Regeneration. The Ability to Heal. By Cassie Greutman. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter Five

I have only hazy memories of getting myself from the car to my room, where I fell into bed without even a shower. I slept late into Sunday, waking up glad that it wasn’t a school day. Not that Nina would have made me go, but the school thought I was enough of a troublemaker as it was. No need to miss any more days.

I groaned as I tried to pull myself out of bed, body still exhausted. I could put off being tired for an indefinite period, up until I slowed down. Then it hit me like a freight train. Dirt broke off of my hair and plunked down from my shoulder to the floor.

Renewed groans burst forth when I glimpsed myself in the mirror. I didn’t normally care what I looked like, but this was enough to make even me cringe. My normally light brown hair was almost gray from mud. Nina had tried to get me to shower last night, but I wouldn’t listen, too tired to even think about it. The pajamas I wore were clean, but that was it. I looked like an Aborigine going hunting. Wait a second. I leaned in closer to the mirror. Was that… yes, a zit. Ew, my first one ever. Regenerating skin didn’t get zits. Unless it had dirt over it all night, apparently.

Grabbing my towel, I rushed for the bathroom. The water never seemed to take so long to get warm before. I stripped and jumped in while it was still cool, not learning any patience, even after all I’d been through the last few days.

Finally, it started to get hot. Ahh, wonderful warm water. I cranked the hot handle on even more. I would never take hot water for granted again.

After nearly turning myself into a prune, I hopped out and towel-dried, making a quick check for fresh scars. A small puckered scab on my chest. I touched it, no pain. I pushed.

Still nothing. Fully healed. The scab would fall off and I probably wouldn’t even have a scar. I turned around and looked at my back in the mirror. Nothing. No exit wound. Was the bullet still in there? Not that it mattered, but it was kind of icky to think of a hunk of metal stuck in my body.

Hopefully, it had worked its way out. It was just going to have to stay there if it was still inside me. No good way of getting it out, and I couldn’t exactly ask for help.

I grabbed my dirty pajamas off the floor. I owed Nina at least that, and headed back to my room.

I shut the door behind me, locking it before heading to the closet for some clean clothes. Nina always kept everything perfect. I tossed my once clean pjs at the hamper and missed. Normally I’d leave them there, but not today. I picked them up and stuffed them into the hamper on top of my other junk. Strange that there were still clothes in there. Nina always did laundry on Saturday. I couldn’t imagine her not going about her routine, even if I was missing. In fact, I hadn’t heard anything from downstairs. Had they gone to church without me?

Suddenly desperate, hoping they were worried enough about me to stay home and yet telling myself I was being stupid, I threw on the closest pieces of clothing and ran for the stairs.

“Is everything okay?”

I grabbed my chest, heart nearly popping out. Dan. He had stuck his head around the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen.

“Yes, sorry,” I mumbled. They were here. I should have known they would be. Even if I didn’t understand why, they cared.

“Okay.” He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t push it. “Hungry? Nina has breakfast almost ready.”

As if on cue, my stomach let out an embarrassing squeal. Dan lifted a dark eyebrow and smiled. Sure, it was a strained smile, but at least it was a smile. “Let’s get that taken care of.”

I followed him into the kitchen, the smell of everything bagels and melted Velveeta cheese hitting me like someone had tossed a brick. Poor Nina. The entire refrigerator was going to be emptied over the next few days if I had my way.

“You’re up,” Nina said, smiling brightly. Hers was less forced than Dan’s, but still not her normal smile. She flipped the bacon in the skillet and then turned back toward me. “This will be ready in one minute.”

One minute? My stomach gurgled out a protest.

Dan chuckled. “I don’t know if she can wait that long, babe. Maybe you should just give it to her now.”

“The bacon isn’t crispy.”

“That’s okay,” I interjected. “I don’t mind it being a little underdone.” This was weird. No yelling? No questions? Now I was worried.

Nina shrugged, used her spatula to fish out two pieces of bacon, and plopped them straight onto the golden mountain of cheese and bagel. She put the perfectly toasted top on and slid the plate to me. I grabbed the plate and filled my mouth in a flash.

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

The sandwich was nearly gone before I looked up. Dan was staring at me while Nina finished another sandwich, thankfully back pointed toward me. She was always so perfect, so polite. If she saw me eating like that, she’d probably have a heart attack. She turned to us and slid the sandwich to Dan.

“Gone already?” she asked after a glance at my plate. I nodded, not able to speak with my mouth full.

Dan shook his head, chuckling at me, then bowed his head to pray before he ate. That was something I’d always appreciated about them. They believed in something but didn’t try to make me. The state wouldn’t let them force me to go to church, but there were other ways to get me to listen if they’d wanted to.

Another two sandwiches with eggs, cheese, and bacon on them disappeared. By the last one, I was slowing down enough to actually taste. These things were awesome, nothing like what I had grown up eating. Mom only had a hotel microwave to work with most of the time, which meant lots of mac and cheese. I still don’t eat mac and cheese unless I’m really, really desperate.

“Thank you,” I mumbled around my last bite. It was still awful quiet in here, about the whole me going missing thing.

My stomach flipped, suddenly heavy with the anxiety added to all the food.

“You’re welcome,” Nina said. “I’m just so glad you’re here for me to do this for.”

“And thanks for coming to get me last night.” I meant it too. I don’t know if I had ever really thanked them before, other than the basics, but right now, it was heartfelt.

“Are you ready to talk about what happened? It’s best to get the police involved early,” Dan said, his food completely chewed and swallowed, of course. “Lester is coming over later. I’m not trying to push you, Trisha. I just want to get this handled.”

There it was. They’d just been waiting. Of course, they had all morning to relax and think about what they were going to say. I’d just gotten up. I should have come up with a plan before putting a foot on the stairs, but I’d needed to know they were here.

Nina put her hand on Dan’s shoulder. “It’s his way of protecting you,” she explained for him.

“I appreciate the thought, but I don’t need to be protected.”

Nina slid another sandwich in front of me. I fiddled with it for a second, fighting the urge to devour it. I wasn’t the one who needed protection. Wade was. The next time I saw him, I was going to… something. Wasn’t sure about that part yet. I pushed the last sandwich away, my body at odds with my stomach, muscles screaming for fuel but stomach feeling like I was out to sea right now. The Wade thing needed to be handled. I needed to know if he cared that he’d killed me, if there was a reason.

“Are you okay, honey?” Nina asked. I tore my gaze away from the table and glanced her way. She looked honestly concerned.

“I think I’ll go lay down for a while.” I shoved my chair away from the table, keeping my eyes pointed toward the floor so I didn’t have to see Dan and Nina’s worried expressions.

“Are you feeling okay?” Dan asked. I nodded, but headed for the stairs. “Maybe we should have taken her to the ER. Just to make sure nothing’s wrong,” I heard Dan say to Nina behind me.

“No, I just need to rest a bit,” I said, halfway up the staircase.

Nina followed me to the base of the stairs. “We’ll be right here if you need anything. If you don’t feel good, we really should have you checked out. How long were you in the woods?”

I shrugged and climbed the stairs faster. I made it to my room, but I could hear the two of them talking downstairs. After shutting the door, I moved straight for the window, sliding it up and slipping out in one well-practiced move.

They weren’t going to like it if they found out, but I had to go see if Wade was still around. I wasn’t going to let what happened to me happen to anyone else. I dropped to the ground outside the house, my left ankle sending up a brief twinge at the distance down but instantly healing.

Practically tiptoeing, I grabbed my bike off the front porch and pushed it toward the road. The sight of Dan’s Mercedes in the drive made me pause. Was this really how I wanted to handle the situation? They had been there as soon as I’d called for help last night. And they would find out that I’d snuck away again. Dan was going to be so mad. I so wanted to go back to the house, to pull up a chair in the kitchen and down two more sandwiches while trying to explain what had really happened Thursday.

But I couldn’t. I couldn’t get them involved in this. For them to know what had happened, they would have to know what I was. I definitely wasn’t ready for that. While I was starting to love the Inzas, I didn’t trust them yet. Look where almost trusting Wade had gotten me. And it wasn’t just trusting that they weren’t going to turn me over to some government program. There was another kind of trust involved, the kind that meant I could believe that they wouldn’t look at me like I was some kind of freak if they knew. I definitely wasn’t even close to there yet.

Sure, I might be a freak, but I didn’t want them thinking that.

Just in case Nina checked and found me missing, I took a hard left at the first intersection, then a right at the next. My legs felt like butter for the first few pedals, then set into a rhythm. The calories were kicking in. Every time I heard an engine I’d duck into some bushes or behind a neighbor’s vehicle. I was going to be in so much trouble. Couldn’t think like that. I had to find Wade.

The ride to Wade’s wasn’t far. He had his own apartment about a mile from the Inza’s place, something extra that Dan hadn’t liked about him. Plus, the fact that he was out of school already. He’d never mentioned his parents and with my own parental guidance problems, I’d never asked.

Looking back, that might have been kinda dumb. But I’d met him in the library, for Pete’s sake. I was just there to get out of the house. Who knew what he was doing there. Now that I thought about it, that was a little fishy. He wasn’t really the library type. Had he known something? He’d never even hinted about anything fae. But maybe that was why he’d killed me. He was part of one of those groups and had figured it out.

Getting close, I pulled into a small alley and coasted to a stop. I leaned my bike against the building and peeked around the corner. No one in sight. The walk from where I’d stashed my bike to the parking area for his apartment should have only taken about two minutes, but I was in stealth mode. Another good thing about the fae blood, we were a sneaky people.

I made it around the last corner and stopped. His junky pickup wasn’t sitting there. He was always home on Sunday afternoons. It was the one day he didn’t have anything scheduled and there was no way to get him to go out, or so he’d always said. I guess killing his girlfriend might have changed his mind. I waited there, hidden around the corner until dark, nearly bored out of my mind. He didn’t show.

Facing the Inzas wasn’t going to be great, after I was gone all day today. But it was worth it. I was going to find Wade. And I was going to stop him before he hurt someone else.