadn't gotten any yet in that campsite.
Then again, she hadn't asked to come along, either.
Janelle shifted in the seat in front of her. "If you have any hints about what this could be, Sophia, let me know." The leader was taking over now, and she realized that was why Janelle had come along. She needed to know if Sophia was a threat to her people or if she could help them. It made sense, but it gave her the feeling that she was something to be looked at under a microscope. Or worse, feared. Mel was driving a bit fast, as if he couldn't wait to get her out of the car.
Leslie pointed out the directions to the city library. "I have a membership there," she said. "That way, I can get into the computers. The books they have there might take forever to go through. Gary says we need to look for winter goddesses."
A chill swept over Sophia, but it was gone as soon as it came. "Goddesses?" she asked despite herself. "You mean, like Kenna and Andrina? You think I'm sharing my body with one?" The thought sent a flutter of panic through her chest.
"Well, we don't know," Janelle said. It was clear that she hadn't wanted Leslie to say that. "But it's worth a look, since you did survive the lava tunnel. Believe me, we can't discount anything."
Sophia's head spun. She glanced at Leslie and Paul, but they both shrugged at the same time as if she'd asked where the nearest grocery store was. At least these people were used to stuff like this. Here, she wasn't a freak.
Goddess.
It certainly seemed possible. But how had it happened? Whoever or whatever it was, it hated this arrangement as much as she did. Sophia wanted the same, to be rid of the Other forever and be a normal girl with a normal boyfriend, because she couldn't stay here forever with Callie. Soon, she'd have to go back home to her grandmother and her life.
Maybe there would be a way to do so without Andrina.
* * * * *
Leslie breathed in the familiarity of the public library and the musty book smell. She'd spent lots of time here, researching for school projects and staying away from her house. It wasn't the most fun place to be, but it was better than being at home where her mother would sit on the couch with Brett, ignoring her and sipping out of her margarita glasses like she was on some beach in Hawaii. At the library, Leslie could at least pretend that her mother was wondering where she was.
Where was her mother now? She pulled out her TracPhone and checked for a new text. A message. Anything.
Nothing. She felt like an idiot for even hoping.
"You want to call her?" Paul asked, pulling her next to him.
"I don't think it'll do any good," she said, feeling awful for it. Paul hadn't forgiven himself yet for turning her, and this wasn't going to help him get there. So she shoved the hurt down inside, to somewhere she could store it until later. "It's just the way she is. Even before the trip--" before you turned me, she meant to say--"she didn't talk to me much. Well, except to tell me she wasn't going to help pay for my college. So I suppose it doesn't make much difference now, does it?" She forced a smile.
Paul seemed to relax just a little. He smiled, but the cloudy day returned to his face a second later. "It would still be nice if she'd been a little more accepting."
"There's not much either of us can do about that."
"True." There was doubt in that word. "But maybe it might be worth it to call her. Just to make sure she isn't still at home."
"Maybe. I'll try later."
Leslie glanced back to see Janelle and Sophia coming in after them. Sophia had her arms wrapped around herself as she stepped in, staring at all the people parked at computers and browsing the card catalogs. Was she afraid that the Other, as she called it, would try to hurt all these people here? It was a feeling Leslie now understood too well.
"Let's not be here too long," she told Paul.
But her boyfriend was busy staring at the row of computers. His mouth even fell open as they walked. P
oor Paul had been kept away from almost everything connected to the rest of the world by his father until recently.
"Paul. They're just computers." She couldn't resist smiling at him. "We need to go find a couple of stations close together. I can get us in on one. I think Janelle still has a library card here, but hers might be expired by now. I'll go ask her."
Ten minutes later, after Janelle had renewed her library card, they managed to find two computer stations close together near the back of the library. Leslie got started right away, all too aware that Paul was watching every keystroke and mouse click she did on the computer screen. Well, he needed to learn. Paul had a lot to catch up on when it came to modern technology.
She'd teach him, then. If they were stuck in a moving caravan now, there weren't going to be a lot of opportunities for Internet access, even with Paul's new Netbook.
Leslie was all too aware of Sophia holding onto her chair from behind. She'd said nothing since they'd walked in. The nerves were practically rolling off her in the form of her breath against the back of her head. Leslie tried to ignore it. She was the best one at research and figuring things out, and even Janelle had admitted it.
"Where are you going to check first?" Sophia asked. Her voice was quiet, but even its low volume couldn't hide the nerves inside of it.
At least Leslie knew where she stood, as terrifying as it was. Sophia didn't. It had to be terrible.
"I'll look up a list of winter goddesses," she said, checking to make sure nobody besides Janelle had come near their stations. They hadn't. The closest person, a woman with too much jewelry hanging from her ears, sat three chairs away. Bright sunlight still streamed in through the windows, so she was safe from the other two threats right now, too.
It didn't take long to find a website about deities that gave her a decent search option. Perhaps they would get to the bottom of this within an hour and be back at the campsite in time to sit together and have a decent lunch. After typing winter into its search bar, Leslie came across a not-too-long list of obscure mythological names.
"Hey, Janelle. I think we have something to look over."
Her friend scooted as close as she could on her chair, drawing a stare from a librarian walking past. "Good," she said. "We can narrow it down to the female names, obviously. Sophia, you see anything on this list that rings a bell to you?"
"I…I never heard a name out of the Other," she said, almost too quiet to hear.
"We'll help you," Leslie said. "I'll read some off. Well, first there's Chione, who was the Greek goddess of snow. Sound familiar?"
The blank of Sophia's face answered her question even before she spoke. "Honestly, that sounds too gentle and nice to me. I think we need to look for a bad-tempered one with an attitude problem."
Leslie did a bit of reading and hit the back browser. No attitude problem there. "Well, then there's Colleda, but wait, she's the goddess of Yule logs. I think we can cross that off."
Sophia nodded. "What if it's someone that nobody knows about? If Gary's even right, that is?" Her expression was begging. Begging that his theory was false, and she wasn't harboring some insane deity inside of her. Leslie hoped so for her sake.
"We don't know for sure," Janelle said.
"Is there another screen with more names?" Paul asked, pointing to the bottom.
"It's called a 'page,'" Leslie told him, clicking on the next one. "If we ever settle down anywhere, I'm putting you in a computer class." She was kidding, of course. Leslie was going to enjoy teaching him herself.
She clicked on the next result, and felt a trickle of dread as she read the next entry. "This one's a Scandinavian goddess of winter storms. Well, more of a demon, actually." She swallowed as she processed the entry, aware that Paul, Janelle, and Sophia were all crowding around her. There was a sharp intake of breath from behind her.
"What's it saying?" Paul asked.
"There's a story here. I'll keep it short." Leslie had a bad feeling about lingering here. "All the Norse gods were having a funeral for one of their own. This winter demon had to show up to push the funeral boat out to sea because no one else was strong enough to do it. She threw a pretty big attitude when she did show up. She was so bad that Odin, the leader of the gods, didn't even want to fight her."
Janelle made a face. "Name?"
Leslie squinted at the screen. "I'm not sure how to pronounce this. Hyrokkin?"
The temperature in the room plunged about twenty degrees, enough for Leslie to feel it under the fabric of her shirt. Twin armies of goosebumps rose on her arms. Janelle started to rise from her chair and Paul swiveled around in his.
She had a hit.
Leslie stood and turned to face the sudden blast of cold air.
Sophia was no longer there.
Well, she was, physically, but every other trace of her personality seemed to have vanished. The girl's face had twisted into something different, something monstrous and hateful. The biting cold stabbed at Leslie's fingers and nose as Sophia stared her down. "Clever," she said.
The voice coming out of Sophia's lips was that of an old woman, angry at the world and everyone in it.
The frost started to expand around her.
It seeped from the bottom of Sophia's feet, creating whitish trickles on the floor. The cold deepened, so much that Leslie could see her breath exploding in front of her face every time she breathed.
"The cowards put me in here," the presence inside Sophia said. It sounded like claws raking against frosted glass, horrible enough to make Leslie want to cover her ears. "But my imprisonment won't last much longer."
The ice of her gaze threatened to bite Leslie's nose off. Winter was building inside the room. Even the woman three stations down gasped and wrapped her arms around herself. This monster--Hyrokkin--was ready to explode on them. The hatred in her eyes looked icier than the worst winter storms she'd seen in the middle of January.
"Leslie!" Paul burst in front of Sophia, seizing Leslie's arms as the frost on the floor grabbed at his ankles, threatening to freeze him in place. Janelle backed away, trying to avoid the demon's touch. Sophia's eyes shone without mercy as Paul's breath practically solidified in front of him.
Her boyfriend's eyes were wide with a promise, the one he'd made that he'd never let anything horrible happen to her.
"Paul--" she started.
Leslie couldn’t finish. He threw her back as ice and frost exploded through the library, coating everything in a fine white film as she hit a bookshelf and the world turned gray and faded to black.
Chapter Eight
Leslie was the first to wake up, judging from the silence in the library.
She opened her eyes to a throbbing pain in her chest. A rib, maybe. Cracked or broken. It hurt to breathe either way. Books had toppled around her from the shelf she'd hit. They lay in heaps or upside down like dead birds.
Somewhere, someone coughed. The sun burned holes of clarity into the frost coating the library windows. Leslie's breath spiraled in front of her, but with each breath she took, it grew fainter until she couldn't see it at all. The building was warming back up and recovering from whatever had just happened.
Sophia had attacked them all.
No. Hyrokkin had. Sophia had lost control to her, just as she said she did before. But nothing had happened to make her upset. It shouldn't have happened that way. Something else had driven the Other to surface like that. Hearing her name, maybe?
If Paul hadn't--
Paul.
He had thrown her to safety.
"Paul!"
And Janelle. She hadn't been too far from Sophia when the icy explosion happened, either.
Leslie forced herself to sit up to be greeted with a scream across her chest that almost made her flop back down the floor. The last traces of winter vanished from her face and fingertips as she surveyed the library, terrified of seeing the worst.
Sophia was gone.
Everyone still at the computer stations was lying slouched ov
er their computers. Even the librarian had slumped to the floor against a pole. Someone coughed again from closer to the entrance. A man shuddered in his chair feet away.
The monster in Sophia had attempted to freeze all of these people alive. Judging from the number of people still slouched over, it might have succeeded.
Paul was lying on the floor, only feet from where Janelle shivered against the wall.
Leslie sucked in a deep breath, making unbearable pain flare across her chest again. She ignored it, rushing down to Paul's side.
Her chest closed at the sight of him. He was blue around his nose and his cheeks. Shaking like an angry dog had a hold of him. He'd taken the full brunt of Hyrokkin's wrath so that she could get away from it.
"Leslie--" he started. His teeth chattered so loud she had no problem hearing it. "Are you okay?"
"Am I okay?" She took his shoulders. They were cool to the touch. Too cool. She rubbed them, hoping to restore some circulation. Leslie held down a wince to hide the injured rib. Paul would find out sooner or later and probably kill himself for it, but she didn't have time to worry about that now. He no doubt had hypothermia--but how severe? He needed medical attention.
Janelle didn't look much better, trying to push herself up off the floor. Her hand slid across the wall and she stood, facing the frost on her now-off computer screen as if she'd never seen any before. She wasn't as bad as Paul, but still bad.
"Dad?" Paul asked, glancing around the library. "Uncle Tanner?"
The sounds of stirring filled the library. Chairs squeaked. People muttered and rubbed their arms. The noises were far away, in another universe. It seemed that those farther away from Sophia when it had all gone off had gotten off better. Not Paul. Not Janelle. They had taken the full blast.