Pretty Monster

by Somers, Jill

  He didn’t look pleased with the pairing, but Quinn took it as a good sign that he hadn’t flat-out refused like the others.

  Their session started the same way they had left off several weeks earlier: Shade sent a mild, sight-based illusion her way. There was no Kurt in it, nothing aimed at alarming or upsetting her. Just standard practice.

  But she wasn’t in the mood for standard practice. She was in the mood for answers. And even though she felt fairly certain Shade wasn’t involved with whatever Dash and the others were, she was starting to think just about everyone was on one side or the other. Just about everyone had answers.

  She focused all of her energy on pushing the illusion away, the same way she had with the illusion of Kurt all those weeks ago. It hurt, stirring up those feelings again—forcing herself to remember the illusion of him in order to remember what it had taken to send the illusion away. But it worked, and it left her staring face-to-face at a bewildered Shade.

  “Again?” he asked. “How is this possible?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Listen, Shade. Remember what I said to you at the party? That we’re not monsters—that we’re human?”

  Shade nodded carefully.

  “I stand by that statement. But I want to elaborate. We aren’t monsters simply because we’re deviants. Okay? We get to choose who we want to be.”

  He stared at her, confused.

  “Some of us, though,” she continued, “make the wrong choice. Choose the wrong friends. Become a part of something that might just turn us into monsters.”

  “I’m not friends with any of you.”

  “Yeah,” she said, laughing shortly to herself. “I’m not exactly friends with any of them at the moment, either. But I have to ask you, Shade—do you have friends? Other friends, maybe? On the island?”

  He looked away from her. He looked almost nervous, strangely enough—like she was the first person to ask him these questions in a very long time.

  “Yes,” he said quietly.

  “Who?” she asked, taking a step toward him. She could sense that her desperation was triggering him, but she couldn’t help herself. “Is it Savannah? Is it Reese? Is—”

  But he shook his head, eyes frantic, looking everywhere but toward her. Before she knew what was happening, he was leaving. Running away from her, away from class.

  Everyone looked over at her, no doubt assuming she had done something horrific to him again. No one even seemed surprised.

  • • •

  Reese came to see her that weekend. He asked if she wanted to go on another flight, but she declined. She remained convinced that he was one of the few people not in on the secrets Dash and the others were keeping, but he could still be keeping secrets of his own. And if Ridley was right, her friendship with Reese might very well be what was keeping her old friends away.

  Not that it was fair. Who were they to keep her away from anyone?

  She told him to say what he had to say to her there, on level ground, and he did. He told her that everyone was worried about her. He told her that word had gotten back to Savannah that she had all but given up on her classes, and Savannah wasn’t happy.

  “Why do I care if she’s happy?” Quinn asked him in annoyance. “Why does she care if I am?”

  “Savannah makes mistakes. She has a very skewed view of the world. But the way she sees it, the classes, the island—it’s all a gift. Something we should all be grateful for. And the moment we stop being grateful, we deserve punishment.”

  Quinn shuddered at the idea. There was something beyond corrupt about Savannah, and none of it seemed to match up in her mind with Dash’s views. Could Reese’s theory really be right—that Dash and Savannah were in on something together? Or was it something else entirely?

  “I don’t know what you want me to say,” she said. “I’m not going to magically become smarter, Reese. I’m also not going to magically develop a great personality. Frankly, if she wants to try and punish me for that, I’d like to see her try.”

  “I really don’t think you would,” he told her, but raised his hands in surrender when he saw her expression. “I did my part. Do what you can. I wish you nothing but the best.”

  And he left.

  She let his words sink in as she made her way to Rory’s, preparing for an evening practice. First of all, why was Reese always the bearer of Savannah’s warnings? Considering his claims that Dash was the one in cahoots with his mother, she sure did send Reese on her missions often. Secondly, why had he almost seemed to defend Savannah’s view of the island being a gift?

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Rory said when she answered the door. Her expression was grim. “We need to talk.”

  Both of them knew better than to speak openly in those halls. As far as Quinn was concerned, everyone besides Rory was the enemy until someone started telling her the truth. She’d be damned if she revealed anything to any of them in the meantime.

  They made their way to their practice spot, deep to the south of the island, before Rory explained herself.

  “I still haven’t been able to see much. A snippit here, a snippit there. But what I have seen… It all involves Savannah. It’s like my mind is trying to warn me about her. It’s something serious.”

  “Serious, how?”

  “Serious, like… some of the pictures, the flashes I’ve seen… They’re of death, Quinn. Death, and fire, and Siloh destroyed. And then Savannah, and these other figures… watching us burn.”

  “These other figures… Could you make out any faces? Shade, maybe? Either of the brothers?”

  She didn’t care which brother at this point. She just wanted to know.

  But Rory shook her head. “It’s all so dark. Hazy. I could barely tell it’s Savannah, it’s just… she has such a specific look. The brothers, when they’re in profile, dark like that… They look so similar. It could be either one.”

  Figures. Quinn wanted to punch something, but refrained. “Well, we’ve got two options, don’t we? We investigate further—try to figure out what she’s planning—try to save everyone else on this godforsaken island.”

  “Or?”

  “Or, we run.”

  It was a clear favorite for her. What did she care what happened to the rest of the residents of Siloh? They clearly didn’t care about her any more. The only one left for her to care about was Rory, and she would bring Rory with her.

  Rory smiled sadly. “That’s your thing, isn’t it? It was the same with the boy I remind you of. You were able to tell yourself you didn’t care about anyone else in the world. Anyone but him.”

  Quinn stared at her, shocked. “I never told you about Kurt.”

  “You didn’t have to.”

  That was when Quinn knew it for sure: Rory was the real deal. Everything she was saying, everything she was seeing… It was all true. She was a seer.

  “I’m not running,” Rory told her. “Not yet.”

  “Fine,” Quinn said, disappointed but not surprised. “Then I think we both know what to do next.”

  • • •

  She wanted so desperately to have the power of invisibility. It would make this so easy. To be like Tommy, to close her eyes and blend into whatever was behind her, seamlessly and completely… Tommy probably knew more than any of them. Tommy probably knew it all.

  Tommy’s probably in on it, too, she thought grimly.

  What could she do to hide them, she wondered, if they were to go and spy on Savannah? It was late, but Savannah was known to work late—to stay in her room in the town hall, door closed, doing God knew what.

  Her mind flashed to Izzo’s ability. Could she turn into an animal, like Izzo? A bug, perhaps, and listen in that way? She had never accomplished such a thing before, but then, she had never had much incentive to.

  “What if I come out of it?” Quinn asked as they discussed this option. “Run out of juice—change back into a human right there in her office?”

  “First of all,” Rory said, “yo
u shouldn’t be going all the way into her office. It’s too dangerous. You should literally be a fly on the window. Or whichever insect has the best hearing. And second of all, I’ve got a plan for that. Electricity juices you up, right? Gives you energy? I’ll keep sending you juice. It’ll keep you bugged out.” She giggled, pleased with her pun.

  Quinn sighed. It was crazy. It was probably suicide.

  But she was sick of being kept in the dark.

  They had already made it close to the town hall, lurking in the shadows, whispering of their plan. All that was left was for her to change.

  “Try and be a moth,” Rory advised. “If I remember right from biology, they have the best hearing.”

  Quinn stared at Rory, both amused and strangely envious of her knowledge. Quinn couldn’t even answer basic math questions, and this young girl knew which insect had the best sense of hearing?

  “You are one special little girl,” Quinn whispered in amazement. And she closed her eyes and changed into a moth.

  She couldn’t tell how she looked. She couldn’t tell how well she had pulled it off. But from her new senses of smell, taste, sight, and hearing, and the fact that she had wings, she could tell it had worked enough. She was a flying insect.

  She flew over to the exterior window of Savannah’s office and watched.

  Savannah was still there. She was on her cell phone. Pacing. Muttering things… hushed things. Her eyebrows were furrowed; her mouth was moving. But Quinn heard nothing.

  She could hear, though, was the strange thing—she could hear well. Was it possible that Savannah had some sort of soundproofing—something to keep stray ears from listening, just as she was trying to do?

  She wanted to get closer, but she knew it would be a disaster. She glanced behind her into the tree line. She could see Rory off in the distance, watching her. If only Quinn could crack the window with her telekinesis… Not as an insect, though; she’d have to change back into a human for that…

  She sighed, frustrated. She started to fly away, but doubled back when she saw Savannah opening a small, sealed envelope. She squinted through the window, trying to make out what was inside it.

  It was airline tickets, she realized. Airline tickets and passports.

  Savannah looked up then, straight at the window. Her eyes were sharp, predatory. She seemed to sense that someone was watching her.

  Quinn stayed dead still, her many legs resting carefully on the ledge. She could feel her power draining, and her heart began to pound. Had Rory been juicing her up? Was she going to? If she changed, here, now, with Savannah watching her…

  But just as she thought it, she felt it: a small, but perfectly calculated pulse of electricity coming up at her from the ground. Just enough to re-energize her.

  Savannah reached for the blinds to the window, snapping them closed. Quinn exhaled, flying back to Rory in the woods before changing back.

  “Let’s get back to our spot,” Quinn said. “It’s not safe here.”

  • • •

  “I wasn’t able to make out anything,” Quinn told Rory when they reached their spot. “Her windows were soundproofed, somehow. I was about to give up completely when I saw her pull something out of an envelope—plane tickets. And passports. She’s planning on going to the real world, Rory. And not alone.”

  Rory frowned, considering this. “You weren’t able to make out any of it?”

  “No… Like I said, it was soundproofed. But, Rory, the plane tickets mean something. She’s not just taking an under-the-radar helicopter trip to Fiji, okay, she’s got a passport, an identity, things none of us have had since we were in the real world. Things she could use to go to the real world. And not just her.”

  “It’s just,” Rory said, crossing her arms, “you’re so powerful, normally. I’m finding it hard to believe that you couldn’t hear what she was saying and I could.”

  Quinn’s eyes bulged. She grabbed Rory by the shoulders. “What?”

  “I should say, I couldn’t hear her from where I was, but by listening in on what you were listening in on, putting myself inside your head, and juicing up both of us from back where I was staying, I was able to hear through you.”

  “I can’t even begin to understand that,” Quinn admitted, awestruck, “but I don’t think I care at the moment. Rory, what did you hear?”

  “We came in at the tail end of a conversation. The details, I could tell, they had already laid out. But she kept saying his name—Cole.”

  Quinn swallowed. Suddenly her throat was on fire.

  “They were talking about an attack,” Rory continued. “They didn’t say when, or what, or even where. She kept talking about this group of people. ‘The alliance.’ Saying that she was almost done putting it together. That she had to get them out first—before the attack. Them, herself… and her son.”

  “Her son,” Quinn repeated. “Singular.”

  Rory nodded.

  Quinn groaned. She didn’t have the energy to waste wondering which Collins brother Savannah meant. Not again. Besides, there were bigger things to worry about. “If she’s trying to get people out, that means the attack will be here.”

  “I know. It’s the visions I’ve been seeing. Siloh, burned. Everyone dead. But remember—we know that as long as Savannah is here, we’re safe.”

  Quinn shook her head. This was all too much. Hadn’t killing Kurt and Charlotte been enough for Crowley? Hadn’t sending Quinn to Siloh, exiling her from the real world, been enough? Now he wanted to kill everyone on Siloh, save for the select few deviants who were useful to him and Savannah? This ‘alliance?’

  Who was in the alliance?

  She kept trying to avoid it, but her mind kept coming back to the same question.

  Which brother?

  • • •

  Quinn and Rory parted ways after that, not feeling safe anywhere near the town hall with the knowledge they had. Quinn made her swear not to repeat a word of what they had heard, not that she had any real fear that she would. Rory was a smart girl. She proved herself smarter with every passing day.

  Haley was nowhere to be found when Quinn got back to her room, which was no surprise. For the first time since Haley had started avoiding her, Quinn was glad; she needed time to process everything she had just learned. She needed time to make a plan.

  Again, it ultimately came down to the question she had asked Rory earlier. Did they protect Siloh, or did they run?

  All of these people that were in on something—Dash, Haley, Trent, the gang—were they in the alliance? From what she gathered, the alliance was the opposite of the resistance. But was it possible that Savannah was trying to play Crowley somehow? That all of them were?

  She knew Savannah’s plan now, but she still didn’t know nearly enough.

  Still, she found herself unable to trust anyone but Rory. With that being the case, her only option was to run.

  But she knew Rory, and she knew she wouldn’t want to. Tomorrow’s goal would be to convince Rory to leave with her. For now, she would sleep.

  • • •

  When she showed up to science class the next morning, she was in for a rude awakening: it wasn’t the normal teacher, Lydia. It was Dash.

  “Good morning,” he said to the class. “Today, in place of your normal science class, we’re going to be having a seminar. The topic: astrophysics and religion.”

  Quinn groaned out loud. She didn’t even know what astrophysics were. She did not have the patience or the time for this.

  “Something wrong, Quinn?” he asked, surprising her. Dash hadn’t said a word to her in almost a week. He had more or less been acting like she didn’t exist.

  “Nope,” she mumbled, not in the mood to pick a fight with him.

  “Right.” His gaze lingered on her for a moment before turning back to the rest of the class. “Now. Who knows what astrophysics is?”

  Angel’s hand shot up, followed by Pence’s, Charlie’s, and a handful of others.

  �
�Pence,” Dash said.

  Quinn rolled her eyes. Figured, he’d choose one of his own.

  “It’s a branch of astronomy specific to physics and chemistry,” Pence said. “Kind of… how things came to be, and remain to be.”

  Dash nodded. “Very good. And how about… religion?”

  They all stared at him for a moment, thrown by how easy the question was. Finally, a few hands raised. Quinn didn’t bother. She hadn’t raised her hand once since arriving on the island; just because she finally knew the answer didn’t mean she would bother trying.

  But apparently the lack of her raised hand meant nothing to him, because he said, “Quinn?”

  She glared at him. She wanted to ignore him altogether, but knowing what she knew about Savannah, she decided not to push it until she was ready to take her leave of Siloh. “It’s where people who are too selfish to accept the idea of a world without them make up an afterlife in which they can live forever.”

  Everyone turned to look at her at that point. Some looked amused. Some looked sad. Dash was included in the latter.

  “I take it you don’t believe in the afterlife.”

  “Doesn’t matter what I believe, does it? I’ll turn into nothing, or I’ll go to hell. I’ll figure it out when I get there—or I won’t.”

  “Interesting.” He crossed his arms. “Who in this class believes in God?”

  A startlingly low number of hands raised into the air. Angel, Quinn noticed with bitter irony, was not one of them; Drax, Haley, and Shade were the only ones who raised their hands.

  “Drax,” Dash said. “Would you care to tell Quinn how you feel about what she just said?”

  Drax turned to face Quinn, looking her in the eye for the first time in weeks. “It makes me sad. I don’t think you would go to hell, Quinn. I think you’ve made mistakes, but you’re a good person. And I think you have plenty of time to turn your life around.”