"Mrs. Nelson?" Hailey asked, trying to ignore the shouted questions and camera flashes behind her.
"Yes… Oh." Mrs. Aleida Nelson answered the door in a sweater and apron, with one child clinging to her leg and his older sibling watching fearfully from the stairs. "What do you want?"
Hailey winced at her tone, but steeled herself. "May I come in? I just want to talk, if that's all right." She didn't mention or even gesture at the cameras, just acted like they weren't there.
In the exasperated tone of a mother who'd seen it all, Aleida sighed and opened the door wide. "All right then. Leave the mob outside though."
"Yes, ma'am."
Hailey stepped inside. She let her vision shift for just a second, to see the thick flowing line between herself and the invisible Jessica who'd snuck across the threshold. To Hailey's dismay, the line toward Aleida was thin and quivering. There wasn't even hatred. If Hailey understood how to interpret the lines correctly by now, Aleida didn't feel much of anything, if not outright rejecting speaking with Hailey.
Aleida lead her into the living room, where yet another kid was lounging on the sofa, playing a video game. "Upstairs," she commanded. Instantly, the kid popped off the couch and fled the room. The other pair that had been following them did likewise, leaving the two of them alone — except for the pile of news cameras still pointed at the front windows of the house.
Hailey gestured to the blinds. "May I?" When the woman didn't respond, Hailey shrugged and closed them all in unison anyway.
Bad move, she realized, as Aleida's eyes narrowed. "So it's true."
"Yes." Hailey paused. "Mrs. Nelson, I wanted to come here and explain what happened. I… I knew your son."
"Did you, huh?" Aleida slumped onto the couch. She looked like a clock that'd been wound too many times and was about to give up on ticking entirely. "Go on then."
"Alex and I weren't close friends or anything, but we hung out. He was in a few of my classes. I thought he was a pretty good guy."
"Huh."
Hailey wasn't sure if that was approval or apathy. She continued as if Aleida were actually interested in what she had to say. What else was she supposed to do?
"He was part of the community, you know? Helped out at Hector's place for free, started a capture the flag game that covered the whole town. And he was great with kids. There was one girl, Jenny Wilson, they were like the dynamic duo of the game. When they all found out about magic, he was right there with them. He was… He was trying to invent things," she said, as the best way she could think of explaining why he'd died.
"Invent things," Aleida repeated in a dull voice.
She was working off stories from Josh and the others at this point. She'd been a part of the town games with Jenny and Natalie, but she'd never even known about the magical community. "...Yeah. There was a spell he was working on at the end. Something everybody wanted to know how to do. Everyone was looking forward to it. If he'd figured it out—"
"He's dead."
Hailey stopped talking. The utter despair in Aleida's tone sucked all the energy out of the room. The painful melancholy, tangible and thick in her throat, was enough to bring tears to Hailey's eyes.
"My son is dead. He died in that town."
"...I'm so sorry."
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Aleida's eyes narrowed even further, her severe eyebrows accentuating the fury that rapidly built up in her voice. "You're sorry."
"I wish I could have—"
"My son. My baby boy. Those animals chopped him in half."
Hailey spluttered a little, trying to reply. "What— no, that's not—"
"They didn't want me to see his body," Aleida went on. "They didn't want his mother to see her son's body. Do you know how fucked up a body has to be for that to happen?"
"I—"
"They couldn't even find the rest," she snapped. "I buried a pair of legs."
The way she said it was almost comical… but Hailey couldn't laugh. If Hailey looked up, she might just burst into tears. She didn't say anything, even as Aleida got to her feet. She sat on the couch, staring directly at the coffee table. This wasn't like the argument with Trevor and Elissa — there was nothing to be said.
"His little brother asks every day where he is. When he's coming back from school. It's been six fucking months and I still don't know how to explain it to him. What about you? How should I tell my nine year old boy that his brother got cut in half in some shit-heap RV in the middle of fucking nowhere?"
What was I thinking? Oh god… Hailey shook her head. "I don't know."
"Then what good are you?" Aleida shouted. "Get the hell out of my house. Stay away from what's left of my family."
Hailey bolted from the room, straight out the front door and through the crowd of cameras. More shouted questions, but she didn't hear a single one. Her face was covered in tears. She fled down the street, back to their car, and got into the back, sobbing.
----------------------------------------
Jessica reappeared as soon as they were inside. She locked the door, then scooted over as Hailey fell on her, sobbing into her shoulder. Jessica held her and let her cry, brushing her hair out of the way. Hailey's mind was full of images of the murder, the town hall, Aleida's face as she berated Hailey, her children watching from between the banisters on the staircase.
Jeremy got into the car a minute later, and drove them out of the neighborhood without a word, with a couple camera crews tailing them. He lost them after a few blocks.
"Hailey…" he started.
"I can't—" she gasped.
Jessica squeezed her slightly, brushing her hair back again and humming quietly.
"Look, it's gonna be okay. That sounded rough as hell, but it'll be okay. Aleida's being taken care of by the Rallsburg Families Fund, her family's gonna be okay. And… I know you don't want to hear this right now, but that was actually good for you. Maddie would call that a sympathy drive. People are gonna think of you as a lot more relatable."
"She was so…" Hailey trailed off, but she was finally calming down. Jessica's quiet humming melody helped a lot.
"I know. Believe me. I've had to give that talk a hundred times. It doesn't get any fuckin' easier."
"How do you stand it?" she asked, finally sitting up. Jessica attached herself to Hailey's arm, and Hailey hugged her tight, trying to express how grateful she was.
Jessica just smiled, and gently pointed out that Hailey hadn't put her seatbelt on. Hailey choked out a laugh and clicked it into place.
"I couldn't. Neither could Jackie. It's what drove us both out of that shit." Jeremy shrugged. "Honestly though, I think you helped her out too. Gave her someone to vent to, everybody needs that. You didn't do anythin' wrong, of course, but you're someone she can scream at safely, you know?"
"Okay." Hailey pulled a tissue out of her bag and dabbed at her eyes. "...Thanks, Jeremy."
"Anytime." He glanced at the dashboard clock. "What now? You still want to make that second visit? It's not that far."
"...I don't think I can do that twice in one day…" Hailey murmured.
"Yeah…" Jeremy's phone buzzed with a few tones. He reached over to unlock it, then tossed it back to Hailey. "That's an alert. Read it for me?"
Before Hailey could check his, her own phone started buzzing. She picked it up, reading both at the same time. "Guess we have the same alerts," she joked. A moment later, even that slight bit of mirth evaporated — to be replaced by a bubbling ferocity, a beast that Hailey hadn't felt in weeks.
"What's goin' on?"
"Trouble. Pull over." As soon as they'd ground to a halt, she handed over his phone.
"Jesus Christ." He added a few other choice curses. Hailey felt the same. What the hell is going on now? "We gotta get up there."
ARMED HIGH SPEED CHASE ON I-405 SOUTHBOUND: SECOND CAR "SHOOTING FIREBALLS"
Jeremy flicked over to a live feed from a helicopter. Sure enough, they could see a pop of gunfire from the first car, tiny flashes from the barrel of a gun out the side window… and literal return fire in the form of magic.
Hailey's blood was boiling, scalding her face from the inside-out. She leapt out of the car, Jessica right behind her. One way or another, they were getting involved in this.
"Hold up, Hailey. That's three fuckin' hours from here," said Jeremy. "It's gonna be over by the time we get there."
She glanced up at the sky, and felt out with her magic as far as she could. Wind's blowing north. Perfect.
"No, no it isn't."