Chapter 190 B4. 4.1 – Leaving a Mess Behind

From the airport, Deen dropped me off at my condo before heading to her fancy place at Poblacion Verde Hills. We were packing our bags and leaving La Esperanza right after meeting Myra. The traffic out of the city was becoming heavier by the minute, and it wouldn’t ease up any time soon as more reports about yesterday’s Adumbrae attack spread. Protests cropped up everywhere, and the protests turned into riots. It wasn’t just the Adumbrae that was the danger.

“I really have to leave…” I sighed, looking out the windows of my room.

A couple columns of smoke spiraled upwards in the distance. Since there were no Adumbrae alerts on my phone, the fires must’ve been caused by riots. Good for people being busy during the weekends.

Moving away wasn’t the issue. Not the main one, anyway. I’d be freaking stuck in a car with Deen for several hours! Just thinking about this ordeal already made me want to chug a liter of milk tea.

“Small talk for that long?” I groaned, turning around and opening drawers. We could stay in La Esperanza until the BID finds us instead. “Ugh, I’ll just try to fall asleep so I don’t have to talk to Deen.”

I focused on folding my clothes, trying to ignore the bigger problem coming after: living with Deen.

Only now did it sink in that she had to live with me… in the same fucking unit. It wasn’t like I’d tell her to stay somewhere else. She’d sleep inside Mom’s room, and I’d be in my own, but it was still a small space. I’d breathe the same air she did. When I lived at Deen’s rented mansion, it didn’t feel like I had given up my personal space because the place was huge—it was like we were living separately anyway.

“One problem at a time,” I muttered, shaking my head. “One problem at a time.”

Funny that what I considered to be problems weren’t the Corebrings, BID, and the 2Ms who wanted me dead. The PCM was going to join that list soon. Maybe even Euphonia. Wasn’t there a quote about having enemies meant one stood up for something in their life?

I had plenty of enemies. Not sure what I was standing up for. Sweets for everyone?

Sweets for everyone!

A couple of hours later, I was back in the passenger’s seat of Deen’s car. My bags were in the backseat, I had a bottle of sweet milk tea, and we were heading to meet Myra at a diner near Eloyce University. We’d make it seem to anyone watching that we were three friends hanging out on a Saturday.

“Do you have the USB?” Deen asked.

“Yep. And I’m going to answer your next question: No, I didn’t plug it into the laptop and talk to Cecilia again. This isn’t a horror movie where I’ve become obsessed with a cursed object, okay? Don’t think that every—”

“I was just checking that we haven’t forgotten anything,” Deen said. “I’m not fighting with you.”

“Good. Let’s make this trip peaceful.”

In truth, I was super tempted to talk with USB Cecilia while Deen wasn’t around. I wanted to ask if USB Cecilia could spread our stupid Red Hood video on the internet. We couldn’t ask Auron to do it because we’d be avoiding him like the plague.

Though it was probably a bad idea to let USB Cecilia connect to the internet until we had more guarantees. Maybe we could find something to threaten her with at her hidden laboratories.

I didn’t mention this to Deen because she wasn’t really enthusiastic about my plan. I sensed she was going along so that I wouldn’t brand her a contrarian.

“About that other thing,” I said while unscrewing the milk tea bottle’s cap. “You agree with me, don’t you? That Auron doesn’t know about Myra? If he did, he also would’ve pestered her. And if he knew that Myra was the sister of an Adumbrae the PCM had experimented on, he wouldn’t even have dared approach us.”

“I believe your assessment is correct,” Deen said. “Cecilia didn’t update Auron after catching Myra, that’s why he thinks we’re Adumbrae. All Auron knows is that we attacked their laboratory and killed their Adumbrae test subject.”

I clicked my tongue in annoyance, remembering our carelessness—we chatted in the laboratory and even removed our masks, not knowing Cecilia’s head was still alive. Either Deen or Myra mentioned my name. That was enough for Cecilia to track us down.

“Myra will be safe,” Deen said. “Don’t worry about her. She and Kelsey can take care of themselves.”

Oh, Deen thinks I care about the Fletcher sister? Well, I did care about them. Just not in the way that Deen thought. I was thinking about how to use Myra to delay Auron. But since our conversation headed in this direction, I might as well remind Deen that I was a good person.

“I’m just worried that Kelsey might… You know?” I sighed, ever the worrywart. “Without me around, there’s no one to stop her seeding.”

“They’ll manage,” Deen replied. “They have each other. Sisterly love will prevent further seeding, reminding Kelsey to cling to her last bit of humanity for Myra. In the same vein, we have each other. We have our own challenges to face,” she added, as if we weren’t connected to the Fletchers. “We’ll overcome them together.”

“Thank you, Deen.” Part of that gratitude was genuine. As much as Deen annoyed me, the safety net her power provided couldn’t be denied. She had better make sure that Gabe didn’t use me as bait again. “I won’t trade having you, my best friend, by my side, for anything in the world.”

“How about a cure?” Deen muttered as the traffic started to slow.

I questioningly tilted my head.

She gave me a melancholic expression. “A cure for your condition as an… Adumbrae. You said you’ll never trade me for anything. I’m saying you can trade me for a cure.”

I hesitantly smiled, unsure if this was an awkward attempt at a joke to make the situation light-hearted. “We’ll find an actual cure, okay? We already have some leads. I’ll become a human again, and I won’t trade you away for anything.”

“That’s so sweet.” Deen reached for my left hand resting on my lap. I reflexively pulled it away, and she ended up grabbing my leg. I was wearing shorts, so skin met skin. The contact sent jitters of disgust throughout my body.

An attempt to become closer with me? No way! I wanted to punch this bitch! At the last moment, I controlled myself and ended with just poking her side.

She yelped, jerking the steering wheel. “Erind! Omygash, I nearly scraped that van’s bumper.”

“You shouldn’t have tried to touch me!” The end of my sentence went up into a whine. I still wanted to punch her. Then I reminded myself that I needed Deen’s power for my own protection. “You know that I don’t like… I’m sorry. Didn’t your Guardian Angel warn you about crashing?”

“Gabe told me to drive straight. But I didn’t expect you to tickle me.”

“Really sorry,” I repeated. “I know that touching is your friendship language. But I always tell you I’m not a touchy-feely person. Poking you is my defense mechanism against touching. I evolved that trait or something.”

“Why are you so against touching?” Deen asked. “I… I understand if it were other people. Shouldn’t I be the exception? We’re practically sisters at this point.”

I couldn’t stop the monumental forces that rolled my eyes. Fortunately, Deen didn’t see it because she was facing the road. I didn’t want to explain why I hated physical contact because people wouldn’t get it. Time to switch the topic. “Have you talked to your sister that you’ll go to Vegas with me?”

“I did,” Deen said. “She was at the house when I was packing. Her exact reply was: ‘Sure’.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. I told you she won’t kick up a fuss.”

“Maybe she thinks it’s just a weekend thing?” I asked. “Did you mention that you'll stay at my condo for some time? Like, we’re not sure how long?”

“My sister was watching TV while I explained about it, but she was listening to me.” Deen turned to grin at me. “Most likely. Maybe.”

“I guess you can count that as permission,” I said. “We just don’t want your sister reporting you as missing or something.” I didn’t mention that I was also avoiding getting roped into any Leska family issues. Absolute bullshit if Deen’s sister somehow found my number and called me to look for Deen. “I actually thought she’d say, ‘no’. She doesn’t even want you to have your own place so you won't bring guys home."

“Sis probably thinks you’re not the type of girl who’d have boys over,” Deen said, laughing.

“Ouch. Doesn’t have the capability to, or doesn’t want to, because I’m prim and proper?"

“The latter,” she replied. “My sister definitely thinks you’re too introverted and focused on studies to bother with boyfriends.”

I snorted. “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.”

“And you’ve been living with us for a while that you're practically family,” Deen continued. “I’m sure Sis thinks you’re a good influence.”

“That one’s a compliment. What I’m hearing is that I’m a role model, and you should follow me.”

Deen poked my side. “Whatever, Ms. Role Model.”

We stuck to the inner roads where there were barely any vehicles. Checking the navigation app, we saw that the roads out of the city were solid red—barely moving traffic. We’d have to take the freeway later because there was no bio-scanner big enough to cover all the lanes. At least, the authorities didn’t have one available now.

Scrolling through the posts on Snippet, I learned that the National Guard tried closing some lanes to funnel the traffic into bio-scanners. Total disaster. Fucking Carmageddon. And that plan wouldn’t really have worked without closing all the minor streets that could be used to bypass the bio-scanners, leading to ever-worsening traffic.

Comments on Snippet were more enlightened than I expected.

‘Adumbrae aren’t going to sit in traffic for hours!’

‘No Adumbrae is dumb enough to line up to get scanned!’

‘Those fucking bio-scanners haven’t caught any monster in ages!’

And my favorite was: ‘Don’t stop the Adumbrae from leaving our city!’

The checkpoint was lifted about an hour ago. Good call by the governor, or he’d be destroyed in the next elections for mishandling the situation. And good news for us because we didn’t need to worry about bio-scanners. Things were going my way, proving my thesis that lucky and unlucky times alternated.

Still, the traffic was heavy. “I hope we won’t get stuck there later?” We were driving by the river and could see the bridge going over it packed with cars.

“Do you know how to swim?” Deen asked.

“Wha—huh? Like, you plan to swim across the river instead of using the bridge? You can’t be serious.”

“Have I told you I used to be a varsity swimmer in high school?”

“No…” I replied, wondering if Deen was messing with me. “And I suck at swimming, so there’s that. Which is weird, considering I had lived for some time in Hawaii during my childhood.”

“Is that true?” Deen asked, turning to me with raised brow. “You don’t look Hawaiian.”

“I’m not. Dad was working there on something.” I didn’t elaborate that Dad was researching a sinkhole in the Pacific Ocean that endlessly swallowed water. Some paranormal shit left behind by a destroyed Purple Bloom. If Deen knew about this, she’d freak out and think I was affected by the Purple Bloom’s residue or whatever. That I was an Adumbrae since childhood. “Anyway, what was your plan with swimming?”

“If you can’t swim, I can pull you along,” Deen said. “You’ll be weightless with my super strength.”

“We won’t have our stuff, like clothes, bags, and all that.”

“How about we put our bags with plastic and—”

“We also won't have a car. Unless you plan to make an exodus to Las Vegas on foot?"

“Stealing a car is an option.”

“Okay, I know you’re just messing with me,” I said, making a face. Was this a preview of our road trip? It wasn’t too bad, minus the touching part.

We arrived at Cindy’s, our meeting place with the hero wannabes a few days ago. Deen expertly backed the car into a parking spot in one try. It reminded me of why I didn’t want a car—finding an empty spot downtown sucked, and I sucked at parking.

“I see Myra’s blue hair,” I said, waving my hand. “I think it’s better if we eat outside. Fewer people.”

Auron couldn’t pull that shit where everyone in the restaurant was a PCM member. No way the PCM could’ve bugged this place beforehand; they didn’t know we were coming here. I looked around. No car followed us into the parking lot. Maybe the PCM decided to back off after delivering their message to meet because we’d be wary of them.

Three of the 4Bs sat under a red patio umbrella, hiding from the afternoon sun. I regretted not changing out of my sweater—I didn’t need to hide the growths on my hand. Fucking stuffy, with my clothes sticking to my body because of perspiration.

How did this even work? My inhuman body could tolerate extreme heat!

Pristine Deen wasn’t so perfect, with stray beads of sweat on the side of her neck. If she wasn’t complaining, I wouldn’t either. Thankfully, Myra ordered the Ice Cream Extravaganza on Cindy’s menu—three gigantic scoops of different flavors covered with assorted sweet toppings. She intentionally bought it so the three of us could share while we suffered from the heat. 

Three girls sharing a giant bowl of ice cream? Nothing sketchy here, people.

The only thing suspicious was that a plain girl like me was hanging out with someone like Deen. If circumstances were otherwise, I wasn't sure if we'd become close—approximately friendly close.

“Glad you two got out of that mess,” I said. “Did you encounter any problems?”

“Barely any,” said Myra. “I’m surprised we got home safely despite the police around. But this morning, I’ve learned of a couple of problems. Corebrings are in town.”

“We know,” I said. “Actually, I—”

“That leads to problem number two,” Myra went on, intent on sharing with us a seemingly pressing problem. “I’ve heard from Johann that the Professor might stop their field tests.”