Fractured : A Shunted Sequel

Chapter One - The Aftermath

Pixie had never expected to feel like a normal girl. But as she stared at her hands, sparkling in the moonlight, she knew that she could never kid herself again. She sat on the swing set, her hands raised to her face, and just out of the corner of her eye, Aaron was walking along the edge of the playground by the trees. She knew if she hadn't gone with him, he would have wandered off by his own, and she couldn't let that happen.

The destruction of Chloton's underground facility had alerted the world to their existence, twenty years later, that people with abilities are still around. She couldn't take the chance that a headhunter wouldn't burst out of the shadows and try and grab Aaron when she wasn't there. And it's not like over time Aaron had gotten any more alert. If anything, his powers had rendered his awareness of his surroundings basically useless. But this had always been her job, look out for Aaron, protect him.

Always.

Even if he was half in and half out of it, seeing a whole entirely different world that she couldn't. Pixie turned her full attention to her brother and saw him throw back his head and laugh at an unspoken joke, conversing with someone who wasn't all there.

The park ghost guy was funny, Aaron thought. He sat on that park bench and fed pigeons in life, and now he was sitting and telling Aaron stories in the afterlife. He thought it must not be pleasant to hang around like that, waiting for a Seer to come by so you could pass on your knowledge. It must be a burden. So Aaron listened and laughed along, even though he knew that once he explained the stories to Pixie, she wouldn't get it. But as long as he stayed outside during the nights, he wasn't in his bed.

When he was in his bed, and he closes his eyes, all he sees is Emma Chloton's lifeless face. He's never seen her since that night, but all she does is haunt his dreams.

***

Pixie'd did it. She'd saved them all. So why did she feel so empty? Pixie had walked Aaron back to the house, seen to it that he'd gone to bed. Then she found herself sneaking out through the garden again, and down the street. Maybe because there was still so much she did not know. Chloton had been taken down, but he couldn't have been working alone. And with her powers, Angie was still so tight lipped about the origins despite all the material they'd found in the manor and Lola's journal.

Angie and her father had been spies almost all their lives, it would take a while for them to finally open up to them, resist against the urge to keep their secrets. Pixie walked far and long until she couldn't recognise where she was, deep into the heart of the city. She walked until her feet hurt, and she could barely think beyond one foot in front of the other.

There was so much to ponder over, her powers, the real reason her mother disappeared. How her friends and family had abilities and how that made them a target and though she had saved them all this time, it didn't mean she could do it every time. Did it?

It was at times like this, that she wanted Coco and Harrow with her, but it was three in the morning, and they were both fast asleep. She couldn't disturb them, not like this and not now. It wasn't even urgent, or life threatening.

It was just Pixie and her thoughts. But maybe that was dangerous enough. She had reached the heart of the city, and though she hadn't been in St.Marayan's that long, she'd had Coco look up the records. This was one of the plunge points. One of the massive manhole grates covered up the wires, and poles that made up part of the city's instrastructure. The city floated on the sky on its own, but it needed a support for all the buildings and sky scrapers built on top of it.

It was quite cleverly blended into the street, but it was quiet and empty now, in the nighttime hours. Pixie stood in front of it, and rested her hands through the crease, twisting it this way and that. Coco really was a brilliant hacker, she thought, as it twisted off with a hiss. She pulled it up, slid underneath, and pulled it back down again.