Lights Out

Everything is Easier said than Done (Cal)

Ever look back at your life and think, "wow, I really screwed everything up"? Of course you don't, because regretting all your life decisions is not something that normal people do.

But Cal wasn't normal people, and normal people certainly weren't Cal.

Normal people, what even made a person normal? Was it the way they dressed? Was the way they sighed? Was it the way they grumbled as they went about their boring jobs and lived out their boring lives? If so, Cal didn't want to be normal, it all sounded incredibly mundane, it all sounded pointless.

So, Cal was glad she wasn't normal, she liked being strange, she liked living in a paranormal city and doing abnormal things.

Though, all things considered, she would've preferred those abnormal things, didn't involve terrorist organisations, city-wide blackouts, or old men with guns.

"We need a plan" Cal wasn't sure where those words had come from, it wasn't something that had crossed her mind. She hadn't sat down and meticulously deliberated the pros and cons of saying that particular phrase, (as she often did), she had just opened her mouth and there it was.

Kristen looked up. They hadn't slept much after the impromptu message from KnOT, whatever KnOT was. The had just talked for a little, talked and then just sat in silence. "I always thought it was pretty straight-forward", she mused a playful smile on her lips, the first Cal had seen out of her, "get out of the city, preferably don't die, pick up any strays we can along the way."

Cal sighed, "that's not exactly what I meant."
She turned to Theo, who looked up and shrugged without saying a word. He seemed better lately. Well, not better exactly, not bad more like. Cal knew he was tearing himself up over that man she shot. She didn't blame him. It wasn't like they had had a choice, Cal knew that, but that didn't change the fact that she still couldn't close her eyes without seeing his blood-soaked face.

Cal blinked rapidly, trying to get the image out of her head. It wasn't like feeling guilty was going to save anyone's life. She struggled to remember what she had been talking about until she turned to Kristen and saw her anxious eyes patiently waiting for Cal's next remark.

Cal sighed, shuddering as she turned back to Theo, "there was something you said to me when we chose to go back into the city instead of saving ourselves, 'I'm going to run in guns blazing and hope for the best.' Well, we tried that, and they had bigger guns. We need a new plan, we can't just leave, if we were going to leave we would've done it already. So what are we going to do?"

She looked around widely, Kristen just shrugged. So, she directed her glare back at Theo, who raised his palms up in surrender.

"I'm not arguing with you, I just don't know what you want me to say." He sighed, running a hand through his hair, "what do we know? You said they called themselves KnOT right?"

Cal nodded, she had been the only one to see the message. Neither Kristen nor Theo fast enough to catch it before it went away, "if we only knew what that meant."

"Well," Theo frowned, "do we know what they want?"

"To take back Terra?" Cal shrugged, "it wasn't a very descriptive warning."

They were all silent for a bit. Kristen looked at the ground as if trying to remember something, then back up again before she spoke. "There was something that man said earlier, the one we-" she stopped short before talking a shaky breath and continuing, "before he killed Aiden, before he tried to kill me, he shouted the same thing both times. Almost like a catch phrase, 'for the name of Terra.'"

"Okay, Terra," Theo nodded absentmindedly, "does anyone know what that means?"

"Umm, its French right?" Cal brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, "for the earth?"