"Gillian, have I told you about the library card yet?"

"Yes," I say, and add, "but if you must, tell me again." Mary is an incessant talker whenever we're walking. It is hard for her to channel her energy into something productive, like looking straight ahead, but it is also hard for her to channel her energy at all. Mary is fidgeting out of her skin, even though we have something important to do (walking). I stand next to her, as is my prerogative, and try to tune out her chatter.

"But Angel says that people don't need money for books, if they're in the book buildings, and I said that there was no way there were buildings full of books, but she said, look, if there's buildings full of food, there can be buildings full of books. They're called libraries-" she says this in her Angel voice, which is shriller than Angel's and dripping with condescension, "-and you just need a little plastic wedge. She said it was really hard for her to get one, but after that town we stuck around for a month, they kind of gave her one, and I said, congrats for managing to acquire a wedge of plastic, wow,"

"Mean," I reflect.

Mary grins. "Gillian! I was complimenting her. Clearly that was a real accomplishment. That's why she keeps waving it in our faces."

"Was it, though." I need only raise one eyebrow. Said eyebrow is often raised around Mary. It is losing effectiveness, but making any other gesture requires energy I am not prepared to spend on her shenanigans. First rule of Mary: pick your battles.

"Are you accusing me of backhanding?" Mary asks, pressing her hand to her heart and feigning great offense.

"Backhanded, you mean. As in backhanded compliment." Alex says.

"Mine's faster," Mary retorts.

Kali slides to the back of the group. Her eyes are heavy-lidded, her mouth twisted into a discerning frown, and she looks down at us even from no particular vantage. Mary follows in her wake, falling into line, and Alex stares at her over her side.

"We should fight." Mary says. "Stop and fight. It'll be the only interesting thing that's happened all day."

"No," Kali answers.

"As our Veritas. Let's go." Mary continues. She's bobbing and weaving on the spot already. Her brows furrow.

"Come on."

"You come on."

Kali looks around to her to the others at the front. "Can I get out of babysitting, now?" she asks.

"I'm not a baby," Damien murmurs. His fists are clenched, but only slightly. Damien can't commit to being angry.

"Can I help lighten the load?" I ask, glancing towards Mary.

Kali shrugs. "If you two want to fight? As a good guardian, I don't care, but it's going to be a pain to wait for you. We have plenty of walking to nowhere to do--"

I am already walking towards the front of the group. Kali shouts something from the back, but I'm no longer listening. Red, Dylan, and Mimsy are near the front, the white-haired girl struggling to keep pace with the two of them. She swings her arms in this awkward way while she runs, which does not help, and judging by the way Red and Dylan have closed in against each other, she is not helping with plans, either.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

Red flinches as he turns around. "G-Gillian? Do you need something to do?"

I fold my hands, arms tensing with strength. "No."

"Okay, well, we're..."

"Where are we going?" I repeat.

"Somewhere," Dylan says, throwing out one arm towards the horizon and choking Red with the other. "Adventure is out there, the world is at our fingertips, et cetera."

One of my fingers edges out another, my hands clenching each other ever tighter. "That's it?" I am not angry. Or so I tell myself.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but for now, yes. That's it." Red sighs. "We just couldn't stay where we were. It was attracting too much attention."

"I thought we had a lead." Mimsy busts her way into the group, her eyes round. Her lips are curled into a pout.

"We definitely do not have a lead." Red responds.

"I might have a lead." Mimsy puts her hand in one of the pockets of his trenchcoat. She leans against him, somewhere between girl and cat, and Red tries to brush her off. "I have to talk to Ms. Grace about it, but it's definitely a lead." She looks over at someone who isn't there, to the woods.

"She's been right before," I point out. (Even if she's getting her information from an invisible woman.)

"Fair," Red says. "Look, Gillian, I don't want to push you out of the way, but shouldn't you be back with Mary and the others near the back?"

"Do you need me to look out for them?" I ask.

"I don't think all eleven of us could watch Mary, even if we wanted to." Dylan laughs. Red and Mimsy are both watching him blankly.

Red's eyes squint slightly, his teeth half-grit, and he sighs, "I just want to make sure there aren't... accidents."

Dylan pats Red on the back. "You're worrying way too much. It's not like anyone has died yet."

Red tilts his glasses, exhaling through his nose. "You got me."

"Do you want me back there or not?" I ask.

"Yes," they say in unison.

Red adds, "Make sure no one gets into any fights--and thanks. Sorry."

I walk back down the line, past Angel and the youngest members of our group, as well as Elle, who is messing with a bag, and situate myself at the back. Mary is still clinging onto Kali, closer than Mimsy and Red in the front. "We'd only be a second! I'm so, so, so bored. I was talking about Angel's stupid library card! Who cares about that?"

"You used that card. Constantly." Kali says, shoving Mary off her side. This should be difficult, given their respective differences in height, but Mary almost falls sideways when Kali pushes her off. Springing back, Mary puts an elbow on Kali's shoulder. "Stop that."

"S-so. Do they have any information, on..." Damien asks, tapping my back.

I shake my head.

"Oh. Hopefully it's a town this time." he smiles, lifting up one tangled hand. "Fingers crossed."

He picks up strange things from towns. I would say the cadence and ease of his human impression is something for envy, but I also can't say being more human was ever an aspiration of mine.

"I'm going to knock you over." growls Kali.

Wings sprout from Mary's sides, extending in one deft sweep into being. She springs upwards, teeth bared. The air around Kali is rippling with heat as blue sparks begin to fire. Energy wreaths around her fingers like snakes.

I step between them, fixing Mary in the corner of my vision. "You're going to hold up the group."

Mary lands, exasperated. "It doesn't matter! We're going nowhere. We've always been going nowhere."

I turn to her. "So you have to fight Kali. Right now."

"I'm sayi-i-i-ing we're not in a hurry."

"And I'm saying you're being obnoxious. It's no wonder that someone is always on here. You can shift into any age you want and you still need someone to watch over you at all times, like a petulant child."

I always catch Mary's fist, which is why it surprises me this time that she lands a kick instead. My knee, solid as it is, buckles over, and she takes the opportunity to slam me into the ground.

The eyes of the whole group are on us. I can hear my own breath.

"I told you to leave me alone, Gillian." warns Mary.

The earth is cold. I scrape myself up into a sitting position, wiping the dirt away.

Kali does not come to my defense. Instead, she notices that Red has turned around, brows furrowed, and draws her fingers together before tucking them in her pockets. Dylan runs over, extending a hand to help me up, and I push myself up. A surge of emotion lights within me and dissipates even faster, and I exhale, feeling my nostrils flare. Mary watches me, foot tapping against the ground, and we stare each other down.

The group begins moving again. The air around Mary is still electric, and she draws Damien underneath her elbow and begins talking again.

"Tough."
"Not very."

"You fell over."

"It wasn't a big deal."

"Kali's teaching her things." Kali is back up front, in her rightful place amongst the older kids. There are dirt flecks in the fringe of her coat.

"And Dylan's teaching me things."

"Sure, sure, but Dylan isn't Kali." He curves his hand into a claw. Rawr. Kali. Alex looks ridiculous.

"Dylan picks his battles." I respond.

Alex laughs. He has a habit of doing so when I have said nothing humorous.

The trees clear to a black river in the distance. I hear the hum of traffic, which is unusual for this far in the country.

"We must be close to a town. Maybe we can settle somewhere for the night. Elle can get food." Red suggests. "Can everyone catch up? We're going to need to shift into birds to travel over."

Everyone's there, and no one is happy bout it. I cross my arms. Mary is still talking about Angel's library card. Blonde, prim, smug Angel is in her own corner, ignoring Mary. Kali is tapping her foot, eying Red. The tension is unusual for so early in the morning.

"There's not too many cars." Mary says.

"Are you really doing this now," begins Red. "Is this entirely necessary?"

"Yeah. I'm saying I don't feel like shifting right now." Mary says. "Furthermore, I bet I could cross. Alone. Right now."

"No one is going to stop you." Kali says, with a pointed glance towards Red. "Right, fearless leader?"

"Mary, please calm down for five seconds."

"I am calm, and I'm serious. I'm going to cross right now, because I feel like it."

Something prickles in my throat. A distinct wrongness fills the air. "Mary."

"You're not fast enough to catch me, Gillian."

"This is the dumbest thing we've fought about in weeks. Can we all just agree to not cross roads by ourselves?" Dylan asks, weakly.

"I don't know. Can all of you agree to get out of my face?" Mary backs up, and then with a smile, adds, "I'll see you on the other side."

"Mary!"

Mary is gone through the trees and out on the road as quickly, with several of us following her out to the edge. She leaps the guardrails in one fluid motion, light dancing in her eyes, and breaks for it across four lanes of open black rock. She does not see it coming.

A truck wails in panic, turning a wide arc, but even the few seconds it offers and Mary with her whip-sharp reflexes can not avoid the impact. I watch her wings emerge just as it bowls into her.

The sound of bone cracking fills the air and the universe rises into an endless torrent of noise.

(A/N: Next update on Thursday. Or something. Probably. In the meantime, have a cliffhanger?)