"The course of true love never did run smooth." ~ William Shakespeare
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Kailani Hummel, an innocent small-town genderfluid teenager, gets sucked into a world that seems like only they can navigate in an attempt to save everyone they love. Will Qu...
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The second the bubbly feeling in her stomach faded, and Vaughn could inhale the thick air on the other side of the mirror, she reacted. Her fist flew out blindly toward whoever had grabbed her, only to find her face smushed into a wall a second later.
"Let me go, or I'm gonna beat your ass!"
"Oh, yeah. You're totally in the position to." A boy said, chuckling as he released Vaughn and blocked her following two punches.
"Calm down!" A green-eyed woman yelled, arms crossed over her chest. "We just saved your life. The least you can do is cooperate."
"You kidnapped me!" Vaughn cried out, backing up from the four people blocking her from exiting the subway. She raised her fist and looked around, slowly lowering them. "What the hell?"
The subway was different. The ground was cracked, and the bricks were covered with vines. There were no other people, but the sound of distant planes overhead was loud enough to hear over the missing noise of the approaching trains that usually overtook the underground railroad. She turned and examined the flickering lights and yellow-tinted air, coughing seconds after inhaling deeply when her throat burned tears into her eyes.
"Here." A Korean boy tossed Vaughn a bandana and an inhaler, motioning to his face. He had a black bandana covering the lower half face, just like the other boy and two girls. His messy hair was greasy and matched the slight stubble on his face. "Cover your face. No one needs to know you're here."
"Vaughn, right?" A girl with brown eyes asked as she tightened her ponytail. "We have to get moving."
"Who are you?" Vaughn asked, taking a deep breath of the inhaler before shoving it in her cardigan. She covered her face and accepted the baseball cap the other boy threw over her head. "How do you know my name?"
"I'm C." The brown-eyed girl's eyes creased like she was trying to smile. She motioned to the Korean boy beside her. "This is J. That's E.—" She pointed to the oldest-looking boy. "And she's T."
"And you're V." T fixed the gun around her belt as she spoke. She pulled out two knives and handed them to Vaughn. "Hide them in your coat. We'll get you a change of clothes at the resistance."
"Resistance?" Vaughn blinked a few times and looked down at her knives. "Uh, did I die? What the actually fuck is going on?"
"We shouldn't say too much out in the open." E whispered, guiding Vaughn down the hallway past the demolished rusty gates. "The world is going to shit, and the only way we're going to fix it is by helping your Mom."
"Which one?" Vaughn asked, frowning. "Ones dead and the other's totally lame."
"Q's pretty cool, actually." T chuckled, sharing a knowing smile with E as they crept toward the next stairwell. "We'll explain everything you need to know in a few minutes. She's waiting for us up top with L. For now, whatever you do, don't talk to anyone but us."
