Silence // Danger Days (Book 1)

03.

"We're gonna what?" the boy, Ven, said in shock. "We don't even know who they are, let alone what their intentions are—"

"Actually Ven, we know both of those," the girl, seemingly called Al, informed him. "They don't have malicious intent, and maybe if you looked a bit closer you could tell who they are."

Ven bent down and examined the siblings' faces. At first, his face was blank, as if he'd seen nothing wrong, but then his eyes widened and he gasped. "Holy shit, it's you!" he exclaimed. "Oh my god, what was it like to be associated with him?"

"W-what do you mean?" Lucas managed to stutter.

"Oh man," Ven stepped back and pushed a hand through his hair. "Your dad's famous, dude! Literally, everyone who's even mildly associated with the rebellion knows who you are!"

Lucas paled. "I-I don't—"

"It's okay," Al said, reaching up to put a hand on Lucas' shoulder. "We'll help you guys out. No one has to know who you are."

"But we don't know who you are," Hailey interjected, "Why should you help us?"

Al looked around for a moment, then she got close to the siblings and lowered her voice. "We're kinda incognito right now, so we'll have to tell you after we get out of here. For now just call me Al, and him Ven. Okay?"

"Alright, I guess," Lucas said.

"Cool!" She jumped away from them gleefully, exiting the alley with Ven. Lucas motioned to Hailey to follow them, and they jogged to catch up.

"Okay," Al said when they got close. "We've gotta make sure no one recognizes you, but also that you fit in with the Killjoys, both of which are pretty easy jobs. Just a warning, there'll probably be hair dye involved. 'Kay?"

"Ooh, okay!" Hailey agreed, excited at the prospect.

Lucas still wasn't sure about the whole thing. Everything was happening so fast, it was hard to believe he wasn't dreaming.

"We've also gotta get them names," Ven told his—partner? Friend? Companion? Commander? Lucas had no idea what their relationship was.

"Oh yeah." Al turned and started walking backwards to face the Castellans. "Did you guys ever do that thing where you and your friends at school came up with Killjoy names and pretended to be them?"

Lucas did remember doing something like that, but he couldn't remember what it was.

"Yeah," Hailey told Al. "I think it was something to do with the sun... Sunset! That was it!"

"Well kid, you're gonna need to add another word. Modern Killjoys work a bit differently."

Lucas' mind was still racing to remember. Something to do with weather... Lightning? No, too on-the-nose. Hurricane? Something like that-

"Storm," he blurted out suddenly.

"Sunset Storm?" Al queried. "Eh, it's not the best."

"No, that was mine," Lucas clarified. "My name was Storm. I couldn't remember."

Al stopped walking as they came upon a crowded street, and the rest of the group followed suit. "You two can't go out there without an alibi, so you gotta work quickly. You," she said, pointing at Hailey. "Something cool, like.. Flash, how about that?"

"Sunset Flash," Hailey said, trying out the name. "Sounds pretty cool!"

"Alright!" Al grinned at her success. "Now for this guy," she looked at Lucas. "You're a bit harder to figure out. It's probably because you don't talk much—"