The Dark Miracles

Chapter 7

"Shit."

A single word coming from somewhere in the room had woken me from what had to have been the worst sleep of my life. I blink a few times to see Owen standing by a window staring at his screen. "What's the matter?" I say warily, sleep coating my weak voice.

"Take a look."

Owen turns around and walks over to me. The hologram-like device flickers a little bit as he takes his steps. When he gets over to me, I prop myself up on my elbow, doing it slowly so I don't wake up Brim. I squint my eyes and I see four pictures that appear to be on the front cover of the Merit Press Association. My eyes widen and I sink back into the pillow of the full-sized bed.

Owen sighs and goes to wake up Blythe, who says a few unkind words before finally groaning and getting out of bed. When Owen shows Blythe that our faces are plastered on every screen in Kidra, he just looks all the more annoyed.

Owen rubs his jaw with his palm and places his hands on his hips. "We gotta go see Fritz."

Blythe sighs and covers his face with his hands. "Who's Fritz?" I whisper, not wanting to wake Brim. They both turn in my direction and then look back at each other.

"Transportation."

I raise an eyebrow and start to question him until he cuts me off.

"He'll help us lay low, and maybe catch a train to where we're going, princess," he explains. I try not to roll my eyes at the nickname. Blythe walks over to Brim who's sleeping peacefully and gently wakes her up. Her white hair was in two messy braids so I volunteered to braid them a little bit nicer, which resulted in me earning the biggest hug from the little girl.

Everyone packed all of their belongings and we all left the building with our heads down. Nobody in Cardin really had access to screens, so it wasn't too hard to get around without someone pointing us out.

We continued down the dirt roads until we stopped at a run-down building on the edge of the street. Brim and I follow Owen and Blythe into the building and up the never-ending flights of stairs. The smell that the building reeked wasn't quite identifiable, but it held hints of substances my father swore me from ever using.

Of course, I'd been around it, Felicity always enjoyed cannabis, hell, everyone around me did. Though, I never really saw the point of it.

The two of them finally stopped in front of a wooden door with a brown welcome mat that had some words I'd rather not repeat written on it. Blythe raises his fist and pounds on the door. We all wait a few moments before the entrance swings open.

The person behind the door was a man. The first thing I noticed about him was his chiseled jaw and the fact he was smothered in tattoos. He was in his mid-twenties, and he had long, wavy, jet-black hair that stopped at his shoulders. I looked down to see that he was wearing a grey undershirt that matched his colorless eyes, along with some coal-colored joggers.

He pauses to look at all of us, when he gets to me, his confused look turns into a sly smirk. "Well, well. I wasn't expecting celebrities to be knocking at my door."

Owen rolls his eyes, and Blythe crosses his arms looking unamused. "Let us in, Fritz."

Fritz scoffs and opens the door a little bit wider to let us all slide through, I was the last to go inside, and when I was about to go in, he closes the door enough for me to not be able to fit in. I look at him unamused, and he smiles.

"What's the password?" He jested.

"Let me in."

He let out a low "Ooh" sound, and put a hand to his heart, as if I'd hurt his feelings, but I knew he was being sarcastic. "You don't get Rake privilege over here, baby."

From behind him, I hear Blythe tell him to let me in and he listens. I look around his small apartment, that cannabis smell definitely originated from this room. There was music playing from a small speaker in the kitchen, it sounded like an old American rock song. The tune consisted of guitars and drums in the background while the lead singer kept repeating the word 'Hello' and then returned to the verses. Honestly, it was a little catchy.

Fritz goes over to his couch and sits down, I watch as he leans back into the cushions and fixes his gaze on me for a moment before looking over Blythe. "What seems to be the trouble, old friend."

The boys take a deep breath and steal a troubled glance from each other before Blythe returns his gaze back to Fritz, who's grabbing a drink off of his coffee table. "We need to get to the Resistance. Quick and undetected."

Fritz's eyebrows raise for a quick second, "And you need me because?"

Blythe exhales loudly and gathers himself before saying, "We want to sneak on the train, and we have to get to Lennox as soon as possible."

Fritz keeps an intimidating expression on his face and just stares at Blythe. Everyone in the room is silent, it's killing me. The tension was so thick you could slice right through it. Fritz grinds his teeth and inhales before finally putting an end to the deafening silence.

"I stopped doing transports a while ago," he says in a low voice, "You're too late."

Owen rolls his eyes and wipes his jaw with his palm. "This was a waste of time," he says, motioning for the three of us to follow him out of the door. I go to follow him, but I catch eyes with Fritz one more time, and it's like something clicked.

"What if I told you instead of sneaking you on, I could get you a ticket?" Fritz says, and Owen stops in his tracks.

"You can't get tickets for a bullet train?"

My eyes go back and forth from one person to the other, and when they go to Fritz, the weirdest thing happens. 

He was no longer there, in fact, there was a man who took his place. He was older, with a full beard, and he had a houseguard uniform on. My heart drops at the sight.

"Well, not really," the man says. "But surely nobody will question you if you're being escorted by a houseguard, he says with a wink.

Owen shakes his head and smiles a little, "Fritz Callahan, you might just be the craziest man I've ever known," he says. 

"I'm sorry, but who is that, and what happened to Fritz?" I ask with a puzzled expression.

They all laugh, even Brim, and I feel silly. "Fritz is a shifter," Blythe says.

"Shifter?"

"Shape-shifter, my bad, usually, there's a name for most Miracs," he explains. "Shifters," he points at Fritz, who had changed back into himself. "Persuasionists, Mortems, Geo's" he points at me, Brim, and Owen.

"Persuasionists? Now this is getting fun. Try something on me, I won't mind, baby." Fritz says with a wink. Blythe and Owen bite back their tongues, hiding their smiles. They knew I wouldn't hold back, especially on this asshole. I lock my gaze with those smug, grey eyes and find my way into his head. Something is different this time, I find myself not needing to speak, I simply, think.

Punch yourself

Ouch. Fritz takes his fist and hammers his jaw. Brim's eyes widen and I chuckle to myself while the boys struggle to keep it together. Fritz is quiet for a moment, consoling his aching jaw.

"What about water?" I ask one of the boys, unbothered by the black-haired man on the couch.

"Hydros," Owen interjects. "Is it alright if we crash here tonight, Fritz?"

"Do I get to share a room with the president's daughter?" he asks, sending me a gross smirk.

"No!" Owen and I say at the same time, although his tone is more stern. Fritz pouts his lips sarcastically and sighs heavily.

"Fine."