The Storm Inside

Chapter Two: Rain and Wind

A/N: and here's another one! I feel like this could become the best book in the series, but it's too early to tell. I'm super hyped about it, though

"We've been waiting for like, four hours," Valerie groaned as her and Beatrix finished their third game of chess, which meant Beatrix winning for the third time.

I'd stayed out in the balcony for a bit, before the rain had really started to come down, and the wind had blown my hair all around my face and I knew that I couldn't hide from the others forever.

Everyone had felt the storm coming in the past few days. The temperature dropping, the clouds turning dark, the constant light sprinkle of rain. The weather forecasters had said it would be a mild one and there was no need to open the underground bunkers, but they always said that. So now the five of us were hanging out inside, with the windows shut and the pictures taken off the walls.

"She'll probably be here soon," Bella said. "Hopefully."

"So what do we do until then?" I asked. I'd spent the last hour watching Evianna over her shoulder as she played a game on her phone and continually lost. It was getting boring.

"There might be something, actually," Evianna said. "When Val and I were burning down Thomas's man-cave, I found these handwritten notes that looked kinda interesting. It looked like it was taken out of some kind of diary. I think I still have them in my bag."

"You're only mentioning this now?" I asked. "Have you not looked at them yet?"

"I kinda forgot about them," she admitted. "It wasn't really stuff about the serum. When did he finish it?"

"About a year and a half, maybe two years before I got it," I replied.

"Well this is seven years before that," she said. "It says so on the top. Should we read it?"

"It couldn't hurt," I said, and we all gathered around to listen.

Evianna set the short stack of stapled together paper on her lap, and began to read aloud.

"The world has changed since I was a child. The air is polluted, the crime rate is rising, and the economy is starting to fall apart. When I go outside, I see more homeless then ever, and the orphanages are starting to fill. I admit, it saddens me, to know that our country is collapsing. But I know it is for the greater good."

"So I guess this is when everything started to go to shit," I murmured. "What the hell does the greater good mean?"

"You guys remember when taxes were raised and the minimum wage was lowered to like, four dollars? Well, for all the normal people, while the rich stayed rich," Evianna said.

"No. We weren't born yet," I said.

"I don't mean remember in that way. But this suggests that a lot of the money went to all of this. He and his friends used it to make the serum. And fund everything else."

"I thought tax dollars were supposed to get used for schools and hospitals and stuff," Bella said sadly.

"It says a ton of government people were involved," Evianna murmured, flipping ahead in the book. "Even some politicians."

"Didn't he tell you about his plan to like, sell kids?" I asked. "Is there anything in there about that?"

"The first child test subjects that we know of are Dove and the others, but back then it seems like it was just to see how far they could go with science, and to get a leg up on other countries that they were threatened by. But this time around, other companies and even other countries wanted in. You guys are worth millions, some of you billions, even."

"I just never understood why he and his friends didn't test their stuff on themselves, if they were so confident," Valerie said.

"Because that wouldn't be safe," Evianna said sarcastically. "But they could at least have gotten some willing adults to try it out."

"Oh, they tried that," Beatrix said casually. "The volunteers died. They hushed it up."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"It was in the journal," she said.

"It couldn't have been," I said. "I looked through the whole thing, it was just a bunch of sciency stuff and coded messages."

"Not originally," she said. "I tore the other pages out to examine them better. I guess I forgot to tell you."

"Why are you like this?" I snapped.

"Someone needs to be the antagonist," she said calmly, sipping her cold tea. "And before you ask, I don't have them anymore. I ditched all my stuff when I was hiding in the city."

I should have expected that. But I guessed I could add it to the list of things she had "forgotten" to tell me until it was too late.

"Maybe we should just go home," I said. "I don't think Dove's coming anytime soon. And your parents are gonna wonder where we are."

"No they aren't," Valerie said. "But yeah, I guess we should go."

"You guys are crazy, thinking about leaving in this weather," Bella said. "You'll be blown away."

"It'll be fine," I said. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Every time you say that, I get an impending sense of doom," Beatrix said.

I ignored her, getting up. "We'll come back when we can, hear more of the story."

"Okay," Bella said. "I'll walk you out."

When we got to the lobby of the apartment building, I started to regret making the decision to leave when I heard the wind howling. But I was tired, and I wanted to get in bed soon.

"Can you call a taxi, or something?" Evianna asked Valerie. "This looks hazardous."

"It's certainly ominous," she said. "But good call," she said. "I'll get one."

"You're both wrong," I said. "It's absolutely treacherous."

As she found the number, the three of us watched the rain fall outside. "I think it's gonna snow," Valerie said.

It was winter, but it might as well be summer, with the heat. "Where do you think that?" I asked.

"Someone on the internet said so."

"Well maybe you should take what you hear on the internet with a grain of goddamn salt Valer-" I started, before Evianna cut us off by announcing the arrival of our taxi. We ran to it, the water in the streets already rising, which meant my shoes were soaked by the time we got into the car. Valerie gave the driver her address, and we curled up in the backseat, shivering.

"Where are you gonna go?" Evianna asked Beatrix.

"I have a few places in mind," she said. "I can always go to the abandoned train station. Hopefully there won't be too many crackheads at this time of night. If there are, I can go to that twenty-four-hour diner and sleep in a booth."

"That's so depressing," Evianna said.

"I know that you hate accepting help, but please come back with us," Valerie said. "It's not safe on the streets. Seriously. You'd like my house."

"It's okay," Beatrix said gently, taking her hand. "I'll come by tomorrow. Maybe."

I had stayed silent during this conversation, because there was something pressing on my mind. "Guys," I said. "Why would Thomas buy an orphanage so far away? I know it was to diffuse suspicion, and because he wanted a place to keep us, but..."

"But what?" Valerie asked.

"Well it seems weird that he would buy and run a whole orphanage just to keep two of us in one place," I said. "Seems like a waste. Wouldn't he want more of us there, if he could get his hands on us?"

"What are you saying?" Beatrix asked.

"What if we weren't the only ones at the orphanage with powers?"