S.H.H.A.

Your Funeral

A drop of rain fell from the melancholy sky and splashed on the tip of my nose- exactly where a red bump of acne made its home. Acne: another reason why I hated human form.

Unfortunately, human form seemed to be everybody's favorite. Even the semi-beasts spent more time in human form. You'd think that if semi-humans liked human form then semi-beasts would like animal form. At least, that's what I spent my time thinking about.

Filling my head with useless and terribly annoying thoughts was one of my favorite things to do while trying to ignore Echo. Unfortunately, it was harder than you would think considering the girl literally trained in stealth and not attracting attention.

Fortunately, on that lovely Monday, as rain assaulted us from the sky, and Echo led me and my sister -who still hadn't gotten over earlier- past human-infested territory (downtown Fairlen), we had more important responsibilities to deal with than each other. There were an awful lot of words in that sentence that shouldn't have been in a sentence starting with "fortunately".

Echo, in her typical let's-see-how-girly-I-can-make-skulls outfit, abruptly stopped, causing me and my sister to ram into one another. I bit back a nasty remark. The way she peered around the corner with full alertness in her dark eyes told me to hold it in until later.

She twisted her body around the edge of the little shop- blending into the shadows with ease. The rain, now plummeting onto the pavement, covered any sound her feet made.

It'd also cover any noise the enemies made.

Echo beckoned us to follow, and I did so quietly- to the best of my abilities. Quiet didn't exactly suit me, but I tried! I really did!

For no apparent reason, Echo picked up her pace and speed-walked to the end of the alleyway, making a quick turn to the right and then to the left around another building.

No sooner had my sister and I turned around that building when we were pulled down by Echo's outstretched arms and hidden behind a dumpster. She put a finger up to her mouth: hush.

The black-haired girl stood from her crouching position and peeked over the dumpster- scoping out the area. Pudding and I stayed down, trying our best not to soak our butts in the freezing puddles. It's supposed to be summer, for crying out loud!

Echo lowered herself back down to our level, her short hair soaked and sloppily flung all over her forehead. Trying her best to speak quietly but still be heard over the rain, she said, "This is the building," she pressed her hand to the wall, "But, the door's on the other side."

"How many guards?" I asked, anxious to get inside. Earlier, the sun had been out, and expecting another egg-frying hot day, I hadn't even thought to grab a normal jacket, much less a rain jacket.

Thirty minutes ago, I was dying in the heat. Now I'm about to freeze to death. I hate it when mother nature can't make up her mind.

"There's one on this side of the building, but I can only guess beyond that," replied Echo, faint worry lines creeping across her forehead. "Echolocation won't work in the rain."

Echolocation: The one thing I envied about Echo (besides her haircut). She wasn't very creative about the name, but I guess it got the point across.

"So take out guard number one with Incandescent and storm the base," I said, referring to my own beautifully named power- No, I didn't look that word up in a thesaurus... maybe.

"Or I could knock the guy out without anyone noticing and we can decide on our next course of action from there."

"Or we could do that." Giving into Echo was humiliating, but not as bad as Pudding agreeing with. There's nothing like my own sister siding with my rival.