Light in Dark Places

Chapter Eleven

The desert sprawls. Jisu has sirens on his car, like a policeman might, and they're driving faster than Joan has ever driven before in a car. It's terrifying but also exhilarating. Jisu is a good driver—he concentrates on the road and he's relaxed the entire time, weaving through cars with practiced ease.

They're moving fast, but the desert stretches on forever. It still takes them almost forty minutes to get out of the city and where the Misery attack takes place. The entire time Joan remains sitting quiet, not daring to talk while Jisu drives so fast, not wanting to disrupt his concentration.

"I used to visit you sometimes," Jisu says casually. "I don't have any siblings. Neither does Hernandez. Seung-ri only had you. I couldn't understand her, I don't think Hernandez could either. I couldn't imagine loving someone so much just because they have the same parents as me."

"That's not what a sibling is," Joan replies, gripping onto the car door. They're moving so fast, so fast. It seems like they're so close to the other cars when they drive. But Jisu is so confident, so assured with his skills.

"Isn't it?"

"That isn't all a sibling is," Joan corrects.

"I see," Jisu says. And he doesn't say anything else the rest of the way.

*

Joan sees the Beasts first. Flyers—giant black birds that look like monstrous crows. Jisu stops the car and gets out, but he makes no immediate movements. Joan's heart is beating fast but she steps out of the car nonetheless.

"solid as the surrounding mountains"

Seung-ri's Ash reverberates across the night, and a green barrier pulses forward, shoving the crow-Beasts back.

"fire from heaven"

Lightning fills the sky, nearly blinding Joan. She's seen footage of the Thunder Beast's Ash—he'd Ashed when he was just a child, only six years old, the whole world had seen his Prodigy-Class talent. But up close was an entirely different story. Joan has to crouch to the ground, holding her hands to her ears, as lightning came crashing down, filling the world with light and death. The Beasts drop from the sky, one by one, charred corpses.

Joan glances back up and sees a headless body on the ground. There's the half-eaten remains of a girl nearby. She feels like puking—the only ever time she's been near death was her own Misery attack. Then she sees the boy on the ground, halfway in the process of transforming into a Beast.

"There's a survivor!" she exclaims, whirling on Jisu.

Jisu looks remarkably nonchalant when surrounded by lightning. He only cocks an eyebrow up and says, "That isn't a survivor. Don't you see? He's halfway to Beast already."

And Joan knows that. She does. But she runs to the boy all the same.

She's not sure why.

Jisu doesn't try to stop her.

(Later, she'll wonder why he didn't try to stop her.)

*

"You're OK," she says, gripping the boy's hand. "You're going to be OK."

She grips his hand in hers (it's so cold, like death, like he's already a corpse) and tries not to panic. His left arm has been entirely replaced by one gigantic black wing. His left eye is entirely pitch black now, there are black veins all over his face, his body.

Please, please be OK.

Even though she knows what everyone knows—once the Transformation starts it doesn't stop—she still prays for a miracle nonetheless. With her whole body, she rejects any possibility of this ending with more death. She can't deal with that right now—she can't accept any more loss.