They brought calamity through their creation alone, and once risen, even the strongest of warriors struggled to defeat them. With their appearance came a shifting of the tides of war. What once seemed certain victory was now a deadly struggle. All I knew for certain was that we had two options before us: resist or perish.

  Surrender was never an option. We all made a vow before starting down this path. We will never be ruled again.

  Even these terrible beasts were, unfortunately, only a precursor for what was to come.

  This message, written in a journal, seems to be about spirit-beasts. Most of the journal was found burned, having been thrown in what is believed to be a fireplace. The ashes seemed to have insulated it to a degree, but these words, on a page near the center, are all that remains legible. It is dated to some seven to nine hundred years ago. It seems to indicate that the spirit beasts did not always inhabit and manifest in our world. The implications of that are of great interest to me.

  - From the notes of Ahzra Zholii

  *****

  The screaming came from the street nearby. There were dozens yelling, and cars slamming on their horns. The street was about two hundred feet away, and the heavy rain obscured his view, but Simon could see crowds of people running.

  “What’s going on?” Katherine asked.

  Simon wasn’t sure if the question was directed at anyone or if she was just thinking out loud. He looked back at her and shook his head.

  “I don’t know. Should we go see?”

  “Are you kidding?” Katherine asked, looking terrified at the idea.

  At the same time, Justus said, “Absolutely not.”

  The two shared a brief look, then Justus continued. “Whatever is going on is their problem. We should go and—”

  “I—Is that a dog?” Katherine asked.

  Simon turned around. He didn’t notice it until it moved. It was standing on top of one of the cars, facing towards them. If it was a dog, it was bigger than any he’d ever seen. It was nearly half the size of the car it stood on. The creature leapt into the air, sailing ten feet high and heading straight towards them. The way it moved was enough to convince him it was definitely not a dog.

  Katherine screamed and took a step back, stumbling as she bumped into the bench behind them. Justus grabbed her by the wrist and began to take off.

  “Run!” he yelled.

  Simon didn’t need to be told. He was already right behind them.

  They sprinted across the muddy trail that edged the lake. Unfortunately, that meant they couldn’t run directly away from the creature charging towards them. Simon glanced behind him. It had only been a few seconds, but the thing had already closed a good third of the distance between them. He was able to get a better look at it, which only made him sprint harder.

  The thing would catch up to them quickly. It wouldn’t even be another minute, and Justus and Katherine were keeping their lead. Even if they weren’t, Simon probably would have come to the same conclusion about what he had to do.

  Simon began veering off the trail, closer to the street. He glanced over to the creature again, which was only a hundred feet from him now.

  The monster looked like a starving lion that had been dunked in acid. Its skin was slick and shiny and stretched so tight over its form that it was ripped in some places. Its angles were wrong—too sharp and jagged to be confused for an actual lion. The thing's mouth was sideways, looking more like a bug’s mandibles than a jaw. It was still, looking at Justus and Katherine with a pair of silver eyes.

  Simon slowed and waved his hands, yelling. The beast looked between him and the other two. It made up its mind and began sprinting straight for him. Simon took off, immediately starting to regret his plan.

  The wet grass was slick beneath him, making it difficult for his feet to find purchase on the ground. By the time he reached the sidewalk, he could hear the monster snarling behind him. The muscles in his legs burned from the effort, but he forced them to keep moving as he sprinted between abandoned cars.

  As he was running, something snagged his foot. Simon tumbled, slamming into the asphalt. He coughed as the fall took the air from his lungs. He pulled himself up and looked down at what had tripped him. He froze. It was someone’s legs. The rest of the person was missing. Bloody strips of shirt and flesh were the only thing above the waist.

  A thud from above drew his attention. The beast crouched on top of the car next to him, staring at him with those unsettling silver eyes. Its insect-like mouth clicked and made a hissing noise that chilled him more than the cold rain. It tensed, and Simon knew it was about to pounce. His mind flashed to Belle, for some reason. The little dog was still waiting for him to come back.

  The creature shook its head and screeched as a bang echoed across the street. Simon’s eyes were pulled to the noise, and he saw a police officer standing forty feet away between the rows of abandoned cars. His pistol was aimed at the monster.

  The beast snarled and jumped off the car,charging the officer. Several more shots rang out. The monster flinched as the bullets connected, but didn’t slow down. It leapt toward the officer, as metal blades extended from its forelimbs. The officer tried to jump out of the way, but a blade caught him in the shoulder. The blade cut through skin, bone, and bulletproof vest alike. The officer’s body landed in two uneven pieces.

  The monster looked back to Simon. He realized then he probably should have run when he had the chance. The creature began to stalk towards him, limping slightly. Even with its injury, Simon knew there was no point in running now. He couldn’t even try to. He wanted to run, but his mind wasn’t cooperating. At least the rain would wash away the proof that he’d pissed himself. He’d always been worried he’d piss himself when he died. But given the circumstances, he thought it was understandable.

  It didn’t matter anyway. He’d done what he’d wanted. He’d distracted the thing. Justus and Katherine would be long gone by now. At least they’d be okay. If anyone had to die, it probably should be him. He always saw himself as a side character—a supplemental source of annoyance or occasional chuckle. He had friends, but, if asked, no one would ever describe him as a close friend.

  No one would cry for him. No one but Belle. She would miss him. That was all he really regretted.

  The monster shifted its gaze, looking past him. Its expression seemed to change. Was that anger?

  Simon followed its gaze to find Justus walking toward him. Simon felt no sense of relief or worry, only confusion. Why was Justus here? Why come back?

  Justus continued walking past Simon and towards the monster, placing himself between them. He stopped and lifted a fist, opening it palm up toward the sky in the direction of the monster. In his hand were dozens of small rocks.

  The monster glared at Justus. It seemed to be hesitating. Justus didn’t look like the terrified prey Simon did. He stood tall and still, his handful of rocks not even shaking.

  The monster screeched and overcame whatever had given it pause. It charged, sprinting towards them. Simon kicked at the ground, scampering away. Justus didn’t so much as flinch, even as the beast leapt for him.

  A sound like the crack of a dozen whips cut through the storm. The rocks vanished in Justus’s hand, and the monster’s head was shredded in a burst of silver and red mist. Justus sidestepped as the body sailed through the air. The corpse landed on the ground next to Simon. He stared at it, unable to process what he’d seen. Was it really dead? That fast?

  Justus approached the corpse. He crouched over it and made a strange gesture with his hand. After a second, he made a “tsk” sound and shook his hand as he stood up. He looked back to Simon.

  “Let’s go. Katherine is waiting in the park.”

  Simon glanced down at the monster. He nodded and followed Justus back towards the park. He made sure to keep his distance from the monster’s corpse. Best not to tempt fate.

  Katherine was waiting under a tree, looking at her phone. She jumped in surprise when she glanced up and saw them approaching. She started jogging towards them, eyes wide.

  “You’re okay!”

  Simon could only nod.

  “Something big is going on,” she said. “I got an alert a minute ago. It says there are monster sightings all over the city. They airdropped a map of where they’re setting up shelters. A bunch of heroes are getting transported in.”

  “Has anything like this happened before?” Justus asked.

  “Not often.” Simon said, surprised to hear his voice. “Monsters have shown up before. Usually it’s only a few of them, and the heroes respond and take them out before anyone gets hurt. But sometimes…” He shared a worried look with Katherine.

  “An S-class monster,” she said. “The last one that appeared was in Barcelona. Thousands of people died. Most of it was from the hundreds of small monsters that appeared. By the time the S-class showed up, most of the city was evacuated or in shelters. That’s what they think is going to happen here.”

  “These S-class monsters, how big are they?” Justus asked.

  “Big. There’s videos of the ones in China and Barcelona. They were maybe thirty or forty feet tall. Are you going to fight it?”

  “Fuck no.” Justus said. “That sounds like a dire-beast. It would take a group of Spirit Artists way stronger than me to take down something like that.”

  “So are we going to a shelter?” Katherine asked.

  Justus shook his head. “No. You’re going to take me to get my stone, and then I’m getting the hell out of this city. I’m not going to trust a shelter against a dire-beast. If the smaller monsters are only now appearing, it should take at least six or seven hours before a dire-beast finishes manifesting.”

  “You’re insane! I’m not going to run through the city just to get your stupid rock,” Katherine said.

  Justus groaned. “How far away do you live?” he asked.

  Katherine gave him a flat stare.

  “Is it closer to us than one of these shelters?”

  Katherine hesitated, then looked at her phone.

  “Yeah… why?” she asked, looking at him with suspicion.

  “With the stone, I can use my teleportation spell. It lets me take others with me. We could go wherever you live, then I can hop us from rooftop to rooftop, to wherever that shelter is. It’d be safer. Everyone will be moving to those shelters, too, so there’s probably going to be more monsters there.”

  “And more heroes,” Katherine countered.

  “Who would be protecting the shelters, not every single person making their way to them.”

  Katherine was silent for a moment.

  “Fine,” she said. She looked at Simon. “Are you coming with us? Simon?”

  Simon blinked a few times when he heard his name. He was dissociating, disconnecting. It wasn’t the first time. His hand reflexively moved to his pocket and felt the silver dollar that he took with him everywhere. He clenched his fist around it. Now wasn’t the time to be freaking out. He had to keep his cool.

  “Uh, yeah. It sounds like a good plan,” he said, looking at Katherine. “I’m still not sure about this stone thing, but if Justus says it’s safer this way, I’ll trust him.” He turned to Justus. “You’ve killed these things before, haven’t you?”

  Justus nodded. “Not a lot, but as long as I’m prepared, I can deal with the small ones. I can’t promise I’ll be able to handle anything we come across, though. Especially without my guidestone. Whatever we do, it will be dangerous.”

  “I figured as much,” Simon said. “Let's go get that stone, whatever it is. Besides, teleporting sounds pretty sweet.” He tried to smile, but it felt forced even to himself.

  Katherine looked at him uncertainly but nodded. He hated that look of concern and pity. He’d gotten far too many when he was little.

  Justus began picking up rocks from the ground and sticking them in his pant pockets. He struggled getting them in, and cursed under his breath. Once his pockets were bulging with the stones, he seemed satisfied.

  “Alright. Let’s go before things get too chaotic.”

  ****

  It took less than ten minutes for Parton City to fall into complete chaos. The monsters were only part of the issue. Every car was heading to one of the eight shelters across the city, and the resulting deluge of traffic slowed to a crawl. Most were abandoning the vehicles and joining the hordes of people flooding the streets. Some cars were trying to shove through the street, scraping and shoving against the now-abandoned vehicles.

  Katherine, Justus, and Simon were some of the very few who cut through the crowd, fighting against it instead of going with the flow. Katherine had never seen so many people before. The crowds spilled over the sidewalks and into the streets, filtering through the halted traffic to reach their destination.

  The sound of helicopters overpowered the panicked conversations and torrent of rain. They flew low, just above the rooftops. She saw the three huge double-rotored aircraft heading in the direction the three of them had come from: Emmeret Park. That would likely be heroes from all over the country along with some specialized military squads.

  Justus led the way, shoving through the crowd. Katherine followed close behind, with Simon behind her. The three of them held hands so they wouldn’t get separated by the crowd. She was in the center of the chain, telling Justus where to go and making sure Simon didn’t get left behind.

  She hadn’t expected to ever see him again. When they were being chased, she’d looked back to see him sprinting away from them, the monster close behind.

  She’d almost run after him, but Justus had stopped her. He’d wanted to use the opportunity to run. She’d punched him in the face for that, which didn’t seem to faze him at all, then demanded they go help. Even after threatening him with never giving back his stone, he’d been reluctant to help. Not scared. He’d seemed annoyed, as if it was a hassle to save someone’s life. He did finally agree to go help Simon, but had told her to stay back.

  She had no clue what had happened or how Justus had managed to come back safely with Simon. She’d heard something that sounded like gunfire. She didn’t ask about it. She was too angry at Justus, and Simon didn’t look like he wanted to talk about it.

  Since the monster appeared, Simon had been acting strange. She’d seen depictions of battle shock in war movies, and that was the only thing she could relate to his behavior. He seemed only half there, silently staring. What little he did say felt stiff and forced. She was worried for him, but didn’t know what she could say that would help. She was worried for all of them.

  Her thoughts shifted to her parents.

  Her father would be safe, she thought. He would be at work, and she knew they had a large stainless-steel vault where he kept the store’s most valuable gems and jewelry. If he was smart, which she knew he was, he’d lock himself in the safe and wait things out.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Her mother should be fine too. She’d panicked at first, but after studying the shelter map she’d been airdropped, her worry lessened. One of the makeshift shelters was the hospital her mother worked at. She was already as safe as she could be.

  It wasn’t losing her parents that terrified her. She was terrified of her parents losing her. Dying didn’t scare her much. She didn’t want to get killed by a monster, but the actual concept of death wasn’t frightening. Still, she didn’t want her parents to deal with losing their only other child. Her father might be able to handle it, but her mother… Katherine knew she wouldn’t be able to.

  Katherine vividly recalled the night, a few weeks after her brother’s funeral, she’d walked into the apartment to hear her mother sobbing in her bedroom. It had been a short school day, but her mother hadn’t known. Katherine still sometimes wondered how often her mother cried when no one was looking.

  She sent a text to her mother, telling her that she and her school were being chaperoned to another shelter by a hero. The lie came easy to her. She often lied. Lied about going to school on the days when she couldn’t stand to be around other people. Lied about having a good day. Lied about feeling fine. The guilt was harder to swallow this time.

  As they reached the end of the street, she tugged on Justus’s hand. She pulled him to the right, indicating their turn. They’d finally reached her street.

  The flash of light in the street appeared without warning. Most people paused as they turned to look at it. Katherine did too.

  The light hovered in the air above the road, near the middle of the intersection. It remained for only a few seconds before fading. No, it wasn’t fading; it was solidifying.

  Within a few breaths after the light appeared, it condensed into a six-legged crab-like shape. A monster was manifesting.

  The sea of people erupted with movement. They ran, all trying to get away. Most ran the way they’d already been heading, but some thought to get inside the nearby buildings. The resulting chaos made it impossible for anyone to get around quickly, lest they barrel into someone else.

  The creature turned to the three of them the moment it landed on the ground.

  It was bigger than the last one, with a body as big as a minivan. It stood on six long legs, which moved more like tendrils without joints than limbs. It had two longer, coiled tendrils near its front. Those unfurled in the air, revealing them to be thin tentacles similar to a squid, except the ends split into three flat, leaf-like fingers, with mouths at the center, filled with shark-like teeth.

  The limbs were connected to a misshapen ovular body, which seemed like nothing more than a rock with holes where the eight limbs sprouted from. It didn’t even have any eyes that she could see.

  One of the long tentacles whipped out, grabbing an elderly man who had fallen during the chaos. The suckers latched around his head and dragged him into the air. He flailed for a brief moment before his body went rigid, then limp. The tentacle tossed the body aside, the man’s head no longer attached to his corpse. She could see the dark flesh bulging as it swallowed the head. It reminded her of a video she saw of a snake eating an egg.

  She felt Justus’s hand tighten on her wrist and begin to pull on her. She’d been entranced, almost admiring the grotesque horror in front of her. His movement reminded her the danger was very real. This wasn’t a movie or dream. The thing was heading towards them, and if she didn’t move, she would end up like the man she’d watched die. She gripped Simon’s wrist and started moving.

  Some in the crowd were paralyzed as she had been. Others were shoving against the tide of people behind, who weren’t aware of the monster ahead. The rain was so loud and heavy now that it was hard to see even across the street.

  She could hear the screams behind them grow more panicked. She looked behind to see the monster shambling over ten feet above the heads of the crowd, its long tendril-like limbs allowing it to move unimpeded but slowly towards them. Its two front tentacles were snatching people left and right, latching onto their faces with incredible speed.

  Even with its relatively slow pace compared to the last monster, this one was steadily getting closer. Why was it focused on them? More than the fact it was moving towards them, she could sense its attention, somehow. They needed to get away, but the sea of people was packed too tightly for them to move through any faster.

  Justus must have come to the same conclusion as her. He turned around to face the slowly approaching monster, putting himself between her and it. He pulled out a handful of stones from his pocket and held them in his palm as he aimed his arm in the monster’s direction. Whatever he was about to do was interrupted.

  Something fell from the sky. It dropped like a boulder from heaven thrown by an angry god. It crashed into the monster and slammed it violently to the ground. The monster didn’t scream, but she saw its limbs whip about the air in a pained frenzy.

  The large figure stood atop the monster’s body. It was a man, and he was holding a hammer nearly as long as himself in one hand and a large rectangular shield the size of a car door in the other. As he lifted the hammer to strike the monster, one of the tentacles flew through the air towards him.

  Katherine didn’t have time to scream a warning, but she didn’t need to. What looked like a heatwave cut through the rain and clean through the monster’s tentacle. The severed end of the limb fell through the air as the rest of it reeled in shock. The hammer came down, and she could feel the force of the blow as the monster’s body shattered underneath the force. The frenzied tentacles seized up before falling to the ground.

  A second figure, dressed in bright silver, with a flowing cape to match, lowered down to hover in the air above the one with the hammer and shield. She spoke loudly, her voice cutting through the pouring rain with unnatural clarity. She had to be using some kind of sound or amplification power.

  “Get to a shelter! Remain calm! Heroes from all over the country are being teleported in as I speak! The situation will be handled! We will do our best to protect each and every one of you! If you see a monster, use your phones or a flashlight and shine the light into the air! We have dozens of flyers above ready to take action! Only signal for help if there is a monster! Again, do not panic! Remain calm and head towards a shelter! We’re watching over all of you!”

  With that, the hero flew down and picked up the much larger man, then rose back into the sky. The crowd began moving again seconds later.

  “Come on!” Justus said, pulling on her wrist.

  ----

  They kept pushing through the crowd. The streets were finally beginning to clear as more and more people made their way to the designated shelters. When they were half a block away from her apartment building, something flashed in the top right of her vision. The guidance stone had reconnected to her.

  Katherine glanced over at Justus. He didn’t seem to show any reaction. Why hadn’t he reconnected to it? Was it because she was the most recent user?

  Ever since the first monster encounter, when Simon split off and she had to force Justus to go back and help, she’d been suspicious of him. She didn’t know what to make of him. Not ten minutes ago, he had stood between her and that rocky monster. Part of her wanted to think he had done it for selfless reasons. She wanted to think of him as a hero. But he probably only protected her because he needed her to find his stone.

  In the end, he looked after himself first. He didn’t have the right to blame her if she did the same.

  Focusing her mind, she thought about changing the emerald’s settings. When she first connected, it had displayed a message saying the admin settings were untethered. The owner, it said, was deceased. If the owner had been the admin and died, maybe that meant a new admin could be assigned. There was a chance she could take control of the stone. She could use it to help.

  A familiar screen appeared in front of her. The world around her slowed. The violent rain seemed to calm as the drops began to float gently down. She recalled yesterday when she had spent half an hour using the system, but somehow only two minutes had passed. Was it really slowing time, or was it speeding up her mind?

  Either way, it would make this easier.

  She read the display.

  Settings

  User: Katherine Duval

  [Admin Settings]

  [User Settings]

  [████████]

  She mentally clicked on the Admin settings.

  Admin Settings

  Current Admin: Boris Sheshalo

  Status: Deceased

  Admin Settings Status: Untethered

  Alert:

  Admin is deceased. Assign a new admin to access admin settings.

  Assign User [Katherine Duval] as Admin?

  Y / N

  Another box popped up as she focused on the admin settings screen.

  ! Warning !

  Assigning a new user will result in Admin [Boris Sheshalo]’s personal data and private inventory being permanently lost!

  If you wish to keep [Boris Sheshalo]’s data and inventory, first transfer them to another guidestone. A guidestone of rank [Emerald] or above is required for transfer. For security purposes, a direct closed connection is required for transfer.

  If you wish to access [Boris Sheshalo]’s personal data and inventory, please provide the password required.

  Katherine hesitated. This explained why Justus hadn’t set any security on the stone. To do so would mean erasing this Boris person’s data. If that data was important enough to Justus to risk having the security basically shut off, then there must be a good reason he hadn’t done so.

  It took her a longer time than she’d like to admit to make a decision. She backed out of the menu. She didn’t have enough information. And if Justus found out, he would almost certainly be pissed. Even if she threatened to lock him out of the system, he might be able to kill her to become the new admin. That seemed to be how it worked. She wasn’t sure if he would go that far, but she wouldn’t risk it.

  She closed the settings menu. Just because that idea was too risky didn’t mean she was out of options. Something mentioned on the main page gave her another idea.

  She opened the inventory.

  The large window that opened overwhelmed her. It was a detailed list. Every item in the inventory was given one thin line with a name, description, weight, volume, and value. She could order the list by all of those except the description. It looked like a spreadsheet.

  There were icons in the corner. One was highlighted and showed three dots next to three thin lines. The other had a three-by-three box of spaced squares. She mentally focused on the box icon.

  The display flashed white, with a small loading symbol appearing in the center. It flashed again quickly, then a new screen appeared. The items were now separated in boxes with icons that seemed like photos of the items. When she looked at one, a pop-up appeared giving a more detailed description of the item. Those pop-ups remained until she looked away for more than a second.

  Her brother used to play that World of Warcraft game on his computer. He’d been really, really into that game. She sometimes watched him play, but never quite understood the game. It seemed boring to her, and she could admit that she hardly listened to him whenever he tried explaining it. She regretted that now, but she remembered seeing a menu in that game that this one reminded her of.

  She switched back to the spreadsheet-looking one.

  There were way too many items to look through. The number near the top told her there were over 2800. A percentage bar with a weight symbol next to it was around two-thirds full of a green line that turned yellow at the halfway point.

  There was a search bar there, too. She mentally focused on it. It began pulsing. Assuming how it worked, she mentally thought of the item she was hoping to find. It was a slim chance, but seeing how many items were here made her more hopeful.

  Sure enough, one result popped up. She hovered over it and focused. Another popup with different options. She focused on the one that read, “Retrieve.”

  She felt a weight appear in her pocket suddenly. The number near the top ticked down from 2835 to 2834. He might notice that. An idea came to her. She focused in her mind on her Kindle, still in her backpack. As she focused, a new pop-up appeared.

  Store Item: Amazon Kindle Oasis, 8GB 2017 Model?

  She mentally confirmed. The number ticked back up to 2835. She closed the screens, and time returned to normal. If Justus took off with the stone, she’d end up losing her Kindle, but that was worth the trade. Her books were stored on the cloud anyway, and she still had her old model.

  Justus gave no indication that he was aware of anything she had done. He kept walking briskly ahead of them. Katherine reached into her pocket and felt the solid, smooth surface of the item she had taken.

  ----

  When they reached her building, she stopped Justus and told him they were here. The three of them got in. Justus wanted to take an elevator up to her floor, but Katherine had remembered her father’s warnings never to use it during an emergency. Simon agreed with her, so they ended up taking the stairs.

  After several long minutes of walking up nearly a dozen flights of stairs, they reached her floor. She led them to her apartment and opened the doors with her keys. She locked the door behind her, though she felt paranoid doing so. It was doubtful anyone was still in the building, but there was always a risk some people would use the city’s chaos as an opportunity to loot abandoned homes.

  “Where’s my guidestone?” Justus asked as soon as she turned around.

  “In my room. Come on,” she said, gesturing for him to follow. She looked at Simon. “Feel free to get a drink or something to eat in the fridge.”

  He nodded but took a seat on the couch and reached for the remote.

  She led Justus to the hall and into her room. Thankfully, she had cleaned it a few days ago, after her mom had nagged her to do so for a week. As the thought appeared in her head, she realized how frivolous a worry it was. She’d nearly died twice in the past few hours, and she was worried what a boy would think of her bedroom.

  She opened the top drawer of her nightstand and pulled out the Emerald. It flashed with a dim glow as she handed it to Justus. A notification appeared in the corner of her view. She focused on it, and it opened. Time slowed as she read the message.

  Previous User [Justus Fahren] Reconnected

  Primary User Connection Established

  User [Katherine Duval] set as Secondary User

  The screen of text vanished. Time returned to normal as she dismissed it. She wasn’t sure if that was automatic or if Justus had set her as a secondary user. If he had, it was a positive sign that he hadn’t disconnected her.

  He stood motionless, his eyes scanning quickly at a display invisible to her. So it was speeding up perception. Unless she was experiencing slowed time right now. Would she even notice? Wasn’t time subjective? That was what Einstein's whole relativity thing was about, wasn’t it? It didn’t matter, she decided. Chicken or the egg.

  He was probably checking the settings to make sure she didn’t mess with anything. She was glad she hadn’t given herself admin permissions. She waited nervously, wondering if he’d notice the item she’d swapped out. After a short time that felt much longer to her than even he probably perceived it, Justus’s eyes focused on her. He nodded.

  “Thanks,” he said. “Now that I have my skills, I’ll take you two to the nearest shelter. Let’s go.”

  Before she could ask any questions, he walked out.

  She frowned and followed. Before she left, she paused, then moved her opened door to look at the poster taped to it. Phoenix would likely be somewhere in the city.

  Today Katherine had come closer than ever to that world of supers, and it made her realize something. She was never meant to be one of them.

  Superheroes were brave beacons of hope. But when Simon was in danger, she’d pushed someone else to go help him while she hid. When he came back, clearly disturbed by whatever he had experienced, she couldn’t find the words to comfort him. And when faced with danger herself, she’d frozen.

  She grabbed the poster at the top and ripped it off the door. It wasn’t a clean rip. Parts of it remained on the door, where the double-sided tape stubbornly refused to let go of its longtime companions. But most of it came free. She watched it fall to the ground, then left her room.