Page 52 of Marked By Shadows

“Are you okay?” I ask her.

She sighs, her shoulders dropping. “I just…this has been really hard for me. I mean, I miss my parents. I miss my dad, I wish I could talk to him about this. And my mom and I, we never really made up. She was trying to protect me and then she died, Alana. And it was fucked up, and it might not have been enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“What if this is my life now?” she says. “People putting sigils on my hands, trying to protect me from things that are coming for me. I feel like…no matter how much distance I get from what happened, I’ll never be the same person. I’ll never be enough.”

“Enough for what?”

“Enough for any of this,” she replies, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “I don’t know why they want to protect me when everything’s already so fucked up. Why me?”

“They love you, Al,” I say. “Why wouldn’t they want to help you?”

“Because it’s not fair that they have to.”

“They are adults,” I reply. “They get to choose what they want to do.”

She sighs heavily, her head on my shoulder. “Al, you would tell me if this was all too much, right?”

“Of course,” I say. “But you’re not too much. You’re doing your best, and that’s all anyone can ask of you.”

I drape my arm around her shoulders and squeeze her.

“You’ll be okay,” I say.

She smiles, shaking her head. “I don’t know, Al,” she says. “I just really hope that you’re right.”

Javi

Thevibeinthebus is a little weird. Dom told everyone about the creature he saw, then described how he put a sigil on Trine’s hand, and then spent the rest of the time chanting spells and asking everyone to wear necklaces he’d made–though I have no idea when he had time to make them. He must be a pretty crafty guy.

Misha looks especially concerned. He’s been scrolling through the internet, trying to find answers and muttering things under his breath. He’s been wearing the necklace Dom made him and he’s been glancing at it every now and then. I’ve never seen him so jittery, he’s always so chill and cool. He sneaks looks at Trine every now and then. Trine, for her part, looks exhausted. There are bags under her eyes and she barely opens them when the bus bounces on a giant pothole and the wheels skid, bringing the vehicle close to the edge of the mountain.

It happens a lot, so some of us are used to it, but the girls in Johnny Baskets aren’t. They mutter under their breaths as their eyes go wide, and my gaze lands on Alana, who looks like she’s paled.

The bus straightens–it’s really nothing–and I laugh as I sit next to her. “Are you okay?” I ask her.

She nods, her eyes still wide. She breathes deeply before she answers. “I’m fine. I just don’t like how close we were to the edge.”

There’s more to that, I’m sure of it. She’s worried about Trine, about the creature, about Dom…but this isn’t the time to talk about it, not when everyone in the band can overhear our conversation.

I nod in agreement, even though I’ve been on this bus ride countless times. “Yeah, it can be a little nerve-wracking,” I say. My fingers are inches away from hers and I have to stop myself from interlacing them with hers. I don’t, though.

I want to respect her wishes and I know we still need to keep things under wraps between us.

We fall into a comfortable silence, watching the scenery pass us by. The mountains are beautiful, the trees a dark canopy of green covering the mountain range around us.

I can see the tension in Alana’s shoulders slowly release as she takes in the view.

“It’s gorgeous,” she says, breaking the silence.

“It really is,” I reply, smiling at her.

She meets my gaze and smiles back, her eyes softening. We stare at each other for a moment longer than necessary, and I feel my heart start to race. Before I can do anything stupid, Londyn sits down next to me.

“The next show,” she says. “Is tonight. And it’s much bigger than the last one. Are you ready?”

I nod. “Yeah, it should be fun.”

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